FOR I" 
 
 HE Brotherhood of Man
 
 
 
 CiC tc «, 
 
 4i 
 
 a d" c< CC r oca \ 
 
 ^^ ^ , - <c f«; ,--« c.«,* ^ 
 
 
 a: c r 
 
 <^S.\ 
 
 
 c r 
 
 cr<l 
 
 I 
 
 r-< 
 
 << \ 
 ^^* 1 
 
 •Jl 
 
 r 1 
 
 re 1 
 
 C<L 
 CC 
 
 <rc 
 
 •1' *^ 
 
 ere 
 
 a;:c( 
 
 i^r r fT 
 
 ^v/V3 
 
 <1i^^. 
 
 f i^ 
 
 t c<: c. c< cf v 
 t CC C^ CC CCa t 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 <^ '- 
 
 V 
 
 . c 
 
 "4 ^ 
 
 < 
 
 CC if 
 
 
 
 
 < CC 1 
 
 wtm 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 J!f J 
 
 << 
 
 : < 
 
 K, CSC •- 
 
 L 
 
 Ih 
 
 CC^C CC 
 
 O CC. CC 
 
 lcccq: 
 
 S^^y%^,^mt^ 
 
 ^ ^ c Cs<^ 
 : 1 1 t 
 
 CC C V 
 
 c t <: C 
 
 : cc<^ 
 
 C ^ VA.V 
 
 
 
 CC (J, c c c 
 
 C < tt C C 1 
 
 c c 1 C f < 
 
 L c c c <^ <^ • 
 TC t c * c ^ ' 
 
 ;^c^ cV« c<c 
 
 cC CCC C/ C 
 -ct < <. V c <c 
 
 — c C < V 
 
 • <"C '/ ,' 
 
 st 4S **\ 
 
 I 
 
 '•<: /J'
 
 ^ ■ V ^ ^^ ^^ c>v((f c^-^c d c ^m. 
 
 c 'C <^ ^#^ .<: 
 
 ^^V 
 
 ^^c 
 
 
 
 ^^ /<r 
 
 <^ '' ^€ cc^< ^ 
 
 
 i. , . 
 
 V< 
 
 t 
 
 t 
 
 'K. 
 
 C 
 
 r 
 
 
 \ 
 
 C 
 
 vc 
 
 ;.,< 
 
 c:< 
 
 
 
 
 
 V i^ 
 
 
 CC4LCCCCC 
 
 
 X «^. 
 
 ^c< or < C. Ct : < . . > « ^ 
 -«S: C r JS^ C;'' <rc '(;.c. << *-' 
 
 cc - r CX;
 
 ^t^v: 

 
 Third Edition. 
 
 NEELYS HISTORY -2U 
 
 The PmiMENT of Religions 
 
 AND 
 
 RELIGIOUS CONGRLSSES 
 
 AT THE 
 
 World s Colnmbian Exposition 
 
 Compiled from Original ManuHcripU and Stenographic Reports. 
 
 EDITED BV 
 
 A CORPS OF ABLE WRITERS. 
 
 PROF. WALTER R. HOUGHTON, 
 
 Editor in Chief 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 History of American Politics,'' " Conspectus of Federal His- 
 tory," "View of United States History.'' "Growth 
 of Geof:rra[)liicnl Science," "Nineteen 
 Centuries of Christianity " 
 (in j>re|)aration). 
 
 TWO VOLUMES IN ONE FULLY ILLUSTRATED 
 
 F. T. XEELY, 
 Publisher. Chicago.
 
 COPYRIGHTED BY 
 
 FRANK TENNYSON NEELY, 
 1893. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 Copyright covers the principal illustratio.s. 
 
 J
 
 UPL 
 
 PROF. WALTER RALEIGH HOUGHTON.
 
 ^^ 
 
 Chicago, III., October 28, 1893. 
 
 The speeches, papers, and essays reported iu this 
 volume are largely from my stenographic note.-, and 
 from manuscripts secured from authors. 
 
 In some instances it has been necessary to condense, 
 but the essential features of all the addresses have been 
 carefully retained, making a thorough and comprehen- 
 sive report of the great World's Parliament of Religions. 
 
 Having faithfully attended the various sessions of the 
 Parliament, I can certify to the accuracy, comi)leteness, 
 and authenticity of the work. 
 
 JOUN W. POSTGATE. 
 
 .^ 
 
 ^'fk
 
 NOT THINGS. BUT MEN. 
 
 The World's (ongress AuxiliarxJ 
 
 OP THE 
 
 WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION OF 1893. 
 
 NOT MATTER, BUT MIND. 
 
 President. CHARLES C. BONNEY. 
 
 V'ice.Presidont, TH9S. B. BRYAN. Treasurer, LYMAM J. GAGF. 
 
 Secretaries, BENJAMIN BUTTERWORTH, CURENCE E. YOUNG. 
 
 The Woman's Branch of the Auxiliary: 
 President, MRS. POTTER PALMER. Vice-President, MRS. CHAS. HENROTIN. 
 
 The World's F^cligious Gngrcsses 
 
 OF 1893. 
 
 Including Churches, Missions, Sunday Schools* 
 and other Religious Organizations. 
 
 GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD'S CONGRESS AUXILIARY 
 ON RELIGIOUS CONGRESSES. 
 
 Rev. John Henry Barrows, D.D. (Presbyterian), Chairman. 
 
 Rt. Rev. Bishop W'^illiam E. McLaren, D.D., D.C.L. (Prot. Episcopal). 
 Rev. Prof. David Swing (Independent), Vice-Chairman. 
 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Secretary (Unitarian). 
 
 His Grace Archbishop P. A. Feehan (CathoHc). 
 Rev. Dr. F. A. Noble (Congregational). Rev. Dr. A. J. Canlield (Universalist). 
 Rev. Dr. Wm. M. Lawrence (Baptist). Rev. M. C. Ranseen (Swedish Luth.). 
 Rev. F. M. Bristol, D.D. (Methodist). Rev. J. Berger (German Methodist) 
 Rabbi E. G. Hirsch (Jew). Mr. J. W. Plummer (Quaker). 
 
 Rev. J. Z. Torgersen (Norwegian Lutheran). 
 
 Rev. L. P. Mercer (New Jenxsalem, Swedenborgian). 
 
 Rt. Rev. Bishop C. E. Cheney (Refonned Episcopal).
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAKT I. 
 
 Mission of the World's Congress Auxiliary of the 
 World's Columbian Exposition. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE WORLD'S CONGRESSES OF 1893. 
 
 Origin of the Idea— Preliminary Work— Organization in 1890— Plan 
 Universally Approved— President Bonney's Sketch of the Work - 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, 
 
 Appointment of General Committee— Preliminary Address to Relig- 
 ious Leaders of the World— Grand Consummation of the Project 
 in Columbus Hall, Art Institute, Chicago, September 11, 1893 - 22 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Proceedings of the Parliament of Religions. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 FIRST DAY, SEPTEMBER 11th. 
 
 Words of Greeting — Opening Address — Address of Welcome — Official 
 Welcome— Response to Addresses— On Behalf of Women — Address 
 — New England Puritan — Thanks from Greece — From India and 
 China — Legend of Russia — Shinto Bishop of Japan — Words on 
 Toleration — Greeting from France — From Australasia — Good 
 Wishes of Ceylon — Sweden for Christ — Word from Bombay — Sees 
 Spirit and Matter — Most Ancient Order of Monks— Canada as a 
 Link in the Empire — Converted Parsee Woman of Bombay — 
 Sympathy from England— In Behalf of Africa - • - - 33
 
 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SECOND DAY, SEPTEMBER 12th. 
 
 Existfince and Attributes of God— The Infinite Being— Rational Demon- 
 stration of the Being of God— Evidence of a Supreme Being — 
 Theistic Teachings of Historic Faiths— Theology of Judaism— The 
 Ancient Religion of India and Primitive Revelation— Religious 
 BeUef of the Hindus— Argument for the Divine Being— Idealism 
 the New Religion - - - - 72 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THIRD DAY, SEPTEMBER 13th. 
 
 The Nature of Man -Voice from New India— Foundation of the Ortho- 
 dox Greek Church — Man from a Catholic Point of View — Human 
 Brotherhood as Taught by the Religions Based on the Bible— Much 
 to Admire in All Men— Confucianism— The Model Man— Would 
 Win Converts to Buddhism — The Real Position of Japan toward 
 Christianity — Good Will and Peace Among Men— Concessions to 
 Native Religious Ideas- Supreme End and Office of Religion — 
 Immortality — The Soul and Its Future Life— Religious System of 
 theParsees ..-.-.----- 133 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FOURTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 14th. 
 
 Necessity of Religion— Bishop Keane's Introduction — Cardinal Gib- 
 bons' Message— Religion Essentially Characteristic of Humanity — 
 Divine Basis of the Co-operation of Men and Women — The Relig- 
 ious Intent— Spiritual Forces in Human Progress — Orthodox or 
 Historical Judaism— Certainties of Religion— History of Buddhism 
 and Its Sects in Japan .-- 184 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FIFTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 15th. 
 
 Systems of Religion— What the Dead Religions Have Bequeathed to 
 the Living — The Points of Contact and Contrast between Chris- 
 tianity and Mohammedanism — Study of Comparative Theology — 
 Duty of God to Man Inquired — Confucianism— Each in His Own 
 Little Well — Service of the Scienc e of Religions to the Cause of 
 Religious Unity— The Ancient Egyptian Religion— The Genesis 
 and Development of Confucianism— The Social Office of Religious 
 Feeling— The Buddhism of Siam — The Importance of a Serious 
 Study of All Religions— Religions of the World - - - - 22'i 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 SIXTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 16th. 
 
 Sacred Scriptures of the World— The Truthfulness of the Holy Script- 
 ures— The Greatness and Influence of Moses— Christianity as Inter- 
 preted by Literature— The Catholic Church and the Bible— What 
 the Hebrew Scriptures Have Wrought for Mankind— The Sacred 
 Books of the World as Literature— The Character and Degree of 
 the Inspiration of the Christian Scripture— Buddhism— Outlook 
 for Judaism ------ 292
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SEVENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER nth. 
 
 Religion in Social and Married Life— The Work of Social Reform in 
 India— The Catholic Church and the Marriage Bond— The Influ- 
 ence of Religion on Women— The Divine Element in the Weekly 
 Rest-Day— The Religious Training of Children - - - - 330 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EIGHTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 18th. 
 
 Great Teachers of Religion— The Sympathy of Religions— The His- 
 toric Christ— A New Testament Woman; Or, What did Phoebe 
 Do?— Jewish Contributions to Civilization— The Law of Cause and 
 Effect as Taught by Buddha— Christianity an Historical Religion 
 —The Need of a Wider Conception of Revelation— Christ the 
 Reason of the Universe— The Incarnation Idea in History and in 
 Jesus Christ— The Incarnation of God in Christ— The World's 
 Debt to Buddha - - 364 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NINTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 19th, 
 
 Religion Connected with Art and Science— A Letter— Toleration- 
 Greek Philosophy and Christian Religion— Man's Place in Nature 
 —The Religion of Science- Music. Emotion, and Morals— What 
 Constitutes a Religious as Distinguished from a Moral Life— How 
 Can Philosophv Aid the Science of Religion?— Hinduism as a 
 Religion— The World's Debt to Buddha— The Relation of the 
 Sciences to Religion— History and Prospects of Exploration in 
 Bible Lands ^10 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 TENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 20th. 
 
 Working Forces in Religion— Plea for Toleration— Christian Evan- 
 gelism as One of the Working Forces in Our American Christianity 
 —Religious State of Gernuiny— The Spirit of Islam— Christ, the 
 Savior of the World- Reconciliation Vital, Not Vicarious- The 
 Essential Oneness of Ethical Ideas among All Men— Religion and 
 Music— The Relation between Religion and Conduct— Christianity 
 in Japan; Its Present Condition and Future Prospects— Religion 
 in Pekin— The Redemption of Sinful Man through Jesus Christ- 
 Stones When They Need Bread - - 452 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ELEVENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 21st. 
 
 Connection of Religion with Social Problems- Thanks from Arme- 
 nians-Restoration of Holy Places— Brotherhood of Christian 
 Unity— Test of Works Applied— Religion and the Erring and
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Criminal Classes— The Relations of the Roman Catholic Church to 
 the Poor and Destitute— Christianity and the Social Question— 
 The Women of India— Buddha— The Influence of Social Condition 
 — Christianity as a Social Force— What Judaism Has Done For 
 Womai: -Individual Effort at Reform Not Sufficient— Religion and 
 Labor --- 507 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TWELFTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 22d. 
 
 Civil Society — Religious Debt — Foreign Missions — Religion and 
 Wealth — What the Bible Has Wrought— Religion in Hawaiian 
 Lands — Crime and the Remedy — Ethics of Christian Science — 
 The Religion of the North American Indians — Churches and City 
 Problems— World's Religious Debt to Asia — The Catholic Church 
 and the Negro Race— Christianity and the Negro— Foreign Mis- 
 sionary Methods— The Mohammedan Koran and Its Doctrines - 567 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THIRTEENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 23d. 
 
 Love of Humanity an Outgrowth of Religion — Religion and the Love 
 of Mankind— The Grounds of Sympathy and Fraternity among 
 Religious Men — The Essentials of Religion — International Arbitra- 
 tion — What Can Religion Furtlier Do To Advance the Condition of 
 the American Negro? — The Religious Mission of the English- 
 Speaking Nations — The Spirit and Mission of the Apostolic Church 
 of Armenia — Greek Church Characteristics— International Justice 
 and Amity — Universal Brotherhood — A Protest Against Erroneous 
 Ideas — Some Teachings of the Koran — America's Duty to China — 
 Woman and the Pulpit— The Voice of the Mother of Religions on 
 the Social Question 618 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FOURTEENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 24th. 
 
 How American Civilization Has Been Affected by Christianity — What 
 Christianity Has Wrought for America — ; Present Outlook of 
 Religions — Government Census of Churches 669 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FIFTEENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 25th. 
 
 A Voice from Syria — Relations between the Anglican Church and the 
 Church of the First Ages— Religious Unity and Missions— The 
 Reunion of Christendom — Interdenominational Comity — Persist- 
 ence of Bible Orthodoxy — Ethics and History of the Jains— Free 
 Baptist Church History — Spiritual Ideas of the Brahmo-Somaj- 
 A White Life for Two — Worship of God in Man — Christianity as 
 Seen by a Voyager Around the World .-.-.- 699
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 5 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 SIXTEENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 26tk, 
 
 Attitude of Christianity to Othe. Religions— Possible Results of the 
 Parliament — Message of Christianity to Other Religions — Religious 
 Thought in France — Results of Protestant Missions in Turkey — 
 What Buddhism Has Done for Japan — Religious Union of the 
 Human Race — Tho Armenian Church— World's Religious Debt 
 to America — Contact of Christian and Hindu Thought: Points 
 of Likeness and Contrast— Future of Religion in Japan— Arbitra- 
 tion Instead of War— Synthetic Religion— Buddhism and Chris- 
 tianity — A Voice from the Young Men of the Orient - - - 759 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 27th. 
 
 The World's Parliament — The Good in all Faiths — Religion and 
 Music — Elements of Universal Religion — Swedenborg and the 
 Harmony of Religions — The World's Salvation — The Only Possible 
 Method of Religious Unification — Christianity and Evolution — The 
 Baptists in History — The Ultimate Religion — Christ the Unifier of 
 Mankind ----- 811 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Closing Scenes of the Parliament — Addresses by Dr. Alfred W. 
 Momerie, Rev. P. C. Mozoomdar, Mr. Hirai, Rt. Rev. Mr. Shabita, 
 H. Dharmapala, Swami Vivekananda. Vichand Gandhi, Prince 
 Momolu Masaquoi, Dr. Emil Hirsch, Rev. Dr. Frank M. Bristol, 
 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Mrs. Charles Henrotin, Rev. Augusta 
 Chapin, Julia Ward Howe, Bishop Arnett, Rt. Rev. Dr. J. J. Keane, 
 Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, President Bonney - - - . 846 
 
 PART III. 
 
 DENOMINATIONAL AND OTHER CONGRESSES. 
 
 Jewish Church Congress— Congress of Jewish Women— Congresses of 
 the Lutheran Church— The Congress of Wales — Columbian Catho- 
 lic Congress —Other Catholic Congresses — Congregational Church 
 Congress — The Catholic Church Presentation — Universalist Con- 
 gress — Congress of Disciples of Christ — New Jerusalem Church 
 Congress — Seventh-Day Baptist Congress — Congress of Theoso- 
 phists — Unitarian Church Congress — Ad\'ent Christian Church — 
 United Brethren Church— Reformed Episcopal Church — Presby- 
 terian Church — Friends Congress — ■ Free Religious Association 
 — Christian Scientists — African Methodist Episcopal Church — 
 Friends Church (Orthodox) — King's Daughters and Sons — German 
 Evangelical Synod of North America — Methodist Episcopal Church 
 — ^Reformed Church of the United States — Swedish Evangelical
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Mission Covenant— Chicago Tract Society— Cumberland Presby- 
 terian Church— Congress of Evolutionists— Ethical Congress- 
 Evangelical Association Congress — Congress of Missions— Sunday- 
 Rest Congress — Young Men's Christian Association — Young 
 Women's Christian Association— Presentation of the Buddhists- 
 Evangelical Alliance Congress — Woman's Missions — Sunday- 
 School Presentation — Reformed (Dutch) Church — Christian 
 Endeavor 
 
 865 
 
 PAKT IV. 
 BIOGRAPHIES, ARTICLES AND OPINIONS. 
 
 Charles Carroll Bonney— Dr. John Henry Barrows— Very Rev. Dion- 
 ysios Latas— Building ? Great Religion (Prof. David Swing)— The 
 Wise Men of the East (Mary Atwater Neely)— A Limitless Sweep 
 of Thought (Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren)— Song of Prophecy 
 (John W. Hutchinson)— Opinions 9"!
 
 ILLUSTRATIOHS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Art Institute, where the Parliament of Religions was held 
 
 Prof. Walter Raleigh Houghton 
 
 Dr. Barrows 
 
 Clarence E.Young - 
 
 C. C. Bonney - .... 
 
 Mrs. Potter Palmer, President Woman's Branch of the Auxiliary - 32 
 
 Japanese Group --37 
 
 Harlow N. Higinbotham, President World's Columbian Exposition - 47 
 
 Dr. Carl von Bergen, of Stockholm, Sweden 61 
 
 Very Rev. Augustine F. Hewitt, C. S. P., New York - ... 75 
 
 Mfst Rev. Dionysios Latas, Archbishop of Zante, Greece - - 130 
 
 R<»bbi K. Kohler, New York ... 145 
 
 Znnshiro Noguchi, Japanese Buddhist 155 
 
 Kinza Ringe M. Hirai, Japanese Buddhist 169 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons 185 
 
 Eminent Seventh-Day Baptists 357 
 
 H. Dharmapala, Ceylon 405 
 
 Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb 461 
 
 Swami Vivekananda, Hindu Monk 505 
 
 East Indian Group: Narasima Chaira, Lakeshnie Narain, Swami 
 
 Vivekananda, H. Dharmapala, Vichand Ghandi - - . . 535 
 
 Group of Reporters, etc. 581 
 
 Rev. Geo. T. Candlin, Tientsin, West China 609 
 
 Narasima Chaira 735 
 
 Herant M. Kiretchjian, Armenian Orator, Constantinople - - 805 
 Mrs. Charles Henrotin, Vice-President Woman's Branch of the 
 
 Auxiliary 857 
 
 John W. Postgate, in Charge Chicago Herald Report ... 864 
 
 Geo. R. Davis, Director-General World's Columbian Exposition - 865 
 Rev. L. M. Heilman, D. D., Chairman Committee of Lutheran 
 
 Congress 875 
 
 Archbishop Ireland 891 
 
 Mary Atwater Neely 979 
 
 Bishop C. H. Fowler, D. D., LL. D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church 967 
 
 T. W. Palmer, President World's Columbian Commission - - - 919 
 
 Rev. Prof. David Swing, Vice-Chairman General Committee - - 975 
 
 Rev. Dr. W. F. Black, LL. D., Chairman Foreign Committee - - 917
 
 HEW. JOHN HENRY BARROWS, D. D., 
 Chairman General Committee.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The snows of winter will soon wrap the beautiful White City 
 in an unbroken silence. It has been for two years the home of 
 all the arts, its forums thronged with the devotees of every 
 science. Though change and the needs of the busy Garden City 
 may scatter to the four winds these deserted altars where a 
 world has worshiped the Great Architect, an imperishable 
 record will remain! 
 
 While countless lliousands, taking up again the threads of 
 daily life, or journeying forth to the uttermost ends of the 
 earth, may, in the heart, memory, and delighted " mind's eye," 
 preser\^e for years the visions of the fairyland of our century, 
 were it not for the genius of Literature all would in time be lost ! 
 
 Of all the arts, useful or ornamental, precious beyond any 
 branch of God's great embodied wisdom shown to us as 
 " sciences " here, Literature is the truest, noblest friend of man. 
 
 The art preservative ! Long after kindling eye and ringing 
 voice of the disciples thronging there are gone forever, when 
 the bounding life pulses of the guiding heroes of peace who 
 taught the world's lessons by the lake are stilled, on white 
 wings soaring down through the corridors of Time, the immortal 
 spirit of Literature will guard and spread abroad the golden 
 truths garnered in our century ! 
 
 Painting, architecture, and sculpture are limited to the enjoy- 
 ment of the few! Their reign is transitory. The world rings 
 yet with the wail over the " Lost Arts " throbbing in Wendell 
 Phillips' exquisite monograph! The single ode of Sappho, 
 the lost books of Tacitus, the perished wisdom of Hermes, the 
 world's desolation when the Alexandrian library vanished in 
 flames, the gloom of the dark ages, all the lost lore of the 
 
 7
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 world's youth are sad reminders of dark eclipses which can turn 
 back the hands on the dial of human progress no more! Never 
 again can a world groping toward the light halt hundreds of 
 years in the wilderness of enforced ignorance! Literature, 
 oblivious of time, deathless in its sway, appealing to the heart, 
 mind, soul, and swaying every sense, is the immortal guardian 
 now of every product of the brain, every throb of the human 
 heart ! 
 
 Her brows, decked with the laurels of the scribe, historian, 
 poet, prophet, and thinker. Her right and left hand sup- 
 porters are the inventor and mechani'^. She throws open the 
 doors of the past, and points to the garnered sheaves of the 
 present! The harvest of the human mind is safe now forever! 
 The faithful children of the pen, with reverent awe before the 
 shades of Faust and Gutenberg, look to the American disciples 
 of God -enlightened Franklin to perpetuate the story of the 
 marvels of the world's greatest congress! 
 
 With words of truth, in impartial verity of record, aided by 
 the graphic art, the visible wonders of the lUth century shown 
 at the White City will be herein described 
 
 By the aid of modern machinery, almost sentient in its perfec- 
 tion, with the help of the phonograph, stenography, and the 
 myriad duplicated records of stereotyped modern printing, 
 future generations shall listen almost to the very tones of those 
 who met at the World's Columbian Exposition in br()th«'rly love 
 to exchange pearls of wisdom for the gold of truth! The 
 wonderful prophecy of the Bible, that " Brethren should meet 
 and dwell in amity," has been realized! 
 
 It is no marvel that in the great convocation of one week, 
 with thankful hearts, all men turned before bidding adieu to the 
 great Source of all Good. While from the science-haunted 
 alleys of the White City, " Civilization, on her luminous wings, 
 soared phoenix-like to Jove," a chastened awe led all to look 
 up to and talk of Him who is the Author of all Good ! 
 
 Next in importance to the study of the Holy Bible with its 
 miraculously preserved records, fraught with the glad tidings of
 
 INTRODUCTION, 9 
 
 salvation, a very present help, the only lamp to our feet, is the 
 unbiased history here presented of the only unconstrained gen- 
 eral exchange of religious thought -^hich the world has v^ver seen ! 
 
 Dictated by no sectarian pens, the story of how pure-hearted, 
 bright-browed men and women paused in their grand chorus 
 of worship and gave to all, each of his best, is a priceless trust 
 of our times! 
 
 To those who heard not, who saw not: this record, never to be 
 lost, of the brotherly commune of the wise and good is cast 
 abroad for the good of the human race! It is the story of a 
 meeting such as the world never knew before ! Religion, morality, 
 social science, charity, toleration, benevolence, exact science, and 
 philosophy, freely praising Him whose face no man may look 
 upon. The spirit of love was abroad. In peace, free from the 
 domination of prince, prelate, tyrant, or schemer, the song of a 
 world's worship was raised, with no discordant voice. Marvelous 
 as it seems, the farthermost ends of the earth shall ring with the 
 good news that, in our day, laying aside the sword, all men from 
 wandering in different paths have learned that the path of Life 
 leads to Him alone. As the dome rises over the cold, gray 
 foundations of the temple, so do the great truths of man's inner 
 life and future destiny rise above the magic of mere handicraft. 
 It is fittiiig that the music of the soul can never sink into 
 silence. The great accepted general creeds of common belief 
 now welded in cjne golden ingot shall be treasured forever. 
 
 In offering to the student, thinker, and moralist these pages, 
 the publisher feels that the gravity of the great task has been 
 appreciated. A corps of experienced scholars and editors, under 
 the judicious and faithful direction of Professor Walter R. 
 Houghton, has sought to embrace in this veracious and studied 
 report and record every essential truth and thought, impartially 
 representing the priceless interchanged wisdom of the Parlia- 
 ment of Religions! 
 
 Filled with a sense of duty well done, in the consciousness of 
 earnestness and candor, this detailed record of the greatest 
 modern Religious Congress is sent out to an inquiring
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 generation. It would have been beyond the power of the wisest 
 or mightiest ruler of the earth to have achieved this great task 
 fifty years ago. In rapidity, perfection, extent, and the neces- 
 sary cheapness of record, these chronicles are a marvel of 
 later literary perfection ! 
 
 To place such a work fairly within the means of all, to effect 
 its distribution, to aid its future translation, and its victorious 
 passage over the storms of Time, is to continue from a religious 
 standpoint the great work of "Liberty enlightening the world! " 
 Freedom, tolerance, liberty, charity, benevolence, these are the 
 white-winged spirits hovering over the brethren of light who 
 spoke the words of love and truth recorded in these pages; it is 
 a noble record; an honor to the manhood of our age; a pride 
 and credit to the aspiring reverence of human faith ! 
 
 May this record teach, even to the careless, that " God's great- 
 ness flows around our incompleteness, round our restlessness, 
 His rest." If there are lost bars in the music of Life, if to some, 
 a part of the " Sweet Story of Old " is missing: let the disturbed 
 at heart look for it in these pages. There is no soaring dream 
 of future perfection, no kindly thrill of goodness, no yearning 
 for the unseen, no prayer for light and truth, which may not 
 be met or answered in these triumphal announcements of the 
 faith of Humanity. The golden chain of brotherhood here 
 forged shall endure and shall lead all men up toward that 
 heaven in which there shall be no more sorrow, and the shadows 
 of parting shall be lifted for eternity. 
 
 The Publisher.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This volume records how the world placed on exhibition the 
 wonders of faith and thought, and reveals to the reader man's 
 highest intellectual attainments upon the greatest themes of 
 our day. 
 
 The preparation for this exhibition was a part of the work 
 performed by the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's 
 Columbian Exposition. An explanation, therefore, of this 
 organization has been given in the first part of the book. 
 
 The second chapter closes with some excellent and valuable 
 observations prepared for these pages by Richard Henry Sav- 
 age, the world's soldier, scientist, world-wide traveler, and 
 most successful author. 
 
 Throughout the proceedings of the Parliament of Religions, 
 women maintained a conspicuous position. " In the preliminary 
 work," says President C. C. Bonney, " women had no part. It 
 was deemed expedient and just to await their pleasure. An 
 application to unite in the great undertaking was soon pre- 
 sented, and was, of course, heartily welcomed. The woman's 
 branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary was accordingly 
 organized, to have especial charge of the interests of women in 
 the World's Congresses of 1893." The part which women took 
 in the Parliament of Religions was under the direction of the 
 woman's branch of the auxiliary. 
 
 Part second contains a record of the daily proceedings of the 
 parliament, furnished by an expert stenographic reporter, who 
 attended every session, and had access to the original manu- 
 scripts of the different speakers. 
 
 U
 
 12 PREFACE. 
 
 The concise account of the many denominational and inter- 
 denominational congresses, held in the Art Palace, serves to 
 impress that which the parliament most potently has shown, 
 that religion is now, as it always has been, the chief concern of 
 the human family. 
 
 The proceedings of each day of the parliament were not 
 devoted exclusively to the general subject, though a central 
 idea was followed as much as circumstance would allow. Cer- 
 tain themes received consideration at different times. 
 
 To render available at once the material of any subject con- 
 sidered, an ample index is made a part of this book. 
 
 The reader of these pages can be impressed with the influ- 
 ence of him who gave a new world to Castile and Leon, and 
 observe how the glowing fancies of the great discoverer have 
 been, in many ways, more than realized. Columbus regarded 
 that part of the earth which he discovered as higher and nearer 
 heaven than any other portion of the world. It contained, he 
 thought, the primeval abode of man, where a pure and never- 
 failing pleasure was furnished to every sense; where flowers 
 were ever blooming, and " the waters, limpid and delicate, v;ere 
 swelling up in crystal fountains, and wandering in peaceful and 
 silver streams." No boisterous winds were there, no melan- 
 choly or darksome weather, but all was bland and gentle and 
 serene. 
 
 The delightful abode, inaccessible to mortal feet, flourished 
 in a heavenly temperature upon an eminence above the vapors, 
 clouds, and storms. 
 
 The material delights of this peaceful abode were never 
 experienced by the great discoverer. The nearest approach to 
 its reality, bat from a standpoint higher than the material, was 
 found in the Parliament of Religions. In that great gath- 
 ering an eminence of brotherhood was reached which, before, 
 had been inaccessible; and all was gentle in an atmosphere of 
 peace above clouds of war and storms of contention. 
 
 The reader, too, may well recall the poetic flight of the 
 black-robed seer of Judea, as he magnilies the work of God:
 
 PREFACE. 13 
 
 "He will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar and will 
 hiss unto them from the ends of the earth, and, behold, they 
 shall come with speed swiftly." 
 
 The ensign of the nations is the lowly Nazarene, whose 
 influence, more potent now than at any preceding period, has 
 rendered the parliament a possibility and a fact. The record 
 as found in succeeding pages lifts on high the heaven-chosen 
 ensign, and urges on the day when every nation, kindred, tribe, 
 and tongue shall rest in peace beneath its protecting folds
 
 CHARLES C. BONNEY, 
 
 President World's Congress Auxiliary.
 
 PART I. 
 
 Peepaeation foe the Paeliament of Religions. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE WORLD'S CONGRESSES OF 1893. 
 
 The idea of a series of congresses for the consideration of the 
 greatest themes in which mankind is interested, and so compre- 
 hensive as to include representatives from all parts of the earth, 
 originated with Charles Carroll Bonney in the summer of 1889. 
 In the early days of autumn he presented his views upon the 
 subject to a few thinking friends, among whom was Walter 
 Thomas Mills, editor at that time of the Statesman magazine. 
 The editor was so impressed with the greatness of the thought 
 that he prevailed upon Mr. Bonney to write an article for the 
 Statesman, setting forth his ideas upon the remarkable con- 
 ventions. A proof sheet of the article was taken by Mr. Mills 
 to Dr. John Henry Barrows, Judge L. D. Thoman, Professor 
 David Swing, E. Nelson Blake, T. B. Bryan, and Dr. P. S. 
 Henson. The statements of these gentlemen, favorable to the 
 proposal, were published, with Mr. Bonney's article, in the 
 Statesinan of October, the same year. 
 
 The views then enunciated were so well matured that they 
 contained in substance the propositions subsequently embodied 
 in the formal announcement to the world. " The coming glory 
 of the World's Fair of 1893," says Mr. Bonney in the article, 
 " should not be the exhibit then to be made of the material 
 triumphs, industrial achievements, and mechanical victories of 
 man, however magnificent that display may be. Something 
 
 15
 
 IG THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 higher and nobler is demanded by the progressive spirit of the 
 present age. In connection with that important event of the 
 world, all government, jurisprudence, finance, science, litera- 
 ture, education, and religion should be represented in a con- 
 gress of statesmen, jurists, financiers, scientists, literati, teach- 
 ers, and theologians, greater in numbers and more widely 
 re[)reseutativi^ of all pcHjples and nations and tongues than any 
 assemblage which has ever yet been convened." 
 
 The comments of the i)ress upon Mr. Bonney's proposal 
 brought his views into much public favor, and Lyman J. Gage, 
 President of the World's Columbian Ex[)osition, took a decided 
 position in support of the series of congresses. Having secured 
 the apj)r()val of the Directory, Mr. Gage, in October, 1889, 
 ap[)ointed a conmiittee, of which Mr, Bonney was made chair- 
 man, to take the preliminary steps for the realization of his 
 ennobling idea. From that day, till the congresses were a 
 reality, the work was diligently prosecuted. The committee at 
 first consisted of seven persons, but subsequently the number 
 was increased. 
 
 It soon became apparent that the great undertaking could 
 not be conducted by a single committee, and "it was accord- 
 ingly arranged that an auxiliary organization should be formed. 
 On the 30th of October, 1890, the World's Congress Auxiliary 
 of the World's Columbian Exposition was oi-ganized, with 
 authority to carry on to full elTect the plans for the World's 
 Congresses of 1898." The officers of this body were: C. C. 
 Bonney, chairman and cliief executive manager; T. B. Bryan, 
 vice-president; Lyman J. Gage, treasurer; Benjamin Butter- 
 worth, secretary, and Clarence E. Young, associate secre- 
 tary. 
 
 The World's Congresses were outlined by Mr. Bonney, and 
 placed in charge of working connnittees, selected with refer- 
 ence to their fitness for particular duties. Of these working 
 committees there were more than two hundred oriianized. 
 They were necessarily local, and their aggregate membership, 
 exceeding sixteen hundred persons, constituted the local mem-
 
 THE WORLD'S CONGRESSES OF 1893, 11 
 
 bership of the auxiliary. The committees were composed of 
 any convenient number according to the nature of the case. 
 " The nature of the work of organization required a committee 
 so located that it could meet on short notice, and with little 
 expense or loss of time, 
 
 A series of world's congresses, however, could not be prop- 
 erly organized without the co-operation of the representatives 
 of progress in all parts of the world." To secure this co-opera- 
 tion there was adjoined to each local committee a non-resident 
 but active branch called the Advisory Council of the congress. 
 Members of this council co-operated through correspondence. 
 " An honorary membership was also created to act as a general 
 advisory council for all the congresses. The members of the 
 special advisory councils ranked as honorary members of the 
 auxiliary. " Existing societies and institutions were invited 
 to appoint committees of co-operation to take an active part in 
 the organization of the appropriate congresses." The auxil- 
 iary thus constituted, and numbering more than ten thousand 
 representatives of the participating countries, accomplished its 
 great work with remarkable patience, good sense, and har- 
 monious action. 
 
 The work of organization began in 1890, and was carried on 
 by the committees until the opening of the congresses in May 
 of 1893. An extensive correspondence throughout the world 
 was required and a period of three years was necessary to effect 
 all arrangements. Vigilance was exercised by Mr. Bonney in 
 utilizing the press for extending to all parts of the earth infor- 
 mation regarding the great world's congresses. The govern- 
 ment of the United States promptly approved the comprehensive 
 plan; "an act of recognition and support was passed by the 
 Senate and House of Representatives, and approved by the 
 chief executive." After the organization of the auxiliary, the 
 State Department sent to foreign governments an official 
 announcement which contains the following: "Among the 
 great themes which the congresses are expected to consider are 
 the following: The grounds of fraternal union in the language,
 
 18 THE Parliament of religions. 
 
 literature, domestic life, religion, science, art, and civil institu- 
 tions of different peoples; the economic, industrial, and financial 
 problems of the age; educational systems, their advantages and 
 their defects, and the means by which they may best be adapted 
 to the recent enormous increase in all departments of knowl- 
 edge; the practicability of a common language for use in the 
 commercial relations in the civilized world; international copy- 
 right and the laws of intellectual property and commerce; 
 immigration and naturalization laws and the proper international 
 privileges of alien governments and tueir subjects or citizens; 
 the most efficient and advisable means of preventing or decreas- 
 ing pauperism, insanity, and crime, and of increasing productive 
 ability, prosperity, and virtue throughout the world; inter- 
 national law as a bond of union and a means of mutual protec- 
 tion, and how it may best be enlarged, perfected, and authorita- 
 tively expressed; the establishment of the principles of judicial 
 justice as the supreme law of international relations and the 
 general substitution of arbitration for war in the settlement of 
 international controversies." 
 
 The plan for the congresses was received with almost uni- 
 versal approval throughout the world. Words of appreciation 
 and encouragement were returned from every continent, " show- 
 ing that the time for such a movement had indeed arrived." 
 
 The letters which came from the advisory and honorary 
 members of the World's Congress Auxiliary contained such 
 ardent expressions of approval that from them might be com- 
 pleted such an " anthrology of exalted sentiments, fraternal 
 hopes, and offers of co-operation as would gladden the heart of 
 every lover of human kind." 
 
 Some who responded were called to the mightier congress of 
 the illustrious dead before the opening hour of the Columbian 
 Exposition. Among them was Eutherford B. Hayes, ex-Pres- 
 ident of the United States, who had accepted the presidency of 
 the congresses of the department of moral and social reform; 
 James G. Blaine, who, through the American State Department, 
 gave the World's Congress Auxiliary an official standing in all
 
 THE WORLD'S CONGRESSES OF 1893. 19 
 
 the countries of the earth with which our own has diplo- 
 matic relations; Henry Edward Manning, Cardinal Archbishop 
 of Westminster, one of the foremost religious leaders of his 
 time; Lord Alfred Tennyson, the laurel crowned poet of Eng- 
 land, who wished to gladden the authors' congress with, perhaps, 
 his last earthly song; Bishop Phillips Brooks, of Boston, fore- 
 most in the ranks of American preachers; John Greenleaf 
 Whittier, the muse of freedom and of every virtue; George 
 William Curtis, of New York; and Prof . Emile de Laveleye, 
 a scientist of Belgium. 
 
 So many living representatives of progress gave their active 
 co-operation that only an allusion to them can be made in this 
 volume. "Not only were the great centers of learning in 
 Europe, Asia, and Australia represented by their brightest 
 minds, but the governments of those countries were officially 
 represented, and no more significant feature of the event can 
 be found than the interest and sympathy manifested by the 
 crowned heads of some of the oldest nations in the world." 
 
 From the 15th of May, 1893, to the 28th of October, 
 there were held twenty general department congresses, 
 embracing woman's progress, the public press, medicine and 
 surgery, temperance, moral and social reform, commerce and 
 finance, music, literature, education, engineering, art, and 
 architecture, government and law reform, general department, 
 science and philosophy, labor, social and economic science, 
 religion, Sunday rest, public health, and agriculture. Under 
 these general heads there were held 200 distinct congresses, at 
 which there appeared many of the most distinguished men 
 and women of the day. So numerous were these congresses 
 and so extensive the proceedings that their programmes 
 bound in one volume constitute an interesting book of 160 
 pages. 
 
 All the congresses were held in the Memorial Art Palace, 
 located in Chicago, on the shore of Lake Michigan. In the 
 palace are two large auditoriums called the Hall of Columbus 
 and the Hall of Washington, and besides these are numerous
 
 20 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 smaller halls of various dimensions. These spacious divisions 
 were utilized by the congresses as convenience and necessity 
 
 required. i i ij 
 
 The women's congress was the first in the series to be held. 
 That great assemblage, representing women of many lands, 
 met on the morning of Monday, May 15th, in Columbus Hall, 
 and their sessions continued during the week. President Charles 
 C. Bonney, delivering the opening address, says: "The day 
 of realization has come. What must have seemed to many a 
 splendid but impossible dream has become a present reality. 
 We enter this day upon the actual enjoyment of the pleasures 
 and benefits it promised. The shining blossoms of the dream, 
 have changed to ripened fruit that waits our taking. 
 
 "We turn with grateful hearts to the past, for it is the high- 
 way which has led us to this hour. We look with pleasing 
 anticipations to the future, for its beckoning heights glow with 
 the dawn of a fairer day of peace and plenty than our race has 
 hitherto known. 
 
 "The 19th century, richer in manifold wonders than any 
 which has preceded it in the august procession of the ages, 
 crowns its great achievements by establishing in the world the 
 sublime idea of a universal fraternity of learning and virtue. 
 This idea, long cherished by the illuminati of every clime, 
 descends at last from the luminous mountains of thought to the 
 fertile fields of action, and enters upon the conquest of the 
 world. 
 
 "We have asked the leaders of all countries to aid us in 
 crowning the whole glorious work by the formation and adop- 
 tion of better and more comprehensive plans than have hitherto 
 been made; to advance the progress, prosperity, unity, peace, 
 and happiness of the world, and to secure the effectual prose- 
 cution of such plans by the organization of a series of world- 
 wide fraternities, through whose efforts and influence the 
 intellectual and moral forces of mankind may be dominant 
 over the earth.
 
 THE WORLD'S CONGRESSES OF 1893. 21 
 
 "Henceforth, the 'decisive battles of the world' will be 
 fought on moral fields and on intellectual heights. The artil- 
 lery of argument will take the place of the shot and shell hurled 
 by the mighty guns of modern war. The piercing bayonet of 
 perception and the conquering sword of truth will take the 
 place of the weapons of steel which soldier and captain bear. 
 The fame of a great general will become less attractive than that 
 of a great statesman, or orator, or poet, or artist, or scientist, 
 or teacher. The laboratory of the chemist, the workshop of the 
 architect, the field of the engineer or scientific investigator, the 
 study of the author, and the institution of learning will more 
 and more attract the rising genius of mankind. 
 
 " The army of peace enters upon the scene. The splendid 
 procession of 1893 marches into view. At its head a golden 
 banner bears the golden legend of woman's progress. Behind 
 it walk the living leaders of that progress, reflecting renewed 
 honors upon all the long line of illustrious women, from Zeno- 
 bia, Queen of Palmyra, to Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and 
 Ireland and Empress of India." 
 
 The second in the series of congresses was the Department of 
 the Public Press. It began on the 22d of May and embraced 
 the general congress of the public press, the congress of the 
 religious press, and the congress of trade journals. Following 
 this congress came the others of the series in unbroken order 
 till the great feast of thought was ended. 
 
 " The world had been invited to meet in friendly conference 
 in the progressive and hospital)le city of the West. Leading 
 thinkei*s of the world responded to its fraternal greeting in the 
 same friendly spirit in which it was tendered. Minds and 
 hearts, severed by distance but united in sympathy, were drawn 
 together, and how the world answered to the bugle call of uni- 
 versal brotherhood is now the proud record of the congresses 
 that have closed."
 
 CHAPTEK n. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 In the Hall of Columbus at the convention of religions from 
 all parts of the earth, Dr. Alfred Momerie, a distinguished 
 thinker of England, said: " I have seen all the great exhibitions 
 of Europe during the last fifteen years, and I can safely say 
 that the World's Columbian Exposition is greater than all of 
 them put together, and the Parliament of Religions is, in my 
 opinion, greater than the exposition." 
 
 Under the department of religion, the denominational and 
 inter-denominational congresses that were held in Art Palace 
 numbered forty-one. " But among these wonderful conventions 
 of men and women from the ends of the earth, the World's 
 Parliament of Religions will stand out in history as the great- 
 est event of the World's Columbian year. In the p<jpular 
 interest attending it, in the breadth of its scope, in the gorgeous 
 spectacle it presented, and in the deep questions of universal 
 interest involved in its discussions, it outranked all other eratli- 
 erings of the year. Such a scene was never witnessed before 
 in the world's history as that presented on the platform of 
 Columbus Hall on the morning of September 11th, when the 
 parliament convened." 
 
 The convocation is without parallel, and great interest 
 attaches to its origin. During the French Revolution there 
 occurred, at Paris, a gathering of men representing great relig- 
 ious faiths, and this coming together has been recalled as a 
 forerunner of the council on the shore of Lake Michigan; but 
 the rehearsal of faiths in the capital of France, whether genu 
 ine or in disguise, indicated an indifferent gathering of Chris- 
 tians and heathen to enjoy a feast of humanity, not an earnest 
 
 22
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 23 
 
 attempt at searching diligently for the highest truth. A nearer 
 approach to what took place at the Parliament of Religions 
 M'as originated several years ago by President W. F. Warren, 
 cf the Boston University. That earnest writer describes, in an 
 address, an imaginary congress of religions, located in Japan, 
 and suggests " The Perfect Religion " as a subject for discus- 
 sion. The address furnished suggestions to those who arranged 
 for the congress of faiths at the Columbian Exposition. These 
 two kindred ideas, the gathering at Paris and the vision of 
 President Warren, are isolated by the lapse of one hundred 
 years, and indicate how little human thought has been directed 
 toward a congress of all the faiths. 
 
 The Parliament of Religion:: is the crowming glory of the 
 great series of ecumenical councils, known as the World's 
 Congresses of 1893, and conducted under the World's Con- 
 gress Auxiliary, as described in the preceding chapter. The 
 general idea of the parliament, therefore, was first in the mind 
 of Charles Carroll Bonney ; but the details thereof were referred 
 to a most efficient committee. President Bonney, in the spring 
 of 1891, appointed the General Committee on Religious Con- 
 gresses of the World's Congress Auxiliary. Rev. John Henry 
 Barrows, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of 
 Chicago, was made chairman of the committee. His associates 
 were the Most Rev. P. A. Feehan, Archbishop of the Catholic 
 Church, and a favorite among his people ; Rev. David Swing, 
 pastor of the Central Church of Chicago, an independent body 
 of Christians; Rt. Rev. Bishop William E. McLaren, D. D., 
 
 D. C. L., Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Chicago; Rev. Will- 
 iam M. Lawrence, D. D., of the Second Baptist Church of 
 Chicago, celebrated as a successful preacher; Rev. Dr. F. A. 
 Noble, of Union Park Congregational Church; Rev. Dr. Frank 
 M. Bristol, an eloquent preacher of the Methodist Church ; Dr. 
 
 E. G. Hirsch, minister of the Sinai Temple and professor of 
 rabbinic literature in the University of Chicago; Rev. Jenkin 
 Lloyd Jones, a talented Unitarian writer; Rev. A. J. Canfield, 
 pastor of St. Paul's Universalist Church, Chicago; Rt. Rev.
 
 24 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Bishop Charles Edward Cheney, D. D., a founder of the 
 Reformed Episcopal Church; Rev. L. P. Mercer, of the New 
 Church (Swedenborgian) ; Mr. J. W. Plummer, of the Society of 
 Friends; Rev. J. Berger, of the German Methodist Church; Rev. 
 John Z. Torgersen, a member of the Norwegian Lutheran Church, 
 and the Rev. M. Ranseen, of the Swedish Lutheran Church. 
 
 The general committee sent out to the world a preliminary 
 address in June of 1891. The generous spirit which moved 
 the committee is shown by the following words of the address : 
 " Believing that God is, and that He has not left Himself with- 
 out witness; believing that the influence of religion tends to 
 advance the general welfare, and is the most vital force in the 
 social order of every people; and convinced that of a truth God 
 is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he that 
 feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him, we 
 affectionately invite the representatives of all faiths to aid us 
 in presenting to the world, at the Exposition in 1893, the relig- 
 ious harmonies and unities of humanity, and also in showing 
 forth the moral and spiritual agencies which are at the root of 
 human progress. It is proposed to consider the foundations of 
 religious faiths, to review the triumphs of religion in all ages, 
 to set forth the present state of religion among the nations and 
 its influence over literature, art, commerce, government, and the 
 family life, to indicate its power in promoting temperance and 
 social purity, and its harmony with true science, to show its 
 dominance in the higher institutions of learning, to make prom- 
 inent the value of the weekly rest-day on religious and other 
 ground, and to contribute to*those forces which shall bring 
 about the unity of the race in the worship of God and the 
 service of man." 
 
 The preliminary address was sent to religious leaders in 
 many countries, ?ind evoked replies that encouraged, delighted, 
 and amazed the committee. 
 
 The invitation of Christianity to all the historic faiths liad 
 been accepted, and the fact was made known that the thinking 
 world was prepared to welcome the Parliament of Religions.
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 25 
 
 Earnest co-operation with leaders of mankind in many parts of 
 the earth enabled the committee to complete their arrange- 
 ments; representatives arrived from all quarters of the earth, 
 and on the morning of September 11, 1893, the Parliament of 
 Religions was opened in Columbus Hall. 
 
 The fruitless discord mingled with the response of the sympa- 
 thetic world to the invitation of Christianity will receive con- 
 sideration in succeeding pages. Longer would we dwell upon 
 that other sentiment, lofty and ennobling, which harmonizes with 
 the spirit that made the parliament a reality. In doing so we 
 select a voice from him whose genius shines with brilliancy in 
 the literary world, whose works are read in five European 
 tongues, the story of whose success within two short years is a 
 theme of wonder — a voice from a man of world-wide experi- 
 ence, Richard Henry Savage, the author, scientist, soldier, and 
 traveler. This distinguished writer, embodying the sentiments 
 that hail from many a clime, has sent to the publisher the fol- 
 lowing comprehensive, poetic, and appropriate words, with 
 wliich we close this chapter: 
 
 This is a century of marvels ! Whatever progress may be 
 vouchsafed by the Almighty to the human race, it is incredible 
 to us that its rate should ever surpass the leaps and bounds of 
 the IDth century. 
 
 Soon the White City will be no more ! Its domes and palaces 
 will rise no longer by this blue lake, near that great Mecca of 
 a[)plied thought in this memorable year — Chicago ! 
 
 In itself a monumental triumph of the four hundred years 
 since the daring Genoese landed in the Bahamas, sword and 
 Bible in hand, the great city's purest glory will cling around 
 the site of the vanished fairy palaces of the World's Exposition 
 of 1893. 
 
 Bearing the palms of peace, with aspiring brows, the children 
 of light have gathered herein amity, tolerance, and brotherhood, 
 following the star of empires, which paused over the birth- 
 place of the gentle Nazarene, to hallow and to bless, and in its 
 westward course has finished the circuit of the thinking world.
 
 26 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 For the mild-eyed children of Asia, moving eastward to 
 meet the imperial rays of its progress, here have paused by the 
 placid shores of the central waters of that continent which 
 Columbus gave to the Old World ! The blameless Goddess of 
 Justice and the white-robed angel of peace have left their bless- 
 ings on the great assemblage of nations whose faith and works 
 have been here exhibited in friendly rivalry ! Neither fray nor 
 discord has stained the unbroken record of a dawning brother- 
 hood! 
 
 While the memories of these world pilgrims treasure the 
 scenes which here delighted the ey^, while these pictures of 
 grace and beauty linger in the rapt soul, the lessons of the 
 great World's Fair will be unforgotten ! 
 
 Grim time may sweep away to the unknown sea the genera- 
 tion which achieved the wondrous friendly Babel of our day, 
 and it is to the twin fairies of science and art, a world, halting 
 in its onward path, will owe the treasured records of this grand 
 human pageant! 
 
 Mere cloudy tradition would preserve the story of all that 
 brain, mind, heart, and deft fingers have done here for a brief 
 time only were it not for the art preservative! 
 
 Thanks to Almighty God! The century which opened the 
 mist-veiled waters of the New World to the European explorer 
 also gave to the human race the printing press! 
 
 Sixty years before Columbus sailed westward, printing was a 
 gift of the All-Wise, and thirty years previous to the voyage of 
 the great admiral, the Bible first appeared in print ! 
 
 Since then the chequered records of the passing years, the 
 flights of genius, the remotest speculations of the human mind, 
 and all the handbooks of science, art, and philosophy have been 
 freely spread abroad on life's pathway, so that " he who runs 
 may read "! 
 
 Four hundred years from the time of the first rude attempts 
 of Faust and Gutenberg, the world of books thrown open to the 
 voyager in life dwarfs in comparison the dark continents found 
 by the sailor! And to-day, the real arbiter of human opinion
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. *27 
 
 is the press! King, potentate, and peer go down before a touch 
 of the pen of truth! 
 
 It is to this human recording angel that a vast, friendly mul- 
 titude confide the records of the world's first and only peaceful 
 Parliament of Religions ! 
 
 Hundreds of thousands have gazed at the marvels of science, 
 the triumphs of art, the varied productions of man and wonders 
 of nature, gathered here under these fairy domes, rising as if by 
 the touch of Aladdin's lamp! The priceless treasures spread 
 around in these works may crumble and decay, but the great 
 waves of human thought hence rolling forth will beat long 
 upon the shores of time! 
 
 Not in idle curiosity, led on by no mere desire of amusement, 
 did the earnest-browed religious thinkers of the world gather 
 here to heap up a pyramid of garnered golden grains of truth, 
 in honor of the great Giver of All Good. 
 
 In their temporary camps the children of fetichism, wide- 
 eyed and speechless, have gazed here upon this multitude of 
 believers bearing palms, trooping hither from the uttermost 
 parts of the earth and the islands of the great deep! 
 
 In unison, the children of revolution, the sons of philosophy, 
 the disciples of reason, and the devotees of inexorable science, 
 have raised up here their reverent voices to the Most High, 
 forgetting all differences of creed and varieties of belief ! 
 
 In divers tongues, with varied vestments, of all ages, sexes^ 
 and degrees of mental polish and experiences, this chorus of 
 aspiring worship raised thankfully under these great domes has 
 echoed to heaven and sent a warmer heart-throb of brotherhood 
 around the whole world 
 
 With no carnal weapons displayed, leaving aside all pride of 
 place and the temptations of contention, a truly remarkable 
 body of men and women has for the first time in the world's 
 religious history met by a common accord, under the silver 
 band of love and hope, with varied forms of faith and a patient 
 charity, to look into each other's friendly eyes ; to depart, 
 reflecting each other's aspiring, soaring thoughts!
 
 28 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 In the twenty councils of the Christian church, from the 
 year 325 A. D. to the great ecumenical council of 1870, no 
 such sight has been vouchsafed to mortal eyes ! 
 
 The road that led to Nice or Eome has led here to the great 
 heart of man. For once, through worthy representation, the 
 five-hundred creeds of the thinking world have met in an 
 ancompelled hosanna of thanks. 
 
 The gravity of the scene, the brotherly spirit and knitted 
 friendship here exhibited, have called forth from doubter, 
 atheist, infidel, agnostic, and those at sea, rudderless, on the 
 waves of error, a respectful and merited applause. 
 
 If some came not to worship, none dared to scoff, and few 
 wandered away to sneer! 
 
 It is to the printed record of this great Parliament of 
 Religions, in permanent form, that the student, thinker, mis- 
 sionary, preacher, priest, and scholar will look for future words 
 of cheer and for lessons of priceless value! 
 
 The honest exactness of the report, the independence of 
 suggestion or control, the lack of any insidious undercurrent, 
 or taint of hypocrisy, will cause thousands of thirsty souls to 
 drink of these waters of truth — to every man according to his 
 need. 
 
 The result has been a credit to the self-control of these chil- 
 dren of the 19th century — this grand assemblage, meeting in 
 frank kindness, dealing with each other without acrimony, and 
 parting sorrowing that they shall look upon each other's faces 
 no more. Orthodoxy and liberalism, clerk and layman, prelate 
 and penitent, acute inquirer and submissive devotee, all these 
 representative men, classes, and ideas have met, as in friendly 
 watch, saying: "Brother! give me of thy good cheer!" 
 
 Fourteen hundred millions of wanderers here below have sent 
 to the parliament whose record is in these pages the most 
 skillful champions of the varied faiths ! Those of little faith 
 have listened to the claims of nearly five hundred millions of 
 Buddhists, Shintostes, and Confucians, four hundred mill- 
 ions of Christians, over a hundred millions each of Brahman-
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 29 
 
 ical Hindoos and Mohammedans, the compact phalanx of eight 
 millions of Hebrews, the forlorn hope of one million Parsees, 
 and have gazed on scattered tribes representing the two hundred 
 and twenty-five millions who drone in darkness under fet- 
 icliism. 
 
 Years of thought will enable no man to draw from these 
 pages the whole lessons of humanity's great problem! The 
 dark pall of death will hang still unlifted before the open gate 
 of the tomb! The clouds of unbelief will gather still around 
 the lonely human wanderer, but in these recorded words will 
 be found tidings of great cheer to all ! 
 
 The philosopher, moralist, natural scientist, socialist, agnostic, 
 protestant of every grade, and the orthodox of the Roman and 
 Greek churches may all labor with a new inspiration toward 
 ^he near and blessed end of human religious persecution and 
 intolerance! " Credo in unum Deum " may not be sung by all 
 for ages! There is but one fold — its sheep may be widely scat- 
 tered, but this momentous concourse will send to the uttermost 
 parts of the earth men who, variously believing in the Father- 
 hood of God, have learned here new lessons in the brotherhood 
 of man ! 
 
 It has not been a harvest time! It has been only a sowing 
 of seed! In the friendly arena of the White City, unguarded by 
 armies, coerced by no government, under no dictation of man 
 or close creed, the world's delegates have listened in peace to 
 each other under the safe passport of the flag of the earth's 
 greatest republic! 
 
 It is only in a land where church and state are classed as 
 independent works of God and man, where a free and untram- 
 meled press spreads the light of truth in fearless candor in 
 every direction, that such a meeting and such a parting could 
 have been possible! 
 
 The practical value of the convocation will not be apparent 
 for years. It must be remembered that the mere expression 
 of a common respect and friendship has limited the proposed 
 work in hand.
 
 30 
 
 TBE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 To distant climes, bearing their burdens of trust, care, and 
 thought, the pilgrims have now returned. While the success- 
 ful meeting has proved much as to tolerance, it will be through 
 the press, pulpit, and schools that the final results will be 
 proclaimed later. 
 
 Differences of belief have not vanished; they have been only 
 veiled in courtesy, and the future action of the great faiths at 
 home, alone, will tell of any appreciable effect. Whether zealous 
 Christianity has learned aught from calm Buddhism, whether 
 the Confucian has added any truths caught from science or 
 revelation to his golden wisdom, whether the prying mission- 
 ary has made peace with the fanatic Mohammedan, time alone 
 will show! If it is the gospel of a new peace or a sword the 
 years alone will tell ! The optimist must remember that dif- 
 ferences of race, education, and law, the rights of churches as to 
 property, the education of youth, and the social duties of home 
 religionists constrain the nations of the earth yet to a wise con- 
 servatism in religious changes. 
 
 There are especially interesting features of this great record. 
 The Mohammedan, Buddhist, and Confucian have put Chris- 
 tianity on its defensive in some matters of good taste and {xjlit- 
 ical interference. Calm scientists have manfully quoted the 
 history of nature as traced by the finger of time, the oppressed 
 Hebrew has boldly claimed the rights of racial justice, and tlie 
 unshaken philosopher has also had his say! 
 
 The great triumph of the parliament has been the frank 
 statements, clearly defining, in every possible shade of human 
 thought, the various faiths now holding up appealing hands to 
 the Father of all! 
 
 It is to the printer, to the press, that the great record is 
 given! In our later day, the pulpit reluctantly yields to the 
 great struggle of the modern human mind for eclectic educa- 
 tion, freedom of belief; for broader lines, for less dogma, and 
 more mental light! There is no one man, no sect, no single 
 school which can, in these broadening days of intelligence, lie
 
 OniGIN OF THE PARLIAMENT OF HELIGIONS. 31 
 
 down the human hearts of the 19th century to any bounden 
 or groveling belief ! 
 
 By the grace of God and His tolerance, now spread abroad, 
 in the remotest corners of the world, the earnest reader, in 
 divers tongues, will be able to scan the glowing page, and in 
 the silence of the chamber draw out lessons to lift up the weary 
 hearts of men! The hour has now passed for the debates of 
 schoolmen, the arrogance of creeds, or the absurd pretensions 
 of earthly rulers to narrow or shackle the soaring flight of 
 the human mind! 
 
 May the record of these pages be imperishable and in long 
 years to come the wise, tender, and eloquent words of the honest 
 and outspoken advocates of every creed herein set down be 
 fruitful in leading toward the kindly light and in spreading 
 abroad peace and good will on earth to men! 
 
 The echoes of the mingled songs of praise of these pilgrims 
 of light should ring out clearly on the wintry sky of the Old 
 World! — the Old World of Intolerance, Narrowness, Bigotry, 
 and Persecution! 
 
 These peaceful songs sQould echo, in union, only thankful 
 praise to that " God from whom all blessings flow! " 
 
 When enlightened humanity can learn how near in heart all 
 brothers really are on the world's highway it will treasure 
 these recorded pages as prophetic of the time when wars, the 
 legacy of Cain, will be no morel
 
 MRS. POTTER PALMER, 
 President Woman's Branch of the Auxiliary.
 
 PART II. 
 
 Proceedings of the World's Parliament of Keligions, 
 September 11 to 27, 1893. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FIRST DAY, SEPTEMBER 11th. 
 
 WORDS OF GREETING. 
 
 The assembling of the World's Parliament of Religions in 
 the forenoon of {September 11, 1893, was proclaimed in due 
 form by ten strokes on the new Liberty Bell, upon which is 
 inscribed the words of Him who is the ensign of the people : 
 " A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one ano- 
 ther." The ten strokes represented the ten chief religions of 
 the world, each of which had a prominent place in the remark- 
 able gathering of the nations. Prior to the opening hour, the 
 doors of the Art Palace were besieged by multitudes eager to 
 secure seats in the auditorium or gallery of the great Hall of 
 Columbus, in which they were to assemble. Dr. J. H. Barrows 
 and other committeemen were early in the building to give 
 information, and the office of President Bonney was turned 
 into a reception-room, where representatives, both men and 
 women, arrayed in picturesque attire, formed a medley most 
 pleasing to every observer. An audience of 'about four thou- 
 sand people had assembled before the time announced for the 
 opening of the exercises, and awaited in silence the appearance 
 of the interesting speakers.
 
 34 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The mass of people was so wonderfully quiet that the flut 
 tering of wings was heard when a tiny bird flew through an 
 open window and over the vacant platform. The organist 
 played "Jerusalem the Golden " in the interval of waiting, and 
 the triumphant strains fitly expressed the feeling of many 
 intensely expectant hearts. 
 
 At the appointed hour for the commencement of proceedings, 
 the crowds in the right-hand aisle of the auditorium parted in 
 quiet step, and two and two the royal delegates of the one 
 Great King, escorted by the managers of the parliament, came 
 slowly into view. Heading the procession, and arm in arm, were 
 President Bonney and Cardinal Gibbons, following whom came 
 Mrs. Potter Palmer and Mrs. Charles Henrotin. Next in order 
 moved a stately column, composed of men of many tongues, of 
 many lands, of many races; disciples of Christ, of Mohammed, 
 of Buddha, of Brahma, of Confucius, in the name of a common 
 God for the glorification of the Eternal Father. The sight was 
 most remarkable. There were strange robes, turbans and tunics, 
 crosses and crescents, flowing hair and tonsured heads. The 
 representatives marched down the center aisle, and amid the cheer 
 that welled up from the hearts of 4,000 men and women, took 
 their seats in triple rows upon the platform, beneath the waving 
 flags of many nations. In the center of the company, and 
 seated in the huge chair of curiously wrought iron, was His 
 Eminence James (Cardinal) Gibbons, magnificent in his robes 
 of red; on the right sat the priests of the Celestial Empire in 
 their long flowing garments of white; on the left were the 
 patriarchs of the old Greek Church, wearing strangely formed 
 hats, somber cassocks of black, and leaning on ivory sticks 
 carved with figures representing anci-^jnt rites. Peculiar modes 
 of dress were indicative of different religions. The Chinese 
 secretary of legation wore the robes of a mandarin; the high 
 priest of the state religion of Japan was arrayed in flowing 
 robes, presenting the colors of the rainbow. Buddhist monks 
 were attired in garments of white and yellow ; an orange turban 
 and robe made the Brahman conspicuous; the Greek Arch-
 
 WUliDS OF GilEETlNU. ^'^^ 
 
 bishop of Zante, from whose high head-gear there fell to the 
 waist a black veil, was brilliant in purple robe and black 
 cassock, and glittering as to his breast in chains of gold. 
 Dharmapala, the reformed Buddhist, was recognized in his 
 woolen garments; and, in black clothes, hardly to be dis- 
 tinguished from European dress, was Mozoomdar, author of 
 the " Oriental Christ," a most touching history of a soul 
 struggling homeward to God. In a golden bond of friend- 
 ship, the oldest of the religions of the world greeted the 
 youngest of the religions. " From faraway India, from the 
 snow-locked crests of the Himalayas, from the valleys of 
 the Tigris and Euphrates, the representatives of a race and 
 country, old and decrepid with age, clasped hands with a race 
 now in the first flutter of youth, and blossoming manhood." 
 It was a grand intermingling of religions, a salutatory of an 
 unprecedented era of good wnll among men; an event that will 
 linger in the minds of men through coming ages; a gathering 
 under the star of Christianity, whose steady beaming draws 
 wise men of the East to the unfading brightness and growing 
 splendor of the Prince of Peace. 
 
 The historic assembly was called to oider by President 0. 
 C. Bonney, and suddenly, from the great organ in the gallery, 
 broke forth to the strains of "Old Hundred," the inspiring 
 measures 
 
 From all that dwell beneath the skies 
 Let the Creator's praise arise. 
 
 And the vast audience arose and filled the hall with the music 
 of humanity's thanksgiving. After the song had died away, a 
 moment of silence, which the uplifted hand of Cardinal Gibbons 
 sustained, then his voice began : " Our Father who art in 
 heaven," and was lost in the rush of voices which followed in 
 the well-known universal prayer. The supreme moment of the 
 19th century was reached. Asia, Africa, Europe, America, 
 and the isles of the sea, together called him Father. This 
 harmonious use of the Lord's Prayer by Jews, Mohammedans,
 
 I 
 
 36 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Buddhists, Brahmans, and all divisions of Christians, seemed a 
 rainbow of promise pointing to the time when the will of God 
 will " be done on earth as it is done in heaven."' 
 
 Ihe presiding officer of the day was Dr. John Henry 
 Barrows of Chicago, to whose prudence, judgment, liberality, 
 and untiring efforts the success of the parliament is due. Few 
 prouder moments need he wish than that wherein he beheld 
 the realization of his labors and the fulfillment of his most 
 sanguine dreams — the bringing together the ends of the earth. 
 
 When the distinguished and remarkable company had taken 
 their seats, it was found that the following were upon the 
 platform : 
 
 Bishop D. A. Payne, A. M. E. Church of Wilberforce, Ohio; 
 Siddhu Ram, appeal writer, Mooltan, Punjab, East Indies; 
 Carl von Bergen, Ph. D., president of the Swedish Society for 
 Physical Research, Stockholm, Sweden; Birchand Raghavji 
 Gandhi, B. A., honorary secretary to the Jain Association of 
 India, Bombay; Rt. Rev. Banrui Yatsubucha and Professor G. 
 N. Chakravarti, Swami Yivekananda, a monk of the orthodox 
 Brahminical religion; Rev. B. B. Nagarkar, minister, Brahmo 
 Somaj of Bombay, India; Rev. P. C. Mozoomdar, minister and 
 leader of the Brahmo Somaj of India, Calcutta; Jinda Ram, a 
 lawyer, president of the temperance society Vedic, Muzaffar- 
 garh, India; Rev. P. G. Phiambolis; Occonomus, a priest of the 
 Greek Church; Most Rev. Dionysius Latas, archbishop of Zante, 
 Greece; Homer Peratis, arch-deacon of the Greek Church; 
 Relichi Shibata, president of one of the Shinte Soots, Tokio, 
 Japan; Zikuzen Ashixvi, representative from the Tendai Sect, 
 Omi, Japan; Banrim Yatsubuchi, president of Hoju Buddhist 
 Society, Kamamoto, Japan; Soen Skaka, archbishop of the Zen 
 of the Buddhist sect, Kamakura, Japan; Horin Toki, professor 
 of Shingne Sect and its bishop, Sanuki, Japan ; Noguchi and 
 Nomura, interpreters, Tokio, Japan; H. Dharmapala, general 
 secretary Maha Bodhi Society, Calcutta; Professor G. N. Chak- 
 ravarti, Allahabad, India; Dr. F, A. Noble, Prince Serge Wolkon- 
 sky, of Russia; D. G. Grandon, secretary of the Free Religious 
 Society of Boston; Rev. J. H. Macomber, chaplain United States 
 of America, Angel Island, Cal.; Yunkway China; Mise Jeanne 
 Serabji K. Langrana; G. Benet Maury, professor a la fauilte 
 de theologie, Paris; Prince Memulu Massoquoi, of Liberia;
 
 I 
 
 i
 
 WORDS OF GREETING. 37 
 
 Bishop Jenner, Anglican Free Church; Rev. Augusta Chapin, 
 D. D. Chicago; Mrs. Potter Palmer, Mrs. Charles Henrotin, 
 Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Feehan, Archbishop Ryan, 
 Archbishop Redwood, of New Zealand; President C. C. Bonney, 
 Dr. Adolf Brodbeck. Count Bernstorif, Z. Zmjgrowdski, John 
 W. Hoyt, Bisho[) Keane, H. N. Higinbotham, W. J. Onahan, 
 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Bishop D. W. Arnett, Bishop Handy, 
 Principal Grant, of Canada; Rev. Alfred William Memorie, 
 D. D., Rev. Maurice Phillips, of Madras, India; Professor N. 
 Valentine, Dr. William T. Harris, Dr. Ernest Faber, Rev. 
 George T. Candin, Professor Kosaki, Bishop Cotter, of Win- 
 ona; Hon. Pung Quang Yu, Chinese Legation. 
 
 At the close of the universal prayer. President Bonney arose, 
 spoke earnest words of greeting, and declared the first Parlia- 
 ment of Religions opened. 
 
 OPENING ADDRESS. 
 C. C. BONNEY. 
 
 At 10:30 o'clock C. C. Bonney called the vast assemblage 
 to order and requested tlie audience to remain standing while 
 Cardinal Gibbons led in the universal prayer. The cardinal 
 recited the Lord's Prayer in impressive tones. Mr. Bonney 
 then stepped forward amid loud cheers and delivered the 
 following address of welcome: 
 
 Worshipers of God avd Lovers of Man: — Let us rejoice that we 
 have lived to see this glorious day; let us give thanks to the Eternal God, 
 whose mercy endureth forever, that we are permitted to take part in the 
 solemn and majestic event of a World's Congress of Religions. The impor- 
 tance of this event can not be overestimated. Its influence on the future 
 relations of the various races of men can not be too highly esteemed. 
 
 If this congress shall faithfully execute the duties with which it has 
 been charged it will become a joy of the whole earth, and stand in human 
 history like a new Mount Zion, crowned with glory, and marking the actual 
 beginning of a new epoch of brotherhood and peace. 
 
 For when the religious faiths of the world recognize each other as 
 brothers, children of one Father, whom all profess to love and serve, then, 
 and not till then, will the nations of the earth yield the spirit of concord, 
 and learn war no more. 
 
 It is inspiring to think that in every part of the world many of the 
 worthiest of mankind, who would gladly join us here if that were in their 
 power, this day lift their hearts to the Supreme Being in earnest prayer for 
 the harmony and success of this congress. To them our own hearts speak 
 in love and 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
 
 38 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, 
 
 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 duty, 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 
 
 As the finite can never fully comprehend the infinite, not perfectly 
 express its own view of the divine, it necessarily follows that individual 
 opinions of the divine nature and attributes will differ. But, properly 
 understood, these varieties of view are not causes of discord and strife, but 
 rather incentives to deeper interest and examination. Necessarily God 
 reveals himself differently to a child than to a man; to a philosopher than 
 to one who can not read. Each must see God with the eyes of his own 
 soul. Each one must behold him through the colored glass of his own 
 nature. Each one must receive him according to his own capacity of 
 reception. The fraternal union of the religions of the world will come 
 when each seeks truly to know how God has revealed himself in the other, 
 and remembers the inexorable law that with what judgment it judges it 
 shall itself be judged. . , . , 
 
 The religious faiths of the world have most seriously misunderstood and 
 misjudged each other from the use of words in meanings radically different 
 from those which they were intended to bear, and from a disregard of the dis- 
 tinctions between appearances and facts; between signs and symbols and 
 the things signified and represented. Such errors it is hoped that this 
 congress will do much to correct and to render hereafter impossible. 
 
 He who believes that God has revealed himself more fully in his religion 
 than in any other, can not do otherwise than desire to bring that religion to 
 the knowledge of all men, with an abiding conviction that the God who gave 
 it will preserve, protect, and advance it in every expedient way. And hence 
 he will welcome every just opportunity to come into fraternal relations with 
 men of other creeds, that they may see in his upright life the 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 Congress of 1893, there came with that idea a profound conviction 
 that their 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 Government of the United States to all other 
 nations, contained among other great themes to be considered, " The grounds 
 for fraternal union in the religions of different people." 
 
 At first the proposal of a W<n-ld"s Congress of Religions seemed impracti- 
 cable. It was saitl that the religions had never met but in conflict, and 
 that a different result could not be expected now. A committee of organi- 
 zation was, nevertheless, appointed to make the necessary arrangements. 
 This committee was composed of representatives of sixteen religious 
 bodies. Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows 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 
 that 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 promised the congress their active 
 co-operation and support. 
 
 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 b^inning it was 
 supposed that one or two weeks would suffice for the department of religion,
 
 OPENING ADDRESS. 39 
 
 but so great has been the interest, and so many have been the applications 
 in this department, that the plans for it have repeatedly been rearranged, 
 and it now extends from September 4 to October 15, 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 general Parliament of 
 Religions directly represents England, Scotland, Sweden,Switzerland,France, 
 Germany, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, India, Japan, China, Cey- 
 lon, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, and the American States, and, indirectly, 
 includes many other countries. This remarkable programme presents, 
 among other great themes to be considered in this congress. Theism, Juda-- 
 ism, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shin- 
 toism, Zoroastrianism, Catholicism, the Greek Church, Protestantism in 
 many forms, and also refers to the nature and intiuence of other religious 
 systems. 
 
 This programme also announces for presentation the great subjects 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, philosophy, evolution, music, 
 labor, government, i)eace and war, and many other themes of absorbing 
 interest. T'.ie distinguished leaders of human progress, by whom these 
 great topics will be presented, constitute an unparalleled galaxy of eminent 
 names, but we may not pause to call the illustrious I'oll. 
 
 For the execution of this part of the general programme seventeen days 
 have been assigned. During substantially the same period the second part 
 of the programme will be executed in the adjoining Hall of Washington. 
 This will consist of what are termed presentations of their distinctive faith 
 and achievements by the different churches. These presentations will be 
 made to the world, as represented 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 
 rel'gious denominations for the purpose of more fully setting forth their 
 doctrines and the service they have rendered to mankind. These special 
 congresses will be held, for the most part, in the smaller halls of this mem- 
 orial building. A few of them have, for special reasons, already been held. 
 It is the special object of these denominational congresses to afford oppor- 
 tunities for further information to all who may desire it. The leaders of 
 these several churches most cordially desire the attendance of the repre- 
 sentatives of other religions. The denominational congresses will each 
 be held during the week in which the presentation of the denomination 
 will occur. 
 
 The fourth and final part of the programme of the department of relig- 
 ion will consist of congresses of various kindred organizations. These con- 
 gresses will be held between the close of the Parliament of Religions and 
 October 15. and will include missions, ethics, Sunday rest, the evangelical 
 alliance, and other similar associations. The congress on evolution should, 
 in regularity, have been held in the department of science, but circum- 
 stances prevented, and it has been given a place in this department by the 
 courtesy of the committee of organization. 
 
 To this more than imperial feast, I bid you welcome. 
 We meet on the mountain height of absolute respect for the religious 
 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 representa- 
 tives of each religion sincerely believe that it is the truest and the best of
 
 40 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 con- 
 gress meet, as men. on a common 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 acknowledgement of his services and attainments. 
 But no attempt is here made to treat all religions as of equal merit. Any 
 such idea is expressly disclaimed. In this congress, each system 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 publica- 
 tion 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. 
 
 ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 DR. J. H. BARROWS, CHAIRMAN OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE. 
 
 Mr. President 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 1 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 springing from the sacred fountains of India, are not more pure 
 and bright than the joy of my heart and of many hearts here that this day 
 has dawned in the annals of time, and that, from the farthest isles of Asia; 
 from India, mother of religions; from Europe, the great teacher of civiliza- 
 tion; from the shores on which breaks the "long wash of Australasian 
 seas;" that from neighboring lands, and from all parts of this republic 
 which we love to contemplate as the land of earth's brightest future, you 
 have come here at our invitation in the expectation that the world's first 
 Parliament of Religions must prove an event of race-wide and perpetual 
 significance. 
 
 For more than two years the general committee, which I have the honor 
 to represent, working together in unbroken harmony, and presenting the 
 picture of prophecy of a united Christendom, have carried on their arduous 
 and sometimes appalling task in happy anticipation of this golden hour. 
 Your coming has constantly been in our thoughts, and hopes, and fervent 
 prayers. I rejoice that your long voyages and journeys are over, and that 
 here, in this young capital of our Western civilization, you find men eager 
 for truth, sympathetic with the spirit of universal human brotherhood, and 
 loyal, I believe, to the highest they know, glad and grateful to Almighty 
 God that they see your faces and are here to hear your words.
 
 ADDBESS OF WELCOME 41 
 
 Welcome, most welcome, O wise men of the East and of the West. May 
 the star which has led you hither be like unto that luminary which jjuided 
 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 council the represent- 
 atives of God'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 evidences of His divine guidance and favor. 
 
 Long ago I should have surrendered the task intrusted to me before the 
 colossal difficulties looming ever in the way had I not committed my work 
 to the gracious care of that God who loves all his children, whose thoughts 
 are long, long thoughts, who is patient and merciful as well as just, and who 
 cares infinitely more for the souls of his erring children than for any creed 
 or philosophy of human devising. If anything great and worthy is to be 
 the outcome of this parliament, the glory is wholly due to Him who inspired 
 it, and who in the Scriptures, which most of us cherish as the word of Ood, 
 has taught the blessed truths of divine fatherhood and human brotherhood. 
 
 I should not use the word "if" in speaking of the outcome of this Con- 
 gress of Religions, since, were it decreed that our sessions should end this 
 day, the truthful historian would say that the idea which has inspired and 
 led this movement, the idea whose beauty and force has drawn you through 
 these many thousand miles of travel, that this idea has been so flashed 
 before the eyes of men that they will not forget it, and that our meeting 
 this morning has become a new, great fact in the historic evolution of the 
 race, which will not be obliterated. 
 
 What, it seems to me, should have blunted some of the arrows of criticism 
 shot at the promoters of this movement is this other fact, that it is the repre- 
 sentatives 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 comparative religions, wherein devout men of 
 all faiths may speak for themselves without hindrance, without criticism, 
 and without compromise, and tell what they believe, and why they believe 
 it. I appeal to the representatives of the non-Christian faiths, and ask you 
 if Christianity suffers in your eyes from having called this Parliament of 
 Religions? Do you believe that its beneficent work in the world will be one 
 whit lessened? 
 
 On the contrary; you agree with the great mass of Christian scholars 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 20th 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 separated, and in this land the widest spiritual and intel- 
 lectual freedom is realized. Justice Ameer Ali of Calcutta, whose absence 
 we lament to-day, 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— I 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 religions, who have come with good cause to appreciate 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 zealously and powerfully co-oper-
 
 42 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 ated 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 Christian college and the 
 Christian school, welcomes to-day the earnest disciples of other faiths and 
 the men of all faiths, who, from many lands, have flocked to this jubilee of 
 civilization. i ,, . 
 
 Cherishing the light which God has given us, and eager to send this 
 light everywhere, 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 the Holy Ghost. 
 The heedless world has never lost. 
 
 Professor Max Muller, of Oxford, w^ho has been a friend of our move- 
 ment, and has sent a contribution to this parliament, has gathered together 
 in his last volume a collection of prayers^Egyptian. Acadian, Babylonian, 
 Vedic, Avestic, Chinese, Mohammedan, and modern Hindu, which make it 
 perfectly clear that the sun which shone over Bethlehlem and Calvary has 
 cast some celestial illumination and called forth some devout and holy aspir- 
 ations by the Nile and the Ganges, in the deserts of Arabia, and by the 
 waves of the Yellow Sea. 
 
 It is perfectly evident t 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. 
 
 This parliament is likely to prove a blessing to many Christians by mark- 
 ing the time when they shall cease thinking that the verities and virtues of 
 other religions discredit the claims of Christianity or bar its progress. It is 
 our desire and hope to broaden and purify the mental and spiritual vision of 
 men. Believing that nations and faiths are separated in part by ignorance 
 and prejudice, why shall not this parliament help to remove the one and 
 soften the other? 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 to-day as men, children of God, sharers with all 
 men in weakness and guilt and need, sharers with devout souls everywhere 
 in aspiration and hope and longing. We are met as religious men, believing 
 even here in this capital of material wonders, in the presence of an exposi- 
 tion which displays the unparalleled marvels of steam and electricity, that 
 there is a spiritual root to all human progress. We are met in a school of 
 comparative theology, which, I hope, will prove more spiritual and ethical 
 than theological; we are met, I believe, in the temper of love, determined to 
 bury, at least for the time, our sharp hostilities, anxious to find out wherein 
 we agree, eager to learn what constitutes the strength of other faiths and 
 the v/eakness of our own; and we are met as conscientious and truth-seek- 
 ing men, in a council where no one is asked to surrender or abate his 
 individual convictions, and where, I will add, no one would be worthy of a 
 place if he did. 
 
 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 moderation will pre- 
 vail far more than heated argumentation. I am confident that you appre- 
 ciate the peculiar limitations which constitute the peculiar glory of this 
 assembly. We are not here as Baptists and Buddhists, Catholics and Con- 
 fucians, Parsees and Presbyterian Protestants, Methodists and Moslems; we
 
 ADDRESS OF WELCOME. *3 
 
 are here as members of a Parliament of Religions, 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, brother- 
 hood. We all feel that there is a spirit which should always i)ervade these 
 meetings, and if anyone should offend against this spirit let him not be 
 rebuked publicly or personally; your silence will be a graver and severer 
 rebuke. 
 
 We are not here to criticise one another, but each to speak out positively 
 and frankly his own convictions regarding his own faith. The great world 
 outside will review our work; the next century will review it. It is our high 
 and noble business to make that work the best possible. 
 
 There will be social gatherings in the course of this parliament in which 
 we shall be able to get at each other mere closely; there will be review 
 sections in the smaller halls where, in a friendly way, through question and 
 answer and suggestion, the great themes to be treated in the Hall of 
 Columbus will be considered and various lights thrown upon them; but in 
 this central hall of the parliament the general programme will be carried 
 out, and I trust always in the spirit which glows in your hearts at this 
 hour. 
 
 - It is a great and wonderful programme that is to be spread before 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 seventeen days of our ses- 
 sions. Careful and scholarly essays have been 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 confident 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 alienation which have kept good men from co-operating ? How 
 can we bring into closer fellowship those who believe in Christ as the savior 
 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 vxpon these 
 problems in the coming days. 
 
 Outside of this central parliament, and yet a part of it, are the con- 
 gresses of the various religious bodies in the Hall of Washington and 
 elsewhere. And they will greatly help to complete the picture of the spir- 
 itual forces now at work among men, and to bring to a gainsaying and 
 gold-worshiping generation a sense of those diviner forces which are moving 
 on humanity. 
 
 I can not tell you, with anj' completeness, how vast and various are my 
 obligations to those who have helped me in this colossal undertaking. Let 
 me, however, give my heartiest thanks to the devout women who. from the 
 beginning, have championed the idea of this parliament and worked for its 
 realization; to the President or the Columbian Exposition and his associ- 
 ates; to the President of the World's Congress Auxiliary, whose patient and 
 Titanic labors will one day be appreciated at their full value; to the Christian 
 and secular press of our country, which has been so friendly and helpful 
 from the start; to the more than 3,000 men and women upon our advisory 
 council in many lands; to the scores of missionaries who have been far- 
 sighted and broad-minded enough to realize the supreme value of this par- 
 liament; to President Miller, of the Christian College at Madras, who has 
 used his pen and voice in our behalf; to the Buddhist scholars of Japan, 
 who have written and spoken in favor of this congress of the faiths; to 
 Mr. Dharmapala, of Ceylon, who has left important work in connection 
 with his society in Southern India to make this long journey to the heart 
 of America; to Mr. Mozoomdar and all others who have come to us from
 
 44 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, 
 
 the most populous portion of England's great empire, which has been well 
 called "the hugest standing Parliament of Religious in the world;" to the 
 Iniperial CJovernment of China, that has commissioned a learned and able 
 Confucian to speak for one of the faiths of his nation; to scores of the 
 Bishops of the Anglican, Methodist, United Brethren, African Methodist, 
 and other churches; to business men in our own city, who have generously 
 helped lue in times of special need, and to the dignitaries of the great 
 Catholic Church of our country, who, through the learned and broad- 
 minded rector of the Catholic University at Washington, have brought to 
 us a degree of co-operation and fellowship for which I can never be too 
 grateful. 
 
 All these I welcome to-day; or, if some of them be not here, I send to 
 them, and to a multitude of others whom I have not named, my affection- 
 ate gratitude and fraternal salutation. And to the representatives of the 
 orthodox Greek church, of the Russian church, of the Armenian church, of 
 the Bulgarian and other churches I extend the most cordial welcome and 
 salutation. I believe that you will all feel at home with us; I believe that 
 your coming will enlighten us. We shall hear about the faith of the Parsees 
 in the words of those who hold that ancient doctrine; we shall hear of the 
 faith of the Jains of India in the words of one who belonged to that com- 
 munity, which is far older than Christianity. Our minds and our hearts 
 are to be widened as we take in more fully the various works of divine 
 providence. 
 
 Welcome, one and all, thrice welcome to the world's first Parliament ol 
 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 heart 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 grateful 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 abide in our council and 
 entend to the twelve hundred millions of human beings the representatives 
 of whose faiths I address at this moment. 
 
 It seems to me that the spirits of just and good men hover over this 
 assembly, I believe that the spirit of Paul is here, the zealous missionary 
 of Christ, whose courtesy, wisdom, and unbounded tact were manifest when 
 he preached Jesus and the resurrection beneath the shadows of the Par- 
 thenon. I believe the spirit of the wise and humane Buddha is here, and 
 of Socrates, the searcher after truth, and of Jeremy Taylor, and John Mil- 
 ton, and Roger Williams, and Lessing, the great apostles of toleration. I 
 believe that the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, who sought for a church 
 founded on love for God and man, is not far from us, and the spirit of 
 Tennyson, and Whittier, and Phillips Brooks, who looked forward to this 
 parliament as a realization of a noble idea. 
 
 When, a few years ago. I met for the first time the delegates who have 
 come to us from Japan, and shortly after the delegates who have come to us 
 from India, I feel that the arms of human brotherhood had reached almost 
 around the globe. But there is something stronger than human love and 
 fellowship, and what gives us the most hope and happiness to-day is our 
 confidence that 
 
 The whole round world is every way 
 Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 
 
 OFFICIAL WELCOME. 
 
 ARCHBISHOP FEEHAN 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
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESSES. 46 
 
 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 of the world. One of 
 the representatives from the ancient East has mentioned that his king in 
 early days held a meeting something like this, but certainly the modern 
 and historical world has had no such thing. Men have come from distant 
 lands, from many shores. They represent many types of race. They rep- 
 resent many forms of faith; some 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 pass- 
 ing months the highest and the greatest is now to be presented to it. For 
 earnest men. learned and eloquent men of different faiths, have come 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 wonders 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 of life and of death, and of 
 immortality and of justice, and of goodness 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. Barrows, one atom of surrender 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 differ 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 races 
 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 privilege which I prize very much has been given to me I bid them all, 
 in my own name, and of that I represent, a most cordial welcome. 
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESSES. 
 
 CARDINAL GIBBONS. 
 
 Your honored president has informed you, ladies and gentlemen, that if 
 I were to consult the interests 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 minister of the Catholic Church if 
 I did not say that it is our desire to jjresent 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. But 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
 
 46 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF BELIOJONS. 
 
 race from race and people from people and tribe from tribe and has made 
 us one people, one family, recognizing God as our common lather, and Jesus 
 Christ as our brother. . i » t r\\ ■ >- 
 
 We have a beautiful lesson given to us m the gospel of Jesus Chnst— 
 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 
 bandiured his wounds. The Samaritan was his enemy in re igion and in 
 faith, his enemy in nationality, and his enemy even in social lite. Ihat is 
 the model that we all ought to follovv. . ,,, . , . 
 
 I trust that we will all leave this hall animated by a greater love for one 
 another for love knows no distinction of faith. Christ the Lord is our 
 model I sav. We can not, like our divine Savior, give sight to the blind 
 and hearing to the deaf, and walking to the lame and strength to the par- 
 alyzed limbs; we can not work the miracles which Christ wrought; but 
 there are other miracles far more beneficial to ourselves that we are all in 
 the measure of our lives capable of working, and those are the miracles of 
 charity, of mercy, and of love to our fellowman. 
 
 Let no man say that he can not serve his brother. Let no man say, "Am 
 I my brother's keeper ? " That was the larguage of Cain, and I say to you 
 all "here to-day, no matter what may be your faith, that you are and you 
 ought to be your brother's keeper. W^hat would become of us Christians 
 to-day if Christ the Lord had said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Wo 
 would be all walking in darkness and in the shadow of death, and if to-day 
 we enjoy in this great and beneficent land of ours blessings beyond compar- 
 ison, we owe it to Christ, who redeemed us all. Therefore, let ua 
 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 fel- 
 lowship and of practical love to a suffering member. Never do we 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." 
 
 ON BEHALF OF WOMEN. 
 
 REV. AUGUSTA G. CHAPIN, CHAIRMAN OF THE WOMAN's COMMITTEE 
 OF ORGANIZATION OF THIS CONGRESS". 
 
 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, represent- 
 ing so many and widely diflering 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 name of religion on the face of this earth. 
 
 There have been and are yet to be within these walls congresses for the 
 discussion of a multitude of themes, each attracting the attention of a 
 select and limited company. But this great Parliament of Religions appeals 
 to all the people of the civilized world, for all who wear the garb of human- 
 ity have inherited from the infinite fatherly and motherly One, whose 
 children we are, the same high spiritual nature; we have all of us. whether 
 wise or unwise, rich or poor, of whatever nationality or religion, the same 
 supreme interests, and the same great problems of infinitudeTof life and of 
 destiny press upon us all for solution.
 
 HARLOW N. HIGINBOTHAM, 
 President World's Columbian Exposition.
 
 ADDRESS. 47 
 
 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 of 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 tidelity 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 called 
 sooner and have gathered the religionists of all these lands together. We 
 had to wait for the hour to strike, until the steamship, the railway, and the 
 telegraph had brought men together, leveled their walls of separation and 
 made them acquainted with each other — until scholars had broken the way 
 through the pathless wilderness of ignorance, superstition, and falsehood, 
 and compelled them to respect each others' honesty, devotion, and intelli- 
 gence. A hundred years ago the world was not ready for this parliament. 
 Fifty years ago it could not have been convened, and had it been called but 
 a single generation ago one-half of the religious world could not have been 
 directly represented. 
 
 Woman could not have had a part in it in her own right for two reasons; 
 one that her presence would not have been thought of or tolerated, and the 
 other was that she herself was still too weak, too timid, and too unschooled 
 to avail herself of such an opportunity had it been offered. Few indeed 
 were they a quarter of a century ago who talked about the divine brother- 
 hood and human brotherhood, and fewer still were they who realized the 
 practical religious power of these great conceptions. Now few are found 
 to question them. 
 
 I am not an old woman, yet my memory runs easily back to the time when, 
 in all the modern world, there was not one well equipped college or univer- 
 sity open to women students, and when, in all the modern world, no woman 
 had been ordained or even acknowledged as a preacher outside the denomi- 
 nation of Friends. Now doors are thrown open in our own and many 
 other lands. Women are becoming masters of the languages in which the 
 great sacred literatures of the world are written. They are winning the 
 highest honors that the great universities have to bestow, and already in the 
 Held of religion hundreds have been ordained and thousands are freely speak- 
 ing and teaching this new gospel of freedom and gentleness that has come 
 to bless mankind. 
 
 We are still at the dawn of this new era. Its grand possibilities are all 
 before us, and its heights are ours to reach. We are assembled in this great 
 parliament to look for the first time in each others' faces and to speak to 
 each other our best and truest words. I can only add my heartfelt word of 
 greeting to those you have already heard. I welcome you, brothers of every 
 name and land, who have wrought so long and so well in accordance with 
 the wisdom high hjaven has given to you ; and I welcome you, sisters, who 
 have come with beating hearts and earnest purpose to this great feast, to 
 participate not only in this parliament but in the great congresses asso- 
 ciated with it. Isabella the Catholic had not only the perception of a new 
 world but of an enlightened and emancipated womanhood, which should 
 strengthen religion and bless mankind. I welcome you to the fulfillment 
 of her prophetic vision. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 H. N. HIGINBOTHAM, PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD's COLUMBIAN 
 
 EXPOSITION COMPANY. 
 
 It affords me infinite pleasure to welcome the distinguished gentlemen 
 who compose this august body. It is a matter of satisfaction and pride 
 that the relations existing between the peoples and the nations of the earth
 
 48 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 are of such a friendly nature as to make this gathering possible. I have 
 Icing cherished the hope that nothing would intervene to prevent the frui 
 tion of the labors of your honored chairman ^ •„ • v,i + 
 
 I apprehend that the fruitage of this parliament will richly compensate 
 him and the world and prove the wisdom of his work. It is a source of 
 s-itisf-iction that, to the residents of a new city in a far country, should be 
 •icc«")rded this great privilege and high honor. The meeting of so many illus- 
 trious and learned men under such circumstances, evidences the kindly 
 spirit and feeling that exists throughout the world. To me this is the 
 proudest of the works of our exposition. There is no man, high or low, 
 learned or unlearned, who will not watch with increasing interest, the pro- 
 ceedings 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 cur being 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, ambi- 
 tions, joys, and sorrows, and these, to my mind, argue strongly and almost 
 conclusively a common destiny. _ , „ j. xi ^ 
 
 To me there is much satisfaction and pleasure 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 aug- 
 mented by their intercourse with us and each other. I hope that your 
 parliament will prove to be a golden milestone on the highway of civiliza- 
 tion—a golden stairway leading up to the tableland of a higher, grander, 
 and more i)erfect condition, where peace will reign and the engines of war 
 be known no more forever. 
 
 NEW ENGLAND PURITAN. 
 
 REV. ALEXANDER MCKENZIE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 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 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 distinctly 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. 
 
 I venture to say that if the Puritan had not been precisely the man he 
 was, this gathering would never have been heard of. The little contribu- 
 tion that he makes this morning, in the way of welcome to these guests 
 from all parts of the world, is to congratulate 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 can not show an old 
 history or stately architecture. We can not point to the castles and 
 abbeys of England, but we can show a new country which means to be old. 
 We can show buildings as tall as any in the world, and we c='n show the 
 displacement 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 abroad will take pains to notice it. I am not exag- 
 gerating when T say that we can show what can be shown nowhere else 
 m the world, and that is, a great republic, and a republic in the process 
 of making by the forces of Christianity. 
 
 We can show the whole nation, we can show its beginning, we can show
 
 NEW ENGLAND PURITAN. 49 
 
 the men who began to make it; at any rate, we can show their pictures, the 
 letters they wrote, and the cradles their children were rocked in. The begin- 
 ning 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 distinctive religious pur- 
 pose. They came here to carry out the work of God. They worked with 
 energy and perseverance and steadfastness to that end. They started on 
 Plymouth Rock a parliament of religion. They had presently in Massa- 
 chusetts a parliament of two somewhat varying religions. Then, when the 
 Dutch went to New York, there were three elements of religion in the 
 country. So it has been going on ever since, and if to-day there is any 
 religion in the world which has not its representative in this country, I wish 
 somebody would guess what it is. 
 
 There is one thing very remarkable in the working out of the Puritan 
 idea; it has never gone backward, there has been no recession, no losing 
 ground from the time the Mayflower took its way from old Plymouth into 
 new Plymouth. There have been little variances from time to time, but 
 they have tended to cement the great idea of building up this republic. At 
 first they were colonies. Presently they shook off their allegiance to the 
 old country and became a country of their own, but fettered and held with 
 slavery, which is inconsistent in any republic. Presently came the revolu- 
 tion, which bound them together as a nation, and then came the civil war, 
 which shook slavery off from the republic, and we stood a free and inde- 
 pendent nation before the world. Our work advanced without receding, 
 and is still going on. 
 
 I say that this is the first republic of the world. You may ask if I am 
 not ignorant of history. I believe there were other republics. I have 
 heard of the Roman republic; I have heard of the French republic, and 
 the republics of Central America. But these were not republics in our 
 sense. They were simply the change in form of government of their own 
 people. A republic like this is peculiar in this respect, that we have 
 here twenty-five different nations to make into one, twenty-five different 
 languages, twenty-five different religions, with great diversities, and 
 some no-religions which have more diversity than the religions. 
 
 Now, with all this diversity of taste, diversity of religion, and desire and 
 purpose, we had to make one nation where the people shall think together, 
 shall worship together, shall rally under the same flag, and shall believe in 
 the same principles and same institutions. Since the morning of crea- 
 tion there has never been given to any people in the world so great a task 
 as to make out of twenty-five nations a republic along the old Christian 
 lines. We begun our work with the church and school. 
 
 I have no sympathy with the discussion which has been frequently 
 heard as to whether we should have the school or the church. You 
 might as well ask, in bringing up children, whether they should have 
 clothes or bread. Why, in the name of reason, should they not have both? 
 The pilgrim fathers came with the church and came with the school. 
 They were not boys when they came or wild adventurers. They were 
 scholars from the universities of England. They brought books with them 
 and made books, and they founded what they called a university. They 
 believed that no religion has any right to live which does not make men 
 more intelligent, and they believed that there is no intelligence worth hav- 
 ing that does not reach out to the highest pinnacle of knowledge. To-day 
 we are simply continuing the process they began. 
 
 Men sometimes find fault and say that we are a material nation. I 
 think we should give thanks that we are materialists, that we are blessed 
 with railroads, steamships, banks, bankers, and many kinds of money, 
 providing they are good. It would be no use attempting to maintain 
 institutions of religion or achoolhouses without material and financial
 
 50 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 roBources It is rather a reproach to us if we can not advance the institu- 
 tions of relit'ion and learning as fast as men advance railroads. I wish 
 our friends would take pains to notice what we are doing here I 
 Rliould like them to see the fine churches of this and other great cities; 
 I should like them to go into the country communities and see our mission- 
 •irv churches and country schools. I wish they would let me be their guide. 
 i would take them to the place on our own Atlantic seaboard, where they 
 c-m see men manufacturing a republic— taking the black material of 
 humanity and building it up into noble men and women ; taking the red 
 material, wild with every savage instinct, and making it into respectable 
 
 I do not think America has anything better or more hopeful to show 
 than the work of General Armstrong at Hampton. We have not built 
 cathedrals yet, but we have built log schoolhouses, and if you visit them 
 vou will see in the cracks between the logs the eternal light streaming in. 
 And for the work we are doing a log schoolhouse is better than a cathedral. 
 
 THANKS FROM GREECE, 
 
 MOST EEV. DIONYSIOS LATAS, THE ARCHBISHOP OF ZANTE, 
 GEEECE, A EEPEESEXTATIVE OF THE GEEEK CHUECH. 
 
 Reverend 3{inisters, Most Honorable Gentlemen, the Superiors of this 
 Congress, and Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen : I consider myself very 
 happy in having set my feet on this platform to take part in the congress 
 of the different nations and peoples. I thank the great American nation, 
 and especially the superiors of this congress, for the high manner in which 
 they have honored me by inviting me to take part, and I thank the min- 
 isters of divinity of the different nations and peoples which, for the first 
 time, will write in the books of the history of the world. 
 
 I thank them still more because this invitation gave me the opportunity 
 to satisfy a desire which I have had for a long time to visit this famous and 
 most glorious country. I sat a long time at Athens, the capital of Greece, 
 and there had the opportunity to become acquainted with many American 
 gentlemen, ministers, professors, and others who came there for the sake of 
 learning the new Greek, and travelers who visited that classic place, the place 
 of the antiquities. By conversing with those gentlemen, I heard and learned 
 many things about America, and I admired from afar the greatness of the 
 country. My desire has alw'ays been to visit and see this nation, and now, 
 thanks to Almighty God, I am here in America, within the precincts of the 
 city which is showing the great progress and the wonderful achievements 
 of the human mind. My voice, as representing the little kingdom of Greece, 
 may appear of little importance as compared with the voices of you who 
 represent great and powerful states, extensive cities, and numerous nations, 
 but the influence of the church to w^hich I belong, is extensive and my 
 part is great. But my thanks to the superiors of this congress and my 
 blessings and prayers to Almighty God must not be measured by extent 
 and quantity but by true sympathy and quality. I repeat my thanks to 
 the superiors of this congress, the president, Charles Bonney, and Dr. 
 Barrows. 
 
 The archbishop then turned to the dignitaries on the plat- 
 form and said: 
 
 Reverend ministers of the eloquent name of God, the creator of your 
 earth and mine, I salute you on the one hand as my brothers in Jesus 
 Christ, from whom, according to our faith, all good has originated in this 
 world. I salute you in the name of the divinely inspired gospel, which,
 
 FROM INDIA AND CHINA. 51 
 
 according to our faith, is the salvation of the soul of man and the happiness 
 of man in this world. 
 
 All men have a common creator, without any distinction between the 
 rich and the poor, the ruler and the ruled; all men have a common creator 
 without any distinction of clime or race, without distinction of nationality 
 or ancestry, of name or nobility; all men have a common creator, and con- 
 sequently a common father in God. 
 
 I raise up my hands and I bless with heartfelt love the great country 
 and the happy, glorious people of the United States. 
 
 "This indeed is glorious," cried Mr. Bonney, as the arch- 
 bishop resumed his seat, a sentiment which was greeted with 
 prolonged cheering. 
 
 FROM INDIA AND CHINA. 
 
 p. C. MOZOOMDAK OF INDIA. 
 
 P. C. Mozoomdar, of India, was loudly cheered upon rising 
 to make the following address: 
 
 Leaders of the Parliament of Religions, Men and Women of America: 
 The recognition, sympathy, and welcome you have given to India to-day are 
 gratifying to thousands of liberal Hindu religious thinkers, whose repre- 
 sentatives I see around me, and. on behalf of my 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 place 
 there in recent times. Modern India has sprung from ancient India by a 
 law of evolution, a process of continuity which explains some of the most 
 difficult problems of our national life. In prehistoric times our forefathers 
 worshiped the great living 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. 
 
 Perhaps in other ancient lands this law of continuity has not been so 
 well kept. Egypt aspired to build up the vast eternal in her elaborate sym- 
 bolism and mighty architecture. Where is Egypt to-day ? Passed away 
 as a mystic dream in her pyramids, catacombs, and sphynx of the desert. 
 
 Greece tried to embody her genius of wisdom and beauty in her wonder- 
 ful creations of marble, in her all-embracing philosophy; but where is 
 ancient Greece to-day ? She lies buried under her exquisite monuments, 
 and sleeps the sleep from which there is no waking. 
 
 The Roman cohorts under whose victorious tramp the earth shook to its 
 center, the Roman theaters, laws, and institutions — where are they ? Hid- 
 den behind the oblivious centuries, or, if they flit across the mind, only 
 point a moral or adorn a tale. 
 
 The Hebrews, the chosen of Jehovah, with their long line of law and 
 prophets, how are they ? Wanderers on the face of the globe, driven by 
 king and kaiser, the objects of persecution to the cruel or objects of sym- 
 pathy to the kind. Mount Moriah is in the hands of the Musselman, Zion is 
 silent, and over the ruins of Solomon's Temple a few men beat their breasts 
 and wet their white beards with their tears. 
 
 But India, the ancient among ancients, the elder of the elders, lives 
 to-day with her old civilization, her old laws, and her profound religion. 
 The old mother of the nations and religions is still a power in the world; 
 she has often risen from apparent death, and in the future will arise again. 
 When the Vedic faith declined in India, the esoteric religion of the Vedan- 
 tas arose; then the everlasting philosophy of the Darasanas. When these
 
 52 THF. PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 declined again the Light of Asia arose, and established a standard of moral 
 perfection which will yet teach the world a long time. When Buddhism 
 h-id its downfall, the Shaiva and Vaish Rava revived, and continued in the 
 land down to the invasion of the Mohammedans. The Greeks and Scyth- 
 ians the Turks and Tartars, the Monguls and Musselmen, rolled over her 
 country like torrents of destruction. Our independence, our greatness, our 
 nrestige— all had gone, but nothing could take away our religious vitality. 
 
 We are Hindus still and shall always be. Now sits Christianity on the 
 throne of India, with the gospel of peace on one hand and the scepter of 
 civilization on the other. Now, it is not the time to despair and die. Behold 
 the aspirations of modern India— intellectual, social, political— all awak- 
 ened; our religious instincts stirred to the roots. If that had not been the 
 case do you think Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and others would have trav- 
 ersed these U,(X)0 miles to pay the tribute of their sympathy before this 
 august Parliament of Religions? 
 
 No individual, no denomination, can more fully sympathize or more 
 heartily join your conference than we men of the Brahmo Somaj, whose 
 religion is the harmony of all religions, and whose congregation is the 
 brotherhood of all nations. 
 
 Such, being our aspirations and sympathies, dear brethren, accept them . 
 Let me thank you again for this welcome in the name of my countrymen, 
 and wish every prosperity and success to your labors. 
 
 HON. PUNG QUANG YU, SECKETAEY OF THE CHINESE LEGATION 
 IN WASHINGTON 
 
 Began to read the address, but was unable to make himself 
 
 heard. He, therefore, turned the manuscript over to Dr. 
 
 Barrows, who read, in ringing tones, the following: 
 
 On behalf of the imperial government of China, I take great pleasure 
 in responding to the cordial words which the chairman of the general com- 
 mittee and others have spoken to-day. This is a great moment in the his- 
 tory 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 througtiout the world, believed that duty was summed 
 up in rocijjrncity, and I think that the word reciprocity tinds a new mean- 
 ing and glory in the proceedings of this historic parliament. 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. Each may learn from 
 the other some lessons, I trust, of charity and good will, and discover what 
 is excellent in other faiths than his own. In behalf of my government and 
 people I extend to the representatives gathered in this great hall the friend- 
 liest salutations, and to those who have spoken I give my most cordial 
 thanks. 
 
 LEGEND OF RUSSIA. 
 
 PRINCE SEEGE WOLKONSKY OF EUSSIA. 
 
 Those who, during the last week, have had the opportunity of attending 
 not only the congresses of one single church, but who could witness diflfer- 
 cnt congresses of different churches and congregations must have been 
 struck with a noticeable fact. They went to the Catholic congress and
 
 LEGEND OF RUSSIA. 53 
 
 heard beautiful words of charity and love. Splendid orators invoked the 
 blessings of heaven upon the children of the Catholic Church, and in elo- 
 quent terms the listeners were entreated to love their human brothers, in 
 the name of the Catholic Church. They went to the Lutheran congress 
 and heard splendid words of humanity, and brotherhood, orators inspired 
 with love and the blessing of God invoked on the children of the Lutheran 
 church. Those who were present were taught to love their human broth- 
 ers, in the name of the Lutheran church. They went to other more limited 
 congresses, and everywhere they heard these same great words, proclaim- 
 ing these same great ideas and inspiring these same great feelings. They 
 saw a Catholic archbishop who went to a Jewish congress and with fiery 
 eloquence brought feelings of brotherhood to his Hebraic sisters. Not in 
 one of these congresses did a speaker forget that he belonged to humanity, 
 and that his own church or congregation was but a starting point, a center 
 for a further radiation. 
 
 This is the noticeable fact that must have struck everybody, and 
 everybody must have asked himself at the end of the week: "Why don't 
 they come together, all these people who all speak the same language? 
 Why do not all these splendid orators unite their voices in one single 
 chorus, and, if they preach the same ideas, why don't they proclaim them 
 in the name of the same and single truth that inspires them all?" This 
 seems to have been the idea of those who, in comxx)sing the programmes of 
 the religious congresses, decided that the general religious congress should 
 follow the minor ones. To-night, in fact, we see the representatives of 
 different churches gathered together, and actuated with one common 
 desire of union. 
 
 Being called to welcome it on the day of its opening, I will take the 
 liberty of relating to you a popular legend of my country. The story may 
 appear rather too humorous for the occasion, but one of our national writers 
 says: " Humor is an invisible tear through a visible smile," and we think 
 that human tears, human sorrow and pain are sacred enough to be brought 
 even before a religious 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 miser- 
 able creature has suffered more than she can bear, and, that she asks the 
 Lord to be delivered from these tortures." 
 
 The angel promised to do so and flew away. When he had transmitted 
 the message God said: 
 
 " Ask her whether she has done any good to 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 her. 
 Let her grasp it, and if the plant is strong enough to draw her out from 
 hell she shall be saved." 
 
 This the angel did. The poor old woman clung to the carrot. The angel 
 began to pull, and lo! she began to rise! But when her body was half out 
 of the flames she felt 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
 
 54 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 „„.rel never ceased pulling. It did not seem to be any heavier than the 
 "mall carrot could support, and they all were lifted in the air. But the old 
 woman suddenly took fright. Too many people were availing themselves of 
 her l-ist chance of salvation, and, kicking and pushing those who were 
 clinging to her, she exclaimed: " Leave me alone; hands off; the carrot is 
 
 "" 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 artlessness and popular simplicity this legend is too elo- 
 quent to need interpretation. If any individual, any community, any con- 
 trregation 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 ' bv 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 san.e man. 
 
 We congratulate the president, the members and all the listeners of this 
 congress upon the tendency of union that has gathered them on the soil of 
 the country whose allegorical eagle, spreading her mighty wings over the 
 stars and stripes, holds in her talons these splendid words: " E Pluribus 
 Unum." 
 
 SHINTO BISHOP OF JAPAN. 
 
 EIGHT KEV. RENCHI SHIBATA, EEPKESENTATIVE OF THE SHINTO 
 FAITH, THE STATE EELIGION OF JAPAN. 
 
 The bishop appeared in his full pontificals and salaamed 
 profoundly toward the audience and to the right and left when 
 he came forward. Mr. Bonney, in his words of introduction, 
 alluded to the rapidity with which Japan had advanced in 
 civilization, and the peculiar kindness felt by the people of 
 this country toward the people of the empire of the mikado. 
 The address was read by Dr. Barrows. 
 
 I can not help doing honor to the Congress of Religions held here in 
 Chicago as the result of the partial effort of those philanthropic brothers 
 who have undertaken this, the greatest meeting ever held. It was fourteen 
 years ago that I expressed, in my ow^n country, the hope that there should 
 be a friendly meeting between the world's religionists, and now I realize 
 my hope with great joy in being able to attend these phenomenal meetings. 
 
 In the history of the past we read of repeated and tierce conflicts 
 between different religious creeds which sometimes ended in war. But 
 that time has passed away and things have changed with advancing civil- 
 ization. It.is a great blessing, not only to the religions themselves, but also 
 to human affairs, that the different religionists can thus gather in a friendly 
 way and exchange their thoughts and opinions on the important problems 
 of the age. 
 
 I trust that these repeated meetings will gradually increase the fraternal 
 relations between the different religionists in investigating the truths of 
 the umverse, and be instrumental in uniting all religions of the world, and
 
 WORDS ON TOLERATION. 55 
 
 in bringing all hostile nations into peaceful relations by leading them unto 
 the way of perfect justice. 
 
 When he had finished reading, Dr. Barrows introduced three 
 Buddhist priests from Japan, namely, Zitzuzen Ashitsu, Shaku 
 Soyen, and Horin Tokia. The priests arose and remained 
 standing while Z. Nognchi, their interpreter, said: 
 
 I thank you on behalf of the 'Japanese Buddhist priests for the wel- 
 come you have given us and for the kind invitation to participate in the 
 proceedings of this congress. 
 
 Dr. Barrows said that the Buddhists were bishops in their 
 land, and had been touched with the kind greetings and hos- 
 pitalities they had received since arriving in America. 
 
 WORDS ON TOLERATION. 
 
 COUNT BEKENSTORFF OF GERMANY. 
 
 I am happy to be able, as a German, to return words of thanks for the 
 kind welcome that has just been expressed to the visitors from different 
 nations. I can hardly say that I speak on behalf of Germany. Not coun- 
 tries as such, nor even churches as such, can take part in a conference like 
 this. I fully understand that men, who in high offices represent the church, 
 hesitated to accept the invitation, which, as private persons, they would 
 perhaps gladly have followed. I think the gentlemen who have come to 
 attend this parliament, yet unique in the history of the world, come as 
 individuals, not binding, by their presence, the religious or national bodies 
 to which they belong; but this does not in the least diminish the value of 
 their presence here. They come as men engaged in the religious work of 
 their country, and are representative men as such, even if no religious body 
 has given them full powers. 
 
 I also come only as an individual, but in the hope that I may, perhaps, 
 help a little to further the great object which you, who so kindly invited 
 us, have in view. It is a great pleasure to me to be once more in this great 
 country, which I visited for the first time in 1873. One week spent here 
 twenty years ago has remained deeply rooted in my memory. 
 
 Let me begin by stating my great pleasure, and I know that I am not 
 alone with this feeling in my country, that for the first time religion should 
 be officially connected with a world's exhibition. Religion, the most vital 
 question for every human being, is generally laid aside at such gatherings, 
 and men are too apt to forget the claims of God in the bustle of life. Here 
 is a free country, where the church is not supported by the government, 
 and yet where the churches have more influence on public life than any- 
 where else. It has been recognized that such a large influx of men should 
 not meet without paying attention to the question of all questions. This 
 parliament is, therefore, a testimony, and one whose voice will, I trust, be 
 heard all over the earth, that men live not by bread alone, but that the care 
 for the immortal soul is the paramount question for every man, the ques- 
 tion which ought to be treated before all others when men of all nations 
 meet. 
 
 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
 
 56 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 descended from one couple, and that they are, therefore, one family. Let 
 us not forget this; but the Bible also teaches that man is created after the 
 imace of God. Therefore, man as su(;h, quite apart from the circumstances 
 which made him be born among some historic religion, is meant to come 
 into connection with God. I have heard preachers who spoke at the anni- 
 versary of a reformation say that children who were baptized end what 
 obligations this fact lays upon them. I could not help thinking that if 
 children were not baptized, would not the duty to lead them to Christ be 
 quite the same? He said every child is a member of the great human 
 family. Has the offspring of that race, created after the image of God, the 
 right to be brought into contact with truth? 
 
 If this was not the case the precept which states in the Old Testament, 
 "Love thy neighbor as thyself," would have been impossible. It is based 
 on the principle that every man, as such, through his religious convictions, 
 has a claim on our help; yea, more, on our love Even the Jews, who were 
 separated from all other nations of the world, hatl this taught to them. 
 The abuse of this truth, made by men of no religion, can not abrogate the 
 truth itself. If this parliament helps to bring forth this truth in the right 
 light, if it shows that we can profess common humanity without putting 
 the human in opposition to the divine, it will do a great work for the 
 progress of civilization. The word "neighbor" in that precept that we 
 are to love our neighbor as ourself seems very narrow at first sight. It 
 seems as if it only meant the person who lives next door to us, but in 
 truth it is very comprehensive. The parable of the good Samaritan shows 
 that the suffering one is our neighbor in so far as he requires our help. 
 Every man is our neighbor. Every man practically becomes so by being 
 brought near to us. 
 
 Now the World's Fair, by bringing together a number of men from all 
 nations, makes neighborhood practical for many peoijlo who never met before. 
 Altogether the progress of civilization, the facilities offered for locomotion 
 in this century of steam and electricity, make many men closer neighbors 
 than they were before, and if all the representatives of foreign nations who 
 come here for the Fair are told by this parliament that every man has a 
 claim on the love of every other for the vsake of the common humanity, it is 
 a lesson which certainly deserves not to lie lost. We alreadv feel that for- 
 eigners coming here can learn much, especially from the great voluntary 
 Christian efforts of Americans. 
 
 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 vis. I will openly con- 
 fess that I also for a time felt the strength of this objection, but I trust 
 that nobody is here who thinks light of his own n-ligion. 
 
 I, for myself, declare that I am here as an individual evangelical Chris- 
 tian, and that I should never have set my foot in this i)arliament if I thought 
 that it sign'tied anything like a consent that all religi(ms are equal and that 
 it is f)nly 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 an\' kind. 
 
 We can not deny that we who meet in this parliament are separated by 
 great and important principles. We admit that these differences can not 
 be bridged ovtn-, but we meet, believing everyljody has the right to his 
 faith. You invite everybody to come here as a sincere defender of his own 
 faith. I, for my part, stand before you with the same wish that prompted 
 Paul when he stood before the representative of the Roman congress and 
 Agrippa, the Jewish king. I would to God that all that hear me to-day 
 were both almost and altogether such as I am. I can not accept these 
 bonds. I thank God that I am free, except for all these faults and defi- 
 ciencies which are in me and which prevent me embracing my creed as I 
 should like to do. 
 
 I
 
 GREETING FROM FRANCE. 57 
 
 But what do we then meet for if we can not 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 statesmanship, we 
 can not 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 indifference 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 tc the Galatians, rejects every other doctrine, 
 even if it were taught by an angel from heaven. We Christians are 
 servants of our master, the living Savior. We have no right to com- 
 promise the truth He intrusted to us, either to think lightly of it, or with- 
 hold the message He has given us for humanity. But we meet together, 
 each one wishing to gain the others to his own creed. Will this not be 
 a parliament of war instead of peace'i* 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 be defended and propagated by 
 spiritual means. An honest fight with spiiitual weapons need not estrange 
 the combatants; on the contrary, it often brings them nearer. 
 
 I think this conference will have done enough to engrave its memory 
 forever on the leaves of history if this great principle found general 
 adoption. Our light is dawning in every heart, and the 19th century 
 has brought us much progress in this respect; yet we risk to enter the 
 20th century before the great principle of religious liberty has found 
 universal acceptance. I am proud that in Prussia the ideas of religious 
 liberty are so far advanced. The present Bohemian churches in our 
 capital are a horrible memorial of how the Protestants of Bohemia and 
 Austria found refuge in our country. Many blessings have come from 
 these immigrants. The Jews are also fully emancipated with us, as the law 
 gives all religious liberty. In Roman Catholic countries, like Spain, every 
 obstacle is put in the way of Protestants. In Turkey, and equally in 
 Russia, we hear of sad persecutions. The principle of religious liberty is 
 based on the grand foundation that God wants the voluntary observance 
 of free men. 
 
 GREETING FROM FRANCE. 
 
 PKOFESSOR G. BONET MAURY. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: It is for me a great honor to have to answer 
 for France, my country, to the welcome greetings which have been just 
 now expressed by our president, Mr. Bonney, and by the energetic chairman 
 of the organizing committee of the Parliament of Religions, Rev. J. H. Bar- 
 rows, and others. That honor fell due to more prominent leaders of relig- 
 ious thought in our country, such as Albert Reville, the learned professor 
 of the history of religions at our College de France (Paris), or Baron de 
 Shickler, the generous president of our " Societe d'Histoire du Protestant- 
 isme Francais." Unhappily they were prevented from coming here, and 
 therefore I ought to speak—not as a delegate of the French Government, or 
 of such a one or such another church— but as a Christian Frenchman and 
 a liberal Protestant. 
 
 I consider it as my first duty to this Columbus Hall to say to you 
 American friends, "Hail, Columbia! Hail, the land of George Washington 
 and Abraham Lincoln! The glorious country in the New World, which 
 was the first cradle of liberty for men of every religion, of every nation, of 
 every color! Hail to the land of Channing and Longfellow, of Emerson and 
 Parker, of Fulton and Graham Bell, those heralds of poetical and Christian
 
 58 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 ideals We. republican and Protestant Frenchmen, are much obliged to 
 them all, not only as business men, but as Christians. It was from those 
 heaven-born heroes, from those spiritual prophets that our great citizens, 
 Lafavette, Mirabeau, Tocqueville, and Laboulaye, Ath. Coquerel, Sr., 
 and Revilie, have taken example to introduce in France the capital prin- 
 ciples of self-government, of religious liberty, and of ecclesiastical tolera- 
 
 But the repubUc of the United States has not degenerated from its 
 illustrious founders; it is a fertile ground, unceasingly bringing forth 
 new inventions or pregnant ideas. I ought afterward to pay to the organiz- 
 ing committee of this Parliament of Religions a tribute of admiration for its 
 colossal efforts and to present it my heartiest wishes for its success. It is, 
 indeed, the first time since the days of the conqueror Akbar, who reigned 
 in East India at the end of the 26th century, that an attempt is made to 
 brino- the representative men of the various, and, alas ! often adverse relig- 
 ions'^of mankind into a pacific intercourse. The great Mongol emperor 
 had proclaimed full toleration of all religions among his numerous sub- 
 jects, and. consequently, he ordered to be built near his palace in Agra a 
 splendid hall, with large rooms, w^here Brahmins, rabbis, and court mission- 
 aries found opportunities of debating with each other on religious matters. 
 
 There is also at Paris a similar institution in our religious branch of the 
 " Ecole fratique 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 Buddhist scholars commenting on the 
 sacred books of old India and Egypt, Greece and Palestine, or telliog the 
 history of the various branches of the Christian Church. 
 
 Well now, gentlemen, you have resumed the same woik 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 Phoenix springing again from its ashes, representa- 
 tive 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 France and 
 my best wishes for your success. May God, the Almighty Father, help you 
 in your noble undertaking. May He give us all His 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 He 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 eye! 
 
 FROM AUSTRALASIA, 
 
 ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD OF NEW ZEALAND. 
 
 I am glad, indeed, that it has been announced to you that I shall 
 address you in only a few words, for we have been here so long, we have 
 been listening to such strains of eloquence, we have had our minds so 
 enlarged by the presence of this multitude and the varied representatives- 
 of the races and colors of mankind, that it would be impossible for me at 
 this stage of the proceedings to detain you for any great length of time. 
 However, as your honorable president has had the kindness to say, I have 
 at least one merit, that of having come from afar. I have also another 
 merit: I have the honor of representing the newest phase of civilization 
 of the Anglo-Saxon race and the English speaking people.
 
 FROM AUSTRALASIA. 59 
 
 I represent Australia, a country divided into various colonies, governing 
 themselves with wonderful freedom, and, I may say without boasting, 
 making rapid advances on the way to true civilization. I deem it a very 
 great honor and privilege to be present on such an occasion as this in an 
 assembly that begins as it were on a new era for mankind — an era, I 
 believe, of real brotherly love. It is a sad spectacle, when the mind ranges 
 over a whole universe, to see that multitude of 1,200,000,000 of human 
 beings created by the same God, destined to the same happiness, and yet 
 divided by various barriers; to see that instead of love prevailing from 
 nation to nation, there are barriers of hatred dividing them. I believe an 
 occasion like this is the strongest possible means of removing forever such 
 barriers. 
 
 I stand here as the representative of that distant land, of that noble old 
 church founded by God from the beginning ; for, as one of the holy fathers 
 said, the beginning of all things is the holy Catholic Church. We go back 
 to Christ, her founder ; to Christ, foretold thousands of years before he 
 came. There she stands as a landmark in history. In her teaching there 
 is an event which the human race shall never forget — that the Godhead 
 took up our human nature to so elevate and unite it with the divine nature, 
 whence began a brotherhood of man never dreamed of by merely human 
 beings. 
 
 Now we can walk the earth and say truly we are the brothers of God. 
 Indeed, in the whole of creation is the brotherhood of God known. It is 
 known in the soul representing the spiritual creation, in the body repre- 
 senting the material creation, for man's body is an epitome of the material 
 universe. Is it indeed that God glorified and deified the whole of creation 
 in that act, so that now the very mountains, trees, rocks, and plants can be 
 saluted not only as his creation but as Christ's brother ? These are the 
 great ideas that underlie Christianity fully understood. We are to remove, 
 in this 19th century, the barriers of hatred that prevent men from listen- 
 ing to the truth contained in all religions. 
 
 In all religions there is a vast element of truth, otherwise they would 
 have no cohesion. They all have something respectable about them, they 
 all have vast elements of truth ; and the first thing for men, to respect 
 themselves and to take away the barriers of hatred, is to see what is noble in 
 their respective beliefs, and to respect each other for the knowledge of the 
 truth contained therein. 
 
 Therefore I think that this Parliament of Religions, will promote the gr eat 
 brotherhood of mankind, and in order to promote that brotherhood it will 
 promote the expansion of truth. I do not pretend as a Catholic to have the 
 whole truth or to be able to solve all the problems of the human mind. I 
 can appreciate love and esteem and any element of truth found outside of 
 that great body of truth. Some men have said we are the lovers of truth, 
 we are the seekers of truth, we are the philosophers of truth, but Christ 
 had the divine audacity to say, " I am the truth." Wherever there is 
 truth there is something worthy the respect not only of man but of 
 God, the god-man, the incarnate God. Therefore, in order to sweep away 
 the Ijarriers of hatred that exist in the world, we must respect the elements 
 of truth contained in all religions, and we must respect also the elements of 
 morality contained in all religions. 
 
 Man is an intelligent being and therefore he requires to know truth. 
 He is also a moral being that is bound to live up to that truth and is bound 
 to use his will and liberty in accordance with truth. He is bound to be a 
 righteous being. We find in all religions a number of truths that are the 
 foundation, the bed-rock of all morality, and we see them in the various 
 religions throughout the world, and we can surely, without sacrificing one 
 point of Catholic morality or of truth, admire those truths revealed in some . 
 manner by God.
 
 60 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Man is not only a mortal being, but a social being. Now the condition 
 to make him happy and prosperous as a social being, to make him pro- 
 gress 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, through- 
 out 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 thechurch 
 of Australasia that has made such a marvelous progress in our day, that we 
 hope God will speed that day. 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 brotherhoods, and sisterhoods teaching schools in the most practical 
 manner. The last council of the church held in Sydney sent her greeting 
 to the church in America, and the church in America was seized by sur- 
 prise and 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. 
 
 GOOD WISHES OF CEYLON. 
 
 H. DHARMAPALA OF CEYLON. 
 
 Friends: I bring to you the good wishes of 475,000,000 of Buddhists, 
 the blessings and peace of the religious founder of that system which has 
 prevailed so many centuries in Asia, which has made Asia mild, and which 
 is to-day in its twenty-fourth century of existence, the prevailing religion of 
 the country. I have sacrificed the greatest of all work to attend this par- 
 liament, i have left the work of consolidation — an important work which 
 we have begun after 700 years — the work of consolidating the different 
 Buddhist countries, which is the most important work in the history of 
 modern Buddhism. When I read the programme of this Parlit.ment 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 
 Patma of 1,000 scholars, which was in session for seven months. The pro- 
 ceedings 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 dis- 
 ciples of Buddha, in the garb that yovi 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 beauti- 
 ful isles, the empire of the rising sun; and the influence of that congress 
 held twenty-one centuries ago is to-day a living power, because you every- 
 where see mildness in Asia. 
 
 Go to any Buddhist country and where do you find such healthy com- 
 passion and tolerance as you find there? Go to Japan, and what do you 
 see? The noblest lessons of tolerance and gentleness. Go to any of the 
 Buddhist countries and you will see the carrying out of the programme 
 adopted at the congress called by the Emperor Asoka. 
 
 Why do I come here to-day? Because I find in this new city, in this 
 land of freedom the very place where that programme can also be carried 
 out. For one year I meditated whether this parliament would be a success. 
 Then I wrote to Dr. Barrov/s that this would be the proudest occasion of 
 modern history, and the crowning work of nineteen centuries. Yes, friends, 
 if you are serious, if you are unselfish, if you are altruistic, this programme
 
 DR. CARL VON BERGEN 
 Of Stockholm, Sweden.
 
 I
 
 SWEDEN FOR CHRIST. 61 
 
 can be carried out, and the 20th century will see the teachings of the meek 
 and lowly Jesus accomplished. 
 
 I hope in this great city, the youngest of all cities but the greatest of all 
 cities, this programme will be carried out, and that the name of Dr. Barrows 
 will shine forth as the American Asoka. And T hope that the noble lessons 
 of tolerance, learned in this majestic assembly, will result in the dawning 
 of universal peace, which will last for twenty centuries more 
 
 A recess was then taken until 2:30 o'clock. 
 
 SWEDEN FOR CHRIST. 
 
 DR. GAEL VON BERGEN OF STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. 
 
 There is at present, and has existed during a long time in the past, a 
 bond of mental, spiritual affinity between tlie leaders of religious thought 
 in Sweden and the United States of America. Those grand and glorious 
 principles, which are, so to say, the foundation-stones upon which this 
 great international congress hopes to build the temple of religious truth 
 for the everlasting benefit of coming generations, have been — every one of 
 them — enunciated and proclaimed to the multitude long ago by world- 
 famous seers and sages in Sweden. They are, in our days, the war-cry of 
 those " worshipers of God and lovers of human progress " (to use the words 
 of our respected President, Mr. Bonney) in Sweden, who do battle, with 
 unrelenting energy, against an earth-bound, superficial, grossly unscientific 
 atheism and materialism, which makes itself sometimes the mouthpiece of 
 a teaching of immorality most vile and pernicious. 
 
 The speaker quoted from the printed programme of the Parliament of 
 Religions several of the principles, to which he referred — religious freedom, 
 universal brotherhood of man, tolerance, unity of God, Christ as the 
 Savior of mankind— and he showed by quotations from great Swedish 
 scientists, philosophers, historians, and poets, that all those lofty ideas have 
 been and are the watchwords of the leaders and representative men in his 
 own country. The heroes of Swedish science and literature — men such as 
 the immortal Linnajus, Swedenborg, Berzelius, Agardh, Geijer, Tegner, 
 Wallin, Bostrom, Viktor Rydberg, and many others — have all joined in the 
 strain that was struck on the lyre of the grand bard of modern England, 
 Alfred Tennyson: 
 
 Ring out the darkness of the land. 
 Ring in the Christ that is to be ! 
 
 "In this sign you will conquer!" Such is the conviction of the truly 
 great ones and the best in Sweden as well as in America. 
 
 WORD FROM BOMBAY. 
 
 Vichand A. Gandhi, a lawyer of Bombay, and one of the 
 chief exponents of Jain religion of that oriental country : 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I will not trouble you with a 
 long speech. I, like my respected friends, Mr. Mozoomdar and others, 
 come from India, the mother of religions. I represent Jainism, a faith
 
 62 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 older than Buddhism, similar to it in its ethics, but different from it in its 
 psychology, and professed by 1,500,000 of India's most peaceful and law- 
 abiding citizens. You have heard so many speeches from eloquent mem- 
 bers, and as I shall speak later on at some length, I will therefore, at present, 
 only offer, on behalf of my community and their high priest, Moni Atma 
 Ranji, whom I especially represent here, our sincere thanks for the kind 
 welcome you have given us. This spectacle of the learned leaders of 
 thought and religion meeting together on a common platform, and throwing 
 light on religious problems, has been the dream of Atma Ranji's life. 
 He has commissioned me to say to you that he offers his most cordial con- 
 gratulations 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. 
 
 GEEETING FROM OLD ARMENIA. 
 
 In introducing Professor Minas Sclierez, editor of an Arme- 
 nian newspaper published in London, Dr. Barrows appropri- 
 ately referred to the fact that Armenia is supposed to have been 
 the cradle of the race, and that, according to the Biblical story, 
 the ark, after the flood, rested on Mount Ararat, in Armenia. 
 He paid a tribute to the noble traits exhibited by the old Arme- 
 nian Christian nation when suffering under persecution. 
 
 Salutations to the New World, in the name of Armenia, the oldest coun- 
 try of the Old World. Salutations to the American people, in the name of 
 Armenia, which has been twice the cradle of the human race. Salutations 
 to the Parliament of Religions, in the name of Armenia, where the religious 
 feeling first blossomed in the enraptured heart of Adam. Salutations to 
 every one of you, brothers and sisters, in the name of the Tigris and the 
 Euphrates, which watered the Garden of Eden; in the name of the majes- 
 tic Ararat, which was crowned by the ark of Noah; in the name of a 
 church which was almost contemporary with Christ. 
 
 A pious thought animated Christopher Cohunbus when he directed the 
 prow of his ship toward this land of his dreams: To convert the natives 
 to the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. A still more pious thought 
 animates you now, noble Americans, because you try to convert the whole 
 of humanity 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 
 foundation of the temple of peace and concord. 
 
 At the beginning of our sittings, allow the humble representatives of 
 the Armenian people to invoke the divine benediction on our labors, in the 
 very language of his fellow-countrymen: Zkorzs tserats merots oogheegh 
 ora i mez, Der, yev zkorzs tserats merots achoghia mez. 
 
 SEES SPIRIT AND MATTER. 
 
 PROFESSOR C. N. CHAKRAVARRTI, A THEOSOPHIST FROM INDIA. 
 
 I came here to represent a religion, the dawn of which appeared in a 
 misty antiquity which the powerful microscope of modern research has 
 not yet been able to discover; the depth of whose 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 
 
 I
 
 SEES SPIRIT AND MATTER. 63 
 
 the two sister streams which join at the town from which I came, Allaha- 
 bad, 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 Parlia- 
 ment of Religions; when I think that, in the heart of the World's Pair, 
 where abound all the excellencies of the physical world, you have provided 
 also a hall for the feast of reason and the flow of soul, I am once more 
 reminded of my native land. 
 
 " Why ? Because here, even here, I find the same two sister streams of 
 spirit and matter, of the intellect and physicality, joining hand and hand, 
 representing the symbolical evolution of the universe. I need hardly tell 
 you that, in holding this Parliament of Religions, where all the religions of 
 the world are to be 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 religions of the world. In allowing men of different 
 shades of religious opinion, and holding different views as to philosophical 
 and metaphysical 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 I have come to represent to-day. The 
 fundamental principle of that society is universal tolerance; its cardinal 
 belief that, underneath the superficial strata, runs the living water of truth. 
 
 I have always felt that between India and America there was a closer 
 bond of union in the times gone by, and I do think it is probable that there 
 may be a subtler reason for the identity of our names than either the 
 theory of Johnson or the mistake of Columbvis can account for. It is true 
 that I belong to a religion which is now decrepit with age, and that you 
 belong to a race in the first flutter of life, bristling with energy. And yet 
 you can not be surprised at the sympathy between us, because you must 
 have observed the secret union that sometimes exists between age and 
 childhood. 
 
 It is true that in the East we have b?en accustomed to look toward some- 
 thing which is beyond matter. We ha /e been taught for ages after ages, 
 and centuries after centuries, to turn our gaze inward toward realms that 
 are not those which are reached by the help of the jjliysical senses. This 
 fact has given rise to the various schools of philosophy that exist to-day in 
 India, exciting the wonder and admiration, not only of the dead East, but 
 of the living and rising West. We have in India, even to this day, thou- 
 sands of people who give up as trash, as nothing, all the material comforts 
 and luxuries of life with the hope, with the realization, that, great as the 
 physical body may be, there is something greater within man, underneath 
 the universe, that is to be longed for and striven after. 
 
 In the West you have evolved such a stupendous energy on the physical 
 plane, such unparalleled vigor on the intellectual plane, that it strikes any 
 stranger landing on your shores with a strange amazement. And yet I can 
 read, even in this atmosphere of material progress, I can discern beneath 
 this thickness of material luxury a secret and mystic aspiration to some- 
 thing spiritual. 
 
 I can see that even you are getting tired of your steam, of your elec- 
 tricity, and the thousand different material comforts that follov/ these two 
 great powers. I can see that there is a feeling of despondency coming even 
 here — that matter, pursued however vigorously, can be only to the death 
 of all. and it is only through the clear atmosphere of spirituality that you 
 can mount up to the regions of peace and harmony. In the West, there- 
 fore, you have developed this material tendency. In the East we have 
 developed a great deal of the spiritual tendency, but even in this West, as 
 I travel from place to place, from New York to Cincinnati, and from Ciu-
 
 64 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 cinnati to Chicapfo, I have observed an ever increasing readiness of people 
 to assimilate spiritual ideas, regardless of the source from which they ema- 
 nate. This, ladies and gentlemen, I consider a most significant sign of the 
 future, because through this and through the mists of prejudice that still 
 hang on the horizon will be consummated the great event of the future, 
 the union of the East and of the West. 
 
 The East enjoys the sacred satisfaction of having given birth to all the 
 great religious of the world, and even as the physical sun rises ever from 
 the East, the sun of spirituality has always dawned in the East. To the 
 West Ijelongs the proud privilege of having advanced on the intellectual 
 and on the moral plane, and of having supplied to the world all thf^ various 
 contrivances of material luxuries and of physical comfort. I looii, there- 
 fore, upon a union of the East and West as a most signifieant event, and I 
 look with great hope upon the day when the East and the West will be like 
 brothers helping each other, each supplying to the other what it wants — 
 the West supplying the vigor, the youth, the power of organization, and the 
 Bast opening up its inestimable treasures of a spiritual law and which are 
 now locked up in the treasure boxes grown rusty with age. 
 
 And I think that this day, with the sitting of the Parliament of Relig- 
 ions, we begin the work of building up a perennial fountain from which 
 will flow for the next century waters of life and light and of peace, slaKing 
 the thirst of the thousands of millions that are to come after us. 
 
 MOST ANCIENT ORDER OF MONKS. 
 
 SWAMI VIVEKANANDA OF BOMBAY, INDIA. 
 
 When Mr. Vivekananda had addressed the audience as 
 " Sisters and Brothers of America," there arose a peal of 
 applause that lasted for several minutes. He spoke as follows: 
 
 It fills my heart with joy unspeakeable 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 that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of 
 bearing to the different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong 
 to a religion which has taught the v/orld both tolerance and universal 
 acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all 
 religions to be true. I am proud to tell you that I belong to a religion into 
 whose sacred language, the Sanscrit, the word seclusion is untranslatable. 
 I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and 
 the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to 
 tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the 
 Israelites, a remnant which came to southern India and took refuge with 
 us in the very year in which their holy temple was 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 remember to have 
 repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is e^sry 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 different tendencies, various though they 
 appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."
 
 CANADA AS A LINK IN THE EMPIRE. 65 
 
 The present convention, which is one of the most august assembhes ever 
 held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful 
 doctrine preached in Gita. " Whosoever comes to me, through whatsoever 
 form I reach him, they are all struggling through paths that in the end 
 always lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, 
 fanaticism, have possessed long this beautiful earth. It has tilled the earth 
 with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civ- 
 ilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for this horri- 
 ble demon, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But 
 its time has come, and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morn- 
 ing in honor of this convention will be the death-knell to all fanaticism, to 
 all persecutions with the sword or the pen, and to all uncharitable feelings 
 between persons wending their way to the same goal. 
 
 CANADA AS A LINK IN THE EMPIRE. 
 
 PEINCIPAL GRANT OF CANADA. 
 
 The dream that allured hardy navigators for many years was the sup- 
 posed existence of a northwest passage by land. But in our day it has been 
 found that great :iorthwest passage is not by sea, but by land. We 
 have discovered that the shortest way from the Old World to the world of 
 Japan and China is across Canada. So Canada feels herself now to be the 
 link between old Europe and the older East, and the link between the 
 three great self-governing parts of the British Empire. 
 
 How is it possible for a people so situated to be parochial? How is it 
 possible for them not to meet in a genial waylhe representatives of other 
 religions? It is very impossible, because across our broad lands millions 
 are coming and going from east to west, mingling with us, and we are 
 obliged to meet them as man should always meet man. Not only this, but 
 on that great new ocean which is to be the arena of the future commerce 
 of the world — on that our sons are showing that they intend to play an 
 important part. Their position as the fourth maritime nation of the world 
 as regards ocean tonnage, shows the aptitude of our people for foreign 
 trade, and as sailors owning the ships they sail in they are more likely than 
 any others to learn the lesson that the life of the world is one, that truth 
 is one, that all men are brothers, and that the service of humanity is the 
 most acceptable form of religion to God. 
 
 And therefore we feel that we have a sort of right to join with you in 
 this matter of extending a welcome to those from different nations, whose 
 faiths are different, but whose spiritual natures are the same, in whom 
 dwelleth that true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world. Our place in history gives us a still more undoubted right to come 
 here and to take our place in a friendly way beside the representatives of 
 other religions. 
 
 Our racial, political, and religious evolution bids us do that. Our racial 
 evolution your own Parkman has described to you in pages glownng with 
 purple light. He has told you of the two centuries of conflict between 
 France and Britain for the possession of this fair young continent, and he 
 has told you that, while outward failure was the part of the former, all the 
 heroism and enduring successes were not with the conquerors. France 
 gave, without stint, the greatest explorers, whose names are sown all over 
 this continent thick as seeds in a field— martyrs and missionaries of death- 
 less fame, saintly, whose works still follow them. In Canada the seeds 
 sprang from good soil, and we see its permanent memorial now in a noble, 
 fresh Canadian people, enjoying their own language, laws, and institutions,
 
 66 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 under a flag that is identified with their liberties, and under a constitution 
 that they and their fathers have helped to hammer out. Their children sit 
 side by side in our federal parliament with the children of their ancestral 
 foes, and the only real contest between them is which shall serve Canada 
 best. The union of the two races and languages was needed to enable 
 England to do her imperial work. Will not the same union enable Canada 
 to do a like work, and does it not force us to see good even in those that 
 our ancestors thought enemies? 
 
 Our political evolution has had the %ame lesson for us. It has taught 
 us to borrow ideas with equal impartiality from sources apparently oppo- 
 site. We have borrowed the federal idea from you; the parliament, the 
 cabinet, the judicial system from Britain, and, uniting both, we think we 
 have found a constitution better than that which either the mother coun- 
 try or the older daughter enjoys. At any rate we made it ourselves and it 
 fits us; and this very political evolution has taught us that ideas belong to 
 no one country, that they are the common property of mankind, and so we 
 act together, trying to borrow new ideas from every country that has 
 found by experiment that the ideas will work well. 
 
 Our religious evolution has taught us the same thing. And so we have 
 been enabled to accomplish a measure of religious unification greater than 
 either the mother land or the United States. Eighteen years ago, for in- 
 stance, all the Presbyterian denominations united into one church in the 
 Dominion of Canada. Immediately thereafter all the Methodist churches 
 took the same step, and now all the Protestant churches have appointed 
 committees to see whether it is not possible to have a larger union, and all 
 the young life of Canada says " Amen " to the proposal. 
 
 Now it is easy for a people with such an environment to understand that 
 where men differ they must be in error, that truth is that which unites, 
 that every age has its problems to solve, that it is the glory of the human 
 mind to solve them, and that no church has a monopoly of the truth or of 
 the spirit of the living God. 
 
 It seems to me that we should begin this Parliament of Religions, not 
 with a consciousness that we are doing a great thing, but with an humble 
 and lowly confession of sin and failure. Why have not the inhabitants of 
 the world fallen before truth? The fault is ours. The Apostle Paul, look- 
 ing back on centuries of marvelous God-guided history, saw as the key to 
 all its maxims this: That Jehovah had stretched out his hands all day long 
 to a disobedient and gainsaying people; that although there was always a 
 remnant of the righteousness, Israel as a nation did not understand Jehovah 
 and therefore failed to understand her own marvelous mission. 
 
 If St. Paul were here to-day w'ould he not utter the same sad confession 
 with regard to the 19th century, of Christendom. Would he not have 
 to say that we have been proud of our Christianity instead of allowing 
 our Christianity to humble and crucify us; that we have boasted of Chris- 
 tianity as something we possessed instead of allowing it to possess us; that 
 we have divorced it from the moral and spiritual order of the world instead 
 of seeing that it is that which interpenetrates, interprets, completes, and 
 verifies that order, and that so we have hidden its glories and obscured its . 
 power. All day long our Savior has been saying, " I have stretched out my 
 hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people." 
 
 But, sir, the only one indispensable condition of success is that we recog- 
 nize the cause of our failure, that we confess it with humble, lowly, peni- 
 tent and obedient minds, and that with quenchless Western courage and 
 faith we now go forth and do otherwise. 
 
 I
 
 CONVERTED PARSES WOMAN OF BOMBAY. 67 
 
 CONVERTED PARSEE WOMAN OF BOMBAY. 
 
 MISS JEANNIE SAEAJBJI, OF BOMBAY, INTRODUCED AS A REPRE- 
 SENTATIVE OF THE PARSEES. 
 
 Dr. Barrows just told you that I belonged to the order of Parsee. He is 
 correct in one way and not in anotiier. My people were fire worshipers, 
 but I am not now. Before I go on further, I wish to thank all those who 
 have extended their welcome to us. This morning as I looked around and 
 saw the many faces that greeted a welcome, I felt indeed that it was the 
 best day I have seen in Chicago. I have been here for some time, and I 
 have asked the question over and over again : Where is religious America 
 to be found — Christian America ? To-day I see it all around me. You have 
 given me a welcome. I will give you a greeting from my country. When 
 we meet one another in our land, the first thing we say to each other is 
 "Peace be with you." I say it to you to-day in all sincerity, in all love. I 
 feel to-day that the great banner over us is the banner of love. I feel to-day 
 more than ever that it is beautiful to belong to the family of God, to 
 acknowledge the Lord Christ. 
 
 My father, at the age of eighteen, was brought to the knowledge of 
 Christ by the light of an English missionary. He gave up friends and 
 countrymen, rank and wealth and money to be a disciple of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; and I tell you, friends, that it is a great privilege and a great 
 honor to be able to stand here and say to you that I love that Lord Christ, 
 and I will stand by him and under his banner until the end of my life. 
 
 I would close with one little message from my countrywomen. When 
 I was leaving the shores of Bombay the women of my country wanted to 
 know where I was going, and I told them I wasgoing to America on a visit. 
 They asked me whether I would be at this congress. I thought then I 
 would only come in as one of the audience, but I have the great privilege 
 and honor given to me to stand here and speak to you, and I give you the 
 message as it was given to me. The Christian women of my land said: 
 " Give the women of America our love and tell them that we love Jesus, 
 and that we shall always pray that our countrywomen may do the same. 
 Tell the women of America that we are fast being educated. We shall one 
 day be able to stand by them and converse with them and be able to delight 
 in all they delight in." 
 
 And so I have a message from each one of my countrywomen, and once 
 more I will just say that I haven't words enough in which to thank you for the 
 welcome you have given to all those who have come here from the East. 
 When I came here this morning and saw my countrymen my heart was 
 warmed, and I thought I would never feel homesick again, and I feel to-day 
 as if I were at home. Seeing your kindly faces has turned away the 
 heartache. 
 
 We are all under that one banner, love. In the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ I thank you. You will hear possibly the words in his own voice 
 saying unto you, " Inasmuch as ye h.ave done it unto the least of these, my 
 brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
 
 Bombay's second message, b. b. nargarkar of Bombay. 
 
 Brothers and Sisters in the Western Home : It is a great privilege to 
 be able to stand on this noble platform. As the president has already 
 announced to you, I represent the theistic movement in India, known in 
 my native country as the religion of the Brahmo Somaj. I came from the 
 City of Bombay, the first city of the British Empire. It was only five 
 months ago that I left my native land, and to you, the Americans, who 9,re
 
 68 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 so much accustomed to fly, as it were, on wing-s of the atmosphere, it would 
 be a hard task to imagine the difficulties and the troubles that an Oriental 
 meets when he has to bring himself over fourteen thousand miles. The 
 Hindus have been all along confining themselves to the narrow precincts 
 of the Indian continent, and it is only during the last hundred years or so 
 that we have been brought into close contact with Western thought, with 
 English civilization, and by English civilization. I mean the civilization 
 of English speaking nations. 
 
 The Brahmo Somaj is the result, as you know, of the influence of various 
 religions, and the fundamental principles of the Theistic Church, in India, 
 are universal love, harmony of faiths, unity of prophets, or rather unity of 
 prophets and harmony of faiths. The reverence that we pay the other 
 prophets and faiths is not mere lip loyalty, but it is the universal love for all 
 the prophets and for all the forms and shades of truth by their own inher- 
 ent merit. We try not only to learn in an intellectual 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 noblest aspiration 
 of the late Mr. Senn to establish such a religion in the land of 'India, which 
 has been well known as the birth-place of a number of religious faiths. 
 This is a marked characteristic of the East, and especially India, so that 
 India and its outskirts have been glorified by the touch and teachings of the 
 prophets of the world. It is in this way that we live in a spiritual 
 atmosphere. 
 
 Here in the far West you have developed another phase of human life. 
 You have studied outward nature. We in the East have studied the inner 
 nature of man. Mr. Senn, more than twenty years ago, said: " Glory to the 
 name of God in the name of the Parliament of Religions." Parliament of 
 Religions is exactly the expression that he used on that occasion in his 
 exposition of the doctrine of the new dispensation. It simply means the 
 Church of the Brahmo Somaj, Church of India, so that what I wish to 
 express to you is that I feel a peculiar pleasure in being present here on this 
 occasion. It was only two years ago that I heard of the grand scheme that 
 was to be worked out here in the midst of the country of liberty, and I took 
 the fii-st opportunity to put myself in communication with the worthy Dr. 
 Barrows. For a long time I thought I would not be able to come over in 
 the midst of you, but God has brought me safe and I stand in the midst of 
 you. I consider it a great privilege. 
 
 In the East we have a number of systems of philosophy; a deep insight 
 into the spiritual nature of man, but you have at the same time to make an 
 earnest and deep research to choose what is Occidental and what is essential 
 in Indian philosophy. Catch hold very firmly of what is permanent of the 
 Eastern philosophy. Lay it down very strongly to the heart, and try to 
 assimilate it with your noble Western thoughts. You Western nations 
 represent all the material civilization. You who have gone deep into the 
 outward world and tried to discover the forces of outward nature, you have 
 to teach to the East the glory of man's intellect, his logical accuracy, his 
 rational nature, and in this way it is that in the heart of the church of the 
 new dispensation — call it by whatever name you will — you will have the 
 harmony of the East and the West, a union between faith and reason, a 
 wedding between the Orient and the Occident. 
 
 SYMPATHY FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 REV. ALFEED W. MOMERIE, D. D. , OF LONDON. 
 
 Dr. Barrows said that one of the letters he had received in 
 reply to his invitations was from the late Lord Tennyson, and
 
 Sympathy FROM ENGLAND. G9 
 
 thai; it was a letter that gave liim gr3at satisfaction. The Parlia- 
 ment of Religion, he added, has a number of eminent friends in 
 Great Britain, and he believed that if that great and noble man, 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, were here, his frown upon the 
 parliament would not be so severe as he had made it. Dr. 
 Momerie addressed the meeting as follows: 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: One of your humorists, Arte- 
 mus Ward, has said, "I am always happiest when I am silent," and so am I, 
 friends. I shall not trespass on your attention more than two minutes. 
 But there are three things which I feel I must say. First, I must tender 
 my most sincere thanks to you for the honor which you have done me in in- 
 viting me to come here, and also for the many words and deeds of welcome 
 with which I have been greeted ever since I came. Secondly, I feel bound 
 to say that there is one thing which, to me personally, casts a gloom over 
 the brightness of the day, and that is the absence of my own archbishop. I 
 am always bound to speak with all respect of my ecclesiastical superior, and 
 personally, I have the highest regard for him. He has been very kind to 
 me; I may almost venture to call him a friend, but that makes me all the 
 more sad that he is absent on this occasion. But, as the chairman has just 
 told you, you must not therefore think that the Church of England, as a 
 whole, is out of sympathy with you. One of the greatest and best men the 
 Church of England has ever had, the late Dean of Westminster, would, if 
 he were alive to-day, have been with us, and I believe, too, he would have 
 succeeded in bringing with him the Archbishop of Canterbury, also many 
 men like Arnold, of Rugby; Frederick Robinson, of Brighton; Frederick 
 Morris, who was one of my predecessors at King's College. 
 
 All these men would have been here, and further, I know for a fact, 
 from my own personal experience, that a very large number of the English 
 clergy, and a still larger number of English laity, are in sympathy with 
 your congress to-day. So that in spite of the fact that the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury is away, it still remains true that all the churches of the world 
 are in sympathy with you and taking part in the congress this week. 
 
 Then the third, the last thing which I wish to state, is that I feel, and 
 shall always feel, the profoundest thanks to the president. Dr. Barrows, 
 and for all who have helped him in bringing about this great and glorious 
 result. Of all the studies of the present day, the most serious, interesting, 
 and important is the study of comparative religion, and I believe that this 
 object lesson, which it is the glory of America to have provided for the 
 world, will do far more than any private study in the seclusion of the student's 
 own home. The report of our proceedings, which will be telegraphed all 
 over the world, will help men by thousands and tens of thousands and hun- 
 dreds of thousands to realize the truth of those grand old Bible words that 
 God has never left himself without witness. It can not be — I say it can not 
 be — that thatnew commandment was inspired when uttered by Christ, and 
 was not inspired when uttered, as it was uttered, by Confucius and by 
 Hillial. 
 
 The fact is, all religions are fundamentally more or less true, and all reli- 
 gions are superficially more or less false. And I suspect that the creed of 
 the universal religion, the religion of the future, will be summed up pretty 
 much in the words of Tennyson — words which were quoted in that magnifi- 
 cent address which thrilled us this morning: "The whole world is every- 
 where bour'^ bv gold chains about the feet of God."
 
 70 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 IN BEHALF OF AFRICA. 
 
 BISHOP ARNETT, OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Through the partiality of the committee of arrangements, I am put in a 
 very peculiar position this afternoon. I am to respond to the addresses of 
 welcome on behalf of Africa. I am to represent on the one side the Afri- 
 cans in Africa, and on the other side the Africans in America. I am also, 
 by the chairman, announced to give color to this vast Parliament of 
 Religions. Now, I think it is very well colored myself, and, if I have any 
 eyesf I think the color is in the majority this time, anyhow. 
 
 But Africa needs a voice. Africa has been welcomed, and it is so 
 peculiar a thing for an African to be welcomed, that I congratulate myself 
 that I have been welcomed here to-day. In responding to the addresses of 
 welcome I will, in the first place, respond for the Africans in Africa, and 
 accept your welcome on behalf of the African 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, I am one of those who has not lost faith in the 
 possibilities of a redemption of Africa. I believe in providence and in 
 the prophesies of God that Ethiopia yet shall stretch forth her hand unto 
 God, and, although to-day 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. 
 
 But 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 yjlease God, He may raise up not 
 a Washington, but another Toussaint L'Ouverture, 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 
 temijerance, 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 the 
 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 rep- 
 resentatives of the different religions of the world. We meet you on the 
 height of this Parliament of Religions and the first gathering of the peoples 
 since the time of Noah, when Shem, Ham, and Japhet met together. I 
 greet the children of Shem, I greet the children of Japhet, and I want you 
 to understand that Ham is here. 
 
 I thank you that I have been chosen as the representative of the 
 negro race in this great parliament. I thank those representatives that 
 have come so far to meet, and to greet us of the colored race. A gentleman 
 said to-day in this meeting that he had traveled 14,000 miles to get here. 
 " Why," said I to myself, " that is a wonderful distance to come to meet 
 me. I wonder if I would go that far to meet him." Yes, he says he came 
 14,000 miles to meet us here, and "us" in this case means me, too. There- 
 fore I welcome these brethren to the shores of America on behalf of 7,400,- 
 000 negroes on this continent, who, by the providence of God, and the
 
 IN BEHALF OF AFRICA. 71 
 
 power of the religion of Jesus Christ, have been liberated from slavery. 
 There is not a slave among us to-day, and we are glad you did not come 
 while we were in chains, because, in that case, we could not have got here 
 ourselves. 
 
 Mr. President, we thank you for this honor. God had you born just at 
 the right time. We come last on the programme, but I want everybody to 
 know, that although last, we 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 the 
 coming civilization: " God our father, Christ our redeemer, and mankind 
 our brother."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SECOND DAY, SEPTEMBER 12th. 
 
 EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 
 
 The proceedings of the Parliament of Religions on the sec- 
 ond day, were as impressive and instructive as on the first. 
 The appearance of the platform at the opening exercises was 
 somewhat modified by the absence of some representatives and 
 the presence of others. In the midst of the picturesque attire of 
 the East there were discerned Jewish rabbis and the venerable 
 form of Frederick Douglass. Arrangements were made for 
 review sessions and devotional meetings to be held daily in con- 
 nection with the parliament. At the review sessions in lesser 
 halls, a leading divine, when asked, explained the difficult points 
 in the proceedings of the previous day and answered any ques- 
 tions asked by seekers of information. For the purpose of these 
 reviews, halls were offered to all denominations that wished 
 them. The first review meeting was conducted by Bishop Keane, 
 of the Roman Catholic Church, The devotional meetings, held 
 in the Hall of Columbus, were in charge of the Brotherhood of 
 Christian Unity, and began at nine o'clock in the morning. 
 They were conducted by leaders of difi'erent faiths, both Chris- 
 tian and non-Christian, and everybody attending the parlia- 
 ment was welcome from day to day. 
 
 The great hall was thronged with auditors when President 
 Bonney, at ten o'clock, called upon the vast audience to rise 
 and silently invoke the blessing of God. A hush fell upon the 
 great assemblage, while the representatives of many nations 
 sent up a silent petition to the Eternal Father 
 
 72
 
 THE INFINITE BEING, 73 
 
 The stillness of a few moments was broken by the closing 
 word, " Amen," pronounced by Mr. Bonney. Following this, 
 while the assembly remained standing, Dr. Barrows led in the 
 Lord's Prayer, known in the parliament as the " universal 
 prayer." 
 
 Dr. John Henry Barrows, having been placed in charge of 
 the parliament, designated a chairman for the day, and in intro- 
 ducing him, said: " I have been very much cheered in the 
 work of preparing for this parliament by the friendly words of 
 distinguished men of my own church in this country, and 
 among them I cherish none in higher regard than Rev. S. J. 
 Niccolls, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of St. 
 Louis. He will take charge of our session this morning and 
 make an introductory address." 
 
 THE INFINITE BEING. 
 
 REV. S. J. NICCOLLS, PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN 
 CHURCH OF ST. LOUIS. 
 
 Members of the Parliaviejit, Sons of a Common Heavenly Father, 
 and Brothers in a Common Humanity, it is with special pleasure that I 
 assume the task now assigned to me. Happiiy for me at least it involves no 
 serious labor, and it requires no greatei* wisdom than to mention the names 
 of the speakers and the subjects placed upon the programme for to-day. And 
 yet when I mention the name of the subject that is to invite our consider- 
 ation to-day I place before you the most momentous theme that ever engaged 
 human thought — the sublimest of all facts, the greatest of all thoughts, the 
 most wonderful of all realities; and yet when I mention the name it points not 
 to a law, not to a principle, not to the explanation of a phenomenon, but it 
 points us to a living person. 
 
 The human mind, taught and trained by 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 sun of all joys, of all glory, of all greatness; known 
 yet unknown, revealed yet not revealed, far off from us yet nigh to us; for 
 whom all men feel if happily they might find him; for whom all the 
 wants of this wondrous nature of ours go out in extinguishable longing; 
 one with whom we all have to do and from whose dominion we can 
 never escape. If such be the subject that we are to consider to-day, surely 
 it becomes us to undertake it in a spirit of reverence and of humility. We 
 can not 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 the self- 
 sufficient; he reveals himself to the weak, the lowly, and the humble in
 
 74 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 heart. It is rather with the heart that we shall find him than by measur- 
 ing him merely with our feeble intellects. To-day, as always, the heart 
 will make the theologian. 
 
 Perhaps some one may say: "After so long a period in human history 
 why should we come to consider the existence of God? Is the fact so 
 obscure that it must take long centuries to prove it? Has He so hidden 
 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 simply a 
 fact of history, if He were simply a phenomenon in the past, then once 
 found out or once discovered it would remain for all time. But since He is 
 a person each age must know and find it for himself; each generation must 
 come to know and 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 iiiust find Him in our age and in our day, to know how He fills our 
 iives 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 must find 
 God and unite in our beliefs. We could uot afl'ord to begin the discussions 
 of a religious parliament without placing this great truth in the fore- 
 ground. A parliament of religious belief without the recognition of the 
 living God — that were impossible. Religion without a God is only the 
 shadow of a shade; only a mockery that rises up in the human soul. 
 
 After all, we can form no true conception of ourselves or of man's great- 
 ness without God. The greatness of human nature depends upon its con- 
 ception 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. 
 
 No man can ever find content in his own 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 God, which passeth understanding, 
 comes down into his heart. There are many reasons, therefore, why we 
 should begin to-day with the study of Him who holds all knowledge and all 
 wisdom. If there is a God or a Creator, a Lord of all things, beginning of 
 all things and end of all things, for 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. 
 
 But utter that simple name and straightway there comes gathering 
 around it the clustering of glorious words shining and leaping out of the 
 darkness until they blaze like a galaxy of glory in the heavens — law, order, 
 justice, love, truth, immortality, righteousness, glory! Blot out that word, 
 and leave in its place simply that other word, "atheism," and then in the 
 surrounding blackness we may see dim shadows of anarchy, lawlessness, 
 despair, agony, distress; and if such words as law and order remain, they 
 are mere echoes of something that has long since passed away. 
 
 We need it, then, first of all, for ourselves, that we may understand the 
 dignity of human nature, that this great truth of God's existence should be 
 brought close to us; we need it for our civilization.
 
 VERY REV. AUGUSTINE F. HEWITT, C. S. P., 
 New York.
 
 RATIONAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE BEING OF GOD. 75 
 
 RATIONAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE BEING OF 
 
 GOD. 
 
 VERY KEY. AUGUSTINE F. HEWITT. C. S. P., OF NEW YOEK. 
 
 The paper was read by Rev. Walton Elliott. "It is to be 
 regretted," remarked Father Elliott, before beginning the paper, 
 " that Father Hewitt, superior of the community of Paulists, 
 of which I am a member, can not be present in person ; as much 
 regretted by himself, I am sure, as by any of us. But it is a 
 privilege that he, whose whole life since he entered the Catholic 
 Church, now within one year of half a century, has been devoted 
 to metaphysical studies, represents the knowledge of God to 
 this distinguished assembly, as known without the light of 
 revelation, as known by evidences entirely apart from the 
 special teaching of God to mankind by revelation." 
 
 An honorable and arduous task has been assigned me. It is to address 
 this numerous and distinguished 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 presented in Catholic philosophy. 
 This is a topic of the highest importance, and of the deepest interest to all 
 who are truly rational, who i:hink, and who desire to know their destiny and 
 to fulfill it. The minds of men always and everywhere, in so far as they 
 have thought at all, have been d-^eply interested in all questions relating to 
 the divine order and its relations to nature and humanity. 
 
 The idea of a divine princi le and power, superior to sensible phenom- 
 etna, 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 those 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 all classes 
 of men differing in creed and opinion who may be represented in this audi- 
 ence, 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 discussing and endeavoring 
 to decide the question whether God does or does not exist. It is to be 
 hoped that many of them regard their skepticism 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 that God does exist and govern 
 a world which he has made. I may, therefore, hope for a welcome recep- 
 tion 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 i^hilosoi^hy is used. It does not denote a system derived from the 
 Christian revelation and imposed by the authority of the Catholic Church; 
 it signifies only that rational scheme which is received and taught in the 
 Catholic schools as a science proceeding from its own proper principles by 
 its own methods, and not a subaltern science to dogmatic theology. It has 
 been adopted in great part from Aristotle and Plato, and does not disdain
 
 76 TEE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 profess philosophy can meet, and where reason is the only 
 authority which can be appealed to as umpire and judge. All who profess 
 to be students of philosophy thereby proclaim their conviction that meta- 
 physics is a true science, by which certain knowledge can be obtained. 
 
 Metaphysics, in its most general sense, is ontology i. e., discourse con- 
 cerning being in its first and universal princijjles. Being, in all its latitude, 
 in its total extension and comprehension, is the adequate object of intellect, 
 taking intellect in its absolute 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 apprehending it. Metaphysics seeks 
 for a knowledge of all things which are within the ken of human faculties, 
 in their deepest causes. It investigates their reason of being, their ulti- 
 mate, efficient, and final causes. The rational argument for the existence 
 of God, guided by the principles of the sufficient reason, and efficient casu- 
 alty, 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 
 proceeds, by analysis and synthesis, by induction from all the first princi- 
 ples possessed by reason, from all the vestiges, reflections, and images of 
 God in the creation, to determine what God is, His essence and its perfec- 
 tions. 
 
 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 
 intelligent 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-existen'ce 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, indi- 
 vidual forms and modes. They are in definite times and places. They have 
 their proper substantial and accidental attributes; they have qualities and 
 relations, active powers, and passive potencies. They do not exist by any 
 necessary reason of being; they have become what they are. They are 
 subject to many changes even in their smallest molecules and in the com- 
 binations and movements of their atoms. This changeableness 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 are in 
 act— that is, have actual being, inasmuch as they have a specific and indi- 
 vidual reality. But they are never, in any one instance, 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 itseh", 
 only possible. Their successive changes of existence are so many move- 
 ments of transition from mere passing potency into act under the impulse 
 of moving principles of force. And their very first act of existence is by a 
 rnotion of transition from mere possibility into actuality. The whole mul- 
 titude of things which become, of events which happen, the total sum of 
 the movements and changes of contingent beings, taken collectively and 
 taken singly, must have a sufficient reason of being in some extrinsic prin- 
 ciple, 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 stupen- 
 
 I
 
 RATIONAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE BEING OF GOD. 77 
 
 dous 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 of 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 affirm by common consent that both the matter and the force 
 are fixed quantities. No force and no matter ever disappears, no new force 
 or new matter ever appears. The nebulous mass, and the motive force 
 acting within it, are definite quantities, having a definite location in space, 
 at definite distances from other nebulte. 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 directions, conden- 
 sation and incandescence take place under fixed laws, and all these 
 movements are co-ordinated and directed to a certain result, viz.: the for- 
 mation of a sun and planets. 
 
 Now, there is nothing in the nature of matter and force which deter- 
 mines 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 hydrogen, 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 begin- 
 ning at the present moment. The marks of contingency are plainly to be 
 discerned in the passive and active elements of the inchoate world as it 
 emerges into the consistency and stable equilibrium of a solar system from 
 primitive chaos. 
 
 Equally obvious is the presence of the determining principle, acting as 
 an irresistible lav/, regulating the transmission of force along definite lines 
 and in a harmonious order. The active forces at work in nature, giving 
 motion to ma iter, only transmit a movement which they have received, they 
 do not originate It makes no difference how far back the series of effects 
 and causes may be traced, natural causes remain always secondary causes, 
 with no tendency to become primary principles; they demand some ante- 
 rior, sufiicit3 t reason of their being, some original, primary principle from 
 which they rive 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 movement by an adequate 
 efficient cause. Prolong the series to an indefinite length and you get no 
 nearer to the adequate cause of the motion; You get no moving principle 
 which possesses motive power in itself; the need of such a motive force, 
 Liowover, 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. You have made 
 a supposition which imperatively demands the further supposition of an 
 original principle and source of motion, which has an infinite power. 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 loco- 
 motive with the motive power applied and acting, and a connection 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.
 
 78 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 how did they come about, what is their efficient cause, starts up and con- 
 fronts the mind at every stage of the process. You may trace back conse- 
 quents to their antecedents, and show how the things which come after 
 were virtually contained in those which came before. The present earth 
 came from the paleo-zoic earth, and that from the a-zoic, and so on, until 
 you come to the primitive nebula from which the solar system was con- 
 But how did this vast mass of matter, and the mighty forces acting upon 
 it, come to be started on their course of evolution, their 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 being, self-existing, whose 
 essence is pure act and the source of all actuahty. The only alternative is 
 to fall back on the doctrine of chance, an absurdity long since exploded and 
 abandoned, a renunciation of all reason, and an abjuration of the rational 
 nature of man. 
 
 Together with the question "How" and the inquiry after efficient causes 
 of movement and changes in the v/orld, the question " Why '" also perpet- 
 ually suggests itself. This is an inquiry into another class of the deepest 
 causes of things, viz., 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. 
 
 Here the question arises, how the end attained as an effect of efficient 
 casuality can be properly named as a cause. How can it exert a causative 
 influence, retroactively, on the means and agencies by v/hich it is produced? 
 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 act before it 
 exists or give existence to itself. Final cause does not, therefore, act phys- 
 ically like efficient causes. It is a cause of the movements which precede 
 its real and physical existence, only inasmuch as it has an ideal pre-exist- 
 ehce in the foresight and intention of an intelligent mind. Regard a 
 masterpiece of art. It is because the artist conceived the idea realized in 
 this piece of work that he employed all the means necessary to the fulfill- 
 ment of his desired end. This finished work is, therefore, the final cause, 
 tfie motive of the whole series of operations performed by the artist or his 
 workmen. 
 
 ' The multitude of causes and effects in the v/orld, reduced to an admir- 
 able harmony and unity, constitutes the order of the universe. In this order 
 there is a multifarious arrangement, and co-ordination of means to ends, 
 denoting design and purpose, the intention and art of a supreme architect 
 and builder, who impresses his ideas upon what we may call the raw mate- 
 rial, out of which he forms and fashions the worlds which move in space, 
 and their various innumerable contents. From these final causes, as ideas 
 and types according to which all movements of efficient casualty are directed, 
 the argument proceeds which demonstrates the nature of the first cause, as 
 in essence, intelligence and will. 
 
 The best and highest Greek philosophy ascended by this cosmological 
 argument to a just and sublime conception of God as the supremely wise, 
 powerful, and good author of all existing essences in the universe and of all 
 its complex, harmonious order. Cicero, the Latin interpreter of Greek 
 philosophy, with cogent reasoning, and in language of unsurpassed beauty, 
 has summarized its best lessons in natural theology. In brief, his argument 
 is that since the highest human intelligence discovers in nature an intel- 
 ligible object far surpassing in capacity of apprehension, the design and 
 construction of the whole, natural order must proceed from an author of 
 supreme and divine intelligence. 
 
 The questioning and the demand of reason for the deepest causes of
 
 RATIONAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE BEING OF GOD. 79 
 
 things is not, however, yet entirely and explicitly satisfied. The concept 
 of God as the first builder and mover of the universe comes short of assign- 
 ing the first and final cause of the underlying subject-matter which receives 
 formation and motion. When and what is the first matter of our solar 
 nebula? How and W'hy 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 sun and planets? Plato is understood to have taught that 
 the first matter, which is the term receptive of the divine action, is self- 
 existing and eternal. 
 
 The metaphysical notion of first matter is, however, totally different 
 from the concept of matter as a constant quantity, and distinct from force 
 in chemical science. Metaphysically first matter has no specifif^ reality, no 
 quality, no quantity. It is not separate from active force in act, but is 
 only in potency. Chemical first matter exists in atoms, say of hydrogen, 
 oxygen, or some other substance, each of which has definite weight in pro- 
 portion to the weight of dift'erent atoms. It would be perfectly absurd to 
 imagine that the primitive nebulous vapor which furnished the material 
 for the evolution of the solar system was in any way like the Platonic con- 
 cept of original chaos. We may call it chaos, relatively to its later, more 
 developed order. The artisan's work-shop, full of materials for manufact- 
 ure, the edifice which is in its first stage of construction, are in a compar- 
 ative disorder, but this disorder is n inchoate order. 
 
 So, our solar chaos, as an inchoate virtual system, was full of initial, ele- 
 mentary principles and elements of order. The Platonic first matter was 
 supposed to be formless and void, without quality or quantity, devoid of 
 every idea" element or aspect— a mere recipient of ideas which God im- 
 pressed upon it. The undermost matt ar of chemistry has definite quiddity, 
 and quantity is never separate from .orce, ^nd s it was in the primitive 
 solar nebula, was in act and in violent activity jf motion. It is obvious at 
 a glance that a Platonic first matter, existing eternally by its own essence, 
 without form is a mere vacuum, anci only intelligible under the concept of 
 pure possibility. Aristotle saw and demonstrated this truth clearly. There- 
 fore the analysis of material existence, carried as far as experiment or 
 hypothesis will admit, finds nothing except the changeable and the contin- 
 gent. 
 
 Let us suppose that underneath the so-called simple substances, such as 
 oxygen and hydrogen, there exists, and may hereafter be discerned by 
 chemical analysis, some homogeneous basis, there still remains something 
 which does not account for itself, and which demands a sufficient reason 
 for its being, in the efficient casuality of the first cause. The ultimate 
 molecule of the composite substance and the ultimate atom of the simple 
 substance, each bears the mark of i manufactured article. Not only the 
 order which combines and arranges all the simple elements of the corporeal 
 world, but the gathering together of the materials for the orderly structure; 
 the union and relation of matter ?v~~ force; the beginning of the first 
 motions, and the existence of the movable element and the motive principle 
 in definite quantities and proportions, all demand their origin in the intelli- 
 gence and the will of the first cause. 
 
 In God alone essence and existence are identical. He alone exists by 
 the necessity of his nature, and is the eternal self-subsisting being. There 
 is nothing outside of his essence which is coeval with him, and which pre- 
 sents a real, existing term for his action. If he wishes to communicate the 
 good of being beyond himself, he must create out of nothing the objective 
 terms of his beneficial action. He must give first being to the recipients of 
 motion, change, and every kind of transition from potency into actuality. 
 The first and fundamental transition is from not being, from the absolute 
 non-existence of anything outside of God, into being and existence by the 
 creative act of God ; called by his almighty word the world of finite 
 creatures into real existence.
 
 80 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 In this creative act of God the two elements of intelligence and volition 
 are necessarily contained. Intelligence perceives the possibility of a finite, 
 created order of existence, in all its latitude. Possibility does 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 already 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 the actual universe and of the wider 
 universe which he could create if he willed must have been present eter- 
 nally to the intelligence of the divine creator as possible. 
 
 Now, therefore, a further question about the deepest cause of being con- 
 fronts the mind with an imperative demand for an answer. What is this 
 eternal possibility which is coeval with God? It is evidently an intelligible 
 object, an idea equivalent to an infinite number of particular ideas of 
 essences and orders, which are thinkable by intellect to a certain extent, in 
 proportion to its capacity, and exhaustively by the divine intellect. The 
 divine essence alone is an eternal and necessary self-subsisting being. In 
 the formula of St. Thomas: "Ipsum esse subsistens." It is pure and per- 
 fect act, in the most simple, indivisible unity. 
 
 Therefore in God, as Aristotle demonstrates, intelligent subject and 
 intelligible object are identical. Possibility has its foundation in the divine 
 essence. God contemplates His own essence, which is the plenitude of 
 being, with a comprehensive intelligence. In this contemplation He per- 
 ceives His essence as an archetype which eminently and virtually contams 
 an infinite multitude of typical 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 whatever He will according to His 
 divine ideas. And this is the total ratio of possibility. 
 
 These are the eternal reasons according to which the order of nature has 
 been established under fixed laws. They are reflected in the works of God. 
 By a perception of these reasons, these ideas impressed on the universe, we 
 ascend from single and particular objects up to universal ideas, and finally 
 to the knowledge of God as first and final cause. 
 
 When we turn from the contemplation of the visible word and sent'ible 
 objects to the rational creation, the sphere of intelligent spirits and of the 
 intellectual 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 — our- 
 selves and our fellowman — bear the marks of contingency in their intel- 
 lectual nature as plainly as in their bodies. Our individual, self-conscious, 
 thinking souls have come out of non-existence only yesterday. They begin 
 to live with only a dormant intellectual capacity, without knowledge or the 
 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 received its being from God. 
 
 In the material things we see the vestiges of the Creator, in the 
 rational soul his very image. It is capable of apprehending the eternal rea 
 sons which are in the mind of God; its intelligible object is being in all its 
 latitude according to its sjjecific and infinite mode of apprehension, and the 
 proportion which its cognoscitive faculty has to the thinkable and knowa- 
 ble. As 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 inferred, and likewise the 
 ideas of necessary and eternal truth which, as so many mirrors, reflect the 
 eternal reasons of the divine mind, subjectively considered, come under the 
 same category as contingent facts and effects produced by second causes 
 and ultimately by the first cause. 
 
 J
 
 RATIONAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE BEING OF GOD. 81 
 
 These ideas are not, however, mere subjective concepts. They are, in- 
 deed, mental concepts, but they have a foundation in reahty, according to 
 the famous formula of St. Thomas: "Universalia sunt conceptus mentis 
 cum f undamento in re." They are originally gained by abstraction from 
 the single objects of sensitive cognition; for instance, from single things 
 which have a concrete existence, the idea of being in general, the most 
 extensive and universal of all concepts is gained. So, also, the notions of 
 species and genius; of essence and existence; of beauty, goodness, space 
 and time; of eflScient and final cause; of the first principles of metaphysics, 
 mathematics, and ethics. But, notwithstanding this genesis of abstract 
 and universal concepts from concrete, contingent realities, they become 
 free from all contingency and dependence on contingent things, and 
 assume the character of necessary and universal, and therefore of eternal 
 truths. For instance, that the three sides of a triangle can not exist with- 
 out three angles is seen to be true, supposing there had never been any 
 bodies or minds created. There is an intelligible world of ideas, super- 
 sensible, and extra-mental, withm the scope of intellectual apprehension; 
 thev have objective reality, and force themselves on the intellect, compel- 
 ling 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, inhabit- 
 ing 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 rethinking 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 intelli- 
 gent and intelligible essence of God, in which they have their ultimate 
 foundation. This metaphysical argument is the apex and culmination of 
 the costnological, moral, and in all its forms the a posteriori argument from 
 effects, from design, from all reflections of the divine perfections in the cre- 
 ation to the existence and nature of the first and final cavise of the intellect- 
 ual, moral, and physical order of the universe. It goes beyond every other 
 line of argument in one respect. From concrete, contingent facts we infer 
 and demonstrate that God does exist. We obtain only a hypothetical neces- 
 sity of His existence; i. e,, 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 God. We do not, indeed, perceive these eternal reasons immediately in 
 God as divine ideas identical with His essence. We have no intuition of 
 the essence of God. God is to us 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 immedi- 
 ately, by the eternal reasons which are reflected in nature, in our own 
 intellect, and in the ideas which have their foundation in His mind. Our 
 mental concepts of the divine are analogical, derived from created things, 
 and inadequate. They are, notwithstanding, true, and give us unerring 
 knowledge of the deepest causes of being. They give us metaphysical certi- 
 tude that God 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 God are summed up in the formula 
 of St. Thomas: "Ipsum esse subsistens." Being in its intrinsic essence 
 subsisting. He is the being whose reason of real, self-subsisting being is 
 in His essence; He subsists, as being, not in any limitation of a particular 
 kind and nx)de of being, but in the in'telligible ratio of being, in every
 
 82 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 respect which i8 thinkable and comprehensible by the absolute, infinite 
 intellect. He is being in all its longitude, latitude, profundity, and pleni- 
 tude; He is being subsisting in pure and perfect act, without any mixture of 
 potentiality or 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: "Tota 
 simul ac perfecta possessio vitae interminabilis." The total and perfect 
 possession, 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 comprehensive 
 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 general idea of being. 
 Being, good, truth, are transcendental notions which imply each other. 
 They include a multitude of more specific terms, expressing every kind of 
 definite concepts of realities which are intelligible and desirable. Beauty, 
 splendor, majesty, moral excellence, beatitude, life, love, greatness, power, 
 and every kind of perfection 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 eflfects produced by the 
 first cause must exist in the cause in a more eminent way, we must predict 
 of the Creator all the perfections found in creatures. 
 
 The vastness of the universe represents His immensity. The multi- 
 farious 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 creature^ show forth in a more perfect image the 
 attributes of intellect and will in their author and original source. All 
 created goodness, whether physical or moral, proclaims the essential excel- 
 lence and sanctity of God. He is the source of life, and is, therefore, the 
 living God. All the active forces of nature witness His power. 
 
 All finite beings, however, come infinitely short of an adequate represen- 
 tation of their ideal archetype; they retain something of the intrinsic 
 nothingness of their essence, of its potentiality, changeableness, and con- 
 tingency. 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 formal being in God. We can not 
 call him a circle, an ocean, or a sun. Such creatures, therefore, represent 
 that which exists in their archetype 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. 
 
 AH that we know of God by pure reason is summed up by Aristotle in 
 the metaphysical formula that God is pure and perfect act, logically and 
 ontologieally 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 potency (dunamis), logically and ontologi- 
 eally. 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 produced 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 can not 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. 
 * * * Contemplation is of all things the most delightful and excellent, 
 and God enjoys it always, by the intellection of the most excellent good, in 
 
 I
 
 EVIDENCE OF A SUPREME BEING, 83 
 
 which intelligence and 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 God." (Met. xi, 7.) I have 
 here condensed a long passage from Aristotle and inverted the order of 
 some sentences, but I have given a verbally exact statement of his doctrine. 
 
 I will add a few sentences from Plotiniis, 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 con- 
 templation of the intelligible world and the admiration which 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, inteUigence, this son so beautiful? The supreme intelligence must 
 necessarily contain the universal archetype, and be itself that intelligible 
 world of which Plato discourses." (Ennead iii, L viii, 10 v. 9). Plato and 
 Aristotle have both placed in the clearest light the relation of intelligent, 
 immortal spirit to God as their final cause, and together with this highest 
 relation the subordinate relation of all the inferior parts of the universe. 
 Assimilation 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. Clement of 
 Alexandria, did not hesitate to call it a preparation furnished by divine 
 providence to the heathen world for the Christian revelation. Whatever 
 controversies there may be concerning their explicit teachings in regard to 
 the relations between God and the world, their principles and premises con- 
 tain implicitly and virtually a sublime natural 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 intellect 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, ruled over by blind 
 chance or fate. Philosophy, however, by itself does not suffice to give to 
 mankind that religion the excellence andnecessity of which it so brilliantly 
 manifests. Its last lesson is the need of a divine revelation, a divine relig- 
 ion, to lead men to the knowledge and love of God and the attainment of 
 their true destiny as rational and immortal creatures. A true and practi- 
 cal philosopher will follow, therefore, the example of Justin Martyr; in his 
 love of and search for the highest wisdom he will seek for the genuine 
 religion revealed by God, and when found he will receive it with his whole 
 mind and will. 
 
 EVIDENCE OF A SUPREME BEING. 
 
 REV, ALFRED WILLIAMS MOMERIE OF LONDON, ENGLAND. 
 
 " We have just heard a voice," said Chairman NiccoUs, 
 "from the largest and one of the most venerable of the 
 churches of Christendom. That voice was clear, eloquent, 
 logical, and learned in its testimony. The church which it 
 represents is to-day the teacher of millions, and if such are its 
 convictions we know that the doctrine of Christian theisiw is
 
 84 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 safe in her hands. Another church has been eloquent in its 
 testimony, and I am glad we have to-day one of its representa- 
 tives here, a distinguished preacher and teacher, a learned 
 scholar and professor. Rev. Dr. Momerie, of London, who will 
 present the next paper on ' The Moral Evidence of a Divine 
 Existence.' " 
 
 Before submitting his paper. Dr. Momerie said: "It is only 
 this moment that I have discovered the subject of my paper as 
 shown on the programme. I was originally asked to write 
 upon ' The Philosophic and Moral Evidence for the Existence of 
 God,' and it is upon that subject that I have written. Indeed, 
 I could hardly have written on any other, for the argument for 
 God seems to me to be distinctly one and indivisible. I must 
 apologize if in the first part of the paper I have to tread upon 
 ground already traversed. I looked at the philosophical argu- 
 ment from a somewhat different point of view, and, perhaps, 
 therefore, there will be no more harm done." 
 
 The evidenceB 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 supposed that the argument from design has been exploded. 
 " Nowadays," says Comte, " the heavens declare no other glory than that of 
 Hipparchus, Newton, Kepler, and the rest who have found out the laws of 
 sequence. Our power of foreseeing phenomena and our power of control- 
 ling them destroy the belief that they are governed by changeable wills." 
 Quite so. But such a belief — the belief, viz., that phenomena were gov- 
 erned by changeable wills, could not be entertained by any philosophical 
 theist. A really irregular phenomenon, as Mr. Piske has said, would be a 
 manifestation of sheer diabolism. Philosophical theism — belief in a being 
 deservedly called God — could not be established until after the uniformity 
 of nature had been discovered. We must cease to believe in many change- 
 able 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 infinite 
 God, immanent 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 irregu- 
 larity 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 step in the proof of the 
 existence of God. The purposes of a reasonable being, just in proportion to 
 his reasonableness, will be steadfast and immovable. And in God there is 
 no change, neither shadow of turning. He is the same yesterday, to- day, 
 and forever. 
 
 There is another scientific doctrine, viz., the doctrine of evolution, which 
 is often supposed to be incompatible with the argument from design. But 
 it seems to me that the discovery of the fact of evolution was an important 
 
 i
 
 EVIDENCE OF A SUPREME BEING. 85 
 
 step in the proof of the divine existence. Evolution has not disproved 
 adaptation; it has merely disproved one particular 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 ture, 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 every species, every organism, and every part of every organ- 
 ism had been individually adapted by the Creator for the accomplishment 
 of a definite end, just as every portion of a watch is the result of a partic- 
 ular act of contrivance on the part of the watchmaker. 
 
 A different and far higher method is suggested by the doctrine of evo- 
 lution, a doctrine which may now be considered as practically demonstrated, 
 thanks especially to the light which has been shed on it by the sciences of 
 anatomy, physiology, geology, palaeontology, and embryology. These sciences 
 have placed the blood relationship of species beyond a doubt. The embryos 
 of existing animals are found again and again to bear the closest resem- 
 blance to extinct species, though in this adult form the semblance 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 in- 
 jurious. There are snakes that have rudimentary legs— legs which, how- 
 ever 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, therefore, 
 that any particular organ in one species is merely an evolution from a some- 
 what 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 i)aroxysm but by evolution. The 
 Creator saw the end from the beginning. He had not many conflicting 
 purposes, but one that was general and all-embracing. Unity and con- 
 tinuity 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 fovmd 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 towards the heart, but opposing its passage 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 the supposition of purpose, the 
 greatest discovery in physiological science might not have been made. And 
 the curious thing is — a circumstance to which I would particularly direct 
 your attention — the word purpose is constantly employed even by those who 
 are most strenuous in deying the reality of the fact. The supposition of 
 purpose is used as a working hypothesis by the most extreme materialists. 
 The recognition of an immanent purpose in our conception of nature can be 
 so little dispensed with that we find it admitted even by Vogt. Haeckel. 
 in the very book in which he says that "the much talked-of purpose in 
 nature has no existence," defines an organic body as "one in which the 
 various parts work together for the purpose of producing the phenomenon 
 of life." And Hartman, according to whom the universe is the outcome of 
 unconsciousness, speaks of "the wisdom of the unconscious," of "the 
 mechanical contrivance which it employs," of " the direct activity in 
 bringing about complete adaptation to the ijeculiar nature of the case," of 
 "its incursions into the human brain which determine the course of history 
 in all departments of civilization in the direction of the goal intended by the
 
 86 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELltflONS. 
 
 unconscious." Purpose, then, has not been eliminated from the universe by 
 the discoveries of physical science. These discoveries have but intensified 
 and elevated our path. 
 
 And there is yet something else to be urged in favor of the argument 
 from design. If the world is not due to purpose, it must be the result of 
 chance. This alternative can not be avoided by asserting that the world is 
 the outcome of law, since law itself must be accounted for in one or other 
 of these alternative ways. A law of nature explains nothing. It is merely 
 a summary of the facts to be explainv^d — merely a statement of the way in 
 which things happen; e. g., the law of gravitation is the fact that all mate- 
 rial bodies attract one another with a force varying directly as their mass 
 and inversely as the squares of their distances. Now, the fact that bodies 
 attract one another in this way can not be explained by the law, for the law 
 is nothiog but the precise expression of the fact. To say that the gravita- 
 tion of matter is accounted for by the law of gravitation, is merely to 
 say that matter gravitates because it gravitates. And so of the other 
 laws of' nature. Taken together, they are simply the expression, in a set of 
 convenient formulae, of all the facts of our experience. The laws of nature 
 are the facts of nature summarized. To say, then, that nature is explained 
 by law, is to say that the facts are explamed by themselves. The question 
 remains. Why are the facts what they are ? And to this question we can 
 only answer, either through purpose or by chance. 
 
 In favor of the latter hypothesis it may be urged that the appearance 
 of purpose in nature could have been produced by chance. Arrangements 
 which look intentional may sometimes be purely accidental. Something 
 was bound to come of the play of the primeval atoms. Why not the par- 
 ticular world in which we find ourselves? 
 
 Why not? For this reason: It is only within narrow bounds that 
 seemingly purposeful arrangements are accidentally produced. And, there- 
 fore, as the signs of purpose increase the presumption in favor of their acci- 
 dental origin diminishes. It is the most curious phenomenon in the history 
 of thought that the philosophers who delight in calling themselves experi- 
 enced 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 round the sun with a 
 slight inclination of the planes of their orbits — had chance determined the 
 movement — would have been 20,000,000,000 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 thecontrary, 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 itself — be all added together; 
 let this result be squared, cubed, multiplied by itself 10,000 times, and the 
 final product would fall short of expressing the probabilities of the world 
 having been evolved by chance. 
 
 But over and above the signs of purpose in the world there are other 
 evidences which bear witness to its rationality, to its ultimate dependence 
 upon mind. We can often detect thought even when we fail to detect pur- 
 pose. " Science," says Lange, " starts from the principle of the intelligible- 
 ness 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 can not explain the conduct of a fool. You can not interpret the 
 actions of a lunatic. They are 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 guess- 
 
 I
 
 EVIDENCE OF A SUPREME BEING. 87 
 
 ing at these thoughts; scientific verification in proving that we have guessed 
 aright. "O God,'' says Kepler, when he discovered the laws ot planetary 
 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 predic- 
 tions 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 formulce. Every fresh discovery 
 in science reveals anew the order, the law, the system — in a word, the rea- 
 son 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 impHes 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 short time at my disposal. Suffice 
 it to say it has been proved that what we call knowledge is due subjectively 
 to the constructive activity of our own individual minds, and objectively to 
 the constructive activity of another mind which is omnipresent and eternal. 
 In other words, it has been proved that our limited consciousness implies 
 the existence of a consciousness that is unlimited — that the common, every- 
 day experience of each one of us necessitates the increasing activity of an 
 iniinite thinker. 
 
 The world, then, is essentially 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 thinker good? I 
 pass on, therefore, to speak briefly on the second part of my subject, viz., 
 the progressiveness of the world. The last, the most comprehensive, the 
 most certain word of science is evolution. And it is the most hopeful word 
 I know. For when we contemplate the suffering and disaster around us we 
 are sometimes tempted to think that the Great Contriver is indifferent to 
 human welfare. But evolution, which is only another form for continuous 
 improvement, inspires us with confidence. It suggests, indeed, that the 
 Creator is not omnipotent, in the vulgar sense of being able to do impossi- 
 bilities; but it also suggests that the difficulties of creation are being surely 
 though slowly overcome. 
 
 Now, it may be asked. How could there be difficulties for God ? How 
 could the Infinite be limited or restrained ? Let us see. We are too apt 
 to look upon restraint as essentially an evil; to regard it as a sign of weak- 
 ness. This is the greatest mistake. Restraint may be an evidence of 
 power, of superiority, of perfection. \Vhy is poetry so much more beautiful 
 than prose ? Because of tho 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 
 wisdom and goodness involve nothing less than infinite restraint. When 
 we say that God can not do wrong, we virtually admit that He is under a 
 moral obligation or necessity, and reflection will show that there is another 
 kind of necessity, viz., mathematical, by which even the Infinite is bound. 
 
 Do you suppose that the Deity could make a square with only three 
 sides or aline with only one end? Admitting, for the sake of argument, 
 that theoretically he had the power, do you suppose that under any con- 
 ceivable circumstances he would use it? Surely not. It would be prosti- 
 tution. It would be the employment of an infinite power for the production 
 of what was essentially irrational and absurd. It would be the same kind 
 of folly as if some one who was capable of writing a sensible book were de- 
 liberately to produce a volume with the words so arranged as to convey no 
 earthly meaning. The same kind of folly but far more culpable, for the 
 guilt of foolishness increases in proportion to the capacity for wisdom. A
 
 88 THE PARLIAMENT OE RELIGIONS. 
 
 being, therefore, who attempted to reverse the truth of mathematics would 
 not be divine. To mathematical necessity Deity itself must yield. 
 
 Similarly in the physical sphere there must be restraints equally neces- 
 sary and equally unalterable, viz., it may be safely and reverently affirmed 
 that God could not have created a painless world. The Deity 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 destruction. If pain had not been 
 attached to injurious actions and habits, all sentient beings would long ago 
 have passed out of existence. Suppose, e. g., that fire did not cause pain, 
 we might easily be burnt to death before we knew we were in danger. Sup- 
 pose the loss of health were not attended with discomfort, we should lack 
 the strongest motive 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 higher phases. In some 
 wayorother, though, we can not tell exactly how pain acts as an intellectual 
 and spiritual stimulus. The world's greatest teachers, Dante, Shakespeare, 
 Darwin, etc., have been men who suffered much. Suffering, moreover, 
 develops in us pity, mercy, and the spirit of self-sacrifice; 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 conflict. 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 absolute- 
 inviolability of law; in the thought that nature goes on her way quite 
 regardless of your wishes or mme. She is so strong and so indifferent! 
 The reign of lai:Y often entails on individuals the direst suffering. 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 dar- 
 ling child by accident or disease, that she can not by any agony of prayer 
 recall the child to life. But 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 
 suchi violation were unattended with death men would lose the great 
 inducement 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 piirpose. 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 chil- 
 dren are made to suffer for their father's crimes. 'But it would be harder 
 for the world if they were not. If the penalties of wrongdoing were 
 averted from the children, the fathers would lose the best incentive to 
 do right. Vicarious suffering has a great part to phiy in the moral 
 development of the world. Each individual is apt to think that an excep- 
 tion might be made in his favor, But, of course, that could not be. If 
 the laws of nature were broken for one person justice would require that 
 they should be broken for thousands, for all. And if only one of nature's 
 laws could be proved to have been only once violated our faith in law 
 would be at an end; we should feel that we were living in a disorderly 
 universe; we should lose the sense of the paramount importance of con- 
 duct; we should know that we were the sport of chance. 
 
 Pain, therefore, was an unavoidable necessity in the creation of the best 
 of all possible worlds. But however many or however great were the diffi- 
 
 m
 
 THEISTIC TEACHINGS OF HISTORIC FAITHS. 89 
 
 culties in the Creator's path, the fact of evolution makes it certain that 
 they are being gradually overcome. And among all the changes that have 
 marked its progress, none is so palpable, so remarkable, so persistent, as the 
 development of goodness. Evolution " makes for righteousness." That 
 which seems to be its end varies. 
 
 The truth is constantly becoming more apparent that on the whole, and 
 in the long run it is not well with the wicked; that sooner or later, both in 
 the lives of individuals and of nations, good triump'.s over evil. And this 
 tendency toward righteousness, by which we hnd ourselves encompassed, 
 meets with a ready, an even readier, response in our own hearts. We 
 can not help respecting goodness, and we have inextinguishable long- 
 ings for its personal attainment. Notwithstanding "sore lets and 
 hindrances," notwithstanding the fiercest temptations, notwithstand- 
 ing the most disastrous failures, these yearnings continually reassert 
 themselves with ever-increasing force. We feel, we know that we 
 shall always be dissatisfied and unhappy 'latil the tendency within us is 
 brought into perfect unison with the tendency without us, until we a'lso 
 make for righteousness steadily, unremittingly, and with our whole heart. 
 What is this disquietude, what are these yearnings, but the spirit of the 
 universe in communion with our spirits, inspiring us, impelling us, all but 
 forcing us to become co-workers with itself. 
 
 To sum up in one sentence — all knowledge, whether practical or scien- 
 tific, nay, the commonest experience of everyday life, implies the existence 
 of a mind which is omnipresent and eternal, while the tendency toward 
 righteousness, which is so unmistakably manifest in the course of history, 
 together w'ith the response which this tendency awakens in our own hearts, 
 combine to prove that the infinite thinker is just, and kind, and good. It 
 must be because He is always with us that we 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? 
 
 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 things; 
 And flying and singing everywhere 
 In vain have I sought to find the air." 
 
 THEISTIC TEACHINGS OF HISTORIC FAITHS. 
 
 PKOFESSOR T^ T^iLENTINE, A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LUTH- 
 ERAN CHURCH. 
 
 "We have heard two-fold testimony, to-day," said Chairman 
 Niccolls, "with reference to the existence of God, and I am 
 afraid that if there is one here who has listened to this two- 
 fold testimony and yet doubts, we must remind him of the 
 description tliat was given by one of Israel's psalmists long 
 ago, with reference to the man who was unconvinced. Now we
 
 90 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 advance a step farther, and I am glad we shall have a paper 
 from a distinguished professor in one of the great churches of 
 reformation, a representative of the Lutheran Church, Profes- 
 sor N. Valentine, whose name is well known throughout the 
 
 land." 
 
 In calling attention to the " Harmonies and Distinctione in the Theis- 
 tic Teaching of the Various Historic Faiths," I must, by very necessity of 
 the case, speak from the Christian standpoint. This standpoint is to me 
 synonymous with the very truth itself. I can not speak as free from pre- 
 possessions. This, however, does not mean any unwillingness, nor, I trust, 
 inability to see and treat with sincerest candor and genuine appreciation 
 the truth that may be found in each and all of the various theistic concep- 
 tions which reason and providence may have enabled men anywhere to 
 reach. Undoubtedly some rays from the true divine "Light of the World" 
 have been shining through reason, and reflected from "the things that are 
 made" everywhere and at all times. God never nor in any place leaves 
 himself wholly without witness. And though we now and here stand in 
 the midst of the high illumination of what we accept as supernatural revela- 
 tion, we rejoice to recognize the truth which may have come into view from 
 other openings, blending with the light of God's redemptive self-manifesta- 
 tion in Christianity. 
 
 It is not necessary prejudice to truth anywhere when from this stand- 
 point I am further necessitated, in this comparative view, to take the 
 Christian conception as the standard of comparison and measurement. We 
 must use some standard if we are to proceed discriminatingly or reach any 
 well-defined and consistent conclusions. Simply to compare different con- 
 ceptions 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 con- 
 fusion or fix any valuable points of truth. Only to hold our eye to the 
 varied shifting colors and combinations of the kaleidoscope can bring no 
 satisfactory or edifying conclusion. The Christian's comparative view 
 of the "historic faiths" other than his own necessarily thus ranges them 
 under his own Christian canons of judgment, means no exclusion or 
 obscuration of the light, but merely fixes the leading parallelism of its fall, 
 secviring consistency and clearness of presentation, a presentation under 
 which not only the harmonies and distinctions, but the actual truth, may 
 be most clearly and fairly seen. 
 
 The phrase, " theistic teaching," in the statement of the subject of this 
 paper, I understand, in its broadest sense, es referring to the whole con- 
 ception concerning God, including the very question 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. Ana yet, 
 we are to bear in mind, it is only the " theistic " teaching of the historic 
 faiths, not their whole religious view, that falls under the intention of this 
 paper. The subject is special, restricting us specifically to their ideas about 
 God. 
 
 At the outset we need to remind ourselves of the exceeding difficulty of 
 the comparison or of precise and firm 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 evolu- 
 tions amount to revolutions in some cases. They are not permanently 
 marked by the same features, and will not admit the same predicates at 
 different times. Some are found to differ more from themselves in their 
 
 J
 
 THEISTIC TEACHINGS OF HISTORIC FAITHS. 91 
 
 history than from one another. There is such an inter- crossing of principles 
 and manifold form of representation as to lead the most learned specialists 
 into disputes and opposing conclusions, and render a scientific characteriza- 
 tion and classification impossible. The most and best that can be done is 
 to bring the teachings of the historic religions, in this particular, into com- 
 parison as to five or six of the fundamental and most distinctive features of 
 theistic conception. Their most vital points of likeness and difference will 
 thus appear. It will be enough to include in the comparison, besides Chris- 
 tianity, the religions of ancient Greece and Rome, of old Egypt, Indian 
 Hinduism or more exactly Brahmanism, Persian Parseeism or Zoroastrian- 
 ism. Buddhism, Chinese Confucianism, Celtic Druidism, the Norse or Teu- 
 tonic mythology, and Mohammedanism, 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 leadin. » features or 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 sus- 
 tain relations of dependence, obligation, and hoije. This is the bottom 
 point, the question underlying all other questions in I'eligious belief: Does 
 a God exist ? And here it is assuring; a wonderful harmony is found. All 
 the historic faiths, save perhaps one, rest on belief in some divine existence 
 or existences to be acknowledged, feared, or pleased. It seems to be part 
 of the religious instinct of the race. And the intellect concurs in fostering 
 the belief. History, ethnology, and philology not only suggest, but amply 
 prove, that the idea of God, of some power or powers above, upon whom 
 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 life, that it 
 is developed wherever man's condition is high enough for the action of his 
 religious nature at 'Al. 
 
 " God " is the fundamental and constructive idea, and it is the greatest 
 and most vital idea of humanity. But the harmony of the world's religious 
 faiths in this positive theistic teaching is, according to prevailing interpret- 
 ation, broken in the case of Buddhism. This appears to be atheistic; a 
 religion, or, rather, a philosophy of life, without a Deity or even the 
 apothoesis of nature. Many things, however, incline me to the view of those 
 interpreters who deny, or at least doubt, the totally atheistic character of 
 Buddhism. 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 question. 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, though it may have been a less definite one 
 of the Divine Being. 
 
 And may we not justly distinguish between Buddhism as a mere phil- 
 osophy of life or conduct and Butldhism as a religion, wi th its former nature 
 — gods swept away, 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 Chris- 
 tian lands, the outcome 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 giving a 
 definite characteristic to the religion in the midst of which they appear.
 
 92 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 And they lose sway, even as the Buddhist philosophy, in becoming a re- 
 ligion that has had to resume recognition of deity. And it is something 
 grand and inspiring that the testimony of the world's religions from all 
 around the horizon and down the centuries is virtually unanimous 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. 
 
 But let these various religions be compared in the light of a second 
 principle in theistic teaching — that of monotheism. Here it is startling to 
 find how terribly the idea of God, whose existence is so unanimously owned, 
 has been misconceived and distorted. For, taking the historic faiths in 
 their fully developed form, only two, Christianity and Mohammedanism, 
 present a pure and maintained monotheism. Zoroastrianism can not be 
 counted in here, though at first its Ahriman, or evil spirit, was not con- 
 ceived of as a God, it afterward lapsed into theological dualism and prac- 
 tical polytheism. All the rest are prevailingly and discordantly poly- 
 theistic. They move off into endless multiplicity of divinities and grotesque 
 degradations of their character. This fact does not speak well for the 
 ability of the human mind without supernatural help, to formulate and 
 maintain the necessary idea of God worthily. 
 
 This dark and regretful phenomenon is, however, much relieved by 
 several modifying facts. One is that the search-lights of history and phil- 
 ology reveal for the principal historic faiths, back of their stages and condi- 
 tions 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 determined by 
 acceptance of the evolutionist hypothesis of the derivative origin of the 
 human race. But it seems to me that the evidence, as made clear through 
 the true historical method of investigation, is decisive for monotlieism 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 be actual growths. Tracing them back they 
 become simpler and simpler. "The younger the polytheism the fewer the 
 gods," until a stage is reached where God is conceived of as one alone. This 
 accords, too, as has been well pointed out, with the psychological genesis of 
 ideas — the singular number preceding the plural, the idea of a god preced- 
 ing 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 depraved human- 
 ity to corrupt the idea of God and multiply imaginary and false divinities, 
 there are forces that act for correction and improvement. The human soul 
 has been formed for the one true and only God. Where reason is highly 
 developed and the tobiiag powers of the intellect and conscience are earn- 
 estly applied to the problems of existence and duty, these grotesque and 
 gross polytheisms prove unsatisfactory. 
 
 In the higher accents of civilization, faith in the mythologic divinities is 
 undermined and weakened. Men of lofty genius arise, men of finer ethical 
 intuitions and higher religious sense and aspiration, and better conceptions 
 of the power by and in which men live and move are reached and a reform- 
 ation comes. This is illustrated in the epoch-making teachings of Confu- 
 cius in China, or Zoroaster in Persia, of Gautama in India, and of Socrates, 
 Plato, Cicero, and kindred spirits in Ancient Greece and Rome. In their 
 profounder and more rational inquiries these, and such as these, have 
 pierced the darkness and confusion and caught sure vision of the one true 
 eternal God above all gods, at, once explaining the significance of them all, 
 
 J
 
 THEISTIC TEACHINGS OF HISTORIC FAITHS. 93 
 
 and reducing all but the One to myths or symbols. Polytheism, which has 
 put its stamp so generally on the historic faiths, has not held them in undis- 
 puted, full, unbroken sway. . , ,, o -^v. 
 
 Taking these modifying facts into account, the testimony of these taiths 
 to the unity of God is found to be far larger and stronger than at first vijw 
 it seemed. For neither Christianity, with its Old Testament beginning, nor 
 Mohammedanism, has been a small thing in the world. They have 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 thiukers of the 
 race, who, by " The world's great altar-stairs that slope through darkness 
 up to God," have risen to clear view 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. 
 
 But of the two found purely monotheistic, Christianity has unique char- 
 acteristics. Its witness is original and independent— not derived as that of 
 Islam, which adopted it from Judaic and Christian teaching. It is trini- 
 tarian, teaching a triune mystery of life in the one infinite and eternal God, 
 as over against Islam's repudiation of this mystery. The trinities detected 
 in the other religions have nothing in common with the Christian teaching 
 save the use of the number three. And it stands accredited, not as a mere 
 evolution of rational knowledge, a scientific discovery, but as a super- 
 natural revelation, in which the Eternal One Himself says to the world; "I 
 am God, and beside Me there is none." 
 
 But we pass to another point of comparison in the principle of person- 
 ality. Under this principle the religions of the world fall into two classes: 
 Those which conceive of God as an intelligent being, 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 
 personal being with all the attributes or predicates that enter into the 
 concept of such being. In the Christian scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testaments this conception is never for a moment lowered or obscured. 
 God, though immanent in nature, filling it with His presence and power, is 
 yet its creator and preserver, keeping it subject to His will and purposes, 
 never confounded nor identified with it. He is the infinite, absolute per- 
 sonality. 
 
 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 bewildered by 
 I le immense diversity in which, in this particular, the objects of worship 
 {■re conceived, from the intense anthropomorphism that makes the gods but 
 Ki'.ghty men or apotheosized ancestors down through endless personifica- 
 t xms 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 Druidism, of Assyrian and Babylonian faith, and in the best 
 intuition of Greek and Roman philosophers, without doubt, God was appre- 
 hended as a personal god. Indeed, in almost the whole world's religious 
 thinking this element of true theistic conception has had more or less 
 positive 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 for a God who could 
 hear and understand, feel and act. And whenever thought rose beyond the 
 many pseudo-gods to the existence of the one true God as a creator and 
 ruler of the world, the ten thousand marks of order, plan, and purpose in 
 oature speaking to men's hearts and reason led up to the grand truth that
 
 94 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 tne Maker of all is a thinker and both knows and wills. And so a relation 
 of trust, fellowship, and intercourse was found and recognized. None of 
 the real feelings of worship, love, devotion, gratitude, consecration, could 
 live and act simply in the presence of an impersonal, unconscious, fatefui 
 energy or order of nature. No consistent hope of a conscious personal 
 future life can be established except as it is rooted in faith in a personal 
 
 And yet the personality of God has often been much obscured in the 
 historic faiths. The observation has not come as a natural and spontane- 
 ous product of the rehgious impulse of consciousness, but of mystic specu- 
 lative philosophies. The phenomenon presented by Spinozism and later 
 pantheisms, in the presence of Christianity, was substantially anticipated 
 again and again, ages ago, in the midst of various religious faiths, despite 
 their own truer version of the eternal God. As we understand it, the 
 philosophy of religion, with Hinduism, the later Confucianism, developed 
 Parseeism, and Druidism is substantially pantheistic, reducing God to 
 impersonal existence or the conscious 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 creational relation and 
 activity in their conception of God? In Christianity, as you know, the 
 notion of creatorship is inseperable from the divine idea. "In the begin- 
 ning God created." Creator is another name for Him. How is it in the 
 polytheistic mythologies? The conception is thrown into inextricable con- 
 fusion. In some, as in the early iGreek and Roman, the heavens and the 
 earth are eternal, and the gods, even the highest, are their offspring. In 
 advancing stages and fuller pantheons, almost everywhere, the notion of 
 creatorship emerges in connection with the mythologic divinities. In the 
 monotheisms, whether the earlier or those reached in philosophic periods, 
 it is clear and unequivocal — 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 processes of divine 
 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 resolve 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 ex nihilo, or absolute creation, is taught. 
 This is a distinction in which Christianity must be counted as fairly stand- 
 ing 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 noi 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, mean- 
 ness, and wrong, found among men were paralleled in the nature and actions 
 of the gods. Often their very worship has been marked by horrible and 
 degrading rites. But as human nature carries in itself amoral constitution, 
 and the reason spontaneously acts in the way of moral distinctions, judg- 
 ments,_and demands, it necessarily, as it advanced in knowledge, credited 
 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 
 
 1
 
 I 
 
 THEISTIC TEACHINGS OF HISTORIC FAITHS. 95 
 
 elements in their conception of the gods reflected 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 clear forms, the logic of reason and conscience lifted 
 thought into clear and unequivocal apprehension of the supreme being as 
 the power whose government makes for righteousness. Finely and impres- 
 sively does this attribute come to view in the teachings 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 
 that system, obliterating the divine personality, leaves scarcely any room for 
 a moral purpose, or any other purpose, in the cosmic energy. And Budd- 
 hism, though largely a philosophical ethic only— however, of the " good " 
 sort— yet by its failure to make positive assertion of a supreme 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 gov- 
 ernment and providence have a supreme ethical aim, the overthrow of sin 
 with its disorder and misery and the making of all things new in a kingdom 
 in which righteousness shall dwell. And we rejoice to trace from the great 
 natural religions round the globe how generally and sometimes inspiringly 
 this grand feature of true theism has been discerned and used for the up- 
 lifting of character and life — furnishing a testimony obscured or broken 
 only by the crudest fetichisms, or lowest polytheisms, or by pantheistic 
 teachings that reduce God to impersonality where the concept of moral 
 character becomesiinapplicable. 
 
 But a single additional feature of theistic teaching can be brought into 
 this comparative view. How far do the various religions include in their 
 idea of God redemptive relation and administration? Some comparativists, 
 as you are aware, class two of them as religions of redemption or deliver- 
 ance — Buddhism and Christianity. But if Buddhism is to be so 'classed 
 there is no reason for not including Brahmanism. For, as Professor Max 
 Muller has so clearly shown, Buddhism rests upon and carried forward the 
 same fundamental conceptions of the world and human destiny and the 
 way of its attainment. They both start v/ith the fact that the condition of 
 man is unhappy through his own errors, and set forth a way of deliverance 
 or salvation. Both connect this state of misery with the fundamental 
 doctrine of metempsychosis, innumerably repeated incarnations, or births 
 and deaths, with a possible deliverance in a final absorption into the repose 
 of absolute existence or cessation of conscious individuality — Nirvana. 
 
 It is connected, too, in both, with a philosophy of the world that pan- 
 theistically reduces God into impersonality, making the divine but the ever- 
 moving course of nature. And the deliverance comes as no free gift," 
 gracious help, or accomi^lishment of God, but an issue that a man wins for 
 himself by knowledge, ascetic repression of desire and self -reduction out of 
 conscious individuality, reabsorption into primal being. God is not conceived 
 of as a being of redeeming love and loving activity. A philosophy of self- 
 redemption is sulistituted 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 can 
 not fairly be said to attribute to God redemptive character and adminis- 
 tration.
 
 96 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Christianity stands, therefore, as the only faith that truly and fully con- 
 ceives of God in redemptory rulership and activity. In this faith " God is 
 love," in deepest and most active sympathy vi'ith man. While he rules for 
 the maintenance and victory of righteousness, he uses also redeeming action 
 for the same high ends — recovering the lost to holiness. In this comes in 
 the unique supernatural character of Christianity. It is not a mere evolu- 
 tion of natural religious intuitions. Even as a revelation, it is not simply 
 an ethic or a philosophy of happy life. Christianity stands fundamentally 
 and essentially for a course of divine redemptive action, the incoming pres- 
 ence and activity of the supernatural in the world and time. 
 
 Let us fix this clearly in mind, as its distinction among all religions, 
 causing it to stand apart and alone. From the beginning of the Old Testa- 
 ment to the end of the New, -t is a aisclosure in record of what God in 
 grace has done, is doing, and will do for the deliverance, recovery, and 
 eternal salvation from sin of lapsed, sin-enslaved humanity. It is a super- 
 natural redemptory work and provision with an inspired instruction as to 
 the way and duty of life. If Christianity be not this Christendom has been 
 deluded. It is the religion of the divine love and help which the race needs 
 and only God could give. 
 
 Let us sum up the results of this hurried comparison. On the funda- 
 mental 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 religions— the Egyptian, Chinese, 
 Indian, Original Zoroastrianism, and Druidism, obscured and almost lost in 
 later growths of enormous polytheisms, 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 the rudest and most distorted notions, by almost all religions, but 
 darkened out of sight by pantheistic developments in India, China, Druid- 
 ism, and among the Greeks. Creational activity in some sense and measure has 
 been almost everywhere included in the idea of God; but creatio ex nihilo 
 seems peculiar to Christianity. The attribution of ethical attributes to God 
 has varied in degrees 'according to the civilization and culture of the tribes 
 and nationsjor their 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 redemption from moral 
 evil is clearly asserted only in the Christian teaching. 
 
 The other historic faiths have grasped some of the great essential ele- 
 ments of theistic truth. We rejoice to trace and recognize them. But 
 they all shine forth in Christian revelation. As I see it, the other historic 
 beliefs have no elements of true theistic conception to give to Christianity 
 what 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, presenting to mankind the way, the truth, 
 and the life. And we Joy to hold it and offer it as the hope of the world. 
 
 THEOLOGY OF JUDAISM. 
 
 DE. ISAAC WISE RABBI OF CINCINNATI. 
 
 "We are now to have the pleasure," said the chairman, "of 
 hearing from that Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all. 
 The oldest faith will speak to us. I am sure that all who call 
 
 I
 
 THEOLOGY OF JUDAISM. 97 
 
 themselves Christians are ready to respond to the simple creed 
 of that ancient faith — 'Hear, oh Israel, the Lord, our God, is 
 one Lord' — and we are also ready to join in the testimony of 
 Israel's greatest psalmist — 'Happy is he who has the Lord 
 Grod of Israel for his trust.' I take great pleasure in introduc- 
 ing to you Dr. Isaac M. Wise, a well-known scholar, who, by his 
 teaching, has left a deep impression on the public thought of 
 
 this country," 
 
 The theology of Judaism, in the opinion of many, is a new academic 
 discipline. They maintain Judaism is identical with legalism, it is religion 
 of deeds without dogmas. Theology 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 theology at all, deeds and no creeds. For 
 religion is undetinable and purely subjective; theology defines and casts 
 free sentiments into dictatorial words. Religion unites and theology divides 
 the human family, not seldom, into hostile factions. 
 
 Research andVettection antagonize these objections. They lead to con- 
 viction, 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 distract- 
 ing f ractionalism in the transcendental realm. Truth well defined is the most 
 successful arbitrator among mental combatants. It seems, therefore, 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 con- 
 science 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 reli- 
 gion. Yet legalism and observances are but one form of Judaism. The un- 
 derlying 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 divine 
 inspiration and revelation: Ratiocinate this as you may, it always centers 
 in the proposition: There exists an inter-relation and a faculty of inter- 
 communication in the nature of that universal, prior, and superior being 
 and the individualized being called man; and this also is a dogma. 
 
 Scriptures teach that the Supreme Being is also Sovereign Providence. 
 He provides sustenance for all, 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 law- 
 giver, 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 proposi- 
 tion of ''Die sittliche WeltorJnung," the universal, moral, just, benevolent 
 and beneficent theocracy, which is the cause, source and textbook 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 jvistice 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 rea-
 
 98 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 son, as the origin of human knowledge was traced, mankind was in posses- 
 sion of four dogmas. They were always present in men's consciousness, 
 although philosophy has not discovered the antecedents of the syllogism, 
 of which these are the conclusions. The exceptions are only such tribes, 
 clans or individuals that had not yet become conscious of their own senti- 
 ments, not being crystalized into conceptions, and in consequence thereof 
 had no words to express them, but those are very rare exceptions. These 
 four dogmas are: 
 
 1. There exists — in one or more forms of being — a superior being, liv- 
 mg, mightier and higher than any other being known or imagined. (Exis- 
 tence of God.) 
 
 2. There is in the nature of this superior being, and in the nature of 
 man, the capacity and desire of mutual symjjathy, inter-relation and inter- 
 communication. (Revelation and worship.) 
 
 3. The good and the right, the true and the beautiful, are desirable, the 
 opposites thereof are detestable and repugnant to the superior being and to 
 man. ^Conscience, ethics, and Eesthetics.) 
 
 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 theol- 
 ogy 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 apparatus and 
 methods of cogitation, can not reach them, can not expound them, can not 
 negate tnem, and none ever did prove such negation satisfactorily even to 
 the individual reasoner himself. 
 
 All systems of theology are built on the four postulates. They differ 
 only in the definitions of the quiddity, the extension and expansion of these 
 dogmas in accordance with the progression or retrogression of different 
 ages and countries. They differ in their derivation of doctrine or dogma 
 from the main postulates; their reduction to practice in ethics and worship, 
 forms and formulas; their methods of application to human affairs, and 
 their notions of obligation, accountability, hope, or fear. 
 
 These accumulated differences in the various systems of theology, inas- 
 much as they are not logically contained in these postulates, are subject to 
 criticisms; au appeal to reason is always legitimate, a rational justification 
 is requisite. The arguments advanced in all these cases are not always 
 appeals to the standard of reason — therefore the disagreements — they are 
 mostly historical. " Whatever we have not from the knowledge of all man- 
 kind, we have from the knowledge of a very respectable portion of it in 
 our holy books and sacred traditions" is the main argument. So each 
 system of theology, in as far as it differs from others, relies for proof of its 
 particular conceptions and knowledges on its traditions, written or unwrit- 
 ten, as the knowledge of a portion of mankind; so each particular theology 
 depends on its sources. 
 
 So also does Judaism. It is based upon the four postulates of all 
 theology and in justification of its extensions and expansions, its derivation 
 of doctrine and dogma from the main postulates, its entire development, 
 it points to its sources and traditions and at various times also to the 
 standard of reason, not, however, till the philosophers pressed it to reason 
 in self-defense; because it claimed the divine authority for its sources, 
 higher than which there is none. And so we have arrived at our subject 
 
 We know what theology is, so we must define here only what Judaism 
 is. Judaism is the complex of Israel's religious sentiments ratiocinated to 
 conceptions in harmony with its Jehovistic God-cognition. 
 
 These conceptions, made permanent in the consciousness of this people, 
 are the religions knowledges which form the substratum to the theology of 
 Judaism. The Thorah maintains that its " teaching and canon " are divine. 
 
 1
 
 THEOLOGY OF JUDAISM. 99 
 
 Man's knowledge of the true and the good comes directly to human reason 
 and conscience (which is unconscious reason) from the supreme and uni- 
 versal reason, the absolutely true and good; or it comes to him indirectly 
 from the same source by manifestations of nature, the facts of history and 
 man's power of induction. This principle is in conformity with the second 
 postulate of theology, and its extension in harmony with the standard of 
 reason. 
 
 All knowledge of God and His attributes, the true and the good, came 
 to man by successive revelations, of the indirect kind first, which we may 
 call natural revelation, and the direct kind afterward, which we may call 
 transcendental revelation; both these revelations concerning God and His 
 substantial attributes, together with their historical genesis, are recorded 
 in the Thorah in the seven holy names of God, to which neither prophet 
 nor philosopher in Israel added even one, and all of which constantly recur 
 in all Hebrew literature. 
 
 What we call the God of revelation is actually intended to designate 
 God as made known in the transcendental revelations including the suc- 
 cessive God-ideas of natural revelation. His attributes of relation are made 
 known only in such passages of the Thorah, in which He Himself is reported 
 to have spoken to man of Himself, His name and His attributes, and not by 
 any induction or reference from any law, story, or doing ascribed to God 
 anywhere. The prophets only expand or define those conceptions of Deity 
 which these passages of direct transcendental revelation in the Thorah con- 
 tain. There exists no other source from which to derive the cognition of 
 the God of revelation. 
 
 Whatever theory or practice is contrary or contradictory to Israel's God- 
 cognition can have no place in the theology of Judaism. It compromises 
 necessarily. 
 
 The doctrine concerning providence, its relations to the individual, the 
 nations, and mankind includes the doctrine of covenant between God 
 and man, God and the fathers of the nation, God and the people of Israel, 
 or the election of Israel. 
 
 The doctrine concerning atonement. Are sins expiated, forgiven or par- 
 doned, and which are the conditions or means for such expiation of sins? 
 
 This leads us to the doctrine of divine worship generally, its obligatory 
 nature, its proper means and forms, its subjective or objective import, which 
 includes also the precepts concerning holy seasons, holy places, holy eon- 
 vocations and consecrated or specially appointed persons to conduct such 
 divine worship, and the standard to distinguish conscientiously in the Thorah, 
 the laws, statutes, and ordinances which were originally intended to be 
 always obligatory, from those which were originally intended for a certain 
 time and place, and under special circumstances. 
 
 The doctrine concerning the human will; is it free, conditioned or con- 
 trolled by reason, faith, or any other agency? This includes the postulate 
 of ethics. 
 
 The duty and accountability of man in all his relations to God, man, and 
 himself, to his nation and to his government and to the whole of the 
 human family. This includes the duty we owe to the past, to that which 
 the process of history developed and established. 
 
 This leads to the doctrine concerning the future of mankind, the ulti- 
 mate of the historical process, to culminate a higher or lower status of 
 humanity. This includes the question of perfectibility of human nature and 
 the possibilities it contains, which establishes a standard of duty we owe to 
 the future. 
 
 The doctrine concerning- personal immortality, future reward and 
 punishment, the means by which immortality is attained, the condition on 
 which it depends, what insures reward or punishment. 
 
 The theology of Judaism as a systematic structure must solve these
 
 1 
 
 100 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 problems on the basis of Israel's God-cognition. This being the highest in 
 man's cognition, the solution of all problems upon this basis, ecclesiastical, 
 ethical, or in eschatology, must be final in theology, provided the judgment 
 which leads to this solution is not erroneous. An erroneous judgment from 
 true antecedents is possible. In such cases the first safeguard is an appeal 
 to reason, and the second, though not secondary, is an appeal to holy writ 
 and its best commentaries. Wherever these two authorities agree, reason 
 and holy writ, that the solution of any problem from the basis of Israel's 
 God-cognition is correct, certitude is established, the ultimate solution is 
 found. 
 
 This is the structure of a systematic theology. Israel's God-cognition 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 are the theology of Judaism, higher than which none 
 can be. 
 
 THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF INDIA AND PRIMITIVE 
 REVELATION. 
 
 REV. MAUEICE PHILLIPS OF MADRAS. 
 
 The roore we go back, the more we examine the germs of any religion, tho 
 purer I believe we shall find the conceptions of the Deity-— Max Mullek. 
 
 The ancient religion of India is revealed in the Vedas. The Vedas con- 
 tain three strata of literature extending over a thousand years, viz., the 
 Manthras, the oldest hymns; the Brahmanas, treatises of ritualism, and the 
 Upanishadas, philosoplaical disquisitions. Each of these mark a distinct 
 period in the development of religion. To do justice, therefore, to the sub- 
 ject of this paper it would be necessary to trace the Vedic doctrine of the- 
 ology, cosmology, anthropology, and soteriology in each of these periods, 
 and to point out what light they throw on the Bible doctrine of a" primitive 
 revelation." Space, however, will not permit me to do more than to trace 
 roughly the first, viz., the Vedic doctrine of God, and to show that it can be 
 much more rationally accounted for on the supposition that it is a " rem- 
 iniscence " than on the supposition that it is an evolution. 
 
 The Manthras brings before us the ancient Hindus, then called Aryans, 
 worshiping the elements of nature as living persons, such as Dyaus, the 
 bright sky; Varuna, the all-embracing firmament; Indra, the cloudy atmos- 
 phere; Surya, the sun; Ushas, the dawn, and Prithivi, the broad earth. 
 Hence, their worship is denominated " physiolatry." This term,however, does 
 not cover the whole grovind. Their worship included the elements of nature 
 and something more; it included the natural and supernatural, so blended 
 as to be indistinguishable. Were it all nature there would be no room for 
 personification, for personification implies the knowledge of a person, and 
 the personification of a natural object as an object of worship implies the 
 conception, more or less clear, of what we call God. 
 
 The recognition of the supernatural in the natural is the result of that 
 tendency deeply rooted in humanity which impels man everywhere to seek 
 and to worship some being or beings greater than himself. Hence he grows 
 in religion as naturally and unconsciously as he grows into manhood. He 
 no sooner wakes into the consciousness that he is a being separate from 
 nature than he feels his dependence upon and moral relationship to some 
 being above nature, to whom he owes homage. This is the first sense of the 
 Godhead, the sensus numinis, " a sense divine of something interfused," a 
 sense not the result of reasoning, nor generalization, but an immediate per- 
 ception as real and irresistible as that of the Ego. And as a man is con- 
 
 I
 
 THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF INDIA. 101 
 
 scious of the Ego before knowing what man is, so he is conscious of the 
 supernatural before knowing what God is. This is necessarily a very vague 
 and incomplete idea of the Godhead, so vague as to elude definition and so 
 incomplete as not to be named. 
 
 'i'he Pelasgians, according to Herodotus, worshiped gods without hav- 
 ing names for any of them; and the ancient Germans, according to Tacitus, 
 worshiped God as " that secret thing known only by reverence." Many of 
 the Vedic bards express their consciousness of Him by the phrase •* That " 
 and " That One." They know that He is, but where and how they know 
 not, and hence they tried to find him in the phenomena of nature. 
 
 In perceiving tlie infinite we neither count, nor measure, nor compare, nor 
 name. We know not wiiat it is, but we know that it is, because we actually feel it 
 and are brought into contact with it.— Ma.c 2hiUp.r' s Ilibbert Lectures, 
 
 Besides that definite consciousness which logic formulates into laws, there is 
 also a definite consciousness which can not be formulated. Besides complete 
 thoughts, and besides the thoughts which though incomplete admit of comple- 
 tion, there are thoughts which it is impossible to complete and yet which are still 
 real, in the sense that they are normal affections of the mind.— Herbert Spencer- 
 
 But though they knew not God as a personal being distinct from natural 
 phenomena, they possessed a wonderful knowledge of the actions and attri- 
 butes which pre-eminently belong to Him. They ascribe to the xjersonitied 
 elements of nature the function of creator, preserver, and ruler, and the 
 attributes of infinity, omniscience, omnipotence, immortality, righteousness, 
 holiness, and mercy. The content of this knowledge is far more definite 
 and extensive than that furnished by the sensus numinis. The question 
 then arises, how do they acquire this knowledge? An answer to this ques- 
 tion will make clear the correctness of our definition of the "first sense of 
 the Godhead," and the means by which it was developed so as to embrace 
 the characteristics of the Deity. 
 
 There are only three answers conceivable. They acquired it (1) by intu- 
 ition; or (2) by experience; or (3) by revelation. 
 
 Did they acquire it by intuition? 
 
 We have stated already what knowledge of God we conceive man capa- 
 ble of acquiring by intuition, viz.: A vague, indefinite idea of the super- 
 natural in the natural, of some being above himself on whom he depends 
 and whom he should worship. But who that being is and his attributes 
 are, he has no means of knowing. If this be correct, it follows that the 
 ancient Hindus did not acquire their knowledge of a divine function and 
 attribute by intuition. 
 
 In order to test the validity of this position, let us suppose that man 
 possesses a power of intuition transcending that of the sensus numinis, by 
 means of which he is able, so to speak, to gaze immediately on God; and to 
 this power let us ascribe the Vedic knowledge of the divine functions and 
 attributes. No one will doubt, I presume, that in a mental intuition of 
 this kind it is inconceivable that one can acquire knowledge of the divine 
 functions and attributes without at the same time acquiring knowledge of 
 the divine person'ito whom they belong. 
 
 It is historically true, however that the ancient Hindus did not know 
 God as a person distinct from nature; they only knew of His functions and 
 attributes, which they applied indiscriminately to all the gods of their pan- 
 theon, the personified elements of nature. All these gods are alike supreme, 
 creators, preservers, omnipotent, beneficient, immortal. 
 
 Among you. O, gods, there is none that is small, none that is young; for all are 
 great indeed.— i?. V., viii., 30. 
 
 It might be affirmed that the personality of God was originally appre- 
 hended by man, and that, in course of time, it gradually faded from his 
 memory till nothing was left but the divine attribute. This is inconsistent 
 with the supposition that man possesses a power of intuition transcending 
 that of the sensus numinis. For as long as man is conscious, he must be
 
 102 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 conscious of tliat power, and if that power once supplied him with the 
 knowledge of God and His attributes, there is no reason to suppose that it 
 will not always do so. 
 
 Again, had the ancient Hindus acquired their knowledge of the divine 
 functions and attributes by intuition, which intuition involves a knowledge 
 of the divine person, and assuming that the mental powers and the spir- 
 itual necessities of man are similar everywhere, we must suppose that other 
 nations would have acquired divine knowledge in the same: way. There is 
 no fact, however, better known 'to the studenl of ancient religion than that 
 no individuals, much less nations, when left to themselves, have ever 
 acquired anything like a clear and certain conception of a supreme being 
 distinct from nature. "Even Plato- did not make his way up'to'the idea of 
 a divine, self -conscious, personal being; nor distinctly propounded the ques- 
 tion of the personality of God. It is true that Aristotle maintained more 
 definitely than Plato that the Deity must be a personal being. But even 
 for him it was not absolute, free, creative power, but one limited by primor- 
 dial matter; not the world's creator, but only one who gave shape to the 
 rude materials, and so not truly absolute." 
 
 If the ancient Hindus did not acquire their knowledge of the divine 
 functions and attributes intuitivel}% did they acquire it empirically ? 
 
 We acquire knowledge by experience, by what we see, hear, and feel. 
 And the conclusions of experience are wider than its data. We have the 
 concepts of infinite space and time as an inference from, or an intuition by, 
 the finite space and time supplied to us by the senses. When we look back 
 into space as far as we can see we can neither fix its beginning nor its end- 
 ing. And when we contemplate time, whether we look backward or for- 
 ward, there is always a beyond and a before. Both time and space are to 
 us boundless, infinite: Therefore there is no apriori reason why the an- 
 cient Hindus should not have acquired their knowledge of the divine attri- 
 butes and functions by the impressions of sense and the reflections of 
 reason —the mind in contact with the external world. 
 
 By contemplating the boundlessness of the firmament from which the 
 dawn and the sun flash forth every morning they might have acquired the 
 concept of the infinite to which they gave expression in Aditi. The regu- 
 larity with which the heavenly bodies move, the succession of day and 
 night, and the periodical recurrence of the seasons within the sphere of 
 Varuna, the heaven-god, might have suggested the idea that he is the ruler 
 of all things, visible and invisible, whose laws are fixed and unassailable. 
 The permanenceof the firmament as contrasted with the visible movements 
 of the sun, moon and stars, the clouds, the storms, and the changes and 
 bustle of this noisy world, might have originated the idea of undecaying, 
 immortal, or eternal. Again, when contemplating the heaven-god en- 
 throned high above the earth, with the sun, moon, and stars as eyes pene- 
 trating the darkness and seeing all that takes place in the world below, 
 what is the more natural than that they should call him asura visvadevas, 
 the all-knowing spirit or the omniscient. 
 
 Moreover, perceiving that light and form, color and beauty, emerge every 
 morning from a gloom in which all objects seem confounded, the old Aryans 
 might have supposed that in a like manner the brightness, order, and 
 beauty of the world had sprung from darkness from which the elements of 
 all things had existed, to indistinguishable chaos. And since it is the sun 
 that disperses^the darkness of the night and gives back to man the heaven 
 and the earth every morning, it is not difficult to imagine how they might 
 have concluded that the sun brought them forth from the original chaos, 
 and hence that he is the creator. 
 
 Lastly, by applying superlative epithets to the sun it would become 
 supreme. " God among gods and the divine leader of all the gods," and so 
 the concept of omnipotence might have been formed. 
 
 I
 
 THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF INDIA. 103 
 
 In this way, it is conceivable that the funstionsof creator, preserver, and 
 ruler, and the attributes of infinity, omniscience, omnipotence, and eternity 
 might have been empirically acquired. And, as it is natural to suppose 
 that all the excellent qualities which man is conscious to exist in himself 
 must necessarily exist in the same manner, but in an infinitely higher 
 degree, in the' object of the worship, we may conceive that thus the moral 
 attributes of holiness, justice, mercy, love, and goodness ascribed to God 
 might have been ascribed. 
 
 When we say that the knowledge of God's attributes and functions 
 might have been acquired empirically, we must remember that this is con- 
 ceivable by us who, already possessing that knowledge, bring it to the con- 
 templation of natural phenomena. It was very different with the ancient 
 Hindus, for they ex hypothesi had no such antecedent knowledge. All 
 that they had was the consciousness of the supernatural in the natural 
 which they could neither define nor separate, and which, consequently, they 
 worshiped together with the natural. Is it probable then that they, 
 starting with that consciousness, only elaborated their knowledge of the 
 divine functions and attributes from the impressions of sense and the 
 reflections of reason ? 
 
 Let us suppose that they did so. and it follows that they possessed a 
 power of abstraction and generalization equal to that of the best thinkers 
 in any age. There is nothing, apriori, impossible in this, but we may 
 reasonably ask: Is the possession of such a power consistent with the 
 historical fact that they were not conscious of the contradiction involved 
 in the ascription of infinite attributes to many individuals? This contra- 
 diction can neither be resolved into mere exaggerated expressions uttered 
 in the ecstatic fervor of prayer and praise nor in different epochs or diver- 
 sities of worship, for it is the chief characteristic of the whole Vedic 
 theology, as strikingly expressed by Professor Max MuUer: 
 
 Each god is to the mind of the suppliant as good as all the gods. He is felt at 
 the time as supreme and absolute, in spite of the necessary limitations which to 
 our mind a plurality of gods must entail on every single god. 
 
 Is the possession of this power consistent with the historical fact that 
 the ancient Hindus never grasp the idea of God as a personal being distinct 
 from nature? In obedience to the imperious law of the human mind, which 
 leads it to logical unity, they discard the old Vedas, the old gods of nature, 
 and affirmed in the Upanishads the existence of " One without a second." 
 
 But this "one" is not the unity of religion which is monotheism, but the 
 unity of philosophy which is monism. It is Brahma, and Brahma is the 
 abstract totality of all existences. It is not the abstract of any one group 
 of thoughts, ideas, or conceptions. It is analogous to the word existence 
 in Western philosophy. For that which is common to all thoughts, ideas, 
 or conceptions, and can not be got rid of is what we predicate of existence. 
 Dissociated as this becomes from each of its modes by the perpetual 
 changes of those modes, it remains an indefinite consciousness of some- 
 thing constant under all modes — of being apart from its appearance. 
 
 The sages of the Upanishads grasped the idea of existence — of some- 
 thing constant under all modes — which they call Brahma. But they went 
 further. They denied the reality of all modes, regarding the world as 
 phenomenal only, and all things therein fictitious emanations from Brahma, 
 like mirage from the rays of the sun. " All living things are only the one 
 self fictitiously limited to this or that fictitiovis mind or body and return into 
 the self as soon as the fictitious limitations disappear.'' 
 
 One can not insist too strongly on the distinction between the highest 
 abstraction of philosophy and the highest abstraction of religion; for many 
 eminent writers failing to appreciate this distinction have fallen into the 
 error of identifiying the monism of the Upanishads with the monotheism of 
 the Bible. How infinitely they differ I need not indicate, but I wish, to
 
 1 
 
 104 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 emphasize the fact that, in proportion as the ancient Hindus gave uj , he 
 idea of God as a living, energizing, sympathizing person, they lost gro. nd, 
 from a religious point of view. For personality, with all its limitation, 
 though far from exhibiting God as he is, is yet truer, grander, and more ele- 
 vating, more religious than those barren, vague, meaningless abstractions in 
 which men babble nothing under the name of infinite. Personal conscious 
 existence of which man can dream, for it is that which knows, not that 
 which is known. 
 
 Is the supposition that the ancient Hindus elaborated the divine 
 attribute' and functions from the impressions of sense and the reflections of 
 reason consistent with the order of thought found in the Veda? Man in 
 the mental as well as the physical w'orld has to proceed slowly and conquer 
 gradually by the "sweat of his brow." Therefore, if the Vedic Aryans 
 thought out the divine functions and attributes, they did so gradually and 
 one ought' to see one concept following another in theprocess of evolution, 
 and the fully developed concept at the end. The reverse, however, is the 
 order of things in the Veda. There one finds the concepts of the divine 
 functions and attributes fully developed in the Manthras,, the oldest por- 
 tions of the Veda; whereas, in the Upanishads, the latest portions, we find 
 them dissipated one after another till nothing is left but Nirguna Brahma, 
 Brahma without equalities, predicates, or determination — a something to be 
 defined by "No," "No." 
 
 The loftiest conception of God, in conjunction with the most intense 
 consciousness of sin, found expression in Veruna, the oldest god of the 
 undivided Aryans. During the long interval between Veruna and Brahma 
 that conception was gradually corrupted, and with it the ethical conscious- 
 ness of sin became well nigh extinct. There is no reason to believe that 
 that corruption began with the Veda age, but, on the contrary, there are 
 many indications that it had begun much earlier. Both Varuna and Dyaus 
 (another primitive god) appear in the Manthras as fully developed mytho- 
 logical beings. Varuna is associated with the Adityas, and Dyaus is married 
 to Prythivi. Now, if mythology be, as Professor Max Muller says, "a dis- 
 ease of language which presupposes a healthy state," it is obvious that a 
 long time was necessary to confound the God of heaven with the material 
 heaven, and to transform the latter into mythological form which found 
 expression in Varuna and Dyaus. 
 
 Two things are then evident: That the higher we push our inquiries 
 into the ancient religion of India, the purer and simpler we find the con- 
 ception of God, and that in proportion as we come down the stream of time 
 the more corrupt and complex it becomes. We conclude, therefore, that 
 the ancient Hindus did not acquire their knowledge of the divine attributes 
 and functions empirically, for in that case we should find at the end what 
 we now find at the beginning. Hence, we must seek for a theory that will 
 account alike for the acquisition of that knowledge, the godlike conception 
 of Varuna, and its gradual depravation which culminated in Brahma. 
 
 And what theory will cover these facts as well as the doctrine of a 
 "primitive revelation"? If we admit on the authority of the Bible that 
 God revealed himself originally to man, the knowledge of divine functions 
 and attributes possessed by the ancient Hindus would be a reminiscence. 
 And, if we admit on both the authority of the Bible and consciousness, the 
 sinful tendency of human nature which makes the retention of divine 
 knowledge either a matter of difficulty or aversion, it is easy to conceive 
 that the idea of God, as a spiritual personal being, would gradually recede 
 and ultimately disappear from memory, while his attributes and functions 
 would survive like broken fragments of a once united whole. 
 
 God is a spirit distinct from nature, and the difficulty is to restrain that 
 characteristic in spite of the powerful tendency of the mind to contemplate 
 existences as having the property of extension in space and protension in 
 
 I
 
 RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF THE HINDUS. 105 
 
 time. And when this characteristic is forgotten and material objects sub- 
 stituted in its place, the divine attributes and functions naturally pass over 
 to these objects and by association are remembered. 
 
 There is a great law in the spiritual as well as the natural world by 
 which an organism neglecting to develop itself or failing to maintain what 
 has been bestowed upon it, deteriorates and becomes more and more adapted 
 to a degenerate form of life. Under the operations of this law the ancient 
 Hindus and all other nations neglecting to cultivate spiritual religion lost 
 the knowledge of God as a personal being separate from nature bestowed 
 upon them; and dissected theinfinite one into many finite ones, or in the 
 words of scripture they "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped 
 and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever." 
 
 This being the case, we must believe that when applying the divine 
 attributes and functions to the personified elements of nature, the ancient 
 Hindus were using language the full meaning of which they did not under- 
 stand. For had they understood it, they could not fail to perceive the con- 
 tradiction involved in ascribing infinite attributes to more than one being. 
 The language is an echo of a pure worship in a primeval home. It is appli- 
 cable to God alone. It is meaningless when applied to anyone or anything 
 else. It is the language of monotheism, and monotheism was a primitive 
 religion. 
 
 Professor H. H. Wilson says : " There can be no doubt that the funda- 
 mental doctrine of the Vedas is monotheism." And Profes«:or Max MuUer 
 says : " There is a monotheism that precedes the polytheism of the Veda. 
 The idea of God, though never entirely lost, has been clouded over by error. 
 The names given to God have been changed and their meaning has faded 
 away from the memory of man. M. Adolph Pictet in his great work, ' Les 
 Origiues Europiennes,' gives it as his opinion that the religion of the un- 
 divided Aryansiwas a monotheism more or less vaguely defined.' And both 
 Pictet and Muller maintain that traces of the primitive monotheism are 
 visible in the Veda, that the 'remembrance of a God, one and infinite, 
 breaks throvigh the mists of idolatrous phraseology like the blue sky that 
 is hidden by a passuig cloud.' " 
 
 Lastly, is it not philosophically true that polytheism presupposes mono- 
 theism? Is it true, as some suppose, that polytheism is older than mono- 
 theism? Is it not likely that the simjjle belief is older than the more 
 complex? Can the concept many precede the concept one? Is not plurality 
 the aggregate of units? What is the development of thought as seen in 
 children? Is it not from one to two, from the singular to the plural, from 
 the simple to the complex, from unity to diversity, and then by generaliza- 
 tion to abstract unity? 
 
 We conclude, therefore, that the knowledge of the divine functions and 
 attribvites possessed by the Vedic Aryans was neither the product of intui- 
 tion nor experience, but a " survival," the result of a " primitive revelation." 
 
 The Vedic doctrines of cosmology and anthropology lead to the same 
 conclusion. 
 
 RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF THE HINDUS. 
 
 MANILAL NI DVIVEDI OF BOMBAY. 
 
 Hinduism is a wide term, but, at the same time, a vague term. The 
 word Hindu was invented by the Mohammedan conquerors of Aryavata, 
 the historical name of India, and it denotes all who reside beyond the 
 Indus. Hinduism, therefore, correctly speaking, is no religion at all. It 
 embraces within its wide intention all shades of thought, from the atheistic 
 Jainas and Baviddhas to the theistic Sampradaikas and Samajists and the
 
 106 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 rationalistic Advaytins. But we may agree to use the term in the sense of 
 that body of philosophical and religious principles which are professed in 
 part or whole by the inhabitants of India. I shall confine myself in this 
 short address to unfolding the meaning of this term, and shall try to show 
 the connection of this meaning with the ancient records of India, the Vedas. 
 
 Before entering upon this task permit me' however, to make a few pre- 
 liminary observations. And tu-st it would greatly help us on if we had set- 
 tled a few points, chief among them the meaning of the word religion. Re- 
 ligion 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 three-fold connotation. Religion divides itself into physics, 
 ontology, and ethics, and without being that vague something which is? set 
 up to satisfy the 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 understood there is- quite a number of them — has therefore 
 some theory of the physical universe, complemented by some sort of spirit- 
 ual government, and a code of ethics consistent with that theory and that 
 government. 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. 
 
 The next, point I wish to clear is the chronology of the Puranas. I mean 
 the chronology given in the Puranas. Whereas the Indian religion claims 
 extravagant antiquity for its teachings, the tendency of Christian writers 
 has been to cramp everything within the narrow period of 6,000 years. But 
 for the numerous vagaries and fanciful theories these extremes give birth 
 to this point would have no interest for us at the present moment. With 
 the rapid advance made by physical science in the West numerous testi- 
 monies have been unearthed to show the untenableness of Biblical chronol- 
 ogy, 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. Every- 
 one has a natural inclination toward his native land and language, and par- 
 ticularly toward the religion in which he is brought up. It, however, be- 
 hooves 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 necessar}' precautious that the 
 following pages may not appear to make any extraordinary demands upon 
 the intelligence of those brought up in the atmosphere of the so-called 
 " Oriental research " in the West. 
 
 We now address ourselves to the subject before us. At least six differ- 
 ent and well-marked 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: (1) the 
 Veda; (2) the Sutra; (.3) the Darsana; (4) the Purana; (5) the Samapradava; 
 (6) the Samaja. Each of these is enough to fill several volumes, and all I 
 attempt here is a cursory survey of "Hinduism" in the religious sense of 
 the word. 
 
 1. Let us begin with the Vedas. The oldest of the four Vedas is admit- 
 tedly 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, found at every page, prevent us from regarding these 
 records as containing only the outpourings 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 conalude that the childish poetry of 
 primitive hearts, Agni and Vishne and Indra and Rudra, are indeed so 
 many names of different gods, but each of them had really a threefold 
 aspect.
 
 RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF THE HINDUS. 107 
 
 Viaiine, for example, in his 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 conception of the spiritual unity of the 
 cosmos, as found in the Vedas, is the crux of western oriental research. 
 The learned doctors are unwilling to see more than the slightest trace of 
 this conception in the Veda, for, they say, it is all nature worship, the invo- 
 cation of different independent powers which held the wandering mind of 
 this section of primitive humanity in submissive admiration and praise. 
 However well this may accord with the psychological development of the 
 human mind, there is not the slightest semblance of evidence in the Vedae 
 to show that these records belong to that hypothetical period of human 
 progress. 
 
 In the Vedas there are marks everywhere of the recognition of the idea 
 of one God, the God of nature, manifesting himself in many forms. This 
 word, "God," is one of those which have been the stumbling-block of 
 philosophy. God, in the sense of a personal 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 doubt- 
 ful whether philosophy, be it that of a Kant or a Hegel, has ever 
 accomplished anything more. It hereby stands to reason that men 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. 
 
 I humbly beg todilTer from thosewho see in monotheism, in the recog- 
 nition of a personal God apart from, nature, the acme of intellectual devel- 
 opment. I believe that is only a kind of anthropomorphism which the 
 human mind stumbles upon in its first efforts to understand the unknown. 
 The ultimate satisfaction of human reason and emotion lies in the realiza- 
 tion of that universal essence which is the all. And I hold an irrefragable 
 evidence that this idea is' present In the Veda, the numerous gods and their 
 invocations notwithstanding. This idea of the formless all, the Sat — i. e., 
 esse-being — called Atman and Brahman in the Upanishads, and further 
 explained in the Darsanas, is the central idea of the Veda, nay, the root 
 idea of the Hindu religion in general. 
 
 There are several ideas for the opposite error of finding nothing more 
 than the worship of many gods in the Vedas. In the tirst place, V/estern 
 scholars are not quite 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 Brahmanas and the Upanishads as well; whereas, 
 Oriental scholars have persisted in understanding the word in the first 
 sense alone. The Samhita is, no doubt, a collection 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, observable by any one who can read 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 Oriental- 
 ist 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 this central idea of the Veda, we shall understand the real 
 meaning of Hinduism as suQh. 
 
 The other conditions of the world 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, the Sutras and 
 Smritis, based on the ritualistic portion of Vedic literature. 
 
 2. Sutra means an aphorism. In this period we have aphoristic works 
 beaming upon ritual, philosophy, morals, grammar, and other subjects. 
 Thougn this period is distinct from the Vedic and subsequent periods it is
 
 108 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS- 
 
 entirely unsafe to assume that this or any other period occurred histori- 
 cally in the order of succession adopted for the purpose of this essay. 
 Between the Veda and the Sutra lie the Brahmanas, with the Upanishads 
 and Aryanakas and the Smritis. The books called Brahmanas and Upan- 
 ishads form part of the Veda, as explained before, the former explaining 
 the r'tualistic use and application of Vedic hymns, the latter systematizing 
 the unique philosophy contained in them. "What the Brahmanas explained 
 allegorically, and in the quaint 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 
 pupil, these latter works are called Smritis, something remembered and 
 recorded after the Smritis. The Sutras deal with the Brahmanas and 
 Smritis on the one hand, and with the Upanishads on the other. These 
 latter we shall reserve for consideration in the next stage of religious 
 development, but it should never be supposed that the central 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 second with the Brahmanas, and the 
 third with the law as administered by Smritis. The first set of Sutras 
 deals with the institution of Varnas and Asramas and with the various 
 rites and duties belonging to them. The second class of Sutras deals with 
 the larger Vedic sacrifices, and those of the third deals with that special 
 law subsequently known as Hindu law. It will be interesting to deal 
 "en masse" with these subjects in this place — leaving the subject of law 
 out of consideration. 
 
 At first let VIS say a few words about caste. In Vedic times the whole 
 Indian people is spoken of broadly as the Aryas and the Anaryas. 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 fanciful root ar, to 
 till. The Aryas are divided into 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 mutually exclusive in the taking of food or' the giving in marriage of 
 sons and daughters. Nay, men used to be prompted or degraded to supe- 
 rior or inferior Varnas according to individual deserts. In the Sutra 
 period we find all this considerably altered. Manis speaks of promiscuous 
 intercourse 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 
 proved the bane of India's welfare. Varna and Jati are foremost among 
 many other important features which we -find grafted on Hinduism in this 
 period. We find in works of this period that the life of every man is dis- 
 tributed into fovxr 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 svibject of the Samskaras, certain 
 rites which under the Sutras every Hindu is bound to perform if he pro- 
 fesses to be a Hindu. Those rites, twenty-five in all, may be divided into 
 three groups, rites incumbent, rites optional and rites incidental. The 
 incumbent rites are such as every householder is bound to observe for 
 securing immunity from sin. Every householder must rise early in the 
 morning, wash himself, revise what he has learned and teach 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. 
 
 I
 
 RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF THE HINDUS. 109 
 
 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, ending by inviting some stray comer to 
 dinner with him. Before the householder has thus done his duty by his 
 teachers, gods and Pitris and men, he can not go about his business without 
 incurring the deadliest guilt. 
 
 The optional rites refer to certain ceremonies in connection with the 
 dead, whose souls are supposed to rest with the lunar Pitris for about a 
 thousand years or more before reincarnation. These are called Sraddhas, 
 ceremonies whose essence is Sraddha faith. There are a few other cere- 
 monies in connection with the commencement or suspension of studies, and 
 these, together with the Sraddhas, just referred to, make up the four 
 optional Samskaras, which the Smritis allow everyone to perform according 
 to his means. 
 
 By far the most important are the sixteen incidental Samskaras. I shall, 
 however, dismiss the tirst nine of these with simple enumeration. Four of 
 the nine refer respectively to the time of first cohabitation, 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 place on an auspicious day. 
 The tenth, with the 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 be 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 Brahmans, 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- 
 stantly on the body, passing it cross-ways over the left shoulder and under 
 the right 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 truthful- 
 ness. This period of pupilage ends after nine years at the shortest, and 
 thirty-six years at the longest period. The boy then returns home, after 
 duly rewarding his teacher, and finds out some suitable girl for his wife. 
 
 This return in itself makes up the fifteen Samskaras. The last, but not 
 the least, is the vivaha — matrimony. The Sutras and Smritis are most 
 clear on the injunctions about the health, learning, competency, family 
 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 ordaining that there 
 must be a aistance of at least ten years between the respective age 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 be affianced at about 
 eight or nine. Be it remembered that marriage and consummation of mar- 
 riage are two different things in India, as a consideration of this Samskara, 
 in connection with the fu'st of the nine enumerated at the beginning of this 
 group, will amply show, several kinds of marriage are enumerated, and 
 among the eight generally 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 sanctified by Vedic 
 mantras, repetition of which forms indeed an indispensable part of every 
 rite and ceremony. The pair exchange vows of fidelity and indissoluble 
 love and bind themselves never to separate, even after death. The wife is
 
 liO THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, 
 
 supposed henceforth to be as much dependent on her husband as he on 
 her, for, as the wife has to complete the fulfillment of love as her principal 
 duty, the husband has, in return, the entire maintenance of the wife, tem- 
 porarily and spiritually, as his principal duty. When the love thus fostered 
 has sufficiently educated the man into entire forgetfulness of self, he may 
 retire, either alone or with his wife, into some secluded forest and prepare 
 himself for the last period of life, complete renunciation — i. e , renunciation 
 of all individual attachment, of personal likes and dislikes, and realization 
 of 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, as 
 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 discharge of his or her 
 functions as marked out by nature, liberty beyond this limit means shadows, 
 disorder, and irresponsible license. And, 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 Upanishadas. 
 It is interesting to attend to the Charvakas. the materialists 
 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 independent gospel 
 of love and mercy. These schisms, however, had an indifferent 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 Upanishadas. In the Sutra period several Sutra works 
 were composed setting forth in a systematic manner the main teaching of 
 the Upanishads. Several works came to be written in imitation of these 
 subjects closely connected with the main issues of philosophy and meta- 
 physics. This spirit of philosophic activity gave rise to the six well-known 
 Darsanas. or schools of philosophy. Here again it is necessary to enter the 
 caution that the Darsanas do not historically belong to this period, for not- 
 withstanding 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, Mimansa, 
 and Vodanta, more conveniently grouped as the two Nyayas, 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 Nyaya then is exclusively concerned with the nature of knowl- 
 edge and the instruments of knowledge, 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 metaphysical aspect of the universe the former works out the 
 atomic theory and resolves the whole of the nameable 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 
 
 I
 
 ttELIGIOUS BELIEF OF THE HINDUS. Ill 
 
 with the will of an extra-cosmic personal creature called Isvara. Every 
 being has a soul called Jiva, whose attributes are desire, intelligence, pleas- 
 ure, pain, merit, demerit, etc. Knowledge arises from the union of Jiva 
 and mind, the atomic manas. The highest happiness lies in Jiva's becom- 
 ing permanently free from its attribute of misery. This freedom can be 
 obtained by the grace of Isvara, pleased with the complete devotion of the 
 Jiva. The Veda and the Upanishadas are recognized as authority in so 
 far as they are the word of this Iswara. 
 
 The Sankhyas differed entirely from the Naiyayikas in that they repu- 
 diated the idea of a personal creator of the universe. They argued that if 
 the atoms were in themselves sufficiently capable of forming themselves 
 into the universe, the idea of a God was quite superfluous. And as to intel- 
 ligence the Sankhyas maintained that it is inherent in nature. These 
 philosophers, therefore, hold that the whole universe is evolved by slow 
 degrees, in a natural manner, from one primordial matter called mulapra- 
 kriti, and that purusa, the principle or 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 — passivity, restless- 
 ness, and crossness. Prakriti continuous in endless evolution under the 
 influence of the second of these attributes, and the purusa falsely takes the 
 action upon himself and feels happy or miserable. When 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 happy 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 know as the Yogo-Darsana, accepts 
 the whole of the cosmology of the first Sankhya. but only adds to it a hypo- 
 thetical Isvara and largely expands the ethical side of the teaching by 
 setting forth several physical and psychological rules and exercises capa- 
 ble of leading to the last state of happiness, called Kanivalya — life accord- 
 ing to nature. This is theistic Sankhya. 
 
 The two Mimansas next call our attention. These are the orthodox 
 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 Veda, and that of the second is to explain the esoteric teachings of the 
 Upanishads. The former, therefore 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, which, according to its teaching, arises in the next world 
 from a strict observance of the 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 Utra or final 
 Mimansa, popularly knowns as the Nedanta, 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 Upanishads, and maintained 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 Venuanta phraseology be aptly described as the essence 
 of thought and being. The Vedanta is a system of absolute idealism in
 
 112 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 which subject and object are rolled into one unique consciousness, the 
 realization whereof is the end and aim of existence, the highest bliss — Moksa. 
 This state of Moksa 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 complete realization by creating imaginary distinctions of subject 
 and object. This system besides being the orthodox Darsana is philosoph- 
 ically an improvement upon all previous speculations. 
 
 The Nyaya is superseded by the Sanhya, whose distinction of matter 
 and intelligence is done away with in this philosophy of absolute idealism, 
 which has endowed the phrase '* life according to nature " with an entirely 
 new and more rational meaning. For in its ethics, this system teaches not 
 only the brotherhood but the Atma-hood Abheda, oneness, of not only man 
 but of all beings, of the whole universe. The light of the other Darsanas 
 pales before the blaze of unity and love lighted at the altar of the Veda by 
 this sublime philosophy, the shelter of minds like Plato, Pythagoras, Bruno, 
 Spinoza, Hegel, Schopenhauer in the West, and Krisna, Vyasa, Sankara 
 and others in the East. 
 
 We can not but sum up at this point. Hinduism adds one more attri- 
 bute to its connotation in this period, viz . , that of being a believer in the 
 truths of one or other of these Darsanas, or of one or other of the three anti- 
 Brahmanical schisms. And with this we must take leave of the great 
 Darsana sages and come to the period of the Puranas. 
 
 4. The subtleties of the Darsanas were certainly too hard for ordinary 
 minds and some popular exposition of the basic ideas of philosophy and 
 religion was indeed very urgently required. And this necessity began to 
 be felt the more keenly as Sanskrit began to die out as a speaking language 
 and the people to decline in intelligence, in consequence of frequent inroads 
 from abroad. No idea more 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 myths that they amuse themselves with philogical 
 quibbles and talk of the religion of the Puranas as something entirely 
 puerile and not deserving the name of religion. We ought, however, to 
 bear in mind that the Puranas are closely connected with the Vedas, 
 the Sutras, and the Darsanas, and all they claim to accomplish is a pop- 
 ular exposition of the basic ideas of philosophy, religion, and morality set 
 forth in them. 
 
 In other words, the Puranas are nothing more nor less than broad, clear 
 commentaries on the ancient teaching of the Vedas. For example, it is not 
 because Vyasa, the author of the Puranas, forgot that Vishnu was the name 
 of the sun in the Veda that he talked of a separate god of that name in 
 the Puranas, endowing him with all mortal attributes. This is how the 
 Orientalistic method of interpretation would dispose of the question. The 
 Hindus have better confidence in the insight of Vyasa, and could at once 
 see that inasmuch as he knew perfectly well what part the sun plays in the 
 evolution, maintenance, and dissolution of the world, he represented him 
 symbolically as God Vishnu, the all-pervading, with Laksimi, a personifica- 
 tion of Ihe life and prosperity which emanate from the sun for his comfort, 
 with the anauta — popularly the snake of that name, but esoterically the 
 endless circle of eternity — for his couch, and with the eagle, representing 
 the many antaric cycle, for his vehicle. There is in this one symbol suf- 
 ficient material for the ignorant to build their faith upon and nourish the 
 religious sentiment, and for the initiate to see in it the true secret of Vedic 
 religion. And this nature of the Puranas is an indirect proof that the 
 Vedas are not mere poetical effusions of primitive man nor a conglomera- 
 tion of solar myths disguised in different shapes.
 
 RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF THE HINDUS. 113 
 
 The cycles just referred to put me in mind of another aspect of Pura- 
 nika mythology. The theory of cycles known as Kalpas, Manvantaras, and 
 Yugas 18 clearly set forth in the Puranas and appears to make exorbitant 
 demands upon our credulity. The Kalpa of the Puranas is a cycle of 
 4,320,000,000 years, and the world continues in activity for one Kalpa, after 
 which it goes into dissolution and remains in that condition for another 
 Kalpa, to be followed by a fresh period of activity. Each Kalpa has four- 
 teen well-marked subcycles called Manvantaras, each of which is again 
 made up of four periods called Yugas. The name Manvantara means time 
 between the Manus, and Manu means "with one mind," that is to say, 
 humanity, the whole suggesting that a Manvantara is the period between 
 one humanity and another on this globe. Whence it will also be clear why 
 the present Manvantara is called Vaivasvata, "belonging to the sun," for, 
 as is well established, on that luminary depends the life and being of man 
 on this earth. 
 
 This theory of cycles and subcycles is amply corroborated by modern 
 geological and astronomical researches, and considerable light may be 
 thrown on the evolution of man if with reason as our guide we study the 
 aspect of the Puranas. The theory of Simian descent is confronted in the 
 Puranas with a theory more in accord with reason and experience. But I 
 have no time to go into the details of each and every Puranika myth. I 
 can only assure you, gentlemen, that all that is taught in the Puranas is 
 capable of being explained consistently in accord with the main body of 
 ancient theosophy expounded in the Vedas, the Sutras, and the Darsanas. 
 We must only free ourselves from what Herbert Spencer calls the religious 
 bias and learn to look facts honestly in the face. 
 
 I must say a word here about idol worship, for it is exactly in or after 
 the Pauranika period that idols came to be used in India. It may be said 
 without the least fear of contradiction, that no Indian idolator, 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-pervading, 
 and uses it as a convenient object for purposes of concentration, which, 
 being accomplished, he does not hesitate to thi-ow away. The religion of 
 the Tantras, which plays an important part in this period, has considerable 
 influence on this question, and the symbology they taught 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 purpose — that 
 of perpetuating a teaching as old as the world, and that of serving as con- 
 venient aids to concentration. 
 
 These interpretations of Pauranika myths find ample corroboration in 
 the myths that are met with in all ancient religions of the world; and these 
 explanations of idol worship have an exact parallel application to the wor- 
 ship of the Tau in Egypt, of the cross in Christendom, and of the Kaba in 
 Mohammedanism. 
 
 With these necessarily brief explanations we may try to see what 
 influence the Puranas have had on Hinduism in general. It is true the 
 Puranas have added no new connotation to the name, but the one very 
 important lesson they have taught the Hindu is the principal of universal 
 toleration. The Puranas have distinctly taught the unity of the All, and 
 satisfactorily demonstrated that every creed and worship is but one of the 
 many ways to the realization of the All. A Hindu would not condemn any 
 man for his religion, for he has well laid to heart the celebrated couplet of 
 the Bhagavat: "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 Sampradayas. 
 The word Sampradaya means tradition, the teaching handed down from 
 teacher to pupil. The whole Hindu religion, considered from the beginning
 
 114 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 
 Vedanta. In the ethical aspect of this philosophy, stress has been laid on 
 knowledge (gnosis) and free action. Under the debasing influence of a for- 
 eign 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. Three important schools of philosophy arose in the period after 
 the Puranas. Besides the ancient Advaita we have the Dvaita, the Vis- 
 uddhadvaita, and the Visishthadvaita schools of philosophy in this period. 
 The iirst is purely dualistic postulation, the separate yet co-ordinate exist- 
 ence of mind and matter. The second and third profess to the Unitarian, 
 but in a considerably modified sense of the word. 
 
 The Visuddhadvaita teaches the unity of the cosmos, out it insists on 
 the All having certain attributes which endow it with the desire to manifest 
 itself as the cosmos. The third system is purely dualistic, though it goes 
 by the name of modified Unitarianism. It maintains the unity of chit 
 (soul), achet (matter), and Isvara (God), each in its own sphere, the third 
 number of this trinity governing all and pervading the whole, though not 
 apart from the cosmos. Thus widely differing in their philosophy from the 
 Advaita, these three Sampradayas teach a system of ethics entirely opposed 
 to the one taughc in that ancient school called Dharma in the Advaita. 
 They displaced Jnana by Bhakti, and Karma by Prasada; that is to say, in 
 other words, they placed the highest happiness in obtaining the grace of 
 God by entire devotion, physical, mental, moral, and spiritual. The teach- 
 ers 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 11th and 12th centuries of the Christian era. 
 
 Every Acharya develops his school of thought from the Upanishads, 
 the Vedanta Sutras, and from that sub-sublime poem, "The Bhagvadgita," 
 the crest jewel of the Maha Bharata. The new Acharyas, 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 
 sacred Devanigari ceases henceforth to be the medium even of religious 
 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 Vedas, the Darsanas, the Puranas, and 
 the Tantras. But 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 Sampradayas. 
 
 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 thenceforth every Hindu must belong to one 
 of the Sampradayas or Panthas. 
 
 6. This brings us face to face with the India of to-day and Hinduism 
 as it stands at present. It is necessary at the outset to understand 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 tho$e 
 
 4
 
 RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF THE HINDUS. 115 
 
 which effect 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 edu- 
 cation 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 aus- 
 pices of materialistic science, and education guided by materialistic princi- 
 ples, 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 thought buried 
 in the Vedas, Upanishads, Sutras, Darsanas and Puranas, and the true 
 work of reformation commenced with the revival of Sanskirt. Several 
 pledged their allegiance to their time-honored philosophy. 
 
 But there remained many bright intellects given over to materialistic 
 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-pervading and formless 
 creature whose grace every soul desirous of liberation must attract by com- 
 plete devotion. This sounds like the teaching of the Visishthadvaita Sam- 
 pradaya, 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 
 these innovators in regard to their negation of the principle of reincarna- 
 tion. 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 your attention is the Aryasamaja of Swami 
 Dayananda. This society subscribes to the teaching of theNyaya-Darsana 
 and professes to revive the religion of the Sutras in all social rites and 
 observances. This Samaja 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 it appears to be full 
 of principles contained in the Advaita and Yoga philosophies. It can not 
 be gainsaid that this society has created much interest in religious studies 
 all over India, and has set earnest students to studying their ancient books 
 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 to the Samajas. The 
 Brahmo Somaj widely differs from Hinduism and the Aryasamaja or The- 
 osophical Society does not profess anything new. 
 
 To sum up, then, Hinduism may in general be understood to connote 
 the following principal attributes: (1.) Belief in the existence of a spirit- 
 ual principle in nature and in the principle of reincarnation. (2.) Observ- 
 ance of a complete tolerance and of the Samskaras, 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.) 
 Belonging to one of the Daranas, Sampradayas, or Panthas or to one of the 
 anti-Brahmanical schisms. 
 
 Having ascertained the general and particular scope and meaning of 
 Hinduism, I would ask you, gentlenien of this august parliament, whether 
 there is not in Hinduism material sufficient to allow of its being brought in
 
 116 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 contact with the other great religions of the world by subsuming them all 
 under one common genius? 
 
 In other words, is it not possible to enunciate a few principles of uni- 
 versal religion which every man who professes to be religious must accept, 
 apart from his being a Hindu or a Buddhist, a Mohammedan or a Pharsee, a 
 Christian or a Jew? 
 
 If religion is not wholly that something which satisfies the cravings of 
 the emotional nature of man, but is that rational demonstration of the cos- 
 mos, which shows at once the why and wherefore of existence, 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 themselves 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, I would submit the following simple principles 
 for your consideration : 
 
 1. Belief in the existence of an ultramaterial principle in nature and in 
 the unity of the all. 
 
 2. 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 philosophy would reject 
 them, no science would gainsay them, no system of ethics would deny 
 them, no religion which professes to be philosophic, scientific, or 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 
 of at the present moment. 
 
 ARGUMENT FOR THE DIVINE BEING. 
 
 W. T. HARRIS, UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 
 
 When Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, chairman of the afternoon 
 session, presented to the audience yesterday afternoon, W. T. 
 Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, he compli-' 
 mented him upon his earnestness in the quest of truth, and 
 added that, although the learned gentleman belonged to the 
 United States, he had all the credentials necessary to class him 
 with Brahmans of the highest caste. 
 
 The first thinker who discovered an adequate proof of the existence of 
 God was Plato. He devoted his life to thinking out the necessary condi- 
 tions of independent being, or, in other words, the form of any whole or 
 totality of being. 
 
 Dependent being implies something else than itself as that on which it 
 depends. It can not be said to derive its being from another dependent or 
 derivative being, because that has no being of its own to lend it. A whole 
 series of connected dependent beings must derive their origin and present 
 
 I
 
 ARGUMENT FOR THE DIVINE BEING. 117 
 
 subsistence from an independent being — that is to say, from what exists in 
 and through itself and imparts its being to others or derived beings. Hence 
 the independent being, which is presupposed by the dependent being, is 
 creative and active in the sense that it is self-determined and determines 
 others, 
 
 Plato in most passages calls this presupposed independent being by the 
 word idea, ex sos, or idea. He is sure that there are as many ideas as there 
 are total beings in the universe. He reasons that there are two kinds of 
 motion — that which is derived from some other mover, and that which is 
 derived from self —thus the self- moved and the moved -through-others 
 include all kinds of beings. But the moved-through-others presupposes 
 the self-moved as the source of its own motion. Hence the explanation of 
 all that exists or moves must be sought and found in the self-moved. 
 (Tenth book of Plato's laws.) In his dialogue, named " The Sophist," he 
 argues that ideas or independent beings must possess activity, and, in 
 short, be thinking or rational beings. 
 
 This great discovery of the principle that there must be independent 
 being if there is dependent being is the foundation of philosophy and also 
 of theology. Admit that there may be a world of dependent beings, each 
 one of which depends on another, and no one of them nor all of them 
 depend on an independent being, and at once philosophy is made impossible 
 and theology deprived of its subject-matter. But such admission would 
 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 
 it follows that the independence of the whole circle of being is something 
 transcendent— a negative unity creating and then annulling again the par- 
 ticular beings forming the members of the series. 
 
 This theory is illustrated in the doctrine of the correlations of forces. 
 The action of force number one gives rise to force number two and so on to 
 the end. But this implies that the last of the series gives rise to the first one 
 of the series, and the whole becomes a self-determined totality or independ- 
 ent being. Moreover, the 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 
 derivative; it is original, independent, and transcendent. It demands as 
 the next step of explanation the exhibition of the necessity of its produc- 
 tion 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 determina- 
 tions 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 objective deter- 
 mination 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 object- 
 ive field with the negation or annulment — this is its own act and in it 
 realizes its personal identity and its personal transcendence limitations.
 
 118 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Hence we may see that the doctrines of correlation of forces presupposes 
 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-determined 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 beings 
 or Platonic " ideas " is not fully satisfied when it traces dependent or deriv- 
 ative motion back to any intelligent being as its source; there 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 nature 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 one transcendent being. Hence the doctrine of 
 the idea of ideas — the doctrine of a divine being, who is rational and 
 personal, and who creates beings in time and space and 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 Timaeus 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 we have the first authentic survey of 
 human reason Human reason has two orders of knowing— one the know- 
 ing of dependent beings and the other the knowing of independent beings. 
 The first is the order of knowing through the senses; the second the order 
 of knowing by logical presupposition. I know by seeing, 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 per- 
 sonal reason who reveals a gracious purpose by creating finite beings in 
 time and space. 
 
 This must be or else human reason is at fault in its very foundations. 
 This must 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 Plato, rests upon this knowledge of transcendental being — a being that 
 transcends all determinations of extent and succession such as appertain 
 to space and time, and therefore, that transcends both time and space. 
 This transcendent being is perfect fullness of being, while the beings in 
 time and space are partial or imperfect beings in the sense of being embry- 
 onic or undeveloped, being partially realized and partially potential. 
 
 At this point the system of Aristotle can be understood in its harmony 
 with the Platonic system. Aristotle, too, holds explicitly that the beings in 
 the world which derive motion from other beings presuppose a first mover. 
 But he is careful to eschew the first expression self-moved as applying to 
 the prime mover. 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 unfolds his 
 doctrine that dependent beings presuppose a divine being whose activity is 
 pure and knowing. He alone is perfectly realized — the schoolmen call this 
 technically "pure act" — all other being partly potential, not having fully 
 grown to its perfection. Aristotle's proof of the divine existence is sub- 
 stantially the same as that of Plato — an ascent from dependent being by the 
 discovery of presuppositions to the perfect being who presupposes nothing 
 else — than the identification of the perfect or dependent being with think- 
 mg, personal, willing being. 
 
 This concept of the divine being is wholly positive as far as it goes,
 
 ARGUMENT FOR THE DIVINE BEING. 119 
 
 and nothing of it needs to be withdrawn after further philosophic reflec- 
 tion has discussed anew the logical presuppositions. More presuppositions 
 may be discovered — new distinctions discerned where none were perceived 
 before — but those additions only make more certain the fundamental theory 
 explained lirst by Plato and subsequently by Aristotle. This may be seen 
 by a glance at the theory of Christianity, which unfolds itself in the minds 
 of great thinkers of the fii'st six centuries of our era. The object of Chris- 
 tian theologians was to give unity and system to the new doctrine of the 
 divine — human nature of God taught by Christ. They discovered one by 
 one the logical presuppositions and announced them in the creed. 
 
 The Greeks had seen the idea of the Logos or eternally begotten son, the 
 Word that was in the beginning and through which created beings arose in 
 time and space. 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 problem 
 itself. The perfect can not be conceived as making the imperfect — it is too | 
 absurd to think that a good being should make a bad being. Only Brah- 
 man the absolute exists and all else is illusion — it is Maya. 
 
 How the illusion can exist is too much to explain. The Hindu has only 
 postponed the problem and not set it aside. His philosophy remains in 
 that contradiction. The finite including Brahma himself, who philoso- 
 phizes, is an illusion. An illusion recognizes itself as an illusion — an illu- 
 sion knows true being and discriminates itself from false being. Such is 
 the fundamental doctrine of the Sankhya philosophy, and the Sankhya is 
 the fundamental type of all Hindu thought. 
 
 The Greek escapes from this contradiction. He sees that the absolute 
 can not be empty, indeterminate, pure, being devoid of all attributes, with- 
 out consciousness. Plato and Aristotle see that the absolute must be pure 
 form — that is to say, an activity which gives form to itself— a self-deter- 
 mined being with subject and object the same, hence a self-knowing and 
 self-willed being. Hence the absolute cannot be an abstract unity like 
 Brahman, but must be a self-determined or a unity that gives rise to duality 
 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 object, is Himself, and hence equal to Himself, and also self- 
 conscious. It is not the world in time and space. To hold that God thinks 
 Himself as the world is pantheism — it is pantheism of the left wing of 
 the 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 iinparts gratui- 
 tously of His fullness of being to a series of creatures who have being only 
 in part. 
 
 But the Christian thinking adds two new ideas to the two already 
 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 procession thus must be in time, but the 
 tmie process must have eternally gone on because the third has eternally 
 proceeded and been proceeding.
 
 120 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The thought underneath this theory is evidently that the Second Per- 
 son 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 he makes 
 objective a complete world of evolution containing 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 own act of generating the Second — it is not going on, but hae 
 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 Second is the mutual love 
 of the Father and the Son, and this mutual love is the procession of the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 But the procession is not a part of the Holy Trinity; it is the creation in 
 time and space of an infinite world of imperfect beings developing 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 transcends them all as the perfect who 
 energizes in the imperfect to develop it and complete it. 
 
 Thus stated, the Christian thought is expressed in the symbol of the 
 Holy Trinity, explains fully the relations of the world 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 evolu- 
 tion 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 recognizes its own place in the 
 universe. 
 
 God, being without envy, does not grudge any good; he accordingly 
 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 proof of divine existence, St. Anselm's holds the first 
 place. But St. Anselm's proof can not be understood without recurring to 
 the insight of Plato. In his Proslogium St. Anselm finds that there is but 
 one thought which underlies all others — one thought universally presup- 
 posed, and this he describes as the thought of that than which there can 
 be nothing greater. "Id quo nihil majus cogitari potest." This assuredly 
 is Plato's thought of the totality. Everything not a total is less than the 
 totality. But the totality is the greatest possible being. 
 
 The essential thing to notice, however, is that St. Anselm perceives that 
 this one thought is objectively valid and not a mere subjective notion of 
 the thinker. No thinker can doubt that there is a totality — he can be per- 
 fectly sure that the plus the not me include all that there is. Gaunillo, 
 in the lifetime of St. Anselm, and Kant in recent times have tried to 
 refute the argument by alleging the general proposition — the conception 
 of a thing does not imply its corresponding existence. The proposition is 
 true, except in the case of this one ontological thought of the totality of 
 the thoughts that can be logically deduced from it. The second order of 
 knowing, by presumptions, implies an existence corresponding to each con- 
 cept. 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 Ego of a
 
 ARGUMENT FOR THE DIVINE BEING. 121 
 
 fool (insipiens) who says in his heart, "There is no God," it must be certain 
 that its self plus its not self makes a totality and that this totality surely 
 exists. The existence of his Ego is or may be contingent, but the totality 
 is certainly not contingent but necessary. This is an ontological necessity 
 and the basis of all further philosophical and theological thoughts. 
 
 St. Anselm does not, it is true, follow out this thought to its contempla- 
 tion 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-active. He saw 
 this BO clearly that he did not think it worth while to stop and unfold it. 
 But 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 hie third Meditation, has repeated with some modification 
 tne demonstration of St. Anselm. He holds, in substance, that the idea of 
 a perfect being is not subjective, but objective — we see that he is dealing 
 with the necessary objectivity of the idea of totality. The expression, 
 " perfect being," is entirely misunderstood by most v/riters in the history of 
 philosophy — it must be taken only in the sense of independent being- 
 being — for itself —being that can be what it is without support from 
 another — hence perfectly self-determined being. The expression, "perfect," 
 points directly to Aristotle's invented word, entelechy, whose literal mean- 
 ing is the having of perfection itself. The word is invented to express the 
 thought of the independent presupposed by dependent being. 
 
 Perfect being, as Aristotle teaches, is pure energy — all of his potentiali- 
 ties are realized — hence it is not subject to change nor is it passive or reci- 
 pient of anything from without — it is pure form, or rather self -formative. 
 Kead in the light of Plato's idea and Aristotle's entelechy, St. Anselm and 
 Descarte's proofs are clear and intelligible, and are not touched by Kant's 
 criticism. In his philosophy of religion and elsewhere, Hegel has pointed 
 out the source of Kant's misapprehension. Gaunilo 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. But neither the island Atlantis, nor any 
 other is and neither a hundred dollars — in short, no finite dependent being 
 is at all a necessary being, and hence can not be deduced from its concept. 
 But each and every contingent being presupposes the existence of an inde- 
 pendent being — a self-determined being — an absolute divine reason. 
 
 St. Anselm proved the depth of his thought by advancing a new theory 
 of the death of Christ as a satisfaction, not of the claims of the devil, but 
 as the satisfaction of the claims of God's justice for sin. Although 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 atonement. For, in order to 
 understand it philosophically, the thinker must make clear to himself the 
 logical necessity for the exclusion of all forms of finitude of 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. This logical statement corresponds to the politi- 
 cal definition of the 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 indi- 
 viduality. This is justice instead of grace. Grace bears with the imper- 
 fect 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 their imperfection. The divine 
 Logos must harbor in his thought all the stages of genesis or becoming and
 
 12^ THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 thereby endowed beings in a finite world, with 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 per- 
 son. His pure not-me is chaos, but not a personal devil. In order that 
 God's grace shall have the highest possible manifestation, he turns his 
 not-me into a reflection of himself by making a series of ascending stages 
 out of dependence and nonentity into independence and personal individ- 
 uality. But the process of reflection by creation in time and space involves 
 God's tenderness and long-suffering -it involves a real sacrifice in the 
 Divine Being— for he must hold and 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 and 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 infinite things; it is not 
 merely religion, it is philosophy or necessary truth. But it is very import- 
 ant 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-existent; 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 con- 
 sciousness of himself as eternal reason. 
 
 The thought of God is a regressive thought — it is an ascent from the 
 dependent to that on which it depends. It is called dialectical by Plato in 
 the sixth book of the Republic. " The Dialectic Method," says he, " ascends 
 from what has a mere contingent or hypothetic existence to the first prin- 
 ciple by proving the inefficiency of all except the first principle." 
 
 This is the second order of knowing — the discovery of the ontological 
 presuppositions. The first order of knowing sees things and events by the 
 aid of the senses, the second order of knowing sees the first cause. 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 in the mind. It is, moreover, as 
 Plato and St. Anselm saw, the most certain of all our ideas, the light in all 
 our seeing. 
 
 IDEALISM THE NEW RELIGION. 
 
 DR. ADOLF BRODBECK OF HANOVER, GERMANY, "A REPRESENTA- 
 TIVE MODERN SCIENTIST." 
 
 The blunt declarations concerning both the old religions and 
 the new gospel, which he champions, created a decided sensa- 
 tion. In his preliminary remarks. Dr. Brodbeck announced 
 that some of his views would appear strange to many, and 
 in this he spoke truly. He was the representative, he said. 
 
 I
 
 IDEALISM THE NEW RELIGION. l23 
 
 of a new form of religion that was spreading rapidly, not only 
 in Germany but in all other civilized countries. Although 
 the disciples of the new religion had been severely persecuted 
 by their enemies, they were happy, because they still believed 
 in God, and tried hard to be good. 
 
 It is an open secret that millions of people in our civilized countries 
 have partially given up Christianity and, with it, religion. Millions of 
 others cling to the old belief only because there is nothing better there. 
 Again millions are believers in Christianity or other religions because they 
 have been educated in those lines and do not know better. The time has 
 come for a new form of religion in which the painful discord between mod- 
 ern civilization and old beliefs disappear and bright harmony is placed 
 instead. 
 
 What is good can be left, other things can be reformed, thus bringing 
 fresh life into dead forms; other things again are to be abolished entirely, 
 and, lastly, new factors have to spring up. It would, however, be a great 
 mistake to think that only against Christianity the new religion is directed; 
 it is directed against all other religions as far as they differ from the new 
 religion. 
 
 We are not heathens, not Jews, nor Mohammedans, nor Buddhists, nor 
 Christians, and, more especially, neither Catholics, nor Protestants, nor 
 Methodists, nor holders of any other form of Christianity. We also do not 
 revive any old religion that may have existed or still exists. The new relig- 
 ion is also not a mixture or synopsis of previous religions. The new religion 
 is also not a philosophical system of any kind. It is not atheism, not pan- 
 theism, not theism, not deism, not materialism, not spiritualism, not natur- 
 alism, not realism, not mysticism, not freemasonry; nor is it any form of 
 so-called philosophical idealism. 
 
 It is not rationalism and not supranaturalism; also not scepticism or 
 agnosticism. It is not optimism and not pessimism; also not stoicism and 
 not epicureism; nor is it any combination of those philosophical doctrines. 
 It is also not positiveism and not Darwinism or evolutionism. It is also 
 not moralism, and is also not synonymous with philanthropism or humani- 
 tarianism. 
 
 In short, the new religion is something new. Its name is idealism. Its 
 confessors are called idealists. The aim of this new religion is soon 
 explained. Its chief aim is idealism; that is, the striving for the ideal, the 
 perfection in everything for the ideal of mankind, especially of each indi- 
 vidual; further, for the ideal of science and art, for the ideal of civilization, 
 for the ideal of all virtues, for the ideal of family, community, society, and 
 humanity in all forms. 
 
 All those who work already in this line, or are willing to work for it, are 
 our friends, and, in fact, our members. Every political man who does his 
 best for the benefit of his people is our friend. Every earnest and sincere 
 scientist is our assistant. Every noble artist is our helpmate. Every 
 honest business man and manufacturer, every respectable and hard-work- 
 ing man or woman, are our co-workers. All good children are our best 
 friends, and we are theirs. A noble father, a careful mother, are inclosed 
 in our holy circle. The honest poor, the sick, and widows and orphans, the 
 deserted and lonely people are especially welcome, and shall benefit from 
 our practical idealism, which means not consolation for the future, but 
 practical help for this life. 
 
 All masters and teachers, tutors and governesses, are our fellows, if they 
 work in the spirit of our idealism. Even all priests of all religions are our 
 friends, so far as they theoretically and practically agree with our principles.
 
 124 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 All the rich and wealthy are our friends, if they practically agree to our 
 religion. 
 
 The new religion is not agressive, but creative and reforming. It has 
 nothing to do with anarchism or revolutionism. It works not with force, 
 but with organization, example, doctrine. If attacked, it defends itself 
 with all means permitted by our principles, and if undermined by secret 
 agitation or open crime it does not give way. Faithful to idealism unto 
 death is our device. Our enemies are the dogmatic in all forms; our ene- 
 mies are also all who are opposed to idealism; that is, especially the lazy and 
 unjust. We hate hypocrisy in all its forms, cruelty and vice, and crimes of 
 all sorts. We are not for absolute abstaining from stimulants, as long as 
 science has not absolutely decided against them; but we are friendly to all 
 temperance societies. 
 
 We are not in favor of extremes; in most cases virtue is the middle 
 between extremes. We do not profess to have any certain knowledge of 
 things beyond this life. We believe that there is an absolute power over 
 which we have no control. The true essence of this power we do not know. 
 With some reserve the words " providence," " almighty," " creator," might 
 be used; but we do not believe that there exists an absolute personal being 
 as a kind of individual, as this is against true philosophy and is a form of 
 anthropomorphism. 
 
 We do not make any man o r woman to be a god , nor do we believe in a 
 god becoming man ; but we assume that there are great differences in men, 
 and that some do more for the benefit of mankind and true civilization 
 than others, but it is not advisable to ascribe that to special merits of such 
 a person. If somebody is born a genius and finds favorable conditions of 
 development, it is not his merit. We believe in the great value of a good 
 example for followers more than in doctrines. But we do not worship any- 
 body, nor any single object, nor any product of human imagination as being 
 God. 
 
 We do not know how things originated, or if they did originate at all, 
 so we also do not know what will be the last end and aim of everything 
 existing, if there is anything like last end and aim at all. At any rate those 
 are open questions, and science is allowed to discuss them freely. We do 
 not believe that there is a resurrection of human individuals. We do not 
 believe that there is immortality of the individual as such. We leave it to 
 science to decide how far there can be anything like existence after death. 
 
 We do not believe in heaven as the dwelling of individuals after death ; 
 astronomy is against such a belief. We do not believe in hell, nor a per- 
 sonal leader of it, nor in purgatory. But we acknowledge willingly the 
 relative truths of those and similar dogmas. We do not believe that once 
 everything was good and perfect in this world. We do not believe that all 
 . evils came into the world through man's fault, although a great many of 
 them did. We do not consider the world irreparable. We take everything 
 as it is and try to improve it if possible. We do not believe in the possi- 
 bility of absolute perfection of anybody or anything. 
 
 We do not think that every good deed finds its proper reward, nor do 
 we think that every wrong deed is properly punished. But as a whole we 
 believe that doing good deeds brings about good things, and that wrong- 
 doing is a failure in the end. What is once done can never be undone by 
 any power; the only thing is that it 3an be practically forgotten and, in 
 some cases, the bad consequences avoided. 
 
 We believe that what is meant by duty, responsibility, and similar words 
 does not depend on the theoretical question if there is free will or not, or 
 in what sense and degree there is free will. 
 
 We do not know where we came from nor where we go; we only know 
 that we are here on this planet, and that we must take things as they are, 
 and that we must do our best in everything, and in doing this we are happy 
 as far as happiness reasonably can be expected to be attained by man.
 
 IDEALISM THE NEW RELIGION. 125 
 
 We do not hate Darwinism or similar theories, but will leave it entirely 
 to science to decide in those and similar questions. We do not expect too 
 much from this life and world, so we are not disappointed at the end. 
 
 Prayer we admit only as reverent immersion in the great mystery of this 
 life and world, and as devotion to the unchangeable laws of the world, and 
 as practical acknowledgement of the belief that in domg good we are in 
 true accord with the good spirit in us, in men, and in the world in general. 
 Prayer for anything that is against the natural course of things we think 
 unreasonable. In the same way as prayers, also, all religious songs and 
 hymns ought to be treated. 
 
 If there are no schools idealism tries to establish them; a general know- 
 ledge of nature and history is most desirable for everybody as a foundation 
 for all other knowledge, and harmonious education of all essential sides of 
 our being, bodily and mentally, we consider the ideal of education. But 
 this does not exclude special and earnest preparation for the different pur- 
 poses of civilized life, either theoretical or technical, or practical, or a com- 
 bination of either. We warn against overwork in education. We do not 
 hide established facts from everybody. But we think that certain things 
 ought not to be taught before the proper time of their appreciation has 
 come. In social as well as in political things we believe that there must be 
 order and liberty combined. We do not think that all members of human 
 society are equally able for social or political roles. We do not believe that 
 good as well as bad qualities of body and mind can be transferred naturally 
 from one generation to the other. 
 
 We think that the ideal of social and political, of scientific and artistic, 
 of industrial and commercial and any other branch of civilized life can best 
 be attained if exclusively individual qualifications and no others give man 
 his degree in the organism of civilized life. 
 
 We believe that many things in our civilization are and will be imper- 
 fect. But it is unwise to change or abolish something as long as we are 
 unable to put something decidedly better instead. We are not in favor of 
 war if it ever can be avoided without disregarding honor and duty of honor- 
 able existence. We are friendly to all organizations for general peace and 
 for peaceful and useful intercourse of all nations of the world. 
 
 We believe that the new religion, called idealism, can and ought to be 
 adopted by all nations and people; that it does not depend on climate, nor 
 on certain degrees of civilization. But we believe that in different coun- 
 tries and times it will be individualized differently. Especially we believe 
 that the forms of organization, of worship, prayers, hymns, of preaching 
 and similar things, will assume different aspects in different countries and 
 times without interfering with the unity in essential points. 
 
 We do believe that hard work is not a curse, but a benefit for man, for 
 the worker himself as well as for others. We believe that the ideal, the 
 perfection of man, is not only a matter of knowledge, but also of practical 
 good work. To strive theoretically and practically in everything for that 
 which is true and good is the ideal of man; that is our firm belief. We 
 believe that self-respect is necessary; this is the true egoism, if there must 
 be egoism. We believe that love is also necessary for everything. But we 
 believe that love alone, either to God or to our fellow -creatures or to both, 
 is not a sufficient fundamental principle tor thorough religion. 
 
 We believe that making money is useful for many things, and even 
 necessary for those who have none, at least as long as money exists at all. 
 But we believe that this is not an aim in itself, but that it should be only a 
 means for honest living and doing good and fostering all kinds of progress 
 in human things. We believe that man is not born only to suffer, nor only 
 to work, but also to enjoy reasonably this life. We believe that bodily 
 exercise is necessary during our whole life, and part of the new religion. 
 We believe that, as a rule, only in a sound body a sound soul can exist, or
 
 126 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 that what is meant by the word soul. We believe that solemn ceremonies 
 and certain regular days are something reasonable and useful, as long as 
 they are not considered the essence of religion, but are symbols and orna- 
 ments of idealism. 
 
 We believe that everything goes always according to certain laws in 
 nature, in history, in each individual; even that which we call an accident. 
 But we are not fatalists nor quietists. We believe in the actual value of 
 our own activity. We believe that all men, male and female, are born of a 
 mother, live shorter or longer, and die at the end of their life and thereby 
 finish their individual circle. We do not fear death, nor do we fear life. 
 
 We believe that everything should be done to make children happy and 
 healthy as long and as much as they ever can be, and we hold that this is 
 a special task of our religion. We strive and work hard for all that we 
 believe. We try everywhere to make that better which is good, to avoid 
 that which is bad, and to mend that which can be mended. We believe 
 that everything must be done to keep up health in ourselves, and in all 
 others, as far as possible, and to help and restore, if possible, the sufferers. 
 
 We believe that many things are mysterious, and will, probably, always 
 be so; but we believe, also, that science has a right and duty to investigate 
 everything, and to state openly the case. We believe that enthusiasm is a 
 great thing and a part of true religion, namely, enthusiasm for the wonders 
 of nature, for great men and women, for noble and tine arts; and enthusiasm 
 for the ideal m everything, for the ideas of perfection, truth, justice, beauty, 
 holiness, and similar ideas. 
 
 We believe that the better a man's character is, the better is his work; 
 the same with a woman. We believe that personal improvement in all 
 respects is the base of all other improvements and progress. We believe 
 that the power of being good is increasing steadily by constant work on 
 ourselves, but we think that up to the last moment of our life this work 
 must be kept up, if we are not to be in danger of falling back. 
 
 We believe that a change for the better is in some persons a matter of a 
 moment, or a few hours or days; in others a matter of weeks, months, or 
 years, according to individuality and circumstances. We believe that for 
 some people it is easier to be good or to become good and to remain good 
 than for others. We believe that true religion must be practiced privately 
 as well as openly and together with others. All our activity for good, for 
 perfection, can be considered as the work of an absolute or some working 
 in us, and, so to speak, for us. 
 
 We believe that without self-restraint of each individual no union, no 
 harmony, can exist among men. We believe that in some cases even wealth 
 and life must be sacrificed for the benefit of man, but it is not every man's 
 desire to be so heroic. We believe that those who possess the greatest 
 power of self-restraint are the fittest for ruling over others. We believe 
 that the harder the struggle for self-improvement is, the greater the 
 moral value of an individual is. 
 
 Natural things v/e do not consider sinful in themselves, but only if they 
 imply an injustice against others, or if they are against the principles of 
 health or moral dignity. We believe that the purer a person's mind and 
 manners the better he or she is fitted for investigation of the mysteries of 
 science, art and of life, and for working for the benefit of man. We believe 
 that true religion can exist very well without any hope of a future individ- 
 ual existence after death, and we even think that true religion excludes 
 such a hope. 
 
 We believe that it is not always necessary to go back in prayer to the 
 absolute ground of everything that ever was, is, and will be; as for most 
 people it is impossible to realize such a grand idea, and even for the wisest 
 and best it is seldom that they can reach it approximately. Therefore 
 it is also allowed to pray in the above stated sense to individualizations of
 
 Idealism the new religion. 127 
 
 the absolute ground and fullness of everything — for instance to the sun, 
 which is in many ways our lifegiver; to the earth, to the idea of the human 
 race, to the ideal of our nation, family, or men, or women, to virtue, science, 
 art; but all that only as far as those things and powers can be supposed to 
 be true revelations of God. 
 
 In short, we believe that no name given by man will ever express the 
 infinite secret. 
 
 We believe that everything now existing does change, but can not abso- 
 lutely be destroyed Thus we believe that even our sun, earth, moon, 
 will once be destroyed, but probably in order to begin in new shapes a new 
 existence. But as to all that we leave to science to decide, if possible, when 
 and how it will take place. 
 
 At the close of the exercises, Chairman Jones said, "I think 
 
 you will agree with me that the hospitality of this platform has 
 
 been vindicated, and that the aim of the Parliament of Religions 
 
 to study all exhibits of the spectrum has been realized to-day. 
 
 Were the testimony of any one missing, the spirit and intent 
 
 of this parliament would have fallen short of its highest ideal. "
 
 MOST REV. DIONYSIOS LATAS, 
 Archbishop of Zante, Greece.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THIRD DAY, SEPTEMBER 13th. 
 
 THE NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The extensive programme of the third day's proceedings of 
 the parliament required three sessions, and many phases of 
 religious thought and life were under review. Especial interest 
 centered in the discourses of P. C. Mozoomdar, Archbishop 
 Latas, and Pung Kwang Yu. The archbishop gave a fascinat- 
 ing account of the early history of Christianity in Greece. At 
 times it was difficulf to follo>, him, but his musical barytone 
 v^oice rang through the vast auditorium, and his earnest gestures 
 elucidated whatever was uncertain in his speech. The address 
 of Kinza Euige Hirai on the "Position of Japan Towards 
 Christianity," was loudly applauded, and when he had finished. 
 Dr. Barrows grasped his hand and Jenkin L. Jones threw his arms 
 around his neck, the audience waving hats and handkerchiefs in 
 the excess of enthusiasm. In presenting the eminent Chinaman, 
 Pung Kwang Yu, Dr. Barrows spoke of him as representing an 
 empire toward which America has not been just. An outburst 
 of applause, for several minutes, followed the statement, and the 
 Chinese diplomat arose and bowed his acknowledgments. When 
 the address of Right Rev. Renchi Shibrata was read by Dr. 
 Barrows, the distinguished stranger, clothed in the light silken 
 robes of the flowery kingdom, stood beside the speaker. With 
 each outburst of applause the high-priest made a light bow, and 
 then resumed his statue-like attitude. The sacred mountain of 
 Japan, dedicated to the Shinto gods, was represented by a fine 
 painting that hung at the back of the platform. When the 
 
 133
 
 134 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 reading closed, a wave of applause broke forth all over the house, 
 Distinguished men and women gathered round Mr, Shibrata and 
 shook his hand, and women climbed over tables to pay their 
 compliments to the worthy Oriental. In the whirlwind of 
 enthusiasm everybody in the hall wanted to shake his hand, and 
 he tendered the audience an informal reception for twenty 
 minutes. 
 
 The Hall of Columbus, at the third session, was crowded to 
 its extreme limit. The morning session was opened with a 
 significant and touching scene. Followers of Christ, Jews and 
 Greeks, Brahmans and Buddhists, devotees of Confucius and 
 Mohammed, all joined in dnging "Nearer My God to Thee." 
 Dr. J. H. Barrows presided in ^hc morning. Rev. Dr. W. C. 
 Roberts in the afternoon. The first session was opened with 
 silent prayer, after which Protap Chuder Mozoomdar, of Cal- 
 cutta, led in the universal prayer, " Our Father Who Art in 
 Heaven." Mr. Mozoomdar was introduced as one whose heart 
 is in sympathy with the great work of unification of the human 
 brotherhood and who has shown deep interest in this great 
 movement by the long journey he has made and by the activity 
 of his life in the cause of the new religion. 
 
 VOICE FROM NEW INDIA. 
 
 EEV. P. C. MOZOOMDAR. » 
 
 Mr. President, Representatives of Nations and Religions: I told you 
 the other day that India is the mother of religrion; the land of evolution. I 
 am going, this morning, to give you an example, or demonstrate the 
 truth of what I said. The Brahmo-Somaj of India, which I have the honor 
 to represent, is that example. Our society is a new society; our religion is 
 a new religion, but it comes from far, far antiquity, from the very roots of 
 our national life, hundreds of centuries ago. 
 
 Sixty-three years ago the whole land of India — the whole country of 
 Bengal — was full of a mighty clamor. The great jarring noise of a hetero- 
 geneous polytheism rent the 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 God's earth. 
 
 We had the Buddhist, goddess of the country, the mother of the people, 
 ten-handed, holding in each hand the weapons for the defense of her chil- 
 dren. We had the white goddess of learning, playing on her Vena, a 
 stringed instrument of music, the strings of wisdom, because, my friends,
 
 VOICE FROM NEW INDIA. 135 
 
 all wisdom is musical; where there is a discord there is no deep wisdom 
 The goddess of good fortune, holding in her arms, not the horn, 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 fashionable, you know, and the 33,000 of gods and goddesses 
 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 arose a man, a Brahman, pure bred and 
 pure born, whose name was Rajah Ram Dohan Roy, In his boyhood he 
 had studied the Arabic and Persian; he had studied Sanskrit, and his own 
 mother was a Bengalee. Before he was out of his teens he made a journey 
 to Thibet and learned the wisdom of the Llamas. 
 
 Before he became a man he wrote a book proving the falsehood of all 
 polytheism and the truth of the existence of the living God. This brought 
 upon his head persecution, nay, even such serious displeasure of his own 
 parents that he had to leave his home for awhile and live the life of a wan- 
 derer. In 1830 this man founded a society known as the Brahmo-Somaj; 
 Brahma, as you know, means God. Brahmo means the worshiper of God, 
 and Somaj means society; therefore Brahmo-Somaj means the society of 
 the worshipers of the one living God. While on the one hand he estab- 
 lished the Brahmo-Somaj, on the other hand he co-operated with the British 
 government to abolish the barbarous custom of suttee, or the burning of 
 widows with their dead husbands. In 1832 he traveled to England, the 
 very first Hindu who ever went to Europe, and in 1833 ho died, and his 
 sacred bones are interred in Bristol, the place where every Hindu pilgrim 
 goes to pay his tribute of honor and reverence. 
 
 This monotheism, the one true living God — this society in the name of 
 this great God — what were the underlying principles upon which it was 
 established? The principles were those of the old Hindu scriptures. The 
 Brahmo-Somaj founded this monotheism upon the inspiration of the Vedas 
 and the Upanishads. When Rajah Ram Dohan Roy died his followers for 
 awhile found it nearly impossible to maintain the infant association. But 
 the spirit of God was there. The movement sprang up in the fullness of 
 time. The seed of eternal truth was sown in it; how could it die? Hence 
 in the course of time other men sprang up to preserve it and contribute 
 toward its growth. Did I say the spirit of God was there? Did I say the 
 seed of eternal truth was there? There ! Where? 
 
 All societies, all churches, all religious movements, have their founda- 
 tion, not without, but within the depths of the human soul. 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, 
 the rain shall beat, and the flood shall come, but, like a rock, it neither 
 wavers nor falls. So that movement of the Brahmo-Somaj shall never fall. 
 Think for yourselves, my brothers and sisters, upon what foundation your 
 house is laid. 
 
 In the course of time, as the movement grew, the members began to 
 doubt whether Hindu scriptures were really infallible. In their souls, in 
 the depth of their intelligence, they thought they 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 and louder, and were more and 
 more echoed in the rising religious society, until it became the most prac- 
 tical of all problems — upon what book shall true religion stand? 
 
 Briefly, they found that it was impossible that the Hindu scriptures 
 should be the only records of true religion. They found that the spirit was
 
 136 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the great source of confirmation, the voice of God was ihe great judge, the 
 soul of the in dweller was the revealer 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 Brahmo-Somaj, the doctrine 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 in one hand and the scepter of civilization in the other? The Bible 
 had penetrated into India; its pages were unfolded, its truths were read 
 and taught. The Bible is the book which mankind shall not ignore 
 Recognizing, therefore, on the one hand, the great inspiration of the Hindu 
 scriptures, we could not but on the other hand recognize the inspiration 
 and the authority of the Bible. And in 1861 we published 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 in-dwell- 
 ing of God's spirit within our fellow believers. No, it was not the Christian 
 missionary that drew our attention to the Bible; it was not the Moham- 
 medan priests who showed us the excellent passages 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 
 everywhere. By his leading and by his light it was that we recognized 
 these facts, and upon the rock of everlasting and eternal reality our the- 
 ological basis was laid. 
 
 What is theology without morality? What is the inspiration of this 
 book or the authority of that prophet witliout personal holiness — the clean- 
 liness 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 around us, in our houses, in our national 
 usages, in the organization of our society. The Brahmo-Somaj, therefore 
 •next laid its hand upon the reformation of society. In 1851 the first inter- 
 marriage was celebrated. Intermarriage in India means the marriage of 
 persons belonging to different castes. Caste is a sort of Chinese wall that 
 surrounds every household and every little community, and beyond the 
 limits of which no audacious man or woman shall stray. In the Brahmo- 
 Somaj we ask " shall this Chinese wall disgrace the freedom of God's chil- 
 dren forever? " Break it down; down with it, and away. 
 
 Next my honored leader aiid friend. Keshub Chunder Sen, so arranged 
 that marriage between different castes should take place. The Brahmans 
 were offended. Wiseacres shook their heads; even leaders of the Bramo- 
 Somaj shrugged up their shoulders and put their hands into their pockets. 
 "These young firebrands," they said "are going to set fire to the whole of 
 society." But 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 his features 
 very well, and from that tender age to her dying 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 understand the conduct of 
 a woman who marries a first time, and then a second time, and then a third 
 time, and then a fourth time — who marries as many times as there are 
 
 J
 
 VOICE FROM NEW INDIA. 137 
 
 seasons in the year. 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 life-long widowhood and inflict 
 upon her miseries which would disgrace a criminal, is a piece of inhuman- 
 ity which can not too soon be done away with. Hence intermarriages and 
 widow marriages. Our hands were thus laid upon the problem of social 
 and domestic improvement, and the result of that was that very soon a 
 rupture took place in the Brahmo-Somaj. We 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 completed there came another question. 
 
 We had married the widow; we had prevented the burning of widows; 
 what about our personal purity, the sanctification of our own consciences, 
 the regeneration of our own souls? What about our acceptance before the 
 awful tribunal of the God of infinite justice? Social reform and the doing 
 of public good is itself only legitimate when it develops into the all- 
 embracing principle of personal purity and the noliness of the soul. 
 
 My friends, I am often afraid, I confess, when I contemplate the condi- 
 tion of European and American society, where your activities are so mani- 
 fold, your work is so extensive that you are drowned in it and you have 
 little time to consider the great questions of regeneration, of personal 
 sanctification, of trial and judgment and of acceptance before God. That 
 is the question of all questions. A right theological basis may lead to 
 social reform, but a right line of public activity and the doing of good is 
 bound to lead to the salvation of the doer's soul and the regeneration of 
 public men. 
 
 After the end of the work of our social reform we were therefore led 
 into this great subject. How shall this unregenerate nature be regener- 
 ated; 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? 
 Theological principle first, moral principle next, and in the third place the 
 spiritual principle of Brahmo-Somaj. 
 
 Devotions, repentance, prayer, praise, taith; 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 its back hundredweights 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 perception of God's spirit, communion with Him, abso- 
 lute self-abasement before His majesty; devotional fervor, devotional 
 excitement, spiritual absorption, living and moving in God — that is the 
 secret of personal holiness. 
 
 And in the third stage of our career, therefore, spiritual excitement, 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 tie 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 lif e. therefore,4s twofold, 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 spirit- 
 ual practices which would seem absurd to you if I were to relate them in 
 your hearing.
 
 138 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The last principle I have to take up is the progressiveness of the 
 Brahmo-Somaj. Theology is good; moral resolutions are good; devotional 
 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? God is infinite; what limit is there in His goodness or His 
 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 humankind. The part of 
 our progress then lay toward allying ourselves, toward affiliating ourselves 
 with the faith and the righteousness and wisdom of all religions and all 
 mankind. 
 
 Christianity declares the glory of God; Hinduism speaks about His 
 infinite and eternal excellence; Mohammedanism, with fire and sword, 
 proves the almightiness of His will; Buddhism says how joyful and peace- 
 ful He is. He is the God of all religions, of all denominations, of all lands, 
 of all scriptures, and our progress lay in harmonizing these various systems, 
 these various prophecies and developments into one great system. Hence 
 the new system of religion in the Brahmo-Somaj is called the New Dispen- 
 sation. 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 Zoroastrian of the Zend-Avesta. The Christian admires his prin- 
 ciples of spiritual culture; the Hindu does the same, the Mohammedan 
 does the same. 
 
 But the Brahmo-Somaj accepts and harmonizes all these precepts, sys- 
 tems, principles, teachings, and discipline, and makes the minto one system, 
 and that is his religion. For a whole decade, my friend, Kashub Chunder 
 Sen, myself, and other apostles, have traveled from village to village, from 
 province to province, from continent to continent, declaring this new dis- 
 pensation and the harmony of all religious prophesies and systems unto the 
 glory of the one true, living God. But we are a subject race; we are unedu- 
 cated; 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 hands to jjropagate. 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 system. I come as a disciple, as a fol- 
 lower, as a brother. May your labors be blessed with prosperity, and not 
 only shall your Christianity and your America be exalted, but the Brahmo- 
 Somaj will feel most exalted; and this poor man who has come such a long 
 distance to crave your sympathy and your kindness shall feel himself amply 
 rewarded. 
 
 May the spread of the new dispensation rest with you and make you our 
 brothers and sisters. Representatives of all religions, may all your religions 
 merge into the Fatherhood of God and in the brotherhood of man, that 
 Christ's prophecy may be fulfilled, the world's hope may be fulfilled, and 
 mankind may become one kingdom with God, our Father. 
 
 FOUNDATION OF THE ORTHODOX GREEK CHURCH. 
 
 AECHBISHOP OF ZANTE, 
 
 After the immense audience had sung, under the leadership 
 of Dr. Niccolls, " Nearer My God, To Thee," the Most Rev.
 
 FOUNDATION OF THE ORTHODOX GREEK CHURCH. 139 
 
 Dionysios Latas, Archbishop of Zante, was introduced and 
 
 spoke extemporaneously as follows : 
 
 Reverend Ministers of the Eminent Name of God, the Creator of the 
 World and of Man: Ancient Greece prepared the way for Christianity, and 
 rendered smooth the path for the diffusion and propagation of it in the 
 world. Greece undertook to develop Christianity and formed and system- 
 atized a Christian Church; that is the Church of the East, the original 
 Christian Church, which for this reason historically and justly may be 
 called the Mother of the Christian Churches. The original establishment 
 of the Greek Church directly referred to the presence of Jesus Christ and 
 his apostles. The coming of the Messiah, from which the God was to orig- 
 inate in this world, was at a fixed point of time, as the Apostle Paul said 
 it was to be. The fullness of this point of time ancient Greece was pre- 
 destined 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 barbarian." But while at that time under Plato and Aristotle, 
 Greek philosophy had arrived at the highest phase of its development, 
 Greece at that very period, after these great philosophers, began to decline 
 and fail. 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 spiritual life and brought them into 
 immediate contact and intercommunication with other nations and peoples 
 of the earth. 
 
 Tracing the effect of Grecian philosophy of the Neo-Platonic 
 school upon the faith which came from the East, the arch- 
 bishop continued: 
 
 When the Roman Empire began to fall Christianity had to undertake 
 the great struggle of acquiring a superiority over all other religions that it 
 might demolish the partition walls which separated race from race, nation 
 from nation. It is the work of Christianity to bring all men into one 
 spiritual family, into the love of one another, and into the belief of one 
 supreme God. Mary, the most blessed of all humankind, appears and 
 brings forth the expected divine nature revealed to Plato. She brings forth 
 the fulfillment of the ideals of the gods of the different peoples and nations 
 of the ancient world. She brings forth at last that One whose name, whose 
 shadow came down into the world and overshadowed the souls, the minds, 
 the hearts of all men and removed the mystery from every philosophy and 
 philosophic system. 
 
 In this permanent idea and the tendencies of the different peoples in 
 such a time and religion, I may say two voices are heard. One, though it 
 is from Palestine, 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 Palestine, having Jerusalem as their 
 focus and center, re-echoed the voice back again to the Grecians and the 
 Romans. And there it was that this doctrine fell amidst the Greek nations, 
 the Grecian element of character, Greek letters, and the sound reasoning 
 of different systems of Greek philosophy. 
 
 Surely in the regeneration of the different peoples there had been a 
 divine revelation in the formation of all humankind into one spiritual 
 family through the goodness of God. In one family equal, without any 
 distinctions between the mean and the great, without distinction of climate
 
 140 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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, were given by 
 the prophets to the Virgin Mary in the cave of Bethlehem. But Greece 
 gave Christianity the letters, gave the art, gave as I may say the enlighten- 
 ment with which the gospel of Christianity was invested, and presented 
 itself then, and now presents itself before all nations. 
 
 After presenting other historical facts bearing upon early 
 
 Christianity, the archbishop 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 Ciiristian, 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 com- 
 munities. All those are the foundation stones on which the present Greek 
 Church is based. The apostles themselves preached and wrote in the Greek 
 letters and all the teachers and writers of the gospel in the East, the con- 
 temporaries and the successors of the apostles were teaching, preaching 
 and writing in the Greek language. Especially the two great schools, that 
 of Alexandria and that of Antioch, undertook to develop Christianity and 
 form and systematize a Christian Church. The great teachers and writers 
 of these two schools, whose names are very well known, labored courageously 
 to defend and determine forever the Christian doctrine and to constitute 
 under divine rules and forms a Christian Church. 
 
 The Greek 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 obtain from it the richness of the 
 ideas and the unmistakable reasoning of every Christian doctrine, of every 
 evangelical truth, of every ecclesiastical sentiment. 
 
 After this, my oration about the Greek Church, I have nothing more to 
 add than to extend my open arms and embrace all those who attend this 
 meeting of the ministers of the world. I embrace, as my brothers in Jesus 
 Christ, as my brothers in the divinely inspired gospel, as my friends in 
 eminent ideas and sentiments, all men; for we have a common Creator, and 
 consequently a common father and God. And I pray you lift with me for a 
 moment the mind toward the divine essence, and say with me, with all 
 your minds and hearts a prayer to Almighty God. 
 
 And then the magnificent old Greek archbishop lifted his hands 
 
 and his eyes heavenward and to the invisible God, who at the 
 
 moment seemed almost visible, and led the great assembly in 
 
 prayer. He said: 
 
 Most High, omnipotent King, look down upon humankind; enlighten 
 us that we may know Thy will. Thy ways. Thy holy truths. Bless and mag- 
 nify the reunited peoples of the world and the great people of the United 
 States of America, whose greatness and kindness have invited us from the 
 remotest parts of the earth in this their Columbian year to see with them 
 an evidence of their progress in the wonderful achievements of the human 
 mind and the human soul.
 
 f 
 
 MAN FROM A CATHOLIC POINT OF VIEW. Ul 
 
 MAN FROM A CATHOLIC POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 VERY BEV. WILLIAM BYRNE, D. D. 
 
 Man, according to the Catholic idea, is the crown and perfection of all 
 things in the visible creation. He is created with a noble purpose and a 
 high destiny, in the image of God and after His own likeness. He is 
 endowed with the power of intellect and will, setting him above all created 
 things of earth and making him godlike in his nature. He longs to reach 
 the higher and better things to which, by an imperative and ever-urgent 
 law, he necessarily aspires. He has cravings of the soul which no created 
 thing is adequate to satisfy. The greater his natural endowments, the 
 higher their cultivation, the broader his knowledge, the more ample and 
 penetrating his intellectual swing and reach, the deeper and more exhaust- 
 ing will be the sense of a purpose unfulfilled, of unsatisfied yearning and 
 baffled hope, Splendid intellectual gifts and exceptional mental training; 
 moral refinement, culture, and wealth; social pre-eminence and command- 
 ing political power; great civic achievements, the resounding trumpets of 
 war, and the most coveted prize of fortune — all these but serve to accentu- 
 ate and render more sensitively acute those wasting longings and the 
 fruitless reaching out after an object that will satisfy the cravings of the 
 soul and satiate the hunger of the heart. 
 
 The Catholic says man has a high destiny that he can reach, a noble 
 purpose that he can achieve; that he may enjoy here on earth a serene 
 peace and constantly look forward to the surpassing joy of living forever 
 in the smile of God and ecstasy of His love. That such conviction, how- 
 ever, and confident hope have never been reached, nor can be, by the unaided 
 powers of man, the cry of discontent and fruitless endeavor that has gone 
 up from the heart of man from the beginning, and the bootless groping in 
 the dark in search of an oracle to answer the questions of the soul, dispel 
 its mists, and tranquilize its misgivings, abundantly prove. 
 
 Man will be religious. It is a necessity and the law of his being, and if 
 he can not rise to God, he will strive to draw down God to himself. " Lord, 
 teach me to know myself, teach me to know Thee," was the prayer that 
 went up from the soul of the great Bishop of Hippo, and the prayer to which 
 he gave utterance has ever been the universal cry of the heart to man — to 
 know one's self, to know God. God and self are the two cardinal objects 
 of man's knowledge to which all his intellectual efforts converge and upon 
 which they terminate. Once reason has dawned on him and the mind 
 opens and expands to the significance and deep meaning of all he sees 
 round about him, to the order and beauty, the variety and splendor, and 
 the lavish profusion of visible blessings, a knowledge of which is borne 
 in upon him by eye and ear, and every avenue of sense, he asks himself and 
 must ask himself the question: Whence all these strange surroundings 
 bearing upon them the tokens of a higher intelligence and the evidence of 
 law and order, purpose and design? And he must ask himself the still 
 more momentous question: Whence do I come? Whither am I going? Am 
 I, as the pantheist says, the most perfect manifestation of the divine 
 essence, spirit of its spirit, and intellect of its intellect ? Or, to go to the other 
 extreme of the scale less flattering to the pride and vanity of man, am I but 
 matter and sense, with a soul wholly dependent upon and the product of 
 the digestive organs and a complex system of nerves with functions center- 
 ing in the brain? 
 
 The supernatural element in man is precisely w'hat the world is losing 
 sight of in its eager and absorbing pursuits of what gratifies sense and 
 brings to the natural man an exhilirating, insidious, and evanescent enjoy- 
 ment ; and, without the supernatural, there can be no adequate explana- 
 tion of man's existence here on earth, no interpretation of life that will
 
 142 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 satisfy the reason, no object that will give full swing to the powers of the 
 soul or bring peace and serene contentment to the heart. 
 
 This has been the Catholic view of man from the beginning, and its 
 importance can not be overestimated. It lies at the very root of religion, and 
 any error or shadow of error here vitiates and distorts the entire circle of 
 relations of man to his God. The ideas of man and God are correlative and 
 inseparable— they come and go together, and a defective knowledge of the 
 one necessarily implies an imperfect understanding of the other. The 
 power of apprehending and understanding the relations between cause and 
 effect, of adapting and adjusting means to an end is, if not the very defini- 
 tion of intelligence and free will, at least their adequate description. And 
 in this man is like unto God, whose presence, shut out from us by the veil 
 of the visible universe is luminously revealed in the laws by which that 
 universe is governed, and in the order and beauty which bring the opera- 
 tion of these laws within the domain of sense, and through sense to the 
 intelligence of man. Such, according to the Catholic idea, is the nobility, 
 Buch the dignity and pre-eminence of man. He is set as a king over the 
 created things of earth, yet responsible for the use of them to the God who 
 gave him so loyal a supremacy. 
 
 Intellect and will and the immortality of the soul are, the Catholic says, 
 the three natural endowments which in man are the image of God. These 
 perfections all men have in common with Adam. But Adam had a super- 
 added perfection. He was, as the Council of Trent says, "holy and just," 
 or pleasing to God. This supernatural perfection is called, and is as a mat- 
 ter of fact, sanctifying grace, which made Adam's likeness to God pure, 
 more perfect and transcending than any natural gift, no matter how excel- 
 lent, in that it lifted him above his own nature into a higher and diviner 
 life and established him in the love and friendship of God. We are told by 
 St. Paul that as one man by his offense wrought the condemnation of all, 
 so did our Lord by his justice work the justification of all. What Adam 
 forfeited Christ regained. What Christ regained, St. Paul tells us, is the 
 privilege of being the sons of God, and joint heirs with Christ, and of this, 
 he says, the Holy Ghost giveth testimony. Christ, therefore, restored what 
 had been lost, purchased with his blood; what had been forfeited by sin. 
 Through him man regained the sonship and friendship of God, and is, or 
 can be if he will, constituted in the supernatural life of grace. Hence these 
 privileges, being a restoration of what had been, were the prerogatives of 
 Adam. That man was so lifted up into a serener atmosphere and a diviner 
 life, and made in a sense godlike, is not merely an opinion of theologians, 
 but an integral part of the teaching of the Church. 
 
 And this brings out clearly the distinction and difference between pan- 
 theism and the teaching of Catholic theology. The fundamental error of 
 pantheism is the necessary identity and equality of the divine nature and 
 the human, and the consequent deification of man; whereas, Catholic the- 
 ology teaches that the participation of the divine nature, through grace, is 
 in no wise due to man, is no part of the integrity of his nature, and could 
 not become man's by any effort or exercise of his aptitudes and powers. 
 But that which is not due to him, and which he could of himself in no way 
 attain, is the free, spontaneous, and gracious gift of God. 
 
 God put Adam on trial, as He had done the angels. He put his humility 
 to the proof. He gave him an opportunity to show himself worthy his 
 inheritance and manifold benedictions. He exacted but a nominal 
 acknowledgement, by which He reserved His right. His very generosity and 
 goodness, which should have filled the heart of Adam with an unceasing 
 song of praise and thanksgiving, and an abiding memory of his surpassing 
 privileges, seem, if I may use the word, a temptation to his weakness, in 
 spite of the many stays and supports by which his will was steadied and 
 strengthened. Forgetting his lowly estate, and unmindful of his blessings
 
 MAN FROM A CATHOLIC POINT OF VIEW. ' 143 
 
 he wantonly transgressed the hght command that had been laid upon him 
 as a test of his fidelity and gratitude. And man's first sin was committet! 
 and the human race, in its head, was cut off from the friendship of God 
 and cast out from an inheritance of countless benedictions. Original jus- 
 tice was forfeited, and so 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 are 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 and rigorous cjonse of 
 that word. These terms denote the state to which Adam's sin reduced his 
 children. The act by which sin is committed is one thing; but the state to 
 which man is reduced by the commission of that sin is quite another. The 
 one was transitory in character; the other is permanent, and man is rightly 
 called a sinner as long as he abides in a state which is the consequence of 
 sin. Adam, by his act of disobedience, turned from God and forfeited his 
 supernatural prerogative of sanctifying grace, and his posterity, in conse- 
 quence, is born into the state of deprivation or original sin, which was the 
 penalty of his offense. Excepting that the blessed Virgin, who, by specia' 
 privilege and because of her high office, had the fullness of grace from the 
 first moment of her existence, all the children of Adam at their birth an 
 under the disability of his transgression. He was the head of the humat 
 family, and in him was contained the whole human race. 
 
 Man having forfeited the supernatural life, it was impossible for him by 
 his own efforts to again enter upon it. It was simply beyond his powers. 
 His condition was one of deprivation, of what was not a part of his 
 nature, to which, as man, he had no right or claim, and which he could not 
 regain by any power of his own. Yet it must not be supposed that man's 
 nature was by such loas corrupted or poisoned in its root. His intellect 
 was still intact in all its natural powers, though less luminous, less pene- 
 trating, and more liable to error because of the absence of the supernatural 
 light that had been put out in the soul. His will was vacillating and 
 vuisteady, yet free and potent to choose between right and wrong, good and 
 evil. He was incapable in his foreign state, of making reparation for his 
 offense or 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 disinherited and stripped of his svifjernatural gifts 
 and with only the hope of such reward as his natural virtues might merit. 
 But 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, "where- 
 with he loved us when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together in 
 Christ, by whose grace you are saved." Again: God could have waved 
 His right to a satisfaction involving the death of his divine son, but this 
 He did not see fit to do. In His infinite wisdom He required an atonement 
 adequate to the offense committed, and this could be made only by one 
 equal in dignity to Himself. And this is precisely what was accomplished 
 in the incarnation of the son of God. Heaven and earth touched, "mercy 
 and truth met, justice and peace kissed;" God and man were linked 
 together in the bonds of indissoluble union. The sufferings and blood of 
 Christ, though only His human nature suffered, had a divine value, because 
 the acts take on the character of the person, and the person who suffered 
 was divine. By this mystery of love the right of man to enter again into his 
 forfeited inheritance was purchased. In Christ the heavenly harmony of 
 our nature was restored. 
 
 Christ, of His own free will and divine condescension, wrought the 
 redemption 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
 
 144 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 rule of bi'Uef 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 fit 
 tintf or best, or most reasonable to us. The will of Christ, once it is known, 
 mu*st 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 rites, now called sacraments, as means and 
 instruments to convey the fruits of the redemption to the soul; that the 
 initial sacrament, by which the supernatural life is born in man, is bap- 
 tism, and that this life is nourished, increased, and perfected by the 
 in-d\velling of the Holy Ghost in the soul, by the generosity of our own 
 hearts and wills, and by the graces conveyed through the other six sacra- 
 ments and the aids they supply, according to the dispositions, the needs, 
 and the conditions of men and of society. Through this supernatural gift 
 man takes on a new nature and begins a new life. 
 
 But this life, so precious and so full of promise, so elevated, ennobling, 
 and refining, giving so luminous an interpretation of man and his surround- 
 ings, and leading on to life eternal, may be enfeebled by neglect of its 
 privileges, and wholly lost by mortal sin. Sin and sanctifying grace are as 
 opposite as darkness and light. The presence of sin is the extinction of the 
 spiritual life. In the moment that mortal sin enters the soul through 
 deliberate consent of will, the in-dwelling spirit of God and sanctifying 
 grace depart, and the soul is spiritually dead. The treasure of great price 
 thus bartered for some bauble of lust or pride, by a merciful and gracious 
 dispensation of Christ may be restored through an act of perfect love of 
 God or through divinely inspired sorrow and the grace of the sacrament of 
 penance. For one guilty of sin committed after baptism, 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. 
 
 It is clear, then, that the Catholic idea of man is this: That he is 
 instinctively supernatural in his capacities and powers, his attitudes and 
 cravings, his aspirations and aims, and that he was so constituted from the 
 beginning; that no created object can fill the void of his heart or still the 
 cry of his soul; that he can not 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 every thought, word, and 
 action has a supernatural and momentous significance, the knowledge and 
 will of the agent being the measure of their malice or their merit. To him 
 they have no real value unless they are in conformity witli the lav/ of God, 
 luminous in his intellect, written in his heart, and articulate in his con- 
 science. His whole being is encompassed by the supernatural and by a sense 
 of responsibility 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 to be a light and a guide to 
 the will, and, being once perverted, will be the cause and source of count- 
 less errors of judgment and practical life. To him divine truth and a 
 divinely appointed teacher are a first principle. 
 
 To the Catholic, the acceptance of God as a divine teacher, and a belief 
 in His revelation, lie at the basis of religion and are the beginning of all 
 justification. Faith, and the truths it contains as proposed by the church, 
 the custodian of divine truth and its living voice and infallible interpreter, 
 an 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 consequence of 
 faith and the body of truth it contains, come the commandments of God,
 
 RABBI K. KOHLER, 
 N§w Yarls.
 
 HUMAN BROTHERHOOD. 145 
 
 or those rules'of conduct which guide and direct him in justice and truth 
 and in his manifold duties and varied relations to God and man. And then, 
 to follo>v the logical order, comes grace, in which every man born into this 
 world lives and moves; which encompasses him as an atmosphere; which 
 God gives in amplest measure to every man who sincerely wishes to be con- 
 verted and live; which is an antecedent condition to the supernatural life, 
 its beginning, its cause, its sustaining principle, and its perfection, and 
 which unites man to God as a child to his Etennal Father by a bond as inti- 
 mate as is possible between the Creator and His creature. By this rule, 
 says the Catholic, shall man live; by this rule shall he be judged. 
 
 HUMAN BROTHERHOOD AS TAUGHT BY THE 
 RELIGIONS BASED ON THE BIBLE. 
 
 DE. K. KOHLER OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Thanks to our common education and our religious and social progress 
 and enlightenment, the idea of the unity of man is so natural and familiar 
 to us that we scarcely stop to consider by what great struggles and trials it 
 has been brought home to us. We can not help discerning beneath all 
 differences of color and custom the fellow-man and brother. We perceive 
 in the savage looks of the Fiji Islander, or hear in the shrill voice of the 
 South African the broken records of our history; but we seldom realize the 
 long and tedious road we had to walk until we arrived at this stage. We 
 speak of the world as a unit — a beautiful order of things, a great cosmos. 
 Open the Bible and you will find creation still divided into a realm of life 
 above and one below — into heaven and earth, and only the unity of God 
 comprising the two otherwise widely separated and disconnected worlds, to 
 lend them unity of purpose, and finally bring them under the sway of 
 one empire of law. Neither does the idea of man, as a unit, dawn upon the 
 mind of the uncivilized. Going back to the inhabitants of ancient Chaldea, 
 you see man divided into groups of blackheads (the race of Ham) and red- 
 heads (Adam); the former destined to serve, the other to rule. And follow 
 man to the very height of ancient civilization, on the beautiful soil of 
 Hellas, where man, with his upward gaze drinks in the light and the sweet- 
 ness of the azure sky to reflect it on surrounding nature, on art and science, 
 you still find him clinging to these old lines of demarcation. Neither Plato 
 nor Aristotle would regard the foreigner as an equal to the Greek, but con- 
 sider him forever, like the brute, fated to do the slave's work for the born 
 master — the ruling race. 
 
 Let us not forget that prejudice is older than man. We have it as an 
 inheritance from the brute. The cattle that browse together in the field 
 and the dogs that fight with each other in the street will alike unite in 
 keeping out the foreign intruder, either by hitting or by biting, since they 
 can not resort to blackmailing. So did men of different blood or skin in 
 primitive ages face one another only for attack. Constant warfare bars all 
 intercourse with men outside of the clan. How, then, under such con- 
 ditions, is the progress of culture, the interchange of goods and products 
 of the various lands and tribes brought about to arouse people from the 
 stupor and isolation of savagery? 
 
 The Ethiopians have still no other name for man than that of Sheba- 
 Sabean. Obviously the white race of conquerors from the land of Sheba 
 refused the black-heads they found on entering Ethiopia the very title of 
 man, not to mention the rights and privileges of such. Yet how remarkable 
 to find the oldest fairs on record held in that very land of Sheba, in South
 
 146 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Arabia, famous from remotest times for its costly spices and its precious 
 metals. Under the protection of the god of light the savage tribes would 
 deposit their gold upon the tables of rock and exchange them for the goods 
 of the traders, being safe from all harm during the festive season of the 
 fair. Under such favorable conditions the stranger took shelter under the 
 canopy of peace spread over a belligerent world by the specter of commerce. 
 What a wide and wonderful vista over the centuries from the first fairs held 
 in the balsam forests of South Arabia to the World's Fair upon the fairy- 
 land created by modern art out of the very prairies of the Western hemi- 
 sphere. And vet the tendency, the object is the same— a peace league 
 among the races, a bond of'covenant among men. 
 
 It is unwise on the part of the theologian to underrate the influence of 
 commerce upon both culture and religion. Religion is at the outset always 
 exclusive and isolating. Commerce unites and broadens humanity. In 
 widening the basis of our social structure and establishing the unity of 
 mankind, trade had as large a share as religion. The Hebrews were a race 
 of shepherds, who were transformed into farmers on the fertile soil of 
 Canaan. In both capacities they were too much attached to their land, 
 being dependent either upon the grass to i^asture their flocks or upon the 
 crops to feed their households, to extend their views and interests beyond 
 their own territory. When, therefore, Moses gave them the laws of right- 
 eousness and truth upon which humanity was to be built anew, he did not 
 venture to preach at once in clear and unmistakable terms the great fun- 
 damental principle of the unity and brotherhood of man. He simply caught 
 them: •' Hate not thy brother in thine heart. Bear no grudge against the 
 children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the 
 lord." He would not tell them: " Love all men on earth as thy brethren," 
 for the reason that there could be no brotherhood so long as both the mate- 
 rial and religious interests collided in every way, and truth and justice 
 themselves demanded warfare and struggle. Monotheism was more than 
 any other religion an isolating power at first. 
 
 It was in times of prosperity and peace, when Jews were first brought 
 into contact with the great trading nation of Phoenicia, that the idea of 
 man widened with the extension of their knowledge of the earth, and they 
 beheld in the people of the hot and the cold zone, in the black and blende- 
 haired men, in the Caucasian and African races, offsfings of the ^ame 
 human ancestors, branches of the same parent stock — children of Adam. 
 At the great fairs of Babylon and Tyre, where the merchants of the 
 various countries and remote islands came with their worldly goods for 
 their selfish ends, a higher destiny, the great hand of Divine Providence, 
 was weaving the threads to knit the human race together. And in one of 
 those solemn moments of history 'some of the lofty seers of Judah caught 
 the spirit and spelled forth the message of lasting import: "Once all the 
 nations will send their treasures of gold and spices and their products 
 of human skill and wisdom on horseback and dromedaries, on wagons and 
 ships, to the city of Jerusalem, yet not for mere barter and gain, but as 
 tokens of homage to the Man of Israel whose name shall be the sign and 
 banner of the great brotherhood of man." This is the idea pervading the 
 latter part of Isaiah. No sordid trading after the fashion of Canaanites. 
 but truth and knowledge will be freely offered on the sacred heights of 
 Jerusalem. Such was the vision of Zachariah. prompted by the sight of 
 the fairs held in the holy city. (See Movers Phonizion, 11, 3, 145.) It was 
 the idea of the great truce of God amidst the perpetual strife of the 
 nations which they conceived of and forecast when announcing the time 
 when " swords shall be turned into plowshares and war shall be no more."' 
 
 Cut loose from the rest of the Biblical writings, many a passage con- 
 cerning God and man still has an exclusively national character, betraying 
 narrowness of view. But presented and read in its entirety, the Bible
 
 HUMAN BROTHERHOOD 147 
 
 begins and ends with man. Do not the prophets weep, pray, and hope for 
 the Gentiles as well as for Israel? Do not the Psalms voice the longing and 
 yearning of man? What is Job but the type of suifering, struggling, and 
 self -asserting man? It is the wisdom, the doubt, and the pure love of man 
 that King Solomon voices in prose and poetry. Neither is true priesthood 
 nor prophecy monopolized by the tribe of Abraham. Behold Melchisedec, 
 Salem's priest, holding his hand to bless the patriarch. Do not Balaam's 
 prophetic words match those of any of Israel's seers? None can read 
 the Bible with sympathetic spirit but feel that the wine garnered therein is 
 stronger than the vessel containing it; that the Jew who speaks and acts, 
 preaches and prophesies, therein represents the interests and principles of 
 humanity. When the Book of Books was handed forth to the world it was 
 offered in the words of God to Abraham to be a blessing to all families of 
 man on earth; it was to give man one God, one hope, and one goal and 
 destiny. Only the monotheistic faith of the Bible established the bonds of 
 human brotherhood. It was the consciousness of God's in-dwelling in man 
 or the Biblical teaching of man's being God's child that rendered hum- 
 anity one. 
 
 Even though the golden rule has been found in Confucius as well as in 
 Buddha, in Plato as in Socrates, it never engendered true love of man as 
 brother and fellow-worker among their people beyond their own small cir- 
 cles. The Chinese sage, with his sober realism, never felt or fostered the 
 spirit of self-surrender to a great cause beyond his own state and ruler. 
 And if the monk Gautama succeeded by his preaching on the world's 
 vanities, in bridling the passions and softening the temper of millions, 
 planting love and compassion into every soul throughout the East, and 
 dotting the lands with asylums and hospitals for the rescue of man and 
 beast, he also checked the progress of man while loathing life as misery 
 without comfort, as a burden of woe without hope of relief, dissolving it 
 into a purposeless dream, an illusion evanescing into nothing. 
 
 Neither Pindar nor Plato ever conceived of a divine plan of the doings 
 of man. No Thucydides nor Herodotus ever inquired after the beginnings 
 and ends of human history or traced the various people back to one cradle 
 and one offspring. Not until Alexander, the Macedonian, with his con- 
 quests interlinked the East and the West, did the idea of humanity loom up 
 before the minds of the cultured as it did before Judea's sages and seers. 
 Only when antiquity's pride was lowered to the dust and philosopher and 
 priest found their strength exhausted, man, suffering, sorrowing, weeping, 
 sought refuge from the approaching storm, yearning for fellowship and 
 brotherhood in the common woe and misery of a world shattered within 
 and without. But then, neither stoic, in his over-bearing pride and self- 
 admiration, nor the cynic, with his contemptuous sneer, could make life 
 worth living. 
 
 It was the Bible offered first by Jew, then by Christian, and, in some- 
 what modified tones, by Moslem, that gave man with the benign ruler of 
 the ages also a common scope and plan, a common prospect and hope. 
 While to the Greek — from whom we have borrowed the very name of ethics 
 — goodness, righteousness, virtue were'objects of admiration like any piece 
 of nature and of art, beautiful and pleasing, and like itself a plaything, the 
 Bible made life with all its efforts solemn and sacred, a divine reality. Here 
 at once men arose to be co-workers of God, the successive ages became 
 stages of the world's great drama, each country, each home, each soul an 
 object of divine care, each man an image of the Divine Father. 
 
 There is no partiality with God. The weaker member of the human 
 household, therefore, must be treated with greater compassion and love, 
 and every inequality adjusted as far as our powers reach. "If thou seest 
 one in distress, ask not who he is. Even though he be thine enemy, he is 
 still thy brother, appeals to thy sympathy, thou canst not hide thine eyes;
 
 148 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 I, thy God, see thee." Can, alongside of this Mosaic law. the question be 
 yet asked:' Who is my neighbor ? Thou may est not love him because he 
 hateth thee. Yet, as fellow-man, thou must put thyself into his place, and 
 thou darest no longer harm nor hate him. Even if he be a criminal, he is 
 thy brother still, claiming sympathy and leniency. Sinner or stranger, 
 slave or sufferer, skeptic or saint, he is son of the same Father in heaven. 
 The God who hath once redeemed thee will also redeem him. 
 
 Are these principles and maxims of the New Testament? I read them 
 in the Old. I learned them from the Talmud. I found their faint echo in 
 the Koran. The Merciful One of Mohammed enjoins charity and com- 
 passion no less than does the Holy One of Isaiah and the Heavenly Father 
 of Jesus. We have been too rash, too harsh, too uncharitable in judging 
 other sects and creeds. " We men judge nations and classes too often by 
 the bad examples they produce; God judges them by their best and noblest 
 types," is an exquisite saying of the rabbis. Is there a race or a religion 
 that does not cultivate one great virtue to unlock the gates of bliss for all 
 its followers? Hear the Psalmist exclaim: " This is the gate of the Lord; 
 the righteous enter into it." No priest, nor Levite, nor Israel's people enjoy 
 any privilege there. The kind Samaritan, as Jesus puts it in his parable; 
 the good and just among all men, as the rabbis express it (Sifra Achre 
 Moth. 13) find admission. No monopoly of salvation for any creed. Right- 
 eousness opens the door for all the nations. 
 
 Is this platform not broad enough to hold every creed? Must not every 
 system of ethics find a place in this great brotherhood with whatever vir- 
 tue or ideal it emphasizes? Is here not scope given for every honest 
 endeavor and each human craving for whatever cheers and inspires, enno- 
 bles and refines man, for every vocation, profession, or skill; for whatever 
 lifts dust-born man to higher standards of goodness, to higher states of 
 blessedness? 
 
 Too long, indeed, have Chinese walls, reared by nations and sects, kept 
 man from his brother, to rend humanity asunder. Will the principle of 
 toleration suffice? Or shall Lessiug's parable of the three rings plead for 
 equality of church, mosque, and synagogue? What, then, about the rest 
 of the creeds, the great Parliament of Religions? And what a poor plea 
 for the Father, if, from love, he cheats his children, to find at the end be has 
 but cheated himself of their love. No; e.ther all the rings are genuine 
 and have the magic power of love, or the Father is himself a fraud. Trust 
 and love, in order to enrich and uplift, must be firm and immutable, as 
 God himself. If truth, love, and justice be the goal, they must be my fel- 
 low-man's as well as mine And should not every act and every step of 
 man and humanity lead onward to Zion's Hill, which shall stand high 
 above all mounts of vision and aspiration, above every single truth and 
 knowledge, faith and hope, the Mountain of the Lord? 
 
 MUCH TO ADMIRE IN ALL MEN. 
 DR. W, C. EGBERTS, OF NEW YORK, 
 
 The honorary chairman of the afternoon session was Rev. 
 Dr. W. C. Roberts of New York, formerly president of the Lake 
 Forest University. He made a brief speech at the opening of 
 the meeting, in which he said: 
 
 The brotherhood of man is to me a most precious thought. It has 
 been my pleasure to travel over the four quarters of the globe, to mingle
 
 CONFUCIANISM. 149 
 
 with a large number of nationalities, and I have found, in all of them, 
 something to admire, something to emulate, and among them many to love. 
 And, therefore, it is that I take great interest in this Religious Congress, 
 where I have the pleasure of seeing the representatives of different nation- 
 alities. I have been on their soil in many cases and have been kindly re- 
 ceived; and, therefore, I am delighted to see that they are received kindly 
 on our soil. It has been asked of me more than once how I could recon- 
 cile the idea of a Congress of Religions with the Christian religion. I had 
 no difficulty whatever with this. God has given two relelations, one in 
 naturoi that displays His power and Godhead, and the other in His rational 
 creatures, where we find much concerning His own moral character. And 
 we Mnd that these friends who have come to us from China and India and 
 the islands of the sea have been studying this very revelation of God in our 
 nature, and I am inclined to think that, with their keen interest, they have 
 gone deeper into the study than we have, because we have accepted the 
 verbal revelation that has been given us and have let that suffice for many 
 things. 
 
 They have not that and, therefore, have gone more thoroughly into the 
 other phase of divine revelation. In so far, therefore, as they give the right 
 interpretation of that revelation of God in human nature, those of us who 
 are called Christians are with them. We can not disagree with them as 
 long as they give the right interpretation of God's writing in our nature. 
 There we are on a common platform together. Those of us who are Chris- 
 tians only differ from them in the interpretation again. We believe we have 
 a clearer revelation from heaven that throws light on that revelation con- 
 fined with them to nature, and if we understand it in that light we feel that 
 we may get in advance of these friends who have been studying through 
 the ages, man's revelation in man. 
 
 We believe our interpretations are based on the revelation God has given 
 us and, therefore, we have only something above and beyond that other 
 revelation. The two phases are here and they are united on this platform; 
 and so I am delighted to find the whole revelation of God represented by 
 these friends that have come to us from abroad and those that belong to 
 our own land. 
 
 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 PUNG KWANG YU, A SCHOLAR OF CHINA, A DISCIPLE OF CONFUCIUS, 
 SECRETARY OF THE CHINESE LEGATION AT WASHINGTON. 
 
 All Chinese reformers of ancient and modern times have either exer- 
 cised supreme authority as political heads of the nation or filled high posts 
 as ministers of state. The only notable exception is Confucius. "Man," 
 says Confucius 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 rive 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, being the 
 connecting link between unities and dualisms, is therefore 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 controlling emotion.
 
 150 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 "Humanity," says Confucius, "is the characteristic of man." On this 
 account humanity stands at the head of the five faculties, humanity, recti- 
 tude, propriety, understanding, and truthfulness. Humanity must have the 
 social relations for its sphere of action. Love must begin at home. 
 
 What are the social relations ? They are the sovereign and subject, 
 parent and child, husband and wife, elder and younger 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 or child, the relation of husband and wife is, 
 therrtfore, the first of the social relations. The relations of husband and 
 wife bear a certain analogy to that of " kieu " and " kium." The word kien 
 may be taken in the sense of heaven, sovereign, parent or husband. As the 
 earth is subservient to heaven, so is the subject subservient to the sovereign, 
 the child to the parent and the wife to the husband. These three main- 
 stays 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, hate, and desire. The faculties of the soul derive their 
 origin from nature and are therefoi-e 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 of 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 development of humanity. The 
 principles that direct human progress are sincerity and charity, and the 
 principles that carry it forward are devotion and honor. '' Do not unto 
 others," says Confucius, " whatsoever ye would not that others should do 
 unto you." Again he says: 
 
 A noblemimled man has four rules to regulate his conduct: To serve one's 
 parents in such a manner as is required of a son; to serve one's sovereign in such 
 a manner as is requinid of a subject: to serve one's elder brother in sucli a man- 
 ner as is required of a younger brother; to set an example of dealing with one's 
 friends in sucih a manner as is required of friends. 
 
 This succinct statement puts in a nutshell all the requirements of sin- 
 cerity, 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 retjulates the actions and conduct of 
 men from beginnmg to end can be no other than propriety. 
 
 What are the rules of propriety? The Book of Rites treats of such 
 as relate to ceremonies on attaining majority, marriages, funerals, sac- 
 rifices, court receptions, banquets, the worship of heaven, the observance 
 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 sub- 
 ject 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 systematization of knowledge, the establish- 
 ment 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. Such are the elements of instruction and self- 
 education which Confucianists consider as essential to make man what he 
 ought to be.
 
 CONFUCIANISM. 151 
 
 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 help- 
 less. To this may be traced the origin of religious worship. It was only 
 man, however, that nature had endowed with intelligence. On this account 
 he could take advantage of the natural elements, 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 detiuing 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 elements formed by assimilating food, by distinguishing sounds and by 
 the action of Ught." Herein lies the dignity of human nature. Herein we 
 recognize the chief characteristic that distinguishes man from animals. 
 
 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 there- 
 fore entirely devoid of the pure essence of nature. Prom 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 organi- 
 zation must be derived from the imperfect and gross elements of the earth, 
 so that when it unites with the ethereal elements to form the faculties, the 
 spiritual qualities can not gain 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 indi- 
 viduals 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 capabilities 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 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 expedition. 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 faculties of the highest dignity. Yet 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. In case they have really 
 become insensible then even heaven can not 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
 
 152 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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, "con- 
 sists 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 
 'yang,' or the passive and active principles of nature." Now, "yang" is 
 heaven, or ether. Whenever ether, by condensation, assumes a substantive 
 form and remains suspended in the heavens, there is an admixture of the 
 active and passive principles of nature, with the active principal predomi- 
 nating. "Yin," or the passive principle, 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 sunrises in the East and sets in the West, its going and coming 
 makmg one day, so the quantity of ether which the earth holds varies from 
 time to time. Exhaltation follows absorption; systole succeeds diastole. 
 It is these small changes that 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 from time to time. 
 Exhalation follows absorption ; 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 move- 
 ments of the sun. There are periods of rest, periods of activity, periods of 
 expansion, and periods of contraction. The two principles may sometimes 
 repel each other, but can never go beyond each other's influences. They 
 may also attract each other, but do not by this means spend their force. 
 They seem to permeate all things from beginning to end. They are invisible 
 »nd inaudible, yet it can not 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 ele- 
 ment 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 sijirit of anything owes its being. In 
 case there is no union of the active and passive principles, the ethereal and 
 substantive elements lie separate, and the influences of the heavens and the 
 earth can not come into conjunction. 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 incor- 
 porate a due proportion of energy with its virtues. Each object is then able 
 to assume its proper form, whether large or small, and acquire the prop- 
 erties peculiar 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, run- 
 ning, burrowing, and swimming. The spirits of terrestrial and aquatic 
 plants are invisible; we see only the manifestations of their power in flow- 
 ers, fruits, and the various tissues. The spirit of man is invisible, yet when 
 we consider that the eyes can see, the ears can hear, the mouth can distin- 
 guish flavors, the nose can smell, and the mind can grasp what is most 
 minute as well as what is most remote, how can we account for all this ?
 
 CONFUCIANISM. 153 
 
 In the case of man, the spirit is in a more concentrated and better dis- 
 ciplined state than 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 life. Accordingly they subject themselves to a course of dis- 
 cipline, in the hope that they may by this means attain to that happy 
 Buddhistic 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 inoculate 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 and punishments will be dealt out 
 to the spirits 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 some 
 respects. But 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 can not as yet," says Confucius, "perform our duties to men, bow 
 can we perform our duties to spirits?" Agai;i he says: "We know not, as 
 yet, about life; how can we know about death?" "From this time on," 
 says Tsang-tz, "I know that I am saved." "Let my consistent actions 
 remain," says Chang-tz, " 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 oa 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," the Supreme Ruler, the 
 governor of all subordinate spirits, who can not be said to be propitious or 
 unpropitious, beneficent and 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 malevolent. Man is part of the 
 material universe; the spirit of man, a species 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 influence 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 indi- 
 vidual has a good heart, then from the action and re-action of spirit upon 
 spirit, only propitious and good influences can flow. The country is blessed 
 with prosperity; the government fulfills its purpose. What happiness can 
 be compared with this? 
 
 On the other hand, when a man has an evil heart his spirit can not 
 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. Evil 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 iu the administration of public affairs a wise legislator always
 
 154 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 takes into consideration the spirit of the times in devising means for the 
 advancement and promotion of civilization. He puts his reUance on cere- 
 monies and music to carry on the good vi^ork, and makes use of punishment 
 and the sword as a last resort, in accordance with the good or ba,l 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 sal- 
 vation to every creature. The right principles of action can only be dis- 
 covered by studying the waxing and waning of the active and passive 
 elements of nature, as set forth in the Book of Changes, and surely can not 
 be understood by those who believe in what priests call the dispensations 
 of providence. 
 
 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 disintereste<l action is good and 
 may be called lienehcial. w hat is done for the sake of one's self is selfish ; 
 a selfish action is bad and naturally spriugs fiom 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 tlie opposite case and suppose that there is a man who has never 
 harbored a bad thought and never done a bad deed, does it stand to reason 
 that thero 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 living a virtuous life and in constantly obeying the 
 dictates of conscience. 
 
 He therefore, looks upon prayers as of no avail to deliver any one from 
 sickness. "He who sins against heaven,"' again he says, "has no place to 
 pra/." What he means is that even spirits have no power to bestow bless- 
 ings 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 contamination 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 can not be offered 
 by all persons without distinction. Only the emperor can offer sacrificesto 
 heaven. Only governors of provinces can offer sacrifices to the spirits of 
 mountains and rivers, land and agriculture. Lower officers of the govern- 
 ment can offer sacrifices only to their ancestors of the five preceding gen- 
 erations, but are not allowed to offer sacrifices to heaven. The common 
 people, of course, are likewise denied this privilege. They can offer sacri- 
 fices only to their ancestors. 
 
 All persons, from the emperor down to the common people are 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 reason tiiat the most 
 enlightened rulers have always made filial duty the guiding principle of 
 government. Observances of this character have nothing to do with relig- 
 ious 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 2ie served 
 
 1
 
 ZENSHIRO NOGUCHI, Japanese Buddhist.
 
 THE MODEL MAN. 155 
 
 were the only true deities, adding that by making use of his prayers they 
 could obtain the forgiveness 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. He at the same time denounced the teachings of the Yueh 
 priest as altogether false. The Yueh priest then returned the compliment 
 in similar 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 designed as belonging to Tsoh 
 and another part to Yueh? 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 the retribution that is sure to overtake the 
 wicked. 
 
 THE MODEL MAN. 
 
 BISHOP ARNETT. 
 
 I think after the discussion of to-day I have a higher conception of the 
 brotherhood of men and the fatherhood of God than I ever had before. I 
 have a higher conception of the unity of the human family. There is one 
 thing I witnessed in particular, that is that we all understood each other. 
 I have learned that it is possible for us to sit in one place and one individual 
 stand up and communicate to us, and that each of our hearts burned within 
 us, whether it was Jew or Japanese. One trouble of the world has been to 
 find a model man, and the trouble has been inside of Christianity. Outside 
 the various religions of the world, each had their own model man; some 
 were high and some were low, some were short and some were wide; but 
 each had its model man, and when we come inside the commonwealth of 
 Christianity we find the same difficulty, and I found that the foundation of 
 the model man was love to God and love to his fellow-man. Then I learned 
 that there was no color in this model man. There were none of them white 
 and none of them black, but they were all model men. And I learned to-day 
 that there is no color in character. That virtue has no color. Now, then, 
 I have come to this conclusion: That it makes no difference what your 
 color is if you are a good man. If you are a good man you are a good man, 
 and if you are a bad man you are a bad man. 
 
 It is worth a lifetime to me to have learned that one thing. I have 
 fount! out, after studying these ten model men, the various religions repre- 
 sented on this stage, and that little model man that came from Japan. I 
 tell you he was a Tartar. And he told me that it is not so much what I 
 said as what I do. It is not so much what I had for myself as what I had 
 for others. I found that there are three rules that these men are governed 
 by. The first is: As I want men to do unto me, do I even so unto them. 
 Did you ever hear of that rule? Then I found another rule: As men do 
 unto me, do I even so unto them. Did you ever hear of that? Then I 
 found another thing. I found out, at the close of these meetings to-night, 
 that the higher and better rule is: "As I would have men do unto me, do 
 I even so unto them." And I think we will go away from this Parliament 
 of Religions holding the golden rule in our hands. Now then, my brethern, 
 let us take these lessons. I want you to do to me, whenever you can, just 
 what you are doing now. For the last three days I have lived in the 
 happiest home I ever lived in in my life. It is the home of toleration and 
 common respect for the religious faiths and beliefs of Greek, Jew, and 
 Gentile.
 
 ],56 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 WOULD WIN CONVERTS TO BUDDHISM. 
 
 ZENSHIRO NOGUCHI, WHO ACCOMPANIED THE JAPANESE BUDDHIST 
 PEIEST AS AN INTERPRETER. 
 
 I 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 to-day without any preliminary preparation, for I 
 have been entirely occupied in interpreting for the four Hijiris who came 
 with me to attend this congress. 
 
 As you remember Columbus for his discovery, and as you brought to 
 completion the wonderful enterprise of the World's Fair, I also have to 
 remember one whose knocks at the long-closed door of my country awak- 
 ened 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. 1 
 must do for him what Americans have done and do for Columbus. With 
 him I have one, too, to remember whose statue you have doubtless seen at 
 the World's Fair. His name was Naosuke II., 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. 
 
 Smce we opened the door about thirty-six years have passed, during 
 which time wonderful changes and progress have taken place in my coun- 
 try, so that now, in the midst of the White City 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 I called him. Commo- 
 dore 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 are 
 doing in the World's Fair to Columbus for his discovery. Shall I offer to 
 you, who represent him, Japanese teapots and teacups? No. Pictures and 
 fans? No, no, no; a thousand times, no. Shall I then open a world's fair 
 in my own country in honor to his memory? No. 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 some- 
 thing that the elements can not destroy and it is the best of all my posses- 
 sions. 
 
 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 Budd- 
 hist 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's " 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 Japan- 
 ese can read, are made from the original Sanskrit by many Chinese sorios
 
 POSITION OF JAPAN TOWARD CHRISTIANITY. 157 
 
 in ancient times. I hope 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 Buddhist teaching, translated into English. If you 
 wish to know what the Mahayana doctrine is, you must learn to read 
 Chinese or Japanese, as you are doing in the Chatauqua system of educa- 
 tion, otherwise Chinese or Japanese must learn English enough to trans- 
 late them for English reading people. Whichever way it be, we 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 exam- 
 ple, I have translated Rev. Professor Tokunaga's work, without any help 
 from foreigners, on account of the want of time. I am very sorry I have 
 not enough copies of that book to distribute them to you all, for I almost 
 used them up in presents on my way to this city. Permit me 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. 
 It is 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 great a figure as that of the pop- 
 ulation of the world, and the priests of the various religions should not be 
 allowed to preach for the purpose of bringing the people into their respec- 
 tive sects. In that case they should rather say: "Don't believe whatever 
 we preach, get away from the church, 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? Yes. 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 limited to only one; so we must find out 
 that one way of attaining the truth among the thousands of ways to which 
 the rival religions point us, and if we can not find out that one way among 
 the already established religions we must seek it in a new one. So long as 
 we have thousands of religions the religion of the world has not yet attained 
 its full development in all respects If the thousands of religions do con- 
 tinue to develop and reach the state of full development 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 believe that we know the shortest way. 
 
 I greet you, ladies and gentlemen of the World's Parliament of Relig- 
 ions, the gathering together of which is an important step in that direction. 
 
 THE REAL POSITION OF JAPAN TOWARD 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 KINZA RINGE M. HAEAI, THE LEARNED JAPANESE BUDDHIST. 
 
 Some of the Christian missionaries on the platform con- 
 tracted and their heads shook in disapproval. But the Budd- 
 hist directed his stinging rebukes at the false Christians who 
 have done so much to impede the spreading of the gospel in 
 Japan.
 
 158 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 There are very few countries in the world so misunderstood as Japan. 
 Among the innumerable unfair judgments, the religious thought of my 
 countrymen is especially misrepresented, and the whole nation is con- 
 demned as heathen. Be they heathen, pagan, or something else, it is a fact 
 that from the beginning of our history Japan has received all teachings 
 with open mind; and also that the instructions which came from out- 
 side have commingled with the native religion in entire harmony, as is seen 
 by so many temples built in the name of truth with a mixed appellation of 
 Buddhism and Shintoism; as is seen by the affinity among the teachers of 
 Confucianism and Taoism, or other isms, and the Buddhists and Shinto 
 priests; as is seen by the individual Japanese, who pays his other respects 
 to all teachings mentioned above; as is seen by the peculiar construction of 
 ■^he 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 ode: 
 
 Wake noborn 
 Fumoto no michi ioa 
 
 Ooke redo, 
 Ona ji takne no, 
 
 Tsuki wo mini 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 other 
 similar odes and mottoes, which are put in the mouth of the ignorant coun- 
 try old woman, when she decides the case of bigoted religious contention 
 among young girls. In reality Synthetic religion, or Entitism, is the 
 Japanese specialty, and I will not hesitate to call it Japanism. 
 
 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 religion was widely 
 spread in any country, but in 1637 the Christian missionaries, combined 
 with the converts, caused a tragic and bloody rebellion against the country, 
 and it is understood that those missionaries intended to subjugate Japan 
 to their own mother country. This shocked all Japan, and it took the gov- 
 ernment of the Shogun a year to suppress this terrible and intrusive com- 
 mption. 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 antipathy, but to 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. But this incident has passed and we may 
 forget it. Yet it is not entirely unreasonable that the terrified suspicion, 
 or you may say superstition, that Christianity is the instrument of depre- 
 dation should have been avoidably or unavoidably aroused in the Oriental 
 mind, when it is an admitted fact that some of the powerful nations of 
 Christendom are gradually encroaching upon the Orient, and when the 
 following circumstance is daily impressed upon our minds, reviving a vivid 
 memory of the past historical occurrence. The circumstance 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 Christendom. 
 
 Since 185.3. when Commodore Perry came to Japan as the ambassador 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
 
 I 
 
 POSITION OF JAPAN TOWARD CHRISTIANITY. 150 
 
 and the prohibition of the gospels was abolished, as it was before the Chris- 
 tian rebellion. By the convention at Yeddo, 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 gov- 
 ernment; and on account of our having been secluded for over two centuries 
 since the Christian rebellion of 1637, dijjlomacy was quite a new experience 
 to the feudal officers, who put their full confidence upon Western nations, 
 and, without any alteration, accepted every article of the treaty presented 
 from the foreign governments. According to the treaty we are in a very 
 disadvantageous situation; and amongst the others there are two prominent 
 articles, which deprive us of our rights and advantages. One is the exter- 
 ritoriality of Western nations in Japan, by which all cases in regard to right, 
 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 sub- 
 jected to the jurisdiction of the authorities of the Western nations. Another 
 regards the tariff, which, with the exception of 5 per cent ad valorem, we 
 have no right to impose 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 govern- 
 ment demanded a revision, and since then we have been constantly request- 
 ing it, but foreign governments have smiply ignored our requests, making 
 many excuses. One part of the treaty between the United States of Amer- 
 ica and Japan concerning the tariff, was annulled, for which we thank with 
 sincere gratitude the kind-hearted American nation ; but I am sorry to say, 
 that, as no European power has followed in the wake of America, in this 
 respect our tariff right remains in the same condition as it was before. 
 
 We have no judicial power over the foreigners in Japan, and as a nat- 
 ural consequence we are receiving injuries, legal and moral, the accounts 
 of which are seen constantly in our native newspapers. As the Western 
 people live far from us they do not know the exact circumstances. Prob- 
 ably 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 information in regard to his friend he 
 ought to hear the opinions about him from many sides. If you closely 
 examine with your unbiased mind what injuries we receive you will be 
 astonished. Among many kinds of wrongs there are some which were 
 utterly unknown before and entirely new to us — heathen, none of whom 
 would dare to speak of 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 sacrificed? As I under- 
 stand it, the rights and the necessity of law is to protect the rights and wel- 
 fare of the weaker against the aggression of the stronger; but I have never 
 learned in my shallow studies of law that the weaker should be sacrificed for 
 the stronger. Another kind of apology comes from the religious source, and 
 the claim is made that the Japanese are idolaters and heathen. Whether 
 our people are idolaters or not you will know at once if you will investigate 
 our religious views without prejudice from authentic Japanese sources. 
 
 But admitting, for the sake of argument, that we are idolaters and 
 heathen, is it Christian morality to trample upon the rights and advantages 
 of a non-Christian nation, coloring all their natural happiness with the dark 
 stain of injustice? I read in the Bible, " Whosoever shall smite thee on thy 
 right cheek, turn to him the other also;" but I can not 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, I read in the 
 Bible, "If any man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat, let him 
 have thy cloak also;" but I can not discover there any passage which says,
 
 160 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 "If thou shalt sue any man at the law, and take away his coat, let him give 
 thee his cloak also." 
 
 You send your missionaries to Japan, and they advise us to be moral and 
 believe Christianity. We like to be moral, we know that Christianity is 
 ^'ood, 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 nations of Christen- 
 dom; 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 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 San Francisco enacted a regulation that no Japanese 
 should be allowed to enter the public schools there; when last year the 
 Japanese were driven out in wholesale from one of the territories of the 
 United States of America; when our business men in San Fram isco were 
 compelled by 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 already here; when there are many 
 men who go in processions hoisting lanterns marked, "Jap must go;" when 
 the Japanese in the Hawaiian Islands are deprived of their suffrage; when 
 we see some Western people in Japan who erect before the entrance to their 
 houses a special post upon which is the notice, "No Japanese is allowed to 
 enter here," just like a board upon which is written, " No dogs allowed;" 
 when we are in such a situation is it unreasonable — notwithstanding the 
 kindness of the Western nations, from one point of view, who send their 
 missionaries to us — for us intelligent heathen to be embarrassed and hesi- 
 tate to swallow the sweet and warm liquid of the heaven of Christianity? 
 If such be the Christian ethics, well, we are perfectly satisfied to be 
 heathen. 
 
 If any person should claim that there are many people in Japan who 
 speak aiid write against Christianity, I am not a hypocrite and I will frankly 
 state that I was the first in my country who ever publicly attacked Chris- 
 tianity — 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 hail strong anti-Christian societies, I will honestly 
 declare tliat I was the first in Japan who ever organized a society against 
 Christianity — no, not against real Christianity, but to protect ourselves 
 from false Christianity and the injustice which we receive from the people 
 of Christendom. Do not think that I took such a stand on account of my 
 being a Buddhist, for this was my position many years before I entered 
 the Buddhist Temple. But at the same time I will jjroudly 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 I do not 
 wish to be understood as a bigoted Buddhist sectarian. 
 
 Really there is no sectarian in my country. Our people well know 
 what abstract truth is in Christianity, and we, or at least I, do not care 
 about the names if I speak from the point of teaching. Whether 
 Buddhism is called Christianity or Christianity is named Buddhism, 
 whether we arc called Confucianists or Shintoists, we are not par- 
 ticular, but we are very particular about the truth taught and its 
 consistent application. Whether Christ saves us or drives us into 
 hell, whether Gautama Buddha was a real person or there never was 
 such a man, it is not a matter of consideration to us, but the consist- 
 ency of doctrine and conduct is the point on which we put the greater 
 importance. Therefore unless the inconsistency which we observe is 
 renounced, and especially the unjust treaty by which we are entailed is
 
 GOOD WILL AND PEACE AMONG MEN. iCl 
 
 revised upon an equitable basis, our people will never castaway their preju- 
 dice about Christianity, in spite of the eloquent orator who speaks its truth 
 from the pulpit. We are very often called barbarians, and I have hearil 
 and read that Japanese are stubborn and can not understand the truth of 
 the Bible. I will admit that this is true in some sense, for thouf,'h they 
 admire the eloquence of the orator and wonder at his couraj^'e, thouj^h 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. 
 
 But 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 Occidental 
 nations toward us. Especially as to the American nation, I know their 
 sympathy and integrity. I know their sympathy by their emancipation of 
 the colored people from slavery. I know their integrity by the patriotic 
 spirit which established the independence of the United States of America. 
 And I feel sure that the circumstances which made the American peoijle 
 declare independence are in some sense comparable to the present state of 
 my country. I can not refrain my thjilliug emotion and sympathetic tears 
 whenever I read the Declaration of Independence. You, citizens of this 
 glorious free United States, who struck when the right time came, struck 
 for "liberty or death," you, who waded through blood that you 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. 
 
 If any religion teaches injustice to humanity, I will oppose it, as I ever 
 have opposed it, with my blood and soul. I will be the bitterest dissenter 
 from Christianity, or I will be the warmest admirer of its gospels. To the 
 promoters of the parliament and the ladies and gentlemen of the world 
 who are assembled here I pronounce that your aim is the realization of the 
 Religious Union — not nominally, but practically. We, the 40,000,000 souls 
 of Japan, standing tirmly and persistently upon the basis of international 
 justice, await still further manifestations as to the morality of Christianity. 
 
 GOOD WILL AND PEACE AMONG MEN. 
 
 RIGHT REV. SHIBATA EEIICHI, PRESIDENT OF THE JIKKO SECT 
 OF SHINTOISM IN JAPAN. 
 
 I feel very happy to be able to attend this Congress of Religions as a 
 member of the advisory council and to hear the high reasonings and jjro- 
 found opinions of the gentlemen who come from the various countries of 
 the world. As for me, it will be my proper task to explain the character of 
 Shintoism, and especially of my Jikko sect. 
 
 The word Shinto, or Kami-no-michi, comes from the two words " Shin," 
 or "Kami," each of which means Deity, and "to," or "michi " (way), and 
 designates the way transmitted to us from our divine ancestors, and in 
 which every Japanese is bound to walk. Having its foundation in our old 
 history, conforming to our geographical positions and the disposition of our 
 people, this way, as old as Japan itself, came down to us with its original 
 form and will 1 st forever, inseparable from the Eternal Imperial House 
 and the Japanese nationality. 
 
 According to our ancient scriptures, there were a generation of Kami or 
 Deities in the beginning who created the heavens and the earth, together
 
 162 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 with all things, including human beings, and became the ancestors of the 
 Japanese. 
 
 Jimmu-tenno, the grandson of Ninigi-nomikoto, was the first of the 
 human emperors. Having brought the whole land under one rule he per- 
 formed great services to the divine ancestors, cherished his subjects and 
 thus discharged his great 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 descendants. Though in the 
 course of time various doctrines and creeds were introduced into the 
 country. Confucianism in the reign of the fifteenth emperor, Ojin, Buddh- 
 ism in the reign of the twenty-ninth emperor, Kimmei, and Christianity in 
 modern times, the emperors and the subjects never neglected the great 
 duty of Shinto. The present forms of ceremony are come down to us from 
 time immemorial in our history. Of the three divine treasures transmitted 
 from the divine ancestors, the divine gem is still held sacred in the imperial 
 palace, the divine mirror in the great 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 ances- 
 tors, and all the subjects perform the same to the deities of temples, which 
 are called, according to the local extent of the festivity, the national, the 
 provincial, the local, and the birth-place temple. When the festival day of 
 temples, especially of the birth-place, etc., comes, all people who, living 
 in the place, are considered specially protected by the deity of the temple, 
 have a holiday, and unite in performing the ancient ritual of worship and 
 praying 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 place, 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 given a short description of Shinto, which is the way in 
 which every Japanese, no matter to whatcreed— even Buddhism, Christi- 
 anity, etc.— he belongs, must walk. Let me explain briefly the nature and 
 origin of a religious force of Shinto, i. e., of the Jikko sect, whose tenets I 
 profess to believe. 
 
 The Jikko (practical) sect, as the name indicates, does not lay so much 
 stress upon mere show and speculation as upon the reaUzation of the 
 teachings. Its doctrines are plain and simple and teach man to do man's 
 proper work. Being a new sect, it is free from the old dogmas and prej- 
 udices, and is regarded as a reformed sect. The scriptures on which the 
 principal teachings of the sect are founded are Furukotobumi, Yamato- 
 bumi and many others. They teach us that before heaven and earth came into 
 existence there was one absolute deity called Ameno-mina-kanu-shi-no-kami. 
 He has great virtue, and power to create to reign over all things; he includes 
 everything within himself, and he will last forever without end. In the 
 beginning the One Deity, self-originated, took the embodiments of two 
 Deities; one with the male nature, and the other female. The male Deity is 
 called Takai-mu-sibi-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. 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 the one original soul of Deity,
 
 GOOD WILL AND PEACE AMONG NEN. 163 
 
 he ought to be just as the Deity ordered (in sacred Japanese "kanngara") 
 and make Fuji the examjjle and emblem of his thought and action. For 
 instance, he mvist be phiin and simple as the form of the mountain, make 
 his body and mind pure as the serenity of the same, etc. We would respect 
 the present 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 this sect is Hasegawa Kakugyo, who was born in Nagasaki, 
 of the Hizen province, in 1541. In the eighteenth year of his age, Hasegawa, 
 full of grief at the gloomy state of things over the country, set out on a pil- 
 grimage to various sanctuaries of famous mountains and lakes, Shintoistic 
 and Buddhistic temples. While he was offering fervent prayers on sacred 
 Fuji, sometimes on its summit and sometimes within its cave, he received 
 inspiration through the miraculous powor of the mountain; and, becoming 
 convinced that this place is the holy abode of Ameno-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 lUGth year, the light of the doctrines 
 was handed down by a series of teachers. The tenth of them was my 
 father, Shibata Hanamori, born at Ogi of the Hizen province, in 1809. He 
 was also in the 18th year of his age when he adopted the doctrine of this 
 sect. Amid the revolutionary war of Meiji, which followed immediately, 
 he exerted all his power to propagate 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 history. 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 heavenly Deity, and every one of them has its particular mis- 
 sion; so we ought to love them all and also to respect the various forms of 
 religions m 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 dispositions of the people and 
 the physical conditions of the places where they originated. 
 
 Lastly, there is one more thought which I wish to offer here. While it 
 is the will of Deity and the aim of all religionists, that all His beloved chil- 
 dren on the earth should enjoy peace and comfort in one accord, many 
 countries look still with envy and hatred toward one another, and appear 
 to seek for 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 abhorence of the heavenly Deity, they only inHict 
 pain and calamity on innocent people. Now and here my earnest wish is 
 this, that the time should come soon when all nations on the earth will 
 join their armies and navies with one accord, guarding 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 differ- 
 ence arises between them. In that state no nation will receive unjust treat- 
 ment from another, and every nation and every individual will be able to 
 maintain their own right and enjoy the blessings of providence. 
 
 There will thus ensue, at last, the universal peace and tranquility, 
 which seem to be the final object of the benevolent Deity. 
 
 For 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 people to devotion, to root out enmity 
 between nations and to promote our common object.
 
 1(54 THK PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 CONCESSIONS TO NATIVE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 REV. T. E. SLATEE OF BANGALORE, INDIA. 
 
 The Hindus by instinct and tradition are the most religious people in 
 the world. They are born religiously, they eat, bathe, shave, and write 
 religiously, they die and are cremated or buried religiously, and 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 enterprise 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 apprehended 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 ceremonies, and get to the undercurrents of native 
 thought. Hinduism is a growth from within; and to study it we have to 
 lay bare that inward, subtle soul which, strangely enough, explains the 
 outward form with all its extravagances; for India's gross idolatry is con- 
 nected with her ancient systems of speculative philosophy, and with an 
 extensive literature in the Sanskrit language; her Epic, Puranic, and Tan- 
 trika mythologies and cosmogonies have a theosophic basis. 
 
 India, whose worship was the probable cradle of all other similar wor- 
 ships, is the richest mine of religious ideas; yet we can not speak of the 
 religion of India. What is styled " Hinduism " is a vague eclecticism, 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 thought and philosophic spec- 
 ulation has been represented in India. Some of the Hindu doctrines are 
 theistic, some atheistic and materialistic, others pantheistic — the extreme 
 development of idealism. Some of the sects hold that salvation is obtained 
 by practicing austerities and by self-devotion and prayer; some that faith 
 and love (bhakti) form the ruling principle; others that sacrificial observ- 
 ances 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 conversation entails; and, with our brusque, matter-of-fact Western 
 instincts, and our lack of spiritual and philosophic insight, we too often go 
 forth denouncing the traditions and worship of the people, and in so 
 doing, are apt, with our heavy heels, to trample on beliefs and senti- 
 ments that have a deep and sacred root. A knowledge of the material 
 on which we work is quite as important as deftness 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 fundamental 
 ideas and aspects of Brahmanical Hinduism, that may be regarded as a 
 preparation for the gospel, and links by which a Christian advocate 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 between the two faiths are 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
 
 CONCESSIONS TO NATIVE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 165 
 
 salvation to be wrouyht by man rather than a restful satisfaction in a 
 redemption desiyued anil offered by God. 
 
 The underlying element of all religions, vvitliout wliich there can be no 
 spiritual worship, is the belief that the human worshiper is somehow 
 made in the likeness of the divine. And the central thought of India, 
 which binds together all its conflicting elements, is the revelation of life, 
 the pilgrim soul through all definite existences to reunion with the inhnite. 
 From the opening youthfulness, hopefulness, and self-svithcieucy 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 unintelligible world '' and the soul wakes from the illusive 
 dream of childhood to experience a bitter disappointment, to realize that 
 the search '.or individual happiness in the infinite or jjhenomenal 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 fcjr pure spirit — • 
 for his own conscious soul — whose essential unity with the divine is an 
 axiomatic truth, and whose power to abide in the midst of all changes is 
 the test of its everlasting being, the proof of its immortality. 
 
 The ideal, then, before which the Indian agnostic 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 elysium, is an illusion, a vexation of spirit, the 
 speculative problem of Indian philosophy and the actual struggle of the 
 religious man, have been how to break the dream, get rid of the 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 
 be achieved by becoming detached 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 Ajjostle John, yet 
 have we not here an affinity with the affh-mation of Christianity, that " the 
 things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are 
 eternal" (2 Cor. iv, 18); that "the world passeth away, and the lust 
 thereof" (1 John ii, 17); though the Christian completion of that verse — 
 "but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever" — marks the funda- 
 mental defect of pantheistic India and its striking contrast to the gospel. 
 
 For the God of Hinduism is a pure Intelligence, a Thinker; not a Sover- 
 eign Will as in Islam, nor the Lord of Light and Right as in Parseeism, still 
 less having any paternal or providential character. Nothing is created by 
 His power, but all is evolved by 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 mvising man. 
 Hence, while between God and the worshiper there is the most direct affin- 
 ity, 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 
 weakness of Hindu life appears, which renders the gospel appeal so often 
 powerless; the lost sense of practical moral distinction, of the requirements 
 of conscience, of any necessary connection between thought and action, 
 convictions and conduct, of divine authority over the soul, of personal 
 responsibility, 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 only an idea; it witnesses, as all great errors do, 
 to a great truth; and it is only by distinctly recognizing and 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
 
 16G 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 live as long, and only as long, as its share of truth remains unrecognized. 
 Adapting words that Archdeacon Hare wrote of Dr. Arnold: "We must 
 be iconoclasts, at once zealous and fearless in demolishing the reigning 
 idols, and at the same time animated with a reverent love for the ideas 
 that 'the idols carnalize and stitle." Idolatry is a strong human protest 
 against pantheism, which denies the personality of God, and atheism, 
 which denies God altogether; it testifies to the natural craving of the 
 heart to have before it some manifestation of the Unseen — to behold a 
 humanized god. It is not, at bottom, an 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"— eucharistic, sacramental, and propitiatary — bearing the 
 closet parallelism to the provisions of the Mosaic economy and prompted 
 by a sense of personal unworthiness, guilt and misery — that life is to be 
 forfeited to the Divine Proprietor— is ingrained in the whole system of 
 Vedic Hinduism. A sense of original corruption has been felt by all 
 classes of Hindus, as indicated in the praytr. 
 
 I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful. Save me, O thou lotus-eyed 
 Haii, the rrmovcr of sin. 
 
 The first man, after the deluge, whom the Hindus called Manu and the 
 Hebrews Noah, offered 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 Brahmanas 
 and Upanishads that Prajapati, "the lord and supporter 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) and for the benefit of the world, thereby mak- 
 ing all subsequent sacrifice 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 primitive idea of redemption by 
 the efficacy of sacrifice; and when this Christian truth is prea:,hedit ought 
 not to sound 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 to-day 
 is that modern Brahmanism, like modern Parseeism, is fast loosing its old 
 ideas, relaxing its hold on the more spiritual portions, the distinctive 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 
 moref 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 
 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 con- 
 trast between the Bible and all other scriptures; it establishes its satis- 
 fying character in distinction from the seeking spirit of other faiths. The 
 Bible shows God in quest of man rather than man in quest of God. It 
 meets the questions raised in the philosophies of the east, and supplies 
 their only true solution.
 
 SUPREME END AND OFFICE OF RELIGION. 167 
 
 The Vedas present " a shifting play of Ughts and shadows; sometimes 
 the hght seems to grow brighter, but the day never comes " For, on exam- 
 ining them, we note a remarkable fact. While they show that the spirit- 
 ual needs and aspirations of humanity are the same — the same travail of 
 the soul as it bears the burdens of existence — and contain 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 Bible 
 alone is the Book of Divine Promise — the revelation of the " exceeding 
 riches of God's grace " — shining with increasing brightness till the dawn 
 of perfect 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, his- 
 toric Christ, and charged with unfailing inspiration. 
 
 SUPREME END AND OFFICE OF RELIGION. 
 
 WALTER ELLIOTT, OF THE PAULIST CONVENT, NEW YORK. 
 
 The end and office of religion is to direct the aspirations of the soul 
 toward an infinite good, and to secure a perfect fruition. Man's longings 
 for perfect wisdom, love and joy are not aberrations of the intelligence, oi 
 morbid conditions of any kind; they are not purely subjective; blind reach- 
 iugs forth toward nothing. They are most real life, excited into activity by 
 the infinite reality of the Supreme Being, the most loving God, calling His 
 creatures to union with Himself. In studying the office of religion we 
 *:herefore engage in the investigation of the highest order of facts, and 
 weigh and measure the most precious products of human conduct— man's 
 endeavors to approach his ideal condition. 
 
 Reason, if well directed, dedicates our best efforts to progress toward 
 perfect life; and if religion be of the right kind, under its influence all 
 human life becomes sensitive to the touch of the divine life from which it 
 sprung. The definition of perfect religious life is, therefore, equivalent to 
 that of most real life; the human spirit moving towards perfect wisdom 
 and joy by instinct of the Divine Spirit acting upon it, both in the inner 
 and outer order of existence. 
 
 But man's ideal is more than human. Man would never be content to 
 strive after what is no better than his own best self. The longing toward 
 virtue and happiness is for the reception of a superior, a divine existence. 
 The end of religion is regeneration. Otherwise stated, religion has not done 
 its work with the effacement of sin and the restoration of the integrity of 
 nature. It has indeed this remedial office, but its highest power is trans- 
 formative; it is the elixir of a new and divine life. The supreme office of 
 religion is regeneration. 
 
 "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 S(ms of God by the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Savior." 
 These words of the Covincil of Trent affirm that the boon of God's favor is 
 not merely restoration to humanity's natural innocence. God's friendshi}) 
 for man is elevation to a state higher than nature's highest, and infinitely 
 so, and yet a dignity toward which all men are drawn by the unseen attrac- 
 tion of divine grace, and toward which in their better moments they con- 
 sciously strive, however feebly and blindly. Religion, as understood by 
 Christianity, means new life for man, different life, additional life. The 
 Christian mind is thus to be discovered and tested by comparison with the 
 highest standard: '• Be ye perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." 
 
 Before coming to the ways and means and processes of acquiring this
 
 168 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 divine life we must consider atonement for sin. It may be asked: Why 
 does Christ (elevate us to union with His Father through suffering? The 
 answer is that God is dealing with a race which has degraded itself with 
 rebellion and with crime, which naturally involves suffering. 
 
 God's i)urposo is now just what it was in the beginning, to communi- 
 cate himself to each human being, and to do it personally, elevating men to 
 brotherhood with his own divine Son, making them partakers of the same 
 grace which dwells in the soul of Clu'ist, and shares hereafter in the same 
 blessethiess which he possesses with the Father. To accomplish this pur- 
 ])i)se Ciod 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 atonement, 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 andtinal 
 purpose of God's loving dealing with us. 
 
 Religion is positive. It makes me good with Christ's goodness. Relig- 
 ion 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 any Kind, and yet will enjoy the union 
 of filiation forever. Nor can it bedenied that there are multitudesof adults 
 whose sanctification has had no conscious process of the remission of grave 
 sin, for many such have never been guilty of it. To excite them to a ficti- 
 tious sense of sinfulness is untruthful, unjust, and unchristian. Hounding 
 innocent souls into the company of demons is false zeal ancfis cruel. 
 
 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 tha end of religion. In reality pardon is but the initial work 
 of grace and even pardon isnot possible without the gift of love. 
 
 The sufferings of Christ as well as whatever is of a penitential influence 
 in hisreligioniis not in the nature of merely paying a penalty, but is chiefly 
 an offering of love. Atonement is related to mediation as its condition and 
 not as its essence. We are washed in the Redeemer's blood, biUthat blood 
 does not remain on the surface; it penetrates us and sanctities our own 
 blood, mingling with it. We are not ransomed only, but ennobled. 
 
 The process on man's part of union with God is free and loving accept- 
 ance of all His invitations, inner and outer, natural and revealed, organic 
 and personal. Loving God is the practical element in our reception of the 
 Holy Spirit. The fruition of love is union with the beloved. If to be 
 regenerated means to be born of God, then what is to be sought after is 
 newness of life by the immediate contact with life's source and center in 
 love. The perfection of any finite being is the closest possible identity 
 with its ideal. The supreme end and oflfice of religion is to cause men by 
 love personally to approximate to the ideal, not merely of humanity, but of 
 humanity made one with the Deity. 
 
 The carrying out of this process by a dual nature, such as man's is 
 menaced by one of two dangers; either divorce from the bodily and external 
 life of man, or slavery to it. and divorce from the spiritual. The former 
 is false mysticism and the latter is formalism. Christ, the Son of God and 
 the son of man, is the synthesis. His union of the inner and the outer life 
 was made into harmony of inspired speech when the angel said to 
 Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most 
 High shall overshadow thee;" the incarnation, the becoming man of essen- 
 tially spiritual being.
 
 C0P>'WO'HTtD l«fr: 15, 
 
 KINZA RINGE M. HIRAI. 
 Japanese Buddhist.
 
 IMMORTALITY. 169 
 
 As a method or process of human betterment, religion is the fullness of 
 all outer and inner, visible and invisible aids to bring the mind and heart 
 of man under the immediate influence of the Divine Spirit in the union of 
 love. Organizations and authorities and discipline, sacraments and wor- 
 ship are external channels, helps and incitements to love, instituted by the 
 Son of God, as the extension of his own external divine life. Their end is 
 to convey to the soul his inner divine life, and bring into participation in 
 his immediate union with the Father and the Holy Ghost. His external 
 order of church serves him everywhere and for all time, and his body served 
 him while on earth, continuing and completing by a visible means the 
 spiritual end, man's deification through divine love. 
 
 The age, we are told, calls for men worthy of that name. Who are those 
 worthy to be called men ? Men assuredly whose intelligences and wills are 
 divinely illuminated and strengthened. This is precisely what is produced 
 by the gifts of the Holy Spirit; they enlarge all the faculties of the soul at 
 once. The age is superficial; it needs the gift of Wisdom. The age is 
 materialistic; it needs the gift of Intelligence. The age is captivated by a 
 false and one-sided science; it needs the gift of Science. The age is in dis- 
 order, and is ignorant of the way to true progress; it needs the gift of 
 Counsel. The age is impious; it needs the gift of Piety. The age is sen- 
 sual and effeminate; it needs the gift of Fortitude. The age has lost and 
 forgotten God; it needs the gift of Fear. Men endowed with these gifts 
 are the men for whom, if it but knew it, the age calls. One such soul does 
 more to advance the kingdom of God than tens of thousands without those 
 gifts. 
 
 Religion taken, then, at the highest development, which is Christianity, 
 is the elevation of man to union with God, in an order of life transcending 
 the natural. It attains this end by elevating the soul to heavenly wisdom 
 in divine faith, heavenly life in divine love. It will be seen that the ideal 
 religious character is not formed by constant absorption in thoughts of the 
 Deity's attributes of sovereignty, but rather by meditation on all the 
 attributes, loving-kindness being supreme. For the same reason, it is not 
 obedience that holds the place of honor among the virtues; in forming the 
 filial character love is supreme. Love outranks all virtues. The greatest 
 of these is charity. It is not the spirit of conformity, but that of union, 
 which rules the conduct of a son. 
 
 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 ^s 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." 
 
 Hence not the least fault we find with the religious separation of the 
 last 300 years is, that it has unduly accentuated the sovereignty of God. 
 
 IMMORTALITY. 
 
 Rev. Phillip Moxon was introduced, and among other things 
 
 said: 
 
 It is impossible, of course, within the limits of this brief paper even to 
 state the entire argument for the immortality of man. The most that I can 
 hope to do is to indicate those main lines of reasoning which appeal to the 
 average intelligent mind as confirmatory of a belief in immortality already 
 existent. Three or four considerations should be noticed at the outset:
 
 170 THE PARLIAMENT OF BELtOlONS. 
 
 First it is doubtful whether any reasoning on this subject should be 
 intelligible to man if he did not have precedent by at least a capacity for 
 immortality. However we may define it, there is that in man's nature 
 which makes him susceptible to the tremendous idea of everlasting exist- 
 ence. It would seem as if only a deathless being, in the midst of a world 
 in which all forms of life perceptible by his senses are born and die in end- 
 less succession, could think of himself as capable of surviving this universal 
 order. The capacity to raise and discuss the question of immortality has 
 therefore implications that radically make man differ from all the creatures 
 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 which he thinks. 
 
 A second preliminary consideration is that immortality is inseparably 
 bound up with theism. Theism makes immortality rational. Atheism 
 makes it incredible, if not unthinkable. The highest form of the belief in 
 immortality inevitably roots itself in and is part of the soul's belief in 
 God. 
 
 A third consideration is that a scientific proof of immortality is at pres- 
 ent impossible in the ordinary sense of the phrase, " scientific proof." 
 
 A fourth consideration is that immortality is inseparable from person- 
 ality. The whole significance of man's existence lies ultimately in its dis- 
 creetness — in the evolution and persistence of self-conscious ego. 
 
 THE SOUL AND ITS FUTURE LIFE. 
 
 REV. SAMUEL N. WARREN (rEAD BY DR. MERCER OF CHICAGO). 
 
 It 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 immortal being, created to live on 
 through the endless ages of eternity, then the longest life in this world is, 
 comparatively, but as a point, an infinitesimal part of his existence. In 
 this view it is not rational to believe that that part of man which is for his 
 brief use in this world only, and is left behind when he passes out of this 
 world, is the most real and substantial part of him. That is more substan- 
 tial which is more enduring, and that is the more real part of a man in 
 which his characteristics and his qualities are. All the facts and phe- 
 nomena of life confirm the doctrine that the soul is the real man. What 
 makes the quality of a man? What gives him character as good or bad 
 small or great, lovable or detestable? Do these qualities pertain to the 
 body? Every one knows they do not. But they are the qualities of the 
 inan. Then the real man is not the body, but is " the living soul." If there 
 is immortal life he has not vanished, except from mortal and material 
 sight. As between the soul and the body, then, there can be no rational 
 question as to which is the substantial and which the evanescent thing. 
 
 Again, if the immortal soul is the real man, and is substantial, what 
 must be its form? It can not be a formless, vaporous thing and be a man. 
 Can it have other than the human form? Reason clearly sees that if form- 
 less, or in any other form, he would not be a man. The soul of man, or the 
 real man, is a marvelous assemblage of powers and faculties of will and 
 understanding, and the human form is such as it is because it is perfectly 
 adapted to the exercise of these various powers and faculties. In other
 
 THE SOUL AND ITS FUTURE LIFE. 171 
 
 words, the soul forms itself, under the Divine Maker's hand, into an organ- 
 ism by which it can adequately and perfectly put forth its wondrous and 
 wonderfully varied powers, and bring its purposes into acts. 
 
 The human form is thus an assemblage of organs that exactly corre- 
 sponds to and embody and are the express image of the various faculties of 
 the soul. And there is no organ of the human form the absence of which 
 would not hinder and impede 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 per- 
 fectly 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 loving 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 can not exist without it, and it is put on in and by the fact of its creation 
 and the gradual development of its powers. It could have no other form 
 and be a human soul. Its organs are the necessary organs of its faculties 
 and powers, and these are clothed with their similitudes in dead material 
 forms 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 preservation 
 of his identity. For in the soul are the distinguishing qualities that con- 
 stitute the individuality of a -man — all those certain characteristics, affec- 
 tional and intellectual, which make him 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 character building. It has been very truthfully said 
 that a man is a bundle of habits. What manner of man he is depends on 
 what his manner of life has been. 
 
 If evil and vicious habits are continued through life they are fixed and 
 confirmed and become of the very life, so that the man loves and desires no 
 other life, and does not wish to — will not be led out of them — because he 
 loves the practice of them. On the other hand, if from childhood a man 
 has been inured to virtuous habits, these habits become fixed and established 
 and of his very soul and life. In either case the habits thus fixed and con- 
 firmed are of the immortal soul and constitute its permanent character. 
 The body, as to its part, has been but the pliant instrument of the soul. 
 
 With respect to the soul's future life the first important consideration 
 is what sort of a world it will inhabit. If we have shown good reasons for 
 believing the doctrine that a soul is not a something formless, vague, and 
 shadowy, but is itself an organic human form, substantial, and the very 
 man, then it must inhabit a substantial and very real world. It is a gross 
 fallacy of the senses, but there is no substance but matter, and nothing 
 substantial but what is material. Is not God, the Divine, Omnipotent 
 Creator of all things, substantial? Can omnipotence be an attribute of 
 that which has no substance and no form? Is such an existence conceiv- 
 able? But He is not material and not visible or cognizable by any mortal 
 sense. Yet we know that he is substantial; for it is manifest in His wond- 
 rous and mighty works. There is, then, spiritual substance. And of such 
 substance must be the world wherein the soul is eternally to dwell- It is
 
 172 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 possi- 
 bility. 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 surpassing 
 loveliness and beauty. It has justly been considered one of the most benefi- 
 cent manifestations of the divine love and wisdom that this beautiful 
 world that we briefly inhabit is so wondrously adapted to all 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 theflenh — an incumbrance 
 which we are often very conscious of — will he not enti r 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 we did not adequately meet and answer to the soul's desires. 
 It is reasonable this material world should be so full of life and loveliness 
 and beauty, when "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 hap- 
 piness obtain there that govern here, because they are grounded in human 
 nature. Man is a social being, and everywhere, in that world as in this, 
 desires and seeks the companionship of those that are congenial to him — 
 that is, who are of similar quality to himself. Men are thus mutually drawn 
 together by spiritual affinity. This is the law of association here, but it 
 is less perfectly operative in this world, because there is much dissimula- 
 tion among men, so that they often do not appear to be what they really 
 are, and thus by false and deceptive appearances the good and the evil are 
 often associated together. 
 
 And so it is for a time and in a measure in the first state and region 
 into which men come when they enter the spiritual world. They go into 
 that world as they are, and are at first in a mixed state, as in this wot Id. 
 This continues until the real character is clearly manifest, and good and 
 evil are separated, and they are thus prepared for their final and per- 
 manent association and abode. They who, in the world, have made some 
 real effort, and beginning, to live a good life, but have evil habits not yet 
 overcome, remain there until they are entirely purified of evil, and are 
 fitted for some society of heaven; and those who inwardly are evil and 
 have outwardly assumed a virtuous garb, remain until their dissembled 
 goodness is cast off and their inward character becomes outwardly mani- 
 fest. 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 perfectly operative by their own free 
 volition and choice. Then the evil and the good become entirely separated 
 into their congenial societies. 1 he 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 perfect and unhindered operation of the law of human 
 nature that leads men to prefer and seek the companionship of those most 
 congenial to themselves. 
 
 As regards the permanency of the state of those who by established evil 
 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 mercj 
 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
 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM Ob' THE PARSEES. 173 
 
 world for the same reason that they would not in this, because when evil 
 habits are once lixed and confirmed, they love them and will not turn from 
 them. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? 
 Then may they also do good that are accustomed to do evil." Heaven is a 
 heaven of 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 willing agent of the Lord to bless his kind. His true happi- 
 ness comes, not in seeking happiness for himself, but in seeking to promote 
 the happiness of others. Where all are animated by this desire, all are 
 mutually and reciprocally blest. 
 
 Such a state is heaven, whether measurably in this world or fully and 
 perfectly in the next. Then must there be useful ways in heaven by which 
 they can contribute to each other's happiness. And of such kind will be 
 the employments of heaven, for there must be useful employments. There 
 could be no happiness to beings who are designed and formed for useful- 
 ness to others. What the employments are in that exalted position we can 
 not well know, except as some of them are revealed to us, and of them we 
 have faint and feeble conception. But undoubtedly one of them is attend- 
 ance upon men in this world. 
 
 Such in general, according to the revealed doctrines of the New Church 
 is the future life of the immortal souls of men. 
 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE PARSEES. 
 
 JINANJI JAMSHODJI MODI. 
 
 The greatest good that a Parliament of Religions, like the 
 present, can do is to establish what Professor Max Muller calls 
 " that great golden dawn of truth ' that there is a religion 
 behind all religions.' " The learned prof essor very rightly says 
 that "Happy is the man who knows that truth, in these days of 
 Qiaterialism and atheism." If this Parliament of Religions 
 does nothing else but spread the knowledge of this golder truth 
 and thus make a large number of men happy, it will immortal- 
 ize its name. The object of my paper is to take a little part in 
 the noble efPorts of this great gathering, to spread the knowl- 
 edge of that golden truth from a Parsee point of view. The 
 Parsees of India are the followers of Zoroastrianism, 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 Muller 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,
 
 174 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 Zoro- 
 aster might easily have superseded the Olympian fables. 
 
 With the overthrow of the Persian monarchy under its last Sassanian 
 king, Yazdagard, at the battle of Nehavand in A. D. 642, the religion 
 received a check at the hands of the Arabs, who, with sw^ord in one hand 
 and Koran in the other, made the religion of Islam both the state religion 
 and national religion of the country. But many of those who adhered to 
 the faith of their fathers quitted their' ancient fatherland for the hospitable 
 shores of India. The modern Parsees of India are the descendants of those 
 early settlers. As a former governor of Bombay 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 absolvitely unimpaired by contact with others." 
 
 In the words of Rt. Rev. Dr. Meurin, the learned Bishop (Vicar Apos- 
 tolic) of Bombay, in 1885, the Parsees are " a people who have chosen to 
 relinquish their venerable ancestors' homesteads rather than abandon their 
 ancient religion, the founder of v?hich 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 quiet, separate, and dis- 
 tinct nation, peculiar and remarkable, as for its race, so for its religious and 
 social life and customs." Professor Max MuUer 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 misunderstandings, 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 tlie state relijrion 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 enlightened priesthood, and yet 
 professed by a handful of exiles— men of wealth, Intelligence, and moral worth in 
 western India- with unhesitating fervor such as is seldom to be found in larger 
 religious communities. Ii'is well worth the earnest endeavour of the philosopher 
 and the divine to discover, if possible, the spell by which this apparently effete 
 n^ligion continues to,oommand the attachment of the enlightened Parsees of 
 India, and makes them turn a deaf ear to the allurements of the Brahmanic 
 worship and the earnest appeals of Christian missionaries. 
 
 Zoroastrianism or Parseeism — by whatever name the system may be 
 called — is a monotheistic form of religion. It believes in the existence of 
 one God, whom it knows under the names of Mazda, Ahura, and Ahura- 
 Mazda, the last form being one that is most commonly met with in the 
 latter writings of the Avesta. The first and the greatest truth that dawns 
 vjpon the' mind of a Zoroastrian is that the great and the iniinite 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 
 immaterial world, the corporeal and the incorporeal world, the visible and the 
 invisible world. The regular movements of the sun and the stars, the peri- 
 odical waxing and waning of the moon, the regular way in which the sun 
 and the clouds are sustained, the regular flow of waters and the gradual 
 growth of vegetation, the rapid movements of the winds and the regular 
 succession of light and darkness, of day and night, with their accompani- 
 ments of sleep and wakefulness, all these grand and striking phenomena of 
 nature point to and bear ample evidence of the existence of an almighty 
 power who is not only the creator, but the preserver of this great universe, 
 who has not only launched that universe into existence with a premeditated
 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE PARSEES. 175 
 
 plan of completeness, but who, with the controlling hand of a father, pre- 
 serves by certain tixed laws harmony and order here, there, and everywhere. 
 
 As Ahura-Mazda is the ruler of the physical world, so He is the ruler 
 of the spiritual world. His distinguished attributes are good mind, right- 
 eousness, desirable control, piety, jjerfection, and immortality. He is the 
 Beneficent Spirit from whom emanate all good and all piety. He looks 
 into the hearts of men and sees how much of the good and of the piety that 
 have emanated from Him has made its home there, and thus rewards the 
 virtuous and punishes the vicious. Of course, one sees at times, in the 
 plane of this world, moral disorders and want of harmony, but then the 
 present state is only a part, and that a very small part, of His scheme of 
 moral government. As the ruler of the world, Ahura-Mazda hears the 
 prayers of the ruled. He grants the prayers of those who are pious in 
 thoughts, pious in words, and 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 Parsee script- 
 ures, 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 unityandindivisibility of the Supreme 
 Being, he (Zoroaster) undertook to solve the great problem which has engaged 
 tlie attention of so many wise men of antiquity and even of modern times, viz., 
 Jlow 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 difHcult question philo- 
 sophically 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," 
 meaning " that which can only be conceived by the mind but not felt by 
 the senses. " Of these two spirits or primeval causes or principles one is 
 creative and the other destructive. These two spirits work under the 
 Almighty day and night. They create and destroy, and this they have 
 done ever since the world was created. According to Zoroaster's philosophy 
 our world is the work of these two hostile principles, Spenta-mainyush, the 
 good principle, and Angro-mainyush, the evil principle, both serving under 
 one God. In the words of thatlearned Orientalist, Professor Darmestetter, 
 " all that is good in the world comes from the'former; all that is bad in it 
 comes from the latter. The history of the world is the history of their 
 conflict; how Angro-mainyu invaded the world of Ahura-Mazda and 
 marred it, and how he shall be expelled from it at last. Man is active in 
 the conflict, his duty in it being laid before him in the law revealed by 
 Ahura-Mazda to Zarathushtra. When the appointed time is come * * * 
 Angro-mainyu and hell will be destroyed, men will rise from the dead and 
 everlasting happiness will reign over the world." 
 
 These philosophical notions have led some learned men to misunderstand 
 Zoroastrian theology. Some authors entertain an opinion that Zoroaster 
 preached Dualism. But this is a serious misconception. In the Parsee 
 scriptures the names of God are Mazda, Ahura, and Ahura-Mazda, the last 
 two words being a compound of the first two. The first two w^ords are 
 common in the earliest writings of the Gatha, and the third in the later 
 scriptures. In the later times the word Ahura-Mazda, instead of being 
 restricted like Mazda, the name of God, began to be used in a wider sense 
 and was applied to Spentamainyush, the Creative or the Good principle. 
 This being the case, wherever the word Ahura-Mazda was used in opposition 
 to that of Angro-mainyush, later authors took it as the name of God,
 
 176 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 and noi a« the name of the Creative principle, which it really was. Thus the 
 very fact of Ahura-Mazda's name being employed in opposition to. that of 
 Angro-mainyush or Ahi-iman led to the not in that Zoroastrian scriptures 
 
 preached dualism. - , , -, ■ ^ r^ ^ ■ ■ 
 
 Not only is the charge of dualism as leveled against Zoroastrianism, and 
 as ordinarily understood, groundless, but there is a close resemblance 
 )'etween 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 Zoroastrii-n idea of the devil and the infernal kingdom coincides entirely 
 with ti.e Christian doctrine. The devil is a murderer and father of lies according 
 to both the Bible and the Zend Avesta. 
 
 Thus we see that, according to Zoroaster's philosophy, there are two 
 primeval principles that produce our material world. Consequently, 
 though the Almighty is creator of all, a part of the creation is said to be 
 created by the good principle and a part by the evil principle. Thus, for 
 example, the heavenly bodies, the earth, water, fire, horses, dogs and such 
 other objects are the creation of the Good Principle, and serpents, ants, 
 locusts, etc., are the creation of the Evil Principle. In short, those things 
 that conduce to the greatest good of the greatest number of mankind fall 
 under the category of the creations of the Good Principle, and those that 
 lead to the contrary result, under that of the creations of the Evil Princi- 
 ple. This being the case, it is incumbent upon men to do actions that 
 would support the cause of the Good Principle and destroy that of the Evil 
 one. Therefore, the cultivation of the soil, the rearing of domestic animals, 
 etc., on the one hand and the destruction of wild animals and other noxious 
 creatures on the other are considered meritorious actions by the Parsees. 
 
 As there are two primeval principles under Ahura-Mazda that produce 
 our material world, so there are two principles inherent in the nature of 
 man which encourage him to do good or tempt him to do evil. One asks 
 him to svipport the cause of the Good Principle, the other to support that 
 of the Evil Principle. The first is known by the name of Vonumana or 
 Behemana, i. e., " good mind." The prefix " vohu " or " beh " is the same 
 word as that of which our English " better " is the comparative. Mana is 
 the same as the word " maniyu " and means mind or spirit. The second is 
 known by the name of Akamana, i. e., bad mind. The prefix " aka " means 
 bad and is the same as our English word "ache" in " headache." 
 
 Now the fifth chapter of the Vendidad gives, as it were, a short defini- 
 tion of what is morality or piety. There, 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. Harlez 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 San- 
 skrit "rita," which word corresponds to our English "right." It means 
 therefore righteousness, piety, or purity. Then the writer proceeds to give 
 a short definition of piety. It says that "the preservation of good thoughts, 
 good Avords, and good deeds is piety." In 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 a pious and moral life and thus to show a 
 cleai- bill of spiritual health to the angel, Meher Daver, who watches the 
 gates of heaven at the Chinvat bridge, practice these three: Think 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 alone will be 
 your intercessors. 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. Haug rightly observed that "the moral philosophy 
 of Zoroaster was moving in the triad of 'thought, word, and deed.' " These
 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE PARSEES. 177 
 
 three words form, as it were, the pivot upon which the moral structure of 
 Zorodstrianism turns. It is the ground-worls upon which the whole edifice 
 of Zoroastrian morality rests. 
 
 The following dialogue in the Pehelvi Padnameh of Buzurge-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? 
 
 Answer— He who is the most innocent. 
 
 Question -Who is the most innocent man in the world? 
 
 Answer -He who walks in the path of God and shuns that of the devil. 
 
 Question— Which is the path of God. and which that of the devil? 
 
 Answer— Virtue is the path of God, and vice that of the devil. 
 
 Question— What constitutes virtue, and what vice ? 
 
 Answer— (Humata. hukhta, and hvarshta) Good thoughts, good words, and 
 good deeds constitute virtue, and (dushmata, duzukhta, and duzvarshta) evil 
 thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds constitute vice. 
 
 Question— What constitute (humata, hukhta, and hvarshta) good thoughts, 
 good words, and good deeds, and (dushmata, duzukhta, and duzvarshta) evil 
 thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds? 
 
 Answer— Honesty, charity, and truthfulness constitute the former, and dishon- 
 esty, want of charity, and falsehood constitute the latter. 
 
 From this dialogue it will be seen that a man who acquires (humata, 
 hukhta, and hvarshta) good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and 
 thereby practices honesty, charity, and truthfulness, is considered to walk 
 in the path of God, and therefore to be the most innocent and fortunate 
 man. 
 
 Herodotus also refers to the third cardinal virtue of truthfulness men- 
 tioned above. He says that to speak the truth was one of the "three things 
 taught to a Zoroastrian of his time from his very childhood. 
 
 Zoroastrianism believes in the immortality of the soul. The Avesta 
 writings of Hadokht Nushk, and the nineteenth chapter of the Vendidad, 
 and of the Pehelvi 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 
 Hotua-i-saphid, or white Homa, a name corresponding to the Indian Soma 
 of the Hindus, is held to be the emblem of the immortality of the soul. 
 According to Dr. Windischmann and Professor Max MuUer, this plant 
 reminds us of the "Tree of Life" in Ihe Garden of Eden. As in the 
 Christian scriptures, the way to the tree of life is strictly guarded by the 
 Cherubim, so in the Zoroastrian scriptures the Homa-i-Saphid, or the plant 
 which is the emblem of immortality, is guarded by innumerable Fravashis — 
 that is, guardian spirits. The number of these guardian spirits, as given 
 in various books, is 99,999. 
 
 Again, 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 slight change, into the Persian word, 
 "Behesht," which is the superlative form of "Veh," meaning good, and 
 corresponds exactly with our Enghsh word, best. Hell is Known by the 
 name of ''Achista-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 bridge named 
 "Chinvat." This word, from the Aryan root, " chi," meaning to pick up, to 
 collect — means the place where a man's soul has to present a collective 
 account of the actions done in the past life. 
 
 According to the Parsee 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 " Ushta-ahmai yahmai ushta-kahmai-chit," 
 i. e., " Well is he by whom that which is his benefit becomes the benefit of 
 any one else." If he be a wicked man or one who led an evil life, his soul 
 utters these plaintive words: " Kam nemoi zam? Kuthra nemo ayeni? i.e., 
 " To which land shall I turn? Whither shall I go? "
 
 178 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 On the dawn of the third night the departed souls appear at the " Chin- 
 vat Bridge." This bridge is guarded by the angel Meher Daver, i. e., Meher 
 the judge. He presides there as a judge, assisted by the angels Rashne and 
 Astad,'the former representing justice and the latter truth. At this bridge 
 and before this angel Meher, the soul of every man has to give an account 
 of its doings in the past life. Meher Daver, the judge, weighs a man's 
 actions by a scale-pan. If a man's good actions outweigh his evil ones, even 
 by a small particle, he is allowed to pass from the bridge to the other end, 
 to heaven. If his evil actions outweigh his good ones, even by a small 
 weight, he is not allowed to pass over the bridge, but is hurled down into 
 the deep abyss of hell. If his meritorious and evil deeds counterbalance 
 each other he is sent to a place known as " hamast-gehan," corresponding 
 to the Christian " purgatory " and the Mahommedan " aeraf." His merit- 
 orious deeds done in the past life would prevent him from going to hell, and 
 his evil actions would not let him go to heaven. 
 
 Again Zoroastrian books say that the meritoriousness of good deeds and 
 the sin of evil ones increase with the growth of time. As capital increases 
 with interest, so good and bad actions done by a man in his life increase, as 
 it were, with interest in their effects. Thus a meritorious deed done in 
 young age is more effective than that very deed done in advanced age. A 
 man must begin practicing virtue from his very young age. As in the case 
 of good deeds and their meritoriousness, so in the case of evil actions and 
 their sins. The burden of the sin of an evil action increases, as it were, 
 with interest. A young man has a long time to repent of his evil deeds, and 
 to do good deeds that could counteract the effect of his evil deeds. If he 
 does not take advantage of these opportunities the burden of those evil 
 deeds increases with time. 
 
 The Parsee places of worship are known as fire temples. The very name, 
 fire temple, would strike a non-Zoroastrian as an unusual form of worship. 
 The Parsees do not worship fire as God. They merely regard fire as an 
 emblem of refulgence, glory, and light, as the most 'perfect symbol of God, 
 and as the best and noblest representative of His divinity. "In the eyes of 
 a Parsee his (fire's) brightness, activity, purity, and incorruptibility bear the 
 most perfect resemblance to the nature and perfection of the Deity." A 
 Parsee looks upon fire " as the most perfect symbol of the Deity on account 
 of its purity, brightness, activity, subtilty, purity and incorruptibility." 
 
 Again, one must remember that it is the several symbolic ceremonies 
 that add to the reverence entertained by a Parsee for the fire burning in 
 his fire temples. A new element of purity is added to the fire burning in 
 the fire temples of the Parsees by the religious ceremonies, accompanied 
 with prayers that are performed over it, before it is installed in its place on 
 a vase on an exalted stand in the chamber set apart. The sacred fire burn- 
 ing there is not the ordinary fire burning on our hearths. It has undergone 
 several ceremonies, and it is these ceremonies, full of meaning, that renders 
 the fire more sacred in the eyes of a Parsee. We will briefly recount the 
 process here. 
 
 In establishing a fire temple fires from various places of manufacture 
 are brought and kept in different vases. Great efforts are also made to 
 obtain fire caused by lightning. Over one of these fires a perforated 
 metallic flat tray with a handle attached is held. On this tray are placed 
 small chips and dust of fragrant sandalwood. These chips and dust are 
 ignited by the heat of the fire below, care being 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 again produced, and so on, until the proc- 
 ess is repeated nine times. The fire thus prepared after the ninth process 
 is considered pure. The fires brought from other places of manufacture 
 are treated in a similar manner. These purified fires are all collected 
 together upon a large vase, which is then put in its proper place in a sepa- 
 rate chamber.
 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE PARSE ES. 179 
 
 Now what does a fire so prepared signify to a Parsee? He thinks to 
 himself: "When this fire in this vase before me, though pure in itself, 
 though the noblest of the creations of God, and though the best symbol of 
 the Divinity, had to undergo certain processes of puritication, had to draw 
 out, as it were, its essence — nay; its quintessence — of purity to enable itself 
 t J be worthy of occupying this exalted position, how much more necessary, 
 more essential, and more important it Is for me — a poor mortal who is liable 
 to commit sins and crimes, and who comes into contact with hundreds of 
 evils, both physical and mental — to undergo the process of purity and 
 piety by making my thoughts, words, and actions pass, as it were, through 
 a sieve of piety and purity, virtue and morality, and to separate by that 
 means my good thoughts, good words, and good actions from bad thoughts, 
 bad words, and bad actions, so that I may, in my turn, be enabled to acquire 
 an exalted position in the next world. 
 
 Again, the fii-es put together as above are collected from the houses of 
 men of different grades in society. This reminds a Parsee that, as all these 
 fires from the houses of men of different grades have all, by the process of 
 purification, equally acquired the exalted place in the vase, so before God 
 all men — no matter to what'grades of society they belong — are equal, pro- 
 vided they pass through the process of purification, i. e., provided they pre- 
 serve 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 presents before him the 
 ashes of a part of the consumed fire. The Parsee applies it to his forenead, 
 just as a Christian applies the consecrated water in his church, and thinks 
 to himself: '"Dust to dust. The fire, all brilliant, shining, and resplendent, 
 has spread the fragrance of the sweet-smelling sandal and frankincense 
 round about, but is at last reduced to dust. So it is destined for me. After 
 all I am to be reduced to dust and have to depart from this transient life. 
 Let me do my best to spread, like this fire, before my death, the fragrance 
 of charity and good deeds and lead the light of righteousness and knowledge 
 before others." 
 
 In short, the sacred fire burning in a fire temple serves as a perpetual 
 monitor to a Parsee standing before it to preserve piety, purity, humility, 
 and brotherhood. 
 
 As we said 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. From this point of view, then, he is not restricted to any 
 particular place for the recital of his prayers. For a visitor to Bombay, 
 which 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 
 space, turning their faces to the rising or the setting sun, before the glow- 
 ing moon or the foaming sea. Turning to these grand objects — the best and 
 sublimest of His creations — they address their prayers to the Almighty. 
 
 All Parsee prayers begin with an assurance to do acts that would please 
 the Almighty God. The assurance is followed by an expression of regret 
 for past evil thoughts, words, or deeds, if any. Man is liable to err, and so, 
 if during the interval any errors of commission or omission are committed, 
 a Parsee in the beginning of his prayers repents for those errors. He says: 
 
 O, Omniscient Lord! I repent of all my sins. I repent of all evil thoughts that 
 I might have entertained in my mind, of all evil words I might have spoken, of 
 all the evil actions that I might have committed. O, Omniscient Lord ! I repent of 
 all the faults that might have originated with me, whether they refer to thoughts, 
 words, or deeds; whether they appertain to my body or soul; whether they be in 
 connection with the material world or spiritual. 
 
 To educate their children is a spiritual duty of Zoroastrian parents. 
 Education is necessary, not only for the material good of the children and 
 parents, but also for their spiritual good. According to the Parsee books, 
 the parents participate in the meritoriousness of the good acts performed
 
 180 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 by their children as the result of the good education imparted to them. On 
 the other hand, if the ijarents 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 spiritual responsibility for such acts. In proportion to the 
 malignity or evilness of these acts the parents are responsible to God for 
 their neglect of the education of their children. It is, as it were, a spirit- 
 ual self-interest that must prompt a Parsee to look to the good education of 
 his children at an early age. Thus, from a religious point of view, educa- 
 tion is a great question with the Parsees. 
 
 The proper age recommended by religious Parsee books for ordinary 
 education is seven. Before that age children should have home education 
 with their parents, especially with the mother. At the age of seven, after 
 a little religious education, a Parsee child is invested with Sudreh and 
 Kusti, i. e., the sacred shirt and thread. This ceremony of investiture cor- 
 responds to the confirmation ceremony of the Christians. A Parsee may 
 put on the dress of any nationality he likes, but under that dress he must 
 always wear the sacred shirt and thread. These are the symbols of his 
 being a Zoroastrian. These symbols are full of meaning and act as per- 
 petual monitors, advising the wearer to lead a life of purity — of physical 
 and spiritual purity. A Parsee is enjoined to remove, and put on again 
 immediately, the sacred thread several times during the day, saying a very 
 short prayer during the process. He has to do so early in the morning, on 
 rising from bed, before meals and after ablutions. The putting on of the 
 symbolic thread, and the accompanying short prayer, remind him to be in 
 a state of repentance for misdeeds, if any, and to preserve good thoughts, 
 good words, and good deeds, the triad in which the moral philosophy of 
 Zoroaster moved. 
 
 It is after this investiture with the sacred shirt and thread that the 
 general education of a child generally begins. The Parsee books speak of 
 the necessity of educating all children, whether male or female. Thus 
 female education claims as much attention among the Parsees as male 
 education. Physical education is as much spoken of in the Zoroastrian 
 books as mental and moral education. The health of the body is con- 
 sidered as the first requisite for the health of the soul. That the physical 
 education of the ancient Persians, the ancestors of the modern Parsees, 
 was a subject of admiration among the ancient Greeks and Romans is too 
 well known. In all the blessings invoked upon one in the religious prayers, 
 the strength of body occupies the first and most prominent place. Analyz- 
 ing the Bombay Census of 1881, Dr. Weir, the Health Officer, said: 
 
 Examining education according to faith or class, we find that education is 
 most extended among the Parsee people; female education is more diffused 
 among the Parsee population than any other class. * * » Contrasting these 
 results with education at an early asre among Parsees, we find 12.2 per cent 
 Parsee male and 8.84 per cent female children, under 6 years of age, under 
 instruction; between 6 and 15 the number of Parsee male and female children 
 under instruction is much larger than in any other class. Over 15 years of age, 
 the smallest proportion of illiterate, either male or female, is found in the Par- 
 see population. 
 
 The religious books of the Parsees say that the education of Zoroastrian 
 youths should teach them perfect discipline, obedience to their teachers, 
 obedience to their parents, obedience to their elders in society, and obedi- 
 ence to the constitutional forms of government should be one of the 
 practical results of their education. So a Zoroastrian child is asked to be 
 affectionate toward and submissive to his teachers. A Parsee mother prays 
 for a son that could take an intelligent part in the deliberations of the 
 councils of his community an-d government; so a regard for the regular 
 forms of government was necessary. 
 
 Of all the practical questions the one most affected by the religious 
 precepts of Zoroastrianism is that of the observation of sanitary rules and 
 principles. Several chapters of the Vendidad form, as it were, the sanitary 
 
 1
 
 I 
 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE PARSEES. 181 
 
 code of the Parsees. Most of the injunctions will stand the test of sanitary 
 science for ages together. Of the different Asiatic communities inhabiting 
 Bombay, the Parsees have the lowest death-fate. One can safely say that 
 that is, to a great extent, due to the Zoroastrian ideas of sanitation, 
 segregation, purification, and cleanliness. A Parsee is enjoined not to 
 drink from the same cup or glass from which another man has drunk, lest 
 he catch by contagion the disease from which the other may be suffer- 
 ing. He is, under no circumstances, to touch the body of a person a short 
 time after death, lest he spread the disease, if contagious, of the deceased. 
 If he accidentally or unavoidably does, he has to purify himself by a cer- 
 tain process of washing before he mixes with others in society. A passing 
 fly, or even a blowing wind, is supposed to spread disease by contagion. So 
 he is enjoined to perform ablutions several times during the day, as before 
 saying his prayers, before meals, and after answering the calls of nature. 
 If his hand comes into contact with the saliva of his own mouth, or with 
 that of somebody else, he has to wash it. He has to keep himself aloof 
 from corpse-bearers, lest he spread any disease through them. If acci- 
 dentally he comes into contact with these people, he has to bathe himself 
 before mixing in society. A breach of these and various other sanitary 
 rules is, as it were, helping the cause of the Evil Principle. 
 
 Again, Zoroastrianism asks its disciples to keep the earth pure, to keep 
 the air pure and to keep the water pure. It considers the sun as the great- 
 est purifier. In places where the rays of the sun do not enter, fire over 
 which fragrant wood is burnt is the next purifier. It is a great sin to pol- 
 lute water by decomposing matter. Not only is the commission of a fault 
 of this kind of sin, but also the omission, when one sees such a pollution, of 
 taking proper means to remove it. A Zoroastrian, when he happens to see, 
 while passing in his way, a running steam of drinking water polluted by 
 some decomposing matter, such as a corpse, is enjoined to wait and try his 
 best to go into the stream and to remove the putrifying matter, lest its 
 continuation may spoil the water and affect the health of the people using 
 ■t. An omission to do this act is a sin from a Zoroastrian point of view. At 
 the bottom of a Parsee's custom of disposing of the dead, and at the bottom 
 of all the strict religious ceremonies enjoined therewith, lies the one main 
 principle, viz., that, preserving all possible respect for the dead, the body, 
 after its separation from the immortal soul, should be disposed of in a way 
 the least harmful and the least injurious to the living. The homely proverb 
 " cleanliness is godliness " is nowhere more recommended than in the Par- 
 see religious books, which teach that the cleanliness of body will lead to 
 and help the cleanliness of mind. 
 
 We now come to the question of wealth, poverty, and labor. As Hero- 
 dotus said, a Parsee, before praying for himself, prays for his sovereign and 
 for his community, for he is himself included in the community. His 
 religious precepts teach him to drown his individuality in the common 
 interests of his community. He is to consider himself as a part and parcel 
 of the whole community. The good of the whole will be the good — and 
 that a solid good — of the parts. In the twelfth chapter of the Yasna, which 
 contains, as it were, Zoroastrian articles of faith, a Zoroastrian promises to 
 preserve a perfect brotherhood. He promises, even at the risk of his life, 
 to protect the life and the property of all members of his community, 
 and to help in the cause that would bring about their prosperity and wel- 
 fare. It is with these good feelings of brotherhood and charity that the 
 Parsee community has endowed large funds for benevolent and charitable 
 purposes. If the rich Parsees of the future generations were to follow in 
 the footsteps of their ancestors of the past and present generations in the 
 matter of giving liberal donations for the good of the deserving poor of 
 their community, one can say that there would be very little cause for the 
 BocialiBts to complain from a poor man's point of view. It is these notions
 
 182 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of charity and brotherhood that have urged them to start public funds for 
 the L'eneral good of the whole community. Men of all grades in society 
 contribute to these funds on various occasions. The rich contribute on 
 occasions both of joy and grief. On grand occasions like those of weddings 
 in their families they contribute large sums in chanty 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 charity. These sums are 
 announced on the occasion of the Oothumna, or the ceremony on the third 
 day after death. The rich pay large sums on these occasions to commemo- 
 rate the names of their dear ones. In the Vendidad three kinds of chari- 
 table deeds are especially mentioned as meritorious: To help the poor; to 
 help a man to marry and thus enable him to lead a virtuous and honorable 
 life, and to give education to those who are in search of it. If one were to 
 look to the long list of Parsee charities, headed by that of that prince of 
 Parsee charity the first Parsee baronet, he will find these three kinds of 
 charity especially attended to. The religious training of a Parsee does not 
 restrict his ideas of brotherhood and charity to his own community alone. 
 He extends his charity to non-Zoroastrians as well. 
 
 The qualifications of a good husband, from a Zo roastrian point of view 
 are that he must be (1) 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. A wise, intelligent, and 
 educated husband is compared to a fertile piece of land which gives a plen- 
 tiful crop, whatever kind of seeds are sown in it. The qualifications 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 Zoroastrian 
 wife. It is a great virtue, 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 husband 
 three times a day — in the morning, afternoon, and evening — to be one with 
 him in thoughts, words, and deeds, i. e., to sympathize with him in all bis 
 noble aspirations, pursuits, and desires, performed as meritorious an act as 
 that of saying her prayers three times a day. She must wish to be of the 
 same view with him in all his noble pursuits, and ask him every day, 
 " What are your thoughts, so that I may be one with you in those thoughts? 
 What are your words, so that I may be one with you in your speech? What 
 are your deeds, so that I may be one with you in deeds? " A Zoroastrian wife 
 so affectionate and obedient to her husband was held in great respect, not 
 only by the husband and household, but in society as well. As Dr. West 
 says, though a Zoroastrian wife was asked to be very obedient to her hus- 
 band she held a more respectable position in society than that enjoyed by 
 any other Oriental religion. As Sir John Malcolm says, the ordinance of 
 Zoroaster secured for Zoroastrian women an equal rank with the male cre- 
 ation. The progress of the ancient Persians in civilization was partly due 
 to this cause. " The great 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 generous enterprise and its reward." The 
 advance of the modern Parsee, the descendants of the ancient Persians, 
 in the path of civilization, is greatly due to this cause. As Dr. Haug says, 
 the religious books of the Parsee hold women on a level with men. " They 
 are always mentioned as a necessary part of the religious community. 
 They have the same religious rites as the men; the spirits of deceased 
 women are invoked as well as those of men." Parsee books attach as much 
 importance to female education as to male education. 
 
 Marriage is an institution which is greatly encouraged by the spirit of 
 the Parsee religion. It is especially recommended in the Parsee scriptures 
 on the ground that a married life is more likely to be happy than an
 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE PARSEES. 183 
 
 unmarried one; that a married person is more likely to be able to withstand 
 physical and mental afflictions than an unmarried person, and that a 
 married man is more likely to lead a religious and virtuous life than an 
 unmarried one. The following verse in the Gatha conveys this meaning: 
 I say (these) words to you marrying brides and to you bridegrooms. Imrre-s 
 them in your mind. May you two enjoy the life of good mind by following the 
 laws of religion. Let each one of you clothe the other with righteousness, because, 
 then, assuredly there will bo a happy life for 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 own beauty, grace, and happiness, 
 but by their righteousness and good conduct are in a position to spread the 
 blessings of help and happiness among their neighbors. Marriage being 
 thus considered a good institution, and, being recommended by the religious 
 scriptures, it is considered a very meritorious act for a Parsee to help his 
 coreligionists to lead a married life (Vend., iv., 44.) Several rich Parsees 
 have, with this charitable view, founded endowment funds from which 
 young, deserving brides are given small sums on the occasion of their 
 marriage, for the preliminary expenses of starting in married life. 
 
 Fifteen is the minimum marriageable age spoken of by the Parsee books. 
 The parents have a voice of sanction or approval in the selection of wives 
 and husbands. Mutual friends of parents or marrying parties may bring 
 about a good selection. Marriages with non-Zoroastrians are not recom- 
 mended, as they are likely to bring about quarrels and dissensions owing to 
 a difference of manners, customs, and habits. 
 
 We said above that the Parsee religion has made its disciples tolerant 
 about the faiths and beliefs of others. It has as well made them sociable 
 with the other sister communities of the country. They mix freely with 
 members of other faiths, and take a part in the rejoicings of their holidays. 
 They also sympathize with them in their griefs and afflictions, and in case 
 of sudden calamities such as fire, floods, etc., they subscribe liberally to 
 alleviate their misery. From a consideration of all kinds of moral and 
 charitable notions inculcated in the Zoroastrian scriptures, Francis Power 
 Cobbe, in his " Studies, New and Old, of Ethical and Social Subjects," says 
 of the founder of the religion: 
 
 Should we in a future world be permitted to hold high converse with the great 
 departed, it may chanee that in the Bactrian sage, who lived and taught almost 
 before the dawn of history, we may find the spiritual patriarch, to whose lessons 
 we have owed such a portion of our intellectual inheritance that we might hardly 
 conceive what human belief would be now had Zoroaster never existed.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FOURTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 14th. 
 
 NECESSITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 So many people attended the Parliament of Religions on the 
 fourth day that overflow meetings, both morning and after- 
 noon, were held in the Hall of Washington. As soon as the 
 speakers finished their addresses in the Hall of Columbus they 
 went into the other hall and read them again to another large 
 and interested audience. On both platforms were gathered 
 representatives of nearly every religion in the world. The 
 papers presented covered a range of topics so wide that they 
 can not well be classed under one general theme. Jenkin Lloyd 
 Jones presided in Washington Hall in the morning and Dr. H. 
 N. Thomas in the afternoon. At one of the most interesting 
 periods during the morning session a photographer secured a 
 view in the Hall of Columbus, to preserve for future genera- 
 tions, a picture of the great event of such momentous interest 
 to all mankind. Views similar to this were subsequently taken. 
 In addition to the hall set apart for the elucidation of the 
 Catholic faith, some of the Buddhist delegates were accorded 
 a room in which to explain religion to all who might inquire. 
 
 In place of an evening season at the Art Palace, the dis- 
 tinguished delegates to the Parliament of Religions were tend- 
 ered a reception by the Board of Lady Managers, in the 
 Assembly Hall of the Woman's Building, in Jackson Park, The 
 reverend gentlemen were welcomed by Mrs. Potter Palmer, 
 seated by whom was President Palmer, who welcomed the 
 
 184
 
 CARDINAL GIBBONS.
 
 BTSHOP KKAXtrs INTRODUCTION. 185 
 
 foreign quests in tlio name of the National Commission. Rev. 
 
 Dyonisius Latas, tlu' Archbishop of Greece, being introduced 
 
 by Mrs. Pahner, said: 
 
 I have asconded the pulpits of my church perhaps more than one 
 thousand times, but in ascendinj? this i)hitform at the World's C(jkunbian 
 Exposition I feel myself especially honored. I feel very glad because every- 
 where I go I meet the spirit of the greatness of my ancestors of the old 
 Greece. I have been in the City of Washington and having before me the 
 buildings of the city, I thought I was in old Athens. Here in Chicago, 
 when I come within the precincts of the Columbian Exposition I think I am 
 in 01ymi)ia. When I have before me these buildings and all these exhibi- 
 tions'of art. I think I am in the Acropolis before the Parthenon. 
 
 Pung Qiiang Yu and P. C. Mozoomdar also made interesting 
 addresses. 
 
 In the Hall of Columbus, the exercises at the morning ses- 
 sion were inaugurated by silent prayer, Dr. G. H. Barrows 
 being chairman. The silence was suspended as Professor 
 Richie, of New York, led in the universal prayer. 
 
 BISHOP KEANE'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 On being introduced to read part of the paper prepared 
 by Cardinal Gibbons, Bishop Keane said: 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons has requested me to express his sincere regret that 
 he is not able to be present this morning. He showed his sympathy in the 
 Parliament of Religions by lieing here at the opening: he would gladly 
 show his sympathy V)y being hero every day during its continuance. He is 
 here with you in spirit and affection, and his prayer is offered up to 
 .Almighty God that the parliament may lead to God's own results. Now as 
 it is the desire of the parliament, and as I trust it will be recognized all 
 through, his eminence desires to adhere strictly to the programme, to treat 
 only the theme suggested by the parliament to-day — that is to say, the 
 relation between God and man, religion, the link between the Creator 
 and the created. Whoever has watched the career of Cardinal (iibbons 
 must have remarked that he is j)re-eminently a practical man. He always 
 takes a practical view of things; even in regard to the supernatural lie 
 always asks, "Willit work?"' 
 
 Profoundly blessed as he is in what I may call the divine jjhilosophy of 
 religion, he prefers always to regard it with practical eyes. Knowing that 
 religion is the gift of the Creator to His creatures, he knows that religion 
 was given by the Creator in order to benetit and bless His creatures. So 
 Cardinal (iibbons looks and asks: How does religion bless mankind? That 
 is the way he is going to view the great subject this morning. How 
 does the Christian religion, how does the Catholic Church as the divinely 
 appointed exponent of Christian religion, bless mankind, enlightening man, 
 purifying man, comforting man. im])roving man's condition here below and 
 leading him to happiness hereafter? It is in this practii^al light, there- 
 fore, the cardinal will now answer the question, "The Needs of Humanity 
 Supplied by the Catholic Religion."
 
 186 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 CARDINAL GIBBONS' MESSAGE. 
 
 The bishop then read Cardinal Gibbons' paper as follows: 
 
 We 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 
 abundantly on the intellectual, moral, and social world, like the sunlight 
 and the air of heaven and the fruits of the earth, that they have ceased to 
 excite any surprise except to those who visit lands where the religion 
 of Christ is little known. In order to realize adequately our favored 
 situation we should transport ourselves in spirit to anti-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 province of Palestine, was buried in idolatry. Every strik- 
 ing object in nature had its tutelary divinities. Men worshiped the sun 
 and moon and stars of heaven. They worshiped their very passions. They 
 worshiped everything 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 corruptible man, and of birds and 
 beasts and creeping things. They worshiped 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 them " that sat in 
 darkness and the shadow of death." The truth concerning our Creator, 
 which had hitherto been hidden in Judea, that there it might be sheltered 
 from the world-wide idolatry, was now proclaimed, and in far greater clear- 
 ness and fullness, unto the whole world. Jesus Christ taught all mankind 
 to know the one true God — a God existing from eternity to eternity, a God 
 who created all things by His power, who governs all things by His wis- 
 dom, 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 
 contrast 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 conception of 
 God, bu-t also a rational idea of man and his relations to his Creator. 
 Before the coming of Christ man was a riddle and a mystery to himself. 
 He knew not 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 enlightened us regarding our origin -and destiny, 
 and the means of attaining it. He has rescued man from the frightful laby- 
 rinth 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 ur.derstanding " — 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 God by the observance of His com- 
 mandments; 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 subject 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.
 
 CARDINAL GIBBONS' MESSAGE. 
 
 187 
 
 like Judaism, or etato religions like Paganism. The Catholic religion alone 
 is world-witle and cosmopolitan, embracing all races and nations, and 
 peoples and tongues. 
 
 Christ alone, ot 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 utter- 
 most bounds of the earth." Be not restrained in your mission by national 
 or state lines. Let my gospel be as free and universal as the air of heaven. 
 " The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." All mankind are the 
 children of my Father and my brethren. I have died for all, and embrace 
 all in my charity. Let the whole human race be your audience and the 
 world be the theater of your labors. 
 
 It is this recognition of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood 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 man- 
 kind. I behold, she says, in evei*y human creature a child of God and a 
 brother and sister of Christ, and therefore I will protect helpless infancy 
 and decrepit old age. I will feed the orphan and nurse the sick. I will 
 strike the shackles from the f(^et of the slave and will rescue degraded 
 women from the moral bondage and degradation to which her own frailty 
 and the jjussions of the stronger sex had consigned her. 
 
 Montesijuieu has well said that the religion of Christ, which was insti- 
 tuted to lead men to eternal life, has contributed more than any other 
 institution to promote the temporal and social happiness of mankind. 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 would "prove all things and hold that which is good," by 
 eml)racing 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, espe- 
 cially as I am none the xjoorer 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 oy her sublime moral code, by her world-wide catholicity and 
 by that unbroken chain of apostolic succession which connects her Indis- 
 solubly 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 eleva- 
 tion and betterment of society. 
 
 1. The Catholic Church has purified society in its very fountain, which 
 is the marriage bond. She has invariably proclaimed the unity and sanc- 
 tity and indissolubility of the marriage tie by saying with her founder that 
 "What God 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 Christian liberty. And if 
 you are no longer the slaves of man and the toy of his caprice, like the 
 wives of Asiatic countries, but the peers and partners of your husbands; if 
 you are no longer tenants at will like the wives of pagan Greece and Rome, 
 but the mistresses of your household; if you are no longer confronted by 
 usurping rivals like Mohammedan and Mormon wives, but the queens of the 
 domestic kingdom, yiju are indebted for this priceless i oon to the ancient 
 church, and [jarticularly to the Roman pontiffs who inflexibly upheld the 
 sacredness of the nuptial bond against the arbitrary power of kings, the 
 lust of nobles, and the lax and pernicious legislation of civil governments.
 
 188 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 2. The Catholic religion has proclaimed the sanctity of human life as 
 soon as the body is animated by the vital spark. Infanticide was a dark 
 stain on i)agan civilization. It was universal in Greece, with the possible 
 c.Kception of Thebes. It was sanctioned and even sometimes enjoined by 
 such eminent Greeks as Plato and Aristotle, Solon and Lycurgus. The 
 destruction of infants was also very common among the Romans. Nor was 
 there any legal check to this inhuman 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 permeated with the leaven of Christianity, the wanton sacri- 
 tice of infant life is probably as general to-day 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 is a crime more revolting than that of Herod, because 
 committed against one's own flesh and blood. She has condemned with 
 equal energy the atrocious doctrine of Malthus, who suggested unnatural 
 methods for diminishing the population of the human family. Were I not 
 restrained by the fear of offending modesty and of imparting knowledge 
 where " ignorance is bliss," I would dwell more at length on the social 
 plague of ante-natal infanticide, which is insidiously and systematically 
 spreading among us in defiance of civil penalties and of the divine law 
 which says, "Thou shalt not kill." 
 
 3. There is no place of iiuman 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 Provi- 
 dence before they could know or feel a mother's love. These little waifs, 
 like the infant Moses drifting in the turbid Nile, are rescued from an 
 untimely death and are tenderly raised by the daughters of the Great 
 King, those consecrated virgins who become nursing mothers to them. And 
 I have known more than one such motherless babe who, like Israel's law- 
 giver, in after years became a leader among his people. 
 
 4. As the church provides homes for those yet on the threshold 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 cradle 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 Invalides for the 
 veteran soldiers of Prance who had fought in the service of their country. 
 And so has the Catholic religion provided for those who have been disabled 
 in the battle of a life a home in which they are tenderly nursed in their 
 declining years by devoted sisterf . 
 
 The Little Sisters of the Poor, whose congregation was founded in 1840, 
 he.ve 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 1889. 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 Christian- 
 ity embraces all. The only question proposed by the sisters to the appli- 
 cant for shelter is this: Are you oppressed by age and penury? If so, come 
 to us and we will provide for you. 
 
 5. She has orphan asylums where children of both sexes are reared and 
 taught to become useful and worthy members of society. 
 
 6. Hospitals were unknown to the pagan world before the coming of 
 Christ. The copious vocabularies of Greece and Rome had no word ^v^o 
 to express that term.
 
 CARDINAL GIBBONS' MESSAGE. 189 
 
 jThe Catholic Church has hospitals for the treatment and cure of every 
 .^rni of disease, She sends her dauj^hters of charity and of mercy to the 
 battlefield and to the plague-stricken city. Dviring the Crimean War I 
 remember to have read of a sister who was struck dead by a ball while she 
 was in the act of stooping down and bandaging the wound of a fallen soldier. 
 Much praise was then deservedly bestowed on Florence 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 Rajjhael, 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 reinforce the ranks of their heroic com- 
 panions 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 depart- 
 ure for the scene of their labors was neither announced 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 ambi- 
 tion was — and how lofty is that ambition! — that the Recording Angel might 
 be their biographer; that their names might be inscribed in the Book of 
 Life, and that they might receive their recompense from Him who has 
 said: " I was sick and ye 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 books of chivalry, 
 but happening 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 of arms or the strains of martial hymns, or by the love for earthly 
 fame, but inspired only by a sense of Chi-istian duty and by the love of 
 God and her fellow-beings. 
 
 7. The Catholic religion labors not only to assuage the physical distem- 
 pers of humanity but «ilso 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 philanthi-opy; and man's regenerate 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 protection 
 over sinning woman. There is no page in the gospel more touching than 
 that which records our Savior's merciful judgment on the adulterous 
 woman. The Scribes and Pharisees, who had perhaps participated in her 
 guilt, asked our Lord to pronounce sentence of death upon her in accord- 
 ance with the Mosaic law. "Hath no one condemned thee?" asked our 
 Savior. "No one. Lord," she answered. "Then,"' said He, "neither will I 
 condemn thee. Go, sin no more." 
 
 Inspired by the divine example, the Catholic Church shelters erring 
 females in homes not inappropriately called Magdalena Asylums and 
 Houses of the Good Shepherd, not to speak of other institutions estab- 
 lished for the[moral reformation of women. The congregation of the Good 
 Shepherd at Angers, founded in 1836, has charge to-day of 150 houses, in 
 which upward of 4,000 sisters devote themselves to the care of over 20,0(X) 
 females who had yielded to temptation or were rescued from impending 
 danger. 
 
 8. The Christian religion has been the unvarying friend and advocate of 
 the bondman, Before the dawn of Christianity slavery was universal in
 
 190 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 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 and 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 persons. The minis- 
 ters of the Catholic religion down the ages sought to lighten the burden 
 and improve the condition of the slave as far as social prejudice would per- 
 mit, till at length the chains fell from their feet. 
 
 Hvuuan slavery has, at last, thank God! melted away before the noonday 
 sun of the gospel. No Christian country contains to-day a solitary slave. 
 To ]jaraphrase the words of a distinguished Irish jurist, as soon as the 
 bondman puts his foot in a Christian land he stands redeemed, regenerated, 
 and disenthralled on the sacred soil of Christendom. 
 
 9. The Savior of mankind never conferred a greater temporal boon on 
 mankind than by ennobling and sanctifying manual labor and by rescuing 
 it from the stigma of degradation which had been branded upon it. Before 
 Chi-ist appeared among men manual and even mechanical work was regarded 
 as servile and degrading to the freemen of pagan Rome, and was conse- 
 quently 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 is the reputed son of an artisan, and His oarly 
 manhood is spent in a mechanic's shop. " Is not this the carpenter, the 
 son of Mary? " The primeval curse attached to labor is obliterated by the 
 toilsome life of Jesus Christ. Ever since He pursued His trade as a carpen- 
 ter He has lightened the mechanic's tools and has shed a halo around 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 Burke, how much more is the 
 calling of a workman ennobled by the example of Christ. What De Toc- 
 queville said sixty years ago of the United States is true to-day — 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 comfort to his heart by instructing 
 him to bear the ills of life with Christian philosophy, she has sanctified the 
 marriage bond, she has proclaimed the sanctity and inviolability of human 
 life from the moment that the body is animated by the spark or life till it is 
 extinguished, she has founded asylums for the training of children of both 
 sexes and for the support of the aged poor, she has established hospitals for 
 the sick and homes for the redemption of fallen women, she has exerted her 
 influence toward mitigation and abolition of human slavery, she has been 
 the unwavering 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 to-day, 
 zealous promoters of most of these works of Christian benevolence which I 
 have enumerated. Not to speak of the innumerable 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 John Hopkins, Enoch Pratt, and George Peabody in the 
 City of Baltimore. But will not our separated brethren have the candor 
 to acknowledge that we had first possession of the field, that these benefi- 
 cent movements have been inaugurated by us, and that the other Christian
 
 RELIGION CHARACTERISTIC OF HUMANITY. 191 
 
 communities in their noble efforts for the moral and social regenera ion of 
 mankind have, in no small measure, been stimulated by the example and 
 emulation of the ancient church. 
 
 Let us do all we can, in our day and generation, in the cause of human- 
 ity. Every man has a mission from God to help his fellow-being. Though 
 we differ in faith, thank God, there is one platform on which we stand 
 united, and that is the platform of charity and benevolence. We can not 
 indeed, like our Divine Master, give sight to the blind and hearing to the 
 deaf, and speech to the dumb, and strength to the paralyzed limb, but we 
 can work miracles of grace and mercy by relieving the distress of our 
 suffering brethren. And never do we approach nearer to our Heavenly 
 Father than when we alleviate the sorrows of others. Never do we perform 
 an act more godlike than when we bring sunshine to hearts that are dark 
 and desolate. Never are we more like to God than when we cause the 
 flowers of joy and gladness to bloom in souls that were dry and barren 
 before. "Religion," says the apostle, "pure and undetiled before God and 
 the father, is this: to visit the fatherless and the widow in their tribulation 
 and to keep oneself unspotted from this world." Or to borrow the words 
 of the pagan Cicero: "Homines ad Deos nulla re propius accedunt quam 
 salutem hominibus dando." "There is no way by which man can approach 
 nearer to the gods than by contributing to the welfare of their fellow 
 creatures." 
 
 When tbe applause which followed the close of Cardinal 
 
 Gibbons' paper died away, Bishop Keane said: 
 
 And thus it is that Cardinal Gibbons has stated the question of 
 to-day's parliament; thus it is that he has tried to ascertain by applying 
 the test which the Son of God taught us to apply, " by their fruit ye shall 
 know them," whether the religion of Jesus Christ and of his own church' 
 is, indeed, divine, because it fills humanity, fits into the whole of human life, 
 and blesses, ennobles, purifies, and elevates it all. Therefore he says: " To 
 the eye not only of speculative philosophy but of practical common sense 
 the religion of Jesus Christ and of his own church is the religion of 
 humanity." 
 
 RELIGION ESSENTIALLY CHARACTERISTIC OF 
 HUMANITY. 
 
 EEV. LYMAN ABBOTT, D.D., SUCCESSOR TO HENEY WARD 
 BEECHER. « 
 
 To 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, would require a wealth of scholarship 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 attempt the truth of the 
 proposition' which I have been asked to speak to. I shall simply endeavor, 
 in a series of statements, to elucidate and interpret, and, in some small 
 measure, apply it. 
 
 Religion, then — and you will pardon me if I speak in dogmatic phrase- 
 ology; I am giving you my convictions, and it will be egotistic, as well as 
 needless, for me to interpolate continually "this is what I think"— religion 
 is essential to humanity. It is not a something or a somewhat external to 
 Ojaij. It is an essential life of man. It is not a something apart from hinj
 
 192 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 vvhioh has been imposed upon him by priests or hierarchies here or any- 
 where. It is not a fungus growth that does 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 Vjr selfish purposes. But this 
 does not counterpart the truth that religion itself is an essential integral 
 part of his own inherent nature. Religion is not a something or a some- 
 what 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; architecture is 
 the parent of the White City. And the temples and the priests and the 
 rituals that cover this round globe of ours have not made religion, they 
 have been born of the religion that is inherent in the soul. Religion is not 
 the exceptional gift of exceptional geniuses. It is not what men have 
 sometimes thought poetry or art or music to be, a thing that belongs to a 
 favored few great men. It is the universal characteristic of humanity. It 
 belongs to man as man. Religion is not a somewhat that has been conferred 
 upon him by any supernatural act of irresistible grace either upon an elect 
 few or an elect many. Still less ia it a somewhat that has been conferred 
 upon a few, so that the many, strive never so hard to conform their lives to 
 the light of nature, unless aided by some supernatural or extraordinary 
 acts of grace, can never attain to it. Religion belongs to man and is inherent 
 in man. 
 
 If I may be allowed to use the terminology of our own theology, it is not 
 conferred upon man in redemption, it is conferred upon man in creation. 
 It was not first brought into existence at Mount Sinai, it was not first 
 brought into existence at Bethlehem. Christ came not to create religion, 
 but to develop the religion that was already in the human soul. In the 
 beginning God breathed the breath of life into man, and into every man, 
 and all men have something of that divine breath in them. They may 
 stifie it, they may refvise to obey that to which it calls them, but still it is 
 in them. They are children of God whether they know it or know it not. 
 And to their God they are drawn by a power like that which draws the 
 earth to the sun. 
 
 Religion, that is, the power of perceiving the infinite and the eternal, is 
 a characteristic of man, as man. Man is a wonderful machine. This body 
 of his is, I suppose, the most marvelous mechanism in the world. Man is 
 an animal, linked to the animal race by his instincts, his appetites, his 
 passions, his social nature. He has all that the animal possesses, only in a 
 higher and larger degree; but he is more than a machine, he is more than 
 an animal. He is linked to more than the earth from which he was 
 formed; he is more than the animal from which he was produced; he is 
 linked to the divine and the eternal. He has in him a faith, a hope, and 
 love — a faith which, if it does not always see the infinite, at all events 
 always tries to see the infinite, groping after Him 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, beginning in the cradle, binding him to 
 his mother, widens in ever broadening circles as life enlarges, including the 
 children of the home, the villagers, 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 still larger life in which we live and move and have our being, 
 toward which we tend and by which we are fed and are inspired. 
 
 Max Mueller has defined religion — I quote from memory, but I believe 
 I quote with substantial accuracy — as a perception of such a manifesta- 
 tion of the infinite as produces an effect upon the moral character and
 
 RELIGION CHARACTERISTIC OF HUMANITY. 193 
 
 conduct of mau. It is not merely the moral character and conduct: That 
 is ethics. It is not merely a perception of the iutinitc: That is theolo^fy. 
 1 1 is such a perception of the infinite as produces an influence on the moral 
 character and conduct of man: That is religion. 
 
 My pi'oposition then is this: That in every man there is an inherent 
 capacity so to perceive the iuttnite, and to every man on this round globe 
 of ours God has so manifested himself in nature and in inward experience, 
 as that, taking that manifestation on the one hand and a x^ower of p(^r- 
 ception on the other, the moral character and the conduct of man, if he 
 follows the light that he receives, will be steadily improved and enlarged 
 and enriched in his upward iirogress to the infinite and the eternal. Man 
 is conscious of himself and he is conscious of the world within himself. He 
 is conscious of a perception that brings him in touch with the outer world. 
 He is conscious of reason by which he sees the relation of things. He is 
 conscious of emotions, feelings of hope, of fear, of love. He is conscious of 
 will, of resolve, of purpose. Sometimes painfully conscious of resolves that 
 have been broken. Sometimes gladly conscious of resolves that have been 
 kept. And in all of this life he is conscious of these things: That he is a 
 perceiving, thinking, feeling, willing creature. 
 
 He is also conscious of the world outside of himself. A world of form, 
 of color, of material, of phenomena. Ihey are borne in upon him by liis 
 perceiving faculties. And he is also conscious of a relation between him- 
 self, this thinking, willing creature that he is, and this outward world that 
 impinges upon him. He is conscious that the fragrance of the rose give.s 
 him pleasure and the fragrance of the bone-boiling establishment does not 
 give him pleasure. He is conscious that tire warms him, and he is conscious 
 that lire burns and stings him. He is conscious of hunger; he is conscious 
 of I he satisfaction that comes through the feeding of himself when hungry. 
 He is brought into perpetual contact with this outward world, so he becomes 
 conscious of three things. 
 
 First, himself; second, the not-self; third, the relation between himself 
 and this not-self. And this relationship is forced upon him by every move- 
 ment of his life. It begins with the cradle and does not end until the grave. 
 Life is perpetually an impinging upon him, He himself is coerced whether 
 he will or whether he will not, to ascertain what is the relationship, the 
 true, the right, the just, the accurate relationship between this thinking, 
 feeling creature that he calls self and this outward and material and phe- 
 nomenal world in the midst of which he lives. 
 
 In the pursuit of this inqviiry he begins by attributing to all the phe- 
 nomena that impinges upon him the continuous life that is within him. 
 He thinks that all things are themselves persons. He very soon learns 
 from his grouping together of this outward phenomena differently. He 
 groups them in classes, he produces them in provinces, he liecomes poly- 
 theistic. He goes but a very little way through life before he learns there 
 is a larger unity of life than at first he thovight. He learns that all phe- 
 nomena of life are bound together in sonie one common bond. He learns 
 that behind all the phenomena of nature there is a cause, that behind the 
 apparent there is the real, behind the shadow there is the substance, 
 behind the transitory there is the eternal. The old teachers of the old 
 religion, the old teachers of the Japanese religion, they, as well as the old 
 teachers of the Hebrew religion, did see that truth which Herbert Spencer 
 has put in axiomatic form in these later days: "Midst all iBysteries by 
 which we are surrounded, nothing is more certain than that we are in the 
 presence of an infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed." 
 
 Now he begins to study this energy, for the success of his life, the well- 
 being of his life here, even if there were no hereafter, depends on his 
 understanding what are his relations, not only to the related phenomena of 
 life, but to the infinite and eternal energy from which all these phenomena
 
 194 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 spring. And in the study of this energy he very soon discovers that 
 it is an intellectual energy. All the phenomena of life have behind them 
 thought relations. The world has not hajjpened; life is not a chapter of 
 accidents; the universe is not a heap of disjected membria; there is a unity 
 which makes life what it is. It is summed up in the very word by which 
 we endeavor to describe all things, "Uni Verse"— all forces combined in 
 
 The relation of these phenomena one to the other he seeks to learn. He 
 talks of laws and forces. Science is not merely the gathering of phenom- 
 ena here and there, science is the discovery of the relations which exist 
 between phenomena and which have existed through eternity. The scientist 
 does not create those relations, he discovers them. He does not make the 
 laws, he linds them. Science is a thought of man trying to find the divine 
 reality that is behind all this transitoriness. Science is the thinking of the 
 thoughts of God after him. He perceives art, the relations of beauty in 
 form, in color, in music. He endeavors *to diseover what are those relations 
 of beauty in form, in art, in color. He does not create them; he discovers 
 them. They existed before he came upon the stage, and they will continue 
 to exist if by some cataclasm all humanity should be swept off the stage. 
 And in this search for beauty he finds there, too, that he has perceived the 
 infinite. Bach knocks at one door and out there issues one form of music, 
 Mozart another, Mendelssohn another, Beethoven another, Wagner another; 
 each one interprets something of the beauty that lies wrapt up in the pos- 
 sibility of sound, and still the march goes on, still the doors swing open, 
 still the notes come tripping out, still the music grows and grows and grows, 
 and will grow while eternity goes on, for in music we are searching for the 
 infinite and eternal whether we know it or know it not. 
 
 He perceives, however, not only the outward world of things. He per- 
 ceives an outward world of 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 alsoi,resolve and break their 
 resolves and keep their resolutions. He sees that he is but one of the great 
 company marching along the same highway out of the great unknown in 
 the past toward the same great unknown goal in the future ; and he finds, 
 he discerns, that there is a unit in this humanity. First, he sees it in the 
 family, 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 narration of things that have happened ; history is 
 the evolution of the progress of a united race, coming from the egg into the 
 fulfilled bird of the future. There could be no political economy if there 
 were no unit in the human race, no science, no religion, no nothing. We 
 are not a mere set of disintegrated, separate pieces of sand in one great 
 heap which we are building up to be blown asunder. All humanity is 
 united together by unmistakable ties — united with a power that far tran- 
 scends the local temple, the temple of tribes, or nations, or creeds, or cir- 
 cumstances. And we thus discern that, as there is back of all the material 
 phenomena an ethical culture, so there is back of all moral phenomena 
 moral culture. 
 
 History, political economy, sociology, the whole course of the develop- 
 ment of the human race is a witness that there is not only an infinite, but 
 an eternal energy from which things proceed, but an infinite and eternal 
 moral energy from which all human life in its last analysis has its uni- 
 fying element. Vital man is compelled to study what this bond of union 
 is. He must know what are the right relationships between himself and 
 his fellowmen. If he fails, all sorts of distress and calamities come upon 
 him. 
 
 He must find out what are the right relationships between employer and 
 employed, what are the right relationships between governor and governed, 
 
 I
 
 RELIGION CHARACTERISTIC OF HUMANITY. 195 
 
 what .ire the right relationships between parent and children. Again, he 
 does not make them, but tinds out what they are. Let Congress, with a 
 power of thirty millions of people behind it, enact slavery in the American 
 constitution; let the thirty millions say," we will make a law that the 
 blacks shall be the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, and the white 
 men shall be served by them," and the law that Congress makes, with thirty 
 millionsof people behind it, infringes against the divine, eternal and infin- 
 ite 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 organiza- 
 tion to seek for an infinite and eternal behind humanity, an infinite and 
 eternal behind the material and behind the lesthetic. Unconsciously he 
 has been seeking for the divine, but he awaits the consciousness. He 
 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 stirred towai'd that some- 
 what, stirred to awe, stirred to fear, stirred to reverence, stirred to curiosity, 
 but stirred. So with temple and with worshij), and with ritual and with 
 priest, he endeavors consciously to learn who and what this somewhat is 
 who draws him in his moral resolutions to his fellow-man, who speaks the 
 inward voice of righteousness in the conscience of the individual. 
 
 Thus we get out of religioii religions — religions that vary with one 
 another, according as curiosity or fear or hope or the ethical element or the 
 personal reverence predominates. Religious curiosity wants to know about 
 the infinite and eternal, and it gives us creedsand theologies; the religion of 
 fear gives us the sacrificial system with its atonement sand propitiations; the 
 religion of hope expects some reward or recompense from the great Infinite, 
 and expresses itself in services and gifts, with the expectation of rewards here 
 or in some elysium hereafter. Then there is the religion which, although 
 it can never learn the nature of the lawgiver, still goes on trying to under- 
 stand the nature of his laws; and, finally, the religion which more or less 
 clearly sees behind all this that there is one who is the ideal of humanity, 
 the Infinite and Eternal Ruler of Humanity, and therefore reveres and wor- 
 ships, and last of all learns to love. 
 
 If, in this very brief summary, I have carried you with me, you will see 
 that the object of man's search is not merely religion. He is seeking to 
 know the infinite and eternal, not merely the priests and the hierarchies, 
 not merely the men and women, with their services, and their rituals, and 
 their prayer-books, but the who'e current and tendency of human life is a 
 search for the infinite and the divine. All science, all art, all sociology, all 
 business, all government, as well as all worship, is in the last analysis an 
 endeavor to comprehend the meaning of the great words: Honesty, justice, 
 truth, pity, mercy, love. In vain does the atheist or agnostic try to stop 
 our search to know the infinite and eternal; in vain does he tell us it is a 
 useless quest. Still we press on and must j)ress on. The incentive is in 
 ourselves, and nothing can blot it out of us and still leave us men and 
 women. 
 
 God made us out of Himself, and God calls us back to Himself. It would 
 be easier to kill the appetite of man and let us feed by merely shoveling in 
 carbon as into a furnace; it would be easier to blot ambition out of man 
 and to consign him to endless and nerveless content; easier to blot love out 
 of man and banish him to live the life of a eunuch in the wilderness, than 
 to blot out of the soul of man those desires and aspirations which knit him 
 to the infinite and eternal — give him love for his fellowmen and reverence 
 for God. In vain does the philosopher of the barnyard say to the egg: 
 "You are made of egg; you always were an egg; you always will be an egg; 
 don't try to be anything but an egg." The chicken pecks and pecks until 
 he breaks the shell and comes out to the sunlight of the world.
 
 19(5 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 We welcome here to-day, in this most cosmopolitan city of the most cos- 
 mopolitan race on the globe, the representatives of all the various forms of 
 religious life from East to West and North to South. We are glad to wel- 
 come them. We are glad to believe that they, as we, have been seeking to 
 know something more and better of the Divine from which we issue, of the 
 Divine to which we are returning. We are glad to hear the message they 
 have to bring to us. We are glad to know what they have to tell us, but 
 what we are gladdest of all about is that we can tell them what we have 
 found in our search, and that we have found the Christ. 
 
 I do not stand here as the exponent, the apologist, or the defender of 
 Christianity. In it there have been the blemishes and spots of human 
 handiwork. It has been too intellectual, too much a religion of creeds. It 
 has been too fearful, too much a religion of sacrifices. It has been too self- 
 ishly hopeful; there has been too much a desire of reward here or hereafter. 
 It has been too little a religion of unselfish service and unselfish reverence. 
 No! It is not Christianity that we want to tell our brethren across the sea 
 about; it is the Christ. 
 
 What is it that this universal hunger of the human race seeks? Is it 
 not these things — a better understanding of our moral relations, one to 
 another, a better understanding of what we are and what we mean to be, 
 that we may fashion ourselves according to the idea of the ideal being in 
 our nature, a better appreciation of the Infinite One who is behind all 
 phenomena, material and spiritual? Is 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 represented than in the golden rule, 
 "Do unto others that which you would have others do unto you." We do 
 not think that he furnishes the only ideal the world has ever had. We 
 recognize the voice of God in all prophets and in all time. But we do think 
 that we have found in this Christ, in his patience, in his courage, in his 
 heroism, in his self-sacrifice, in his unbounded mercy and love an idea that 
 transcends all other ideals written by the pen of poet, painted by the brush 
 of artists; or graved into the life of human history. 
 
 We do not think that God has spoken only in Palestine and to the few 
 in that narrow province. We do not think he has been vocal in Christen- 
 dom and dumb everywhere else. No! We believe that He is a speaking 
 God in all times and in all ages. But we believe no other revelation tran- 
 scends and none other equals that which he has made to man in the one 
 transcendental human life that was lived eighteen centuries ago in Pales- 
 tine. 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 God. If what I 
 have portrayed to you this morning so imperfectly has any truth in it the 
 whole human race seeks to know its eternal and divine Father. The mes- 
 sage of the incarnation — that is the glad tidings we have to give to Africa, 
 to Asia, to China, to the isles of the sea. 
 
 The everlasting Father is also seeking the children who are seeking 
 Him. He is not an unknown, hiding himself behind a veil impenetrable. 
 He is not a being dwelling in the eternal silence; he is a speaking, reveal- 
 ing, incarnate God. He is not an absolute justice, sitting on the throne of 
 the universe and bringing before him imperfect, sinful man and judging him 
 with the scales of unerring justice. He is a father coming into human life 
 and coming into one transcendental human life, coming into all human 
 life for all time. Perhaps we have sometimes misrepresented our own faith 
 respecting this Christ. Perhaps in our metaphysical definitions, we have 
 sometimes been too anxious to be accurate and too little anxious to be true.
 
 CO-OPERATION OF MEN AND WOMEN. 197 
 
 He himself has said it— He is a door. We do not stand merely to look at 
 the dcK)r for the beauty of the earvinj? upon it. We push the door open 
 and go in. Through that door CJod enters into human life; through that 
 door humanity enters into the Divine life; man seeking after God, the 
 incarnate God' seeking after man; the end in that great future after life's 
 troubled dream shall be o'er, and we shall awake satisfied because we awake 
 in His likeness. 
 
 DIVINE BASIS OF THE CO-OPERATION OF MEN AND 
 
 WOMEN. 
 
 MRS. LYDIA H. DICKINSON. 
 
 What 18 the divine basis of the co-operation of men and women? In 
 attempting briefly to answer this question, we must consider first the 
 nature of the original bond between man and woman. And here secular 
 history gives us no help. We find them separated when history begins. 
 The woman is sul)ject to the man, and custcnn, law, and the parties them- 
 selves are acquiescent in the subjection- woman quite 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 worlds progress and given to her thrones of 
 judgment and dominion. True, these concessions have been made to the 
 exceptional woman or in the interest of hereditary kingship — have been 
 made to the Helens, the Deborahs, the Catherines, and Elizabeths. But 
 the concession proves the intuition, the more as the women themselves have 
 accepted the position and filled them credital)ly. For the rest, there has 
 never been a people, except, perhaps, admitted l)arbarians, among whom, 
 before marriage, the woman has not only been equal but superior in love. 
 Universal man in all the historic past has been her subject here. 
 
 Again, the law in holding women the same as men amenable to pun- 
 ishment as offenders takes a position also at variance with the idea of sub- 
 jection. It recognizes the individuality of woman, her personal responsibil- 
 ity, 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 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 -conscious- 
 ness would seem almost miraculous. She has been at once citizen and 
 alien, subject and queen. She has by common consent been responsil^Ie 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'vvoman has been the synonym for 
 all that is contradictory in human character and experience. 
 
 But 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. From this source we 
 learn that He 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 two, but one, being 
 joined together by God himself — that is, creatively. In a relation of essen- 
 tial oneness, such as is contemplated here, there can of course be no subjection 
 of one to the other — no separation between them. They are comj)lemen- 
 tary of each other. They are each for 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 marriage
 
 198 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 in other words of the essentially masculine with the essentially feminind, 
 such a marriage or oneness of interest and work in all their relations 
 with one another as would lay the proper foundation for a marriage or 
 oneness of interest and work in their more important, because command- 
 ing relation with each other— commanding because individual marriage 
 though last in front is first in end. It gives the law. As is this relation 
 ideally or actually, such is society, mutually peace-giving and helpful, or 
 the reverse. This prospective relation of essential oneness between the 
 individual man and woman, presupposes a marriage in each individual, an 
 at-one-ment with one's self that would make at-one-ment with onefother 
 possible. Christ's, words unquestionably refer to a time when, by implica- 
 tion, harmony prevailed on all the planes of our individual and associated 
 life. "In the beginning," he said, "it was not so." Divorce was impossi- 
 ble, because they are made male and female, the perfect complements of 
 each other. 
 
 It may be said that harmony on all the planes of our being would pre- 
 clude the idea of government as we know it, the need of contending parties 
 and of the ballot,- to decide which one shall rule. This, in a sense, is true. 
 Our idea of government, under these conditions, would change undoubtedly. 
 As we know it, government means not the love of service, but the love of 
 dominion, and this, if my premise is correct, came about, first, through 
 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. 
 
 The proof that the premise is correct will, I think, appear when we con- 
 clude what society of necessity would be were the idea of service the only 
 ruling in the marriage relation of to-day. 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 indi- 
 vidual. But the individual gives the law. According to sacred history, 
 then, marriage, a relation of perfect oneness or equality, a complementary 
 relation, precluding the idea of separation or subjection, is the original 
 bond between individual men and women, because it is the bond between 
 masculine and feminine 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 conseqviences 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 serpent. 
 "He — thy husband — shall rule over thee." 
 
 Let us for a moment consider this fact in its relation to the individual 
 mind. For all truth is true for us primarily as individuals. What we are 
 to others depends on 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 tiuth 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 Ub back to our moorings But it can only do so 
 by its temporary supremacy over love. This is all we know. Our desires 
 must be 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, Ihat is, each is both masculine and femi- 
 nine 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
 
 CO-OPERATION OF MEN AND WOMEN. 199 
 
 and expresses love. Here also, as in the indivitlual, 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 experience 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 con- 
 sequent separation between love and truth in the individual mind, a 
 separation that, binding us to the highest good, makes it no longer safe for 
 us to ft)llow 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 universal intuition of the 
 truth I have tried to present, namely, the truth of the creative oneness of 
 man and woman. Human history, it is true, is the record of a seeming 
 divorce between them. But what God hath joined together man can not 
 jjut asunder. Creatively one, man and woman can not be permanently 
 separated. Indeed, their temporary separation is providentially in the 
 interest of their higher ultimate union. We ar ^ on our way back to rela- 
 tions 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 essentially 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 our- 
 selves created. First, nature without us, always responsive to nature 
 within, is in rebellion and must be subdued. Here, again, "in the sweat of 
 thy face shalt thou eat bread," is not a curse, bvit 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 compvilsion, the compulsion of the 
 clay-cold, masculine intellect, which alone is able to master nature's secrets 
 and nature herself. 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 of truth and falsity without, 
 leads us on and out of the wilderness or sends 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 seemingly 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." 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. 
 
 But let us take another step. Our way back involves not only the over-
 
 200 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 coming of obstacles to harmony of nature without us, the subjugation of 
 nature, and the consequent estabhshment of a scientific consciousness in 
 accord 'with spiritual truth, that harmony for man presupposes his rightful 
 lordship over all below him, it also involves the overcoming of nature within, 
 an at-one-ment 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 the 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 or 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 revela- 
 tion of the truth to man. 
 
 The legal disfranchisement of woman in the past has been in accord- 
 ance with the truth for the past. It has been a strict necessity of the sit- 
 uation, 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. But the foun- 
 dations broadly and deeply laid in natural and social science, we can at 
 least see that the corresponding superstructure can be after no petty or 
 personal, partial or class pattern, but must be divinely perfect— that is, 
 perfect "according to the measure of a man," of man physical, intellectual 
 and spiritual, of man individual and social, and finally of man feminine as 
 well as masculine. We can at last see that love is the fulfillment of law. 
 
 This truth hviman law must sometimes embody in order to 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 proclaims the contrary. Neither 
 this nor a practical belief in the creative quality of man and man. This 
 waits upon that, that upon individual enlightenment sufficiently focalized 
 to lead the general mind. A relation of marriage, or, in other words, of 
 mutual co-operation all the way through in all the work of both, is the cre- 
 ative 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, ultimate in all human relations 
 and in the work of the world. This truth alone will lead us back to har- 
 mony 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 the further extension of the right of suffrage has 
 weight. It should have been considered when the negro was admitted to 
 citizenship. Ignorance is a menace to the state. All women are not intel- 
 ligent. 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 prog- 
 nostications. Woman suffrage does not mean to women the pursuit of pol- 
 itics after the fashion of men. But questions are 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.
 
 CO-OPERATION OF MEN AND WOMEN. 201 
 
 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 women 
 irresistibly aspires to the fultillmeut of its own womanly destiny as wife 
 and mother, and, as a rule, to nothing that definitely postpones such 
 destiny. Most emphatically woman suffrage iloes not mean any persistent 
 blindness on the part of women to their high calling as theoutward embod- 
 iment and repr> sentative 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 acquiescent subjection to man. He 
 has led her, and, all unconsciously to himself, has led man through her up 
 and out upon the high table-land of to-day, 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 neverthe- 
 less mean for woman a consistent, rational sense of personal responsibility, 
 and it means this so pre-eminently that I could almost say that it means 
 nothing else. Because upon this new and higher senseof personal respon- 
 sibility is to be built all the new and higher relations of woman in the future 
 with hersf If, 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 intu- 
 ition of the truth is the secret of the so-called woman movement, of the 
 intellectual awakening of women, of their desire for personal and pecu- 
 niary freedom, their laudable efforts to secure such freedom, the sympathy 
 and co-operation of the best men in these efforts, 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 true prophet in one: 
 
 Then comes the statelier Eden buck to men. 
 
 Then reiffn the world's ureat brid Isclia.ste and calm. 
 
 Then springs the crowning race of liumankind. 
 
 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 woman, 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 hor. Really separating herself, some say, 
 but we need not fear. She is simply doing her part, making herself ready 
 for the new and higher relation with man to which both are divinely sum- 
 moned. The end to be attained, a perfect relation between man and woman, 
 symbolized by, but as yet imperfectly realized in, the divine institution of 
 marriage, involves for its realization equal freedom for both. Not inde- 
 pendence on the part of either. No such thing is possible. 
 
 Inequality of natural opportunity operates hardly against woman. It is 
 against this inequality that she is now struggling on the material and intel- 
 lectual plane — that they are struggling, let me say, for no reflecting person 
 can for au instant suppose that the woman movement does not include men
 
 202 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 battle-ground of freedom and slavery. 
 We are in the dawn of a new and final dispensation. This is why I welcome 
 the struggle of personal freedom on the part of woman, including her strug- 
 gle for personal freedom on the part of woman, including her struggle for 
 the right of citizenship. It is altogether a new recognition by what is 
 highest in man of the sacredness of the individual, and it insures the tri- 
 umph of the new impulse. 
 
 The personal freedom of woman when achi&ved 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 her faculties free from out- 
 ward 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, inclinations, 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 disenfranchising 
 AToman, 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 under- 
 stood simply stands for something that could not be, and is therefore mis- 
 leading 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 bear in mind that 
 this apparent separation is always of the man from the woman, the mas- 
 culine from the feminine, truth from love. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS INTENT. 
 
 REV. E. T. REXFORD, D. D., OF BOSTON. 
 
 A Universalist clergyman and formerly president of a church 
 
 college at Akron, Ohio, and later located in Detroit. 
 
 Venerable Brothers: By the leading of that beneficial providence 
 which has always attended the fortunes of men we are brought to this 
 most significant hour in the history of religious fellowship, if, indeed, it be 
 not the most significant hour in the history of the religious development of 
 the world. What event in the earlier or the later centuries has ever tran- 
 scended or even closely approached in its import the meeting of this 
 assembly? What day in all the fragmentary annals of good will ever wit- 
 ness a fraternity so manifold or a congress whose constituency was so 
 essentially cosmopolitan? This is a larger Pentecost, in which a greater 
 variety of people than of old are telling in their various language, custom, 
 and achievement of the wonderful works and ways of God. The Emperor 
 Akbar,_ in overreaching the special limits of his chosen sect that he might 
 pay a fitting 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 and resulted in no represent- 
 ative movement. 
 
 i
 
 THE RELIGIOUS INTENT 20.1 
 
 We have had our national and international evanfijelical alliances among 
 Christians, and likewise our national and international Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Associations, with assemblies tilling the largest halls of Europe and 
 America, but these fellowships have embraced only a slight diversity of 
 opinions and i)ractices in one division of the religious 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 Chris- 
 tian hands, while it has been left to the 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 form, " Welcome in the great and all-inclusive name 
 of God, the common 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-vindicating definition of true and false religion, of true and false wor- 
 ship, may appear. I would that we might all confess that a sincere worship 
 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 I assume to be, that what- 
 ever 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 bless- 
 ings of heaven, while the false-hearted and insincere man, whatever his 
 creed or form may be, has equal access, if not to the tlames, then at least 
 the dust and ashes and darkness of hell. 
 
 I doubt if, at any period very long anterior to this, such an assembly 
 could have been convened. Those great aggregations of the world's inter- 
 est at Paris and London and Philadelphia had no such feature. Men 
 sought to have the world's activity as completely represented 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 wonderful century wherein a 
 mightier spirit seems swaying the lives of men to higher issues, at a time 
 when the very gods seem crowning all the doctrines of the past with the 
 imperial dogma of the solidarity of the race. The time-spirit has largely 
 conquered, though we can not close our ears entirely to the sullen cry of a 
 baffled and retreating anger, charged with the accusation that the whole 
 import of this congress is that of infidelity to the only divine and infallible 
 religion. Every man is the true believer, himself being the judge, while 
 nobody is the true believer if somebody else is permitted to decide. I am 
 not willing to stand within the limits of my sect or party and from thence 
 judge of the world. I prefer rather to stand in the world as a part of it, 
 and from thence judge of my party or sect, and even of that great religious 
 division of the world's faith and life in which my lot has fallen. There is 
 no separableness in the providence of that Infinite Being who is over all and 
 through and in us all. 
 
 The primary fact or condition which justifies this congress in the minds 
 of all reverent and rational men is that, among all sincere worshipers of all 
 ages and lands, the religious intent has always been the same. Briefly, but 
 broadly stated, that intent has been to establish more advantageous 
 relations between the worshiper and the being 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 every religious 
 structure in the world. Here is the basis of our fellowship. Claude Lor- 
 raine once said that the most important thing for a landscape painter to 
 know is where to sit down in order to command a full and fair view of 
 every determining feature in the landscape. Such a rule must be essential 
 in art, but it is no less imperative in the treatment of that spectacle whicli 
 religion presents to us in its wide fields, and this observation point of the 
 identity of the religious intent of all the world commands the permanent 
 features of every religion in the history of mankind.
 
 204 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 Some men stand 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 religious wrath that 
 may rage. And after these storms of vituperation shall have spent their 
 fury, and editors shall have written leading articles and archbishops and 
 sultans shall have predicted dire calamities, it will be found that the 
 religious world, as well as the scientific and the commercial, is in the 
 relentless grasp of a divine purpose that will not let the people separate in 
 the deep places of their lives. 
 
 Men in the lesser stages of development have been alienated in their 
 religion and by their religion, as if they have been thrust upon this earth 
 from worlds created by hostile gods for ever at war with each other, and 
 whose children should legitimately tight in the names of their parent deities. 
 If the history of religion in this world could have commenced with the 
 monotheistic conception, the bitter chapters of alienation would have been 
 omitted. But history could not begin on that high level in a world where 
 humanity was destined to work out its own salvation, not only with fear 
 and with trembling, but with strife and sorrow and vast misapprehension, 
 from an almost helpless 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 have a great part in the noble task of making himself. A human 
 being, fashioned and completed by a foreign power, could never be what 
 man has already become by his failures, and his successes in the struggle 
 to win the best results of character. A diadem made of the celestial jewels 
 by the combined skill of all the angels in heaven could not compare with 
 that crown which the human being himself shall create by his own heroic 
 and persistent determination to wrest victory from defeat, success from 
 failure — the determination to pluck the truth out of its mysterious dis- 
 guises, and at last to " think God's thoughts after Him." 
 
 It has been a difficult problem for the interpreters of man to solve — this 
 fact of frailty and imperfection in the hands of a perfect deity. Man was 
 created perfect by the perfect God, but he fell from that high, original 
 estate and thus became the poor creature he is. 
 
 The distance between the first blind and helpless groping after God 
 with its characteristic griefs, failures and fallings and the intelligent com- 
 prehension of God and man and religion and duty and the fellowship of 
 to-day is almost amazing and yet, in all the tragic though ever brightening 
 way, there is no point where the line of succession breaks off. 
 
 God's working is by development and we have only to look into 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 to-day 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 to-day what it was one, two or ten centuries ago. 
 The Christian religion is not to-day 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 thing practically is. 
 
 And if this great exposition is wanting in one of the most significant 
 exhibits conceivable it is a hall that should contain a historic illustration 
 of religion. Max Muller 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 
 
 J
 
 THE RELIGIOUS INTENT. 205 
 
 unity of religion may disturb some classes of men, but you shall see no man 
 in all the retreating centuries performing his devotions with whatever 
 tragic or forbidden accompaniment without saying and being compelled to 
 say: "'That man might have been myself, 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 anyone, inasmuch as personal 
 fortunes are related to the intinite, and that sense of a lingering weakness, 
 which must be felt by all men, must ally them with the world-wide neces- 
 sity 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 purposes, and immediately it becomes 
 vocal. It bears in its joyous or its tremulous tones the varying fortunes of 
 every soul that God has made, and it tells the story of the divine Spirit 
 working in and for all. And if the various and multiplied systems of the- 
 ology 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 verdict 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 before 
 he is a Christian or Jew, Brahman or Buddhist, Mohammedan or Parsee, 
 Confucian, Taoist, or aught beside — back to this must we go if we will be 
 loyal to our kind and loyal to that imperishable religion that is borp of 
 human souls in contact with the spirit. Back to this and thence we must 
 follow the struggle of the Infinite Child upward along his perilous ascent 
 through the societies' weary centuries to the ineffable light and glory that 
 await him, led by the patient hand of God. 
 
 I am perfectly well aware that this idea of religious unity, and at the 
 base religious identity, must fight its way through the great fields of relig- 
 ious traditions if it will gain recognition — fields preoccupied and bristling 
 with inveterate hostility. It must meet the warlike array of " special pro- 
 vidences,"' and " divine elections," and " sacred books," and " revelations," 
 and " inspirations," and "the chosen people," and "sacraments," and "infal- 
 libilities," and institutionalisms of nameless and numberless kinds, but it 
 is not timid and it has resources of great endurance. Who will say that 
 any man ever sincerely chose any religion for any other than a good pur- 
 pose ? It is incredible. And before the spectacle of an immortal soul 
 seeking for and communing with its God, all hostilities must pause. No 
 missile must be discharged. All the angers and furies must await on that 
 mood and fact of worship, for an immortal soul talking with God is greater 
 than a king. And while we wait in this divine silence let us read the pro- 
 found and befitting word which heaven has vouchsafed to the people 
 of the Orient, and which has been preserved to us through the ages 
 in one of the " Sacred books of the East." The great deity said to the 
 inquiring Arduna concerning the many forms of worship: "Whichever 
 form of deity any worshiper desires to worship with faith, to that form I 
 render his 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 readily given by meJ'—Bhagavad Oita, 
 chapter vii. 
 
 If we could duly regard the charitable philosophy of such a word the 
 hostilities would never be resumed. No ruthless hand shall justly destroy
 
 206 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 any form of deity, 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 iciol, .and that being is the one who has worshiped 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 " providence " or " the Sacred Book " 
 that may not be interpreted in perfect accord with this greater plea of the 
 religious unity of mankind. Nothing is a revelation till its meaning is dis- 
 covered. God's revelations are made to the world by man's discovery of 
 God's meaning to the world. Revelation by discovery 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 record of the human understanding 
 of what God 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 meaning of any great 
 soul in life has ever been set down in the words. The divine "Word " was 
 made flesh ; it was not made 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 Muller says that what the world needs is a " bookless religion." It 
 is precisely this bookless religion that the world aire dy 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 religious sense, a holy 
 ecstasy 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 eternal emphasis must be placed upon that 
 living spirit that lies back of all bibles, back of all institutions, and is the 
 eternal reality forever discoverable, but never completely discovered. 1 here 
 is not a piece of mechanism in all this Columbian Exposition that does not 
 owe its defectiveness to a nearer approach to the idea which God con- 
 cealed 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 providence" that, pleaded by those who are unwilling to 
 take their places in the common ranks of men, are wholly admissible if 
 it be meant that the specialties are created from the human side. The 
 " divine election " is on the human side, and to-day it largely means the 
 right of any man to elect himself to the highest offices 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 common Father elects some and 
 rejects others, forgets some and remember 5 others in the sense of flnality, is 
 to proclaim a Fatherhood little needed on this earth. Because I am a Chris- 
 tian 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 victim- 
 ized by love. He is no more cursed by such divine forgetfulness than I am 
 by such capricious remembrance. Let the specialties and 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 beneficence 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 s^e. 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 noole word from 
 Calcutta, has been the goal of them all. It is Ktill before all nations. There
 
 SPIRITUAL FORCES IN HUMAN PROGRESS. 207 
 
 in the distance — is it so great? — 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 
 each other in the rapidity of the divine ascent Let them cast off the bur- 
 dens and break the chains which retard tlieir progress. Our fellowship 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 intinite life, is there, 
 of whom and through whom and to whom are all things, and to whom be 
 the glory forever. 
 
 SPIRITUAL FORCES IN HUMAN PROGRESS. 
 
 DR. EDWAED EVERETT HALE. 
 
 Dr. Barrows, in introducing Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale, 
 spoke of him as " one whose heart is as large as humanity, one 
 who has a country and loves it, and yet loves all mankind." 
 
 We speak and think in this matter of the celebration of the discovery 
 of our country as if everybody else had always spoken and thought 
 as we do. Now, this is by no means so. Only a century ago, when 
 Columbus' discovery was 300 years old, the whole world of science, the 
 whole world of literature, the whole world of history, was very doubtful 
 whether we had done any good to the world at all. In fact the general 
 weight of opinion was that America was a nuisance and had done more 
 harm than good to civilized men. And, if you think of it, they had 
 some reason for this impression. America had launched the European 
 nations in all their wars. England was just then disgraced by the loss of 
 her colonies. France was in debt and disgraced by the loss of Canada. 
 The discovery of gold and silver in America had, strange to say, impover- 
 ished Spain and Portugal — the gentlemen at Washington can tell you why 
 and how — and the whole commercial arrangements of the world were 
 thrown out of joint, because this untoward discovery of America had been 
 made. There were diseases v/hich it was universally said, had been intro- 
 duced from America, and there had been no additions to the arts or the 
 sciences; no additions to those things which seem to make life worth living 
 which they were willing to deem as received from America. The Literary 
 Society at Lyons offered a great prize to be awarded in 1792, for an essay 
 on " The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Discovery of America," 
 When the time came for the prize to be awarded the society was so impecu- 
 nious, and P^rance was so much engaged in other matters of more import- 
 ance to France and her poor king, that the prize was never given. 
 
 But the papers exist which were written for that prize. Among them 
 is the very curious paper of the Abbe de Janty. The abbe, after 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 abbe 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 disposal, to 
 state exhaustively what these spiritual forces are. I had rather allude in 
 more detail to one alone and let the others speak for themselves at the lips 
 of other speakers here. I do not believe that Americans of to-day sufficiently 
 appreciate the strength which was given to this country when every man in it 
 went about his own business and was told that he must " paddle his own
 
 i>08 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONii. 
 
 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 Indeijendence, gave an amount 
 of power to the United States of America which the United States of 
 America does not enough realize to-day. It is power given to America that 
 the European writers never could conceive of, and, with one or two excep- 
 tions, 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 proceeding, but that he is to work out his own salvation and that 
 he himself, by the great law of promotion, is to ascend to the summit to add 
 incalculably to your national power, it is a thing which the earlier travelers 
 in this country never could understand. It drove them frantic with rage. 
 
 They would come over here, this French gentleman, that English 
 adventurer, that Scotchman working out his fortune — they would come 
 over here, with that habit of condescension which I must observe is remark- 
 able in all Europeans to this day when they travel in America; and, with 
 that habit of condescension, they were invariably disgusted with the lan- 
 guage in which the American pioneer spoke of the future of his country. 
 One of these travelers traveled 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 received a welcome in a dirty 
 little log cabin by a man who was hospitable but he would not stand non- 
 sense. And this pioneer told 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 redskins in the neighborhood, and occasionally the 
 howl of a wolf in the fields at night, was going to be the most magnificent 
 city ever read of in history. And the traveler 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 rights of others." This country said to him in the great words of 
 the Declaration of Independence that every man is born free, and every man 
 is born with equal 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 magnifi- 
 cent proverbial jjhrase, " 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 accord- 
 ing to God's good pleasure. 
 
 The country thus gave to him the inestimable privilege of freedom, 
 What does a country gain which gives to its citizens this inestimable privi- 
 lege? 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 defense, every son of 
 her rises in her defense. A government of the people, for the people, by 
 the peojjle, 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 English or 
 French adventurer. It is true that all the time there were vulnerable points 
 in this armor of American citizenship. It was all very fine to say, " All men
 
 SPIRITUAL FORCES IN HUMAN PROGRESS. 20d 
 
 are born free and equal," if, when you said so, none of them happened to be 
 born slaves. It was all very fine to sing 
 
 The star-spnngled banner, long 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 home of the slave, 
 
 and was just as true. There is something really pathetic in the tract 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, you 
 know. Why, it is as if we had a fine boy come up here to make his exhibi- 
 tion speech and he should forget his words and 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 uf 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. 
 
 But 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 woman who 
 steadily said, without much rhetoric or eloquence, perhaps, " Human 
 slavery is wrong." And they kept saying it; would not be silenced. 
 " Human slavery is wrong" — that is the only answer they would give to 
 arguments on the other side to conventional statements of historical deduc- 
 tion. You know what came from that answer. You know that the great 
 idealism of the beginning worked its way along till, in the blood of your 
 own sons, in the sacrifices of your own home, it should be proved that all 
 .aen are born free, that all men have equal rights, and to prove these great 
 spiritual truths, smoke and dust and pleasure, gold 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 under- 
 stood. 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 and copper, that 
 makes our country what it is. No, all these things 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 you sent every one of them out, sure that he was a child of 
 God and working under God's law, that your gold and silver were worth 
 anything more than dust in the balance. 
 
 One is tempted to say in passing, that it was the people, not the theo- 
 logians, so-called — that it was the people who proved to be the great theo- 
 logians in this affair. The fall of Avigustianism, 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 suffrage came in, one hardly knows how, 
 there was so little said about it. It worked its way in. The voice of the 
 people is che 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 sixty 
 years of age that he had got to shoulder his musket and go out against 
 Burgoyne, and then tell him when he came back home: "You cannot vote, 
 you are too wicked to vote; you are the son of the devil and should not be 
 allowed to vote." You had to give them universal suffrage. If this Con- 
 necticut 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 statements of 
 Augustianism on them to the effect that the people were the children of 
 the devil, they gave them a suffrage as sons of God,
 
 210 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Augustianism died with the fact of universal suffrage -it had died long 
 before. I speak with perfect confidence in this matter, because I know 
 there was not a pulpit in the country that brought forth on that Sunday 
 this old doctrine, which is a doctrine to be preserved in a museum, but is 
 not to be paraded at the present day. The doctrine for us was the great 
 truth that was announced in the beginning, that was written in the gos- 
 pels, that we are all kings and priests and sons of God, and 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 making money, to 
 mines and timber and crops, that we would never know what ideas were, 
 and that for spiritual truths we must go back to Germany and England. 
 "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 may 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 English-speaking tongue to-day. 
 
 The man who speaks the word which some miner in his humble cabin 
 read last night when he took down from his book-shelf Emerson'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 script- 
 ures are read in some rude log house in the mountain, is Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson — 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 Romans. Our friends in Oxford, 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 Emerson. 
 
 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 1800 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 me, 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 20th century which is 
 before us. We have built up all our strength, all our success, on the tri- 
 umph of ideas, and those ideas for the 20th century are very simple. 
 
 God is nearer to man than he ever was before, and man knows that and 
 knows that because men are God's children they are nearer to each other 
 than they ever were before. And so life is on a higher plane than it was. 
 Men do not bother so much about the smoke and dust of earth. They live 
 in higher altitudes because they are children of God, living for their 
 brothers and sisters in the world, a life with God for man in heaven. That 
 is the whole of it. At the end of the 19th century we can state all our 
 creeds as briefly 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 wont 
 use words in his prayers.
 
 ORTHODOX OR HISTORICAL JUDAISM. 211 
 
 Life with God for man in heaven — that is the religion on which the 
 light of the 20th century is to be formed. The 20th century, for instance, 
 is going to establish peace among all the nations of the world. Instead of 
 these permanent arbitration boards such as we have now occasionally, we 
 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 are not going to be sat- 
 isfied 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 best for everyone — that is what 
 is coming. That is life with God for man in heaven. 
 
 And the 20th century is going to care 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 babe born to some President 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 20th century will give to every man according to his neces- 
 sities. 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 20th century will keep the body 
 pure — men as chaste as women. Nobody drunk, nobody stifled with 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 20th century is to build up its civiliza- 
 tion on ideas, not on things that perish; build them on spiritual truths 
 which endure and are the same forever; build them on faith, on hope, on 
 love, which are the only elements of eternal life. The 20th century is 
 to build a civilization which is to last forever, because it is a civilization 
 of an idea. 
 
 ORTHODOX OR HISTORICAL JUDAISM. 
 
 RABBI H. PEIRIRA MENDES, OF THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE 
 SYNAGOGUE, NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 Our 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 lirst is 
 the era of the announcement of those ideals which are essential for man- 
 kind'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 
 inspiration and for all men to pattern life accordingly. 
 
 The first divine message to Abraham contains the ideal of righteous 
 altruism — "Be a source of blessing." And in the message announcing the 
 covenant is the ideal of righteous egotism. "Walk before Me and be per- 
 fect." "Recognize me, God, be a blessing to thy fellowman, be perfect 
 thyself." Could religion ever be more strikingly summed up? 
 
 The life of Abraham, as we have it recorded, is a logical response, despite 
 any human feeling. Thus he refused booty he had captured. It was an
 
 212 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 ideal of warfare not yet realized — that 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 imparted for mankind to aim at. On 
 the very threshold of his mission the ideal of "the P'atherhood of God" was 
 announced— "Israel is my son, my first-born," implying that other nations 
 are also his children. Then at Sinai were given him those ten ideals of 
 human conduct, which, called the "ten commandments," receive the alle- 
 giance of the great nations of to-day. Magnificent 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 participate in His divine nature." 
 
 To the essayist on Moses belongs the setting forth of other ideals asso- 
 ciated 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 politician may ponder upon 
 his land tenure system; his declaration that the poor have rights; his limi- 
 tation of priestly wealth; his separation of church and state. The preacher 
 may dilate upon that Mosaic ideal so bright with hope and faith — wings 
 of the human soul as it flies forth to find God — 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 may 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 ideal of personal responsibility; not even 
 a Moses can offer himself to die to save sinners. The exponent of natural 
 law in the spiritual world is anticipated by his " Not by bread alone does 
 man five, 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 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 serv- 
 ants, justice to the employed; what code of ethics has brighter gems of 
 the 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 to-day. 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 RevolutioQ. From that very 
 chapter of the Bible the cry, " To your tents, O Israel," was taken by the 
 Puritans, who fought with the Bible in one hand. Child of that English 
 revolt, which soon consummated English history, America was born — her- 
 self the parent of the French Revolution, which has made so many kings 
 the Fervants of their peoples. English liberty, America's birth, JPrench 
 Revolution! Three tremendous results truly! Let us, however, set these 
 aside, great as they are, and mark those grand ideals which our prophets 
 were the first to preach,
 
 ORTHODOX OR HISTORICAL JUDAISM. 213 
 
 1. CJniversal peace, or settlement of national disputes by arbitration. 
 When Micah and Isaiah announced this ideal of universal peace it was the 
 age of war, of despotism. They may have been re<?arded as lunatics. Now 
 all true men desire it, all good men pray for it, and bright among the jew- 
 els 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 to-day. It is prayed for by 
 the Catholics, by the Protestants, by Hebrews, by all men. 
 
 3. The universal happiness. This is the greatest. For the ideal of uni- 
 versal happiness includes both universal peace and universal brotherhood. 
 It adds being at peace with God, for without that happiness is impossible. 
 Hence the prophet's bright ideal that one day " All shall know the Lord, 
 from the greatest to the least. " " Earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
 the Lord as the waters cover the sea, " and " All nations shall come and bow 
 down before God and honor His name. " 
 
 Add to those prophet ideals, those or our Ketubim. The " seek wisdom " 
 of Solomon, of which the " Know thyself " of Socrates is but a partial echo; 
 Job's " Iiet not the finite creature attempt to fathom the infinite Creator "; 
 David's reaching 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 atten- 
 tion! 
 
 The era from Bible days to these is the era of the formation of religions 
 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 to-day as the 
 music which once swayed men's souls, now lifting them with holy emotion, 
 now mocking, now soothing, now exciting. For those religions, those phil- 
 osophies, were mighty plectra in their day to wake the human heart- 
 strings. Above them all rang the voice 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 mor- 
 ality, of beauty; but more often it met the debasing sounds of immorality 
 and error. 
 
 Thus Kuenan speaks of "the aflBnity of Judaism and Zoroastrianism in 
 Persia to the affinity of a common atmosphere of lofty truth, of a simul- 
 taneous sympathy in their view of earthly and heavenly things." If Max 
 Muller 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 good, and x\hriman, 
 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 between 
 Judaism and Zoroastrianism, with the borrowed angeology and demono- 
 logy of the former compared with the " ahmiyat ahmi Mazdan anma " of the 
 latter manifestly borrowed from the " I am that man " of the former, we 
 can not pause here for a moment. 
 
 Similarly, historical Judaism would harmonize with Confucius' 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 the Buddhistic 
 teachings of universal peace. But against what is contrary to Bible ideal 
 it would protest, and from it would hola separate. 
 
 In 521 B. C. Zoroastrianism was revived. Confucius was then actually
 
 214 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 living?. Gautama Buddha died in 534. 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 Baby- 
 lonia with Phtenicia, and not unworthy of mark is Ernest Renan's observa- 
 tion that Babylon had long been a focus of Buddhism and that Boudasy 
 was a Chaldeao 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 f ultlllment of the prophecy, so far as concerns the Orient, " that 
 Israel shall blossom into bud and till 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 failed most often historical Juda- 
 ism remained separate. 
 
 Thus, as Dr. Drummond remarks, Socrates was " in a certain sense 
 monotheistic, and in distinction from the other gods mentions Him who 
 orders and holds together the entire Cosmos," " 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 Judaism is in 
 accord with its ideal "God is good," so oft repeated, and its thought 
 hymned in the almost identical words, " Good are the luminaries which our 
 God created; He formed them with knowledge, understanding, and skill." 
 But when Plato condemns studies 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 Glaucon. "It amuses 
 me to see how afraid you are lest the common herd accuse you of recom- 
 mending useless studies" — the useless study in question being astronomy — 
 historical Judaism is opposed, and protests. For it holds that even Beza- 
 leal 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. 
 He calleth them all by name, by the greatness of His might, for He is strong 
 in power; not one faileth." Even as later sages practically teach the dig- 
 nity 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 
 Epictetus and Seneca, as well as from the sneers of Lucian and the invec- 
 tives of Juvenal, it is plain that these teachers of virtue had all the vices of 
 their neighbors, with the additional one of hypocrisy." It is easy to under- 
 stand the relation of historical Judaism to these with its ideal, " Be 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 conven- 
 tional terms." The skeptic school proclaimed " we have no criterion of 
 action or judgment; we can not know the truth of anything; we assert no- 
 thing, not even the Epicurean school taught pleasure's pursuit. But histori- 
 cal Judaism solemnly protested. What are those teachings of our Pirke Avoth 
 but protest, formerly formulated by our religious heads? Said they, " The 
 Torah is the criterion of conduct. Worship instead of doubting. Do phil- 
 anthropic acts instead of seeking only pleasure. 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 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." " Be not like the servants who serve 
 their master for pricej be like the servants who serve without thought of
 
 ORTHODOX OR HISTORICAL JUDAISM. 215 
 
 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 and separation and protest was the 
 glorious Maccabean effort to combat Helenist philosophy. 
 
 If but for Charles Martel and Poictiers, Europe would long have been 
 Mohammedan, then but for Judas Maccabeus and Bethoron, or Emmaus, 
 Judaism would have been strangled. But no Judaism, no Christianity. 
 Take either faith out of the world and what would our civilization 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 "Son of God" 
 in any sense save that which Moses meant when he said: "Ye are children 
 of your God," can we wonder there was a Hebrew protest? 
 
 Historical Judaism soon foiuid cause to be separate and to protest. For 
 sect upon sect arose — Ebionites, Gentile Christians, Jewish Christians, 
 Nazarenes, Gnostic Christians, Masboteans, Valentinians, Carpocratians, 
 Marcionites, Balaamites, Nicolaites, Emkratites, Cainites, Ophites or Nahas- 
 ites; evangels of these and others were multiplied; new prophets were 
 named, such as Paehor, Barker, Barkoph, Armagil, Abraxos, etc. At last 
 the Christianity of Paul arose supreme, but doctrines were found to be 
 engrafted which not only caused the famous Christian heresies of Pelagius, 
 Nestorius, Eutyches, etc., but obliged historical Judaism to maintain its 
 attitude of separation and protest; for its Bible ideas were invaded. It 
 could not join all the sects and all the heresies; so it joined none. 
 
 Presently the Crescent 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 
 I'evived 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 philosophy dominant. Experiment widened men's 
 views. The sentiment of protest was imbibed — sentiment against schol- 
 astic argument, against bidding research for practical ends, against the 
 supposition " that syllogistic reasoning could ever conduct men to the dis- 
 covery of any new principle," or that such discoveries could be made except 
 by induction, as Aristotle held; against the official denial of ascertained 
 truth, as, for example, earth's rotundity. This protest sentiment in time 
 produced the Reformation. Later it gave wonderful impulse 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 his- 
 torical Judaism maintained its attitude. 
 
 As the new philosophies were born, it is said, with Bacon, " let us have 
 fruits, practical results, not foliage or mere words." But it opposed a Vol- 
 taire and a Paine when they made their ribald attacks. It could bvit praise 
 the success of a Newton as he " crowned the long labors of the astronomers 
 and physicists by co-ordaining the phenomena of solar motion throughout 
 the visible universe into one vast system." So it could only cry "Amen " to 
 a Kepler and a Galileo. For did they not all prove the long unsuspected 
 magnificence of the Hebrews' 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 
 binominal nomenclature and the classificatory shemitism 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, harness 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 course of lectures on the proofs of the existence
 
 216 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of God; it in his lectures on religion he turned his 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 place in religion above systematic theology, 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 He contend, neither doth He retain His anger forever." That 
 is — He will be reconciled. 
 
 We agree with much of Compte, and with him elevate womanhood, but 
 we do not, can not, exclude woman, as he does, from public action; for 
 besides the teachings of reverence and honor for motherhood, besides 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 Darwin and the disciples of evolution proclaim their theory, the 
 Hebrew points to Genesis ii.,3, where it speaks of what God has created 
 "to make" — infinite mood, "not made," as erroneously translated. But 
 historic Judaism protests when any source of life is indicated, 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 opens before us. 
 
 1. The " Separatist " thought. Genesis tell us how Abraham obeyed it. 
 Exodus illustrates it: We are "separated from all the people upon the face 
 of the earth." Leviticus proclaims it: "I have separated you from the 
 peoples." "I have severed you from the peoples." 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 did not bend to 
 Baal as those who did? Those who thronged Babylonian schools at Pum- 
 bedithr or Nahardea, or those who succumbed to Magin influence? The 
 Maccabees, who fought to separate, or the Helenists, who aped Greek or the 
 Sectarians of their day? The Bnai Yisrael i-emnant, 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 to-day here and in Europe, the descend- 
 ants of those who preferred to keep separate, and therefore chose exile or 
 death, or those who yielded and were baptized? The course for historic 
 Judaism is clear. It is to keep separate. 
 
 2. The protest thought. We must continue to protest against social, 
 religious, or political error with the eloquence of reason. Never by the 
 force of violence. No error is too insignificant, none can be too stupendous 
 for us to notice. The cruelty which shoots the innocent doves for sport — 
 the crime of duelists who risk life which is not theirs to risk — for it belongs 
 to country, wife or mother, to child or to society; the militarianism of 
 modern nations, the transformation of patriotism, politics, or service of 
 one's country into a business for personal 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 22,000,000 
 of men. Imagine it! Are 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.
 
 ORTHODOX OR HISTORICAL JUDAISM. 217 
 
 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 citizens, to be 
 on the side of law and order and fight anarchy. We are bound to forward 
 every humanitarian movement; where want or pain calls there must we 
 answer; and condemned by all true men be the Jew who refuses aid because 
 he who needs it is not a Jew. In the intricacies of science, in the pursuit 
 of all that widens human knowledge, in the path of all that benefits human- 
 ity the Jew must walk abreast with non-Jew, except he pass him in gen- 
 erous 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 have said, but pointing upward, this is the attitude 
 of historical Judaism. 
 
 Religiously the attitude of 'historicaljudaism 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 tittle of the law should be 
 changed. Hence we do not accept a First Day Sabbath, etc. 
 
 We unite in believing that God is omniscient, and just, good, loving, and merci- 
 ful. 
 
 We unite in the belief in 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 religious 
 custom or idea only when effected in accordance with the spirit of God's 
 law and the highest authority attainable. But no change without. Hence 
 we can not, and may not, recognize the authority of any conference of Jew- 
 ish rabbis or ministers, unless those attending are formally empowered by 
 their communities or congregations to represent them. Needless to add, 
 they must be sufficiently versed in Hebrew law and lore; they must live 
 lives consistent with' Bible teachings, and they must be sufficiently 
 advanced in age so as not to be immature in thought. 
 
 And we believe, heart, soul, and might, in the restoration to Palestine, a 
 Hebrew state, from the Nile to the Euphrates — even though as Isaiah inti- 
 mates in his very song of restoration, some Hebrews remain among the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 We believe in the future estaolishment 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 can not here discuss. What if doctrines, customs, and aims separate us 
 now ? 
 
 There is a legend that, when Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden 
 or earthly paradise, an angel smashed the gates, and the fragments flying 
 all over the earth are the precious stones. We can carry the legend further. 
 
 The precious stones were picked up by the various religions and philos- 
 ophers 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 God's own time we shall, all of 
 us, fit our fragments together and reconstruct the gates of paradise. There 
 will be an era of reconciliation of all living faiths and systems, the era of 
 all being in at-one-ment, or atonement, with God. Through the gates shall
 
 218 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 unbrotherly 
 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. xxxi, 34.) 
 
 What if the deathless Jews be present then among the earth's peoples? 
 Would ye begrudge his presence? His work in the world, the Bible 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 backslid- 
 ings, wounded besides through others' transgressions, bruised through 
 others' injuries, shall be but fulfilling his destiny to lead back his brothers 
 to his Father. For that we were chosen; for that we are God's servants or 
 ministers. Yes, the attitude of histoi-ical 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 the worship 
 before Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy name! 
 
 CERTAINTIES OF RELIGION. 
 
 REV. JOSEPH COOK OF BOSTON. 
 
 Dr. Barrows made a pleasant allusion to the undoubted 
 quality of that distinguished gentleman's orthodoxy, and added 
 that, while some of the orthodox brethren in the East had 
 looked with disfavor on the scheme of a Parliament of Religions, 
 he was not of the number; but, from the first, had been a 
 stanch friend of the enterprise. 
 
 It is no more wonderful that we should live again than that we should 
 live at all. It is less wonderful that we should continue to live than that 
 * we have begun to live. And even the most determined and superficial 
 skeptic knows that we have begun. On the faces of this polyglot inter- 
 national audience I seem to see writt^^en, as I once saw chiseled on the 
 marble above the tomb of the great Emperor Akkabar in the land of the 
 Ganges, the hundi-ed names of God. 
 
 Let us beware how we lightly assert that we are glad that those names 
 are one. How many of us are ready for immediate, total, irreversible self- 
 surrender to God as both Savior and Lord? Only such of us as are thus 
 ready can call ourselves in any deep sense religious. I care not what name 
 you give to God if you mean hy Him a spirit omnipresent, eternal, omnipo- 
 tent, infinite in holiness and every other operation. Who is ready for co-op- 
 eration with such a God in life and death and beyond death? Only he who 
 is thus ready is religious. William Shakespeare is supposed to have known 
 something of human nature, and certainly was not a theological partisan. 
 Now, Shakespeare, as you will remember, in " The Tempest " tells you of 
 two characters who conceived for each other supreme affection as soon as 
 they met. "At the first glance they changed eyes," he says. The truly 
 religious man is one who has "changed eyes" with God under some one or 
 another of His hundred names. It follows from this definition of religion.
 
 CERTAINTIES OF RELIGION. 219 
 
 and as a certainty dependent on the unalterable nature of things, that only 
 he who has changed eyes with God can look into His face in peace, A 
 religion of delight in God, not merely as Savior, but as Lord also, is scien- 
 tifically 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 thousand isles 
 of the sea. 
 
 What is the distinction between morality and religion, and how can the 
 latter be shown by the scientific method to be a necessity to the peace of 
 the soul? And now, though I do not undervalue morality and the philan- 
 thropies, I purpose to speak of the strategic certainties of religion from 
 the point of view of comparative religion. First, from the very center of 
 the human heart and in the presence of all the 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 
 eouls. 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 of 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 quali- 
 ties 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 liber- 
 alisms of the world mistake mere admiration for adoration. It is narrow- 
 ness to refuse mental hospitality for any single truth, but w^e assembled in 
 the name of science, in the name of every grave purpose, have an interna- 
 tional 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 affection- 
 ately and irreversibly choose God under some one of his names —I care not 
 what the name is if you mean by it all the Bible means by the word "God" 
 —choose him not as Savior only but as God also, not as Lord only but as 
 Savior also. 
 
 But choice in relation to persons means love. What we choose we love, 
 but conscience reveals a holy person, the author of the moral law, and con- 
 science demands that this law should not only be obeyed but loved, and 
 that the holy person should be not only obeyed but loved. This is the 
 unalterable demand of an unalterable portion of our nature. As personali- 
 ties, 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 natnre of things. Conscience 
 draws an unalterable distinction between loyalty and disloyalty to the 
 ineffable, holy person whom the moral law reveals, and between the obe- 
 dience of slavishness and that of delight. Only the latter is obedience to 
 conscience. 
 
 Religion is the obedience of affectionate gladness. Morality is the obe- 
 dience of selfish slavishness. Only religion, therefore, and not mere moral- 
 ity, can harmonize the soul with the nature of things. A delight in obe- 
 dience is not only a part of religion but is necessary to peace in God's pres- 
 ence. A religion consisting in the obedience of gladness is, therefore, 
 scientifically known to be according to the nature of things. It will not be
 
 220 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 to-morrow or the day after that these propositions will cease to be scientific- 
 ally certain. Out of them multitudinous inferences flow as Niagaras from 
 the brink of God's palm. Demosthenes once made the remark that every 
 address should begin with an uncontrovertible proposition. Now it is a 
 certainty, and my topic makes my keynote a word of certainty, that a little 
 while ago we were not in the world and a little while hence we shall be here 
 no longer. Liincoln, Garfield, Seward, Grant, Beecher, Gough, Emerson, 
 Longfellow, Tennyson, Lord Beaconstield, George Eliot, Carlyle — I know 
 not how many Mahomets— are gone, and we are going. These are certainti( s 
 that will endure in the four continents and on the isles of the sea. 
 
 Till the heavens are old, and the stars are cold. 
 And the leaves of the judgment book unfold. 
 
 The world expects to hear from us this afternoon no drivel, but some- 
 thing 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 record of sin in an irrevers- 
 ible past: How am I to be harmonized with that unescapable environment? 
 Here is Lady Macbeth. See how she rubs her hands: 
 
 Out, damned spot! Will the^e hands ne'er be clean? 
 
 All the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten this little hand. 
 
 And her husband, in a similar mood, says: 
 
 This red right hand, it would the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the 
 green one red. 
 
 What religion can wash Lady Macbeth's red right hand? That is a 
 question I propose to the four continents and all the isles of the sea. Unless 
 you can answer that you have not come here with a serious purpose, to a 
 Parliament of Religions. 
 
 I 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 introducing. I speak 
 now to the branch of those skeptics which are not represented 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 Buddhism. 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 absolutely self-evident truths, that unless a man is 
 washed from the old sin and the guilt of mankind he can not be at peace in 
 the presence of infinite holiness. 
 
 Old and blind Michael Angelo in the Vatican used to go to the Torso, 
 so-called — a fragment of the art of antiquity — and he would feel along the 
 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 earth except 
 Christianity and I find every such faith a Torso. I beg pardon. The occa- 
 sion 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 religions themselves, they would go up 
 and up and up to an assertion of the necessity of the new purpose to deliver 
 the soul from a life of sin and of atonement, made of God's grace, to deliver 
 the soul from guilt. 
 
 Take the ideas which have produced the Torsos of the earthly faiths 
 and you will have a universal religion, under some of the names of God. and 
 it will be a harmonious outline with Christianity. There is no peace any- 
 where 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; 
 
 I
 
 CERTAINTIES OF RELIGION. 221 
 
 and BO we are, in a natural sense, but not in a moral sense. We are all 
 capable of changing eyes with God, and until we do change eyes with Him 
 it is impossible for us to face Him in peace. No transition in life or death, or 
 beyond death, will ever deliver us from the necessity of good intentions to 
 the peace of the soul with its environments, nor from exposure to penalty 
 for deliberately bad intentions. I hold that we not only can not escape from 
 conscience and God and our records of sins, but that it is a certainty, and 
 a strategic certainty, that, except Christianity, there is no religion under 
 heaven or among men that effectively provides for the peace of the soul by 
 its harmonization with this environment. 
 
 I am the servant of no clique 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 win J its direct'on; but I maintain, 
 with a solemnity which! can not express too strongly, that it is a certainty, 
 and a strategic certainty, that the soul can have no intelligent peace until 
 it is deliveretl from the love of sin. It is a certainty, and a strategic cer- 
 tainty, that, except Christianity, there is no religion known under heaven, 
 or among men, that effectively provides for the soul 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 king- 
 dom of heaven. 
 
 Except a man be born again he can not enter the kingdom of heaven; a 
 man can not serve God and mammon. God can not deny Himself. Why, 
 these cans and cants are touching the crags of certainty underlying the 
 universe as well as the scriptures, and it is these crags of absolute self- 
 evident truth upon which I would plant the basis of a universal religion, 
 ascertaining the necessity of the new birth for our deliverance from the 
 sin and of an atonement for our deliverance from the guilt of it. I am not 
 touching the sufficiency of natural religion, but only its efficiency. 
 
 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 student under 
 a great master, " I see how God may forgive some sins of carelessness, but 
 how he can forgive sins of deliberately bad intention I can not see, for I do 
 not see how he ought to." 
 
 The murderer, the ravager, the thief have bad intentions, but perhaps, 
 according to their light, these ancients have no more moral turpitude than 
 some bad intentions you and I have cherished. But we must keep peace 
 with our faculties, with this record, and with the God who can not deny 
 Himself. I am afraid of my own faculties. God is in them and behind 
 them. He originated the plan of them. You must stay with yourselves 
 while you continue to exist. 
 
 I believe there is good scientific proof of the immortality of the soul if 
 only you bring revelation into the argument, but without revelation and 
 with the Bible shut I hold there is good reason for believing that death 
 does end all. I hold we were woven by some power not in matter, that you 
 may tear up 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. Shakespeare said : "Con- 
 science is a thousand swords." John Wesley said: "God is a thousand 
 swords." How am I to keep the peace with myself, my God, my record, 
 except by looking on the cross until it is no cross to bear the cross; except 
 by beholding God not merely as my Creator but also as my Savior, and, 
 being melted into the vision and made glad to take Him as Lord also.
 
 222 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 I found in this little book words which may be bitter indeed, when eaten, 
 but which, when fully assimilated, will be sweet as honey. I summarized 
 my whole scheme of religion in these words, which you may put on my 
 tombstone: 
 
 Choose I must, and soon must choose 
 
 Holiness or heaven lose. 
 
 IE what heaven loves I hate, 
 
 Shut from me is heaven's gate. 
 
 Endless sin means endless woe, 
 Into endless sin I go. 
 If ray soul from reason rent. 
 Taken from sin its final bent. 
 
 As the stream its channel grooves. 
 And within that channel moves. 
 So does habit's dt^epest tide 
 Groove its bed and there abide. 
 
 Light obeyed increaseth light, 
 Light resisted bringeth night. 
 Who shall give me will to choose, 
 If the lo-\ e of light I lose. 
 
 Speed my soul this instant yield, 
 Lot the light its scepter wield. 
 While thy God prolongs grace. 
 Haste thee to His holy face. 
 
 HISTORY OF BUDDHISM AND ITS SECTS IN 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 HOEIN TOKI, A BUDDHIST PRIEST. 
 
 Bhagavat Sakyamuni. to whom 500,000,000 human beings on earth at the 
 present age pay respect, was born 2,020 years ago, according to the chron- 
 ology handed down to us, in the royal family of Kapitarastu in India. It is 
 said that at his birth he manifested extraordinary signs of greatness, saying: 
 " I am the only one respectable in heaven and earth." At the age of nineteen 
 he left the palace and went into the mountain, and attained his enlighten- 
 ment at the age of thirty in Buddhagaya. During the fifty years after that 
 time hedeveloped innumerable disciples and converted all followers of 
 Brahmanism, elucidating and giving the light with the truth of Buddhism 
 to the whole world. He died on the bank of a river in the city of Kushi 
 at the age of seventy-nine. 
 
 The doctrines of Buddha, taught during his life-time, are divided into 
 two — Mahayana andHinayana. He intended to make this distinction from 
 his great humanity to develop his disciples according to their plane of 
 intellect, and the method of enlightenment eventually reverts back to the 
 truth taught in Mahayana; therefore, into whatever number the sects are 
 divided, there is no distinction in their truth. 
 
 Those countries where the Hinayana doctrine prevails are the southern 
 and central jjarts of Asia, as Siam, Anam, Burmah, Ceylon, Chittagong, 
 Aracan, etc., and the teaching is called Southern Buddhism. And those 
 countries where the Mahayana doctrine prevails are Japan. China, Corea, 
 Mannchuria, and Thibet. But that Buddhism is met in the last two 
 countries is called Lamaism. and differs greatly in its origin from the Maha- 
 yana doctrine in Japan, and though it is comprised in the list of Northern 
 Mahayana, in comparison to the Southern Hinayana, really it is not the 
 same as the Mahayana. 
 
 Japan has handed down Mahayana together with Hinayana doctrine, but 
 the latter is only studied as the side study of the former, and there was
 
 HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 223 
 
 never a disseminator who devoted himself to promulgate the latter as an 
 especial feature. 
 
 The tirst introduction of Buddhism into Japan was 552 A. D. The King 
 of Corea sent his ambassador, together with the priest of Doshin and seven 
 others, and offered for the tirst time the copper image of Buddha and all 
 the scriptures of Buddhism to the Japanese imperial court. A court official 
 called Iname changed his villa in Nurkawara Yamato into a temple and the 
 image was put in it. This is the tirst Buddhist tempt, and was named 
 after the i)lace. But there was yet no distinction of sect. 
 
 I will now proceed to describe the distinction of sects according to the 
 age of their foundation, for the sake of convenience dividing them into two 
 ages, the ancient and modern. 
 
 Seventy-three years after the offer of the image and scriptures from the 
 Corean king, a Corean priest, called Enwan, came to Japan, and, staying in 
 the temple called Gwangoji, in Aska, Yamato. founded a sect called San- 
 von. This is the tirst time that Japanese Buddhism was called with the 
 name of the sect. He taught at the same time Jcjokn doctrine. At present 
 there are Buddhist students of other sects who study, as the side study, the 
 above two sects, but there is no especial believer in Japan. 
 
 Twenty-four years after the foundation of the above sect, in G53 A. D., 
 a priest called Dosho went to China and learned under the famous Genjo 
 Sanzo. After the return of Dosho to Japan, he dwelt in Gwangoji, pre- 
 viously mentioned, nnd founded the Hosso sect. After over sixty years 
 another priest, called Gembo, went to China and learned under Chishu. 
 After his return he dwelt in Kobukji, a large temple in Nara, Yamato, and 
 taught also in the Hosso sect. Thus there were two priests w ho taught the 
 same doctrine, one following the other. The former was called tlje South- 
 ern order and the latter the Northern, the appellations being afterward 
 applied. They are not different in truth of the doctrine from Yuishiki 
 Mahayan ; the difference is only in the genealogy of transmission. Though 
 they seem as if two different sects, they are but one in reality. 
 
 Dosho transmitted the doctrine of the Kusha sect to his followers. At 
 present the doctrine of the Hosso and Kusha are widely understood by the 
 Buddhists of the other sects, and the only temples which belong to this 
 sect are forty-eight branch temples, having fourteen priests under the 
 Temple of Kobukji, of the Northern order. But the tirst introduction of 
 Buddliism from China was this Hosso sect 
 
 Eighteen years before the foundation of the Hosso sect by Gambo, in 
 600 A. D., the priest En No Shokak founded theShugen sect in the Mount- 
 ain Kazaraki, in Kawachi. The origin of thissect is very peculiar. When 
 the founder was yet disciplining himself he dreamed that, while bathing in 
 the waterfall of Nina Mountain, in Seku, he obtained the audience of 
 Buddhistava Kinju, and received from him the hermetic truth, and he 
 founded this sect. Therefore it is not a religion of historical transmission; 
 yet the conduct of the founder, especially, and that of the followers— clear- 
 ing the high mountains, opening the deep valleys, bridging the impassable 
 rivers, and all the other grand benelicial works— are very much like that of 
 the Shingon sect. After the death of the founder the number of disciples 
 was very much iliminished and the doctrine itself was almost extinguished. 
 However, 160 years after his death, in about 360 A. D., Shobo, the high- 
 priestof the Shingon sect, reanimated this sect. At present it is a part of 
 the Shingon and Tendai sects and is not independent. 
 
 In 843 a priest called Ryoben founded the Kegon sect in Todaiji, a large 
 temple ia Nara. Before this a Chinese priest called Doyai brought Kegon 
 scripture (Avatamska-Sutra) to Japan and taught it in that temple, and 
 Ryoben was his first disciple. Also a priest called Jikum of Kobukji went 
 to China and learned under Genju and received the truth of Kegon. After 
 his return he taught it to Kyoben, who was thus taught by the two
 
 224 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIG±(ji\S. 
 
 teachers with complete results. At present this doctrine is mixed widely 
 with that of other sects and its independent temple is only Todaiji, 
 together with its twenty-one sub-temples, the number of priests being only 
 ten, and it has but few believers. This temple is a famous one in Nara, 
 where is an immense bronze statue of Buddha. 
 
 In 754 a Chinese priest, Ganjin, organized the system of moral precept 
 ordination and founded the Ritsu (ninay or moral precept) sect. At this 
 time the ex-Emperor Shomu, the Empress Koken, the princes, nobles, aad 
 hi^^h officials, over 400 in number, took vows of discipleship and received the 
 moral precepts. This is the first time a Japanese emperor became a dis- 
 ciple and received the moral precept of Gautama Buddha. This precept is 
 now widely given to the Buddhist disciples, yet at present, is not an inde- 
 pendent sect, being a part of the Kegon and Shingon sects. 
 
 In 805 a high priest called Saictio, well known as Dengyo Daishi, 
 opened Hiyei Mountain in Kiyoto, and built Enryakji, founding the Tendai 
 sect. Before this the founder wanted to establish this sect according to 
 the doctrine contained in Saddhanna-pundariki-Sutra, and went to China 
 twice. On his second visit there he took his rriend Gishin and learned 
 under Dosui of Tendai mountain and received the deepest truth of Sadd- 
 hanna-pundariki-Sutra. That is the reason why he called this new doctrine 
 with the name of Tendai. His friend Gishin taught the same doctrine in 
 Onjojo of Omi. Afterward the former was called Tendai of Sammon and 
 the latter Tendai of Jimon, but both are the same in doctrine. At present 
 the temples of this sect amount to over 4,800, the priests are 2,800, and the 
 believers are consequently not few. 
 
 In 806 a high priest, Kukai, well known as Kobo Daishi, founded the 
 Shingon (true word) sect. Before this he met with a difficult point in 
 the Buddhistic scriptures — Buddha, human beings, and all other things 
 are one. He could not find a teacher who could explain this problem to 
 him. At last he went to China, and learned under Keiwa of Choan, and 
 received the mystic Shingon (mautra, or true word), and all his previous 
 doubts were cleared. After his return he manifested the wonderful mira- 
 cles of the law in his imperial court, and received the edict from the 
 empress which authorized him to fountl the Shingon sect. 
 
 After sixteen years he received a magnificent building which belonged 
 to the imperial court, and it was the state temple and was called Gokokji. 
 which means the temple protecting the country. It is now the principal 
 temple of the sect. There are many other head temples of the same sect 
 besides this, as Kimbuji, of Koya Mountain in Kishu, which was built by 
 the founder, Kukai himself. Three hundred years afterward a priest called 
 Kakso came out from the mountain and built Negoroji in Kii. This after- 
 ward became the head temple of the Shingon sect of Shanghi or New 
 Order. But the truth of the doctrine is the same in both, and they are not 
 independent of each other. The temples of this sect at present are over 
 13,600, and the number of priests is over 7,060. The number of believers 
 will cover probably over half of the whole country. Kukai also brought 
 back Vinaya Ubu, but it is not the especial sect. 
 
 The above named sects, Sanron, Jojiku, Hosso, Kusha, Shugen, Kegon, 
 Riku, Tendai, and Shingon, are the ancient sects founded during the 160 
 years from the Emperor Suiko to the Emperor Heijo. Among them Jojitsil 
 and Kusha are Himayana and all the others are Mahayana. Some may 
 argue that the Kitsu (Vinaya) is Hinayana; but it is not, because Kaizulin 
 Nara transmits Mahayana Vinaya, and that which is called Shibun Hina- 
 yana is only the name applied to the regulations of behavior and etiquette 
 of the priests of the temple. On the contrary, the substance of Vinaya is 
 real Mahayana. These ancient sects, except those of Sanron, Jojiku, and 
 Kusha, are at present the independent sects, and hav^e temples and believers. 
 The name of the Shugen sect is now extinct, yet the doctrine is transmitted
 
 HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. '125 
 
 without change. The Shingon sect is the mystic Yogiisen, therefore the 
 doctrine which is taught in this sect is different from the non-mystic doc- 
 trine. As this mystic teaching is the highest point of Mahayana, it can 
 not be discussed in this short space, and as the historical transmission of 
 Buddhism to Japan refers only to that from China and Corea, nothing is 
 mentioned here regarding the introduction of Buddhism from India to 
 China, for sake of abbreviation. The Shugen sect, among the nine sects 
 enumerated above, is the manifested religion in Japan vvil'iout being trans- 
 mitted from foreign countries. 
 
 Three hundred and eleven years after the foundation of the Shingon 
 sect, in 1118, a high-priest called Kyonin founded the Yuzunbuk sect in the 
 temple of Raikoji of Ghara, Yamashiro. At present, Dainembukji of 
 Hirano, Setsu, is the head temple. The founder began this sect, receiving 
 the doctrine from a hermit. It is to intei'change the virtue of self with 
 that of others reciting the Name of Nuda, or eternal truth. At present, 
 though, this is not a prosperous sect; the temples are 357 and the number 
 of priests over 200. 
 
 Forty-seven years after the foundation of this sect, in 1175, a high-priest 
 of Honen founded the Jodo (pui'e land) sect. The founder was originally 
 a priest and student of the Tendai sect. He read through the v/hole script- 
 ure of Buddha five times and agreed with the theory of enlightenment 
 attainable by the contemplation of Buddha, which was already disseminated 
 by the Chinese priest Zento. Honen changed from the Tendai to the Jodo 
 theory and founded this sect. The head temple of this sect is in Chionin 
 in Kioto and has under it 8,300 temples and over 5,500 priests with numer- 
 ous followers. There were derived the two orders of Seizen and Chinzei 
 from this sect, and, as each of them has independent head temples, the 
 latter is not so prosperous as the former. 
 
 Twenty-eight years after the foundation of the Jodo sect, in 1201, a high- 
 priest sailed Yeisai founded the order of Rinzai of Zen or Dhiyana (medita- 
 tion) sect, and its head temple is Kenumji, in Bioto. The founder was 
 originally a scholar of the Tendai sect, but was not satisfied and went to 
 China twice. Finally he met a Zen priest, Koan of Mannenji, and received 
 the truth of transmission from mind to mind without the use of scripture, 
 and understood the methods of becoming enlightened instantaneously. He 
 had many prominent disciples who presided in different temples, as Keu- 
 choji and Engakji in Sagami, Nauzenji, Tuerinji, Tofukji. Daitokji, Myss- 
 hinji, Shokokji in Kioto, and Eigenji in Omi. These are the head temples, 
 but they are all one order of Rinzai, with no difference in any point of view. 
 
 They are called the ten head temples of the Rinzai order and contain 
 over 6,100 temples under them. The number of priests is 4,250. with certain 
 believers. Over forty years after the beginning of the Rinzai order, in about 
 1245, a Zen priest called Dogen founded the Soto order and the head temple 
 is Yeiheji in Echizen. He was originally a scholar of the Tendai sect, but 
 afterward he went to China and learned also the method of direct enlight- 
 enment of the Buddhist mind from Jojo. Shokin, the disciple of the fourth 
 generation from Dogen, built Sojiji in Noto. but the method of the trans- 
 mission of thought is exactly the same as the former. At present this Zen 
 order contains 14,070 temples and 11,050 priests and consequently a great 
 number of believers. 
 
 In 1663 a high priest called Ingen came from China, and the Shogun 
 lyemiku inclined to his views and built the temple of Mampukji in Nji, 
 near Kioto, and helped him to found the Nobak order of the Zen sect. The 
 priest was originally a high-priest of the Rinzai order, therefore the method 
 of the transmission of the truth is not different from the latter. As he 
 presided over the Nobak temple in China, the name was applied to the 
 temple in Japan. At present this order contains 600 temples and over 310 
 priests with a certain number of believers. Though the above-mentioned
 
 226 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 three orders of Rinzai, Soto, and Nobak differ in their names, the idea of the 
 sects is one, and they are called together the three Zen sects in Japan. 
 
 In 122i Priest Shiuran founded the Shiuthu or true sect. He was orig- 
 inally a scholar of the Tendai sect, and afterward learned Jodo (pure land) 
 doctrine from Honen, and finally established his own teaching that all 
 persons can obtain enlightenment by the external power of truth that 
 promises to deliver all things. In sect the priests may marry and eat flesh. 
 The head temples are Hongwanji, Otani Hongwanji, Koshoji, Bukkiji in 
 Kioto, Senshuji in Ise, Kibeji in Omi, Gosetsuji, Seishoji, Shoshoji, Sens- 
 hoji in Echizen, and the temples which belong to them are over 19,100 in 
 number and the priests over 18,700, with a great many believers. 
 
 In 1261 Priest Nichiren founded the Nichiren sect. He was also a 
 scholar of the Tendai sect. Afterward he confessed that he had something 
 that corresponds with the truth of Saddhannapundarika-Sutra, and recit- 
 ing the title of that scripture taught that theory everywhere. The head 
 temple is in the Mountain of Minobu in Kai. This sect has over 3,060 tem- 
 ples and 2,500 priests and numerous believers. There are independent head 
 temples besides this, as Myomanji Honseiji, etc., together with their sub- 
 temples, priests, and believers. 
 
 In 1275 a high-priest called Ippan founded the Jishu sect in Fujisa- 
 wadera, in Saganni. Three hundred and twenty-six years after this, a 
 prince, the son of Emperor Daigo, became a priest called Kuyu, and he began 
 to promulgate the same idea of this sect, but the time was not yet ripe. 
 This Ippan in one night became inspired with the truth of Kuyu and trav- 
 eled through the whole country, teaching the theory of enlightenment to 
 the pure land, the praise address and the recitation in the name of truth. 
 Since that time the presiding priests of all the generations have traveled in 
 the same manner. The temples are 357 in number and the priests 200, with 
 a certain number of believers. 
 
 The above mentioned six modern sects of Yuzenembuku, Jodo, Zan 
 (Rinzai), Nobak, Shinshu, Nichiren, and Jishu, were founded during the 159 
 years from the reign of the Emperor Toba to the reign of the Emperor 
 Gouda. (The order of Nobak was begun in an after age, but as it is an 
 order of the Zan sect it is not especially described.) They are all Maha- 
 yana. and have their temples and believers, each under its own banner, and 
 all of them were established by the Japanese priests by their own explana- 
 tion of the scriptures, not being received from any other country, except 
 the Zan sect. Though the Japanese Buddhism is divided as above, into 
 nine ancient and six modern sects, for the sake of convenience, it seems 
 rather strange that the former are all rather similar to each other in their 
 traits, and the other six sects resemble each other also in their character. 
 The former began in the time when the imperial power was at its height, 
 and the latter when the military power was supreme. The former appeared 
 during the 160 years in succession, while the latter during 159 years in suc- 
 cession; and during 311 years between the former and the latter there was 
 no sect of any kind established. 
 
 Prom this it appears to me that the religious establishment and its 
 modifications in a new form are confined to a certain age and chance. The 
 present Japanese Buddhism has passed several hundred years since the last 
 change. The past experience points out to us that it is time to remodel the 
 Japanese Buddhism— that is, the happy herald is at our gates informing us 
 that the Buddhism of perfected intellect and emotion, synthesizing the 
 ancient and modern sects, is now coming. 
 
 The Japanese Buddhists have many aspirations, and at the same time 
 great happiness, and we can not but feel rejoiced when we think of the 
 probable result of this new change by which the Buddhism of great Japan 
 will rise and spread its wings under all heaven as the grand Buddhism of 
 the whole world.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FIFTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 15th. 
 
 SYSTEMS OF RELIGION. 
 
 The three sessions of the fifth day were spent chiefly in con- 
 sidering various systems of religion and comparative theology. 
 An interesting overflow meeting in hall 3 of the Art Palace 
 was devoted to the discussion of the scientific and historic 
 aspects of religion. 
 
 Dr. Noble presided in the afternoon, and in opening the 
 
 meeting said: 
 
 We are all under obligations to Dr. Barrows, which can not be meas- 
 ured in words, for the magnificent service he has rendered; first of all, in 
 making this parliament possible, and secondly, in arranging the programme 
 and securing the services of those now taking part in the exercises, and 
 keeping at it night and day until the results you witness have been accom- 
 plished. I did not feel at liberty to open this meeting until I had given this 
 testimony to the inestimable value of the services of Dr. Barrows. 
 
 The paper on Confucianism, by Kung Hsien Ho, was read by 
 William Pike, The reader stated that Dr. Barrows had adver- 
 tised in Chinese newspapers, calling for learned essays on 
 Confucianism and Taoism, and offering a preminm in gold for 
 the best productions on these subjects. The essay of Kung 
 Hsien Ho was the result of this call. 
 
 Dr. Barrows was the presiding officer of the morning, and 
 the session was opened by silent prayer, followed by the recital 
 of the Lord's prayer. Rev. George A. Ford leading the devo- 
 tion. Bishop Arnett, of the A. M. E. Church, was chairmar 
 
 of the evening. 
 
 227
 
 228 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 WHAT THE DEAD RELIGIONS HAVE BEQUEATHED 
 TO THE LIVING. 
 
 C. S. GOODSPEED, PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE RELIGION 
 AT THE CHICAGO UNIVERSITY. 
 
 We come for the first time in this parliament to the consideration of the 
 dead religions. Naturally, they do not claim our interest to such a degree 
 as do the living. We come, as it were, co the threshold of the tomb. The 
 air is likely to be a little musty and the passages somewhat dark. There- 
 fore, if this paper shall, in soaie of its details, seem a little intricate, I beg 
 your consideration as I read it, and I feel certain that I shall have it by rea- 
 son of the fact that my observation during the few days of these meetings 
 has shown me how kind you are to the speakers. 
 
 The form in which the theme assigned to me is stated is suggestive. It 
 implies that the leligions of the world are not isolated or independent. 
 They are i elated to one another, and so related that their attitude is not 
 one of hostility. Even the dead religions have left bequests to the living. 
 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 religions have left behind them only '* bones and a bad odor." We 
 are invited to recognize the fact that a knowledge of them serves a some- 
 what higher purpose than "to point a moral and adorn a tale;" to see in 
 them stages in the religious history of humanity, and to acknowledge that 
 a study of them ie important, yes, indispensible, to adequate understand- 
 ing of present systems. If they have sometimes seemed to show "what 
 fools these mortals be" when they seek after God, they also indicate how 
 He has made man for Himself, and how human hea'ts are restless till they 
 rest in Him. Though dead, they yet speak, and among their words are 
 some which form a part of our inheritance of truth. 
 
 These dead religions may be roughly summed up in seven groups: 
 
 1. Prehistor'c cults, which remain only as tliey have been taken up into more 
 developed systems, and the faiths of half- civilized peoples like those of Central 
 America and Peru. 
 
 2. The dead religions of Semitic Antiquity; that is those of Phoenicia and 
 Syria, of Babylonia and of Assyria. 
 
 3. The religion of Egypt. 
 
 4. The religions of Celtic Heathendom. 
 
 5. The religions of Teutonic Heathendom. 
 
 6. The religion of Greece. 
 
 7. The religion of Rome. 
 
 It would 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 import- 
 ant systems the material is too extensive. Our effort, therefore, will be 
 directed, not toward a presentation of the material, exhaustively or other- 
 wise, but merely toward a suggestion of the possible 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 im- 
 mense held, which the above groups cover. 
 
 There are three general lines along which the dead religions may be 
 questioned as to their contributions to the living: 
 
 1. What are the jpadinr religious ideas around which they have centered or 
 which they iiMve mo^^t fully illus rated? 
 
 2. What are their actual material contributions, of ideas or usages, to other 
 systems? 
 
 3. In the history of their developmiMit, decay, and death, how do they afford 
 mstruction, stimulus or warning? 
 
 All religious systems represent some fundamental truth or elements of 
 truth. They center about some eternal idea. Otherwise they would have 
 
 I
 
 r 
 
 WHAT THE DEAD RELIGIONS HAVE BEQUEATHED. 229 
 
 k 
 
 no claims upon humanity and gain no lasting acceptance with men. The 
 religious of antiquity are no exceptions to this principle. They have 
 emphasized certain phases of the religious sentiment, grasped certain ele- 
 ments of the divine nature, elucidated certain sides of the problem of 
 existence, before which man cries out after God. It is not necessary to 
 repeat that these truths and clear perceptions are often mingled with false 
 views and pressed to extravagant and harmful lengths. But progress 
 through the ages has been made in spite 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, noble aspirations, worthy purposes. When 
 patient and analytic study of the facts of religious history has borne in 
 upon one the validity of the principles of development in this field these 
 religions appear as parts of the complex whole, and the truths they embody 
 enter into the sphere of religious knowledge as elements in its ever increas- 
 ing store. 
 
 And not merely as units in the whole are these truths part of the pos- 
 session of living faiths, but since that whole is a development in a real 
 sense they enter into the groundwork of existing religions. We do not 
 deny that present life would not be what it is if Egypt and Assyria had not 
 played their part in history — so correlated is all history. Can we then 
 deny that present religion would not be what it is without their religions? 
 An idea once wrought out and applied in social life becomes not only a part 
 of the world's truth but also a basis for larger insight and wider applica- 
 tion. Thus the great and fruitful principles which these dead faiths embod- 
 ied and enunciated have been handed down by them to be absorbed into 
 larger and higher faiths, whose superiority they themselves have had a 
 share in making possible. How important and stimulating, therefore, is an 
 investigation of them. 
 
 As illustration may be drawn from the religions of two ancient nations, 
 Egypt and Babylonia, which gavetwo highly influential religious ideas to the 
 world. There is the religion of Egypt, that land of contradiction and 
 mystery, where men thought deep things, yet worshiped bats and cranes; 
 were the most joyous of creatures, and yet seemed to have devoted them- 
 selves to building tombs; explored many fields of natural science and prac- 
 tical art, yet give us the height of their achievements, a human mummy. 
 One central religious notion of Egypt was the nearness of the Divine. It 
 was closely connected with a fundamental social idea of the Egyptians. 
 
 The man of Egypt never looked outside of his own land without dis- 
 dain. It contained for him the fullness of all that heart could wish. He 
 was a thoroughly contented and joyous creature and the favorite picture 
 which he formed of the future life was only that of another Egypt like the 
 present. What caused him the most thought was how to maintain the con- 
 ditions of the present in the passage through the vale of death. The body, 
 for example, indispensable to the present, was equally required in the future 
 and must be preserved. Thus it came to pass that the Egyptian, happiest 
 and most contented of all men in this life, has left behind him tombs, mum- 
 mies and the Book of the iJead. Now in this favored land the Egyptian 
 must have his gods. Deity must be near at hand. What was nearer than 
 his presence and manifestation in the animal life most characteristic of each 
 district? 
 
 Thus was wrought into shape, founded on the idea of the divine near- 
 ness, that bizarre worship of animals, the wonder and the contempt of the 
 ancient world. This idea, which underlay that animal worship, though so 
 crudely conceived, was deeply significant, and constituted a most important 
 contribution to the world. 
 
 Another great religion of ancient times — the Babylonian-Assyrian — con- 
 tributed quite a different truth. Living in a land open on every side to
 
 230 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the assaults of nature and man, and having no occasion to glorify Babylonia 
 as the Egyptian exalted his native laud, the Babylonian found his worthiest 
 conception of the divine in an exalted deity who, from the heights of heaven 
 and the stars, rained influence. He emphasized the transcendence of the 
 divine. Time does not permit me 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 above and found deliverance in the favor 
 of the divine beings who gave help from the skies. Their literature gives 
 evidence of how they rose by slow degrees to this higher plane of thought 
 in the constant 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 elevation, 
 separateness, 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 lirst purely ritual or even physical in its requirements, 
 this standard becomes gradually suffused with ethical elements. The proc- 
 ess is traced in the so-called Babylonian penitential psalms, which, indeed, 
 do not contain very clear traces, if any, of purely ethical ideas. But the fact 
 remains that the Babylonian doctrine of the transcendence of Deity thus 
 developed out of the antagonism of natural forces is a starting point for 
 the ethical reconstruction of religion. Egypt never could accomplish this 
 with her religion. She has nothing corresponding to the penitential 
 psalms. 
 
 These two primitive religious systems gave to the world these two fun- 
 damental ideas. These two earliest empires carried these ideas with 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 opiwrtunity was not neglected. 
 
 In considering the extent and character of the influence exercised 
 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 to-day is reactionary, and the originality of the great systems is 
 exaggerated. There is no question as to the fact of the dependence of 
 religions upon one another. The danger is, lest it be overlooked, that sim- 
 ilar conditions in two religions may produce independently the same 
 result^. It must be recosnized 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 
 Ftrangers and in accepting contributions from without. 
 
 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 impor- 
 tant and no more intricate work lying in the sphere of comparative religion 
 than an analysis of exisiting faiths with the view to the recovery of the 
 bequests of preceding systems. While much has been done, the errors and 
 extravagances of scholars in many instances should teach caution. 
 
 We must pass over a large portion of this great field. Attention should 
 be called to the wide range of materials in the realm of Christianity alone.
 
 WHAT THE DEAD RELIGIONS HAVE BEQUEATHED. 231 
 
 To her treasury the bequests of usage and ritual have come from all the 
 dead past. From Teutonic and Celtic faiths, from the cultus of Rome and 
 the worship and thought of Greece contributions can still be pointed out 
 in the complex structure. Christian scholars have done splendid work in 
 tracing out these remams. I need but refer to the labors of Dr. Hatch 
 and Professor Harnack upon the relations of Christianity to Greece and 
 those of the eminent French scholar, the late Ernest Renan, in the inves- 
 tigation of Christianity's debt to Rome, as instances of the richness of the 
 field and the importance of the results. A more limited illustration which 
 is also in continuation of the line of thought already followed may be 
 shown in the influence of the religions of Egypt and Assyrio-Babylonia 
 upon living faiths, or more exactly the connection of their leading ideas 
 with the doctrines of Judaism emd Christianit}'. 
 
 The religious ideas of Egypt seem to have spread Westward and to have 
 their greatest influence upon Greece. It has been the fashion to deny 
 utterly the dependence of Greece upon Egypt in respect to religion, but it 
 can not be denied that the trend of recent discoveries in archajologj 
 leads to the opposite conclusion. We must emphasize the fact that every 
 people contributes far more to its own system of religious belief than it bor- 
 rows from without. Yet Greece herself acknowledged her debt in this mattei 
 to the land of the Nile and there is no real reason to deny her own testimony. 
 It is striking to observe how the fundamental Egyptian notions of the 
 sulficiency of the present life and the nearness of the divine reveal them- 
 selves in Hellas. The Greek conceived these ideas, indeed, in a far higher 
 fashion. Harmony and beauty were the touchstones by which he tested 
 the world and found it good. The grotesqueness of the Egyjjtian forms 
 yielded to the grace of the Athenian creations of art and religion, bul 
 beneath them was the same thought. In man and his works the Greek 
 found the ideal of the divine ;.nd to him we owe the transformation of the 
 doctrine of the divine nearness into that of God's immanence. 
 
 Egypt's influence in the East was cut off early after her period of con- 
 quest by the rise of the Hittite empire. It is difficult to see any traces of 
 her doctrine in the religions of Western Asia, unless it be that of Phoenicia. 
 But with one people, at a later period, it would seem probable that her 
 rehgious ideas would find lodgment. For a number of years, if Israelitish 
 traditions are to be trusted, the Hebrews were under Egyptian domination, 
 and the formation of their nation and their religious system dates from 
 their deliverance from this bondage. 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 dis- 
 cover. Either they have been carefully removed by later ages or another 
 and more powerful influence has obliterated them. It is also to be remem- 
 bered that the feeling excited in Israel by the rigors of Egyptian slavery 
 was one of repulsion and abhorrence of everything Egyptian. It is more 
 probable, therefore, that the influence of the religion of Egypt upon Israel 
 was a negative one, and that the foundations of her social and religioug 
 institutions were laid in a spirit of separation from what was characteristic 
 of her oppressor. 
 
 This negative 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 Hebrew religion, second only to that which 
 was positively exercised by another religious system, viz. : that of Assyria- 
 Babylonia, to which we now turn. 
 
 There were three great periods in which the Hebrews came into close 
 relations with their neighbor on the Tigris and Euphrates. The first was 
 that represented by the tradition respecting Abraham. He came from Ur 
 of the Chaldees with the doctrine of the true God. The circumstances 
 which moved him to depart frona that QentPr of the world's civilization are
 
 232 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 not clear to us, but the tradition gives no hint of hostile relations, such as 
 occasioned Israel's departure from Egypt. It was here, therefore, that he 
 came in contact with those elevated ideas of the divine transcendence 
 which are characeristic alike of the religion of Babylonia and in a higher 
 and purer degree of the religion of Israel. Can he have gained his trrst 
 perception of this truth from the Babylonians? It is not imrjrobable. It 
 is certainly true that a mighty impetus was given to this doctrine in Israel 
 by this earliest contact with Babylonian life. 
 
 The third of these periods was the Babylonian captivity. Many schol- 
 ars are inclined to assign to this time a large number of acquisitions by 
 Israel in the held of Babylonian religion, such as the early traditions of the 
 creation and the deluge. But they forget that the same feeling which led 
 Israel to reject all the attractions of Egypt would be equally aroused 
 against Babylon, in v/hose cruel grasp they found themselves held fast. 
 
 Both views are inadequate because they do not include all the facts. 
 What is needed in the study of religion to-day more than anything else is a 
 study of the manifold facts which religions present, and a rigid abstinence 
 from philosophical theories v/hich 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 inade- 
 quacy to meet the wants of men. There are certain phases of living relig- 
 ious life v^hich 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 religious life and the results of religious activity, the 
 dead religions are particularly vakiable. 
 
 It is in the second period, that of the Assyrian conquest of Western 
 Asia, that Israel came most fully under the influence of the religion and 
 the religious ideas of the Babylonians. Both Israel and Assyria had devel- 
 oped a religious system, though Assyria was far in advance of Israel in 
 this respect. Heir of Babylon's civilization and religion Assyria had 
 advanced a step beyond her ancestral faith. In the god Ashur the nation 
 worked out a conception of a national god, before whom the other deities 
 of the Pantheon took subordinate positions. Without denying the divine 
 transcendence, Assyria moved in the direction of monotheism. A God of 
 majesty he was, also conceived 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 Jehovah had also been fashioned in the strug- 
 gle 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 Assyria-Babylonia. But we can not fail to observe how the note 
 of divine transcendence, the majesty of Jehovah, was ever kept clear in the 
 minds of the Hebrew nation from the two opposite influences — the nega- 
 tive force of Egypt's contrary doctrine and the positive power of the 
 Assyrio-Babylonian religious system as conceived by the Assyrian empire. 
 They were ever present and impressive 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 impulse thus out- 
 wardly and inwardly felt, the prophets 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 God have been conveyed from 
 Egypt and from Babylonia to the nations of men. They have come to bo 
 together the possession of Christianity . The doctrine of the divine transcend-
 
 WHAT THE DEAD RELIGIONS HAVE BEQUEATHED. 233 
 
 enco is the gift of Judaism to the Christiau church, and Christian theol- 
 ogy has wrought it out into complex and impressive systems of truth. 
 The truth of the divine immanence early found its place in the hearts and 
 minds of believers. It is noticeable that the scene of its sway, if not of its 
 Christian origin, was the city of Alexandria. The place where Greek and 
 Egyptian met was the home of this Grieco-Egyptiau doctrine which the 
 Alexandrian fathers wrought into the Christian system, and which is to-day 
 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 iliscussion has unavoidably encroached upon the ground 
 of the third line of inquiry, namely: What have the dead religions afforded 
 to the living in their history? What instruction do their life anu death 
 give as to the successor failureof religious systems? Two a priori theories 
 occupy the tield as explanations of these religions. First, they are regarded 
 as teaching the blindness of man in his search after God, and the-falsityof 
 humanly constructed systems apart from special divine revelation. The 
 dead religions perished because they were false, the production either of 
 Satan or of deluded or designing men. The second theory holds these relig- 
 ions to be steps in the progressive evolution of the religious life of human- 
 ity, passing through well-defined and philosophically arranged stages, 
 each justifiable in its own circumstances, each a preparation for something 
 higher. 
 
 Study of facts needed have in them worked out to the end. They have 
 formed a completed structure or produced a ruin, both of which disclose 
 with equal fidelity and equal adequacy the working of invariable and irre- 
 sistible law. 
 
 Generalization on these phenomena, if correctly made, has a satisfying 
 quality and a validity which affords 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 we can select but a 
 few. Among the problems of present religious life, that of the relations of 
 church and state receive light from these dead religions. In antiquity 
 these religions consisted in almost complete identification of the two organ- 
 isms. Most frequently the church existed for the state, its servant, its 
 slave. The results were most disastrous to both jjarties; but religion espe- 
 cially suffered. Its priesthoods either became filled with ambitious designs 
 upon the state as in Egypt, or fell into the position of subserviency and 
 weakness as in Babylonia and Assyria, Rome and Greece. 
 
 The aims and ends of truth were narrowed and trimmed to fit imper- 
 fect social conditions, and the fate of religion was bound up with the suc- 
 cess or failure of a political policy. The destruction of the nation meant 
 the disappearance of the religion. Assyria dragged into her grave the 
 religion which she professed. A similar fate attended many of the cults of 
 Semitic antiquity through the conquests of the great world 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 problem which they enlighten is that of religious unity and the 
 consequent future of religious systems, the ultimate religion. Where these 
 systems survived the ruin of the nationality, on which 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 relig- 
 ions 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
 
 234 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 all the truth. I can not glory in the victory of a Christianity over decay- 
 ing 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 Egypt and Syria, Judea, Greece, and Rome offered to the world their 
 best, sheVas able to take all their truths into her genial grasp, and, incar- 
 nating 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 ot organization was the inclusion 
 of local cults, not the establishment of a great idea. There was broad 
 toleration in the ancient religious world both of forms and ideas, but the 
 toleration of ideas existed because of the want of a clear-thought basis of 
 religion, or, to speak more precisely, 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 Egypt's view of the 
 divine nearness, and Greece's tenet of the divineness of man or the human- 
 ness of God were valid religious ideas, but each was partial. These relig- 
 ions, so mclusive of forms, could not include or comprehend more than their 
 own favorite idea. But 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 reconciled 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 meas- 
 ure 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, they 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, they fulfilled their 
 part in the education and salvation of the human race. By that test they 
 rose and fell; by that measure they take their place in the complex evolu- 
 tion of the world. And it was because they failed to rise to the height of 
 Christianity's comprehension and absorption of God that they perished. 
 
 We are sometimes inclined, amid the din oi opposing creed, to long 
 for a religion without theology. These dead faiths warn us of the folly of 
 any such dream. In the presence of a multitude of religions such as are 
 represented in this jjarliament we are tempted to believe that the ultimate 
 religion will consist in a bouquet of the sweetest and choicest of them all. 
 The graves of the dead religions declare that not selection but incorpo- 
 ration makes a religion strong; not incorporation but reconciliation; not 
 reconciliation but the fulfillment of all these aspirations, these partial 
 truths in a higher thought, in a transcendent life. 
 
 The system of religions here represented, or to come, which will not 
 merely select but incorporate, not merely incorporate but reconcile, not 
 merely reconcile but fulfill, holds the religious future of humanity. 
 
 Apart from particular problems these dead religions in clear tones give 
 two precious testimonies. They bear witness to man's need of God and 
 man's capacity to know Him. Looking back to-day upon the dead past we 
 behold men in the jungle and on the movintain, in the Roman temple and 
 before the Celtic altar, lifting up holy hands of aspiration and petition to 
 the Divine. Sounding through Greek hymns and Babylonian psalms alike 
 are heard human voices crying after the Eternal. 
 
 But there is a nobler heritage of ours in these oldest of religions. The 
 capacity to know God is not the knowledge of Him. They tell us with one 
 voice that the human heart, the universal human heart that 'needs God 
 and can know Him was not left to search for Him in blindness and ignor- 
 ance. He gave them of Himself, They received the light which lighteth
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 235 
 
 every man. That light has come down the ages unto us, shining as it 
 comes with ever brighter beams of divine revelation. 
 
 " For God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake unto the 
 fathers" — and we are beginning to realize to-day, as never before, how 
 many are our spiritual fathers in the past — " hath in these last days spoken 
 unto us in the Son." 
 
 THE POINTS OF CONTACT AND CONTRAST 
 
 BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY ANS> 
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 GEOKGE WASHBUEN, D. D., PRESIDENT OF JIOBERT COLLEGE, 
 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 It is not my purpose to enter upon any defence or criticism of Moham- 
 medanism, but simply to state, as impartially as possible, its points of con- 
 tact and contrast with Christianity. 
 
 The chief difficulty in such a statement arises from the fact that there 
 are as many different opinions on theological questions among Moslems as 
 among Christians, and that it is impossible to present any summary of 
 Mohammedan doctrine which will be accepted by all. 
 
 The faith of Islam is based primarily upon the Koran, which is believed 
 to have 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 distinguished theologians of the 
 2d century of the hegira, especially, for the Sunnis, of the four Imams, 
 Hanife, Shaft, Malik, and Hannbel. 
 
 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 twofold divisions of Sunnis 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 statesman 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, stated 
 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 confession — prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pil- 
 grimage; but the difficulty about this apparently simple definition in that 
 belief in Mohammed as the Prophet of God involves a belief in all his teach- 
 ing, 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 can not 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, essen- 
 tially 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
 
 236 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 that in the North-under Luther." Dean Stanley and Dr. Doellinger make 
 similar statements. 
 
 While there is a certain semblance of truth in their view, it seems to me 
 not only 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 hie 
 announcing his prophetic mission he had interested himself at all in 
 Christianity. No such theory is necessary to account for his monotheism. 
 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 idolatry, had practically aban- 
 doned it. The temple at Mecca was known as Beit uUah, the house of God. 
 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 of Mecca. It was against this prevalent idolatry that Moham- 
 med 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 finial. I believe that every orthodox Moslem regards Islam 
 as a separate, distinct, and absolutely exclusive religion; and there is 
 nothing to be gained by calling it a form of Chi-istianity. But after having 
 set aside this unfounded statement, and fvilly acknowledged the inde- 
 pendent origin of Islam, there is still a 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 can not be proved that he had ever read them. 
 They are mentioned 131 times in the Koran, bvit' 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 writings current among the 
 heretical Christian sects, such as the Protevangeliiuii of James, the pseudo 
 Matthew, and the Gospel of the nativity of Mary, rather than with the 
 Bible. His information was probably obtained verbally from his Jewish 
 and Christian friends, who seem, in some cases, to have deceived him inten- 
 tionally. He seems to have believed their statemei;^s. 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 perse- 
 cuted followers to take refuge with the Christian King of Abyssinia. 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 the last years at Mecca and the tirst at Medina. 
 
 But in the end he attacked and destroyed the Jews and declared war 
 against the Christians, making a distinction, however, in his treatment of 
 idolaters and " the people of the Book," 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 ix). In the next world Jews, Christians, and idolaters 
 are alike consigned to eternal punishment 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 
 
 I
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 237 
 
 [believe, whether Jews, Christians, orSabians, whoever believeth in God and 
 |the last day, and doeth that which is right, they shall have their reward with 
 the Lord. No fear shall come upon them, neither shall they be grieved." 
 'But Moslem commentators rightly understand this as only teaching that it 
 Jews, Christians, or Sabians become Moslems they will be saved, the phrase 
 used being the common one to express faith in Islam. 
 
 In the third sura it is stated in so many words: " Whoever followeth 
 any other religion than Islam it shall not be accei? ted 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 uieets 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 the Prophet by its contact with Christianity I think every 
 Moslem would answer in the negative. There is much to be said on the 
 other side, as, for example, it must seem to a Christian student that the 
 offices and qualities assigned to the Prophet by the traditions, which are 
 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 question. 
 
 In comparing the dogmatic statements of Islam and Christianity we 
 must confine ourselves as strictly as possible to what is generally acknowl- 
 edged to be essential to each 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 ot any value to our present discussion. 
 
 It has been formally decided by various fetvas that the Koran requires 
 belief in seven principal doctrines, and the confession of faith is this: 
 "I believe on God, on the Angels, on the Books, 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 are fundamental. Taking these essential dogmas one by 
 one, we shall find that they agree with Christian doctrine in their general 
 statement, although in their development there is a wide divergence of 
 faith between the Christian and Moslem. 
 
 1. The Doctrine of God — This is stated by Omer Nessefi (A. D. 1M2) as 
 follows: 
 
 God is one and eterDal. He lives, and is almierhty. He knows all things, hears all 
 thiners, sees all things. He is endowed witli will and aotiou. He has n.-ither form 
 nor feature, neither bounds, limits, nor numbers, neither parts, multiplieaiions 
 nor divisions, because he is neither body nor matter. He has neither besinnins 
 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, wliieh, 
 without being foreign to his essence, do not constitute it. 
 
 The Westminster Catechism says: 
 
 God is a spiiit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in his being wisdom, power 
 holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, i here 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 perfect 
 holiness; but this is not a fair statement of truth. The ninety-nine names 
 of God which the good Moslem constantly repeats assign these attributes 
 to Him. The fourth name is "The Most Holy;" the twenty-ninth "The 
 Just;" the forty-sixth "The All Loving;" the first and most common is 
 "The Merciful," and the moral attributes are often referred to in the Koran. 
 In truth there is no conceivable perfection which the Moslem would neg- 
 lect to attribute to God. 
 
 Their conception of Him is that of an absolute Oriental monarch; and
 
 238 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 His unlimited power to do what He pleases makes entire submission to His 
 will the first, most prominent duty. The name which they gave to their 
 religion implies this. It is Islam, which means'^submission or resignation; 
 but a king may be good or bad, wise or foolish, and the Moslem takes as 
 much pain's as the Christian to attribute to God all wisdom and all goodness. 
 The essential difference in the Christian and Mohammedan conception 
 of God lies in the fact that the Moslem does not think of this great King 
 as having anything in common with his subjects, from whom he is infinitely 
 removed. The idea of the incarnation of God in Christ is to them not only 
 blasphemous, but absurd and incomprehensible ; and the idea of fellowship 
 with God, which is expressed in calling Him our Father, is altogether 
 foreign to Mohammedan thought. God is not immanent in the world in 
 the Christian sense, but apart from the world, and infinitely removed from 
 man. 
 
 2. The Doctrine of Degrees, or of the Sovereignty of God, is a funda- 
 mental principle of both Christianity and Islam. 
 
 The Koran says : 
 
 God ha8 from all eternity foreordained by an immutable decree all things 
 whatsoever come to pass, whether good or evil. 
 
 The Westminster 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 Mohammedans as 
 among Christians, with the same differences of opinion. 
 
 Omer Nessefi says: 
 
 Predestination refers not to the temporal but to the spiritual state. Election 
 and reprobation decide the final fate of the soul, ut bin temporal 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 does not love unbelief and sin, though He wills and effects it. 
 I f it be asked why God 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 
 »is to know. 
 
 Many Christian theologians would accept this statement without criti- 
 cism, but in general they have been careful to guard against the idea that 
 God is in any way the efficient cause of sin, and they generally give to men 
 a wider area of freedom than the orthodox Mohammedans. 
 
 It can not be denied that this doctrine of the decrees of God has degen- 
 erated into fatalism more generally among Moslems than among Christians. 
 I have never known a Mohammedan of any sect who was not more or less 
 a fatalist, notwithstanding the fact that there have been Moslem theolo- 
 gians who have repudiated fatalism as vigorously as any Christian. 
 
 In Christianity this doctrine has been offset by a different conception of 
 God, by a higher estimate of man, and by the whole scheme of redemp- 
 tion through faith in Christ. In Islam there is no such counteracting 
 influence. 
 
 3. The other five doctrines we pass over with a single remark in regard 
 to each. Both Moslems and Christians believe in the existence 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 char- 
 acter 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
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 239 
 
 and Moslems believe that God has sent prophets and apostles into the 
 world to teach men His will; both believe in the judgment-day, and the res- 
 urrection of the dead, the immortality of the soul, and rewards and 
 punishments in the future life. 
 
 It will be seen that in simple statement the seven positive doctrines of 
 Islam are in harmony with Christian dogma; but in their exposition and 
 development the New Testament and the Koran part company, 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 (e 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 Chris- 
 tian to state them in a way to satisfy Moslems, and as we have no time to 
 quote authorities we may pass them over. 
 
 4. 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 perfection, 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 consequently denies His resurrec- 
 tion 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 claimed 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 scheme: He is not 
 divine, and consequently not an object of worship, but He was the first cre- 
 ated 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 the sinner in need of pardon (Ex., 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 sanctifi- 
 cation 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 of John 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 repudiation of 
 the Christian dogma of the incarnation and the Trinity, and the substitu- 
 tion of Mohammed for Christ inmost 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 scientific rationalistic unbelief of 
 the present day. If it can not conceive of Gou as incarnate in Jesus Christ, 
 it is not from any doubt as to His personality or His miraculous interfer- 
 ence in the affairs of this world, 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 small sects who are 
 rationalists, but after the fashion of old English deism, rather than of the 
 modern rationalism. The deistic rationalism is represented in that most 
 interesting work of Justice Ameer Aali, "The Spirit of Islam." He speaks
 
 240 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of Mohammed as Xenophon did of Socrates, and he reveres Christ also, but 
 he denies that there was anything supernatural in the inspiration or lives 
 of eithei, and claims that Hanife and the other Imams corrupted Islam as 
 he thinks Paul, the apostle, did Christianity; but this book does not repre- 
 sent Mohammedanism any more than Renau's"Life of Jesus" represents 
 Christianity. These small rationalistic sects are looked upon by all ortho- 
 dox Moslems as heretics of the worst description. 
 
 The practical and ethical relations of Islam to Christianity are even 
 more interesting than the historical and dogmatic. The Moslem 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 judgeeach 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 can not enter here into a technical statement of the philosophical 
 development of the principles of law and morality as they are given by the 
 Imam Hanife and others. It would be incomprehensible without hours of 
 explanationj'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 tra- 
 ditions of the life and sayings of the Propliet enlarged by deductions and 
 analogies. Whatever comes from these sources has the force and author- 
 ity 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; fast- 
 ing during the month of Raraazan from dawn to sunset; alms to the annual 
 amount of 2% V^^ cent on/^property; pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a 
 lifetime. A sixth duty of equal importance, is taking part in sacred war, or 
 war for religion, but some orthodox Moslems hold that this is not a per- 
 petual obligation, and this seems to have been the bpinion 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 making or possessing of 
 images, the drinking of intoxicating 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. e., 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, injus- 
 tice, 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 iniquity will lose his soul. 
 
 It is notrighteousnes.s that you turn your faces in prayer toward the East or 
 the West, but righteousness is of him who believeth in God and the last day, and 
 the angels and prophets, who givetli 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 
 redemption of captives; who is constant in prayer, and giveth alms; and cf 
 those who perform their covenant, and who behave themselves patiently in the 
 adversity and hardships, and in time of violence. These are they 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 
 Christian virtues, such as meekness and humility, are not emphasized. 
 
 Beyond this we have a moral code equally binding in theory, and equally 
 important in practice, which is not at all Christian, but is essentially the
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 241 
 
 morality of the Talmud in the extreme value which it attaches to outward 
 observances, such as fasting, pilgrimages, and ceremonial rights. 
 
 All the concerns of life and death are hedged about witli prescribed cere- 
 monies, 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 jjolygamy, divorce, and slavery the morality of Islam is in 
 direct contrast with that of Christianity, and as the principles of the faith, 
 so far as determined by the Koran and the Traditions, are 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 hope of immortality and no rights. 
 This is an absolutely unfounded slander. 
 
 Another contrast between the morality of the Koran and the New Testa- 
 ment is found in the spirit with which the faith is to be propagated. 
 The Prophet led his armies to battle, and founded a temporal kingdom by 
 force of arms. The Koran is full of exhortation to light for the faith. 
 Christ fovinded a spiritual kingdom, which could only be extended by lov- 
 ing persuasion and the influence of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 It is true that Christians have had their wars of religion, and have com- 
 mitted as many crimes against humanity in the name of Christ as Moslems 
 have ever committed in the name of the Prophet; but the opposite teach- 
 ing on this subject in the Koran and in the New Testament is unmistak- 
 able, and involves different conceptions of morality. 
 
 Such, in general, is the ethical code of Islam. In practice there are cer- 
 tainly many Moslems whose moral lives are irreproachable according to the 
 Christian standard, who fear God, and in their dealings with men are hon- 
 est, truthful, and benevolent; who are temperate in 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 religion seem to 
 rival those of the Christian mystics. This is specially true of one or two 
 sects of Dervishes. Some of these sects are simply Mohammedan Neo- 
 Platonists, and deal in magic, sorcery, and purely physical means of attain- 
 ing a state of ecstasy; but others are neither pantheists nor theosophists, 
 and seek to attain unity of spirit with a supreme, personal 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 and verbal 
 confession: would 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 Constantinople, rendered into English 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 liopes above. 
 'Mid grief and guilt although I grope. 
 From th<'e I'll ne'er cui 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!
 
 242 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Should'st Thou refuse to still my fears, 
 Who else will stop to dry my tears? 
 For I 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 showing 
 that many Moslems do attain some degree, at least, of what Christians 
 mean by spiritual lifej 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 experience of spiritually minded Moham- 
 medans, 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 Moham- 
 medan law is based on the theory that right and wrong depend on legal 
 enactment, and Mohammedan thought follows the same direction. An act 
 is right because God has commanded it, or wrong because He has forbidden 
 it. God may abrogate or change his laws, so that what was wrong may 
 become right. Moral acts have 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 its very nature sinful, and wjiich man 
 is capable of knowing to be such — that is, the sin of denying 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 unpardonable. For whoever dies in this sin 
 there is no possible escape from eternal damnation. 
 
 Of other sms someare grave and some are light, and it must not be sup- 
 posed that the Moslem regards grave sins as of little consequence. He believes 
 that sin is rebellion against infinite power, and that it cannot escape the 
 notice of the all-seeing God, but must call down his wrath upon the sin- 
 ner; so that even a good Moslem may be sent to hell to suffer torment for 
 thousands of years before he is pardoned. 
 
 But be believes that God is merciful; that " he is minded to make his 
 religion light, because man has been created weak." (Koran, sura iv.) If man 
 has sinned against his arbitrary commands God may arbitrarily remit the pen- 
 alty, on certain conditions, on the intercession of the Prophet, on account 
 of the expiatory acts on the man's part, or in view of counterbalancing 
 good works. At the worst the Moslem will be sent to hell for a season and 
 then be pardoned, out for consideration 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. 
 
 But, 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 God 
 himself is a moral being, doing what is right because it is right, and that 
 he can no more pardon sin arliitrarily than he can make a wrong action 
 right; that he could not be just and yet justify the sinner without the atone-
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 2i3 
 
 ment made by the incarnation and the Buffering 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 regen- 
 erated and sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit before it can know the 
 joy of beatific vision. 
 
 Whether I have correctly stated the fundamental difference between the 
 Christian and Mohammedan conceptions of sin no one who has had Moslem 
 friends can have failed to realize that the difference exists, for it is extremely 
 difficult, almost impossible, for Christians 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, 
 
 Mohammedan 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 fii-mly 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 been fixed from eternity by an 
 arbitrary and irrevocable decree, naturally falls into fatalism; not absolute 
 fatalism, for the Moslem, as we have seen, has his strict code of morality and 
 his burdensome ceremonial 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 absurd, 
 
 It is perhaps also due to the fatalistic tendency of Mohammedan thought 
 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 man 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 can not be passed over 
 in silence. It is the infiuence of the Prophet's life upon that of his fol- 
 lowers. 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 infiuence 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 connection; 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 supernaturally inspired 
 prophet of God. I have no wish to think any evil of him, for he was cer- 
 tainly 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 thmgs 
 as the Christian; but the Moslem finds in the traditions a mass of stories 
 in regard to the life and sayings of the Prophet, many of which are alto- 
 gether inconsistent with Christian ideas of morality, and which make the 
 impression that many things forbidden are at least excusable. 
 
 There are many nominal Christians who lead lives as corrupt as any 
 Moslem, 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 Mohemmedan may have such a conception of the Prophet
 
 244 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 that, in spite of his immorality, he may still believe himself 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 Mohammedan life. 
 
 We have now presented, as briefly and impartially as possible, the points 
 of contact and contrast, between Christianity and Islam, as historical, dog- 
 matic, and ethical. 
 
 We have sec^i that while there is a broad, common ground of belief and 
 sympathy, while we may confidently believe as Christians that God is lead- 
 ing 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 are 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 are bound to repeni 
 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 thai 
 the Holy Scriptures are the word of God. 
 
 These are most important grounds of agreement and mutual respect, but 
 the points of contrast are equally impressive. 
 
 The supreme God of Christianity is immanent in the world, was incar- 
 nate in Christ, and is ever seeking to bring His children into loving fellow- 
 ship with Himself. 
 
 The God of Islam is apart from the world, an absolute monarch, who is 
 wise and merciful, but inflnitely removed from man. 
 
 Christianity recognizes the freedom of man, and magnifles the guilt and 
 corruption of sin, but at the same time offers a way of reconciliation and 
 redemption from sin and its consequences through the atonement of a 
 Divine Savior 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 Mos- 
 lem finds his in the Prophet of the Koran and the Traditions. 
 
 Other points of contrast have been mentioned, but the fundamental 
 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 this jjaper. Christianity is essentially 
 progressive, while Mohammedanism is unprogressive and stationary. 
 
 In their origin Christianity and Islam are both Asiatic, both Semitic, 
 and Jerusalem is but a few hundred miles from Mecca. In regard to the 
 number of their adherents, both have steadily increased from 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 practi- 
 cally confined to Asia and Africa, while Christianity has been the religion 
 of Europe and the New World, and politically it rules all over the world 
 except China and Turkey. 
 
 Mohammedanism has been identified with a stationary civilization, and 
 Christianity with a progressive one. There was a time, from the 8th to the 
 1.3th centuries, when science and philosophy flourished at Bagdad and Cor- 
 dova 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 modifica- 
 tion, 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 
 Mohammedan law, while Christianity has led the way in the progress of 
 modern civilization.
 
 STUDY OF COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY. 245 
 
 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 divine 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 unchange- 
 able, the two admit of ever new and progressive 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 can not 
 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 jieople 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 adapta- 
 bility to every stage of human enlightenment. If progress is to continue to 
 be the watchword of civilization, the faith which is to dominate this civili- 
 zation must also be progressive. 
 
 It would have been pleasant to speak here to-day 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. 
 
 The truth, spoken in love, is the only possible basis upon which this con- 
 gress can stand. We have a common Father; we are brethren; we desire to 
 live together in peace, or we should not be here; but of all things we desire 
 to know what is Truth, for Truth alone can make vis free. 
 
 We are soldiers all, without a thought of ever laying down our arms, but 
 we have come here to learn the lesson that our conflict is not with each 
 other, but with error, sin, and evil of every kind. We are one in our hatred 
 of evil and in our desire for the triumph of the kingdom of God, but we are 
 only partially agreed as to what is truth, or under what banner the triumph 
 of God's kingdom is to be won. 
 
 No true Moslem or Christian believes that these two great religions are 
 essentially the same, or that they can be merged by compromise in a com- 
 mon eclectic faith. We know that they are mutually exclusive, 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 common, or judge of the truth 
 in those things in which we differ. 
 
 STUDY OF COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY. 
 
 PIIOFESSOR C. P TIELE, OF LEIDEN UNIVERSITY, READ BY REV. 
 FRANK M. BRISTOL OF CHICAGO. 
 
 What is to be understood by comparative theology? I find that English- 
 writing authors use the appellation promiscuously with comparative 
 religion, but if we wish words to convey a sound meaning we should at least 
 beware of using these terms as convertible ones. Theology is not the same 
 as religion; and, to me, comparative theology signifies nothing but a com- 
 parative study of religious dogmas, comparative religion nothing but a 
 comparative study of various religions in all their branches; I suppose, how-
 
 246 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 ever, I am not expected to make this distinction, but comparative 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 com 
 monly has in English, but in the general signification of the Dutch Weten- 
 schap (H. G. Wissenschaft) which it has assumed more and more even in the 
 Roman languages. So the history and the study of this science would have 
 to form the subject of my paper, a subject vast enough to 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 (Dedus Syrus), de 
 Brosses (Le culte des dieux fetiches), the tasteful Herder and others, as i 
 science it reaches back not much farther than to the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century. "Duxius Origine de Tons les Cultes," which appeared in 
 the opening years of the century, is a gigantic pamphlet, not an impartial 
 historical research. Nor can Creuren's and Baur's Symbolik and Mythol- 
 ogie lay claim to the latter appellation, but are dominated by long refuted 
 theory. Meiner'si "Allgemeine Kritische Geschichte des Religionen" 
 (1806-7) only just came up to the law standard which at that time historical 
 scholars were expected to reach. Much higher stood Benjamin Constant, 
 in whoso work, " La Religion Consideree dans sa Source, des Formed et ses 
 Developments" (IS'Jl), written with French lucidity, for the first time a dis- 
 tinction 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-growing scale were 
 entered upon, and this was done no longer chiefly with by-desires, either by 
 the enemies of Christianity in order to combatit, and to point out that it dif- 
 fered little or nothing from all 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 can not 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 Benjamin Constant this 
 was felt by others, of whom we will only mention Hegel and Schelling. It 
 may even be said that the right method for the philosophical inquiry 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 applying of it. Hegel even endeavored to 
 give a classification, which, it is proved, hits the right nail on the head here 
 and there, but, as a whole, distinctly proves that he Licked a clear concep- 
 tion of the real historical development of religion. Nor could this be other- 
 wise. Even if the one had not been confined within the narrow bounds of 
 an a-prioristic system 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 antiquity, 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 des Schinersens ^^ (religion of suffering) In 
 doing this he of course thought of the myth and the worship of Thammur 
 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 neigh- 
 bors, and are, in fact, a survival of an older, highly sensual naturism. Even 
 at the time he might have known that Adonis was far from being an ethcial 
 ideal, that his worship was far from being the glorification of a voluntarily 
 
 i
 
 STUDY OF COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY. 247 
 
 suffering Deity. In short, it was known that only the comparative method 
 could conduce to the desired end, but the means of comparing, though not 
 wholly wanting, were inadequate. 
 
 Meanwhile material was being supplied from another quarter. Philolog- 
 ical and historical science, cultivated after strict methods, archieology, 
 anthropology, ethnology, no longer a prey to the superficial theorists 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 impor- 
 tant discoveries of the last hundred years, the number of which is con- 
 tinually 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 conceptions, 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 development. 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 " penitential 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 know 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 cr^ntents. I know also that 
 even now, after we have learned how to apply tc : >_e gtudy of these records 
 the universally admitted, sound philological priiiciplss, much of what we 
 believe to be known has been rejected as being valixalass and that the ques- 
 tions and problems which have to be solved h?.Te not decreased in number, 
 but are daily increasing. I can not deiiy thai scholars of high repute and 
 indisputable authority are much divided in opinion ccncerning the expla- 
 nation of those texts and that it is not easy to mal-s a choice out of so 
 many conflicting opinions. How much does Brugcch 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 Sum- 
 merists and the anti-Summerists or anti- Accadists! How much differs the 
 explanation of the Veda by Roth, Muller, and Grassman, from that of 
 Ludwig, and how different in Earth's explanation from Bergaine's and 
 Regnand'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 generation, Bartholomae and Geldmer 
 on the one hand, Geiger, Wilhelm, Hubschmann, Mills on the other hand, 
 are following different roads, there has come a scholar and a man of genius, 
 who is, however, particularly fond of paradoxes- James Darnesteter — 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 can not 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 may be 
 said they are at least useful in compelling us once more to put to a severe
 
 248 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 emp'irical base of operations, felt by the philosophy of religion, and 
 the great discoveries in the domain of history, archseology, and anthropol- 
 ogy- 
 
 These discoveries have revealed a great number of forms of religion and 
 religious phenomena, which until now were known imperfectly or not at all; 
 and it stands to reason that these have been compared with those 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 con- 
 ferred this title upon the famous Oxford professor, F. Max MuUer; others, 
 among them his great American opponent, 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 Whit- 
 ney than with MuUer. Though I have frequently contended the latter's 
 speculations and theories, I 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, 
 especially 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 coun- 
 tries at the same time and as a matter of course. The number of those 
 applying themselves to it has been gradually increasing, and for years it 
 has been gaining chairs at universities, first in Holland, afterward also in 
 France and elsewhere, now also in America. It has already a rich litera- 
 ture, 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 relig- 
 ions, is as yet too little a feature of the past to be surveyed from an impar- 
 tial standpoint. Moreover, the writer of this paper himself has been one of 
 the laborers in this field for more than thirty yearsjjast, 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 preparation than has now been allowed to him. A dry enumera- 
 tion 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. 
 Therefore, let me add some words on the study of comparative theology. 
 
 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 recog- 
 nized sacred writings, but also those of dissenting sects and tlie songs and 
 sagas of uncivilized people. So one will have to put up with the transla- 
 tione, and everybody knows that meaning of the original is but poorly ren- 
 dered even by the best translations. One will have to take upon trust what 
 may be called second-hand information, wnthout being able to test it, espe- 
 cially where the religions of the so-called primitive peoples are concerned. 
 AH these objections have been made by me for having the pleasure of set- 
 ting them aside; they have frequently been raised against the new study 
 and have already dissuaded many from devoting themselves to it. Nor can 
 
 I
 
 STUDY OF COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY. 2i9 
 
 it be denied that they at least contain some truth. But if, on account of 
 these objections, the comparative study of religions were to be esteemed 
 impossible, the same judgment would have to be pronounced upon many 
 other sciences. 
 
 I am not competent to pass an opinion concerning the physical and bio- 
 logical sciences. I am alluding only to anthropology and ethnology, history, 
 the history of civilization, archieology, comparative philology, comparative 
 literature, ethics, philosophy. If the independent 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 civ- 
 ilization, every group of records, every period, every system? There is 
 nobody who will think of insisting upon this. Every science, even the most 
 comprehensive 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, paste- 
 board 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 are known, but an aggregate of researches all tending to the same pur- 
 pose, though independent yet mutually connected, and each in particular 
 connected with similar researches in other domains, 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 vmprejudiced 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 develop- 
 ment, to v/hat 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. But these researches, without 
 which one can not penetrate into the nature of religion, nor form a con- 
 ception of its origin, can not 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. He who ventures upon it can not 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 st ience 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 pur- 
 pose, and if he applies the right method, he too will contribute not 
 unworthily to the great common work. 
 
 So a search after the solution of the abstruse fundamental questions had 
 better be left to those few who add a great wealth of knowledge to philo- 
 sophical talents. What should be considered most needful with a view to 
 the present standpoint of coniparative 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 manj points 
 still leave us in the dark; subjecting to a close examination particular relig- 
 ions and important periods about which we possess but scanty information; 
 searching for the religious meaning of myths; tracing prominent deities in
 
 250 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 their rise and development, 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 thoroughly 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 in quick time, about 
 the whole domain of his science; in short, he must possess a general knowl- 
 edo-e of religions and religious phenomena. But he should not be satisfied 
 with this. He should then 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. Both requirements he has to 
 fulfill. Meeting only one of them will lead either to the superficial dilet- 
 tantism which has already been alluded to, or the trifling of those Philis- 
 tines of science, who like nothing better than occupyingour attention long- 
 est of all with such things as lie beyond the bounds of what is worth know- 
 ing. 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. 
 
 DUTY OF GOD TO IVIAN INQUIRED. 
 
 MRS. LAUEA ORMISTON CHANT. 
 
 She was greeted with a great outburst of applause as she 
 stepped forward, the audience thus evidencing that it had been 
 waiting to hear this popular English woman and speaker. 
 
 Dear Friends : After listening long enough to the science of religion, 
 probably, as this is the last word this morning, it may be a little relief to 
 run off or leave the science of religion to take care of itself for awhile and 
 take a few thoughts on religion independent of its science. That religion 
 will hold the world at last which makes men most good and most happy 
 Whatever there has been in this old past of the faiths that have made men 
 more good and more happy, that lives with us to-day, and helps on the pro- 
 gressiveness of all that we have learned since. We have learned that 
 religion, whatever the science of it may be, is the principle of spiritual 
 growth. We have learned that to be religious is to be alive. 
 
 The more religion you have, the more full of life and truth you are, an 
 the more able to give life to all those with whom you come in contact. 
 That religion which helps us to the most bravery in dealing with human 
 souls, that is the religion that will hold the world. That which makes you 
 or me the most brave in days of failure or defeat is that religion v/hich is 
 bound to conquer in the end, by whatever name you call it. And believe me, 
 and my belief is on all fours with that of most of you here, that religion 
 which to-day goes most bravely to the worst of all evils, goes with its 
 splendid optimism into the darkest corners of the earth, that is the religion 
 of to-day, under whatever name yon call it. 
 
 We are obliged to admit that the difference between the dead forms of 
 religion and the living forms to-day, is that the dead forms of Religion deal 
 with those who least need it, while the living forms of religion deal with 
 those who need it most. Consequently, to-day — and it is one of the most
 
 k 
 
 DUTY OF GOD TO MAN INQUIRED. 251 
 
 glorious comforts of the progress that we are making — the real religious- 
 ness of our life, whether of the individual, the nation, or of the world at 
 large, is that we will not acceot sin, sorrow, pain, misery, and failure as 
 eternal, or even temporary, longer than our love can let them be. And out 
 of that has grown the feeling that has hardly taken on a name as yet — it 
 has taken on a very ijractical name to those who hold it — out of that has 
 grow'u a feeling which will not admit that God may do what it is wrong for 
 man to dp as an individual. 
 
 It is a strange turning around in the idea of our relationship to God 
 that to-day, for the first time iu the whole world's history, we are asking 
 what is God's duty to us. To-day, for the first time in the world's history, 
 we are certain that God's duty to us will be performed. For ages man 
 asked, what was his duty to God ? That was the first part of his j^rogress; 
 but to-day you and I are asking, what is God's duty to us ? And Oh, God 
 be thanked that it is so. If I can throw the whole of my being into the 
 arms of God and be certain He will do His duty by me, that duty will first 
 of all be to succeed in me; it will not be to fail in me. And I can come to 
 Him through all my blunders and sins and with my eyes full of tears, and 
 catch the rainbow light of His love upon those tears of mine, certain He 
 will do His duty by me and that He will succeed in me at the last. 
 
 Again, w^e have listened this morning to these profoundly interesting, 
 scholarly papers, and perhaps it is almost too frank of me to say that we 
 have been thinking what marvelous intellectual jugglers these theologians 
 are. I dare say that some of you have come to think this morning, after 
 all, what is this about ? It is mostly about words. Words in all sorts of 
 languages, words that almost dislocate the jaw in trying to pronounce, 
 words that almost daze the brain in trying to think out what their mean- 
 ing is; but it is words for all that. Underneath is poor humanity coming, 
 coming, coming slowly along the path of progress, nearer, up to the light 
 for which Goethe prayed. And we are nearer the light in proportion as 
 our religion has made us more and more lovely, more and more beautiful, 
 more and more tender, more true, and more safe to deal with. 
 
 After all there is a line of demarkation to-day between people whom it 
 is safe to be with and those who are unsafe. Our religion has become 
 a very national thing, for we are asking to be able to so deal with unsafe 
 people as to bring them over into the lines of the safe. But with those who 
 have been educated iu the schools of the Master who taught no creed and 
 who belonged to no denomination, but who was vmiversal in his teachings 
 and in his love of mankind, as the children of God we believe that He 
 taught us that it was blessed, it was happy to be pure in heart, to be mer- 
 ciful, to be humble, to be a peacemaker, to be all those things which help 
 mankind to be happiest and best. 
 
 And, therefore, we are beginning to understand that a system of theol- 
 ogy that did not take and does not take into itself all that literature has 
 given and all that art is pouring forth, all that the heart of man is yearn- 
 ing after, would be insufficient to-day; and the consequence is that in and 
 outside the churches the religiousness of the world is calling for art to take 
 her place as an exponent of religion; for nature to take her part as the 
 great educator of men in all those feelings that are most religious as 
 regards God. In fact, that I and you, when we want to do best for that 
 criminal, or that outcast, or that hard one, we will learn it not by going to 
 schoolmasters and books, but by going right into the solitudes of the mount- 
 ains and of the lakes which our Father has made, and learn of His marvels 
 in the wild flower and the song of the birds, and come back to our brother 
 and say, " Is not this human soul of more value than many sparrow^s? " 
 
 If God so clothed the mountains, heaths, and meadows of the world, 
 shall He not clothe these human souls with a beauty that transcends Sol- 
 omon in all his glory, with, a joy unspeakable and full of glory? It is the
 
 ^52 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 deepening, the heightening, the broadening of that that is to be the out- 
 come of this most wonderful jjarliament. Is it not that the Day of Pente- 
 cost has come back to us once again? Do we not hear them all speak with 
 the tongue wherein we were born, this tongue of prayer, that we may know 
 each other and go up and be more likely to get nearer to Him as the ages 
 roll on? This parliament will be far-reaching. There is no limit in the 
 world to what these parliaments will mean in the impetus given to the 
 deepening of religious life. It will be so luuch easier for you and me, in 
 the years to corns, to bow our heads with reverence when we catch the 
 sound of the Moslem's prayer. It will be so much easier for you and me, 
 in the days to come, to picture God, our Father, answering the prayer of 
 the Japanese in the Jap's own language. It will be so much easier for you 
 and me to understand that God has no creed whatever, that mankind is His 
 child and shall be one with Him one day and live with Him forever. 
 
 And, in conclusion, we have some of us made a great mistake in not 
 seizing all and every means of being educated in the religiousness of our 
 daily conduct. I believe — even though it sounds commonplace to say it, 
 but I do believe — with all due deference to our dear brothers the theo- 
 logians, that this Parliament of Religions will have taught them some of 
 the courtesies that it would have been well if they had had years ago. 
 I think it will have taught them that you can never convince your adversary 
 by hurling an argument like a brickbat at his head. It will have taught all 
 of VIS to have the good manners to listen in silence to what we do not 
 approve. 
 
 It will have taught us that after all it is not the words that are the things, 
 but it is the soul behind the words; and the soul there is behind this great 
 Parliament of Religions to-day is this newer humility, w^hich makes me feel 
 that I am not the custodian of all or every truth that has been given to the 
 world. That God, my Father, has made religious truth like the facets of tthe 
 diamond — one facet reflecting one color and another another color, and it is 
 not for me to dare to say that the particular color that my eye rests upon 
 is the only one that the world ought to see. Thank God for these different 
 voices that have been speaking to us this morning. Thank God, out from 
 the mummies of Egypt, out from the mosques of Syria, there have come to 
 you and me this morning that which shall send us back to our homes more 
 religious, in the deepest sense of the w<jrd, than we w'ere before, and there- 
 fore better able to take up this great work of religion to the redeeming of 
 the world out of darkness into light, out of sorrow into happiness, out of 
 sin and misery into the righteousness that abideth forever. 
 
 There is one voice speaking to us this morning which was laid down in 
 the close of one of his poems, those words of Shelley in that magnificent 
 poem, "Prometheus Unbound." It will stand for every language and 
 tongue to-day for the embodiment of the outcome of religious feeling in 
 you and me: 
 
 To forgive wrongs darker than death and night; 
 
 To suffer woes that hope thinks infinite; 
 
 To love and bear; to hope, till hope creates 
 
 From her own wrecks, the thing she contemplates. 
 
 Never to change, nor falter, nor repent. 
 
 This, like thy glory. Titan, Is to be 
 
 Good, brave, and joyous, beautiful, and free; 
 
 This is alone life, love, empire, and victory. 
 
 CONFUCIANISM. 
 KUNG HSIEN HO, SHANGHAI. 
 
 A prize essay by Kung Hsien Ho, of Shanghai, translated by 
 Rev. Timothy Richard, of the English Baptist Mission, China.
 
 CONFUCIANISM. 253 
 
 The 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 produces 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 j)roduction of all things depends on this as the tree does 
 on the root. Even all human affairs and all good are also dependent on it; 
 therefore it is called the Supreme just as v/e speak of the extreme points 
 of the earth as the north and south poles. 
 
 By 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 pro- 
 ducing forces. When Yang and Yin unite they produce water, fire, wood, 
 metal, earth. When these five forces operate in harmony the four seasons 
 come to pass. The essences of the infinite, of Yin and Yang, and of the five 
 elements, combine, and the heavenly become male, and the earthly become 
 female. When these powers act on each other all things are produced and 
 reproduced and developed without end. 
 
 As to man, he is the best and most intelligent of all. This is what is 
 meant in the Book of Chung Yung when it says that what heaven has given 
 is the spiritual nature. This nature is law. All men are thus born and 
 have this law. Therefore it is Meneivis says that all children love the par- 
 ents and when grown up all respect their elder brethren. If man only fol- 
 lowed the natural bent of his nature, then all would go the right way; 
 hence, the Chung Yung says, " To follow nature is the right way." 
 
 The choicest product of Yin- Yang and the five elements in the world is man, 
 the rest are refuse products. The choicest among the choice ones are the 
 sages and worthies, and the refuse among them are the foolish and the bad. 
 And as man's body comes from the Yin, and man's soul from the Yang, he can 
 not be perfect. This is what the Lung philosophers called the material nature. 
 Although all men have at birth a nature for goodness, still, if there is noth- 
 ing to lix it, then desires 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, 
 benevolence, 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 wickedness. 
 The best among the people are taken into schools where they study wisdom, 
 virtue, benevolence, and righteousness, so that they may know beforehand 
 how to conduct themselves as rulers or ruled. 
 
 And unless, 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 otBcersof this clan, and people at large as brothers of the same 
 parents; and it holds that all things should be enjoyed in common, because 
 it regards heaven and earth a.j the parents of all alike. And the command- 
 ment of the Confucian is, "Fear greatly lest ye offend against heaven." 
 
 But what Confucians lay great stress on is human affairs. What are 
 these? These are 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
 
 25* THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 friend. Now, the ruler is the son of heaven, to be honored above all others, 
 therefore in serving' him there has to be loyalty. I'he parents' goodness to 
 their children is boundless, therefore the parents should be served filially. 
 Brothers are branches from the same root, therefore mutual respect is 
 important. The marriage relation is the origin of all human relations, 
 therefore mutual gentleness is important. As to friends, though as if strang- 
 ers 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 or 
 wife, if anyone wishes to be perfect in any relation, how can it be done with- 
 out 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 are also 
 the three hands. 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 Emjjeror down to the common people the funda- 
 mental thing for all to do is to cultivate virtue." If this fundamental 
 foundation is not laid, then there can not be order in the world. Therefore, 
 great responsibility lies on the leaders. This is what Confvicius means 
 when he says: " When a ruler is upright he is obeyed without commands." 
 
 Now, to cause the doctrine of the five relations to be carried out every- 
 where 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 will 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, worship, 
 wisdom, faithfulness. Benevolence is love, righteovisness is fitness, worship 
 is principle, 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 infiuences throughout all things is called divine. The infiuence of 
 the five constants is very great, and all living 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 disposition is not 
 a man, and he who has not the sense of right and wrong is not a naan. The 
 sense of pity is the beginning of benevolence, the sense of shame for wrong 
 is the beginning of righteousness, a yielding disposition is the beginning of 
 religion, the sense of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Faith- 
 fulness 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 
 can not be placed. 
 
 The Chung Yung says, " Sincerity or reality is the beginning and the 
 end of things; There is no such thing as supreme sincerity without action. 
 This is the use of faithfulness." 
 
 As to the benevolence, it also includes righteousness, religion, and wis- 
 dom; 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 infiuences 
 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 are 
 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 
 
 I
 
 C/oNFVClAiSflSM. 255 
 
 this benevolence and all under heaven may be benefited thereby. This is 
 how to observe human relation. 
 
 As to the doctrine of future life, Confucianism speaks of it most mi- 
 nutely. Cheng Tsze says the spirits are the forces or servants of heaven and 
 earth and signs of creative power. Chu Fu Tsze says: "Speaking of two 
 powers, the demons are the intelligent ones of Yin, the gods are the intelli- 
 gent ones of Yang; speaking of one power, the supreme and originating is 
 called God, the reverse and the returning is demon." 
 
 Confucius, replying to Tsai Wo, says: " When tlesh 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, quoting Confucius, says: "The power of the 
 spirits is very great. You look and can not see them, you listen and can not 
 hear them, but they are embodied in all things without missing any, caus- 
 ing all men to reverence 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 on our left. Yih King makes 
 much of divining to get decisions from the gods, knowing that the gods are 
 the forces of heaven and 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 influences 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 fortu- 
 nate; do not follow it, and you 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 to 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." Con- 
 fucius, 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 calamities 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. 
 Rewards 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 inevitably. When these consequences do not 
 appear, they are like cold in summer or heat in winter, or like both happen- 
 ing in winter; 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 inan- 
 darins do on earth, bringing quick retribution on every little thing, this is 
 really to make them ajjpear very slow. At present men say, "Thunder 
 killed the bad man." But it is not so, either. The Han philosopher, Tung 
 Chung Shu (2d 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 clovids clashing against each other. Lightning is 
 light emitted by their collision. Thus 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 world hold so many? If we transmigrate, then so
 
 256 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 many would transmigrate from the human life and ghostfe would be numer- 
 ous. Besides when the lamp goes out and is lit again it is not the former 
 tlanie 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 this we 
 know also that these doctrines of transmigration should not be believed 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 ail under heaven. The Book of Great Learning, Ja Hsigh 
 has already clearly spoken of these. The foundation is laid in illustrating 
 virtue; for our religion in discussing government 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: Cultivate a good 
 character, honor the good, love your parents, respect great officers, carry out 
 the wishes of the ruler and ministers, regard the common people as your 
 children, invite all kinds of skillful workmen, be kind to strangers, have 
 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, Fu Hi arose and drew the eight dia- 
 grams, in order to understand the superhuman powers and the nature of 
 all things. At the time of Tang Yao (B. C. 2356) they were able to illustrate 
 noble virtue. Nine generations lived together in one home in love and 
 peace, and the people were firm and intelligent. 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 restless, prone to err; its infinity for 
 the right way is small. Be discriminating; 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 Wu of the 
 Chow dynasty (B. C. 1122). These transmitted it lo 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 ances- 
 tors, 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 of governing the nation, say- 
 ing: "Treat matters seriously and be faithful, be temperate and love men, 
 employ men according to proper times, and in teaching your pupil you 
 must do so with love." He said to Yen Tsze: " Self-sacrifice and truth are 
 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, every- 
 thing is possible to such a heart. 
 
 Alas ! He was not able to get his virtues put into practice, but his dis- 
 ciples recorded his words and deeds and wrote the Confucian Analects. 
 His disciple, Jseng Tsze, composed the Great Learning. His proud son, 
 Tsze Sze, composed the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung Yung). When the 
 
 J
 
 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 257 
 
 contending states were qviarroling. 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 liourished. In the Han dynasty, 
 Tung Chung Shu (20th 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 doctrine 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 philos- 
 opher Cho in Confucian temples to be reverenced and sacrificed to. Con- 
 fucianist all follow Chu Fu-Tsze's comments. From ancient times till now 
 those who followed the doctrines of Confucius were alile to govern the 
 country; whenever these were not followed there was disorder. 
 
 On looking atit down the ages there is also clear evidence of results in 
 governing the country and its superiority to other religions. There is a 
 prosperity of Tang Yis, of the dynasties Hsia Slang and Chow (B. C 2356, 
 B. C 255), when virtue and good government flourished. It is needless to 
 enlarge upon them. At the time of the contending states there arose the- 
 orists, and all under heaven became disordered. 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 having 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 minis- 
 ters. 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 mandarins 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 neglected the 
 country. Afterward the North and South quarreled and Emperor Laing 
 Wu reigned the longest, but lost all by believing in Buddhism and going 
 into the monastery at Tsing 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 Kang of ancient times. Although there was the affair 
 of Empress Woo and Lu Shan the dynasty flourished long. Its fall was 
 because the Emperor Hueu Tsung was fond of Taoism and Buddhism, and 
 was put to death by taking wrong medicine. The Emperor Mu Tsung also 
 believed in Taoism, but got ill by eatiing 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 pre- 
 carious condition. 
 
 Passing by the flve dynasties (907-960) on to the first emperor of the 
 Sung dynasty (960-1360) who, cherishing the people and having good 
 government, stej:) by step prospered — when Jen Tsung ruled he reverenced 
 heaven and cared for the people; he reformed the punishment and lightened
 
 253 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 every home. Such government may be called 
 
 benevolent. „ tt- j^i -, ■ ■ 
 
 Afterward there arose the troubles of Kin, when the good ministers 
 were destroyed by cliques, and the Sang dynasty moved to the south of 
 
 When the Mongol dynasty (A. D. 12G0-1368) arose, it believed in and 
 employed Confucian methods, and all under heaven was in order. In the 
 timeof Jen Chung the names of the philosophers, Chow and Cheng (of the 
 Sung dynasty), were placed in the Confucian temples to be sacriticed 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 Emperor served the Empress Dowager with filial pity, 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 pleasure. He prac- 
 ticed the methods of Western priests (Buddhists) to regulate the health, and 
 had no heart for matters of state. 
 
 When the first emperor of the Ming dynasty (A. D. 1.368-1614) arose and 
 reformed the religion and ritual of the empire, he called it the great, peace- 
 ful dynasty. The pity was that he selected Buddhistpriests 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 
 Ten Tsung, too, employed Yen Sung, who only occupied himself in worship. 
 Hi Tsung employed Ni Ngan, who defamed the royal and the good, and the 
 dynasty failed. These are the evidences of the value of Confucianism in 
 every age. 
 
 But in our present dynasty worship and religion have been wisely regu- 
 lated, and the government is in fine order; noble ministers and able officers 
 have followed 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 impartiality 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. 
 
 EACH IN HIS OWN LITTLE WELL. 
 
 SWAMI VIVEKANANADA OF BOMBAY. 
 
 Just before the close of the afternoon session the chairman 
 called on Swami Vivekananda, a monk of the Brahmo-Somaj, 
 for remarks. He was enthusiastically received and responded 
 with a little speech. 
 
 If you will be kind to me, if you will have the patience to listen to it, I 
 will tell you a little story. You have heard the eloquent speaker who has 
 just finished say, " Let us cease from abusing each other," and he was very 
 sorry that there should be always so much variance. 
 
 But I think I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause 
 of this variance. The frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long 
 time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small 
 frog. Of course the evolutionists were not there then to tell us whether the
 
 SERVICE OF THE SCIENCE OF RELIGIONS. 259 
 
 frog lost its eyes or not, but, for our story's sake, we must take it for 
 granted that it had its eyes, and that it every day cleansed the waters of 
 all the worms and bacilli that lived in it with an energy that would give 
 credit to our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became 
 a little slick and fat — perhaps as much as myself. Well, one day another 
 frog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well. 
 
 " Whence are you from? " 
 
 " I'm from the sea." 
 
 " The sea; how big is that? Is it as big as my well? " and he took a leap 
 from one side of the well to the other. 
 
 " My friend," says the frog of the sea, " how do you compare the sea with 
 your little well?" 
 
 Then the frog took another leap and asked: " Is your sea so big? " 
 
 " What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well." 
 
 " Well, then," said the frog of the well, " nothing can be bigger than my 
 well ; there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn 
 him out." 
 
 That has been the difficulty all the while. 
 
 I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that 
 the whole world is my well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks 
 the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and 
 thinks the whole world that. I have to thank you of America for the great 
 attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of 
 ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish 
 your purpose. 
 
 SERVICE OF THE SCIENCE OF RELIGIONS TO 
 THE CAUSE OF RELIGIOUS UNITY. 
 
 MAinVIN-MAEIE SNELL. 
 
 Religion is a universal fact of human experience. There are people 
 without gods, without sacred books, without sacraments, without doctrines, 
 if you will — but none without religion. There is in every human breast an 
 instinct which reaches outward and upward 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 person and the surrounding universe. 
 
 Everything that exists or can exist may be an object of religious devo- 
 tion, for everything is in some sense a compendium of the World-All and a 
 symbol of creative power, preserving wisdom and transforming providence. 
 In all the world, from pole to pole, and from ocean to ocean, there lives not 
 one single unperverted human 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 relationship by sacrifice and service. Superimposed upon this uni- 
 versal 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 agreement 
 can be definitely ascertained, as well as the exact significance and cause of 
 the real or apparent divergencies from a common standard, either in the 
 way of omission or addition, the way will be prepared for the complete 
 annihilation of vital religious differences, and the placing of the facts and 
 principles of religions upon an absolutely inexpungable basis. 
 
 It can not be too much insisted upon that for a perfect realization of the
 
 200 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 highest a«velopment and firmest demonstration of religion, the perfection 
 of the science of rehgions is an indispensable condition. Of this fact the 
 friends of the World's Parliament of Religions cannot permit themselves 
 to doubt; for the parliament itself is a vast hierological museum, a work- 
 inf' 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 everyone who 
 attends its sessions is taking the first 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 religious dis- 
 union are in a large proportion of cases the result of gross misconceptions 
 of the true character of the rival creeds or cults. The anti-Catholic, anti- 
 Mormon, and anti-Semitic agitations in Christendom, and the highly colored 
 pictures of heathen degradation in which a certain class of foreign mission- 
 aries indulge, are significant illustrations of the malignant results of religioue 
 ignorance. 
 
 No one would hate or despise the Catholic Church who knew its teach- 
 ings and practices as they really are; no one would exclude the Church {.f 
 the Latter Day Saints from the family of the world's religions 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 superstition 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 per- 
 ceive the divine truths upon which they rest. 
 
 Those who aspire to prepare themselves to give intelligent assistance to 
 the cause of religious unity by a scientific study of religions should bear in 
 mind the following rules: 
 
 1. An impartial collection and examination of data regarding all religions 
 without distinction is of primary importance. 
 
 2. Itia not necessary, however, 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 
 religion or none. 
 
 4. The facts collected must be studied in due chronological order, and it is not 
 legitimate to construct a history of religions based upon a study of contemporary 
 cults without regard to history. 
 
 5. Kesemblances in nomenclature, in beliefs, or in customs must not be too 
 hastily accepted as conclusive evidence of the special relationship between sys- 
 tems- 
 
 6. Resemblances in ceremonial details must not be considered as necessarily 
 indicating any fundamental similarity or Icinship. 
 
 7. Wliena.ny religion or any one of its constituent elements appears to be 
 absurd and false, consider that this appearance may result from an error as to 
 the facts in the case, or misunderstanding of the true siyniflcance of those facts. 
 
 I believe it to be most certain that every positive element in every 
 religion derives its being from the trvith it embodies of the utility of the 
 truth which it subserves; and that every doctrine and practice, especially 
 those which are most widespread, have their roots deep down in the human 
 nature common to us all, and while it may be perfected or superseded it 
 can in no case be permanently eliminated. 
 
 It is not necessary to be a scientist by profession in order to give intel- 
 ligent study to the science of religions. The professional hierologist ana- 
 lyzes and compares religions from a pure love of his science; the man of 
 broadening culture and thought may study them with the practical end of 
 a fuller self-enlightenment regarding his duties to God and the race; and 
 the intelligent religious partisan may seek to master, by means of his science, 
 the secret of religious variations, and to obtain such a knowledge of the 
 relation of other religious systems to his own, their points of agreement and
 
 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 2G1 
 
 contradiction, and their historic contact as will enable him to carry on a 
 very powerful and fruitful propaganda. 
 
 Missionary work, in particular, can not dispense with this science. I do 
 not refer to Christian missions exclusively, but to missionary work in 
 general, whoever be its objects and whatever its aims, and whether it be 
 Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, or Moslem. Every missionary training 
 school should be a college of comparative religion. It should be realized 
 that ignorance and prejudice in the propagandist are as great obstacles to 
 the spread of any religion as the same qualities in those whom it seeks to 
 win, and that the first requisite to successful missionary work is a knowl- 
 edge of the truths and beauties of the existing religion, that they may be 
 used as a point d'appui for the sjjecial arguments and claims of that with 
 which it is desired to replace it. 
 
 However, whatever may be the motives of the scientist, the truthseeker, 
 and the propagandist, 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 aspiration. Into this 
 union of religious science all men can enter — Catholics. Protestants, Jews, 
 Mormons, Mohammedans, Hindus, Buddhists, 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 impar- 
 tial inquiry and to obtain a free and appreciative audience for all that they 
 can say on their own behalf. 
 
 A great deal has been said about the union of science and religion; 
 much more important is the union of all men in science and religion, of 
 which that most remarkable of all human assemblies which this building 
 now shelters is a glorious illustration. 
 
 And may this union become ever closer until, under the aBgis of the true 
 brotherhood, that demands no surrender of cherished beliefs, but only an 
 opening of the mind and heart upon a broader horizon, the whole race of 
 mankind shall conscientiously and lovingly work together in the quest or 
 illustration of the highest truth and in the teaching and fulfillment of the 
 supremest duty. 
 
 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 J. A. S. GRANT (bey) OF CAIRO, EGYPT. 
 
 Manetho, an ancient Egyptian priest and historian, writing 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 hieroglyphic archives in the temple libraries, 
 was divided into a mythical period and a historical period. These periods 
 were also subdivided into dynasties. The mythical period had four dynas- 
 ties 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.
 
 262 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Here, then, is Mar.ctho's way of putting it: 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 
 
 I. THE MYTHICAL PERIOD. 
 
 A i 1st Dynasty-A Dynasty of Gods (Elohim in Hebrew), as rulers, probably 
 Kind over nature and the lower creation. 
 
 of \ 2d Dynasty— A Dynasty of Gods, as rulers over a higher creation, as Man. 
 Evolu- I 3d Dynasty— A Dynasty of Demi-Gods, as rulers over Man as a race, 
 tion. I 4th Dynasty-A Dynasty of Prehistoric Kings, as rulers over communi- 
 l. ties of men. 
 
 We see in this profane history of Manetho transitions that he himself 
 tloes not explain, but that now are made clear by the latest light thrown on 
 the religion of the ancient Egyptians. Let me then give you a running 
 commentary on the above. 
 
 The first dynasty, that lasted a great many Sothic Cycles, was taken up 
 with the creation of the world under the Gods (Elohim). 
 
 The second dynasty probably became so through some great change 
 that took place on the creation of man. The Gods now were ruling over 
 while at the same time they had free intercourse with man. 
 
 Hero Manetho's division of his history might have stopped, and if so we 
 should have had at the present day the second dynasty of the mythical 
 period still continuing, i. e., God ruling over and having free intercourse 
 with unf alien man; but no, it was destined otherwise. 
 
 It appears, from some cause unrecorded by Manetho, that the Gods 
 were obliged to withdraw themselves from man and have no further inter- 
 course with him. Man, however, being naturally religious, was ill at ease, 
 owing to the withdrawal of his Gods. And the Gods had pity on him, so, 
 as he could no more raise himself to the level of the Gods, the Gods lowered 
 themselves by partaking of his nature, and thus they came again to the 
 earth to rule over and have friendly intercourse with man. 
 
 This introduces us to the third dynasty, or dynasty of Demi-Gods 
 This was taught to the people thus: The Sky was deified and called Nut, a 
 goddess, while the Earth was deified and called Seb, a god. Seb and Nut 
 now appear as husband and wife, and have a large family of sons and 
 daughters, who are partly terrestrial and partly celestial, sharing the 
 natures of father and mother. This is the family of Demi-Gods that intro- 
 duces the third dynasty of Manetho's mythical period. The names of the 
 more prominent among them are Osiris (male), Isis (female). Set (male), 
 Nephthys (female). 
 
 This part of the myth has been put into verse by a Scottish bard, thus: 
 
 A new relationship, yet old, 
 In ancient story hath been told: 
 The Sky's descent to meet the Earth, 
 And shower its blessings on each tiearth. 
 its azure hue beams on its face, 
 While o'er the earth in close embrace 
 It bends and holds with loving clasp 
 The rounded globe within its grasp. 
 Could we discern these moveniientsmade 
 As zephyrs waft o'er hill and glade 
 The loving whispers sent from heaven, 
 Of peace on earth, of sins forgiven; 
 We might not think the Egyptians wrong 
 Who led the Sky in nuptial song 
 The Earth to wed; and thus began 
 A race, at once both God and Man 
 (The offspring of this union fair) 
 On Earth to dwell, for man to care. 
 
 In this family of Demi-Gods, Osiris took the lead and ruled. He mar- 
 ried his sister, Iris, but we do not read of their having any children during 
 their married life. Osiris was the personification of eveaything good. He 
 and his brothers and sisters had their seat of government at Abydos, in 
 Upper Egypt; but Osiris was always going on journeys to do his people 
 good, and more especially to teach them agriculture. They were a happy
 
 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 263 
 
 family and lived in paradise — peace and concord — until undue ambition on 
 the part of Set made him conspire against his brother Osiris and kill him. 
 Set now becomes the personification of Satan, or the evil one, and usurped 
 the place of Osiris. This is a parallel of the apocalyptic rebellion in heaven 
 and the rule of Satan on the earth. Isis was in great distress and wept 
 over the dead body of her husband, and while thus engaged she became 
 miraculously pregnant and in due time gave birth to Horus, who was des- 
 tined to wage war against Set and to overcome him. Being Demi-Gods, 
 however, neither the one nor the other could be annihilated; so Seb came 
 and arbitrated between them, and decided that they both should have place 
 and power. This was by way of explaining the continuance of good and 
 evil on the earth. Although Osiris was killed, in so far as hia earthly body 
 was concerned, yet he appears in the nether world as judge of the dead, 
 and Horus, his son, is represented in the world of spirits introducing the 
 justified ones to his father. Here Osiris takes the place of the Christian 
 Messiah, and is offered up as a sacrifice for sin. 
 
 The Osirian myth was also allegorically explained by a solar myth. 
 Osiris, after his death, became " the sun of the night," and appeared no 
 more upon the earth in his own person, but in that of his son Horus, who 
 was "the sun at sunrise,"' as the dispeller of darkness — to bring light and 
 life to the whole world, and to destroy the power of Set. Osiris, after his 
 death, was Ra, the sun of the day. Isis, the wife of Osiris, was the moon 
 goddess, and all the Pharaohs were deified and looked upon as the person- 
 ification of Ra upon the earth. (Here we have the origin of the divine 
 right of kings.) 
 
 The belief in the death of Osiris on account of sin was the only atoning 
 sacrifice in the Egyptian religion. All the other sacrifices were sacrifices 
 of thanksgiving, in which they offered to the Gods flowers, fruits, meat, and 
 drink; for they thought the gods had need of such things, as the Egyptians 
 believed spiritual beings lived on the sjjiritual essences of material things. 
 
 Besides these beliefs, the ancient Egyptians had a moral code in which 
 not one of the Christian virtues is forgotten — piety, charity, sobriety, gen- 
 tleness, self-command in. word and action, chastity, the protection of the. 
 weak, benevolence toward the needy, deference to superiors, respect for 
 property — in its minutest details, etc. 
 
 Osiris, Isis, and Horus, i. e., father, mother, and son, were worshiped 
 universally as a triad; and Isis, so frequently represented with Horus as a 
 suckling child on her knee, gave origin to the combination of the Madonna 
 and Infant on her knee in the Christian religion. 
 
 This worship of the Madonna was a cunning device to gain over the 
 pagans to Christianity, who saw in their Isis or Ashtaroth, as the case 
 might be. (The Ptolemies, about four centuries before this, adopted a 
 similar trick to unite the Egyptians and Greeks in their 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 con- 
 sisted of three parts: (1), Sahoo, the fleshy, substantial body — the mummi- 
 fied body; (2j, Ka, the double. It was the exact counterpart of the sub- 
 stantial body, only it was spiritual and could not be seen. It was an intel- 
 ligence that permeated all through the body and guided its different physi- 
 cal functions, such as digestion, etc. It corresponded to what we call " the 
 physical life." (3), Ba. The Ba corresponds to our soul, or, rather, spirit; 
 that part of our nature which fits us for union with God. 
 
 When the Sahoo died the Ka and the Ba continued to live, but separated 
 from each other. The Ba, after the death of the body, took flight from this 
 earth to go to the judgment hall of Osiris in Armenia, there to be judged as 
 to the deeds done in the body, whether they had been good or bad. The 
 justified soul was admitted into the presence of Osiris, and made daily
 
 2G4 THE i PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 progress in the celestial life, as represented by different heavenly mansions, 
 which the soul entered by successive gates, if it could pronounce the special 
 prayers necessary for opening these gates. 
 
 There were still obstacles in the path, but these were easily overcome 
 by the soul assuming the form of the Deity. And, in fact, the justified 
 soul is always called "the Osiris," or Ba-aa, the great one, i. e., it became 
 assimilated to the great and good God. The Ba was generally represented 
 as a hawk with a human head (the hawk was the emblem of Horus); as if 
 the seat of the soul was in the head, which was furnished 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 ele- 
 vated at right angles at the elbows. This was to indicate that the 
 spiritual body was exactly the same in every way as the natural body, 
 just as one arm is like the 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 disembodied, 
 and more particularly in the tomb, where it could rest in the mummy (it 
 was for this very purpose that the Egyptians preserved the dead body), or 
 in the portrait statues placed for it in the antechamber of the tomb. The 
 Egyptians believed that the Ka could rest also in portrait statues. This 
 must have been a great consolation to the friends of those whose bodies had 
 been lost at sea or in any other way that prevented their being embalmed 
 ai^d preserved. The Ka continued to hunger and thirst, to be subject to 
 fatigue, etc., just as when in the body, and it had to live on the spiritual 
 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 Ka and the Ba, for we 
 occasionally find the Ba visiting the mummy in the tomb where the Ka 
 dwells, and again we have a divinity called Neheb-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 and tortures and devour- 
 ing fire till it succumbed and was ultimately annihilated; the less guilty Ba 
 was 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 to it was the 
 dining-hall, where it served as a constant reminder of 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 con- 
 templation 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 are 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 different phases 
 of the same deity ; for the sun remains the same sun after sunset as it was 
 before sunset, and all the Egyptians must have known this. You may get 
 people even now-a-days to believe in the coat of Treves, the Veronica, the 
 liquifying of St. Januarius' blood, and a thousand other cunningly devised 
 fables, that do not lead to higher beliefs, but rather detract from such 
 beliefs when they exist. The ancient Egyptians, however, although accused 
 of animal worship, saw in these animals attributes of their one nameless 
 God, and originally 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 Egypt were at
 
 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 265 
 
 i\.st mere symbols, but became by the inherent curse of idolatry real 
 objects of worship. Maspero 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 truth is evidently a very dangerous 
 proceeding, as we learn from past history, The ancient Egyptians figured 
 the attributes of their one God, and in due time each of these figures was 
 worshiped as a separate deity. This constituted idolatry, which led to the 
 degradation of the Egyptians and disintegration of their power. The 
 Elohim of the Hebrews was exactly the same as the gods of the Egyptians, 
 i. e., a unity in plurality and vice versa, and 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 Egyptian, as in almost all known relig- 
 ions, a power behind all the powers of nature was recognized and was fre- 
 quently mentioned in the texts. But to this power no temple was ever 
 raised. " He was never graven in stone. His shrine was never found with 
 painted figures. He had neither ministrants nor offering." 
 
 The Jehovah of the Hebrews would correspond to the Egyptian Osiris. 
 Jehovah is more particularly the divine ruler of the Hebrews, while Osiris 
 was the divine ruler more particularly over Egypt and the Egyptians, hav- 
 ing his seat of government in Egypt. These two names were held so sacred 
 that they were never pronounced, and in the ancient Egyptian religion this 
 superstition was carried to such an extent that sculptor and scribe always 
 spelled the name Osiris backwards, i. e., instead of "As-ari," made it "Ari-as." 
 
 We don't know, I believe, how Jehovah should be spelled or pro- 
 nounced, and therefore we do not know its etymology; but some scholars 
 trace it through the Phoenician, to an appellation for the sun. Isow Osiris 
 was a solar deity, and his name, "As-ari," means " the enthroned 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 seasons for the benefit of 
 man. 
 
 Jehovah-Elohim in the Hebreve reUgion would be Osiris-Ra in the 
 Egyptian mythology. Elohim created the heavens and the earth, in the 
 Hebrew religion, while Ra, in Egyptian mythology, received materials from 
 Phthah to create the world with. Ra v as the creative principle of Phthah. 
 Phthah was the originator of all things, but he worked visibly through Ra, 
 just as, in the case of the Christian religion, God created all things through 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 " The search for knowledge is only good when it is the seeking for truth, 
 and truth valuable only when it leads to duty, right, and God. Sleepless 
 vigilance is the price of liberty. What man knows of God is from Christ, 
 who was able to reveal the one to the other, because He partook of the 
 nature of each. Christ's doctrine of a Godhead is that of One whose unity 
 is not the unity of a monad but of an organism. That God could be God 
 in the attributes which our modern consciousness ascribes to him,i. e., that 
 He coald be ethical, social, and paternal, involves the necessity of His 
 nature containing subject and object, both of knowledge and feeling; in 
 other words, of a subdivision of His essence into what we may speak of as 
 persons." 
 
 Summary: In the ancient Egyptian religion, therefore, we have clearly 
 depicted to us an unnamed almighty Deity, who is uncreated and self -exist- 
 ent. He is at first -represented by a battle-ax, and afterward by a dwarf- 
 ish, embryonic-looking human figure, and as such he supplied materials 
 (pi'otolasm) 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 deliver and do good to man. He, however, was sacrificed, hav- 
 ing been killed by the Evil Principle, but only in as far as his human body
 
 266 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 himself on the earth as the sun at sunrise to dispel darkness 
 and destroy the works of the wicked one. 
 
 The ancient Egyptian hope, both for time and for eternity, was founded on 
 faith in the Osirian myth and conformity to the code of morals laid down in 
 the religious books. After death the condemned soul, according to the enor- 
 mity of ''its guilt, was allowed a second probation or had such punishment 
 intlicted as ultimately to end in annihilation; the justified soul was assimi- 
 lated into Osiris, dwelt in his presence, and obeyed his commands, being 
 helped by angelic servants (ushabtioo) in carrying on the mystic husbandry. 
 The justified soul had to take part in the daily celestial work, and had 
 daily to acquire more knowledge and wisdom to help it in its progress 
 through the mansions of the blest. 
 
 The illustrations for this paper graphically explain the influence the 
 ancient Egyptian religion exerted over the religions that came in contact 
 with it, more particularly by way of grafting a great deal of its symbolism 
 on those religions; and many of our biblical expressions are 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 middle fingers 
 were used as a talisman by the ancient Egyptians to avert the evil eye. It 
 was grafted on to the Christian religion as the symbol for conferring a 
 divine blessing. The winged disk of the sun that overshadowed the gate- 
 ways of the Egyptian temples and that represented the overruling Provi- 
 dence was called by the Greeks the Agathodaemoh, and the Messiah is 
 referred to in the Bible as the Sun of Righteousness, rising with heahng in 
 His wings. 
 
 Besides these similarities in symbolism between the Egyptian mythology 
 and other religions, mention might also be made of the sameness in plan of 
 an Egyptian temple and the tabernacle of the Israelites and temple of 
 Solomon. There is also a singular similarity between the cherubim and the 
 winged Isis and Nephthys protecting Horus. 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 when it was hatched. 
 
 The Pharaoh (who was always deified), like the 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 oblation to the Deity but through 
 the deified King. The temple processions and carrying of shrines, with 
 symbols of gods in them, formed 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 bless- 
 ing on the campaign. The " immaculate conception " was accepted by the 
 ancient Egyptians without a dissenting voice: for Isis was a goddess, and, 
 therefore, immaculate, and her conception of Horus was miraculous. 
 
 Many of the Mohammedan social and religious customs are decidedly 
 ancient Egyptian in their origin. This can easily be accounted for from 
 the fact that the Prophet Mohammed had a Koptic (descended from 
 the ancient Egyptian) scribe (the Prophet himself was illiterate, for he 
 could neither read nor write) as well as a Koptic wife, who must have 
 exerted some influence over him; but apart from this we must not forget 
 that after the Mohammedan conquest of Egypt a large proportion of the 
 half-Christianized Egyptians were compelled (nolens volens) to become 
 Moslems, and as there was no change of heart, they still clung to as many
 
 GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF CONFUCIANISM. 267 
 
 of their religious customs and superstitious beliefs as they dared to, and 
 in this respect the Mohammedan faith is very elastic. 
 
 Much more might have been written on this subject, and by a more 
 competent hand than mine, but suflicient, I hope, has been brought to 
 light to show the importance of a careful study of the dead religions that 
 probably had a revelation from God as their basis, for we believe that God 
 never left Himself without a witness. 
 
 THE GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF CONFU- 
 CIANISM. 
 
 DR. ERNST FABER OF SHANGHAI. 
 
 He said that he did not expect Chinese scholars to accept his 
 exposition of the doctrines of Confucius without scrutinizing 
 the reasons which lead up to it. The first part of Dr. Faber's 
 address was devoted to the period of Chinese life before Con- 
 fucius. He gave a historical resume of the birth and growth 
 of Confucianism, and after touching upon the difiPerent schools 
 he treated exhaustively of modern Confucianism : 
 
 In order to show the greater contrast in modem China and its Confu- 
 cianism compared with China in the times of Confucius ana Mencius and 
 their teachings, 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 Con- 
 fucius would not accept congratulations until he had learned the cause of 
 the success. 
 
 He found that the spread of Confucianism was brought about, not by 
 the peaceful attraction of neighboring states, but by bloody wars and sup- 
 pression. The constitution of the state was changed and ruins were every- 
 where. He noticed 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 mismanaged, and that the money 
 which belonged to the poor found its way into the pockets of the respecta- 
 ble managers dressed in long silk robes. 
 
 There had been changes in dress which chilled the hearts of Confucius 
 and Mencius. They sighed when they saw women with distorted feet and 
 men wearing queues. As they wandered along they found that sacrifices 
 were made at graves, and that everyone 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 Con- 
 fucius; "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 five volumes, 
 worthy to be transmitted to after ages. Is nothing left of my spirit among 
 the myriads of scholars professing to be my followers ? 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
 
 •268 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 refused 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 charitable works. 
 
 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 Pekin, the widespread 
 superstition of spiritism, the worship of animals, fortune-telling, excesses 
 and abuses in ancestral worship, theatrical performances, dragon festivals, 
 idol processions and displays in the street, infanticide, prostitution, retri- 
 bution made a prominent move in morals, codification of penal law, publi- 
 cation 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 movmg on quickly even against wind 
 and tide. "Oh, my little children," said Confucius, "all ye w^ho 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, learn what they have 
 good and correct their evil by what you have better. This is my meaniiag 
 of the great principle of reciprocity." 
 
 THE SOCIAL OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS FEELING. 
 
 PRINCE SERGE WOLKONSKY OF RUSSIA. 
 
 It is the custom at the congresses that whenever a speaker appears on 
 the stage he should be introduced as the representative either of some 
 government, or some nationality, or of some association, or of some institu- 
 tion, or of any kind of collective unity that absorbs his individuality, and 
 classifies him at once in one of the great divisions of humanity. 
 
 My name to-night has not been put in connection with any of these 
 classifications and it is quite 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 I am not. Why not? I'll tell you. 
 Some weeks ago I had the honor of speakmg in this same hall on some 
 educational subjects. After I had finished, several persons came to me to 
 express their feelings of sympathy. I recollect with a particular thought 
 of thankfulness the good faces of three colored men, who came with out- 
 stretched hands and said: 
 
 "We want to thank you because we ike your ideas of humanity and of 
 internationality — we like them." 
 
 _ If I mention the fact it is not because I gather any selfish satisfaction 
 in doing so, but because I feel happy to live at a time when the advance-
 
 THE SOCIAL OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS FEELING. 269 
 
 ment of inventions and ideas made such a fact possible as that of a stranger's 
 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 lady came to me with expression of greatest 
 astonishment, and said she was so much surprised to hear such ideas from 
 a Russian. 
 
 " Why 8o ? " I asked her. 
 
 " Because I always thought these ideas were American." 
 
 "American ideas? No, madam; these ideas are as little American as 
 tkey are Russian. They are human ideas, madam, and if you are a human 
 creature you must not be astonished — you have no right to be astonished — 
 that another human creature spoke to you a language 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 to- 
 night 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 counti'y, and 
 if it does not fill our heart with an ardent wish that everyone's country 
 should be loved by everyone. 
 
 Now remains a last question: Am I representative of one particular 
 religion? I am not, for if I were, I would bring here words of division, 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 president 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 
 sufficient title for deserving your attention. 
 
 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 feel- 
 ing; 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 conquests, although many cen- 
 turies ago the Latin poet said that " Primus in orbe deos fecit timer." A 
 remarkable evolution, indeed, 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 cleve/ 
 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 not 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 putritied elements which nourish their roots? 
 Now, you see what a wrong way we may take sometimes in investigating 
 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 and 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
 
 270 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 times that were accomplished under prescriptions of religion. To this W6 
 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 pre- 
 historic times when everything was but confusion and in a state of forma- 
 tion. 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 religion inspire a persecution. It 
 did inspire those who were persecuted, but not those who did persecute. 
 What is it that in a persecution is the product of religious feeling? Humil- 
 ity, indulgence, pardon, patience, heroism, martyrdom; all the rest that 
 constitutes the active elements of a persecution is not the work of religion; 
 martyrization, torture, cruelty, intolerance, are the work of politics; it is 
 authority that chastises insubordination, and the fact that authorities 
 throughout history have been often sincerely persuaded that they acted 
 " ad majorem Dei gloriam " is but a poor excuse for them, an excuse that in 
 itself includes a crime. 
 
 But 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 theisame level of competence? No scientific, no 
 artistic, no political, no other religious subject but the subject we selected; 
 that feeling of our common human nothingness in presence of that unknown 
 but existing being before whom we are all equal; who holds vis under the 
 control of those laws of nature that we are free to discover and to study, 
 but can not transgress without succumbing to their inexorable changeless- 
 ness, and who regulates our acts by having impressed upon each of us the 
 refiection of Himself through that sensitive instrument, the human con- 
 science. 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 divi- 
 sions 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 happiness, obeying our conscience 
 and forgetting that such things exist as Catholic or Buddhist or Lutheran 
 or Mohammedan. Let every one keep those divisions each one for himself,
 
 THE BUDDHISM OF SI AM. 271 
 
 and not classify the others; if some one does not classify himself, and if he 
 does not care to be classitied at all, then let him alone. You wont be 
 able to erase him from the fj^reat class of humanity to which he belonf^s as 
 well as you. He will fultill his human duties under the impulse of his con- 
 science as well as yuu, 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 happi- 
 ness he has deserved in making others hajjpy. 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 whom we all desire to exist, that this God 
 should be satisfied with our acts. And after this, as the poet says: 
 
 For forms of faith let foolish zealots fight, 
 He cau't be wrong whose life is in the right. 
 
 Some years ago an English preacher said that times had come when we 
 should not any more ask a man, " How do you believe? '' but " Do you 
 believe? " Now, we think times have come when we must neither ask a 
 man: " How do you believe? " nor " Do you believe? " but " Do you want to 
 believe? " And the answer will be the most unanimous cheer that human- 
 ity has ever uttered. 
 
 The Spanish writer. Count Castlar, says somewhere: "Christianity, 
 like light, has many colors." We don't pretend to be broader than Chris- 
 tianity, but if Ckristianity is broad it is because every shadowing of the 
 Christian rainbow teaches us that humanity, like light, has many colors, 
 and, pardon me the joke in serious matters, in this country, you know, you 
 have proved that humanity had many "colors." 
 
 Yes, Christianity is broad because it teaches us to accept and not to 
 exclude. If only all of us would remember this principle the ridiculous 
 word of " religion of the future '" would disappear once and forever. Of 
 course, as long as you will consider that religion consists in forms of wor- 
 shiping 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 till yourself with the idea that religion 
 is the synthesis of your beliefs in those prescriptions that regulate your 
 acts toward other men, you will give up your wanderings in search of new 
 ways of individual salvation, and you will 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. 
 
 THE BUDDHISM OF SIAM. 
 
 H. R. H. PRINCE CHANDEADIT CHODHAEHARN. 
 
 Buddhism, as it exists in Siam, teaches that all things are made up 
 from the Dharma, a Sanskrit term meaning the " essence of nature." The 
 Dharma presents the three following phenomena, which generally exist in 
 every being : (1) The accomplishment of eternal evolution ; (2) sorrow and 
 suffering according 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 exist for eternity ; they are without begin- 
 ning and without end ; the one represents the world and the corporeal 
 parts of man, and the other the mind of man. The three phenomena com- 
 bined are the fact(jrs for molding forms and creating sensations. The 
 waves of the ocean are formed but of water, and the various shapes they 
 take are dependent upon the degree of motion in the water ; in similar 
 manner the Dharma represents the universe, and varies according to the
 
 272 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. " 
 
 degree of evolution accomplished within it. Matter is called in the Pal' 
 " Rupa," and spirit " Nama." Everything in the universe is made up of 
 Rupa and Nama, or matter and spirit, as already stated. The difference 
 between all material things, as seen outwardly, depends upon the degree oi 
 evolution that is inherent to matter ; and the ditference 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 of the one great eternal truth, 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 appear- 
 ances such as man, animal, deva, or any other beings that are also but 
 modified spirits and matter. Man becomes, therefore, conscious of separate 
 existence. But all outward forms, man himself included, are made to live, 
 or to last for a short space of time only. They are soon to be destroyed 
 and re-created again and again by an eternal evolution. He is first body 
 and spirit but, through ignorance of the fact that all is Dharma and of 
 that which is good and evil, his spirit may become impressed with evil 
 temptation. Thus, for instance, he may desire certain things with that 
 force peculiar to a tiger, whose spirit is modified by craving for lust and 
 anger. In such a case he will be continually adopting, directly or indirectly, 
 in his own life, the wills and acts of that tiger and thereby is himself that 
 animal in spirit and soul. Yet outwardly he appears to be a man, and is as 
 yet unconscious of the fact that his spu-it has become endowed with the 
 cruelties of the tiger. , , ,. , ^ , j • ^ ^t. 
 
 If this state continues until the body be dissolved or changed into 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 and 
 feelings as those that have appeared in the body of the man before his 
 death, may reappear now to find itself in the body of a tiger suitable to its 
 nature. Thus, so long as man is ignorant of that nature of Dharma and 
 fails to identify that nature, he continues to receive different impressions 
 from beings around him in this universe, thereby sufferings, pains, sorrows, 
 disappointments of all kinds, death. 
 
 If, however, his spirit be impressed with the good qualities that are 
 found in a superior being, such as the deva, for instance, by adopting in 
 his own life the acts and v/ills of that superior being, man becomes spirit- 
 ually that superior being himself, both in nature and soul, even while in 
 his present form. When death puts an end to his physical body a spirit of 
 the very same nature and quality may reappear in the new body of a deva 
 to enjoy a life of happiness, not to be compared to anything that is known 
 in this world. 
 
 However, to all beings alike, whether superior or inferior to ourselves, 
 death is a suffering. It is, therefore, undesirable to be born into any being 
 that is a modification of Dharma, to be sooner or later, again and again, dis- 
 solved by the eternal phenomenon of evolution. The only means by which 
 we are able to free ourselves from sufferings and death is therefore to pos- 
 sess a perfect knowledge of Dharma, and to realize by will and acts that 
 nature only obtainable by adhering to the precepts given by Lord Buddha 
 in the Four Noble Truths. The consciousness of self -being is a delusion, so 
 that, until we are convinced that we ourselves and whatever belongs to our- 
 selves are a mere nothingness, until we have lost the idea or impression that 
 we are men, until that idea be completely annihilated and we have become 
 united to Dharma, we are unable to reach spiritually the state of Nirvana, 
 and that is only obtained when the bodies dissolve both spiritually and 
 physically. So that one should cease all petty longing for personal happi- 
 ness and remember that one life is as hollow as the other, that all is transi- 
 tory and unreal.
 
 ir 
 
 THE BUDDHISM OF SI AM. 273 
 
 The true Buddhist does not mar the purity of his self-denial by lusting 
 after a positive happiness which he himself shall enjoy here or hereafter. 
 Ignorance of Dharma leads to sin, which leads to sorrow; and under these 
 conditions of existence each new birth leaves man ignorant and finite still. 
 What is to be hoped for is the absolute repose of Nirvana, the extinction of 
 our being nothingness. Allow me to give an illustration: A piece of rope 
 is thrown in a dark road; a silly man passing by can not make out what it 
 is. In his natural ignorance the rope appears to be a horrible snake, and 
 immediately creates in him alarm, fright, and suffering. Soon light dwells 
 upon him; he now realizes tnat 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 Merciful 
 and Omniscient Lord Buddha; they point out the path that leads to Nir- 
 vana or to the desirable extinction of self. 
 
 The First Noble Truth is suffering ; it arises from birth, old age, illness, 
 sorrow, death, separation, and from what is loved, association with what is 
 hateful, and in short, the very idea of self in spirit and matters that consti- 
 tute 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 Pah, KamaTanha. If it be for super-sensual 
 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 called Wib- 
 hava Tanha. 
 
 The Third Noble Truth is the extinction of sufferings, which is brought 
 about by the cessation of the three kinds of lust, together with their 
 accompanying evils, which all result directly from ignorance. 
 
 The Fourth Noble Truth is the means of paths that lead to the cessation 
 of lusts and other evils. This Noble Truth is divided into the following 
 eight paths: 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. 
 
 By 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 supjjress them. We 
 are not to forget that we are in this world to suffer; that wherever there is 
 pleasure there is pain, and that, after all, pain and pleasure only exist 
 according to human ideas. 
 
 By right resolutions is meant that it is our imperative duty to act kindly 
 to our fellow-creatures. We are to bear no malice against anybody and 
 never to seek revenge. We are to understand that in reality we exist in 
 flesh and blood only for a short time, and that happiness and sufferings are 
 transient or idealistic, and therefore we should try to control our desires 
 and cravings and endeavor to be good and kind toward our fellow-creatures. 
 
 By right speech is meant that we are always to speak the truth, never 
 to incite one's anger toward others, but always to speak of things useful, 
 and never use harsh words destined to hurt the feelings of others. 
 
 By right acts is meant that we should never harm our fellow-creatures, 
 neither steal, take life, nor commit adultery. Temperance and celibacy are 
 also enjoined.
 
 1 
 
 274 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 By right way of earning a livelihood is meant that we are always to be 
 honest and never to use wrongful or guilty means to attain an end. 
 
 By right efforts is meant that we are to persevere in our endeavors to do 
 good, and to mend our conduct should we ever have strayed from the path 
 
 of virtue. , , -, , , , 
 
 By right meditation is meant that we should always look upon life as 
 being temporary, consider our existence as a source of suffering, and there- 
 fore endeavor always to calm our minds that may be excited by the sense 
 of pleasure or pain. 
 
 Right state of mind is meant that we should be firm in our belief and be 
 strictly indifferent both to the sense or feeling of pleasure and pain. 
 
 It would be out of place here to enter into further details on the Four 
 Noble Truths; it would require too much time. T will, therefore, merely 
 summarize their meanings and say that sorrow and sufferings are mainly 
 due to ignorance, which creates in our ininds lust, anger, and other evils. 
 The extermination of all sorrow and suffering and of all happiness is 
 attained by the eradication of ignorance and its evil consequences, and by 
 replacing it with cultivation, knowledge, contentment, and love. 
 
 Now comes the question, what is good and what is evil? Every act, speech, 
 or thought derived from falsehood, or that which is injurious to others is evil. 
 Every act, speech, or thought derived from truth and that which is not 
 injurious to others is good. Buddhism teaches that lust prompts avarice; 
 anger creates animosity; ignorance produces false ideas. These are called 
 evils because they cause pain. On the other hand, contentment prompts 
 charity; love creates kindness; knowledge produces progressive ideas. 
 These are called good because they give pleasure. 
 
 The teachings of Buddhism on morals are numerous, and are divided 
 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 advan- 
 tage to be obtained in all eternity. For each of these advantages there are 
 recommended numerous paths to be followed by those who aspire to any 
 one of them. I will only quote a few examples: 
 
 To those who aspire to advantages in the present life Buddhism recom- 
 mends intelligence, economy, expenditure suitable to one's income, and asso- 
 ciation with the good. 
 
 To those who aspire to the advantages of the future life are recommended 
 charity, kindness, knowledge of right and wrong. 
 
 To those who wish to enjoy the everlasting advantages in all eternity are 
 recommended purity of conduct, of mind, and of knowledge. 
 
 Allow me now to say a few words on the duties of man toward his wife 
 and family as preached by the Lord Buddha himself to the lay disciples in 
 different discourses, or Suttas, as they are called in Pali. They belong to 
 the group of advantages of present life, 
 
 A good man is characterized by seven qualities. He should not be 
 loaded with faults, he should be free from laziness, he should not boast of his 
 knowledge, he should be truthful, benevolent, content, and should aspire to 
 all that is useful. 
 
 A husband should honor his wife, never insult her, never displease her, 
 make her mistress of the house, and provide for her. On her part, a wife 
 ought to be cheerful toward him when he works, entertain his friends, and 
 care for his dependents, to never do anything he does not wish, to take 
 good care of the wealth he has accumulated, not to be idle, but always 
 cheerful when at work herself. 
 
 Parents in old age expect their children to take care of them, to do all 
 their work and business, to maintain the household, and, after death, 
 to do honor to their remains by being charitable. Parents help their 
 children by preventing them from doing sinful acts, by guiding them in 
 the path of virtue, by educating them, by providing them with husbands 
 and wives suitable to them, by leaving them legacies.
 
 SERIOUS STUDY OF ALL RELIGIONS. 
 
 ■^^^ taught to bear it with patience, and if these are brought on by himself it 
 I^B is his duty to discover their causes and try, if possible, to remedy them. 
 I^B If the causes, however, are not to be found here in this life he must 
 I^K account for them by the wrongs done in his former existence. 
 |9r Temperance is enjoined upon all Buddhists for the reason that the habit 
 
 of using intoxicating things tends to lower the mind to the level of that of 
 an idiot, a madman, or an evil spirit. 
 
 These are some of the doctrines and moralities taught by Buddhism, 
 which I hope will give you an idea of the scope of the Lord Buddha's 
 teachings. In closing this brief paper, I earnestly wish you all, my brother 
 religionists, the enjoyment of long life, happiness, and prosperity. 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF A SERIOUS STUDY OF ALL 
 
 RELIGIONS. 
 
 MRS. ELIZA R. SUNDERLAND, PH. D., OF ANN ARBOR, MICH. 
 
 My thesis bears the impress of the 19th century— the century par excel- 
 lence in scientific research and classification, which has given us the new 
 lessons of the telescope, the spectroscope, and stellar photography; the new 
 earth of geology, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, and zoology, and the new 
 humanity of ethnology, philology, psychology, and hierology. 
 
 But the 19th century is not the high tide of that medieval renaissance 
 which aroused the mind of Europe from its long slumber, hanging in its 
 sky a banner bearing only a mighty interrogation point with the words, "By 
 this sign conquer.'' Under the lead of this 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 monarchies of Europe were 
 asked to give reason why the many should live and toil and die for the few, 
 and modern repviblicanism 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 steam- 
 ship and steam car, telegraph and telephone came as title deeds 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, explain its symbols, describe its 
 rites, sing its hymns, pray its prayers, and, finally, give up its life history of 
 origins and transformations. Such in brief is the work of the 19th 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 religions? 
 What lessons has it to teach? I may answer, first, that the results of hie- 
 rology 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 serious 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 in at least two 
 directions — first, as a means of general, second, as a means of religious 
 culture. Matthew Arnold defines culture as " the acquainting ourselves 
 with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with
 
 276 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the history of the human spirit." This is a 19th century use of the word. 
 
 The Ixomans would have used instead " humanitas," or, with an English 
 plural, " the humanities," to express a corresponding thought. The school- 
 men, adopting the Latin term, limited its application to the languages, 
 literature, history, art, and archeology of Greece and Rome, assuming that 
 thither the world must look for the most enlightening and humanizing 
 influences, and, in their use of the word, contrasting these as human prod- 
 ucts with " divinity " which completed the circle of scholastic knowledge. 
 But the world of the 19th 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 ourselves 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 ^sculus, Sophocles, and Euripides 
 was religious, and no one need hope to penetrate beneath the surface of 
 any of these who has not a sympathetic acquaintance with the religious 
 ideas, myths, and mythologies of the Greeks. Dante's " Divine Comedy " 
 and Milton's "Paradise Lost" are religious poems, to read which intelli- 
 gently one must have an acquaintance with medieval mythology and mod- 
 ern Protestant theology. "Faust " is a religious poem. 
 
 Then there are the great Bibles of the world, the Christian and Jewish, 
 the Mohammedan and Zoroastrian, the Biahman 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. 
 
 He who would be cultured in Matthew Arnold's sense of being acquainted 
 with the history of the human spirit must know these books, and this 
 means a patient, careful study of the growth and development 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 liturgy 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 it is itself, there- 
 fore, 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 histoi'y; it has founded and over- 
 thrown 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 persecutions. 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 underly- 
 ing it is thereby obscuring the hidden causes which alone can 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
 
 SERIOUS STUDY OF ALL RELIGIONS. 277 
 
 ^s of sphinxes? What mean these sphinxes and the pyramids, the rock- 
 ,,9wn temple-tombs and the obelisks of ancient Egyptian art? Why the 
 low, earth-loving Greek temple, with all its beauty and adornment external? 
 What is the central thought in Greek sculpture? Why does the medieval 
 cathedral climb heavenward itself, 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 can not be mastered in 
 their full depths of meaning save by one who knows something of the relig- 
 ious 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 formulate what the heart of man has felt after and felt. 
 
 Let a student set himself the task of becoming intelligent concerning 
 the philosophic speculations of the world, and he will soon tind that among 
 all peoples the earliest speculations have been of a 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. Dr. Pfleiderer shows in his " Philosophy 
 of Religion on the Basis of Its History": 
 
 There could have been no distinct philosophy of religion in the ancient world, 
 because nowhere did religion appear as an independont fact, clearly distinguished 
 alike from politics, art, and science. This condition was first fulfillf^d in Chris- 
 tianity. 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 antischolastic philosophy of the renaissance, its real 
 beginnings are to be found not earlier than the 18th century. But what a 
 magnificent array of names in the two and a quarter centuries since 
 Spinoza wrote his theologico-political treatise in 1670. Spinoza, Leibnitz, 
 Lessing, Kant, Herder, Goethe, Fichte, Schleiemacher, Schelling, Hegel, 
 and, if we would follow the tendencies of philosophic religious thought in 
 the present day, Fauerbach, Comte, Strauss, Mill, Spencer, Matthew 
 Arnold, Herman Schopenhauer, Von Hartman, Lotze, Edward Caird, John 
 Caird, 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 preliminary acquaintance with hierology through the careful, pains- 
 taking, conscientious work in the study of different religions, as has been 
 made by such scholars as Max Muller, C. P. Tiele, Knenan, Ernest Renan, 
 Albert Reville, Professor Robertson Smith, Renouf, La Saussaye, and La 
 Sayce. 
 
 If religious thought and feeling is thus bound up with the literature, 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 circles. 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
 
 278 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 is only ethics touched with emotion; another that religion and ethics are 
 two distinct things which have no necessary relation to each other, and 
 still others who maintain that there is no high and persistent moral life 
 possible without the sanctions of religion, and no high and worthy religion 
 possible without an accompanying high morality; that, whatever may be 
 true in low conditions of civilization, any religion adapted to high civiliza- 
 tions must be ethical, and any ethical precepts or principles which are to 
 helpfully control 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. 
 
 C. P. Tiele, from his study in this field concludes that though differing 
 greatly among themselves in all 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 with 
 religious doctrines, and the old mythologies are modified in them. Ethical 
 attributes are ascribed to the gods, especially the highest. Later, but only 
 in the higher nature religions, ethical as well as intellectual abstractions 
 are personified and worshiped as divine beings. If, however, the ethical 
 elements acquire the upper hand, so that they become the predominating 
 principle, then the nature religion dies and the way is prepared for an 
 ethical religious doctrine, i. e., a doctrine of salvation. 
 
 The ethical religions include all the great historic religions and are 
 divided into national, or particularistic, and universalistic. The latter, three 
 in number, are the dominant religions in the world to-day. Of these Islam 
 has emphasized the religious side— the absolute sovereignty of God, 
 opposing to it the nothingness of man; Buddhism neglects the divine, 
 preaching the salvation of man from the miseries of existence through 
 the power of his own self-renunciation. Christianity, in its Founder, did full 
 justice to both sides, the divine and the human. If the greatest command- 
 ment was love to God, the second, love to man, w^as declared like unto it. 
 
 What are the historic facts in the case? Have religion and morality had 
 a contemporaneous development and in conjunction; or has the history of 
 the two run on distinct and divergent lines? Who shall answer authori- 
 tatively save the student of the history of religions? Let us question some 
 such. " All religions, " says C. P. Tiele, " are either race religions or relig- 
 ions proceeding from an individual founder — the former are nature relig- 
 ions, the latter ethical religions. In the nature religions the supreme gods 
 are the mighty powers of nature and, though there are great mutual differ- 
 ences 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, rights 
 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. 
 But, 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 gesthetic, scientific, and philosophical 
 notions; and they are unable 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 become obsolete as 
 being useless. Then nature religion --nevitably dies of inanition. When 
 this culminating point has been reached, the way is prepared for the 
 preaching of an ethical religious doctrine. 
 
 Ethical religions are communities brought together, not by a common 
 belief in national traditions, but by the common belief in a doctrine of
 
 SERIOUS STUDY OF ALL RELIGIONS. 279 
 
 Balvation, and organized with the aim of maintaining, fostering, propa- 
 gating, and practicing that doctrine. This fundamental doctrine is con- 
 sidered by its adherents in each case as a divine revelation, and he who 
 revealed it an inspired prophet or son of God. 
 
 These ethical religions Tiele divides into national, or particularistic, and 
 universalistic. The latter, three in number, are the dominant roligions in 
 the world to-day. 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. Buddhism, on the contrary, neglects 
 the divine, preaches the final salvation of man from the miseries of exist- 
 ence 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 superstitions. Christianity, in its founder, dkl 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. Tiele's account of the mutual historical relations of ethics 
 and religion. 
 
 Albert Reville devotes a chapter of his "Prolegomena of the History of 
 Religions " to the same question. He finds that morality, like religion, began 
 very low down to rise very high; that with morality, as with religion , we must 
 recognize in the human mind a spontaneous disposition, sui generis, arising 
 from its natural constitution, destined to expand in the school of expe- 
 rience, but which that school can never create. 
 
 With the entrance of moral prepossessions into religion, life beyond the 
 tomb becomes a place of divine rewards, and thus originates a new chapter 
 of religious history. Under monotheism the connection between religion 
 and morality becomes still closer. Here everything — the physical world, 
 human society, 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 principle and the affinity of nature between man and God, 
 the religion of Jesus moves on independently of dogma and of rite, consist- 
 ing essentially 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 the religious sentiment, when it is associated with another element of 
 human life, is to render this element much more intense and more power- 
 ful." From this simple observance we have the right to conclude that as a 
 general rule morality gains in attractiveness, in power, and in strength 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 foundered on the rock 
 of asceticism, especially Brahmanism, Buddhism, and the Christianity of the 
 middle ages. Religion has sometimes failed to distinguish between moral- 
 ity and ritual, or morality and occult belief, and we have the spectacle of a 
 punctilious observer of rites considered to be more nearly united to God, 
 notwithstanding terrible violations 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 qualified 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 between relig- 
 ion and morality can not but be salutary, I must pronounce in the aflBrm- 
 ative."
 
 280 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 If the conclusions of all students of hierology shall prove m harmony 
 with the views here expressed as to the close connection in origin and in 
 hisLory 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 indis- 
 solubly 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 religion, 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 ques- 
 tion 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 Moham- 
 medan as a dogma; the Buddhist as an ethical system; the Brahman as 
 caste; Confucianism as a system of statecraft. But let the earnest student 
 ask farther for the real meaning in 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 relations with the highest power, will, or intel- 
 ligence. Each is of value in just so far as it is able to inaugurate some 
 felt relation between the worshiper and the super-human powers in which 
 he believes. In the language of philosophy each is a seeking for a recon- 
 cihation 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 simple 
 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 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 withheld from him and his, as it was withheld from 
 the rest of the world, but for the distinguishing favor of the Divine Sover- 
 eign 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 phys- 
 ical universe which dominates his own physical life, which cribs and cabins 
 him by its inexorable laws, and, lo! defying those laws he steps out into 
 the infinite world of faith, of hope, of aspiration, of God. The petty dis- 
 tinctions of savage, barbarian, civilized, and enlightened sink into the 
 background. He is a man, and by virtue of his manhood, his human 
 nature, he worships and aspires. A comparative study of religions furnish 
 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 pre- 
 paring to send missionaries and establish a Mohammedan mission in New 
 York City. But why the smile and exclamation? Because of our sense of 
 the superiority of our own form of religious faith. Yet Christianity has 
 utterly failed to control the vice of drunkenness. Chicago to-day is dom- 
 inated by the saloons. Nor is it alone in this respect. Christian lands 
 everywhere are dotted with poor-houses, asylums, jails, penitentiaries,
 
 SERIOUS STUDY OF ALL RELIGIONS. 
 
 281 
 
 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. But Mohammedanism does control it 
 in Oriental lands. Says Isaac Taylor: "Mohammedanism stands in fierce 
 opposition to gambling; a gambler's testimony is invalid in law." And fur- 
 ther: "Islam is the most powerful total abstinence association in the 
 world." This testimony is confirmed by other writers and by illustration. 
 If it can do so on the Western Continent as well, then what better thing 
 could happen to New York or to Chicago, even, than the establishment of 
 some vigorous Mohammedan missions? And for the best good of Chicago 
 it might be well that Mayor Harrison instruct the police that they are not 
 to be arrested for obstructing the highway if they should venture to preach 
 their temperance gospel in the saloon quarters of the city. 
 
 But if a study of all religions is the only road to a true definition of relig- 
 ion and the classification of religions, it is quite as necessary to the intelli- 
 gent comprehension of any one religion. Goethe declared long ago that he 
 who knows but one language knows none, and Max Muller applies the 
 adage to religion. A very little thought will show the truth of the applica- 
 tion in either case. On the old-time supposition that religion and lan- 
 guage alike came down ready-formed from heaven, a divine gift or revela- 
 tion to man, this would not be true. Complete in itself, with no earthly 
 relationships, why should 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 pre- 
 historic 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 boi}h 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 link preceding and following. 
 
 Allow me to illustrate this proposition at some length. I am a Chris- 
 tian. I wa.nt 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 must either 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 con- 
 tends 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 confessional, all in 
 stately cathedrals with stained glass windows, pealing organ, and surpliced 
 choir; there another which deems that Christianity 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 
 aught 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 ele- 
 ments so dissimilar. Seriously entered upon the quest, we discover here a 
 stream of influence from ancient Egypt, "through Greece and Rome bring- 
 ing to Roman Catholic Christendom," so says Tiele, the germs of the wor- 
 ship 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 doc- 
 trine of the Word or Logos, there a stream of Gneco-Roman mythology, 
 with a deifying tendency so strongly developed that it will fall in adoration
 
 282 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 equally before a Roman emperor or a Paul and Cephas, whose deeds seem 
 marvelous Another stream from imperial Rome brings its gift of hierarch- 
 ichal 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 develop- 
 ing life of spring. Christianity can not banish these festivals; too long have 
 they held place in the religious conciousness of the people. She can, how- 
 ever, 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 devils and of no future 
 life, save that of sheol, in which, as David declares, there is no service of 
 God possible. Would we understand this difference, we must note a tribu- 
 tary 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 Ormudz 
 and Ahriman, the god of light and the god of darkness, with their attend- 
 ant 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 Canaanites, 
 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 Palistinian 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 fii-e 
 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 back 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 his share in the covenant. 
 
 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 Christianity, seeking 
 earnestly for the causes of the transformation. What was early Hebrew 
 religion? A branch of the great Semitic family of religions. What was 
 the religion of the Semites and who were Semites? These questions have 
 been answered in an exhaustive and scholarly manner, so far as he goes, by 
 Professor 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. 
 
 The Semites occupied all the lands of Western Asia from the Tigro- 
 Euph rates valley to the Mediterranean Sea, They included the Arabs, 
 Hebrews, and Phcenicians, the Aramteans, 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 god. Among the 
 Arabs this early religion developed into animistic polydasmonism, and
 
 SERIOUS STUDY OF ALL RELIGIONS. 283 
 
 never rises 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 cere- 
 monial reUgion, 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 nothing- 
 ness before God, in prayers and hymns hardly less fervent than those of the 
 pious souls of Israel. Among the Western Semites, the AramiBans, 
 Canaanites, Phoenicians, seemed to have Isojourned 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 Akkadians, 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 during the 13th century, 
 B. C, bringing with them a religion of extreme simplicity, though not 
 monotheistic, and not differing greatly in character 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 accord- 
 ing to a new fundamental 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? Bvit whence had Moses the moral culture adequate to 
 the comprehension and appropriation of a moral system so far in advance 
 of anything which we find among other early Semites? Nineteenth cen- 
 tury 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 abandon to 
 their new home, although they placed their national god, Yahveh, 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 settled down to agri- 
 culture, Yaveh, however, as the god of the conquerers, was commonly placed 
 above the others, though his stern character was softened by that of the 
 gentler Baal. Well for Israel and well for the world that these two concep- 
 tions of deity came together in Judea twelve .centuries before Christ. If 
 the worship of the jealous god Yahveh made the Jew stern and uncompro- 
 mising 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 the final outcome, 
 the holy God who can not 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, persecutions, 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 common. Their 
 gods were all tribal or national gods, limited to particular countries, 
 choosing for themselves special dwelling places, which thus became holy 
 places, usually by 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,
 
 284 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 consisting, 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 sac- 
 rifices as well. The skin of the animal sacrificed is the oldest form, saj s 
 Kobertson-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 this altar, the worshipers eating the flesh in a joyful 
 tribal feast. 
 
 Here, then, was the origin of the Hebrew religion. It was not mono- 
 theistic, but what scholars designated as henotheistic, a belief in the exist- 
 ence 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 impas- 
 sioned 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, 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 does the same. The story 
 of Cain and Abel dates from the time when agriculture was beginning to 
 take the place of the old nomadic shepherd life. The men of the new call- 
 ing 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, El-Shaddai, Naaman was cured of his leprosy 
 because the Jordan was sacred to the deity. It was the thunder god, Yah- 
 veh, whom the people worshiped on Sinai, and who still Isore traces of the 
 earlier sun god, as he guided the people in a pillar of fire. The ark is a 
 remnant of fetichism, i. e., a means of putting the deity under control of 
 his worshipers. They can compel his presence on the battle-field by carry- 
 ing the ark thither, and if the ark is captured the god is captured also. 
 
 A powerful element in the development upward of Mosaism was proph- 
 ecy. The 8th century prophets had moved far on beyond the whole 
 sacrificial system when, as spokesman for the Lord, Isaiah exclaims: "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 theory 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 acceptably must worship in spirit and in 
 truth. 
 
 I
 
 SERIOUS STUDY OF ALL RELIGIONS. 285 
 
 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 students there will probably come another rev- 
 elation, 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 condi- 
 tions and the frozen clod has "climbed to a soul in grass and flower," 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 knowwho are ready to read God's thoughts 
 after Him in the patient researches of scientific investigation. 
 
 What is to be the future of the religion which has had so long and 
 varied a history, from far-away Akkad even to this center of the Western 
 hemisphere, and from twenty centuries before Christ to this last decade of 
 the 19th 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 devel- 
 opment 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 confounding 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 the- 
 ology of Christendom. Whence came this record of these real or supposed 
 events? Genesis is silent concerning their 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 Akka- 
 dian people, the founders of the earliest civilization of the Tigro-Euphrates 
 valley, a people not Semitic, but Turanian, related, therefore, to the great 
 Turanian 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 Germany; its roots were nurtured 
 in Semitic Hebrew soil, which had been enriched from Semitic Assyria, 
 Aryan Persia, Turanian Akkadia, and Hamitic Egypt. 
 
 Its parent was Judaism, a national religion, limited by the boundaries 
 of one nation. It is itself a universal religion, having transcended all 
 national boundaries. How was this transformation effected? For answer 
 go to Kuenan'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, trans- 
 formation, death, following certain definite laws. Moreover, the law of life 
 for all organisms is the same, and may, perhaps, be formulated as the 
 power of adjustment to environment; the greater the adjustibility the 
 greater the vitality. 
 
 But this means capacity to change. " That which is no longer suscep- 
 tible of change," says Kuenan, " may continue to exist, but it has ceased to 
 live. And religion must live, must enter into new combinations and bear 
 fresh fruit if it is to answer to its destiny, if refusing to crystallize into for- 
 mulae and usages it is to work like the leaven, is to console, to inspire, and 
 to strengthen." Has Christianity this vital power? " Yes," again answers 
 Kuenan, and quotes approvingly a saying of Richard Rothe; " Christianity
 
 286 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 is the most mutable of all things. That is its special glory." And why 
 should this not be so? Christianity 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 divine 
 fatherhood. 
 
 RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Mgr. C. D. D'Harlez read an interesting paper on "The Com- 
 parative Study of the World's Religions." 
 
 It is not without profound emotion that I address myself to an assem- 
 blage of mfin, the most distinguished, come together from all parts of the 
 world and who, despite essential divergencies of opinion, are nevertheless 
 united in this vast edifice, pursuing one purpose, animated with one 
 thought, the most noble that may occupy the human mind, the seeking out 
 of religious truth. I have under my eyes this unprecedented spectacle, 
 until now unheard of, of disciples of Kong-fu-tse, of Buddha, of Brahma, 
 of Ahura Majda, of Arah, of Zoroaster, of Mohammed, of Naka-nusi, of 
 Laotze, not less than those of Moses and of the divine Chi-ist, gathered 
 together, not to engage in the struggle of hostility, of animosity, sources of 
 sorrow and griefs, but to hold up before the eyes of the world the beliefs 
 which they profess and which they have received from their fathers and 
 their religion. 
 
 Religion! Word sublime. Full of harmony to the ear of man, penetrat- 
 ing on through the depths of his heart and stirring into vibration its pro- 
 foundest chords. 
 
 How goodly the title of our programme— World's Parliament of Religions 
 How true the thought put forth by one who took part in its production. 
 " Comparison, not controversy, will best serve the most wholesome and 
 therefore the most divine truth." Parliament! It is in such an assembly 
 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. Butin this 
 Parliament of Religions it is not the world that is the question, but heaven 
 —the final happiness of man. 
 
 Let me speak of the importance of a serious study of all systems of 
 religion. But first let us ask if it is useful, if it is good, to give one's self to 
 this study. This is in effect the question which in Europe men of faith put to 
 themselves when this new branch suddenly sprouted forth from the trunk 
 of the tree of science. At first it inspired only repugnance, or at least great 
 distrust, and this was not without reason. The opinions, the designs of 
 those who made themselves itr. promoters inspired very legitimate sus- 
 picions. 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 originators 
 was to be an exposition of all the vicissitudes of human thought, imagina- 
 tion, 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 can not perish, and that 
 providence disposes of things for the greater good of humanity, welcomed 
 without reserve this new child of science and by their example, as by their
 
 RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 287 
 
 words, drew with them into this new field of research even the hesitating 
 and trembhng. They thought besides, that no field of science should or 
 could be interdicted to men of faith without placing them and their belief 
 in a state of inferiority the most fatal, and that to abandon any one of them 
 whatever would be to hand it over 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 defenders, from a fear and mistrust injurious alike for it and its 
 divine author, abandon it and desert its cause. 
 
 To-day the most timid Christian, be he ever so little in touch with the 
 circumstances of the times, no longer dreads in the least the chimerical 
 monsters pictured to his imagination at the dawn of these new studies, and 
 follows, with as much interest as he formerly feared, the discoveries which 
 the savants lay before him. What study to-day excites more attention and 
 interest than the comparative 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 qualification embraces the 
 whole of Europe, with the exception of Turkey, and all of America — three 
 classes of men may be distinguished by their dispositions and attitudes 
 toward religious questions. Some possess the truth descended from on 
 high, study it, search into its depths with love and respect ; 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 tine, ranged 
 between these two extremes, plunged into doubt, ask themselves thank- 
 lessly what there is in these truths, which they seeon 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 can not 
 understand, nor to regulate their conduct by inflexible moral precepts, 
 hearing, however, within them a voice which calls upon them to rise above 
 themselves, they are cast about upon the sea of doubt and anguish, in vain 
 demanding of the earth the bond to cure the evil from which their hearts 
 suffer. 
 
 Yes, this voice whispers to their ears the most redoubtable problems 
 that ever man proposed. Whence comes he? Who has placed him upon 
 this earth? Whither 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. To-day, 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 
 to-day souls not enlightened by the divine light feel an indefinable uneasi- 
 ness such as that experienced by the aeronaut in the superterrestrial region 
 of rarifled atmosphere, such as that of the heart when air and blood fail. 
 Those who confide 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 affirm, a soul to satisfy. 
 This soul, too, is in incessant travail, in continual evolution 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 presence of 
 the dreaded unknown, to-day 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 inroads. But, on the 
 other hand, such incertitude is not entirely new. Twenty-five centuries
 
 288 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 ago the Vidist poet proposed the very problems which to-day 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., ques- 
 tions to which the poet could give only this reply, sad avowal of impo- 
 tence: Kavais Ko Viveda. "Sacred Chanters, 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; how besides 
 his soul was agitated and troubled, looking 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-fu-tze, or as we call him, Confucius, was bearing 
 witness to the impotence 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 per- 
 plexities. What age has ever counted 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 can not guide 
 us in all the acts of national life, many of which lie beyond religious con- 
 trol. But history is not composed of a series of facts succeeding one 
 another at hazard. It is the work, direct or indirect, of God, and according 
 to the divine purpose ought certainly to serve for the instruction of human- 
 ity. Now among all the matters of which history treats, is there a single 
 one which, I will not say surpasses, but equals, yes, even approaches, by the 
 elevation of its object and the importance of its results the history of relig- 
 ious 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 immortal life? What dangers it will escape, remem- 
 bering 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 problems the most 
 abstruse, the key to unlock the very heavens, if I may so speak, and which 
 burns to propagate mere fruits of the imagination at the risk of seeing the 
 world ablaze, does 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 horizon, to 
 give to every matter a just appreciation, which cuts off irreflective enthu- 
 siasm 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 enormously the cause one would 
 defend. From history, too, each one requires a more reasonable and scien- 
 tific 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 unveil to the eyes of the man 
 of faith the action of that providence which leads him in the midst of con- 
 tinual agitations and disposes of what he has proposed, the power of the
 
 RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 289 
 
 arm invisible and invincible, which chastises him for hia faults by his own 
 mistakes and lifts him up, saves him from the perils which he has brought 
 upon himself when he recognizes his weakness and his frailty? 
 
 Problem admirable and fearful, this providental commission of the 
 strangest intellectual adorations! What a spectacle, that of manijlunging 
 into an abyss of error and misery because he has wished to march 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 underground, the prey of the 
 worms or enveloping with the fumes of their incense, honoring with their 
 homages the figure of a 1<jw 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 desu-e 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 intelli- 
 gence 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 important side of the study 
 of religion, that is to say, the results it has to the present day produced, 
 and what it is called upon to produce in the future. 
 
 How many points cleared up in a few years, thanks to the control exer- 
 cised upon the first explorers in this field by those who came after them, 
 and who had no ready-made system to defend! This is specially 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 ques- 
 tions? It has, in fact, been demonstrated that religion is not a creation of 
 the mind of man, still less of a wandering imagination deceived by phan- 
 toms, but that it is a principle which imposes itself upon him everywhere 
 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 people 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 can not be certainly shown, it is because their intelli- 
 gence 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." 
 
 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 does not deceive. For others, religion 
 arises from the need man experiences of relationship with superior beings. 
 Correct again, but how has man conceived the notion of being superior to 
 himself if there are none, and whence arises that neutral need which his 
 heart feels, if it has its roots in nothing, a nonentity. Ex 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 fancies? No, it 
 would be to waste inconsiderately the time of my honored hearers too 
 precious to be taken up by such trifles. Let us merely note this fact fully 
 attested to-day. Religious sentiments and concepts are innate in man.
 
 290 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, 
 
 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 
 declaration 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 universe. No 
 reasonable mind can suppose that this vast world has of itself created 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 proclaim that man has 
 
 " It is fear that hath made the gods," said a Latin poet, already 2,000 
 years ago. No, say others, it is a mere tendency to attribute a soul to what- 
 ever 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, exclaims a 
 fourth voice, a religion does not arise from any one or other of these or 
 like causes in particular, but from all taken together. Fear, joy, illusions, 
 nocturnal visions, the movements of the stars, etc., have all contributed 
 something, each its own part. 
 
 It is not our task to set forth these different opinions, still less to criticise 
 them. We can not, however, pass in silence, till of late universally in vogue 
 in the free-thinking camp, a system whose foundations historical studies 
 have uprooted. I speak of the theory which has borrowed its process from 
 the Darwinian system of evolution, the system of perpetual progress. If 
 you would believe its authors and defenders primitive humanity have no 
 religious sentiment, not the least notion that raised it above material 
 nature. But, feeling in himself a living principle, man attributed the 
 same to whatever moved about him, and thence arose fetichism and ani- 
 mism. 
 
 After the first stage of fetichism and animism man would have con- 
 sidered separately the living principles of the beings to which he had attrib- 
 uted it, and this separation would have given rise to the belief in spirits. 
 These spirits, growing upon the popular imagination, would have become 
 gods, to whom, ultimately, after the fashion of 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 perfectly con- 
 structed. 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 details to be false. 
 
 The examples of Egypt, of India, and of China, especially, have demon- 
 strated that monotheism real, though imperfect, preceded the luxuriant 
 mythologies whose development astonishes, but is only too easily explained. 
 In Egypt the divinity was represented by the sun; the different phases of 
 the great luminary were personified and deified. In the most ancient por- 
 tion of Aryan India the personality of Garuna, with his immutable 
 laws, soars above the figures of India and the other divas 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, mon- 
 otheism is at its lowest degree, but in China, on the contrary, it shows itself 
 much less imperfect than elsewhere and even with relative purity. Shang-ti 
 is almost the god of the spiritualist philosophy. These facts, we may easily 
 conceive, are exceeding embarrassing for the adherent of the evolutionary 
 theory, but they worm out of the difBculty in a manner that provokes both
 
 RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 291 
 
 sadness and a smile. The thesis of national divinities everywhere preced- 
 ing the universal divinities is not more solidly grounded. For neither 
 Varuna, nor Brahma, nor Shanj-ti, nor Tengri ever saw their power lim- 
 ited by their devotees to a single country. The theory that fear or ances- 
 tral worship gave birth to the gods received in China the most formal con- 
 tradiction. In fact, at the very first appearance of this 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, benefactors of the people. That it is gratitude which 
 has inspired this worship is expressly affirmed in the Chinese ritual. 
 
 It remains for us to say a few words about these conditions. The first 
 is clearly that enunciated in our programme. 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, everywhere seeking an 
 apology for either faith or incredulity. Too long have they limited them- 
 selves to superficial views, to summary 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 pretended to treat as masters. 
 
 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 unnecessary 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. 
 How 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 
 oaeself with the spirit of the people who form the object of particular 
 research. It is necessary, as it were, to think with their minds and to see 
 with their eyes, making entire abstraction of one's own ideas, under pain of 
 seeing everything in a false light, as one sees nature through a colored 
 glass, and of forming of foreign religions ideas the most erroneous and 
 often even the most unjust.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SIXTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 16th. 
 
 SACRED SCRIPTUR&S OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Promptly at 10 o'clock Dr. John Henry Barrows led the way 
 to the platform, and as an opening song the first hymn in the 
 printed programme was sung : 
 
 AU ye nations praise the Lord, 
 All ye lands your voices raise. 
 
 The people of many religions joined in the common hymn of 
 praise. After a few moments of silent prayer, Bishop Keane 
 led in repeating aloud the Lord's Prayer. It was evident that 
 the interest in the great Parliament of Religions was rapidly 
 gaining a world-wide notoriety. After the opening exercises, 
 Dr. Barrows read a cablegram from the Brahmo-Somaj of Cal- 
 cutta, sending cordial greetings and wishing the Parliament 
 godspeed. The message was received with ringing cheers, 
 much to the gratification of the Hindus present. "It delights 
 my heart," said Mr. Mozoomdar, "to see the spontaneous 
 response which my fellow-believers have sent this vast distance. 
 I feel now more than I ever felt that India and America are as 
 one in the spirit of the God of all nations." In the midst of an 
 outburst of applause, the speaker sat down, overcome with 
 emotion. 
 
 THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 CHAKLES A. BRIGGS OF NEW YOEK. 
 
 He was introduced by Dr. Barrows as " one whose learning, 
 whose courage, whose faithfulness to his convictions have 
 given him a high place in the church universal." 
 
 292
 
 TRUTHFULNESS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 293 
 
 The time allotted 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 you will 
 probably notice. All the great historic religions have sacred books which 
 are regarded as the inspired word of God. Prominent among those sacred 
 books are the Holy Scriptures of the Christian church. The history of the 
 Christian church shows that it is the intrinsic excellence of these Holy 
 Scriptures 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 and 
 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. 
 
 We may now say confidentially to all men: " All the sacred books of the 
 world are now accessible to you; study them; compare them; recognize all 
 that is good and noble and true in them all and tabulate results, and you 
 will be convinced that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments 
 are true, holy, and divine." When we have gone searchingly through all 
 the books of other religions we will find that they are as torches of various 
 sizes and brilliance lighting up the darkness of the night, but the Holy 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are like the sun shining in the 
 heavens and lighting up the whole world. 
 
 We are living in a scientific age, which demands that every traditional 
 statement shall be tested. Science explores the earth in its height and 
 breadth in search of truth; it explores the lieavens in order to solve the mys- 
 teries of the universe; it investigates all the monuments of history, whether 
 of stone or of metal, and that man must be lacking in intelligence, or in 
 observation at least, who imagines that the sacred books of the Christian 
 religion or the institution of the Christian church shall escape the criti- 
 cism of this age. It will not do to oppose science with religion or criticism 
 with faith. 
 
 Criticism makes it evident that the faith which shrinks from criticism 
 is a faith so weak and uncertain that it excites suspicion as to its life and 
 reality. Science goes on confident that every form of religion which resists 
 this criticism will ere long crumble into dust. All departments of human 
 investigation sooner or later come in contact with the Christian Scriptures; 
 all find something that accords with them or conflicts with them, and the 
 question forces itself upon us: Can we maintain the truthfulness of the 
 Holy Scriptures in the face of modern science? We are obliged to admit 
 that there are scientific errors in the Bible — errors of astronomy, geology, 
 zoology, botany, and anthropology. In all these respects there is no evi- 
 dence that the authors of the scriptures had any other knowledge than that 
 possessed by their contemporaries. Their statements are such as indicate 
 ordinary observation of the phenomena of life. They had not that insight, 
 that grasp of conception and power of expression in these matters such as 
 they exhibited when writing concerning matters of religion. 
 
 If it was not the intent of God to give to the ancient world the scientific 
 knowledge of our 19th century, why should anyone suppose that the 
 Divine Spirit influenced them in relation to any such matters as science? 
 Why should they be kept from misstatements, misconceptions, and errors in 
 such respects? The Divine Spirit wished to use them as religious teachers, 
 and so long as they made no mistakes in that respect they were trustworthy 
 and reliable, even if they erred in such matters as come in contact with 
 modern science. There are historical mistakes in the Bible, mistakes of 
 chronology and geography, discrepancies, and inconsistencies which can 
 not be removed by any proper method of interpretation. There are such 
 errors as we are apt to find in modern history. There is no evidence 
 that the writers of the scriptures received any of their history by revelation 
 from God. There is no evidence that the Divine Spirit corrected these 
 nar-ratives.
 
 294 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The purpose of the sacred writers was to give us the history of God's 
 redemptive workings. This made it necessary that there should be no 
 essential errors in the redemptive facts and agencies, but did not make it 
 necessary that there should be no mistakes in places, dates, and persons, so 
 long as these did not change the redemptive lessons or redemptive facts. 
 None of the mistakes which have been discovered disturb the religious les- 
 sons of the Biblical history, and those lessons are the only ones whose 
 truthfulness we are concerned to defend. Higher criticism recognizes 
 faults of grammar, of rhetoric, and logic in the Hebrew and Greek script- 
 ures, but errors in these formal things do not mar the truthfulness of the 
 religious instruction itself. Higher criticism shows that most of the books 
 were composed by unknown authors; that they passed through the hands 
 of a considerable number of unknown editors. In this process of editing, 
 arranging, subtraction, and reconstruction, extending througn so many 
 centuries, 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 truthful- 
 ness of scripture be maintained by those who recognize these errors? There 
 is no reason why the substantial truthfulness of the Bible shall not be con- 
 sistent 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 of the scriptures. Did the human minds and pens always deliver 
 the inerrant word? 
 
 Even if all writers possessed of the Holy Spirit were merely passive 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 the 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 intui- 
 tion, and framed them in imagination and fancy. Then, if the divine truth 
 passed through the conception and imagination 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 sug- 
 gests the religious lessons to be imparted. God is true. He is the truth. 
 He can not lie; He can not mislead nor deceive His creatures. But the ques- 
 tion 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 inspira- 
 tion of the Holy Scriptures does not carry with it inerrancy in every par- 
 ticular; it was sufficient if the divine truth was given with, such clearness 
 as to guide men aright in religious life. * 
 
 The errors of Holy Scriptures are not errors of falsehood or deceit, but 
 of ignorance, inadvertence, partial and inadequate knowledge, and of inca- 
 pacity to express the whole truth of God which belonged to man as man.
 
 TRUTHFULNESS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 295 
 
 Just as lifjht is seen not in its pure and clouded state, but in the beautiful 
 colors of the spectrum, so it is that the truth of God, its revelation and 
 conununication to man, met with such obstacles in human nature. Men 
 are capable of receivintj: it only in its diverse operations, and diverse man- 
 ners as it comes to them through the diverse temperaments and points of 
 view of the Biblical writers. The religion of the Old Testament is a religion 
 which includes some things hard to reconcile in an inerrant revelation. 
 The sacritice of Jephthas daughter, the command of Abraham to offer up 
 his son as a burnt offering, and other incidents seem unsuited to divine 
 revelation. The New Testament taught that sacrifices must be of broken, 
 contrite hearts and humble and cheerful spirits. What pleasure could 
 God take in smoking altars? How could the true God prescribe such 
 puerilties? 
 
 We can only say that God was training Israel to the meaning of the 
 higher sacritices. The offering up of children and domestic animals was 
 part of a preparatory discipline. But it was provisional and temporal dis- 
 cipline. It was the form necessary then to clothe the divine law of sacri- 
 fice in the early stages of revelation. They were the object lessons by 
 which the children of the ancient world could be trained to understand 
 the inerrable law of sacritice for man. St. Paul calls them the weak and 
 beggarly rudiments, the shadow of the things to come. 
 
 We can not defend the morals of the Old Testament at all points. 
 Nowhere in the Old Testament was polygamy or slavery condemned. The 
 time had not come in the history of the world when they could be con- 
 demned. Is God to be held responsible for these twin relics of barbarism 
 because He did not condemn, but, on the contrary, recognized them and 
 restrained them in the early stages of his revelation? The patrisirchs are 
 not truthful. Their age seems to have had little comprehension of the 
 principles of truth, yet Abraham was faithful to God, and so faithful under 
 temptation and trial that he became the father of the faithful and from 
 that point of view, the friend of God. David was a sinner, a very wicked 
 sinner, but he was a very penitent sinner, and showed such a devout at- 
 tachment to the worship of God that his sins, though many, were all for- 
 given him, and his life as a whole exhibits such generosity, courage, human 
 affection, and such heroism and patience under suffering, and such self- 
 restraint under magnificent prosperity, such nobility and grandeur of char- 
 acter altogether, that we must admire him and love him as one of the best 
 of men, and we are not surprised that the heart of the infinite God went 
 out to him. Many of the stories of revenue in the Old Testament stand 
 out in glaring contrast to the picture of Jesus Christ praying for His ene- 
 mies, and it is the story of Christ that lifts us into a different ethical air 
 from any of the Old Testament. 
 
 We can not regard these things in the Old Testament as inerrable, in the 
 light of the moral character of Christ and the moral character of God as he 
 reveals it. And yet we may well understand that the Old Testament times 
 were not i-ipe for the higher revelation of his will 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 teaches the true principle. You may 
 judge the ethics of the Old Testament when he repealed the Mosaic laws 
 of divorce. He said: "Moses, 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, nor with the mind and will of the holy God. 
 
 God revealed Himself partially to the people of the Old Testament in a 
 way sufhcient for their ])urposes of preparatory discipline, which revelation 
 was to disaj)pear forever when it had accomplished its purpose. The laws 
 of the Okl Testament have all been cast down by the Christian church, 
 with the single exception of ten laws; and with reference to the fourth of
 
 296 THE PARLIAMENT OE RELlCflONS. 
 
 these Jesus Christ says: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man 
 for the Sabbath." The doctrine of the creation is set forth in a great vari- 
 ety of beautiful poetical representations, which give in the aggregate a 
 grand conception of the creation, a fuller conception than the ordinary 
 doctrine drawn from an interpretation of the first and second chapters of 
 Genesis. I grant He was conceived as the Father of the nations and of the 
 kmgs. But as our Father, made known to us as Jesus Christ, He was not 
 known to the Old Testament dispensation. The profound depth of sympa- 
 thy of God and of Jesus Christ was not yet manifested. 
 
 The doctrine of the Holy Trinity was 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 invincible 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 inade- 
 quacy of ancient Israel to understand their God, the errancy of their 
 conceptions. We all know that the true God whom we all love and wor- 
 ship does 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 find a 
 response in the experience of mankind. The ideal 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 people. Surely these are inspirations — they 
 are faithful, they are divine. But 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 good 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 comprehend it. 
 All evil is to be banished. There is to come in a reign of universal peace. 
 There is to be a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem, from 
 which the wicked will be excluded. 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 redemption for God's people, they have made mistakes, it is 
 quite sure that forgiveness of sins was appropriated without any exjilana- 
 tion of its grounds. 
 
 The sacrifices of the new were unknown in the Old Testament. It is the 
 mercy of God which is the forgiveness of sins. There is a lack of apprecia- 
 tion in the Old Testament of the richness of faith. It was Jesus Christ 
 who first gave faith its unique place in the order of salvation: The doctrine 
 of holy love, the doctrine of the future life, and the resurrection from the 
 dead. Thus in every department of doctrine the Old Testament has only 
 advanced through the centuries. The several periods of Biblical literature, 
 of unfolding of the doctrines prepared the way for a full revelation in the 
 New Testament. That revelation looked only at the end, the highest 
 ideals, that what would be accomplished in the last century of human time; 
 that would be a revelation for all men, but it would be of no use to any 
 other century but the last. 
 
 But man must be prepared for the present as well as for the future. 
 Man must have something for every century of 'human history, a revelation 
 for the barbarian as well as for the Greek, the Gentile as well as the Jew, 
 the dark-minded African as well as the open-minded European, the South 
 Sea Islander as well as the Asiatic, the child as well as the man. It is just
 
 GREATNESS AND INFLUENCE OF MOSES. 297 
 
 in this respect that the Holy Scriptures in the New Testament are so per- 
 manent and have in them relifj;ious instruction for the world. They were 
 designed for the training? of Israel in every stage of their development, and 
 so they will train all minds in every stage of their development. 
 
 It does no harm to the advanced student to look back upon the unedu- 
 cated years of his youthful days. It does not harm the Christian to see 
 the many imperfections, crudities, and errors of the more elementary 
 instructions of the Old Testament. Nor does it destroy his faith of the 
 truthfulness of the divine word because it has passed through human 
 hands. The infallible will has all the time been at work using the imper- 
 fect medium, training them to their utmost capacity, to get man to raise 
 them, to advance them in the true religion. The great books are always 
 pointing forward and upward. They are always extending in all directions. 
 They are now, as they always have been, true and faithful guides to God 
 and' all the highest. They are now, as they always have been, trust- 
 worthy and reliable in their religious instruction. They are now, as they 
 always have been, altogether truthful in their testimony to the heart and 
 experience of mankind. 
 
 THE GREATNESS AND INFLUENCE OF MOSES. 
 
 EABBI GOTTHEIL OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Last Monday morning it was the day of our church new year,- a festival 
 of great solemnity with us. About this very hour of the day I and my 
 brethren, over the face of the earth, read this prayer : 
 
 Our God and God of our fathers, reiKH Tliou over the whole world in Thy glory, 
 and be exalted in Thy Majesty over the whole earth and sliine fortli in the excel- 
 lence of Thy supreme power over all the iuliabitants of the terrestrial world,' and 
 may ev(!rytliinfr which has been made be sensible that Thou hast made' it, and 
 everything formed understand that Thou hast formed it, and all who have breath 
 In their nostrils liiiow the Lord God of Israel reigneth and His supreme power 
 rulethover all. And thus also extend the fear of I'hee, O Lord our God, over all 
 Thy works and th<^ dread of Thee over all that Thou hast created, so that all Thy 
 works may fear Thee and all creatures bow down before Thee, so that they all 
 may form one bond to do Tny will with an ui>right heart, for we know, O Lord our 
 Crod, that the dominion is Thine, that strength is in Thy hand, that might is in 
 Thy right hand, and that Thy name is to be reverenced over all the earth. 
 
 Just at that moment this great Parliament of Religions was opened, 
 and we could not but point to this great manifestation as a sign that our 
 prayers and our sufferings and our labors have not been in vain — that to 
 this free country it was given to show that the Word of God is true, and 
 that not one of His promises can fall to the ground. 
 
 Now I am to speak on the greatness of Moses. I believe that is the 
 most striking testimony, that he always remains Moses, the man of God, 
 the legislator; and that he so instructed his people and so infused his own 
 spirit into their constitution that never, at no time and under no provoca- 
 tion, was the attempt made in the Jewish Church to raise him above his 
 simple humanity. Although they have proved their fidelity to him— their 
 belief in his law by every possible testimony that can be applied — yet he 
 was Moses, the servant of God, until the highest praise bestowed upon 
 him, which, I may say, is the canon of the Jewish Church in regard to the 
 legislator, is taken from the pages of the Scriptures themselves, where it is 
 said: "Never was in Israel a prophet like unto him, and beyond Israel 
 where shall we look for his equal? " 
 
 Brethren, I am not speaking in the narrow spirit of rivalry; far be that 
 from my theme. Veneration for Moses has not yet hintlered me to see, to 
 admire, and to learn from other masters— the sun has lost nothing of his 
 glory since we know that he is not the center of the universe, and that in 
 other fields of the intuiite space there are like suns unto him. What Bh;:n
 
 298 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 hinder me to learn from the masters which you honor? I can well under- 
 stand. I can honor the man that said: " AH must decrease that Christ 
 may increase." But no true Christ ever said: "All must decrease that I 
 may increase " And I remember the tine saying ascribed to Buddha: " I 
 forbid you," said he to his disciples; " I forbid you to believe anything 
 simply because I said it." 
 
 Where shall we find one that combines in his personality so many great- 
 nesses as Moses, if I may s ly so? He w^as the liberator of his people, but 
 he spurned crowns and scepters, and did not, as many others after him did, 
 put a new yoke on the neck from which he had taken the old one. To every 
 lover of the American Constitution that man must be a political saint. And 
 his republic was not of short duration. It lasted through all the storms 
 of barbaric wars and revolutions^hundreds of years, down to the day of 
 Samuel, that all-stout-hearted republican who could endure no kings. 
 That man that saw so clearly what royal work would do; that man who is 
 so wrongly judged by our Sunday-school moralities, he fought with his last 
 breath for the independence of his people, and when the king they had 
 chosen showed that he was not the right man he spared him not and 
 looked for one that should be worthy to rule his people. 
 
 But the republic he founded stands unique in the history of the world, 
 for it was altogether based upon an idea — the idea of the unity of God and 
 the righteousness of His will. Think of it! Among a nation escaped from 
 bondage too degraded even to be led to war, that needed the education, the 
 hammering, as it were, into a people for forty years, to be among them 
 with the sublimest truth, that the human mind ever can conceive and to 
 say of them: "Though you are now benighted and enslaved, any truth 
 that I know is not too good for you nor any child of God." Whence did the 
 man derive that inspiration? If from the Almighty, then may we not say 
 there arose not another like him? And can we wonder that when he came 
 down from the mountain the light that shone from his face was too much 
 for the eyes of the people and he had to cover it. 
 
 Did he learn that grand idea from Egypt? We know that he was learned 
 in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, but if he learned anything he learned 
 there how not to do it. For so complete is the contrast between Egyptian 
 conception of state and the Mosaic. All honor to that nation of torch bear- 
 ers of antiquity! And here we now recover the whole literature of that 
 people, and there has not been found a single sentence yet that .could be 
 given to mankind as a guide in their perplexities. And not a name has 
 come down to us that was borne by one who labored for mankind. As a 
 teacher of morality why need I praise him? As a teacher of statecraft in 
 the highest and best sense, who surpassed him? The great wonder is that 
 that man speaks the language of to-day. The problems which we have not 
 yet succeeded in solving were already present to his mind, and he founded 
 a nation in which the difference between the poor and the rich was almost 
 abolished. The laborer was not only worthy but sure of his hire. No aris- 
 tocrat could rule over his subjects and no priesthood could ever assume the 
 government which, alas! according to history, means the oppression of the 
 nation. How did that man of that vast mind, how did he coml)ine all these 
 great talents? And yet that man, how tender his heart was! Why. friends, 
 it is a thousand pities that you can not hear the deep sorrow, the sadness 
 that is to be heard in his original words. When an overzealous disciple 
 came to him and told him that they were prophesving in his name, and 
 they said: " Hinder them, master, hinder them. Why, if they prophesy 
 what will become of thine own authority? " I fancy I see his venerable head 
 smk upon his breast and he saying: " Indeed art thou zealous for me? 
 Would that all the people of God were prophets and that God gave His 
 spirit to them." 
 
 Follow that man to the top of the mountain, where he is alone. See the
 
 GREATNESS AND INFLUENCE OF MOSES. 299 
 
 man who could stretch forth an iron hand when it was necessary, stretched 
 on the face of the earth and seeking forgiveness for his people, and when 
 his prayer was not answered. " O, if Thou wilt not forgive my people then 
 blot me out of the book that Thou hast written." So tender! And another 
 instance: Before his death he, as you know, admonished the people in 
 words that are immortal. After forty years of such labor as he had 
 expended he admits that his people have learned almost nothing, and I 
 must quote Emerson, who says: "It is in the nature of great men that they 
 should be misunderstood." But with the tenderness, with the thoughtful- 
 ness of a father he did not scold his people before the shadow death fell 
 upon him. Why, he says not "you are ignorant," "you are hard hearted," 
 "you are blind," "you are stubborn." Listen! "But God has not yet, my 
 dear people, given you a heart to understand, nor eyes to see nor ears to 
 hear." Do you hear that tenderness in these words? *' God has not given 
 you the light you need." 
 
 They say that that man was not a man at all, but it is the simple 
 creation of the nation's fancy. Glorious fancy! We should worship him, 
 for where has the nation's love and veneration ever produced a x^icture like 
 it? It appears to me as if it had been painted in three great panels. The 
 first period, the period of storm and stress, where he undertook the delivery 
 of his people, but God was not in it and so he failed. And then the second 
 period of retirement, of solitude, of self absorption, of preparation for the 
 great path; then the final picture shows us the man of action, the man of 
 energy, the man of insight, and the picture closes with the words, "No 
 man knows his grave to this day." Lonely he was in life, lonely he was in 
 death; but though no man knows his grave all the world knows his life. 
 
 Here, briefly, I will say something, as part of my duty, on his influence. 
 I can not circumscribe it. I know not where it ends. Every Christian 
 church on earth and every mosque is his monument. Peace is the founda- 
 tion stone, the historic foundation stone on which they all rest, and that 
 cross over the church on which the man is hung, which to the Christian is 
 the symbol of Deity itself, where he said that he must die so that the law 
 of Moses be fulfilled. And the Arabians' great master, Mahomet, why he is 
 overflowing in praise when the son of Amram comes to his mind. Five 
 hundred millions at least acknowledge him their master. Five hun- 
 dred millions more will bow to his name. I know not what human 
 society can be or become and allow that name to be forgotten. 
 
 Are his doctrines to be abolished? For two centuries, the first two 
 centuries of the Christian church, no other Bible was known but the Old 
 Testament, and to-day in every synagogue and temple, and on every day 
 and occasion of prayer, when his own followers come to the sacred shrine, 
 the whole mystery hidden, there is the law of Moses. And they take it in 
 their hands, and, oh, how often I have seen in my youth that scroll bedewed 
 with the tears of the poor suffering Jew, and they lift it up again and say, 
 " This is the law that Moses laid before the people of Israel." It is done 
 so at this very moment, at this very hour of our Sabbath, and I thank God 
 from my whole heart, and I feel inclined almost to say, " Now let thy serv- 
 ant go," that from the Jewish synagogue I could come here, among you 
 followers of other masters, disciples of other teachers, pilgrims from many 
 lands; that I could stand up in your midst, and, feeling that your heart, 
 and your soul, and your sympathy are with me, simply repeating "This is 
 the law that Moses has laid before us Israelites."
 
 300 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS INTERPRETED BY LITERATURE 
 
 BEV. THEODOEE T. HUNGER OP NEW HAVEN. 
 
 The paper was read by Dr. Barrows. 
 
 When Christianity appeared in the world it might have been regarded 
 in two ways: As a force requiring embodiment— 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 
 inevitable that Christianity as a conquering 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, spiritlike, 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 governments, art, learning, 
 science, literature, and whatever else enters into society as shaping and 
 directing energy. 
 
 I am to speak of Christianity as interjireted 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 conveys 
 itself to the world. 
 
 We should never lose sight of the fact that Christianity has its roots in 
 a full and varied ^ literature. It was a literature rich and profound in all 
 departments except philosophy. The Jew was too primitive and simple- 
 minded as a thinker to analyze his thought or his nature ; 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. 
 
 It is sometimes said that Christ left no book, and that He did not con- 
 template one ; and so men go searching around for the seat of authority, 
 locating it now in an infallible church, and now in Christian 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 something upon which He stood, nor from that ot the future, 
 as something which might embody Him. It is often 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 quo- 
 tation 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 asser- 
 tion; but He stood upon them not as an authoritative 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 tbem— using modern 
 phrases — was literary and critical; He emphasized, He selected and passed 
 over, taking what He 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 can not think of Christ apart 
 from this literature 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 
 invesing Himself 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.
 
 CHR STIAM TV AS INTERPRETED BY LI TERA TURE. 301 
 
 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 ethics should 
 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 of Christ's words are recorded to admit of classifying Him in 
 respect to literature. I speak to such as will understand me when I say 
 that Christ is to be put among the poets — not the singers of rhymes nor the 
 builders of epics, but those who see into the heart of things and feel the 
 breath of the Spirit — such are the poets. It matters not in what form 
 Christ spoke, He was yet a poet. Every sentence will bear the test. Put 
 the microscope over them and see how perfect they are in structure. Lay 
 your ear to them and hear how faultless is their note. Catch their spirit 
 and feel how true they are to the inner meaning of life, how full of God, 
 how keyed to eternity and its eternal hymn of truth and love. 
 
 The flrst literary products of Christianity, ajjart from those of its founder, 
 were the Epistles of St. Paul. It is difficult at present so to separate them 
 from the veneration in which they are held as to look at them in a free and 
 critical way. A prevailing dogma of inspiration shuts us out from both 
 their meaning and their excellence as compositions. They are not treatises, 
 but letters — one mind pouring itself out to others in a most human way 
 for high ends. What freedom, the current flowing here and there, as the 
 mood sways the main purpose, now pressing steadily on between the banks, 
 now overflowing them, going off and coming back, sometimes forgetting to 
 return; careless, but always noble; delicate, but always firm and massive; 
 imaginative, but always natural; original, full of resource, giving off the 
 overflow of his thought and still leaving the fovmtain full; often prosaic 
 and homely, but as often eloquent and overwhelming in power; a rough, 
 hearty, and careless writer, but who ever wrote better or to better purpose? 
 
 I hasten to name Dante, " the spokesman of ten silent centuries," as 
 Carlyle called him — the flrst if not the greatest name in Christian literature. 
 
 The Divine Comedy regarded superficially is medieval, but at the bot- 
 tom it is of all ages. It has for an apparent motive Order of the Roman 
 Church, but by the very law of inspiration, which may be defined to be 
 that which leads an author unconsciously to transcend' his purpose, Dante 
 condemned as a poet what he would have built up as a son of the church. 
 He meant to be constructive; he was revolutionary. By portraying the 
 ideal he revealed the hopelessness of the actual church. He was full of 
 errancy — political, ecclesiastical, theological— all easily separable from the 
 poet and the poem, but at bottom he was thoroughly true and profoundly 
 Christian. He is to be regarded as one called of God 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 perceptions, and as such they are essentially Christian. Greek 
 in his formal treatment of penalty, he goes beyond the Greek and is dis- 
 tinctly Christian in his conception of God and of sin. In the purgatory and 
 Paradise he enters a world unknown outside of Christian thought. In the 
 Greek tragedies mistake is equivalent 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) contains only sinners.
 
 302 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The strong point in Dante is that he ingrrafted into literature the pur- 
 gatorial charrcter of sin I ilo not say the ilogma of purgatory. Whatever 
 Protestant theology has clone with this truth, Protestant literature has pre- 
 served it, and, next to love, made it the leading factor in its chief imagi- 
 native works. Sin and its reaction, pain eating away the sin, purity and 
 wisdom through the suffering of sin, sin and its disclosure through con- 
 science—what else do we find in the great masterpieces of fiction and 
 poetr>', not, indeed, with slavish uniformity, but as a dominant thought. 
 Hawthorne wrote of nothing else ; it gives eternal freshness to his pages. 
 It runs like a golden thread through the works of George Eliot and makes 
 them other than they seem. The root idea of this conception of sin is 
 humanity— the chief theme of modern literature as it is of Christianity; 
 and it is the one because it is the other. This conception pervades liter- 
 ature because Christianity imparted it. 
 
 In Dante it was settled that henceforth Christianity should have litera- 
 ture for a mouthpiece. As the Renaissance and the Reformation prepared 
 the field— one bringing back lenrning and the other liberty— Christianity 
 began to vest itself in literary forms. We must look for Christianity in 
 literature, not as though listening to one singer after another, but rather 
 to the whole choir. The Fifth Symphony can not be rendered by a violin 
 or trumpet, but only by the whole orchestra. 
 
 The range is wide and long. It reaches from Dante to Whittier; from 
 Shakespeare to Burns and Browning; from Spenser to Longfellow and 
 Lowell; from Cowper to Shelley and Wordsworth; from Milton to Matthew 
 Arnold; from Bunyan to Hawthorne and Victor Hugo and Tolstoi; from 
 Thomas a Kempis and Pascal to Kant and Jonathan Edwards and Lessing 
 and Schliermacher and Coleridge and Maurice and Martineau and Robert- 
 son and Pairbairns; from Jeremy Taylor and South and Barrow and the 
 Cambridge Platonists to Emerson and Amiel and Carlyle; from Bacon to 
 Lotze; from Addison and Johnson to Goethe and Scott and Thackeray and 
 Dickens and George Eliot. 
 
 Christianity is a wide thing and nothing that is human is akin to it; nor 
 is it possible that any product of a single mind can more than hint at that 
 which 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 grace of God, and any book touched by the inspiration 
 of this fact belongs to Christian literature. Take the plays of Shakespeare; 
 there is hardly anything in them that is obviously Christian. Still they 
 are Christian because they are so thoroughly on the side of humanity. 
 How full of freedom; what a sense of man as a responsible agent; 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 strong, hope'f ul 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. Goethe is to be 
 regarded as one in whom Christianity won a victory, and he rendered it the 
 weightiest service by checking two powerful influences which, however 
 corrective and within limits useful, were pressing unduly upon the faith 
 and even threatening its existence — the infidelity of Voltaire and the 
 naturalism of Rousseau. Goethe set his hard German sense and loftier 
 inspiration against these poisoning and undermining influences, insisting 
 on reverence, and asserting a doctrine of nature that embraced will and 
 spirit and made them the sources of conduct. Goethe also rendered 
 Christianity an inestimable service in destroying the medieval conception 
 of the world as a piece of mechanism and of God as an " external world- 
 architect" — conceptions that had com-e in through the Latin theology, or 
 rather had been fostered by it. 
 
 The Christian value of an author is not to be determined bv the fullness
 
 CHR'STIANITY AS INTERPRETED BY LITERATURE. ^Ol 
 
 of his Christian assertion. Tiiereis, of course, immense value in the great, 
 positive, full-statuied believers like Dante, and Bacon, and Milton, and 
 Browning?. But Christianity is all the while in need of two thinj^s — correc- 
 tion of its mistakes and perversions, and development in the direction of 
 its universality. None can do these two things so well as those who are 
 partially outsiders. An earnest skeptic is often the best man to find the 
 obscured path of faith. 
 
 But if a doubter is often a good teacher and critic of Christianity, much 
 more is it true that it is often developed and carried along its proper 
 lines, not more by those who are within than by those who stand on the 
 boundary and cover both sides. Milton, though a great scholar of Chris- 
 tian 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 Christianity to think scientifically, 
 and prepared the way for it to include modern science. So of Shelley and 
 Matthew Arnold, and Emerson and the group of Germans represented by 
 Lessing and Herder, authors who with their Hellenistic tendencies repre- 
 sent a phase of thought and life which undoubtedly is to be brought 
 within the infolding scope of Christianity; and no one can do it so well as 
 those modern (J reeks. 
 
 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, 
 but 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 overborne or 
 undeveloped truth. There is no doubt the church has relied too exclu- 
 sively upon the miracles; Arnold reminds it that the substance of Chris- 
 tianity does not consist of miracles. It had come to worship the Bible as a 
 fetich, and to fill it with all sorts of magical meanings and forced dogmas, 
 the false and nearly fatal fruit of the Reformation. 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 destruc- 
 tion. Such teachers must be watched while they are listened to. We our- 
 selves must be critics when we read a critic. 
 
 In tracing our subject historically it is interesting to note a certain 
 progress or order of development, especially in the poets, in the treatment 
 of Christianity at the hands of literature. 
 
 In Chaucer and Shakespeare we have a broad, ethical conception of it, 
 free both from dogma and ecclesiasticism. The former mildly rebuked the 
 evils and follies of the church, but stood for the plain and simple virtues, 
 and gave a picture of a parish minister which no modern conception has 
 superseded. The latter denied nothing, asserted nothing concerning either 
 church or dogma, keeping in the higher region of life, but it was life per- 
 meated with the humanity and freedom of Christianity. Milton more than 
 half defeated his magnificent genius by weighing it with a mechanical 
 theology. 
 
 The later poets seldom forego their birthright of spiritual vision. Cowper 
 verged in the same direction, bvit saved himself by the humanity he wove 
 into his verse — a clear and almost new note in the world's music. But the 
 poets who followed him, closing up the last century and covering the first 
 of this, served Christianity chiefly by protesting against the theology in 
 which it was ensnared. The service rendered to the faith by such poets 
 as Burns and Byron and Shelley and William Blake 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 require apology from the theology which called 
 out the satire of Burns, and from the ecclesiasticism that provoked the 
 young Shelley even to atheism; the poet was not the real atheist.
 
 304 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 If Christianity is a spirit that seeks to 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 man as 
 the supreme law, and' they have found this law in God, who works in right- 
 eousness for its fulHllment. 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 can not quite attain to it. 
 Tennvson, 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 victo- 
 ries 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. 
 
 The most interesting fact in connection with our subject is the thorough 
 discussion Christianity is now undergoing in Hterature, and Tennyson is 
 the undoubted leader in the debate. It is not only in the highest form of 
 literary art, but it is based on the latest and fullest science. He turns 
 evolution into faiih and makes it the ground of hope. 
 
 It is not in the "In Memoriam," however, but in the "Idyls" that we have 
 his fullest explication 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 the real defenders of the faith, the prophets 
 and priests whose succession never fails. Leslie Stephen writes an enticing 
 plea for agnosticism, and seems to sweep the universe clean of faith and 
 God; we read Tennyson's "Higher Pantheism," "The Two Voices," "In 
 Memoriam," or Browning's " Saul," " Death in the Desert," or Wordsworth's 
 " Odes on Immortality and Duty," or Whittiers " 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 themselves 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 subject too 
 large and wide-spreading to be brought within an hour's space. To amend 
 for so scanty a treatment I will briefly enumerate the chief ways in which 
 literature becomes the interpreter of Christianity. 
 
 Literature interprets Christianity correctly for the plain reJason that both 
 are keyed to the spirit. The inspiration of high literature is that of truth; 
 it reveals the nature and meaning of things; which is the office of the spirit 
 that takes the things of Christ and shows them 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 ends, 
 and this is essential Christianity. 
 
 Literature in its highest forms is unworldly. It is a protest against the 
 worldly temper, the worldly motive, the worldly habit. It appeals to the
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. 305 
 
 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, I make all 
 things new." 
 
 Literature, in its higher ranges, is the correction of poor thinking — that 
 which is crude, extravagant, superstitious, hard, one-sided. This is 
 especially true in the realm of theological thought. 
 
 The theology of the West, with the Western passion for clearness and 
 immediate effectiveness, is mechanical 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 commanded 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 theology that insists upon 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 immanence as involving 
 pantheism; that makes two catalogues — the natural and the super- 
 natural — and puts everything it can understand into one list and 
 everything it can not 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 express 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 of His truth. 
 All the while, in every age, these children of light have made their protest, 
 and it is through them that the chief gains in theological thought have 
 been secured. 
 
 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, redeeming 
 it from dogmatism and making it capable of belief — not clear, perhaps, but 
 profound. 
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. 
 
 RT. EEV. MGR. SETON OF NEWARK. 
 
 Bible is the name now given to the sacred books of the Jews and Chris- 
 tians. Independently of all considerations of its moral and religious advan- 
 tages, we believe that no book has conduced more th-an the Bible to the 
 intellectual advancement of the human race; we believe that no book has 
 been to so many, and so abundantly, wealth in poverty, liberty in bondage, 
 health in sickness, society in solitude; 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 interesting 
 portion of ecclesiastical history. They have, also, been the occasion of relig- 
 ious differences in the Christian body; for, as that wise Englishman, John 
 Selden, said in his "Table Talk" of two centuries ago, "'Tis a great ques- 
 tion how we know scripture to be scripture, whether by the church or by 
 man's private judgment." We shall not discuss purely controversial mat- 
 ters; 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.
 
 306 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The church is a living society commissioned l)y Jesus Christ to preserve 
 the word of God pure and unchanged. This revealed word of God is con- 
 tained partly in the Hoi- Scripture and partly in tradition. The former is 
 called the written word of God. Writing, not necessarily, indeed, on 
 paper, but as often round 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 lasting shape, so as to hand them dowri to 
 other generations, and thus perpetuate historical records. There is a 
 special congruity that the Almighty, from whose instructions not only 
 originally spoken, but probably also written, language was derived, should 
 have put His divine revelations in writing through the instrumentality of 
 chosen men; and as the human race is originally one, we think that the 
 fact that scriptures of some sort claiming to be inspired are found in all 
 the civilized nations of the past shows that such conceptions, although 
 outside of the orthodox line of tradition, are derived from the primitive 
 unity and religion of the human family. 
 
 The church teaches that the Sacred Scriptures are the written word of 
 God and that He is their author, and consequently she receives them with 
 piety and reverence. This gives a distinct character to the Bible which no 
 other book possesses, for of no mere human composition, however excellent, 
 can it ever be said that it comes directly from God. The church also 
 maintains that it belongs to her — and to her alone— to determine the true 
 sense of the scriptures, and that they can not be rightly interpreted con- 
 trary to her decision; because she claims to be and is the living, unerring 
 authority to whom— and not to those who expound the scripture by the 
 light of private judgment — infallibility was promised and given. 
 
 Her teaching is the rule of faith, since she is a visible, perpetual, and 
 universal organization, possessed of legislative, executive, and judicial func- 
 tions. She is historically independent of the Holy Scriptures, some parts 
 thereof being anterior and other parts subsequent to her own existence, but 
 receives safeguards and preserves them as her most sacred deposit, some- 
 what as, to make a comparison taken from our civil polity, the government 
 of the United States in its three co-ordinate branches venerates, interprets, 
 and executes the American Constitution. 
 
 One of the duties incumbent upon the pastors of the church in the con- 
 duct of public worship has ever Ijeen the reading of the scriptures 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 — learned and scientific 
 as contrasted with scholastic and devotional interpretation of the Holy 
 Scripture, although never quite neglected, occupied 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 this Tridentine decree, which was partially directed against those 
 irreverent and sometimes blasphemous expounders of Holy Writ, whom the 
 council qualities as "petulant spirits." According to our view, the Bible 
 does not contain the whole of revealed truth, nor is it necessary for every 
 Christian to read and understand it. The church existed as an organized 
 society, having powers from her Divine Pounder to teach all nations, before 
 the scriptures as a whole existed and before there was a question or dis- 
 pute about any part of the r^criptures. 
 
 The redemption by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ being the 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. Dur- 
 ing this present century several popes have warned the faithful against 
 societies which distribute vernacular versions — often corrupt ones — with
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. 307 
 
 the avowed purpose of vinsettling the belief of simple-minded Catholics, 
 but it is unjust to conclude from thia that the church is not solicitous for 
 her children to read the Bible if this be correctly rendered into their lan- 
 guage and they possess the necessary qualitications and proper disposition. 
 
 The Christian church did not receive the canon of Old Testament script- 
 ure from the Jewish synagogue, because there was no 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) at Alexandria about 280 years B. C. and the 
 rest, made also in Egypt before 133 B. C, which contains several books now 
 thrown out by the Jews, was favorably viewed and almost constantly quoted 
 from by them, so that St. Augustine says that it is "of most grave and pre- 
 em.inent authority." It is supposed to be the oldest of all the versions of 
 the scriptures and was commonly used in the chvirch 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 St. Jerome's 
 Vulgate. 
 
 It was held 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 Cbristiane. 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 Testament which Catholics 
 acknowledge to be genuine. The Christian writers of the first three cent- 
 uries were unanimous in accepting these books as inspired; and the letter 
 of Pope St. 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 the author cites from almost every one of the books 
 of the Old Testament, including those called deuterocanonical and rejected 
 by the Jews. 
 
 At the council of Florence, the canon was not discussed. "A clear 
 proof," says Dixon in his general introduction to the Sacred Scripture, 
 " that the Greek and Latin churches were then unanimous upon this point.'' 
 At this period, A. D. 1439, the Decree of the 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 con- 
 troversy, the canonicity of the scriptures was thoroughly discussed and 
 forever settled for Catholics by the Council of Trent, which uses 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 ven- 
 erates with an equal affection of piety, and reverence, all the books, both 
 of the Old and of the New Testament — seeing that one God is the author 
 of both — and it has thought it meet that a list of the sacred hooks be in- 
 serted in this decree, lest a doub+^i may arise in anyone's mind which are 
 the books that are received by this synod." 
 
 Inspiration is a certain inlluence 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 pictures, in his course of 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, according to 
 Cattiolic doctrine contained botti in the apostolic writings and in un))rolvfiii tradi- 
 tion, must be held to be divine in this sense, chat they are the books of God as 
 their eflicient cause and that God is the author of these books by his supernatural 
 aciion upon their human writers, which action is styled inspiration in ecclesias- 
 tical terminology derived from the scriptureg themselves. 
 
 The Holy Scriptures have been translated into every language, but
 
 308 THE PARLIA3IENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 amonfi; these almost innumerable versions one only, which is called the 
 Vulgate, is authorized and declared to be " authentic " by the church. The 
 belief of the faithful being that the doctrinal authority of the church 
 extends to positive truths and "dogmatic facts" which, although not 
 revealed, are necessary for the exposition or defense of Revelation. 
 
 The Vulgate has an interesting history. It is the common opinion that, 
 from the first age of Christianity, one particular version made from the 
 Septuagmt was received and sanctioned by the Church of Rome and used 
 throughout the West. Among individual Christians almost innumerable 
 Latin translations were current, but only one of these, called the Old Latin, 
 bore an official stamp. 
 
 These translations, corrections, and portions left untouched by St. 
 Jerome, being brought together, form the Vulgate, which, however, did not 
 displace the Old Version for two centuries, although it spread rapidly and 
 constantly gained strength, until about A. D. 600 it was generally received 
 in the churches of the West and has continued ever since in common use. 
 In the collect for the feast of St. Jerome, September 30tli, he is called " A 
 doctor mighty in expounding Holy Scripture." 
 
 WHAT THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES HAVE 
 WROUGHT FOR MANKIND, 
 
 A paper by Alexander Kohut, D. D., Ph. D., rabbi of the 
 
 Congregation Ahawath Chesad, New York Citv, was read by 
 
 Rabbi Stolz, 
 
 To them who, cradled in the infancy of faith, rocked by the violent 
 tempests of adversity, and tried by passion waves of lurking temptation; 
 who, seeking virtue, find but vice; who, striving for the weal, gain but the 
 bleakest summit of realism; who, sorely pressed by rude time and ruder 
 destiny and whirled by gay balloons of chance into rainbow clouds of space, 
 redescend into the sad arena of mortal tragedy only to encounter fresh 
 shipwrecks in the turbulent oceans of existence ; God is the anchor of a 
 new-born hope, the electric quickener of life's uneven current, drifting into 
 His harbor of safest refuge from the hurricane of outward seas into glad- 
 some, cheery gulf shores of welcome peace, the placid water's sacred con- 
 sciousness, wherein no ship, no craft, no burden, and no trust ever founders, 
 the tranquil Bible streams. 
 
 Faith is a spark of God's own flame, 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 glorious past of the Jew, 
 suffused with the warmest sunshine of divine effulgence and human trust, 
 reflects the most perfect image of individual and national existence. Faith 
 —the Bible creed of Israel — was the first and most vital principle of uni- 
 versal ethics, and it was the Jew, now the Pariah pilgrim of ungrateful 
 humanity, who bequeathed the precious legacy to Semitic-Aryan nations; 
 who sowed the healthy seeds of irradicable belief in often unfertile ground, 
 but with inexhaustible vigor infused that inherent 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 Greeks from the stream, and the Romans from the pool," 
 applied by an able critic, is moreuniversallyacknowledged with the dawn of 
 unbiased reason, turned upon history with the Diogenes lantern of search- 
 ing justice. The religion of Israel is the grandest romance of idealism, 
 blended with the sedate realism of terrestial perpetuity.
 
 WHAT THE HEBREW SCIUPTUEES HAVE WROUGHT. 309 
 
 Every unprejudiced miud ^'ladjy ackuowlodges that the Bible, the divine 
 encyclopedia of unalieuablo lititlis and morals, belon},'s to the world, like 
 the sun, the air, the ocean, the rivers, the louutains— the commoa heirloom 
 of humanity. 
 
 The doctrine of divine unity, by collecting all the scattered race of beauty 
 and excellence, from every quarter of the universe, and condensing them 
 into one overpowering conception— by tracing the innumerable rills of 
 thought and feeUng to the fountain of an infinite mind surpasses the most 
 elegant and etherial polytheism immeasurably 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 tine dream of the pagan mythus melt away— Olympus, with its multi- 
 tude of stately, celestial natures dwindle 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 isone 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 phil- 
 osopher and the chronicler many peculiar circumstances nowhere else exem- 
 plified in any one branch of the great family of mankind, originating from 
 one common stem. In all the characteristics which distinguish the Israel- 
 ites 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 tire with a torch of blazing grandeur aglow with the combust- 
 ible 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 belief, was the guiding star in the 
 unstudded labyrinth of national and individual progress and inspiration. 
 The code bequeathed to Israel by their great law-giver contains, as a 
 modern exegetist, Wilkins, aptly remarked, " the only complete body of law 
 ever vouchased to a people at one time." The Mosaic ordinance, with its 
 unequaled mastery of detail, its comprehensiveness of character, its univer- 
 sality of human rights and rigid suppression of most trivial wrongs, its 
 earnest, nay, enthusiastic avow and championshipof truth, justice, morality, 
 and above all righteousness — yet the Mrmest seal of His imperishable docu- 
 ment — is the most unique marvel of lofty wisdom and divine forethought 
 ever penned into the inspired records of ancient history. 
 
 Righteousness, from its patriarchal primitiveness 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 commended by the 
 sages of the Talmud, embodying the frequent teachings of the Nazarene, 
 pleads most eloquently Judea's claim as the fii-st moral jjerceptor of antiq- 
 uity. 
 
 Bible ethics, justice, morality, righteousness, and all the mighty ele- 
 ments embodied in virtuous life are summed up in Judaism's great truths, 
 faithfully portrayed nnd preserved to mankind in that ponderous volume of 
 poetic inspirations. Israel's Bible first re-echoed the reverberating melody 
 of truth at a musical synonym for omniscience. 
 
 No more plausible evidence of scripture verity can be sighted than 
 Abraham, that stanch pioneer of monotheism, who, after mocking the 
 household gods of Terah, emerged from his gross sun oundings in Ur, of 
 Chaldean magic, unscathed by the stigma of sinful idolatry, and prosecuted 
 his noble mission of popularizing the God-idea with unabated vigor. The 
 same God with whom Abraham's chivalric spirit of brother-redeeming love 
 pleaded, Jacob's dreaming fancy beheld enthroned on the celestial ladder-
 
 310 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 top of sterling faith. The very same invigorating and omnipresent 
 impulse preserved Joseph's chastity ; lured Moses from his flocks to guide 
 a nation's destiny; led Joshua to victory; smote the enemies of Gideon, 
 and gave Sampson iron strength. David's lyre pealed forth, Solomon's wis- 
 dom lauded, and prophecy proclaimed the majesty of God, the only truth, 
 in poetry, in rhythmic prose, and in melody of song. What, then, is truth, 
 but faith; what, then, is faith, but trust in His sole unity, and where else 
 BO manifest as in Judea's inscribed Rock of Salvation? 
 
 Israel's entire history teems with apt illustration to preserve intact their 
 sublime doctrine of the All Father, and jealously guard every accessory to 
 higher, perfecter, conception of the jjotential deity — Jehovah, the Lord of 
 Ilosts. 
 
 We " search the writ," according to its liberal dictates and can not but 
 remark a tacit, unflinching, and unbending perseverance, continually on 
 the alert to comprehend and appropriate a deeper, more enlightening idea 
 of God and His ways. " We have seen," again remarks Matthew Arnold, 
 " how in its intuition of God — of that not ourselves, of which all mankind 
 form some conception or other — as the eternal that makes for righteous- 
 ness, the Hebrew race found the revelation needed to breathe the motion 
 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 this or that, other 
 than righteousness, 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 mankind by 
 Israel's Bible. It only remains to be briefly demonstrated to what degree 
 humanity is indebted to Hebrew Scriptures for gifts equally 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 blos- 
 somed the bud of polite arts, of the so much boasted sciences of later 
 Greece and plagerizing 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 advo- 
 cated, 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, Li^'y, or Herodotus? Were the dramas end tragedies of 
 Sophocles, yEschylus, and Euripides worthy of classification with the 
 masterpieces of realism and grand cormogonic conceptions, furnished us in 
 the soul-vibrating account of Job's martyrdom? In poetry aud hymnology 
 the harp of David is tuned to sv/eeter melody than Virgil's iEneid or Hor- 
 ace'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 Marcus 
 Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca, fade into insignificance before the edifying 
 discourse and moral chidings of Koheleth, whose very pessimism in con- 
 tradistinction to heathenish levity, failed not to inspire and instruct. Com- 
 pare the ethics of Aristotle with those pure gems of monition to truth, right- 
 eousness, and moral chastity contained in the Book of Proverbs, as confront 
 even the all-conquering wisdom of Socrates with Solomonic sagacity. "The 
 Zephyrs of Attica were as bland and Hellican and Parnassus were as lofty 
 and verdant before Jutlea 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
 
 WHAT THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES HAVE WROUGHT. 311 
 
 pouring forth their sublime symphonies in the holy land; yet none of all 
 the muses breathed their inspiration over Greece till the spirit of the Most 
 Hijjh had awakened the soul of letters and of arts in the nation of the 
 Hebrews. Not to Egypt, Phoenicia, or Syria, do Greece and her apt dis- 
 ciple, 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 extant which establish an impartial prior- 
 ity of culture and science before the Hebraic age. 
 
 Egypt is accredited with far too much distinction in knowledge which 
 she never possessed to any eminent degree. Recent excavations and dis- 
 coveries from ruins of her ancient cities tend to corroborate our view. A 
 mass of inscribed granite, a papyrus roll, or a sarcoi^hagus, bears the tell- 
 tale message of her standard in taste and her progress in art. " They 
 prove,"' says Husmer, " that if she was ever entitled 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 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 comparatively modern; while those confessedly of an earlier date have 
 marks of an age which may have excelled in compact solidity, but knew 
 little 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 of perfection 
 in the noble structure reared by Israel's mighty king in Jerasulem, of 
 which the holy tabernacle mounted by the Cherubim of 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 this is found in the record, 
 that endureth forever. Though the temple at Jerusalem was destroyed 
 before Greece became fully adorned with her splendid architecture, 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 excellency of beauty" was placed in the imperish- 
 able volume to be consulted 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. We must 
 ever return and sit at the feet of the Hebrew bards, who as teachers, as 
 poets, as truthful and earnest men as yet stand alone— unsurmounted and 
 unapproached — the Himalayan Mountains of mankind. 
 
 The Hebrew Scrijjtures, not mere trickery of fate, is the cause and 
 effect Oi the long levity 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 distant antiquity. 
 Forty, perhaps fifty, centuries rest upon this venerable contemporary of 
 Egypt, Chaldea, and Troy. The Hebrew defied the Pharaohs; with the 
 sword of Gideon he smote the Midianite; in Jephthah, the children of 
 Ammon. 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 tlie more force as the distance became great. He saw 
 the Hellenic flower bud, bloom, and wither upon the soil of Greece. He
 
 312 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 saw the wolf of Ivomo suckled on the banks of the Tiber, then prowl raven- 
 t)iiK 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 earth. 
 In every kingdom of the modern world there has been a Jewish element. 
 There are Hebrew clans in China, on the steppes of Central 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 to-day is the same as when Jeru- 
 salem was the peer of Tyre and Babylon. 
 
 And why not strive through the coming ages to live in fraternal con- 
 cord and harmonious unison with all the nations 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 and unselfish 
 brotherhood. Why not, then, admit the scions of the mother religion— the 
 wanderiug Jew of myth and harsh reality— into the throbbing affections 
 of faith-permeating, equitable peoples now inhabiting the mighty hemi- 
 spheres of culture and civilization? 
 
 Three religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islamism imbibed the liquid, 
 enlightenment from that virgin spring of truth, and yet they are distinct^ 
 estranged from each other by dogmatic separatism, and a fibrous accumu- 
 lation of prejudice which yet await the redeeming champion of old, who 
 with herculean grasp or irrevocable conviction should hurl far away the 
 lead-weight of passion and bigotry, of malice and egotism from the his- 
 torical streams of original truth, equity, and righteousness. Three relig- 
 ions and now many more are gathered at the sparkling fountain of a glo- 
 rious enterprise in the cause of truth, congregated beneath the solid splen- 
 dor of a powerful throne, wherein reclines the new monarch of disenthrall- 
 ing sentiment — a glorious sovereign 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 uncon- 
 querable as reasonand as immortal as the starry firmament of eternal 
 hope. 
 
 The scions of many creeds are convened at Chicago's sviccoring Parlia- 
 ment 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 burden brave Israel bore 
 for countless centuries — on the rebellious well of truth at last be shat- 
 tered into merciless fragments by that invention of every-day philosophy — 
 the gun-powder modern war — rational conviction; and finally, a blessed 
 destiny establish peace for all faiths and unto all mankind? Who knows? 
 
 THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE WORLD AS LITERA- 
 TURE, 
 
 PROF. MILTON S. TEKRY, OF THE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY. 
 
 There have been and probably yet exist some isolated 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 home are at 
 the same time washing beautiful corals and precious pearls on other shores. 
 We say, How circumscribed their vision; how narrow their world! But 
 the same may be said of anyone who is so circuTiscribed by the conditions 
 of race and language in which he has been reared that he has no knowledge 
 or appreciation of lands, nations, religions, and literatures, which differ from
 
 SACRED BOOKS OF THE WORLD AS LITERATURE. 313 
 
 his own. I am a Christian, and must needs look at things from a Christian 
 point of view. But that fact should not hinder the broadest observation. 
 Christian scholars have for centuries admired the poems of Homer, and 
 will never lose interest in the story of Odysseus, the myriad-minded Greek, 
 who traversed the roaring seas, touched many a foreign shore, and observed 
 the habitations and customs of many men. Will they be likely to discard 
 the recently deciphered Arcadian hymns and Assyrian penitential psalms? 
 Is it probable that men who can devote studious years to the philosophy of 
 Plato and Aristotle will care nothing about the invocations of the old Per- 
 sian Avesta, the Vedic hymns, the doctrines of Buddha and the maxims of 
 Confucius? Nay, I 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 iire just, wliatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, wliatever 
 things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, exer- 
 cise reason upon tliese 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 very outset acknowledge my ina- 
 bility to treat such a broad subject with anything like comprehensive 
 thoroughness. And had I the requisite knowledge and ability, the time at 
 my disposal would forbid. I can only glance at some notable character- 
 istics of this varied literature, and call attention to some few things which 
 are worthy of protracted study. 
 
 1 commence with a quotation from the treatise of the old Chinese phil- 
 osopher, Lao Tsze, where he gives utterance to his conception of the 
 infinite. He 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 may 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 pervaded 
 everywhere and was not endangered. It may be regartied 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 it passes away; 
 passing away, I say that it is far off; being far off, 1 say that it returns. Novv, 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 takes 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 production 
 of an ancient sage, born 600 years before the Christian Era. He had no 
 Pentateuch or Hexateuch to enlighten him; no Isaiah to prophesy to him; 
 no Vedic songs addressed to the deities of earth, and sea, and air; no pil- 
 grim from 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 that disturbed him with the joy 
 Of elevated thoughts, a senfie sublime 
 Of something far more deeply 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 Essence of 
 Things. But the very mystery that attaches to the word becomes an ele- 
 ment of power in the literary features of the book. That suggestiveness
 
 314 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of BomethitiL' great ami yet intangible— a Bomething that awes and im- 
 presses and yet eludes our grasp -is recognized by all great writers and 
 critics as a conspicuous element in the masterpieces of literature. 
 
 I have purposely chosen 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. 10, 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. 
 
 Tlien there was nothing, being nor not-being, 
 The atmosphere vras 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 (lay and night there was yet no distinction. 
 Alone that one breathed calmly, self-supported. 
 Other than it was none, nor aught above it. 
 
 Darkness there was at flrst 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 flrst time there arose desire. 
 Which was the primal germ of mind, within it. 
 And sages, searching in their heart, 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 gods lived? 
 Who. then, can Know from what it has arisen? 
 
 The source from which this universe has risen 
 And whether it was made, or increated, 
 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 beginning of 
 Ovid's Metamorphoses, where we have a Roman poet's conception 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" produced the visible order of 
 beauty of the world. The old Scandinavians 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 theri' was neither land nor sea; 
 Earth there was not nor lofty heaven, 
 A yawning deep, but verdure none. 
 Until Bor's sons the spheres upheaved, 
 And formed the mighty midguard round; 
 Then bright the sun shone on ttie cliffs. 
 And green tne ground became with plants. 
 
 I need not quote, but only allude to the Chaldean account of creation, 
 recently diciphered from the monuments, and the opening chapter of the 
 Book of Genesis, which contains what modern scholars are given to calling 
 the "Hebrew poem of Creation." In this we have the sublime but vivid 
 pictures 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 composition bears 
 the marks of an individual genius. He may, and probably does, in every
 
 SACRED BOOKS OF THE WORLD AS LITERATURE. 315 
 
 case express the current belief or tradition of his nation, but his description 
 reveals a human mind wrestUnj^r with the mysterious problems of the world, 
 and suggesting, if not announcing, some solution. As specimens of litera- 
 ture the various poems of creation exhibit a world-wide taste and tendency 
 to cast in poetic form the profoundest thoughts which busy the human 
 soul. 
 
 I turn now to that great collection of ancient Indian songs known as the 
 Rigveda. As a body of sacred literature it is esi>ecially expressive 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 tlnd many 
 tiresome and un'nteresting compositions. It is believed by those best 
 competent to judge that, in the oldest hymns, we have a picture of an 
 original and primitive 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 Vedic hymns 
 reveal to us the ancient Aryans at the time when 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 2,000 years thereafter. 
 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 them- 
 selves with the spoil of the enemies. All these things find expression in 
 the Vedic songs, and a popular use of them implies an ardent worship of 
 nature. 
 
 The principal earth-god, 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 are without number, and the vivid poet- 
 ical concept of their nature is seen in the idea that he lies concealed in the 
 soft wood, and when two sticks are rubbed together Agni springs forth in 
 gleaming brightness and devours the sticks which were his parents. He 
 is also born amid the rains of heaven and comes down as lightning to the 
 earth. 
 
 Take the following as a fair specimen of many hymns of praise addressed 
 to the god of fii'e: 
 
 O Agni, graciously accept this wood ttiat I offer thee, and this my service, and 
 listen to my songs. Jlerewith we worship tliee, O Agni, tliou highborn, thou con- 
 queror of horses, thou son of power. With songs we worship thee who lovest 
 song, who givest riches and art lord thereof. Be 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 
 thousandfold. To him who praises thee and seeks thy help, draw near, O young- 
 est messenger and noblest priest of the gods, draw near tlirough song. O 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 sacriflcia! 
 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 fertilizing 
 rains. The numerovxs poems addressed to him abound in images which are 
 said to be especially forcible to such as have lived some time in India and 
 watched the phenomena of the changing seasons there. The clouds are 
 conceived as the covering of hostile demons, who hide the sun, darken the 
 world, and hold back the heavenly waters from the thirsty earth. It is 
 Indra's glory that he alone is able to vanquish those dreadful demons. All 
 the other gods shrink back from the roaring monsters, but Indra, armed 
 with his fatal thunderbolt, smites them with rapid lightning strokes, ruins
 
 316 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 their power; pierces 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. But Indra pursues them thither, 
 si)lits 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 conquer in the end. Hence he is the 
 ideal hero whom the warrior trusts and adores. 
 
 On him all men must call amid the battle; 
 He.luKli adored, alone has power to succor. 
 TliG man who offers him prayers and libations, 
 Him Indra's arm helps 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 ihe 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 of Aurora, the goddess of the dawn? She 
 opens the gates of the 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 sacred scriptures of Buddhism comprise three immense collections 
 known as the Tripitaka or " three baskets." One of these contains the 
 discourses of Buddha, another treats of doctrines and metaphysics, and 
 another is devoted to ethics and discipline. In bulk these writings rival 
 all that was ever included under the title of Veda, and contain more than 
 seven times the amount of matter in the scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testaments. The greater portion of this extensive literature, in the most 
 ancient texts, exists as yet only in manuscript. But as Buddhism spread 
 and triumphed mightily in Southern and Eastern Asia, its sacred books 
 have been translated into Pali, Burmese, Siamese, Tibetan, Chinese, and 
 other Asiatic tongues. The Tibetan edition of the Tripitaka fills about 325 
 folio volumes. Every important tribe or nation which has adopted Bud- 
 dhism appears to have a more or less complete Buddhist literature of its own. 
 But all this literature, so vast that one lifetime seems insufficient to explore 
 it thoroughly, revolves about a comparatively few and simple doctrines. 
 First we have the four sublime Verities. (1) All existence, being subject to 
 change and decay, is evil. (2) The source of all this evil is desire. (3) 
 Desire and the evil which follows it may be made to cease. (4) There is a 
 fixed and certain way by which to attain exemption from all evil. Next 
 after these Verities are the doctrines of the Eightfold Path: (1) Right 
 Belief, (2) Right Judgment, (3) Right Utterance, (4) Right Motive, (5) Right 
 Occupation, (6) Right Obedience, (7) Right Memory, and (8) Right Medi- 
 tation. Then we have further. Five Commandments: (1) Do not kill; (2) 
 Do not steal; (3) Do not lie; (4) Do not become intoxicated; (5) 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 purifying of intelligence. Go on this way. 
 Everything else is the deceit of the tempter. If you go on this way you will make 
 an end of pain. The way was preached by men wheni 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 
 this becomes passive in pain; this is the way that leads to purity. 
 
 We who are raised under a Western civilization can see little that is 
 attractive in the writings of Buddhism. The genius of Edwin Arnold has 
 set the story of the chief doctrines of Buddha in a brilliant dress in his
 
 SACRED BOOKS OF THE WORLD AS LITERATURE. 317 
 
 poem of the " Light of Asia," but the Buddhist scriptures as specimens 
 of Hterature 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 worthy of note that, as Christianity 
 originated among the Jews, but has had its chief triumphs among the 
 Gentiles, so Buddhism 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 Confucianism, 
 which is par excellence the religion of the Chinese Empire. But Confucius 
 was not the founder of the religion which is associated with his name. He 
 claimed merely to have studied deeply into antiquity and to be a teacher 
 of the records and worship of the past. The Chinese classics comprise the 
 five King and the four Shu. The latter, however, are the works of Con- 
 fucius' disciples, and hold not the rank and authority of the five King. 
 The word King means a web of cloth (or the warp which keeps the thread 
 in place) and is applied to the most ancient books of the nation as works 
 possessed of a sort of canonical authority. Of these ancient books the 
 Shu King and the Shih King are of chief importance. One is a book of 
 history and the other of poetry. The Shu King relates to a period extend- 
 ing over seventeen centuries from about 2357 B. C. to 627 B. C, and is 
 believed to be the oldest of all the Chinese Bible and consists of ballads 
 relating to events of the national history and songs and hymns to be sung 
 on great state occasions. They exhibit a primitive simplicity and serve to 
 picture forth the manners of the ancient time. The following is a fair 
 example of the odes used in connection with the worship of ancestors. 
 A young 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 examiile of my shrived father? 
 
 Ah! far-reaching were his plans, 
 
 And I am not able to carry them out. 
 
 HoweviT 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 precept may be cited 
 from the sacred books, but the whole system logically resolves into one of 
 worldly wisdom rather than of spiritual life. Confucius says: 
 
 When I was fifteen years old I longed for wisdom. At thirtymy mind was fixed 
 in pursuit of it. At forty 1 saw certain principles clearly. At fifty I understood the 
 rule given by heaven. At sixty everything 1 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 East to those of the 
 West I linger for a moment over the religious writings of the ancient 
 Babylonians and 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 probably rival the Veda in interest, 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 bright gates welcome thee favorably; 
 May the door of heaven be docile to thee;
 
 318 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 May tho trod director, thy faithful messenger, mark the way. 
 
 In IbSm^smt of thy royalty, he makes thy greatness shine for thee. 
 
 May the moon, thy beloved spouse, come to meet thee with joy. 
 
 May thy heart rest in peac»'. -.u *k „ 
 
 May tho glory of thy godhead remain with thee. 
 
 Powerfulhero. O sun ! shine gloriously. 
 
 Lord of Ebara, direct thy foot rightly in thy road. 
 
 O sun. in making thy way. take the patli marked for thy rays. 
 
 Thou art tho Lord of judgments over all nations. 
 Ab for tho sacred scriptureB of the Parsees, the Avesta, it may be said 
 that few remains of antiquity are of much greater interest to the stu- 
 dent of liistorv and religion. But these records of the old Iranian taith 
 have suffered sadly by time and the revolutions of the empire. One who 
 has made them a special life study observes : " As the Parsees are the ruins 
 of a people, so are their sacred books the ruin of a religion. There has been 
 no other great belief that ever left such poor and meager monuments ot its 
 past splendor." The oldest portions of the Avesta consist of praises to the 
 holy powers of heaven and invocations for them to be present at the cere- 
 monial 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 compila- 
 tion 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 wallc of tombs. Some 
 of the tombs contain exactly the same characters, or follow the same 
 arrangement. The text is accordingly very corrupt. The writing was not, 
 in fact, intended for mortal eyes, but to be buried with th^ dead, and the 
 prayers are, for the most part, language supposed to be used by the departed 
 in their progress through the underworld. We can therefore hardly expect 
 to tind in this strange book anything that will greatly interest us as litera- 
 ture. Its value is in the knowledge it supplies of the, ancient Egyptian 
 faith. The blessed dead are supijosed to have the use of all their limbs, 
 and to eat and drink, and to enjoy an existence similar to that which they 
 had known on earth. But they are not confined to 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 desire. We find in one chapter an 
 account of the terrible nature of certain divinities and localities which the 
 deceased must encounter, gigantic and venomous serpents,gods with names 
 significant of death and destruction, waters, and atmospheres of flames. But 
 none of these prevail over him; he passes through all things without harm, 
 and lives in peace with the fearful gods who preside over these fearful abodes. 
 The following is a specimen of invocations to be used in passing through 
 such dangers: 
 
 O Ra, in thine egg. radiant in thy disn. shining forth from the horizon, swim- 
 ming over the steel firmament, sailing over the pillars of Shu;— thou who hast 
 no second among the gods, who produced the wirds by the flames of thy 
 mouth, and who enlightenest 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 n^ght when Aanit was weighed. 
 
 The Mohammedan Bible is a comparatively modern book. It is a ques- 
 tion whether its author ever learned to read or write. He dictated his 
 revelations to his disciples and they wTote 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 accord- 
 ing to the length of the chapters, beginning with the longest and ending 
 with the shortest. As a volume of sacred literature 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 repetition and seems incapable of happy trans- 
 lation into any other language. Its crowning glory is its glowing Arabic
 
 INSPIRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE. 319 
 
 diction. Mohammed himself insisted that the marvelous excellence of his 
 book was a standing proof of its superhuman origin. "If men and genii," 
 says he, " united themselves together to bring the like of the Koran they 
 could not bring the like, though they should back each other up." 
 
 In view of the limit of my space and time, I propose to omit particidar 
 notice of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. The New Testanunt 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 writ- 
 ings are surpassed by the scriptures of the Old Testament. In giving the 
 palm to the sacred books of the Hebrews, I will simply add tiie words of 
 Sir William Jones, written on a blank leaf of his Bible. That that distin- 
 guished scholar was a most competent critic and judge none will dispute. 
 He wrote: 
 
 I am of opinion that this vohiruo, independently of its divine origin, con- 
 tains more true sublimity, more oxiiuisite beauty, more pure morality, moi-e 
 important hist, ry, and liner strains of poetry and elo(juence than fan be col- 
 lected from all other books in whatever ago or language they may Lave been 
 wiitten. 
 
 THE CHARACTER AND DEGREE OF THE INSIPRA- 
 TION OF THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE. 
 
 KEY. FRANK SEWELL CF WASHINGTON. D. C. 
 
 There is a common consent among Christians that the Scriptures, 
 known as the Holy Bible, are divinely inspired, that they constitute a book 
 unlike all other books, in that they contain a direct communication from 
 the Divine Sjjirit to the mind and heart of man The nature and the 
 degree of the inspiration which thus characterizeb the Bible can only be 
 learned from the declaration of the Holy Scriptures themselves, since only 
 the divine can truly reveal the divine or afford to human minds the 
 means of judging truly regarding what is divine. 
 
 The Christian Scripture, or the Holy Bible, is 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 essential Word 
 which, in the beginning was with God and was God, became incarnate on 
 our earth in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, as the Word made 
 flesh and dwelling among men, being himself *' the true light that lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world," placed the seal of divine authority 
 upon certain of the then existing Sacred Scriptures. He thus forever fixed 
 the divine canon of that portion of the written word ; and from that por- 
 tion we are entitled to derive a criterion of judgment regarding the degree 
 of divine inspiration and authority to be attributed to those other scrip- 
 tures which were to follow after our Lord's ascension and which constitute 
 the New Testament. 
 
 The Divine Canon of the word in the Old Testament Scriptures is 
 declared by our Lord in Luke xxiv, 4i, where he says, " All things must be 
 fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in th3 Protjhets, and 
 in the Psalms concerning Me." And in verses 2.5 to 27: *'0, fools and slow 
 of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken"— and beginning at 
 Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scripture 
 things concerning Himself. 
 
 The scriptures of the Old Testament, thus enumerated as testifying of 
 Him and as being fulfilled in Him, embrace two of the three divisions into 
 which the Jews at that time divided their sacred books. These two are the 
 Law (Torah), or the Five Books of Moses so-called, and the Prophets 
 (Nebiiin). Of the books contained in the third division of the Jewish 
 Canon, known as the Ketubin, or " Other Writings," our Lord recognizes
 
 320 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 but two; he names by title, " The Psalms; " and in Matthew xxiv, 15, when 
 predictiuf,' the consiunmation of the age and His own second coming, our 
 Lord cites the proijhecy of Daniel. It is evident that our Lord was not 
 governed bv Jewish tradition in naming these three classes of the ancient 
 Ixxjks whicli were henceforth to be regarded as essentially " The Word," 
 because of having their fulfillment in Himself. 
 
 In the very words of Jesus Christ the canon of the word is established 
 in a two-fold manner: First, intrinsically, as including those books which 
 interiorly testify of him. and were all to be fulfilled in him. Secondly, the 
 canon is'tixed specifically by our Lord's naming the books which compose it 
 under the three divisions: "The law, the prophets, and the psalms." 
 
 The canon in this sense comprises consequently the 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" and the twelve "minor" Pro- 
 phets, and finally the book of Psalms. 
 
 The other books of the Old Testament, namely: Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, 
 Proverbs, First and Second Clironicles,Ruth,Esther, the Songs of Solomon, 
 and Ecclesiastes. as well as the so-called " Apocrypha." Of these books, 
 which compose the Divine Canon itself, it may be said that they constitute 
 the inexhaustilile source of revelation and inspiration. We may regard, 
 therefore, as established that the source of the divinity of the Bible, of its 
 unity, and its authority as divine revelation li'^s in having the Christ — as 
 the Eternal 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 spiritual things, to "convert the soul," to "make wise the 
 simple." 
 
 We next observe regarding these divine books that, besides being thus 
 set apart tTy Christ, they declare themselves to be the word of the Lord in 
 the senbe of being actually spoken by the Lord and so as constituting a 
 divine language. This shows that not only do these books claim to be of 
 God's revealing, but that the manner of the revelation was that of direct 
 dictation by means of a voice actually heard, as one hears another talking, 
 although by the internal organs of hearing. The same is also true through- 
 out the prophetical books above enumerated. Here we are met with the 
 constant declaration of the "Word of the Lord coming," as the "Voice of 
 the Lord speaking," to the writers of these books, showing that the writers 
 wrote not of themselves, but from the "Voice of the Lord through them." 
 
 We now turn to the New Testament, and applying to these books which 
 in the time of Christ were yet unwritten, criteria derived from those books 
 which had received from him the seal of divine authority, namely: That 
 they are words spoken by the Lord or given by His spirit, and that they 
 testify of Him and so have in them eternal life, we find in the Pour Gospels 
 either: 
 
 1. The words "spoken unto" us by our Lord Himself when among men 
 as the Word, and of which He says: "The words which I speak unto you 
 they are spirit and they are life." 
 
 2. The acts done by Him or to Him "that the scriptures might be 
 fulfilled," or finally the words "called to the remembrance" of the Apostles 
 and the Evangelist by the Holy Spirit, according to His promise to them in 
 John xiv, 26. Besides the four gospels we have the testimony of John the 
 Revelator that the visions recorded in the Apocalypse were vouchsafed to 
 him y^y the Lord Himself, thus showii'ig that the Book of Revelation is no 
 mere personal communication from the man John, but the actual revelation 
 of the Divine Spirit of Truth itself. 
 
 No such claims of direct divine inspiration or dictation are made in any 
 other part of the New Testament. Only to the Four Gospels and to the 
 Book of Revelation could one presume to apply these words, written at the
 
 INSPIRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE. 321 
 
 close of the Apocalypse and applying immediately to it: " If any man shall 
 take away from the words of the prophecy of this book God shall take 
 away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City, and from the 
 things which are written in this book." In the portion of the Bible which 
 we may thus distinguish i)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 evangelists themselves 
 heard and the acts which they beheld and recorded had a meaning and 
 content of which they were partially and in some cases totally ignorant. 
 Thus when our Lord speaks of the "eating of His Hesh" the disciples 
 murmur, "This is a hard saying; who can bear it?" and when He speaks 
 of "going away to the Father and coming again" the discijiles say among 
 themselves, " What is this that He saith? We can not tell what He saith." 
 
 If we look at the Apocalypse, with its strange visions, its mysterious 
 numbers and signs; if we read the prophets of the Old Testaments, with 
 their commingling of times, and nations, and lands, and seas, and things 
 animate and inanimate, in a manner discordant with any conceival)l(' 
 earthly history or chronology; if we read the details of the ceremonial law 
 dictated to Moses in the Mount by the "voice of Jehovah;" if we read in 
 Genesis the account of creation and of the origins of human history, we 
 are compelled to admit that the j)enmen recording these things were writing 
 that of which they knew not the meaning; that what they wrote did not 
 represent their intelligence or counsel, but was the faithful recoril 
 of what was delivered to them by the voice of the Spirit speaking inwardly 
 to them. Here, then, we see the manner of divine revelation in human 
 language, again definitely declared and exemplified in Jesus the word 
 incarnate, in that not only in his acts did he employ signs and miracles, 
 but in teaching his disciples he " spake in parables," and " without a par- 
 able spake he not to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by 
 the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things 
 which have been kept sacred from the foundation of the world." We learn, 
 therefore, that the divine language is that of parable wherein things of the 
 kingdom of heaven are clothed in the f amilar tigures of earthly speech and 
 action. 
 
 If the Bible is divine the law of its revelation must be coincident with 
 that of divine creation. Both are the involution of the Divine and Infinite 
 in a series of veils or symbols, which become more and more gross as they 
 recede from their source. In revelation the veilings of the divine truth of 
 the essential word follow in accordance with the receding and more and 
 more sensualized states of mankind upon earth. Hence, the successive dis- 
 pensations, or church eras, which mark off the whole field of human history. 
 After the Eden days of open vision, when "heaven lay about us in our in- 
 fancy," followed the Noetic era of a sacred language, full of heavenly mean- 
 ings, traces of which occur in the hieroglyphic writings and the great world- 
 myths of most ancient tradition ; then came the visible and hicalizcd the- 
 ocracy of a chosen nation, with laws and ritual and a long history of its 
 war and struggle and victory and decline, and the promise of a final renewal 
 and perpetuation ; all being at the same time a revelation of God's provi- 
 dence and government over man, and a picture of the process of the regen- 
 eration of the human soul and its preparation for an eternal inheritance in 
 heaven. 
 
 But even the law of God thus revealed in the form of a national consti- 
 tution, hierarchy, and ritual was at length made of none effect through the 
 traditions of men, and men " seeing saw not, and hearing heard not, neither 
 did they understand." Then for the redemption of man in this extremity 
 ■' the Word itself was made flesh and dwelt among us," and now, in the veil 
 of a humanity subject to human temptation and suffering, even to the death 
 upon the cross.
 
 322 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIOJSlS. 
 
 Thus the process of the evokition of the spirit out of the veil of the 
 letter of the scripture, begun in our Lord's own interpretation of the "Law 
 for those of ancient time," is a process to whose further continuance the 
 Lord Himself testifies. The letter of scripture is the cloud which every- 
 where proclaims the presence of the Infinite God with His creature man. 
 The cloud of the Lord's presence is the infinitely merciful adaptation of 
 divine truth to the spiritual needs of humanity. The cloud of the literal 
 fjospel, and of the apostolic traditions of our Lord, is truly typified by that 
 cloud which received the ascending Christ out of the immediate sight of 
 men. The same letter of the word is the cloud in which He makes known 
 His second coming in power and great glory, in revealing to the church the 
 inner and spiritual meanings of both the Old and New Testament of His 
 word. For ages the Christian church has stood gazing up into heaven in 
 adoration of Him whom the cloud has hidden from their sight, and with 
 the traditions of human dogma, aod the warring of schools and critics, 
 more and more dense has the cloud become. In the thickness of the cloud 
 it behoves the church to hold the more fast its faith in the glory within 
 the cloud. 
 
 The view of the Bible and its inspiration thus presented is only one 
 compatible with a belief in it as a divine in contradistinction frorn a 
 human production. Were the Bible a work of human art, embodying 
 human genius and human wisdom, then the question of the writers' indi- 
 viduality and their personal inspiration and even of the time and circum- 
 stances amid which they wrote would be of the fii'st importance. Not so 
 if the divine inspiration and wisdom is treasured up in the very words 
 themselves as divinely chosen symbols and parables of eternal truth. Far 
 from placing a human limitation upon the divine spirit, such a verbal 
 inspiration as this opens in the Bible vistas of heavenly and divine mean- 
 ings, such as they could never possess were its inspiration confined to the 
 degree of intelligence possessed by the human writers, even under a special 
 illumination of their minds. 
 
 The difference between inspired words of God and inspired men writing 
 their own words is like that between an eternal fact of nature and the 
 scientific theories which men have formulated upon or about it. The fact 
 remains forever a source of new discovery and a means of ever new revela- 
 tion of the divine; the scientific theories may come and go with the 
 changing minds of men. 
 
 It is not then, from man, from the intelligence of any Moses, or Daniel, 
 or Isaiah, or John, that the word of God contains its authority as divine, 
 the authority must be in the words themselves. If they are unlike all 
 other words ever written; if they have a meaning, yea worlds and worlds of 
 meaning, one within or above another, while human words have all their 
 meaning on the surface; if they have a message whose truth is dependent 
 upon no single time or circumstance, but speaks to man at all times and 
 under all circumstances; if they have a validity and an authority self -dic- 
 tated to human souls which survives the passingof earthly monuments and 
 powers, which speaks in all languages, to all minds — wise to the learned, 
 simple to the simple — if, in a word, these are words that experience shows 
 no man could have written from the intelligence belonging to his time, or 
 from the experience of any single human soul, then we may feel sure that 
 we have in the words of our Bible that which is diviner than any penman 
 that wrote them. 
 
 Here is that which " speaks with authority and not as the scribe. " The 
 words that God speaks to man are " spirit and are life. " The authorship 
 of the Bible and all that this implies of divine authority to the con- 
 science of man is contained, like the frame of Urim and Thummim, on the 
 breast-plate of the high-priest, in the bosom of its own language to reveal 
 itself by the spirit to all who will " have an ear to hear, " So shall it
 
 BUDDHISM. {\Z\ 
 
 continue to utter the " dark parables of old which \vc have known and our 
 t.ithers have told us," and " to show forth to all ^'enerations tlie praises of 
 ihe Lord, " becomin*,' ever more and more translucent with the plury that 
 shines within the cloud of the letter; ami so shall the church rest, amid all 
 the contentions that enf^afre tl.oso who study the surface of revelation, 
 whether in nature or in scripture, in the undisturbed ascurance that the 
 '• word of the Lord abideth forever. " 
 
 BUDDHISM. 
 
 BANRIEU YATSUBUCHI 0¥ JAPAN. 
 
 The paper was read by Z. Noguchi. 
 
 The radiating light of the civilization of the present century, to be 
 seen in Europe and America, is rellected on all corners of the earth. My 
 country has already opened international intercourse, and made rapid 
 progress, owing to America, for which I return many thanks. The present 
 state of the world's civilization, however, is limiteil always to the near 
 material world, and it has not yet set forth the best, most beautiful, and 
 most truthful spiritual world. It is because every religion, stooping in each 
 corner, neglects its duty of universal love and brotherhood. But, at last, 
 the day came, fortunately, that all religions sent their members to attend the 
 World's Religious Congress in connection with the Columbian Exposition 
 of 1^93. 
 
 Buddhism is the doctrine taught by Buddha Shakyamuni. The word 
 Buddha is Sanskrit, and in the Japanese it is Satorim, which means under- 
 standing or comprehension. It has three meanings- self-comprehension, 
 to let others comprehend, and perfect comprehenbion. When wisdom and 
 humanity are attained thoroughly by one he may be called Buddha, which 
 means perfect comprehension. In Buddhism we have Buddha as our 
 Savior, the spirit incarnate of perfect self-sacrifice, and divine compassion, 
 and the embodiment of all that is pure and good. Although Buddha was 
 not a creator, and had no power to destroy the law of the universe, he had 
 the power of knowledge to know the origin of nature, and end of each 
 revolving manifestation of the universal phenomena. He suppressed the 
 craving and passions of his mind until he could reach no higher spiritual 
 and moral plane As every object of the universe is one part of the truth, 
 of course it may become Buddha, according to a natural reason. 
 
 The only ditt'erence between Buddha and all other beings is in point of 
 supreme enlightenment. Kegon Sutra teaches us that there is no distinc- 
 tion between mind, Buddha, and beings, and Nirvana Sutra also teaches us 
 that all beings have the nature of Buddhahood. If one does not neglect to 
 purify his mind and to increase his power of religion, he may take in the 
 spiritual world or space and have cognizance of the past, present, and future 
 in his mind. Kishinron tells us that space has no limit, that the worlds arc 
 innumerable, that the beings are countless, that Buddhas are numberless. 
 Buddhism aims to turn from the incomplete, superstitious world to the 
 complete enlightenment of the world of truth. 
 
 The complete doctrinces of Buddha, who spent fifty years in elaborating 
 them, were preached precisely and carefully, and their meanings are so pro- 
 found and deep that I can not explain at this time an intinitesimal part of 
 them. His preaching was a compass to point out the direction to the 
 bewildering spiritual world. He taught his disciples just as the doctor cures 
 his patient, by giving several medicines according to the different cases. 
 Twelve divisions of Sutras and 8i,0U0 laws made to meet the different cases 
 of Buddha's patients in the suffering world are minute classifications of 
 Buddha's teaching. Why are there so many sects and preachings in
 
 324 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONH. 
 
 Buddhism? Simply because of the differences in human character. His 
 teaching may be divided under four heads: Thinking about the general 
 state of the world; thinking about the individual character simply; con- 
 quering the passions; giving up the life to the sublime first principle. 
 
 There is no room for censure because Buddhisn\ has many sects which 
 were founded on Buddha's teachings, because Buddha considered it best to 
 preach according to the spiritual needs of liis hearers, and leave to them 
 the choice of any particular sect. We are not allowed to censure other 
 sects, because the teaching of each guides us all to the same place at last. 
 The necessity for separating the many sects arose from the fact that the 
 people of different countries were not alike in dispositions and could not 
 accept the same truths in the same way asotheis. One teaching of Buddha 
 contains many elements v.hich are to be distributed and separated. But 
 the object, as taught by Buddha, is one we teach the ignorant according to 
 the conditions that arise through our different sects. If you wish to know 
 about Buddhism thoroughly you must begin the study of it. ThoFe of you 
 who would care lo know the outline of Buddhism might read Professor 
 Nanjo's English translation of the "History of the Japanese Buddhist 
 Sects." This v.'ill also give you a general idea of the Buddhism of Japan. 
 
 Before leaving this platform I wish to say something more. Not many 
 years have passeil since my country became known to the civilized world. 
 Even now the customs and conditions of Japan are not known to foreign- 
 ers, with very few exceptions. The heart of my country, the power of my 
 country, and the light of my country is Buddhism. That Buddhism, the 
 real Buddhism, is n')t known to the world. Some take Buddhism to be 
 polytheism, some say it is idolatry, some pessimism, and some regard it as a 
 barbarous religion They are very far from the truth. I understand that 
 the object of the World's Religious Congress is to give a new life anfl light 
 to the struggling, material world of the present century. It is in this spirit 
 that I have contributed this short account of Buddhism. 
 
 OUTLOOK FOR JUDAISM. 
 
 MISS JOSEPHINE LAZARUS. 
 
 The paper was read by Mrs. Max Leopold, who was intro- 
 duced by Dr. George Dana Boarchnan, the chairman of the 
 afternoon session. 
 
 The 19th century has had its surprises; the position of the Jews 
 to-day is one of these, both for the Jew himself and for most enlightened 
 Christians. There were certain facts we thought forever laid at rest, 
 certain conditions and contingencies that could never confront vis again, 
 certain war-cries that could not be raised. In this last decade of our civil- 
 ization, however, we have been rudely awakened from our false dream of 
 security- it may 'oe to a higher calling and destiny than we had yet fore- 
 seen. 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 together on equal terms, ignoring difference and oppo- 
 sition and injury, it is well that they should do so. At the same tmie, 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 i:)rought to light if possible. We are a little apt to look on 
 one side only of the shield, especially when our sense of justice and human- 
 ity is stung, and th j cry of the oppressed and persecuted— our brothers- 
 rings in our ears.
 
 OUTLOOK FOR JUDAISM. :}25 
 
 As we all know, the effect of persecution is to strenpthen solidity, 'i'ho 
 Jew who never was a Jew before becomes one wiuMi tho vital spot iKtt)nclie(l. 
 When wo are attacked as Jews we ilo nut strike back angrily, but we coil 
 up in our shell of Juiiaisui and iutrcncli ourselves more struuply thau 
 before. The Jews themselves, both from natural habit and forceof circum- 
 stances, have been accustomed todwell alon^,' theirown 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 tiieir own pursuits 
 that insures their success in most thinffs they set out to ilo. They have been 
 content for the most part to j^uard the truth they hold rather Than spread 
 it. Amitl favorable surroundint?s and easy circumstances many of us had 
 ceased to take it very deeply or seriously that we were Jews. We liadt,'r()wn 
 to look upon it merely as an accif'ent of birth for which we were not called 
 upon to make any sacrilice, but rather to make ourselves as mucli as pos- 
 sible like our neighbors, neither better nor worse than the people around 
 us. But with a painful shock we are suddenly made aware of it as a detri- 
 ment, and we shrink at once back into ourselves, hurt in our most sensitive 
 point, our pride woundetl to the quick, our most sacred feelings, as we 
 believe, outraged and trampled upon. 
 
 But our very attitude proves that somothinj; is wronpf with us. Perse- 
 cution does not touch us; we do not feci it when we have an ideal lart^e 
 enoufjh and close enough to our hearts to sustain and console us. The 
 martyrs of old did not feel the Hres of the stake, the arrows that pierced 
 their Hesh. The Jews of the olden time danced to their death with praise 
 and sonjf and joyful shouts of Hallelujah. They were willinj^ to die for 
 that which was their life, and more than life t(j them. But the martyr- 
 dom of the present day is a strange and a novel one, that has no {rrace or 
 glory about it, and of which we are not proud. We have not chosen, and 
 perhaps w'ould not choose it. Many of us scarcely know the caus(^ for 
 which we sviffer, and therefore we feel every pang, every cut of the lash. 
 For our sake then, and still more perhaps for those who come after us, and 
 to whom we bequeath our Judaism, it behoves us to find out just what it 
 means to us, and what it holds for us to live by. In other words, what is 
 the content and significance of modern Judaism in the world to-day, not for 
 us personally as Jews, but for the world at large? What i)()wer 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 unfoldment in the future? 
 
 As the present can best be read by the light of the past I should like 
 briefly to review the ideas on which our existence is based and our identity 
 sustained. Upon the background of myth, and yet in a sense how bold, 
 how clear, stands Moses, the man of God, who saw the world aflame with 
 Deity — the burning bush, the flaming mountain-top, the flery cloud, lead- 
 ing his people from captivity, and who heard i)ronounced the divine and 
 everlasting name, the unpronovinceable, the ineffable I Am. In Moses, 
 above all, whether we look upon him as semihistoric or a purely symbolic 
 ttgure, the genius of the Hebrew race is ty pitted, the fundanuMital note of 
 Judaism is struck, the word that rings forever after through the ages, 
 which is the law spoken by God himself, with trumpet sound, midst thun- 
 derings and lightenings from heaven. Whatever of triu^ or false, of fact or 
 legend hangs about it, we have in the Mosaic conception, the moral idea of 
 the Hebrews, a code divinely sanctioned and ordained, the al)solute imper- 
 ative 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 
 round on every side, now as moral obligation and again as ceremonial or 
 legal ordinance, and becomes the bulwark of the faith through centuries 
 of greatness, centuries of darkness and humiliation. 
 
 In the Hebrew writings we trace, not so much the development of a
 
 32G THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 people but of an idea that constantly grows in length and purity. The 
 petty tribal god, cruel and partisan like the gods around them, becomes the 
 universal and eternal God, who tills all time and space, all heaven and 
 earth, and beside whom no other power exists. Throughout nature his will 
 is law, his tiat goes forth and the stars obey him in their course, the winds 
 and waves, tire and hail, snow and vapors, stormy wind fulfilling his word. 
 The lightnings do his bidding and say, " Here we are," when he commands 
 
 But not alone in the physical realm, still more is He the moral ruler of 
 the universe, and here we come upon the core of the Hebrew conception, 
 its true grandeur, and originality, upon which the whole stress was laid, 
 namely, that it is only in the moral sphere, only as a moral being that 
 man can enter into relation with his Maker, and the Maker of the Universe, 
 and come to any understanding of Him. "Canst thou by searching tind 
 out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as 
 high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou 
 know?" Not through the finite limited intellect, nor any outward sense- 
 perception, but only through the moral sense, do these earnest teachers bid 
 us seek God, who reveals Himself in the law which is at once human and 
 divine, the voice of duty and of conscience animating the soul of man. It 
 is this breath of the divine that vitalizes the pages of the Hebrew prophets 
 and their moral precepts. It is the blending of the two ideals, the complete 
 and absolute identification of the moral and religious life, so that each can 
 be interpreted in terms of the other — the moral life saturated and fed, sus- 
 tained, and sanctified by the divine; the religious life merely a divinely 
 ordained morality — that it is that constitutes the essence of their teachings, 
 the unity and grand simplicity of their ideal. The link was never broken 
 between the human and divine, between conduct and its motives, religion 
 and morality, nor obscured by any cloudy abstractions of theory or meta- 
 physics. Their God was £ God whom the people could understand; no 
 mystic figure relegated to the skies, but a very present power, working 
 upon earth, a personality very clear and distinct, very human one might 
 almost say, who mingled in human affairs, whose word was swift and sure, 
 and whose path so plain to follow "that wayfaring men, though fools, 
 should not err therein." What he required was no impossible ideal, but 
 simply to do justice, to love mercy and walk humbly before Him. What 
 He promised was: "Seek ye me and ye shall live." How can one fail to be 
 impressed by the heroic mold of these austere impassioned souls, and by 
 the richness of the soil that gave them birth at a time when spiritual 
 thought had scarcely dawned upon the world? The prophets were "high 
 lights" of Judaism, but the light failed, the voices ceased and prophetism 
 died out. 
 
 In order that Israel should survive, should continue to exist at all in 
 the midst of the ruins that were full around it, and the darkness upon 
 which it was entering, it was necessary that this close, eternal organization, 
 this mesh and network of law and practice of regulated usage covering the 
 most insignificant acts of life, knitting them together as with nerve and 
 sinew, and invulnerable to any catastrophe from without, should take the 
 place of all external prop and form of unity. The whole outer framework 
 of life fell away. The kingdom perished, the temple fell, the people scattered. 
 They ceased to be a nation, they ceased to be a church, and yet, indissolu- 
 bly bound by these inevitable chains, as fine as silk, as strong as iron, they 
 presented an impenetrable front to the outside world; they became more 
 intensely national, more exclusive and sectarian, more concentrated in their 
 individuality than they had ever been before. The Talmud came to rein- 
 force the Pentateuch, and Rabbinism intensified Judaism, which thereby 
 lost its power to expand its claim to become a universal religion, and 
 remained the prerogative of a peculiar people.
 
 OUTLOOK FOR JUDAISM. Wll 
 
 With fire and sword the Christian i-ra dawned for Israel. Jeriiwilcin 
 was besieged, the temple tired, the Holy Mount in Haines, and a million 
 people perished, a tittiny prelude to the lon^' tragedy that has not emied 
 yet. the martyrdom of eighteen centuries. J^eath in every form, hy Hood, 
 by tire, and with every torture that could be conceived, leaving a track of 
 blood through history — the crucified of the nations. Strangers and wan 
 derers in every age and in every land, calling no man friend and no spot 
 home. With all the ignominy of the (Ihetto, a living death. Dark. pitial)le, 
 ignoble destiny. Magnificent, heroic, uni-onquerable destiny, luminous 
 with self-sacritice, unwritten heroism, devotion to an ideal, a cause believed 
 in and a name held sacred! But destiny still unsolved; martyrdom not yet 
 swallowed up in victories. 
 
 In our modern rushing days, life changes with such swiftness that it is 
 difficult even to follow its rapid movement. During the last hundred years 
 Judaism has undergone more modilication than during the previous thou- 
 sand years. The French revolution sounded a note of freedom so loud, so 
 clamorous, that it pierced the Ghetto walls and found its way to the im- 
 prisoned souls. The gates were thrown open, the light streamed in from 
 outside, and the Jew entered the modern world. As if by enchantment, 
 the spell which had bound him. hand and foot, body and soul, was broken, 
 and his mind and spirit released from thrall, sprang into re-birth and vigor. 
 Eager for life in every form and in every direction, with unused pent up 
 vitality, he pressed to the front and crowded the avenue where life was 
 most crowded, thought and action most stimulated. And in order to this 
 movement, naturally and of necessity, he began to disengage himself from 
 the toils in which he was involved, to unwind himself, so to speak, from fold 
 to fold, of outworn and outlandish custom. Casting off the outer shell 
 or skeleton, which, like the bony covering of the tortoise, serves as armcjr 
 at the same time that it impedes all movement and progress, as well as 
 inner growth, Judaism thought to revert 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 mechan- 
 ism, absolutely without myth or dogma of any kind, save the all-embracing 
 unity of God, taxing so little the credulity of men, no religion seemed so 
 titted to withstand the storm and stress of modern thought, the doubt and 
 skepticism of a critical and scientific age that has played such havoc with 
 time- honored creeds. 
 
 And having rid himself, as he proudly believed, of his own superstitions, 
 naturally the Jew had no inclination to adopt what he looked upon as the 
 superstitions of others. He was still as much as ever the Jew, as far as 
 ever removed from the Christian standpoint and outlook, the Christian 
 philosophy and solution of life. Broad and tolerant as either side might 
 consider itself, there was a fundamental disagreement and opposition, 
 almost a different make-up, a different calibre and attitude of soul, fostered 
 by centuries of mutual alienation and distrust. To be a Jew was still 
 something special, something inherent, that did not depend upon any exter- 
 nal conformity or nonconformity, any peculiar mode of life. The tremen- 
 dous background of the past, of traditions and associations so entirely apart 
 from those of the people among whom they dwelt, threw them into strong 
 belief. They w^ere a marked race, always, upon whom an indelible stamp 
 was set, a nation that cohered not as a political unit, but as a single family, 
 through ties the most sacred, the most vital and intimate, of parent to child, 
 of brother and sister, bound still more closely together through a common 
 fate of suffering. And, yet, they were everywhere living among Christians, 
 making part of Christian communities, and mixing freely among them for 
 all the business of life, all material and temporal ends. 
 
 Thus the spiritual and secular life which had been absolutely one with 
 the Jew grew apart in his own sphere as well as in his intercourse with
 
 328 THE PARLIAMENT OR RELIGIONS. 
 
 Christians; the divorce was complete between religion and the daily life. 
 In his inmost consciousness, deep down below the surface, he was still a 
 Jew. The outer world allured him, and the false gods whom the nations 
 around him worshiped: Success, power, the pride of life, and the intel- 
 lectual. He threw himself full-tilt into the arena where the clash was the 
 loudest and the press thickest, the struggle keenest to compete and outstrip 
 one another, which we moderns call life. And his faculties were sharpened 
 to it, and in his eagerness he forgot his proper birthright. He, the man of 
 the past, became essentially the man of to-day, with interest centered on 
 the present, the actual; with intellect set free to grapple with the problems 
 of the hour and solve them by its own unaided light. Liberal, progressive, 
 humanitarian, he might become, but always along human lines; the link 
 was gone with any larger, more satisfying and comprehensive life. Religion 
 had detached itself from life, not only in its trivial, every-day concerns, but 
 in its highest aims and aspirations. 
 
 And here was just the handle, just the grievance for their enemies to 
 seize upon. Every charge would tit. Behold the Jew ! Every cry could 
 shape itself against them, every class could take alarm and every prejudice 
 go loose. And hence the Protean form of anti-Semitism.. Wherever the 
 social conditions are most unstable, the equilibrium most threatened and 
 easily disturbed, in barbarous Russia, liberal France, and philosophic Ger- 
 many, the problem is most acute ; but there is no country now, civilized 
 or uncivilized, v.here some echo of it has not reached ; even in our own 
 free-breathing America some wave has come to die upon our shores. 
 
 What answer have we for ourselves and for the world in this, the trial 
 hour of our faith, the crucial test of Judaism ? We, each of us, must look 
 into our own hearts and see what Judaism stands for in that inner shrine, 
 what it holds that satisfies our deepest need, consoles and fortifies us, com- 
 pensates for every sacrifice, every humiliation we may be called upon to 
 endure, so that we count it a glory, not a shame, to suffer. Will national 
 or personal loyalty suffice for this, when our personality is not touched, our 
 nationality is merged ? Will pride of family or race take away the sting, 
 the stigma ? No ! We have turned the shield, and persecution becomes 
 our opportunity. "Those that were in darkness, upon them the 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 land, 
 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. 
 
 But for us, who stand upon the shore in the full blessed light of free- 
 dom 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 in 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 them to their narrow rites and limiting 
 observance, until, breaking free from these, they find themselves, like 
 their emancipated brethren elsewhere, adrift on a blank sea of indifference 
 and materialism. 
 
 If Judaism would be anything in the world to-day it must 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 fellow- 
 ship 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 can 
 not become Presbyterians, Episcopalians, members of any dividing sect,
 
 OUTLOOK FOR JUDAISM. 329 
 
 "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 
 pirit, 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 secret of 
 its redemption, and "salvation may yet again be of the Jews." The times 
 are full of signs. On every side there is a call, a challenge, and awakening. 
 What the world needs to-day. not alone the Jews— who have borne the 
 yoke, but the Christians who bear Christ's name and persecute, and who 
 have built up a civilization so entirely at variance with the principles He 
 taught— what we all need, gentiles and Jews alike, is not so much " a new 
 body of doctrine," as Claude Montetiore suggests, but a new spirit put into 
 life which shall refashion it upon a nobler plan, and consecrate it anew to 
 liigher purpose and iileals Science has done its work, clearing away the 
 dead wood of ignorance and superstition, enlarging the vision and opening 
 out the path. Christians and Jews alike, "Have we not all one Father? 
 Hath not one God created us?" Remember to what you are called, you 
 who claim beUef in a living God who is a spirit, and who therefore must be 
 worshiped " in spirit and in truth," not with vain forms and with mean- 
 ingless service, nor yet in the world's glittering shapes, the work of men's 
 hands or brains, but in the ever growing, ever deeiiening love and knowl- 
 edge of His truth, and its showing forth to men. Once more let the Holy 
 Spirit descend and dwell among you, in your life to-day, as it did upon your 
 holy men, your prophets of the cilden times, lighting the world as it did lor 
 them with that radiance of the skies; and so make known the faith that is 
 in you. " for by their fruits ye shall know them."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SEVENTH DAY. SEPTEMBER nth. 
 
 RELIGION IN SOCIAL AND MARRIED LIFE. 
 
 With the day of rest came the seventh day of the world's 
 coii<^ress. Many of the distinguished foreigners and pulpit 
 orators, attending the Parliament of Religions, occupied Chicago 
 pulpits in the morning. Sessions at Columbus Hall, however, 
 were held in tlie afternoon and evening. At two o'clock and 
 thirty minutes, the exercises began, Dr. John Henry Barrows 
 in the chair. After the universal prayer, the audience gave a 
 cordial reception to a delegate from Bombay, who spoke on 
 social reform. Bishop Keane and Dr. Barrows presided alter- 
 nately during the evening session. When the first paper had 
 been read, Dr. Barrows said that on account of the failure of 
 some of the essayists to be present at the parliament, the Pres- 
 byterian congress announced for the evening in hall 3, would 
 complete its exercises in the Hall of Columbus. Thus it was 
 that Catholics and Presbyterians divided the honors of the 
 platform, and again beautifully illustrated the spirit of good 
 will and respect which has made the parliament a possibility 
 and a success. 
 
 THE WORK OF SOCIAL REFORM IN INDIA. 
 
 B. NAGAEKAE OF INDIA. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: The conquest of India by 
 England is one of the most astounding marvels of modern history. To 
 those who arc not acquainted with the social and religious condition of the 
 diverse races that' inhabit the vast Indian peninsula, it will always be a 
 matter of great wonder as to how a handful of English people were able to 
 
 330
 
 WORK OF SOCIAL' REFORM IN INDIA. 331 
 
 bring vinder their sway such an extensive continent as Hindustan, sepa- 
 rated from England by thousands of miles of the deep ocean and lofty 
 mountains. Whatever the circumstances of this so-called conquest were 
 they were no more than the long-standing internal feuds and jealousies — 
 the mutual antipathies and race-feelings — between caste and caste, creed 
 and creed, and community and community, that have been thrown together 
 in the land of India. The victory of the British — 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 t)f 
 the Indian population. Centuries ago, when such a miserable state of local 
 division and alienation did not exist in India, or at any rate had not reached 
 any appreciable degree, the Hindus did make a brave and successful 
 stand against powerful armies of fierce and warlike tribes that led invasion 
 after invasion against the holy home of the Hindu nation. Thus it was 
 that from time to time hordes of fierce Bactrians, Greeks. Persians, and 
 Afghans were warded otf 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 jjristine 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 Hindus eiijoyed the bless- 
 ings of freedom and liberty. But time is the great destroyer of everything. 
 What has withstood the withering infiuence of that archenemy of every 
 earthly glory and greatness! In proportion as the i)eople of India became 
 faithless to their ancestral institutions in the same jiroportion they fell in 
 the Fcale of nations. 
 
 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 giiastly 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 eacq 
 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 civiliza- 
 tion, 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 oi-cult laws, of spirit presence and spirit presenti- 
 ment in your part of the globe may some day be able to find out that these 
 simple and unsophisticated people had a glimpse of the '* Descent of Man " 
 according 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 
 power 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 power 
 that transferred the supreme sovereignty of Hindustan into the hands of 
 the people of Great Britain. Through the lethargic sleep of centuries the 
 people of India had gone on degenerating. 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 
 bad come over the entire face of the nation.
 
 332 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The glory of their ancient religion, the purity of their social institutions, 
 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 number of social 
 evils, Buch as wicked priestcraft, low superstition, degrading rites and cere- 
 monies, and demoralizing customs and observances. It was indeed a pitia- 
 ble and pitiful condition to be in. The children of God in the holy Arya- 
 varta, the descendants of the noble Rishis, were in deep travail. Their di ep 
 wailing and lamentation had pierced the heavens, and the Lord of love and 
 mercy'w'as moved with compassion for them. He yearned to help them, to 
 raise them, to restore them to their former glory and greatness; but he saw 
 that in the country itself there was no force or power that He could use as 
 an instrument 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 per- 
 ceive 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 bloodshed or loss of 
 life. Even the very change in its process introduced new elements of 
 discord and disunion, but when the change was completed and the balance 
 of power eatablished, an entirely new era was opened up on the field of 
 Indian social and political life. This transfer 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, and 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 tho return, too, has been inestimable. 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 enlightenment. 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 confidence 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 our 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 self-forgetfulness. The old and the new met 
 face to face. We felt that the old could not 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 we began to bestir ourselves in the way of remedying 
 our social organization. Such, then, were the occasion and the origin of 
 the work of social reform in India. 
 
 Before I proceed further, I must tell you that the work of reform in 
 India has a two-fold aspect. In the first place we have to revive many of
 
 WORK OF SOCIAL REFORM IN INDIA. 33.T 
 
 our ancient relifjious and social institutions. Throuph af^os of ignorance 
 they have been lost to us, and what we need to do in regard to these insti- 
 tutions is to brinj^- 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 compact and advanced 
 methods of combination, co-operation, and organization. Tliis branch of 
 reform I style as reform by revisal. In the second place, we have to reccivn 
 some of your Western institutions. These are mostly political, iniUistrial, 
 and educational; a few social. But in every case the process is a composite 
 one. For what we are to revive we have often to remodel and what we 
 have to receive we have often to recast. Hence our motto in every depart- 
 ment of reform is, " Adapt before you adopt." I shall now proceed to 
 indicate to you some of the si)cial reforms that we have been trying to effect 
 in our country. 
 
 The abolition of caste — what is this Hindu institution of caste? In tlu; 
 social dictionary of India "caste" is a most difficult word for you to under- 
 stand. Caste may be defined as the classification of a society on the basis 
 of birth and parentage. For example, 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 family of soldiers belong to the soldier caste, though they may never 
 prefer to goon butchering men. Thustheson of agrocer is born tobecaileda 
 grocer, and theson of a shoemaker is fated to be called a shoemaker. Origin- 
 ally there were only four castes the J5rahman, or the i)riest; Kihateiya.or 
 the soldier; Vaishya, or the merchant, and Shudra, or the serf. And these 
 four ancient castes were not based on birth, but on occupation or profes- 
 sion. In ancient India the children of Brahman parents often took to a 
 martial occupation, while the sons of a soldier were quite free to choose a 
 peaceful occupation if they liked. But in modern India, by a strange proc- 
 ess, the original four castes have been multiplied to no end, and have 
 been fixed most hard and fast. Now you find perhaps as many castes as 
 there are occupations. There is a regular scale and grade. You have the 
 tailor caste and the tinker caste, the blacksmith caste and the goldsmith 
 caste, the milkman caste and the carpenter caste, the groom caste and 
 the sweeper caste. The operation of caste may be said to be confined 
 principally to matters of (1) food and drink, (2) matrimony and adoption, 
 (3) the performance of certain religious rites and ceremonies. 
 
 Each caste has its own code of laws and its own system of observances. 
 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 have social classes; we in India 
 have "castes." But remember that "classes" with you are a purely social 
 institution, having no religious sanction. " Castes ' with us are essentially 
 a religious institution, based on the accident of birth and parentage. 
 With a view to illustrate the difference besween "classes" and "castes,' 
 I may say that in Western countries the lines of social division are parallel, 
 but horizontal, and, therefore, ranging in the social strata one above 
 another. In India these lines are perpendicular, and, therefore, running 
 from the top to the bottom of the body social, dividing and separating one 
 social strata from every other. The former arrangement is a source of 
 strength and support and the latter a source of alienation and weakness. 
 Perhaps at one time in the history of India when the condition of things 
 was entirely different and when the number of these castes was not so 
 large, nor their nature so rigid as now, the institution of caste did not 
 serve a high purpose; but now it is long, too long, since that social condi- 
 tion underwent a change. Under those ancient social and political environ- 
 ments of India the institution of caste was greatly helpful in centralizing
 
 334 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 cand transmitting professional knowledge of arts and occupations, as also in 
 gioupin-^, bind ng together, and preserving intact the various guilds and 
 artisan communities. But centuries ago that social and political environ- 
 ment ceased to exist, while the mischievous machinery of caste continues 
 in full swing up to this day. Caste in India has divided the mass of Hindu 
 society into innumerable classes and cliques. It has created a spirit of 
 extreme exclusiveness; it has crowded and killed legitimate ambition, 
 liealthy enterprise, and combined adventure. It has fostered envy and 
 jealousy between class and class, and set one community against another. 
 
 It is an unmitigated evil and the veriest social and national curse. 
 Much of our national and domestic degradation is due to this pernicious 
 caste system. Young India has been fully convinced that if the Hindu 
 nation is once more to rise to its former glory and greatness this dogma of 
 caste must be put down. The artificial restrictions and the unjust— nay, 
 in many cases inhuman and unhuman — distinctions of caste must be abol- 
 ished. Th'^refore, the first item on the programme of social reform in India 
 is the abo' tion of caste and furtherance of free and brotherly intercourse 
 between class and class as also between individual and individual, irre- 
 spective of the accident of his birth and parentage, but mainly on the recog- 
 nition of his moral worth and goodness of heart. 
 
 Freedom of intermarriage— intermarriage that is marriage between the 
 members of two different castes, is not allowed in India. The code of caste 
 rules does not sanction any such unions under any circumsj;ances. Neces- 
 sarily, therefore, they have been marrying and marrying for hundreds of 
 years within the pale of their own caste. Now, many castes and their sub- 
 sections are so small that they are no larger than mere handfuls of families. 
 These marriages within such narrow circles not only prevent the 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 degeneration of the race. The progeny of such parents go on degener- 
 ating physically and mentally and, therefore, there 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. 
 
 Prevention of infant marriage. Among the higher caste of Hindus it is 
 quite customary to have their children married when they are 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 concerned, they are no less bind- 
 ing upon the innocent parties than actual consummation of marriage. 
 Parties thus wedded together at an age when they are utterly incapable of 
 understanding the relations between man and woman, and without their 
 consent, are united with each other lifelong and can not at anytime be sep- 
 arated from each other even by law, for the Hindu law does not admit of 
 any divorce. This is hard and cruel. It often happens that infants that 
 are th us 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 yet they are expected to live together by 
 law, by usage, and by social sentiment. You can picture to yourselves the 
 untold misery of such unhappy pairs. Happily man is a creature of habits, 
 and providence has so ar;;^nged that, generally speaking, we come to toler- 
 ate, if not to like, whatever our lot is cast in with. But 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 marriage. They are phys- 
 ical and intellectual decay and degeneracy of the individual and the race, 
 loss of individual independence at a very early period of life when youths of 
 either sex should be free to acquire knowledge and work out their own
 
 WORK OF SOCIAL REFORM IN INDIA. 335 
 
 place and position in the world, consequent penury and poverty of tlie race, 
 and latterly the utterly hollow and uumeaniiif,' character imposed upon the 
 sacred sacrament of marriage. These constitute only a few of the glarinj^ 
 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 si)read 
 of education the public opinion of the country is being steatlily educated 
 and, at least among the enlightened classes, infant marriages at the age of 
 four and five are simple held up to ridicule. The age on an average is being 
 raised to twelve and fourteen, but nothing short of sixteen as the minimum 
 for girls and eighteen for boys would satisfy the requirements of tlie case. 
 One highest ideal is to secure the best measure possible, but where the 
 peculiar traditions customs, and sentiments of the people can not give us 
 the best, we have * jr the time being, to be satisfied with the next best and 
 then again keep on demanding a higher standard. 
 
 The marriage laws in general — the Hindu marriage laws and customs — 
 were formulated and systematized in the most ancient of times, and viewed 
 under the light of modern times and Western thought they would require in 
 many ways a considerable radical reform and recasting. For instance, why 
 should women in India be compelled to marry? Why should they not be 
 allowed to choose or refuse matrimony just as women in Western countries 
 are? Why should bigamy or polygamy be allowed by Hindu law? Is it not 
 the highest piece of injustice that while woman is allowed to marry but 
 once, man is allowed (by law) to marry two or more than two wives at one 
 and the same time? Why 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 
 should have no right or control? These and similar to these are the prob- 
 lems that relate to a thorough reform of the marriage laws in India. But 
 situated as we arc at present, society is not ripe even for a calm and dispas- 
 sionate discussion of these — much less than for any acceptance of them, 
 even in a qualified or modified form. However in the distant future peojjle 
 in India will have to face these problems. They can not avoid them f(jr- 
 ever. But as my time is extremely limited, you will pardon me if I avoid 
 them on this occasion. 
 
 Widow marriage — you will be surprised to hear that Hindu widows from 
 among the higher castes are not allowed to marry again. I can understand 
 this restriction in the case of women who have reached a certain limit of 
 advanced age, though in this country it is considered to be in perfect accord 
 with social usage even for a widow of three-score and five to be on the look- 
 out for a husband, especially if he can be a man of substance. But, cer- 
 tainly, you can never comprehend what diabolical offense a child widow of 
 the tender age of ten or twelve can have committed that she should be cut 
 away from all marital ties, and be compelled to pass the remaining days of 
 her life, however long 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 you, even by implication, that the Hindu home is necessarily 
 a place of misery and discord, or that true happiness is a thing never to be 
 found there. Banish all such idea if it should have unwittingly taken pos- 
 session of your minds. 
 
 Happiness is not to be confounded with palatial dwellings, gorgeously 
 fitted with soft seats and yielding sofas, with magnificent costumes, with 
 gay balls or giddy dancing parties, nor with noisy revelries or drinking 
 bouts and card tables, and as often, if not oftener, 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 impetuous 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
 
 .336 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the call from above to pass into the land which knows no parting or separa- 
 tion. But these are cases of those who are capable of thought and feeling. 
 What sentiment of devoted love can you expect from a girl of twelve or 
 fourteen whose ideas are so simple apd artless and whose mind still lingers 
 at skipping and doll-making? What sense and reason is there in expecting 
 her to remain in that condition of forced, artificial, lifelong widowhood? 
 Oh, the lot of such child-widow! How shall I depict their mental misery and 
 sufferings? Language fails and imagination is baffled at the task. Cruel 
 fate— if there be any such power— has already reduced them to the condi- 
 tion of widows, and the heartless, pitiless customs of the country barbar- 
 ously shave them of their beautiful hair, divest them of every ornament or 
 adornment, confine them to loneliness and seclusion nay, teach people to 
 hate and avoid them as objects indicating something supremely ominous 
 and inauspicious. Like bats and owls, on all occasions of mirth and merri- 
 ment they m ast confine themselves to their dark cells and close chambers. 
 The unfortunate Hindu widow is often the drudge in the family; every 
 worry and all work that no one in the family will ever 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 them- 
 selves in an adjoining pool or a well, or make a quietus to theif 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 Hindu social reformer seeks to introduce the practice of allowing 
 such widows to marry again. As long ago as fifty years, one of our great 
 pundits, the late pundit V. S. of Bombay, raised this question, and fought 
 it out in Central and Northern India with the orthodox Brahmans. The 
 same work, and in a similar spirit was carried out in Bengal and Northern 
 India by the late Ishwar Ch. V. Sagar of Calcutta, who died only two 
 years ago. These two brave souls were the Luther and Knox of India. 
 Their cause has been espoused by many others, and until to-day perhaps 
 about 200 widow marriages have been celebrated in India. The orthodox 
 Hindus as yet have not begun to entertain this branch of reform with any 
 degree of favor, and so anyone 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 difiiculties 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 can not be effected until and unless the question as to 
 what position does a woman occupy with reference to man 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 Scot- 
 land. Here in yourown country of the States you have, I presume to think, 
 given her a superior place in what you call the social circle and a place of 
 full equality in the paths and provinces of ordinary life. Thus my Ameri- 
 can sisters are free to compete with man in the race for life. Both enjoy 
 the same, or nearly the same, rights and privileges. In India it is entirely 
 different. The Hindu lawgivers were all men, and whatever others may 
 say about them, I must say that in this one particular respect, viz.; that of giv- 
 ing woman her own place in society they were very partial and short-sighted 
 men. They have given her quite a secondary place. In Indian dramas, 
 poems, and romances, you may in many places find woman spoken of as the 
 "goddess" of the house and the " deity of the palace, " but that is no more 
 than a i>oet's conceit, and mdicates a state of things that long, long ago 
 used to be rather than at present is.
 
 WORK OF SOCIAL REFORM IN INDIA. a37 
 
 For every such passage you will find the other i)assageR in which the 
 readers are treated with terse dissertations and scatter! njj lampoons on 
 the so-called innate dark character of woman. The (Mitire thought of the 
 country one finds saturated with this idea. The Hindu hails the birth of 
 a son with noisy demonstrations of joy and feasting; that of a feniali- child 
 as the advent of something that he would most gladly avoid if lu> could. 
 The bias begins here at her very birth. Whatever may be the rationale of 
 this state of things no i)art of the programme of Hindu social rei'orm can 
 ever be successfully carried out until wouian is recognized as man's ('(pial, 
 his companion, and co-worker in every part of life; not his handmaid, a 
 tool or an instrument in his hand, a puppet or a plaything, tit only for the 
 hours of amusement and recreation. To me tlie work of social reform in 
 India means a full recognition of woman's position. The education and 
 enlightenment of women, granting to them liberty and freedom to move 
 about freely, to think and act for themselves, liberating them from the 
 prisons of long-locked zenana, extending to them the same rights and 
 privileges, are some of the grandest problems of HincUi social reform. All 
 these depend on the solution of the above-mentioned problem of the jjosi- 
 tion of woman in India. 
 
 The masses or the common people in India are very ignorant and quite 
 uneducated. The farmer, the laborer, the workman, and the artisan does 
 not know how to read or write; he is not able to sign his own name. They 
 do not understand their own rights. They are custom-bound and i)riest- 
 ridden. Prom times past the priestly class has been the keeper and custo- 
 dian of the temple of knowledge and they have sedulously kept the lower 
 class in ignorance and intellectual slavery. Social reform does not mean 
 the education and elevation of the vipper few only; it means inspiring the 
 whole country, men and women, high and low', from every creed and class, 
 with right motives to live and act. The work classes need to be taught in 
 many cases the very rudiments of knowledge. Night schools for them and 
 day schools for their children are badly wanted. 
 
 Government is doing much, but how much can you expect from govern- 
 ment, especially when that government is a foreign one. and therefore has 
 every time to think of maintaining itself and keeping its prestige among 
 foreign people? It is here that the active benevolence of such free peojjle 
 is needed. In educating our masses and in extending enlightenment to our 
 women you can do much. Every year yovi are lavishing, I shall not say wast- 
 ing, mints of money on your so-called foreign missions and missionaries sent 
 out, as you think, to carry the Bible and its salvation to the "heathen Hindu'' 
 and thus to save him ! Aye, to save him. Your poor peasants, your 
 earnest women, and your generous millionaires raise millions of dollars every 
 year to be spent on foreign missions. Little, how little do you ever (h-eam 
 that your money is expended in spreading abroad nothing l)ut Christian 
 dogmatism and Christian bigotry, Christian pride, and Christian exclusive- 
 ness. I entreat you to expend at least one-tenth of all this vast fortune on 
 sending out to our country unsectarian, broad-learned missionaries that 
 will spend all their efforts and energies in educating our women, our men, 
 and our masses. Educate. Educate them tirst and they will understand 
 Christ much better than they would do by being " converted " to the nar- 
 row creed of canting Clii'istendom. 
 
 The difficulties of social reformers in India are manifold. Their work 
 is most arduous. The work of engrafting on the rising Hindu mind the 
 ideals of a material civilization such as yours, without taking in its agnos- 
 tic or atheistic tendencies, is a task peculiarly difficult to accomplish. 
 Reforms based on utilitarian and purely secular principles can never take 
 a permanent hold on the mind of a race that has been essentially spiritual 
 in all its career and history. Those who have tried to do so have failed. 
 The Brahmo-Somaj, or the Church of Indian Theism, has always advocated
 
 338 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the cause of reform and has always been the pioneer in every reform move- 
 ment In laying the foundations of a new and reformed society the Brahmo- 
 Somaj has established every reform as a fundamental principle which must 
 be accepted before any one can consistently belong to its organization. 
 
 Acting on the model of ancient Hindu society, we have so proceeded 
 that our social institutions may secure our religious principles, while those 
 principles regulate and establish every reform on a safe and permanent 
 
 footing. _ ,.^ ■ , T Tu. 
 
 Social reform merely as such has no vitality in our land. It may 
 influence here and there an individual;'it can not rear a society or sway a 
 community. Recognizing this secret, the religion of the Brahmo-Somaj 
 has from its very birth been the foremost to proclaim a crusade against 
 every social evil in our country. The ruthless, heartless practice of suttee, 
 or the burning of Hindu widows on the funeral pile of their husband, was 
 abolished through the instrumentality of the great Rajah Ram Mohan Roy. 
 His successors liave all been earnest social reformers as much as religious 
 reformers. In the heart of the Brahmo-Somaj you find no caste, no image- 
 worship. We have abolished early marriage, and helped the cause of 
 widow's marriage. We have promoted inter-marriage; we fought for and 
 obtained a law from the British Government to legalize marriages between 
 the representatives of any castes and any creeds. The Brahmos have been 
 great educationists. They have started schools and colleges, societies and 
 seminaries, not only for boys and young men, but for girls and young 
 women. In the Brahmo community you will find hundreds of young ladies 
 who combine in their education the requirements of the East and the West; 
 Oriental reserve and modesty with Occidental culture and refinement. Many 
 of our young ladies have taken degrees in arts and sciences in Indian uni- 
 versities. The religion of the Brahmo-Somaj is essentially a religion of 
 life — the living and life-giving religion of love to God and love to man. Its 
 corner-stones are the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the 
 sisterhood of woman. We uphold reform in religion and religion in reform. 
 While we advocate that every religion needs to be reformed, we also most 
 firmly hold that every reform, in order that it may be a living and lasting 
 power for good, needs to be based on religion. 
 
 These are the lines of our work: We have been vporking out the most 
 intricate problems of Hindu social reform on these lines. We know our 
 work is hard, but at the same time we know that the Almighty God, the 
 Father of nations, will not forsake us; only we must be faithful to Him, His 
 guiding spirit. And now, my brethren and sisters in America, God has 
 made you a free people. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are the guiding 
 words that you have pinned on your banner of progress and advancement. 
 In the name of that liberty 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 institu- 
 tions, 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-operation in the realization of the social, political, and religious aspira- 
 tions of young India. God has given you a mission. Even now He is enact- 
 ing through your instrumentality most marvelous events. Read His holy 
 will through these events and extend to young India the right hand of holy 
 fellowship and universal brotherhood.
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE MARRIAGE BOND. 339 
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE MARRIAGE 
 
 BOND. 
 
 PROF. MARTIN J. WADE OF THE LAW DEPARTMENT OP THE 
 STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. 
 
 Upon the great question of marriage and the eflfect of the marriage bond, 
 as upon all other questions involving moral and social duties and obliga- 
 tions, the Catholic Church speaks with an unfaltering voice. '• What, there- 
 fore, God has joined together let no man put asunder,'" has lieen 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 individ- 
 uals and upon society. 
 
 Divinely instituted in the beginning, marriage, throughout all the ages 
 before the Christian era, was a recognized institution among the children of 
 men. In the chaos incident to the moral darkness which preceded the 
 dawn it 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 dignity of a sacrament. 
 
 The teaching of the Catholic Church is, therefore, that marriage is a 
 sacrament — that true marriage, properly entered into by competent per- 
 sons, is of a three-fold nature — a contract between the x'crsous joined in 
 wedlock, a contract between the persons joined in wedlock and society, the 
 state, and a solemn contract 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 j(nnt and several 
 obligations to the state. The most liberal will not claim that marriage is a 
 mere contract of the parties. 
 
 The civil law teSches that by marriage each party assumes certain duties 
 and responsibilities toward the other — both parties assume certain duties 
 and responsibilities toward society, and society, in turn, assumes certain 
 duties toward the family relation newly established. Laws are made for 
 the enforcement of these various duties and the protection of these rights. 
 And while a state guards the individual and protects their rights, she is 
 jealous of her own. 
 
 One of the duties assumed by the contracting parties is that they shall 
 live together as husband and wife, maintaining their family in peace with 
 their fellowmen. and so educating their children as to make them good citi- 
 zens — good members of society. 
 
 It is well settled in our jurisprudence that the contracting parties can 
 not by mutual consent dissolve the marriage bond (in this it differs from 
 the ordinary contract), but that in order to sever the union the other party 
 to the contract must be consulted— in other words, the state must consent. 
 The Catholic Church goes a step farther, and holds that God is a party to 
 the contract, and that "even with the consent of the state, expressed by the 
 decrees of her courts, the sacred tie can not be severed, but that it is bind- 
 ing 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 points to society 
 and the intimate relation which marriage bears to it, and she says : "Mar- 
 riage is not alone of this earth, but is also of the Kingdom of God; in so far 
 as it is of this earth, let earthly courts govern and control, but in so far as 
 it is of a higher power, let the higher power speak." 
 
 To the Catholic Church marriage is something holy. "For this cause 
 shall man leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife." It is to her
 
 340 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 a solemn compact for life— a compact which, when once validly made and 
 consummated by competent parties, can not be completely dissolved by 
 judge, by priest, bv bishop, nor pope; by none can it be dissolved save by 
 Him who created the sacred relation— God Himself. 
 
 Many erroneously believe that the Pope grants divorces, but in the 
 almost nineteen centuries of the history of the Church, the tirst decree of 
 divorce has yet to come from Rome. On the contrary, the sacred pontiffs 
 have stood, a wall of brass, in every age, against the violation of the mar- 
 riage bond. History speaks of the many instances where the laws of 
 Christian marriage were sought to be set aside by those high in power, 
 and the brightest pages in the history of the lives of the popes are those 
 which tell of the patient resignation with which they withstood entreaty, 
 threats, and even torture in defending the sanctity of marriage. They 
 have been no respecter of persons. To the rich and to the poor, to the 
 prince and peasant seeking an absolute dissolution of the marriage bond, 
 the same answer has been made. 
 
 From the throne have come, first entreaties, then threats, and, these 
 being unavailing, even armies have been sent. Rome has been besieged, 
 priests and people maltreated, churches desecrated, the cross, the emblem 
 of Christianity, torn to the ground, the Pope imprisoned and forced to 
 endure hunger and thirst, but above the din of battle, out from the dust 
 of destruction, from the prison door, above the noise of the clanking chains, 
 has been heard, coming from the quivering lips of the Pontiff: " What, 
 therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." 
 
 " If the popes," says the Protestant writer. Von Mueller, " 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 immortal for all future 
 ages " 
 
 The Church is condemned, by those who know not, for compelling per- 
 sons who have entered the married state to live together, regardless of the 
 faults of one or the other. This is an error ; the Church teaches that 
 man and wife should live together ; fehe 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 treatment of the drunken husband. 
 The object of her teachings is to 'promote virtue, and when contact longer 
 breeds vice— when a soul, whether it be of a husband, or wife, or child, is in 
 danger ; where the body, the casket of the soul, is in danger of serious 
 injury — she not only permits but advises her children to live separate and 
 apart. And in such cases she permits the strong arm of the law to inter- 
 pose between husband and wife, to shield the weak from the strong. Exer- 
 cising no civil authority, she permits her children, in the proper case, to 
 seek the solace of the law, and, by proper decree in the civil courts, to erect 
 a barrier against vice, wrong, and injustice. But to her the divorce absolute 
 of the civil courts is of no more effect, except as it affects civil rights, than 
 the divorce a mensa et thora. In her eyes the mystical bond of marriage 
 is ever existing until " death does them part." 
 
 So that while civil divorces are permitted 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 are about to 
 marry to consider well the step they are about to take — she throws about 
 them such jjrotection as she can by requiring the "publication of the 
 banns" 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
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE MARRIAGE BOND. 341 
 
 separation as the only remedy. We know that the wrongs of one may bo 
 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 bo an injustice to 
 compel the innocent to remain unmarried after divorce because of the 
 wrongs of the wicked, but it must be remembered that laws can not be 
 framed to suit the individual case. Laws and rules of life must be enacted 
 with a view to the common good of humanity at large. An individual case 
 of apparent injustice arising from a law is no argument against its propri- 
 ety. It is said that such a rule destroys individual liberty, but no; the 
 contract to be binding must, in the Urst instance, be the voluntary act of 
 the parties. If it is understood that the bond is to remain unbroken dui ing 
 life it is one of the conditions to which consent is given. 
 
 But it is said, as one of the parties has broken his vow, the other is not 
 bound; but we say, society, the state, God, has not violated the contract, 
 and it is still in force until all agree to a dissolution. 
 
 As a matter of fact in actual life it is not the innocent or wronged one 
 who usually seeks remarriage; on the contrary it is the one who has violated 
 the most solemn obligations, who has trampled upon right, broken the heart 
 of innocence, and. by his own acts, forced the other party to the divorce 
 court for protection of life and honor. In many cases it is apparent that 
 the wrong has been inflicted with the purpose of forcing a separation and 
 consequent divorce in order to enable the wrong-doer to again take the vows 
 of marriage, to be in turn violated as whim or passion may dictate. 
 
 The wrong-doer, free from the bonds of matrimony, free from the care of 
 children — for it is to the innocent party their custody is given by the court 
 — free even from the obligation to support in most cases, goes out into 
 society a threatening blight to innocence and purity. 
 
 It is this condition that encourages hasty marriage. As the system has 
 grown there has been developing its correlative, the matrimonial bureau, 
 through the operations of which wives and husbands are taken on trial 
 with the full knowledge that if they prove unsuitable the divorce courts are 
 open to declare their relations at an end and permit them to go forth to 
 cast another line in the matrimonial sea. Oh, shades of the Christian 
 founders of this Christian land, didst thou ever foresee this threatening 
 evil! Oh, men and women of to-day, stop and consider ere it is too late. 
 
 Eminent men who have made a, study of causes and effects in marital 
 difficulties assert that indissolubility, in the sense that remarriage after 
 separation be not permitted, is the only safeguard of marriage. That 
 eminent legal scholar, John Taylor Coleridge, in a note to his edition of Black- 
 stone's Commentaries, says : " It is no less truly than beautifully said by 
 Sir W. Scott, in the case of Evans vs. Evans, ' that though, in particular 
 cases, the repugnance of law to dissolve the obligation of matrimonial 
 cohabitation may operate with great severity ujjou individuals, yet it must be 
 carefully rememl:)ered that the general happiness of the married life is 
 secured by its indissolubility.' When ijeopleunderstandthat they must live 
 together, except for a few reasons known to the law, they learn to soften, by 
 mutual accommodation, that yoke which they know they can not shake off; 
 they become good husbands and good wives from the necessity of remain- 
 ing husbands and wives, for necessity is a powerful master in teaching the 
 duties which it imposes. If it were once understood that, upon mutual dis- 
 gust, married persons might be legally separated, many couples who now 
 pass through the world with mutvial comfort, with attention to their com- 
 mon offspring and to the moral order of civil society, might have been at 
 this moment living in a state of mutual vnikindness, in a state of estrange- 
 ment from their common offspring, and in a state of the most licentious 
 and unrestrained immorality. In this case, as in many other cases, the hap- 
 piness of some individuals must be sacrificed to the greater and more gen- 
 eral good."
 
 342 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Gibbon, after speaking of the loose system of divorce among the 
 Romans, adds: " A specious theory is confuted by this free and perfect 
 experiment, which demonstrates that the liberty of divorce does not con- 
 tribute to happiness and virtue." , , ,, , . , , , 
 
 What can be more convincing than the words of that eminent statesman 
 and scholar, Kt. Hon. William E. Gladstone, who, in answer to the question 
 " Ought divorced people be allowed to marry under any circumstances?" 
 replies: 
 
 The second ouostion deals with what may bo called divorce proper. It resolves 
 itself into tlie lawfulness or unlawfulnews of le-marriage, and the answer appears 
 to me to be that re-marriage is not admissible under any circumstances or condi- 
 tions whatsoever. Not that the difficulties arising from incongruous marriage 
 are to bo either denied or extenuated. They are indissoluble. But the remedy is 
 worse than the disease, ^ , u 
 
 These sweeping statements ought, I am aware, to be supported by reasoning 
 and detail which space docs not permit and which 1 am not iiualified adequately 
 to supply.' But it soems to me that such reasoning might fall under the following 
 
 That Christian marriage involves avow before God. , , 
 
 That no authority has been given to thn Christian church to cancel such a vow. 
 
 That it lies beyond the province of the oivil legislature, which, from the ne- 
 cessity of things, has a veto 'power within the limits of reason upon the making 
 of it, but has no competency to annul it when once made. .,,.,. 
 
 That according to the laws of just interpretation marriage is forbidden by the 
 text of Holy Scripture. • ..u ■ 4- ■*■ v *t, ^ i ^- -^u 
 
 While divorce of any kind impairs the integrity ot the family, divorce with re- 
 marriage destroys it root and branch. The parental and conjugal relations are 
 •'joined together" by the hand of the Almighty, no leps than the persons united 
 by the marriage tie to one another. Marriage contemplates not only an absolute 
 identity of interests and affections, but also the creation of new, joint, d,nd inde- 
 pendent obligations, stretching into the future and limited only by the stroke of 
 death. These obligations, where divorce proper is in force, lose all community, 
 and the obedience reciprocal to them is dislocated and destroyed. 
 
 Thus it is seen that the most eminent minds of different ages regard 
 marriage as indissoluble, not from religious considerations alone, but 
 because the best interests of society demand it. 
 
 The history of mankind has demonstrated the wisdom of the teaching. 
 Upon the tablets of the world's story it is written that, as divorce has 
 increased in a nation, that nation has fallen lower and lower until her 
 loftiest monuments crumbled in the dust. In ancient Greece and Rome 
 the shattered ties of statehood were prefigured in the broken ties of home- 
 life made possible by divorce laws the conception of w^hich was in the vices 
 of the people. 
 
 Gibbon tells us that "passion, interest, or caprice suggested daily 
 motives for the dissolution of marriage; a word, a sign, a message, a letter, 
 the mandate of a freedman, declared the separation; the most tender of 
 human connections was degraded to a transient society of profit or pleas- 
 ure." 
 
 And, oh, what a vital subject is this for consideration in these times, 
 when the frequency of divorce in the land of progress is becoming alarming 
 ■ — threatening, as it does, the very foundation of society. Too many seem 
 to forget that society does not exist except in the individuals that compose 
 it. The state is virtuous or lacking in virtue as the individual elements — 
 the people — are virtuous or otherwise. Individuals are virtuous or other- 
 wise as the home from which they come is the seat of virtue or the den of 
 vice. Hence the home is the foundation of society, from which must go 
 forth the men and women of the world. 
 
 Divorce strikes at the very heart of the home; it is a keen sword which 
 severs every home tie; it is a demon with cloven foot which stamps out 
 every vestige of home life. 
 
 What do the people think of the record for the twenty years prior to 
 1886 (the latest completed statistics) of 328,716 divorces in the United 
 States? Over .'$28,000 homes destroyed and eliminated forever as component 
 factors in civilization.
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE MARRIAGE BOND. 343 
 
 But this is not the worst. In 1867 there were 9,937. In 1886 there were 
 25,5;J5 divorces, an increase of 72 per cent^ — an increase more than twice as 
 great as the growth in jjopulation, and representing a ratio to marriage of 
 as high as one to nine. To the i^erson whose daily paper brings, in glowing 
 head-lines, the story of marital infelicity told to the public in the divorce 
 courts of the country it is needless to say that the nvmiberof divorces have 
 not decreasd since 1886. 
 
 How long can society stand this drain upon its resources? How long can 
 the i^atriotic American peojjle see with composure the divorce courts of the 
 land severing husband and wife — driving one or the other to the asylum or 
 the grave, and driving helpless and innocent children God knows where? 
 
 Does it not bring a blush to the cheek to find new States allowing divorce 
 upon a residence of six and even three months, with other conditions so 
 easy that there is attracted to their borders hundreds, aye, thousands of 
 divorce seekers, not only from our own land, but 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 can be granted are greatly at variance. So that those 
 who can not 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 committed in establishing a resi- 
 dence 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 cavises. Require 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 appli- 
 cation. Require personal service, unless the petitioner can show by com- 
 petent 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 re-hearing. 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 resident, 
 publicly known to have adopted residence for the sole purpose of procuring 
 a divorce, treated with all judicial dignity as having a good-faith residence 
 required by the statute. 
 
 These changes can be brought about only by the people themselves— by 
 creating and maintaining such a public sentiment as will force the legis- 
 latures and courts to a fuller recognition of the overwhelming importanoe 
 of this great- question. Laws, to be effectual, must go hand in hand with 
 public sentiment. Those that are not sustained by the approval of the 
 masses of the people will fail of enforcement. Therefore the crying need of 
 ihe hour is a healthy, active, agressive, public sentiment. Public senti- 
 ment is the life-current of society; it affects individual action in private 
 life; it enters the jury box in our civil courts; it whispers to judges upon 
 the bench ; it stalks boldly into the halls of legislation, both State and
 
 344 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 natioiril Public opinion reaches the uational conscience, and it is this 
 conscience that must be reached, must be quickened, must be brought into 
 more active operation for the public good. 
 
 The divorce laws and their administration being corrected, we need 
 more stringent laws in most of the States concerning the duty of the hus- 
 b-ind to support his wife and family. It is a sad commentary upon our 
 le.Mslationlhat 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 
 visil)le property subject to the process of the law. A law is needed which 
 sliaii provide that such desertion is a crime and whereby such men 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 penitentiary are earning money which goes into 
 the State treasury. These earnings might, under proper legislation, be ap- 
 plied to the support of those dependent upon the person who earns the 
 same. We need a law and a public sentiment to sustain it which will 
 brand desertion as much a crime as horse-stealing, and we need more con- 
 siderate 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 children. 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 sup- 
 port 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 upon the world than by painting the brightness of the day of 
 universal ownership. If some of the money expended in building alms- 
 houses and jails were applied in an intelligent effort toward the prevention 
 of crime, it would be better for humanity, and, as prevention isof 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 tirmly established, and everything that tends toward disintegra- 
 tion should be carefully guarded against. 
 
 "The solidity and health of the social body," says William E.Gladstone, 
 "depend upon the soundness of its unit; that unit is the family, and the 
 hinge of the family is to be found in the great and profound institution of 
 marriage." Instead of protecting this great "unit" of society, the Amer- 
 ican people are courting national danger by at least a tacit indorsement of 
 existing divorce laws and their administration. 
 
 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 present, 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 training 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.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON WOMEN. 31:5 
 
 We are creating the environments of future generations. Will not tliis 
 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-operatic)n 
 of men of all classes and all creeds, and, therefore, the Catholic Churcii 
 holds out lier hands to-day 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 till the air with the voice of condenmation of legalizeil 
 polygamy. Let it enter our political conventions, go boldly into our legis- 
 kitive iialls, seek the sanctum of our editorial writers, touch the hearts 
 of judges on the bench, inspire the thoughtful, sincere men in the pidpit, 
 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. 
 
 We need more fatherly ad\-ice from the bench, such as the following 
 from the Supreme Court of Iowa, speaking by Justice Seevers: 
 
 But we think the primary cause of all tlie trouble is that both have excitable 
 teniperameiiTs aud caustic tongues, neither of which have been curbed astlio 
 love and respect each should have for the otiier demanded. But due inauiry 
 should have been made as to these matters before marrying. The law docs not 
 authorize a divorce therefor. Patience, a due regard for the rights of each other, 
 and a little of the affection they once no doubt had. would enable these parties to 
 live happily together and raise a family of children they both will take pride in. 
 Wo will make no order for the children with tlie liope that all will sooa be united 
 aud the i)ast forgotten. 
 
 Or the follovv'ing from the same court, speaking by Justice Reed: 
 
 Wo do not believe that there were any reasonable grounds for the separation 
 originally; nor does it appear to us that there is any ground for its continuance. 
 If the parties will but forget the unhappy and foolish difference that led to the 
 separation, and repose in each other something of the trust and contidence which 
 for more than twenty years existed between them, and take counsel of their own 
 hearts and consciences, instead of with those who have sowed their pathway of 
 life thick with seeds of dissension and discord, there exists no reason wliy they 
 may not spend their declining years in peace and happiness iu each other's 
 society. 
 
 Great and permanent reforms come slowly. Step by step let the laws 
 be changed. It is said, and it is true, that men can not be made virtuous 
 by legislation, but it is also true that it is difficult to make men believe that 
 what is lawful is not I'ight. 
 
 Let the ax first be applied at the root. Restrain the right of remar- 
 riage after divorce, and slowly but surely will the leaves of this noxious 
 weed wither and die, and in future generations our divorce legislation will 
 be regarded by those that come after us as one of the few blots upon the 
 history of our young republic. But the knowledge that the Christian 
 American sentiment for home and morality was strong enough to wipe it 
 out forever will be a source of gratification and will be an incentive to 
 higher aims and greater achievements to the men and the women of the 
 future America. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON WOMEN. 
 
 EEV. ANNIS F. F. EASTMAN, 
 
 In Eve, the mother of evil, and Mary, the Mother of God, we have the 
 two extremes of religious thought concerning w^oman. It is worthy of 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."
 
 346 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 In the sacred oracles of the Chinese we find these words: "All was sub- 
 ject 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 inves- 
 tigation 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, institutions, 
 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 organ- 
 ized 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 cf)nsequent inferiority. 
 
 The Vedas declare that a husband, 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 masters and wives 
 on an equality with their nusbands. Aristotle characterized women as being 
 of an inferior order, and Socrates asks the pathetic question: "Is there a 
 human being with whom you talk less than with your wife?" Poor Soc- 
 rates judged the sex, we may imagine, as the modern sage is apt to do — by 
 that specimen with which he was most familiar. Tertullian, one of the 
 most spiritual of fhe 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 to-day said: "Man is the head of a family; the family is 
 an organic unity, and can not exist without subordination. 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 religious 
 doctrine and they reflect the spirit of oi-ganized religion from the beginning 
 until now. If, however, by religion we mean that universal spirit of rever- 
 ence, fear, and worship of a spiritual being or beings, believed 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 perceive the right and choose it— 
 if, in a word, religion be the possibility 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 education. In seek- 
 ing to discern what part religion, thus conceived, has played in the advance- 
 ment oi 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 primi- 
 tive man concerning God and the supernatural world you have not arrived 
 at the roots of things. For his gods, his beliefs, as to the mystery by which
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON WOMEN. 347 
 
 he is encompassed, 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 superimposeu 
 upon them by God ; they wei-e the outf,a-owth of the actual life of the race. 
 They were an attempt on man's part to explain himself and nature, to an- 
 swer the question asked by his own beuig and the universe without. 
 Woman's religious position, therefore, in any nation is only the Bui)ernat- 
 ural or religicms sanction put upon her actual ijosition in that nation. 
 Among primitive peoples she is always a drudge, a chattel, a mere posses- 
 sion, her only actual value being that of the j^roducer 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 perfect adaptation to 
 environment. Here we tind the foundations of that physical and mental 
 inferiority of the female which has been the reason of woman's position in 
 human society in all times. A foremost scientist says : " The superiority 
 of male mammals is a remarkable fact. It is due to causes litvle 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 
 offspring. It is the result of 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 what he 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 can not be a i)oet. In most 
 mammals the male is larger, more beautiful, more sagacious than the 
 female, and is exempt from most of the unpleasant labors connected with 
 the rearing and defense of the young; therefore a woman can not under- 
 stand politics. You can easily find instances, if you like, in natural history 
 of what we might call nature's favoritism of the female. Why do you not 
 speak of the ostrich, the male of which sits on its eggs, hatches out the 
 young and takes iirincipal care of them? Why do you not instance that 
 tine, 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 prevalent among women? 
 
 The first 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 are 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 of human society. The point is just here. We can not 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. W^e 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 matter of speculation. 
 
 We always find the position of woman improving as warlike activities 
 are replaced by industrial activities. When war and the chase were the 
 sole questions of Jiumankind the qualities required in these formed their 
 chief measure of excellence. The position of woman in ancient Egypt, in 
 her most brilliant period, was higher than in many a modern state. Egypt 
 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 Lapps. It is because 
 the men are not warriors. They have no soldiers; they %ht no battles,
 
 348 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 either with outside foreigners or between the various tribes and families. 
 In spite of their wretched huts, dirty faces, primitive clothing, their igno- 
 rance of literature, art, and science, they rank above us in the highest ele- 
 ment 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 toler- 
 able when circumstances lead to likeness of occupation between the sexes. 
 Among the Cheroops, who live upon fish and roots, which the women get 
 as readily as the men, the women have a rank and influence very rare among 
 Indians. Modern history also teaches us that when women tjecome valu- 
 able in a commercial sense they are treated with a deference and respect 
 which is as ditferent from the sentimental adoration of the poet as from 
 the haughty contempt of the philosopher. 
 
 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 
 exceptions, that a tropical climate tends to degrade women by relaxing her 
 energy and exposing her purity. The relatively high regard in which 
 woman was held by some of the tribes of the north of Europe, the strict- 
 ures 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. 
 Yet she was the companion of his labors and dangers — his counsellor. 
 She had part of all his wars, encouraging men in battle and inspiring even 
 dying soldiers with new zeal for victory. 
 
 Every 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 out- 
 growth of the teachings of Buddha. Organized Christianity is not the 
 mitation of the life and ceachings of Christ among his followers. Chris- 
 tianity is the teaching of Jesus, plus Judaism, plus the Roman spirit of law 
 and justice and Grecian philosophy, plus the ideals of medieval 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 religion 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 teachings of itp founder, and 
 in every instance we find these teachings far in advance of the average life 
 of the peoples among whom they arose. 
 
 No one can study the words or Buddha, of Zoroaster, Confucius, 
 Mohammed, and Moses without seeing a divine life and spirit in them 
 which is not a reflection from the state of society in which they lived. 
 Charity is the very soul of Buddhic teaching. "Charity, courtesy, benevo- 
 lence, unselfishness are to the world what the linch-pin is to the rolling 
 chariot." 
 
 Buddha declared the equality of the male and female in spiritual things. 
 The laws of Moses exalt woman. The Elohistic, or more strictly Jewish 
 account of creation, puts male and female on a level. So God created man 
 in his own image— in the image of God created he him — male and female 
 created he them, and the Lord blessed them. Christ said: "Whosoever 
 doth the will of God, 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 He says, " Call no man father; 
 one is your father. No man master; one is you 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
 
 INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON WOMEN. 349 
 
 female. The Sabbath was the chief institution of the Jews, their holy of 
 holies, whose original significance was so overlaid with the priestly laws 
 and prohibitions that it had become a hindrance to right. It was a machine 
 in which the life was caught and lorn and destroyed. Christ says: "Sab- 
 bath was made for man." So aJi institutions, all creeds, everything, was 
 made, planned, and devised for man, The life is the fruit, and if any insti- 
 tution, any right, or form, or deed is found to be hampering ami hindering, 
 the growing life or spirit of man wants to cast it off, even as Christ defied 
 the man-made laws of his people when he healed the man with the 
 withred 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 vuito Him- 
 self, 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 sex among men. He has 
 nothing to say about manly virtues and womanly virtues, but "Blessed are 
 the meek," not ineek women; "Blessed are the merciful," "the })ure 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 enfolded 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 19th century. 
 
 Christ declared eternal principles. He did not invent them, they were 
 always true. Men make systems good, serving a valuable purpose, l)ut they 
 have their day and cease to be. If it be urged that the progress of Chris- 
 tianity since Chrisfs day has often seemed to be backward from His ideal, 
 in reference to the man and the woman, there is but one answer — and that 
 is, that Christianity, as He proclaimed it, soon became mingled with Jewish 
 and Grecian philosophy, and received the impress of the Romans and the 
 ditferent peoples that embraced it, yet all the time it was slowly moulding 
 the race to its own heavenly pattern, while to-day the principles of Jesus 
 are finding new presentations and confu-mations in the scientific spirit of 
 this generation. 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: Love is the fulfilling of the law. 
 
 There are two ways of reading history. 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 facts to support it. The latter is the 
 more popular way. These two ways place themselves before me as I endeavor 
 to trace the influence of Christianity on woman's development, or of relig- 
 ion on woman's development. If t could only make up my mind that 
 religion had been her greatest boon or her greatest curse, then the matter 
 of proving either might be easier. When I began the research on this sub- 
 ject my mind was absolutely unprejudiced. I studied the history of the 
 religious life of mankind as I would 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 man, it has been to woman in like manner, though 
 it could not raise her at once to his level, because it found her below him. 
 
 That woman's advancement is something apart from man's is one of the 
 hurtful errors of our day. How our theologians have adjured women to 
 remember the debt of gratitude they owe Christianity. The debt of the
 
 350 TBE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 race is one, whatever it is. Women were raised only as men were lifted up. 
 Indeed, according to the principle of Christ, the man's debt is the greater, 
 for woman's degradation and misery were caused by man's oppression, and 
 surely it is better to be a victim than an oppressor; it is nobler to suffer 
 than to inflict injury. 
 
 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 let- 
 ter of religion as contained in bodies of doctrine, in ceremonial 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 sp.rit, 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 tf) speak. Of the growing dependence of organized Christianity upon 
 woman, there is no need to speak. Her works speak for her. 
 
 THE DIVINE ELEMENT IN THE WEEKLY 
 REST-DAY. 
 
 EEV. DR. A. H. LEWIS. 
 
 No subject deserves a place on the programme of this parliament which 
 does not involve truths as wide as the world, as lasting as time, and hence 
 vital to all the higher forms of religion. 
 
 The theme assigned to me is invested with vinusual importance because 
 of the various and vital interests which now cluster around the Sabbath 
 question. The demand for reconsideration and readjustment of that ques- 
 tion is increasing and imperative. It has fully entered an epoch of rapid 
 transition. 
 
 Experience shows that the idea of sacred time, and hence of the weekly 
 rest-day, is vitally connected with the development of religion in individual 
 life and in the world. History is an organic unity. No event is isolated; 
 nothing is fortuitous. God is constantly settling questions and determining 
 issues through events. There is no point on which God has more clearly 
 uttered His verdict through history, than on the question of the divine ele- 
 ment in the weekly rest-day. He expressed them in the spiritual dearth and 
 disaster which blighted ancient Israel, when the nation turned away from 
 doing the divine will in regard to the sacred day. Each succeeding century 
 has reiterated these verdicts and demonstrated the fact tli at those who disre- 
 gard the divine element in the Sabbath gather ruin. When the falsehood 
 which says, " no day is sacred " became regnant in the early history of 
 Christianity, spiritual canker and decay fastened on the church like a 
 deadly fungus. When this same falsehood ripened in the French Revolu- 
 tion, God thundered forth his verdict again, high above the smoke and din 
 of national suicide. At this hour, in Europe and America, in Paris and 
 Chicago, 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 erroneous. 
 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 inherent
 
 DIVINE ELEMENT IN THE WEEKLY REST-DAY. 3r>l 
 
 pnilosophy of time and from man's relation to God throuf^h it. Duration is 
 an immediate attribute of God. It is an essential characteristic of the 
 self-existing Deity. He is inconceivable without it. " Time " is measured 
 duration in which man has lieing. Herein is it trvie that men "live, move, 
 and have their being" with and within God. He is forever in touch witli 
 His children through this environment of duration, as definitely as llie 
 atmosphere is in touch with their physical bodies. Existence within this 
 attribute of God is not subject to man's volition. We can not remove our- 
 selves 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 can not hold communion with God without this nu-dium of 
 time; and such are the demands of life on earth that sacred time must l)e 
 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 factors 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 luiiversal. It 
 varies with religious and social development and with monotheistic and 
 polytheistic tendencies. The supreme expression of this idea is found in 
 the week, a divinely appointed cycle of time, measured, identified, and pre- 
 served by the Sabbath. It is not a week, but the week; a uniform and 
 sacred multiple of days, which has endured, unvariant and identical, from 
 the prehistoric period to the present hour. All other divisions of time are 
 marked wholly by the planets, or are so connected with them as to be vari- 
 able, through needful adjustment to the natural order of things. Imperfect 
 imitations of the week like the " nundine " of the Romans, and the inter- 
 calated lunar weeks of the Assyrians, serve only to emphasize the supra- 
 natural and divine order of the week. 
 
 The weekly rest-day and the week are the special representatives of 
 God; not of " creation " simply, but of the universal Father, Creator, Helper 
 and Redeemer; the All in All; the Ever-living and Ever-loving one. Spring- 
 ing from such universal facts, and continuing according to such divine 
 philosophy, the week and the weekly rest-day are integral factors in the 
 eternal fitness of things. The foundations of religious life are imperiled 
 when this truth is disregarded or assailed. The consciousness of God's 
 ever-abiding nearness to men is the foundation of true religion. 
 
 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 agricultural 
 implements, we know that those who spoke it were tillers of the soil, even 
 though the land they inhabited 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 philo- 
 logical chain encircles the globe, includes all races of men, and covers the 
 entire historic period. It proves that Infinite Wisdom provided from the 
 earliest time and as an essential part of the divine order of creation tlie 
 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. 
 
 Being founded in the divine order and created to meet a universal
 
 352 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 demand, linking earth and heaven as God's especial representative, the 
 Sabbath and the week have a supreme value in all human affairs. But this 
 value is fundamentally and pre-eminently religious. Rest from ordinary 
 worldly affairs is a subordinate idea. It has little value except as a means 
 to higher spiritual and religious ends. The blessings which come to the 
 physical side of life through rest are much, mainly or only, when rest comes 
 through religious sentiment. Irreligious leisure insures holidayism and 
 dissipation. These defeat all higher results. But 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. Worship and religious instruction follow. 
 
 ■ Under the behest of religion the ordinary duties of life, its cares and per- 
 plexities 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 ehrines can not come to them as time does. They are too far 
 removed from God and too local as to men. They can not speak to the soul 
 as time speaks. Sacred hovirs are God's unfolding presence, lifting the 
 soul and holding it in heavenly converse. Social worship comes only 
 through specified time. Religious intercovirse among men, whereby each 
 stimulates the other's faith and aids the other's devotion, is an inevHable 
 result of sacred time and is unattainable without it. Sacred time cul- 
 tivates religious life by spiritual communion, by wholesome instruction 
 and by healthful spiritual surroundings. 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 presence, lies at the foundation of 
 religious life and of worship. God's day is a perfect symbol of His pres- 
 ence, of His enfolding and redeeming love. The lesser blessings which 
 come to men through sacred |time need not be catalogued here, bvit it 
 must be remembered that these do not come except through sacred time, 
 and that the results which flow from irreligious idleness are curses rather 
 than blessings. Holidayism is removed from Sabbathism. 
 
 An adequate conception of the problems which surround the Sabbath 
 question will not be obtained unless we consider somethings which prevent 
 these higher views from being adopted. First among hindrances is the 
 failure to recognize duration as an attribute of God, and hence the Sabbath 
 and the week, as necessary parts of the divine and everlasting order of 
 things. Withovit a recognition of the fact that sacred time, as God's ;repre- 
 sentative, is a necessary result of the jjrimal 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, Sabbathism sinks to the plane of a 
 temporary ceremony, or a passing rite born of momentary choice or per- 
 sonal desire. Such a conception is too low to awaken conscience or to 
 cultivate spiritual life. The absence of this higher cor^ception is the source 
 of the present widespread non-religious holidayism, with its long catalogue 
 of evils, evils which perpetuate the falsehood — " Let us eat and drink, for 
 to-morrow we die."
 
 DIVINE ELEMENT IN THE WEEKLY REST-DAY. 3.->3 
 
 Any conception of the weekly rest-day wliich does not recof,'nizo it ub 
 God's representative in human life, and is f^n-owinj,' out of the universal 
 relations which men sustain to Him, is earthly, sensuous, and fatal to reiin- 
 ion. Conscience finds no congenifd soil in such low f,'roiind. (irowth 
 heavenward cannot take root in the falsehood which separates the Sahljath 
 from God and from the life to come. There can be no relit,'i()us resttlay 
 without conscience. There is no conscience where (iod's authority is not. 
 God has written this vertlict 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 Sabl)ath 
 observance. This is done because the divine element is unrecognized, 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 prominent, the spiritual per- 
 ceptions are benumbed and clouded. Upon such a basis the obligation to 
 rest is determined by the extent of weariness, and the nuinner f)f resting by 
 the kind of weariness. This desabbatizes the rest-day and destroys tlie 
 religious foundation which alone can uphold it. Let it be repeated: irrelig- 
 ious resting, at the best, is holidayism. It usually sinks to dissipation and 
 debauchery. 
 
 Another decided hindrance to the recognition of the divine element in 
 the weekly rest-day is reliance on the civil law for the enforcement of its 
 observance. This point is worthy of far more careful and scientific consiil- 
 eration than it has yet received. The vital divine element 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 imiK-rative. Any argu- 
 ment is deceptive and destrvictive 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 society, The fundamental ditference is so great 
 that the same treatment can not be accorded to each. Civil institutions 
 spring from earthly relations between men. But. as we have seen, dura- 
 tion is so essentially an attribute of God that man's relations to it and to 
 God are relations supremely religious. Hence it is that when civil author- 
 ity is made the ground or the prominent ground 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 questi(jn in sight, 
 when " the law of the land " is presented as the main point of contact. The 
 ultimate appeal is not to Cassar, but to God; to conscience, not to congress. 
 Here is the fatal weakness of " Modern Sabbath Reform.'" History sus- 
 tains these conclusions with one voice. No weekly rest-day has ever been 
 religiously or sacredly kept under the authority of the civil law alone. On 
 the contrary,- the religious element 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 there 
 from 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 everlasting and 
 perfected rest in the life to come. Heavenly life is the second stage in the 
 existence of redeemed men. Secure in the consciousness of immortality, 
 religion is always looking forward to a better time beyond. Visions f)f this 
 eternal Sabbath, untouched by care, undimmed by sorrow, and filli'd with 
 delightsome rest, are a part of universal religion. These are not Ijaseless
 
 354 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 dreams. They are the most real of realities. Spiritual vision sees them in 
 nart while awaiting the hour of their fuller revelation. Earthly babbaths 
 
 1 
 
 that but thinly intervenes between the loving soul and the fair city of 
 eternal li"-ht 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 is not created at Sinai, but Sinai was made glo- 
 rious by the presence of Him from whom time and eternity proceed, and 
 who there reannounced this representative of Himself and of His con- 
 tinued presence among men. A fountain of religion opened to ^satisfy 
 man's spiritual nature, it is far more than a "memorial of creation." It is 
 God's accredited ambassador at the court of humanity, always saying to 
 men, " God is your Father, your Preserver, your Spiritual Head, the Bearer 
 of your burdens, the Heale/of your sorrows ; living in Him your salvation 
 is secured and your joy coeternal with your immortality. 
 
 Before passing to consider a still broader and possible result than men 
 have yet considered, it may be well to repeat the conclusions already 
 reached. 
 
 1 Duration, eternity, is the attribute of Deity. Time is measured duration 
 witliin wliich man exists and by meausof wliich lie is forever living, moving, and 
 being iu God. It is the divine involucrum within which man is created and devol- 
 
 °^^a ' The week, created and bounded by the Sabbath, is a universal, perduring. 
 divine cycle of time, ordained to keep God in mind and to draw men into spirit- 
 ual communion with Him. Its order and identity are coequal with history and 
 the human race , , . ,• . i_ ., i. j 
 
 3 The weekly rest day can not serve the ends for which it was created on 
 any other than a religious basis. That basis is revealed by divine command, 
 divine example, and human needs, all springing from man's relation to God. to 
 time and to eternity. Christ's precepts and example repeater! and lutensified 
 God's example and commandment, while His sacrifiee magnified and re-estab- 
 lished the divine law. , ^ . .^, , J ,■ ■ 
 
 4. Our restless, overworked age cries out with deep and rehgious ongings 
 for the blessings of the divinely ordained religious rest-day. All nations and all 
 individuals need these blessings to lead them heavenward and to lift them into 
 spiritual childshipand communion with the Father and Redeemer of all. 
 
 5. Reliance upon lower considerations and earth-born motives increases 
 existing evils, prevents religious development, obscures the Godward side of the 
 question, and delays genuine reform. The closing decade of iho 19th century has 
 fully entered a world-wide transition in religious thought, and hence of the Sab- 
 bath 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 ceremony, 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 universal Sabbatism, 
 religious Sabbatism, according to God's commandment to continue Sab- 
 batism, 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, mainly because the treatment of the Sabbath question 
 since the 3d century of the Christian era has obscured or destroyed the 
 idea of sacred time. Real Sabbatism can not be attained on any ground 
 lower than religious and spiritual rest. So long as men think of the Sab- 
 bath as a temporary institution, belonging to one " dispensation," or to one 
 people, the higher conception will not be reached, even in theory, much less 
 in fact. Men must also rise above the idea that legislation, divine or human, 
 creates or can preserve the Sabbath. They must rather learn that the Sab- 
 bath 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 legislation, 
 and permanent beyond all changes, national or dispensational. 
 
 When men rightly apprehend the divine element in the weekly rest-day
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 355 
 
 they do not need the law of the land nor the tiat of the church to induce 
 obedience to this blessed provision of their existence, which answers their 
 "crying out for God." Until they do apprehend this higher idea little 
 value is gained and true Sabbathism is unknown. 
 
 What is the final conclusion? It is plain and radical. Since the nature 
 of the Sabbath is fundamentally religious, all considerations as to authority, 
 manner of observance, and future character must be remanded to the 
 realm of religion. Conscientious regard for it as divinely ordained, wicred 
 to God and therefore laden with blessings for men, is the'only basis for its 
 continuance. It is not an element of ceremonialism to be perf<jrmed 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 of 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 human 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. It began to be when these fundamental 
 relations began, and while its earthly side ceases with earth life, the 
 divine side can never cease. In a word, the Sabbath is a funda- 
 mental factor in the religious universe. It is God's universal repre- 
 sentative in human life and history. It is the source of countless blessings 
 to earth's weary multitudes and the foreshadowing of eternal and perfected 
 rest. It stands next to Christ, the boon of boons, the gift of gifts, match- 
 less in blessings, to be revered as we revere God, and to be preserved by 
 that loyal obedience which changes Sinai's "Thou shalt not" to the 
 redeemed soul's glad "I must." 
 
 The " morning stars " sang at its birth and the " Sons 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 for ever and 
 ever. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 
 
 BKOTHER AZARIAS. 
 
 He completed his paper a little before his death. It was read 
 by his brother, Rev. John F. Mullany, pastor of St. John's 
 Church, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 The sincere members of all Christian denominations 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. Conse- 
 quently any system of education from which religious training is eliminated 
 were inadequate and incomplete, and an injustice to the child receiving it. 
 Education should develop the whole man. Intellect and heart, body and 
 soul, should all be cultivated and fitted to act, each in its own sphere, 
 with most efficiency. And so the inculcation of piety, reverence, and relig- 
 ious doctrine is of more importance than training in athletic sports or 
 mathematical studies. Moreover, 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
 
 356 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIOSS. 
 
 points out the way by which he may best attain the end for which he was 
 
 Now it is only religious teaching that can furnish man with this infor- 
 mation and it is only in religious observances that man can 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," 
 savs this philosopher. " must be profoundly 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." 
 
 Christianitv has in many respects changed man's point of view. The 
 people of the ancient world made trees and flowers the habitations of gods 
 and goddesses and earth-born spirits. Their conception of nature was pan- 
 theistic. Christianity threw a halo of tenderness and poesy of another 
 kind over the animal and vegetable kingdoms of nature. Its Divine Founder 
 wove the lilies of the field and the vines of the hillside into His discourses. 
 Christian monks made smiling gardens and flourishing cities out of dense 
 forests and barren deserts. Christian meekness taught men to look upon 
 every creature of God as good. A St. Anthony tames the wild beasts of 
 the forests; a Frances of Assisi sings a hymn to the sun, and exhorts all 
 nature, animate and inanimate, to love and give thanks to God; a Francis 
 de Sales makes homilies upon the habits of bird and beast and insect; a 
 Wordsworth recognizes this material universe as a symbol of the higher 
 spiritual aspect. 
 
 The Christian aspect is no less distinct from the pagan aspect. In the 
 ancient civilizations the individual was absorbed in the state, which was 
 the supreme tribunal that decided all doubts and regulated conscience and 
 conduct. Christianity reversed all this. It flashed the white light of 
 revealed truth upon man's nature, lighting up its intricacies and giving 
 deeper insight into the secret chambers of the human heart; it taught man 
 his personal dignity and his sense of responsibility ; it showed him the 
 temporal and the eternal in their proper relations; it brought home to him 
 the infinite price of his sovil, and thus led him up to a recognition of indi- 
 vidual rights and liberties that were unknown to ancient Greece and 
 Rome. 
 
 We may trace many of our laws and customs to pagan days, but in all 
 that is good in our thinking, in our literature, in our whole education, there 
 is a spirit that was not in the thought, the literature, and the education of 
 pagan people. We can not rid ourselves of it. We can not ignore it if we 
 would. The opponents of Christianity in attempting to lay down lines of 
 conduct and establish motives and principles of action to supersede the 
 teachings of the Gospel and the practices of the Church are forced to 
 assume the vei-y principles they would supersede. Here, let it be 
 remarked, lurks the fallacy of those who would regulate conduct without 
 religion. Their ideal of life is still the Christian ideal without the Chris- 
 tian soul — the vital principle -that made that ideal an actuality. In thought 
 and external conduct they can not rid themselves of that ideal. It is bred 
 in the bone; it is part of themselves. Gwing to the care and earnestness of 
 our Christian ancestors, who prized above all other goods and gifts the 
 Christian training and the Christian lives of -their children, our modern 
 civilization, look at it how we will, is Christian in its nature and in its 
 essence. 
 
 Men may now speculate as to what the actual state of the world would 
 be had Christianity not entered as a disturbing element deflecting prog- 
 ress from its former course. Such speculations are safe. The work is done. 
 The barbarian who despised Roman civilization and sought its destruction 
 has been Christianized; his fierce nature has been curbed and tamed; he 

 
 ^-'^ % 
 
 r 
 
 \,(ion.MtjCoci\ 
 
 'X 4ffiV.A.ll.LEWL^.Il[). '/■, 
 
 EMINENT SEVENTH DAY BAPTISTS.
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF CHILDREN. yr, 
 
 has been raised up into a pUme of culture and refinement, and imbue^j wiU« 
 an ideal of life that uo formative influence outside of Chrititiaiiily (y>ui<l 
 have given him. If there still crops out traces of our heredity fr'oi/i ir.^ 
 barbarian, and crime is rampant, there is no part of ChriBtlanily. Ix >. 
 rather in spite of Christian influence. Human nature at all tiuii* suiti 
 under all circumstances remains prone to evil. Civilization, (icjunidhrhi'i itt 
 itself, only places more effective weapons in the hands of the crimizjal. It 
 is a natural got)d, and as such is subject to the accidents of i^yary rxalurai 
 good; therefore to evil, therefore to abuse, therefore U) crime. CviJbut. 
 tion, then, possesses in itself certain elements of disintegration. i^A m 
 Christianity there is a conservative force that resists all decay. CbrjjrVisuj 
 thought, Christian dogma, and Christian morals never grow old, never ^mh 
 their efficiency with the advance of any community in civilized life. Hetifj* 
 the importance for the conservation of the Christian family of impreesixj^ 
 them on the young mind. 
 
 John Stuart Mill is not of our opinion. To his mind the world would 
 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 worth, pro- 
 fessedly recognized, is that of obedience." In this patronizing fashion does 
 he summarize his judgment. " That mankind owes a great debt to this 
 morality and its early teachers I should be the last person to deny ; but I 
 do not scruple to say it, that it is in many points incomplete and one-sided, 
 and that, unless ideas and feelings not sanctioned by it had contributed to 
 the formation of European life and character, human affairs would have 
 been in a worse condition than they are now." (Essay on Liberty, page 9i.) 
 
 By the side of Mill's inadequate estimate of Christianity, let us plaoe 
 another from one who has cast from him the last shred of reli^ous dogmAs. 
 Mr. Lecky, in a more enlightened spirit, bears witness to the pereimifil 
 haracter of Christianity as a conservative force. He says: 
 
 There is but one example of a religion which is not naturally weaJcened by 
 civilization, and that example is Christianity. • • * But the great character 
 istio of Christianity, and the great moral proof of its divinity, is that it has been 
 the main source of the moral development of Europe, and that it has discharged 
 this ofBce, not so much by an inclination of a system of ethics, however pure, as 
 by the assimilating and attractive influence of a perfect ideal. The moral iTOg- 
 ress of mankind can never cease to be distinctively and intenselj Christian, as 
 long as it consists of a gradual approximation to the character of the Christiaxt 
 Founder. There is, indeed, nothing more wonderful in the history of the human 
 race than the way in whicti that ideal has traversed the lapse of ages, acquiripg 
 a new strength and beauty ^ith each advance of civiUzation, and infusing its 
 beneficent influence into every sphere of thought and SL(itiou..—Ralior^ali8m im, 
 Europe, 1 pp. 311, 31. 
 
 This is unstinted praise; here is at least one chapter of the world's his- 
 tory that Mr, Lecky has not misread. Thus is it that even according to 
 the testimony of those who are not of us, our modern civUization has in it 
 a unique element, divine and imperishable in its nature, growing out of its 
 contact with the Christ. That characterizing element, 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 glorified. The 
 teachings and jjractices of Christianity form an essential part of our educa- 
 tion. They are intimately blended with our whole personal hfe. 
 
 Christian influences must needs preside over every imjwrtant act from 
 the cradle to th<! grave. So the church thinks, and she acts accordingly. 
 The new-born infant is conH(H;rut(Ml with prayer and ceremonial to a Chris- 
 tian line of conduct when the saving waters of baptism are poured upon its 
 head, and it is thus nigenerated in Christ. The remainscf the ChristianB are 
 laid in the grave with prayer and ceremonial. At no time in the life of man 
 does the church n-A-.ix in her care of him. Least of all is she disposed to 
 leave him to himself at that (hm-jixI when \n- is most amenable to impres- 
 sion and when she can best lay hold upon his whole nature and mould it in
 
 ^ THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 linows no compromise; she can entertain no compromise; she has no 
 room for compromise, for she has no right to compromise or hesitate 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 Renan, 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 factor. He will have 
 none of it. He divides all educational responsibility between the family 
 and the state. He considers the professor competent to instruct in secular 
 knowledge only. The family he regards as the true educator. True is it 
 that the family is the great moulder 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. But M. Renan wants neither home nor child Christian. He would 
 establish a religion of beauty, of culture, indeed, of anything 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 safeguards 
 the boy soon outgrows the deference and respect and awe that woman 
 naturally inspires. That is indeed a superficial knowledge of human nature 
 which would reduce the chief factor of a child's education to womanly 
 influence unconsecrated by religion, unrestrained by the sterner authority 
 of the father, the law, the social custom. 
 
 The child of a Christian home, where some member of the family is 
 competent and v/illing to give his religious instruction regularly and with 
 method, might attend a purely secular school without losing the Christian 
 spirit, but these conditions obtain only in excep'tional 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 worldly 
 and frivolous amusements, and the children are abandoned to the care of 
 servants? And what has he to say of the home without the mother? And 
 the home in which example and precept 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; con- 
 sider 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 house- 
 hold duties never done; to speak of home education and delicacy of con- 
 science and growth of character among such families and under such con- 
 ditions were a mockery. But M. Renan has as happy a faculty in ignoring 
 facts as in brushing away whole 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 people. To the parent belongs the 
 right to educate the child. In the middle ages, when certain zealots would 
 compel the children of Jews and Mohammedans to be educated in the
 
 TBE RELIGIOVS TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 359 
 
 Christian religion, St. Thomas answered them thus: " In the days of Con- 
 stantine and Theodosius Christian bishops like Saints Sylvester and 
 Ambrose would not neglect to advise coercion for the education of the chil- 
 dren 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 con- 
 trol." And Pius IX. in our own day, April 25, 1868, gave out to our bishops 
 the following instructions: " We forbid non-Catholic pupils attending Cath- 
 olic schools to be obliged to assist at mass or any other religious exercise's. 
 Let them be left to their own discretion." If the parent educates hie child 
 himself, 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 development of the 
 supernatural man. Her Divine Founder said: " All power is given to Me 
 in heaven and on earth; go, therefore, teach all nations." The church 
 holds that of all periods in the life of man, the period of childhood and 
 youth, when the heart is plastic, and character is shaping, and formative 
 influence leaves an indelible impress, is the one in which religion can best 
 mould conduct, and best give color to thought; and therefore the church 
 exhorts and encourages the Christian parent to make many and great sac- 
 rifices in order to procure a Christian education for his children. It is the 
 natural right of every Christian child to receive this education. It is the 
 natural right and bounden duty of the parent, by the twofold obligation of 
 the natural law and the divine law, to provide his child with this education. 
 And the right being natural, it is inalienable; being inalienable, it is con- 
 trary to the fundamental principles of justice to attempt to force upon the 
 child any other form of education or to hinder the child in the pursuit of 
 this education, or to impose upon the child a system of education that would 
 in the least tend to withdraw him from the light and sweetness of the faith 
 that is his inheritance. The eminent and fair-minded churchman, Cardinal 
 Manning, says: 
 
 Compulsory education, without free choice in matters of religion and con- 
 science, is and ever must be unjust and destructive of the moral life of a people. 
 — The Forum, March, 1887, p. 66. 
 
 It is a breach of the social pact that underlies all state authority. That 
 pact calls for the protection of rights, not for their violation or usurpation. 
 And so, if the Christian parent would give his child a Christian education, 
 there is no power on earth entitled or privileged to stand between him and 
 the fulfillment of his wish. 
 
 But we are told that the child may learn the truths of his religion in 
 Sunday school, and that religion is too sacred a thing for the school-room. 
 Can you imagine an hour or two a week devoted to the most sacred of sub- 
 jects at all in keeping with the importance of that subject? Can you 
 imagine a child able to realize the power, the beauty, the holiness of religion 
 from the fact that he is required to give only an hour or two out of the 
 whole seven times twenty-four hours of the week to learn its truths? Again 
 let us quote the same eminent authority whose words will bear more weight 
 with them than any we could utter: "The heartless talk," says Cardinal 
 Manning, "about teaching and training children in religion by their 
 parents, and at home, and in the evening when parents are worn out by 
 daily toil, or in one day in seven by Sunday school, deserves no serious 
 reply. To sincere common sense it answers itself." (National Education: 
 The School Rate, page 28.) " Heartless talk deserves no serious reply." Hard 
 words these, but their fitness is all the more apparent the more we study 
 the question. 
 
 Even our secularists — those of them the most radical— while not believing
 
 360 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 in the intrinsic worth of religion or morality, would still uphold them 
 both to a certain extent, not because they regard them as true, but because 
 they consider them wholesome fictions for the people. Strauss, who had 
 spent a long and laborious life in undermining the religion of Christ, while 
 claiming for individuals the right to accept or reject all forms of belief, 
 recognizes now, and far into the future, the necessity of a church for the 
 majority of mankind. He who believed neither in a church nor a God, who 
 would dry up the sources of all consolation in this life and shut out every 
 glimpse 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-being of society. 
 And Renan has expressed a similar opinion in regard 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 preservation 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 can not gather 
 grapes from thorns. You can not sow a lie and reap truth. Think of all 
 that is meant by such statements as these. Can you imagine a common- 
 wealth erected upon falsehood or deceit entering 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, 
 though good enough for the preservation of society, and you sow in his 
 heart 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 school-room. 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 Chris- 
 tian children, having Christian fathers and mothers who are desirous of 
 making those children thoroughly Christian. Now, you can not mould a 
 Christian soul upon a purely ethical training. In practice you can not sep- 
 arate 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 passion may be overcome or virtue acquired. It is only 
 from the revelation of Christianity that we learn the cause of our innate 
 proneness 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 deceive 
 ourselves. The morality that is taught apart from religious truth and 
 religious sanction is a delusion. 
 
 The history of rationalism is strewn with 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 devoutly with his companions 
 of the Seminaries of Issy and St. Sulpice; 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 amusing or 
 nothing — and therein we learn that he began by sapping the natural foun- 
 dations on which supernatural truth rests; he played fast and loose with 
 philosophic truth, attempted to reconcile the most contradictory assump-
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF CHILDREN. .JOl 
 
 tions of Kant and Hegel and Schelling; he repudiated the primary princi- 
 ples of his reason, and so undermined its whole l);isis 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 supplieil all 
 other deficiencies, sat in judgment upon all things in heaven and upon 
 earth, especially upon the religion which he had professed anil for the min- 
 istry in which he was preparing himself. From that moment the Christian 
 religion ceased to be for him an active princiiile. He no longer believed 
 in the truths of Christianity. While conforming to its external jjractices, 
 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 e.xercise, 
 and finally a marketable commodity, the means by which to create unto 
 himself a name. He placed religious truth on the same footing with nat- 
 ural 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 Ronau's faith disappear 
 before his intellectual pride. 
 
 " In a scientific age," says Cardinal Newman, " there will naturally be a 
 parade of what is called natural theology, a widespread profession of the 
 Unitarian creed, an impatience of mystery, and a skepticism about mira- 
 cles." Now, if this intellectual temper is to be looked for under the most 
 favorable auspices, what religious dearth may we 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 religious practices have been banished is simply pre- 
 paring 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 jjhrases, would pro- 
 mote 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 culture sacred, because he 
 hopes thereby to make men atheistic. 
 
 Will any intelligent man hold that youth educated thus can be earnest 
 Christians? Does not experience prove that family infiuence is too weak 
 to enable them to resist the torrent of passion and unbelief? No ; purely 
 intellectual culture will not take the place of religion. Where men aban- 
 don themselves to the exclusive cultivation of the intellect; where they per- 
 mit pursuits of any kind to monopolize their energies, to the neglect of the 
 spiritual side of their natures, they are doing themselves an nijustice. 
 They are ignoring their supernatural destiny. They are making of them- 
 selves mere human machines for the performance of certain functions. 
 They are missing the completeness of life for which they were created. 
 Youth, trained on these lines, are putting themselves in a fair way to 
 despise that which they have systematically neglected. Knowledge is, in 
 itself, good ; it is a great power ; but knowledge is not all. With no less 
 truth than aptness has the poet sung : 
 
 Make knowledge circle with the winds; 
 But let her herald, lleverence, fly- 
 Before her to whatever sky 
 
 Bears seeds of men and growth of minds. 
 
 But knowledge, exclusively cultivated, will lack this reverence. Knowl- 
 edge is only too prone to puff up the unballasted mind. It supplies food 
 for the intellect, gives it strength and development and aptitude upon 
 definite lines. But the intellect works only according as the will directs.
 
 362 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 It is a pliant tool in the hands of the will. When the will is good and oper- 
 ates toward right doing, intellectual endowment is, indeed, a blessing ; 
 when the will is depraved, a trained intellect becomes all the more mis- 
 chievous. Reason enlightens the will and enables it to indicate the motives; 
 but religion alone has the life-giving power that nerves and fires the whole 
 life energies of man for good. This has been the way of humanity in the 
 past, and there is no reason why it should not be so in the future. 
 
 Not, then, in intellectual culture may we find the proper substitute for 
 religious training. Nor yet in the culture of the aesthetic sense. Love of 
 art in all its chief departments, enthusiasm for music and poetry, and the 
 beautiful in life and conduct, are, one and all, commendable. But that 
 these things should be everything, that they should be the sole barriers 
 erected against vice and crime, the sole motives of life, the sole criterion of 
 conduct — is out of question. Sense of beauty has never been able to stand 
 between human selfishness and the gratification of any passion. When 
 exclusively cultivated, its tendency is to render men and women rather 
 effeminate and weak before temptation. In no country was art more 
 thoroughly cultivated, or did art enter more intimately into all relations of 
 life than it did in Greece ; but at no time in the history of Greece did men 
 dream of substituting art culture for religious prayer and ceremonial. 
 
 Beauty can not supplant virtue; it can not stand on the same footing 
 with virtue. Beauty is a natural gift, pure and simple, whereas virtue is 
 based upon man's free will and grows out of man's relation with his Cre- 
 ator. Make the sense of beauty the ideal of life and you may end in holding 
 with Renan " that beauty is so superior, talent, genius, virtue itself, are 
 naught in its presence " — a proposition bearing on its face its own refuta- 
 tion. Not in culture of the assthetic sense is a substitute for religious 
 training to be found. 
 
 Neither is the substitute to be found in that purely ethical culture 
 which has in these days been made a religion. You can not make such 
 culture the basis of virtue. Is it virtue to recognize in a vague manner 
 distinctions between right and wrong, or to know what is graceful and 
 becoming in conduct? By no means. As we have already seen, virtue is 
 made of sterner stuff. The practice of virtue is based upon the dictates of 
 conscience. Conscience has sanction in its recognition of the fact of a law- 
 giver to whom every rational being is responsible for his acts. What 
 sanction has the moral sense as such? None beyond the constitution of 
 our nature. We are told by the apostles of ethical culture that the 
 supreme law of our being is to live out ourselves in the best and highest 
 sense. But what is best and highest? If we consult only the tendencies 
 of our poor, feeble, erring human nature, whither will they lead us? There 
 are many things forbidden by the laws of Christian morality as injurious 
 to the individual and destructive of society, that are looked upon as good 
 by those who have drifted from Christian faith. You may, under certain 
 favorable circumstances, cultivate in the child a sense of self-respect that 
 will preserve it from gross breaches of morality, but you are not thereby 
 implanting virtue in its soul. Now the Christian parent, the Christian 
 teacher, and the Christian clergyman would see the soul of every child a 
 blooming garden abounding in every Christian virtue. This is the source 
 of all real social and personal progress. 
 
 There is no true moral improvement based upon purely ethical culture. 
 Theory is not practice; knowing is not doing. The world was never reno- 
 vated — the world would have never been renovated — by the ethical codes 
 of Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. The morality that enters into men's con- 
 victions, that becomes part of their very existence, that influences their 
 lives and braces them up to resist or forbear from wrong-doing under the 
 most trying circumstances, has a higher source than the moral teaching 
 that would make the beautiful in conduct the sole criterion of life. Ethical
 
 THE BELIGIOUS TRAINING OF CHILDREN. ZiT. 
 
 culture may veneer the surface, but it can ndt penetrate to the depths of 
 the human heart. With a certain hapj)}- comljination of traits ni the nat- 
 ural disposition of the soul, it may lead to the practice of natural virtues- 
 but this is not the supernatural life of the Christian. This is not the ideal 
 life laid down by St. Paul. The ideal of secularism considers only the 
 pleasant and the agreeable; the fair and the proper are the secularist's chief 
 objects in life. 
 
 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 redemption, 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 liesh and the 
 spirit are to be mortitied, that passions are to be resisted and man must 
 struggle against his inferior nature to the death. Now this doctrine is 
 to-day as hard a doctrine as it was in the days of St. Paul, when men 
 pronounced it a stumbling block and foolishness. The Christian parent 
 and the Christian Church are convinced that it is only by placing the 
 Christian yoke upon the child in its tender years that the child will after- 
 ward grow up to manhood or womanhood finding that yoke agreeable — for 
 the Divine Founder of Christianity has assured us that His 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 Chris- 
 tian 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 con- 
 fided to them. This is why, in the city of New York alone, we are witnesses, 
 this very year, of not less than 54,000 Catholic children, in the whole State 
 not less than 150,000, and in the United States nearly 800,000 attending our 
 parish schools at great sacrifices for pastors and parents and teachers. The 
 church will always render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but she 
 will continue to guard and protect and defend her own rights and preroga- 
 tives in the matter of education. She can not for a single moment lose 
 sight of the supernatural 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 give no mere 
 individual impressions, but the profound convictions with which Christian 
 parents act when insisting upon giving their children a Christian education. 
 Therefore, sincere Christians, whether Catholic, 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 pricele'^s 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 can not for a moment tolerate their children in an atmosphere of 
 secularism, from which Christian prayer and Christian practices have 
 been banished.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EIGHTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 18th. 
 
 GREAT TEACHERS OF RELIGION. 
 
 Three sessions were held on the eighth day of the parliament. 
 Dr. Barrows being chairman in the morning and afternoon, 
 and Dr. Lawrence of the Second Baptist Church, Chicago, In 
 the evening. The parliament was opened by silent prayer, 
 supplemented by the universal prayer offered by Rev Frank 
 Bristol and repeated by the audience. 
 
 THE SYMPATHY OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 
 
 In introducing Colonel Higginson, Dr. Barrows said: 
 
 It seems to me very appropriate that the speaker of the next half-hour 
 should have been invited to this parliament to deliver this address, for the 
 reason that for many years his own heart has been a Parliament of Religions. 
 Known to many in our land. Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of 
 Cambridge, is a scholar whom we delight to honor, a literary man among 
 the foremost in our country, an American of Americans, a soldier and a 
 patriot, and a friend of humanity who will now address you on "The Sym- 
 pathy of Religions." 
 
 Colonel Higginson was greeted with great enthusiasm on 
 
 rising to deliver his address. 
 
 I am sorry to see that our chairman keeps up a practice, in the intro- 
 duction of many gentlemen with long names from many other countries, of 
 heaping injudicious epithets upon them, with a result that could silence 
 anybody but an American. It is interesting to think, as a result of his 
 great labors and your sympathy, that all over this land, probably hundreds 
 of pulpits were making this Parliament of Religions their topic for discus- 
 sion yesterday. All over this land there were discussions 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 sub- 
 ject; 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. 
 
 364
 
 THE SYMPATHY OF RELIGIONS. 365 
 
 "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." Amid 
 all that range of discussion, how few there probably were who recognized 
 that this is, after all, not the tirst American Parliament of iteligions, 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 Philadelphia, 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 tolera- 
 tion. It seems strange that no historical painter, up to this time, has 
 selected for his theme that fine incident. It should have been perpetuated in 
 art, like the " Landing of the Pilgrims '' or " Washington Crossing the Dela- 
 ware." And side by side with it might well be painted the twin event which 
 occured nearly a hundred years later, in a Mohammedan country, when in 
 1875 Ismael Pasha, then Khedive of Egypt, celebrating by a procession of 
 200,000 people the obsequies of his beloved and only daughter, placed the 
 Mohammedan priests and Christian missionaries together in the procession, 
 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 story, 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 imaginative aspiration — a world outside of science— as its 
 superior. This was done most conclusively when Professor Tyndall, at the 
 close of his Belfast address, uttered that tine statement, by which he will 
 perhaps be longest remembered, that religion belongs not to the knowing 
 powers of man, but to his creative powers. It was an epoch-making 
 sentence. 
 
 If knowing is to be the only religious 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 Mohammedan, the Buddhist. 
 But 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. Each 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 helpless; in point of credulity, 
 all puerile; in point of aspiration, all sublime. AH seek after God, if 
 haply they might find him. All, moreover, look round 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 hope creates 
 for them redeemers 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 
 forward, not backward, in the history of man.
 
 366 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Everv great medieval structure in Christian Europe recalls in its archi- 
 tecture 'the extremes of hope and fear. Above the main doors of the 
 Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris strange figures imprisoned by one arm 
 in the stone strive with agonized faces to get out; devils sit upon wicked 
 kincrs and priests; after the last judgment demons like monkeys hurry the 
 troop of the condemned, still including kings and priests, away. Yet 
 nature triumphed over all these terrors, and I 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 English traveler in Thibet, after describing an 
 idol-room filled with pictures of battles between hideous tiends and equally 
 hideous gods, many headed and many armed, says: 
 
 But among all these repulsive faces of degraded type, distorted with evil pas- 
 sions we saw in st iking eonrrast here and there an image of the contemplanve 
 Buddha, with beautiial. calm features, pure and pitiful, such as they have been 
 handed down by palntini? and sculpture for 2,0UU years, and which the lamas 
 (priests) with all their perverted imagination have never ventured to change 
 when designing an idol of the great Incarnation, 
 
 The need of this high exercise of the imagination is shown even by the 
 regrets of those who, in their devotion to pure science, are least willing to 
 share it. The penalties of a total alienation from the religious life of the 
 world are perhaps severer than even those of superstition. 
 
 I know a woman who, passing in early childhood from the gentleness of 
 a Roman Catholic convent to a severely 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 God, 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 Amberley type, who 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 Great Companion was dead." "In giving it up" 
 (the belief in God and immortality), wrote Viscount Amberley, whom I 
 knew in his generous and enthusiastic youth, with that equally high-minded 
 and more gifted wife, both so soon to be removed 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 phil- 
 osophy." 
 
 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 aspir- 
 ations of the human race. No man knows God; all strive with their high- 
 est powers to create him by aspiration; and we need 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 
 to-day? What unites us? But that we are altogether seeking after God, 
 if haply we may find Him. 
 
 We shall find Him, if we find Him at all. individually, by opening each 
 for himself the barrier between the created and the Creator. If supernat- 
 ural infallibility is gone forever, there remains what Stuart Mill called with 
 grander baptism supernatural hopes. It is the essence of a hope that it 
 can not be formulated or organized or made subject or conditional on the 
 hope of another. All the vast mechanism of any scheme of salvation or 
 religious hierarchy becomes powerless and insignificant besides the hope in 
 a single human soul. Losing the support of any organized human faith 
 we become possessed of that which all faiths collectively seek. Their joint
 
 THE HISTORIC CHRIST. 307 
 
 fellowship gives more than the loss of any siu{?le fellowship takes away. 
 We are all engaged in that magnilicent work described in tiie Buddliist 
 "Dhammapada " or " Path of Light." " Make thyself an island; work hard, 
 be wise." If each could but make himself an island there woulil yet 
 appear at last above these waves of despair or doubt a continent fairer 
 than Columbus won. 
 
 THE HISTORIC CHRIST. 
 
 ET. REV. T. W. DUDLEY, BISHOP OF KENTUCKY. 
 
 "The frieuds of this Parliament of Religious," said Dr. 
 Barrows in introducing Bishop Dudley of Kentucky, "are not 
 confined to those who, for many years, like Colonel Higginson, 
 may be said to have anticipated it. The friends of this parlia- 
 ment number in their ranks a large number of the most eminent 
 scholars and bishops of the orthodox churches of our country. 
 I have received in the course of th-^ last two years, from more 
 than twenty bishops of the Anglican Church, letters and some- 
 times elaborate and able arguments in favor of this meeting of 
 the faiths, and I have been cheered from the very beginning hy 
 the earnest co-operation of the eminent Anglican or American 
 bishop who is now to speak to us. 
 
 Beyond a controversy in or about the year 750 of the building of the 
 City of Rome, a man named Jesus was born in the province of Judea. 
 Equally beyond a controversy this man was crucified before Pontius Pilate, 
 a Roman Governor at Jerusalem, in or about the year of the city, 783. 
 
 Of this man Jesus millions of men believe that, according to His own 
 sure word of promise, He came back from the grave on the third day 
 after His crucitixion; that forty days thereafter in the presence of chosen 
 witnesses He visibly ascended into the heavens; that there He liveth to 
 make pepetual intercession with the one God, His own Father, for us men 
 whom He did redeem ; that in the fullness of time He shall come again with 
 glory to judge both the quick and the dead; and that of His kingdom 
 there shall be no end. They believe that, of His bitter suffering prophecy 
 had spoken continual promise for thousands of years, and that in His life 
 and death was realization perfect and complete of all that had thus been 
 foretold; that therefore He is the Christ, the Anointed of God. Further 
 that in the fulfillment of His own prophetic declarations His cloud, which 
 isHis body, should be animated by His spirit. Because he was lifted up 
 upon the accursed tree He has drawn unto Himself the hearts of all men 
 who have looked upon Him; because He has drawn near and does draw 
 near to the men who believe in Him; because He has not left men comfort- 
 less, but has and does come unto them and comfort them, therefore they 
 believe in Him, the Historic Christ — even this God who at sundry times 
 and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the proph- 
 ets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. 
 
 Let us begin our consideration of the claims of this historic personage 
 with the briefest enumeration of the results of the preaching of him and of
 
 368 THE PARLIAMEyT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the consequent digcipleehip of the nations, without any present reference 
 
 to o'jr mersti'^r! '-'f his nature. Be he fallible man or infallible God, be he 
 
 :. natural development of humanity or the miraculous 
 
 in either case I affirm that the teaching of the moral 
 
 by Jesus of Nazareth, the uplifting before men's eyes 
 
 ■rtraiture of his character, the proclamations of his 
 
 - . world, the gathering into organized communities of 
 
 :; • m that have received that image, that have been won by that ideal 
 iKauty and that would le-arn those precepts and be conformed to that 
 image", this agency has had emphatic results in the education and develop- 
 ment of mankind more than all others of which we can take cognizance. 
 Remember the words of the historian of rationalism and of morals: 
 
 It has been reserved for Cbristianitr to present to the world an ideal char- 
 
 .. .•^- TT -•►-•^r .-• ,, ••^ *- changes of eighteen centtiries has filled the hearts of 
 
 v<^, and has shown itself capable of acting on all ages 
 
 and conditions; has not only been the highest pattern 
 
 -"'ive to its practice, and has exerted so deep an 
 
 .;d that the f-imple record of these short years of 
 
 ^•enerate and to soften mankind than all the dis- 
 
 j-^;......-; -. ,„..-i j„; ...,._an all the exhortations of moralists. 
 
 Who will deny that the teachings of Jesus as to the very conception of 
 God have been a supreme energj- in the uplifting and liberation of man- 
 kind? The Roman people had ceased to believe ; the spiritual quality had 
 gone out of them. The noble conception of beloved God, which had been 
 the inspiration of the ancient Hebrew people, had been overlaid with the 
 subtleties of rabbinistic speculations until it remained as but a memory of 
 a dead faith, guarded by a great tomb of protective argument rather than 
 a living, energizing power. 
 
 Yes, mankind is sacred, for it is the choice of the Omnipotent Father. 
 And see in a glance what has followed and what must follow. All human- 
 ity is sacred, but to the masters of the world no such conception has come. 
 ITie law which controlled the great empire contained no protection for the 
 life of a child from the capricious fury of those who would destroy fit. " The 
 extermination of children," says Gibbon. *' was the prevailing and stubborn 
 vice of antiquity," and was as common in the Hellenic states as even on 
 the Tiber, but *' Whoso shall receive one such little child in My name 
 receiveth Me."' 
 
 In the world to which came the message of the Historic Christ the insti- 
 tution of slavery was universal. At long intervals we hear the protest of 
 some philosopher or p)oet against the unnatural bondage of man to man, 
 but the system was deep rooted in human society everywhere. 
 
 Often the slaves w^^re of one blood with their masters, captives in war 
 
 or paupers, self -sold to gain their bread, and the palaces of the luxuriant 
 
 Romans of the empire were adorned with poets, musicians, actors, authors, 
 
 ',-*•-'= of every kind, all alike slaves for life and at the very mercy of their 
 
 " rs. whose tenderest mercy was cruel. To them came the message of 
 
 ::.. historic Christ not to enjoin the effort to escape by violence or craft; 
 
 no. but to tell of the Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of 
 
 man which can not but abolish slavery. There is no open declared hos- 
 
 " ; but forces are set to work by whose silent action ever*' bond must be 
 
 □. The Christ has said, in revealing the principles of the crucial pur- 
 
 .t the end of the world: " I was an hungered and ye gave Me meat; I 
 
 " .irsty and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger and ye took Me in; 
 
 ' ' - - - • ' othed Me; I wassick and ye visited Me: I was in prison and 
 
 ■--. Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My 
 
 ' \ - it unto Me." 
 
 ^ . i^ - one. for all are the children of the one Father; all joined to 
 
 ^--^ - io Himself in mysterious union; all must minister erf the 
 
 ci,vc unto the needy, of the health and happiness to the ackness aod 
 V of their f fellows. It must be bo.
 
 A NEW TESTAMENT WOMAN. rWO 
 
 Again theinfluence upon individuals has of necessity extended to enfold 
 the nations which the individuals make up. And the nations are heariny 
 and have been hearing the message of the human Christ. Arbitraticjii Iuih 
 asserted its right to determine international differences instead of the 
 ancient arbiter, the sword. It is because there comes sounding down tlie 
 ages His word. " I say unto ye that ye resist not evil, " and the echo which 
 follows is the voice of this greiit expoundei-, " Bo not overcome witli evil, 
 but overcome evil with good. " What marvelous advances since the historic 
 Christ began his teaching. 
 
 The march is onward, the flag floats in advance, the trumpet note that 
 sounded at Jerusalem still sounds, " Repent ye and be converted. " 
 
 Beyond all controversy, by the testimony of the Roman custodians of the 
 period, written fifty days after the asserted resurrection of Jesus, the little 
 company of followers had been reassembled and reorganized. 
 
 I would not be understood to fail to recogniz(> and give thanks for the 
 faith and the labors, the zeal and the devotion of Christians of every name 
 who, under the influence of the one spirit, have presented this gosjji'l and 
 borne their witness. They are all members of the Catholic Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 There is more evidence for the resurrection of Jesus than any other 
 event in human history. The historic Christ, the redemption of humanity, 
 the supreme energy of man's elevation and development, the highest 
 manhood is the incarnate God, equal unto the Father, and therefore their 
 mighty vvorks do show themselves in Him. Jesus of Nazareth, the friend 
 of publicans and sinners, homeless and penniless, hungry and thirsty, cold 
 and suffering, scourged and spit upon, crucified. Jesus, the historic 
 Christ, whom we worship, yes, worship as God, all-blessed forever, became 
 heaven and earth and full of the majesty of then- glory. The glorious 
 company of the apostles praise Thee, the martyrs praise Thee, that Thou 
 art the King of Glory, oh Chi'ist! 
 
 A NEW TESTAMENT WOMAN: OR, WHAT DID 
 PHCEBE DO? 
 
 MRS. MAEION MUEDOCK OF CLEVELAND. 
 
 In the sixteenth chapter of Romans, fii-st and second verses, is found the 
 following : " I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant (or 
 deaconess) of the church that is at Cenohrea ; that ye receive her in the 
 Lord as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she 
 hath need of you ; for she hath been a succorer of many, and of mine own 
 self also." 
 
 It is not surprising that this passage in Paul's epistle to the Romans 
 should be of peculiar interest. Paul's reputation as an ftpponent 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 silence, he said. They were 
 not to teach, or to talk, or to preach. They were to ask no questions, 
 except in the privacy of their homes. Paul merely shared the popular 
 opinion of his time when he exclaimed, with all his cuslomary logic: "Man 
 is the glory of God, but woman is the glory of the man." Either propcjsi- 
 tion, standing by itself, meets our hearty approval. "Man is the glory of 
 God." Woman is, we are told, " the glory of man." But combining them 
 with that adversative particle, we feel that Paul's doctrine of the divine 
 humanity with reference to woman is not quite sound according to the 
 present standard. Because we have come to feel that woman may be also
 
 370 f'HE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 the fflory of God, we call Paul prejudiced. We even refuse to take him as 
 authority upon social questions, and skip the passages m the epistles where 
 he writes upon this subject. ..-,•• 
 
 But here in this sixteenth chapter of Romans we notice a digression 
 from the general doctrines of Paul in this direction. " I commend unto 
 you PhcBbe, our sister, who is a servant (or deaconess) of the church which 
 18 at Cenchrea." I use the word deaconess or deacon because the Greek 
 term is the 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 
 Phoebe. 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. 
 i'et he sent it over to Rome by this woman official of the church and said : 
 " I commend unto you Phcel. 3. Receive 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 myself also." 
 
 I have thought therefore that it might be interesting to ask ourselves 
 the question. What did Phoebe do? supplementing it with some references 
 to the Phoebes of to-day. What was it that so overcame this prejudice of 
 Paul's that he gave her a hearty testimonial and sent her over on impor- 
 tant 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 services in 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 her time she doubtless 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 and 
 necessary to the church, custom would stand back and ?aul would come 
 forward to recognize her. 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 Hill was a prophecy of a 
 Parliament of Religions. And his earnest, reproving question, " Is God not 
 the God of Gentiles also? " has taken nearly 2,000 years for its affirmative 
 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 mock- 
 ery 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 to 
 help she entered into this beautiful service, we doubt not, as if it were the 
 most natural thing in the world to do. 
 
 ' She had been a succorer of many," said Paul. In what ways she aided 
 them we need not definitely inquire. It may have been by kind encourage- 
 ment or sympathy, it may have been by pecuniary assistance, or active 
 social or executive plans for the struggling church. Whatever it was, 
 Phoebe possessed the secret. " She has been a succorer of many, and of 
 myself also," said Paul. To Phcebe, therefore, has been accorded the honor
 
 A NEW TESTAMENT WOMAN. 371 
 
 of aiding and sustaining this heroic man, whom we have dreamed was 
 strong enough to endure alone the perils by land and sea, poverty, pain, 
 temptation, for the cause he loved. 
 
 And when Paul had entrusted her with this letter to the Romans, how 
 cordial must have been her reception by the church at Rome, bearing, as 
 she did, not only this epistle, but this hearty recognition of her services by 
 their beloved leader. Yet with what a smile of perplexity and incredulity 
 must the grave elders of the church have looked upon this woman-deacon 
 whom Paul requested them to assist in whatsoever business she had in 
 hand. This business transacted by the aid of the society at Rome, Phcvbe 
 went home full of suggestions and plans, we may imagine, for her cher- 
 ished Grecian church. 
 
 We must remember that it required no small effort and skill to sustain 
 societies in these various places. Paul often preached without coni])ensa- 
 tion, as we know, working at his trade tu support himself, and receiving 
 contributions from interested friends. There was constant need of money 
 and effort. What did Phwbe do in such a case? Did she sit quietly and 
 helplessly down because she was a woman, with a church needing service, 
 and Paul needing money? 
 
 If she was not able to assist financially, I am sure she went out to urge 
 the people to action and to insist upon united effort and to show each and 
 every one that he or she should have a personal responsibility in the matter. 
 I can imagine that she even arose in church meeting, after the final 
 adjournment, out right in the presence of Paul, and told the people the 
 blessedness of giving and serving. "Nothing good," she would say, " can 
 be sustained without effort. Let us work together, women and men, for 
 our cause and our children's cause here in Cenchrea." Such v/as undoubt- 
 edly 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 influence, 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 churches for 
 many centuries, and it forbade the sisters from uttering their moral or 
 religious word in the sanctuaries or doing public service of any sort for 
 their own and their brother's cause. But here and there arose the Phoebes 
 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 people for- 
 got that there was sex in sainthood, and whispered that perhaps they also 
 were called of God. 
 
 " It's easy enough," said Angy Plummer in that charming story of the 
 " Elder's Wife." " It's easy enough to know how it is. Sis Kinney is a kind of 
 daughter of God, something as Jesus Christ was His Son. Ifs just the way 
 Jesus used to go round among folks, as near as I can make out. And I for 
 one don't believe that God just sent Him once for all, and ain't never sent 
 anybody else near us all this time. I reckon He's sending down sons and 
 daughters to us oftener than we think." 
 
 "Angy Plummer! " exclaimed her mother, " I call that down-right blas- 
 phemy." " Well, call it what you're a mind to," said Angy, " It's what I 
 believe./ 
 
 And so, as the years went on, there came a growing recognition of the 
 " Daughters of God," The world gradually accepted the thought expresseil 
 by our new translators in that tender letter of John, " Beloved, now are we 
 sons of God," was the good old way ; " Beloved, now are we the children of 
 God," is the better new one. The recognition grew greater in word as well 
 as spirit, the call was more earnest for the active co-operation of the Phcvbes 
 in all the non-official work of the churches, and the Phcebes everywhere 
 responded to the call.
 
 372 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 But not until the inauguration of a radically new movement in religion 
 were the official barriers in some degree removed. Not until the emphasis 
 was put upon that divine love of God which would save all 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 Bible litera- 
 ture, upon the free rather than the restricted revelations of God, upon the 
 Holy Spirit in the human soul, without regard to sex, or time, or place, not 
 until all this was proclaimed and emphasized did the Phoebes ask or receive 
 official recognition in the ministry. , . ^, 
 
 And it was better so. Under the old dispensation they would have been 
 strangely out of place, under the new it is most fitting that they should be 
 called and chosen. Our modern Paule are now gladly ordaining them, and 
 the brethren are receiving them in the Lord— as becomes the saints. Now 
 may they also be the glory 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 daught- 
 ers shall prophesy." . 
 
 Still there are limitations and restrictions in woras. Retorms in words 
 always move more slowly than reforms in ideas. It is wonderful how we 
 fear innovations in language. Even in appellations of the all-spirit that 
 John reverently named Love, including in that moment of his inspiration 
 the all-human in the all-divine heart, even here we are often sternly limited 
 to certain gender. Dr. Barlot, of Boston, says reprovingly, " Many hold that 
 the simple name of Father is enough. They seem unconscious that there 
 is in their moral idea of Deity any desideratum or lack. But does this 
 figure, drawn from a single human relation, cover the whole ground? Is 
 there no motherhood in God?" 
 
 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 our Infinite Mother. 
 She will hold us in her arms of blessedness and beauty forever 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 nor woman in the Lord, nor 
 man nor woman in the spirit, neither in the ministry of the spirit? It is 
 divine, it is human unity. 
 
 I have referred to the official ministry for the Phoebes as an assured 
 fact in our growing civilization, but this only a small part of the work 
 which they are 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 Cenclinea, and as truly ministers and apostles as any that 
 were ever ordained to the formal ministry. It is found that there is 
 is needed not only woman's large moral and jpiritual influence, but her 
 large tact and management in many directions. In philanthropic >vork 
 woman has always been active. " In the broad field of human helplessness," 
 says Mr. Hale, " her empire is like that of the Queen of Palmyra, one that 
 knov.'s 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 everything that reforms and 
 purifies and strengthens home and society. To the Phoebes, then, should 
 it be dear as life, because it sustains and enables life, sacred as home, 
 because it beautifies and sanctifies the home. 
 
 Here are we to-day in the era of a great reformation. It is a reforma- 
 tion not local, not limited to a section or a sect. It reaches over the civil- 
 ized world and into the various activities of life. It is a reformation which, 
 while it breaks many idols, is to bring about a pure and more enlightened 
 worship; it is to give freedom to reason and faith; ii, is to proclaim a con- 
 Btant revelation of God; it is to make, by its doctrine of the divine human- 
 ity, a sanctuary of every home and of every heart. It is to show that the
 
 JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION. 373 
 
 ideal of Eternity must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom 
 of earth as well; that Theology must have for its highest thought the sym- 
 bol of both fatherhood and 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 saured services and ollices 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 ail 
 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 confes- 
 sion. We shall have no dividing of the virtues. 
 
 Upon all the sacred events of life, in birth, in marriage, in death, wo 
 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 
 indorsed. 
 
 JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION. 
 
 D. G. LYON, A PEOFESSOK OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
 
 In this glad Columbian year, when all the world is rejoicing with us, 
 and in this hall consecrated to the greatest idea of the century, I could 
 perform no task more welcome than that to which I have been assigned — 
 the task of paying a tribute based on history. I shall use the word Jew, 
 not in the religious, but in the ethical sense. In so doing, the antithesis to 
 " Jew " is not Christian, but non-Jew, or gentile. The ijosition of the Jews 
 in the world is peculiar. They may be Englishmen, German, American, and, 
 as such, loyal to the land of their birth. They mayor may not continue to 
 adhere to a certain phase of religion. But they can not avoid being known 
 as the scattered fragments of a nation. Most of them are as distinctly 
 marked by mental traits and by physiognomy as is an Englishman, German, 
 or Chinaman. 
 
 The Jew, as thus described, is in our midst an American, and has all 
 reasons to be glad which belong to the community at large, but his 
 unique position to-day and his importance in history justify the inquiry, 
 whether he may not have special reasons for rejoicing in this avispicious 
 year. Such ground for rejoicing is seen in the facts that the discovery 
 and settlement of America were the work of faith. Columbus believed in 
 the existence and attaiuableness of that which neither he nor his fellows 
 had ever seen. Apart from his own character and his aims in the voyage 
 of discovery, it was this belief that saved him from discouragement and held 
 his bark true to its western course. What though he found something 
 greater than he thought, it was his belief in the smaller that made the 
 greater discovery possible. What is true of the discovery is true of the 
 settlement of America. This, too, was an act of faith. The colonists of 
 Chesapeake and of Massachusetts Bay left the comforts of the Old World, 
 braved the dangers of sea and cold, and savage population, because they 
 believed in something which could be felt, though not seen, the guidance 
 of a hand which directs the destiny of individuals and of empires. 
 
 Now the Jews, as a people, stand in a pre-eminent degree for faith. 
 They must be judged, not by those of their number who in our day give 
 themselves over to a life of materialism, but by their best representatives 
 and by the general current of their histories. At the fountain of their 
 being they place a man wlTose name is a synonym of faith. Abraham, the 
 first Jew, nurtured in the comforts and refinements of a civilization wiioso 
 grandeur is just beginning to find due appreciation, hears an inward com- 
 pelling voice bidding him forsake the land of his fathers and to go forth,
 
 374 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 he knows not whither, to lay in the distant west the foundations of the 
 empire of faith. The hopes of the entire subsequent world encamped in 
 the tent of the wanderer from Ne, of Chaldea. The migration was a 
 splendid adventure, prophetic of the great development of which it was 
 
 the beginning. , . , . , ^ i- , , , 
 
 What was it but the audacity of faith which, in later times, enabled 
 an Isaiah to defy the most powerful army in the world and Jeremiah to be 
 firm in his convictions in the midst of a city full of enemies? What but 
 faith could have held together the exiles in Babylon and could have in- 
 spired them once more to exchange this home of ease and luxury for the 
 hardships and uncertainties of their devastated Palestinian hills? It was 
 faith that nerved the arm of the Maccabees to their heroic struggle and 
 the sublimity of faith when the dauntless daughter of Zion defies the 
 power of Rome. The brute force of Rome won the day, but the Jews dis- 
 persed throughout the world have still been true to the foundation prin- 
 ciple of their history. They believe that God has spoken to their fathers 
 and that he has not forsaken the children, and through that belief they 
 endure. 
 
 A second ground for Jewish rejoicing to-day is that America, in its 
 development, is realizing Jewish dreams. A bolder dreamer than the 
 Hebrew prophet the world has not known. He reveled in glowing pictures 
 of home and prosperity and brotherhood in the good times that were yet 
 to be. The strength of his wing as poet is seen in this ability to take these 
 flights at times when all outward appearances were a denial of his hopes. 
 It was not the prosperous state whose continuance he foresaw, but the 
 decaying state, destined to be shattered, then buried, then rebuilt, then to 
 continue forever. It was not external force, but external power, in alliance 
 with inward goodness, whose description called forth his highest genius. 
 His dream, it is true, had its temporal and its local coloring. His coming 
 state, built on righteousness, was to be a kingdom, because this was a form 
 of government with which he was famihar. The seat of this empire was to 
 be Jerusalem, and his patriot heart could have made no other choice. We 
 are now learning to distinguish the essential ideas of a writer from a phrase- 
 ology in which they find expression. 
 
 The Jewish empire does not exist and Jerusalem is not the mistress of 
 the world. And yet the dream of the prophet is true. A home for the 
 oppressed has been found; a home where prosperity and brotherhood dwell 
 together. Substitute America for Jerusalem, and a republic for a king- 
 dom, and the correctness of the prophet's dream is realized. Let us exam- 
 ine the details of the picture. 
 
 The prophet forsees a home. In this he is true to one of the marked 
 traits of his people. Who has sung more sweetly than the Hebrew poet of 
 home, where every man shall " sit under his vine and under his fig tree and 
 none shall make there afraid" ; where the father of a large family is like 
 the hunter whose quiver is full of arrows, where the children are likened 
 to the olive plant around the father's table, and where the cardinal virtue 
 of childhood is honor to father and mother? And where shall one look 
 to-day for finer types of domestic felicity than may be found in Jewish 
 homes? Or, taking the word " home " in its large sense, where shall one 
 surpass the splendid patriotism of the Hebrew exile: 
 
 If 1 forget th^e, O Jerusalem, 
 
 Let my rif^ht hand forget her cunning. 
 
 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, 
 
 If I remember thee not; 
 
 If I prefer not Jerusalem 
 
 Above my chief joy. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding this love of local habitation, the Jew has been for 
 many cruel centuries a wanderer on the face of the earth. The nation?
 
 JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION. 375 
 
 have raged, the kings of the earth have set themselves, and their rulers 
 have taken counsel together, and the standing miracle of history is that the 
 Jew has not been ground to powder as between the upper and the nether 
 millstone. But these hardships are now, let us hope, near their end. This 
 young republic has welcomed the Jew who has tied from the ojjijrfssiun 
 of the old world. Its constitution declares the equality of men, and expe- 
 rience demonstrates our power to assimilate all comers who' desire to be one 
 with us. Here thought and its expressions are free. Here is a restful 
 haven, which realizes the prophet's dream. Not the Jew only, but all the 
 oppressed of earth may here find welcome and home. 
 
 The inspiring example of Columbia's portals, always open to the world, 
 is destined to alleviate the ills and check the crimes of man against man 
 throughout all lands. And what though here and there a hard and unphil- 
 anthropic soul would bolt Columbia's door and recall her invitation or 
 check her free intercourse with nations! This is but the eddy in her 
 course, and to heed these hard advisers she must be as false to her own 
 past as to her splendid ideal. Geary exclusion acts and some of the current 
 protective doctrines are as un-American as they are inhuman. 
 
 But the Jewish dream was no less of prosperity than of home. America 
 realizes this feature of the dream to an extent never seen before. Where 
 should one seek for a parallel to her inexhaustible resources and to her 
 phenomenal material development? No element of a community has under- 
 stood better than the Jewish to reap the harvest which has ever tempted 
 the sickles of industry. Jewish names are numerous and potent in all the 
 exchanges and in all great commercial enterprises. The spirit that schools 
 itself by hard contact with Judean hills, that has been held in check by 
 adversity for twenty-five centuries, shows in this free land the elasticity of 
 the uncaged eagle. Not only in trade, but all other avenues of advance, 
 are here open to men of endowments of whatsoever race and clime. In 
 journalism, in education, in philanthropy, the Jews will average as well as 
 the Gentiles, perhaps better, while many individual Jews have risen to an 
 enviable eminence. 
 
 A third feature in the Jewish dream — an era of brotherhood and good 
 feeling — is attaining here a beautiful realization. Nowhere have we finer 
 illustrations of this than in the attitude toward the Jews of the great seats 
 of learning. The oldest and largest American university employs its 
 instructors without applying any test of race or religion. In its faculty 
 Jews are always found. To its liberal feast of learning there is a constant 
 and increasing resort of our ambitious Jewish youth. Harvard is, of course, 
 not peculiar in this regard. There are other seats of learning where wisdom 
 invites as warmly to her banquet halls, and notably the great Chicago 
 University. The spectacle of Harvard is, however, especially gratifying, 
 because it seems to be pathetically embodied in her seal: "Christo et 
 Ecclesial," an acknowledgment of her obligations to the Jew and the 
 dedication of her powers to a Jewish carpenter and to a Jewish institution." 
 
 The era of brotherhood is also seen in the co-operation of Jew and 
 Gentile to further good causes. To refer again, by permission to Harvard 
 University, one of its unique and most significant collections is a scientific 
 museum, fostered by many friends, but ch efly by a Jew. And it is a 
 pleasure to add here that one of the great departments of the library of the 
 Chicago University has been adopted by the Jews. Although taxed to the 
 utmost to care for their destitute brethren who seek our shores to escape 
 old-country persecution, the Jews are still ever ready to join others in good 
 works for the relief of human need. If Baron Hirsch's colossal benefac- 
 tions distributed in America are restricted to Jews, it is because the 
 philanthropist sees in these unfortunate refugees the most needy subjects 
 of benefaction. 
 
 But most significant of all is the fact that we are beginning to under-
 
 376 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 stand one another in a religious sense. When Jewish rabbis are invited to 
 deUver religious lectures at great universities, and when Jewish congrega- 
 tions welcome Columbian addresses from Christian ministers, we seem to 
 have made a long step toward acquaintance with one another. The discus- 
 sion now going on among Jews regarding the adoption of Sunday as the day 
 of public worship and the Jew's recognition of the greatness of Jesus, which 
 finds expression in synagogue addre ses— such things are prophecies whose 
 significance the thoughtful hearer will not fail to perceive. 
 
 Now what is the result of this closer union, of which I have instanced 
 a few examples in learning, in philanthropy, and in affairs religious'? Is it 
 not the removal of mutual misunderstandings? So long as Judaism and Amer- 
 ican Christianity stand aloof, each will continue to ascribe to the other the 
 vices of its most unworthy representatives. But when they meet and learn 
 to know one another, they find a great common standing-ground. Judging 
 each by its best, each can have for the other only respect and good will. 
 
 The one great exception in the tenor of these remarks is in matters 
 social. There does not exist that free intercourse between Jews and non- 
 Jews which one might reasonably expect. One of the causes is religious 
 prejudice on both sides, but the chief cause is the evil already mentioned, 
 of estimating Jews and non-Jews by the least worthy members of the two 
 classes. The Jew who is forced to surrender all his goods and flee from 
 Russian oppression, or who purchases the right to remain in the czar's 
 empire by a sacrifice of his faith, can hardly be blamed if he sees only the 
 bad in those who call themselves Christians. If one of these refugees pros- 
 pers in America, and carrie-: himself in a lordly manner, and makes himself 
 distasteful, even to the cultivated among his co-religionists, can it be won- 
 dered at that others transfer his bad manners to other Jews? 
 
 A third and main reason why the Jew should rejoice in this Columbian 
 year is that American society is, in an important sense, produced and held 
 together by Jewish thought. The justification of this assertion forces on us 
 the question, " What has a Jew done for civilization? " First of all, he has 
 given us the Bible, the scriptures, old and new. It matters not for this 
 discussion that the Jews, as a religious sect, have never given to the books 
 of the New Testament the dignity of canonicity. It suffices that these books, 
 with one or possibly two exceptions, were written by men of Jewish birth. 
 
 And where shall one go, if not to the Bible, to find the noblest literature 
 of the soul? Where shall one find so well expressed as in the Psalms the 
 longing for God and a deep satisfaction in his presence? Where is burning 
 indignation against wrong-doing more strongly portrayed than in the 
 prophets? Where such a picture as the gospel gives of love that consumes 
 itself in sacrifice? The highest hopes and moods of the soul reached such 
 attainment among the Jews 2,000 years ago that the intervening ages have 
 not yet shown one step in advance. 
 
 Viewed as a handbook of ethics, the Bible has a power second only to 
 its exalted position as a classic of the soul. The "ten words," though 
 negatively expressed, are, in the second half, an admirable statement of the 
 fundamental relations of man to man. Paul's eulogy of love is an unmatched 
 masterpiece of the foundation principle of right living. The adoption of the 
 golden rule by all men would banish crime and convert earth into a 
 paradise. 
 
 The characters depicted in the Bible are in their way no less eflfective 
 than the teachings regarding ethics and religion. Indeed, that which is 
 so admirable in these characters is the rare combination of ethics and relig- 
 ion, which finds in them expression. In Abraham we see hospitality and- 
 faith attaining to adequate expression. Moses is the pattern of the unself- 
 ish, state-building patriot, who despised hardships because " he endured 
 as seeing Him who is invisible." Jeremiah will forever be inspiration to 
 reformers whose lot is cast in degenerate days. Paul is the synonym of
 
 JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION. :}77 
 
 self-denying zeal, which can be content with nothing less than a gigantic 
 effort to carry good news to the entire world. 
 
 And Jesus was a Jew. How often is this fact forgotten, so completely 
 is he identified with the history of the world at large. We say toourselves 
 that such a commanding personality is too universal for national limita- 
 tions. We overlook perchance the Judean birth ami the Gahieaii training. 
 Far be it from me to attempt an estimate of the significance of the charac- 
 ter and work of Jesus for human progress. Nothing short of omniscience 
 could perform such a task. My purpose is attained by reminding myself 
 and others anew of the nationality of Him whom an important part of the 
 world has agreed to consider the great and best of liuman kind. I do not 
 forget that the Jews have not yet in large numbers admitted the greatness 
 of Jesus, but this failure may be largely explained as the effect of certain 
 theological teachings concerning His person, and of the sufferings which 
 Jews have endured at the hands of those who bear His name. But in that 
 name and in that personality rightly conceived there is such potency to 
 bless and to elevate that I can see no reason why Jesus should not beccjme 
 to the Jews the greatest and most beloved of all their illustrious teachers. 
 
 Along with the sacred writings have come to the race through the Jew 
 certain great doctrines. Foremost of these is the belief in one God. Greek 
 philosophy, it is true, was also able to formulate a doctrine of monotheism, 
 but the monotheism that has perpetuated itself ic that announced by 
 Hebrew seer and not by Greek philosopher. Something was wanting tfj 
 make the doctrine more than a cold formula, and that something the Jew 
 supplied. This God, who is one, is not a blind force, working; on lines but 
 half defined. His government is well ordered and right. Chance and fate 
 have here no place. No sparrow falls without him. The very hairs of 
 your head are numbered. Righteousness is the habitation o'' his throne. 
 " Shall not the judge of all the earth do right ? " 
 
 Whence comes our day of rest, one in seven, this beneficent provision 
 for recreation of man and beast; this day consecrated by the experience of 
 centuries to good deeds and holy thoughts? Wc meet with indications of 
 a seven-day division of time in an Assyrian calendar tablet, but wc are able 
 to assert definitely, by a study of the Assyrian and Babylonian commercial 
 records that these peoples had nothing which corresponded to the Jewish 
 Sabbath, the very name of which means rest. The origin of the Sabbath 
 may well have to do with the moon's phases. But tlio Jew viewed the day 
 with such sacredness that he makes its institution coeval with the work of 
 creation. From him it has become the possession of the Western world 
 and its significance for our well-being, physical, moral, and spiritual, is 
 vaster than can be computed. 
 
 Many causes have united together to insurethe victory which Christian- 
 ity has won in the world. But those who are filled with its true spirit and 
 who are thoughtful can never forget the Judean origin. To the same source 
 we must likewise trace institutional Christianity, the church. The first 
 church was at Jerusalem. The first churches were among devout Jews 
 dispersed in the great Gentile centers of population. The ordinances of 
 the church have an intimate connection with Jewish religious usages. In 
 the course of a long development other elements have crept in. But in her 
 main features the church bears ever the stamp of her origin. The service 
 is Jewish. We still read from the Jewish psalter, we still sing the themes 
 of I he psalmist and apostle, the aim of the sermon is still to rouse the list- 
 ener to the adoption of Jewish ideas, we pray in phraseology taken from 
 Jewish scriptures Our Sunday schools have for their prime object acquaint- 
 ance with Jewish writings. Our missions are designed to tell men of God's 
 love as revealed to them through a Jew. Our church and Christian chari- 
 ties are but the embodinient of the golden rule as uttered by a Jew. 
 
 It may furthermore be fairly said that the Jew, through these writings,
 
 378 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 doctrines, and institutions has bequeathed to the world the highest ideals 
 of life. On the binding and title page of its books the Jewish Publication 
 Society of America has pictured the lion and the lamb lying down together 
 and the child playing with the asp, while underneath the picture is written 
 the words, " Israel's mission is peace." The picture tells what Israel's 
 prophet saw more than twenty-five centuries ago. The subscription tells 
 less than the truth. Israel's mission is peace, morality, and religion, or, 
 better still, Israel's mission is peace through morality and religion. This 
 is the nation's lesson to the world. This is the spirit of the greatest charac- 
 ter in Israel's history. To live in the same spirit, in a word, to become 
 like the foremost of all Israelites— this is the highest that any man has yet 
 ventured to hope. 
 
 I have catalogued with some detail, though by no means with fullness, 
 Jewish elements in our civilization. In most cases I have passed no judg- 
 ment on these elements. If one were disposed to inquire into their value, 
 he might answer this question by trying to conceive what we should be 
 without the Bible, its characters, doctrines, ethics, institutions, hopes, and 
 ideals. To think these elements absent from our civilization is impossible, 
 because they have largely made us what we are. Not more closely inter- 
 locked are the warp and woof of a fabric than are these elements with all 
 that is best and highest in our life and thought. If the culture of our day 
 is a fairer product than that of any preceding age, we can not fail to see 
 how far we are indebted for this to the Jew. It can hardly be that a peo- 
 ple of such glory in the past and of such present power shall fail to attain 
 again to that eminence in the highest things for which they seem to be 
 marked out by their unique history. 
 
 THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT AS TAUGHT 
 BY BUDDHA. 
 
 SHAKU SOYEN OF JAPAN. 
 
 If we open our eyes and look at the universe we observe the sun and 
 moon and the stars in the sky; mountains, rivers, plants, animals, fishes, 
 and birds on the earth. Cold and warm come alternately; shine and rain 
 change from time to time without ever reaching an end. Again let us close 
 our eyes and calmly reflect upon ourselves. From morning to evening we 
 are agitated by the feelings of pleasure and pain, love and hate; sometimes 
 full of ambition and desire, sometimes called to the utmost excitement 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 marvel- 
 ous, so is the internal attitude of human mind. Shall we ask for the 
 explanation of these marvelous phenomena? Why is the universe in a 
 constant flux? Why do things change? Why is the mind subjected to a 
 constant agitation? For these, Buddhism offers only one explanation, 
 namely, the law of cause and effect. 
 
 Now let us proceed to understand the nature of this law, as taught by 
 Buddha himself: 
 
 1. The complex nature of cause, 
 
 2. An endless progression of the causal law. 
 
 3. The causallaw, in terms of the three worlds. 
 
 4. Self-formation of cause and effect. 
 
 5. Cause and efi'ect as the law of nature. 
 
 1. The complex nature of cause — A certain phenomena can not 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. Vou may say its cause is oil or fuel; but neither oil nor fuel
 
 CAUSE AND EFFECT AS TAUGHT BY BUDDHA. 379 
 
 alone can give rise to a flame. Atmosphere, space, and several other con- 
 ditions, physical or mechanical, are necessary for the rise of a tlame. All 
 these necessary conditions combined together can be called the cause of a 
 flame. This is only an example for the explanation of the complex nature 
 of cause, but the rest may be inferred. 
 
 2. An endless progression of the causal law A cause must bo preceded 
 by another cause; and an effect must be followed by another effect. Thus, 
 if we investigate the cause of a cause, the past of a past, by tracing back 
 even to an eternity, we shall never reach the tirst cause. The assertion that 
 there is the first cause is contrary to the fundamental jjrinciple 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, we infer that there is no beginning in the universe. As 
 there is no effect which is not a cause, so there is no cause which is not an 
 effect. Buddhism considers the universe as no beginning, no end. Since, 
 even if we trace back to an eternity, absolute cause can not be found, so we 
 come to the conclusion that there is no end in the universe. Like as the 
 waters ofrivers evaportae and form clouds, and the latter change their 
 form into rain, thus returning once more into the original form of waters, 
 Qausal law is in a logical circle changing from cause to effect, effect to 
 the cause. 
 
 3. The causal law in terms of three worlds, namely, past, present, and 
 future— All the religions apply more or less the causal law in the sphere of 
 human conduct, and remark that the pleasure and happinep^of one's future 
 life depend upon the purity of his present life. But what is peculiar to 
 Buddhism is, it applies the law not only to the relation to 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 differ- 
 ent 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 past life. 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 quality of actions which we have done in our past 
 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 fellow- 
 beings 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 and suffer 
 the result of his own actions 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. 
 
 4. Self -formation of cause and effect — We enjoy happiness and suffer 
 misery, our own actions being causes; in other words, there is no other 
 cause than our own actions which make us happy or unhappy. Now let us 
 observe the different attitudes of human life; one is happy and others feel 
 unhappy. Indeed, even among the members of the same family we often 
 notice a great diversity in wealth and fortune. 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 oneself who rewards or punishes him. 
 The diversity in future stages will be explained by the same doctrine. This 
 is. termed in Buddhism the "self -deed 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. 
 
 5. Cause and effect as the law of nature— According to the different 
 sects of Buddhism 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 Buddha, and much less of the will of
 
 380 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 human beings. The hiw exists for an eternity, without beginning, without 
 end. Things grow and decay, and this is caused, not by an external power, 
 but by an mternal force which is in things themselves as an innate attri- 
 bute. This internal law acts in accordance with the law of cause and 
 effect, and thus appear immense phenomena of the universe. Just as the 
 clock moves by itself without any intervention of any externalforce, so is 
 the progress of the universe. 
 
 We are born in the world of variety; some are poor and unfortunate 
 others are wealthy and happy. The state of variety will be repeated again 
 and again in ou/ future lives. But to whom shall we complain of our 
 misery? To none but ourselves! We reward ourselves; so shall we do in 
 our future life. If you ask me who determined the length of our life, I say, 
 the law of causality. Who made him happy and made me miserable? The 
 law of causality. Bodily health, material wealth, wonderful genius, 
 unnatural suffering are the infallible expressions of the law of causality 
 which governs every particle of the universe, every portion of human con- 
 duct. Would you ask me about the Buddhist morality? I reply, in 
 Buddhism the source of moral authority is the causal law. Be kind, be 
 just, be humane, be honest, if you desire to crown your future. Dishonesty, 
 cruelty, inhumanity, will condemn you to a miserable fall. 
 
 As'l have already explained to you, our sacred Buddha is not the creator 
 of this 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 discovered the first truth of the universe? Who has 
 saved and will save by his noble teachings the millions and millions of the 
 falling human beings? Indeed, too much approbation could not be uttered 
 to honor his sacred name! 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AN HISTORICAL RELIGION. 
 
 PROF. GEOEGE PAKE FISHER, D. D., OF YALE COLLEGE. 
 
 In saying that Christianity is an " Historical Religion " more is meant, 
 of course, than that it appeared at a certain date in the world's history. 
 This is true of all the religions of mankind, except those which grew up at 
 times prior to authentic records and sprung up through a spontaneous, 
 gradual process. The significance of the title of this paper is that, in dis- 
 tinction from every system of religious thought or speculation, like the 
 philosophy of Plato or Hegel, and from every religion which consists exclu- 
 sively or almost exclusively, like Mohammedanism, of doctrines and pre- 
 cepts, Christianity incorporates in its very essence facts or transactions on 
 the plane of historical action. 
 
 These are not accidents, but are fundamental in the religion of the 
 gospel. The preparation of Christianity is indissolubly involved in the 
 history of ancient Israel, which comprises a long succession of events. The 
 gospel itself is, in its foundations, made up of historical occurrences, with- 
 out which, if it does not dissolve into thin air, it is transformed into some- 
 thing quite unlike itself. Moreover, the postulates of the gospel, or 
 conditions which make it a function in the world of mankind possible and 
 rational, are likewise in the realm of fact, as contrasted with theoretic con- 
 viction or opinion. We can best illustrate and confirm the foregoing 
 remarks by referring to a passage in one of the writings of the great Chris- 
 tian Apostle, St. Paul. It stands at the beginning of the XVth Chapter of 
 his First Epistle to the Corinthians. 
 
 The state of the Corinthian Church, disgraced as it was by controversies 
 upon the relative merits of the teachers from whom they had received the 
 gospel, was the occasion which led St. Paul to bring out in bolder relief
 
 CHRISTIANITY AN HISTORICAL RELIGION. IWl 
 
 the essential principles of Christianity. These would put to flij^ht all radi- 
 cal errors, and at the same time cast into the shade minor topics of conten- 
 tion. A due regard to fundamental truth would quell dissension. 
 
 The apostle begins the passage with announcing his intention todoscrilu- 
 the gospel which he had preached to the Corinthians, which thi-y had 
 embraced, in which they stood, indeed, as a vain thing, an idea that none 
 for a moment would admit. After this preface, he proceeds to give a 
 formal statement of that which constitutes the gospel, and the point which 
 challenges attention is this; that the gospel, as Paul 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 Saviors life were "according to the scrijjtures" — that 
 is, in agreement with the predictions of the Old Testament. They are 
 vouched for by witnesses, and the grounds of their credibility are stated. 
 Not only James and Peter and the other Apostles were still afive, but the 
 greater part of the 500 disciples who were in the company with Jesus after 
 His resurrection were also living, and could be appealed to. And, linaliy, 
 he himself had been suddenly converted from bitter enmity l)y a specific 
 occurrence, by seeing Jesus, and had set about the work of a teacher, not 
 of his own notion, but by the Savior's express command — a command to 
 which he was not disobedient. 
 
 Into this part of the passage, however, which touches on the evidence 
 that satisfied Paul of the historical reality of the death and resurrection of 
 Jesus we need not here enter. We simply remark that the nature of these 
 proofs accords with the whole spirit of the passage. It is more the con- 
 tents of the gospel as here given than the peculiar character of the evidence 
 for the truth of it that at present calls for consideration. 
 
 Christianity is distinctly set forth as a religion of facts. Be it observed 
 that in asserting that Christianity is composed of facts we do 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 less perfectly defined. That 
 Christ was sent into the world is not a bare fact, but He was sent into the 
 world for a purpose, and the end of His mission can be stated. 
 
 The death of Jesus has certain relations to the divine administration 
 and to ourselves. Thus, in the passage referred to.it is said, "He died 
 for our sins," or to procure for us forgiveness. And of all the facts of the 
 gospel, they have a theological meaning. The benefit which fiovvs from 
 them corresponds to the character and situation of men, and this condi- 
 tion in which we are placed is one that can be described in plain prop- 
 ositions. "Sin" is not some unknown thing, we can not 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 system of 
 doctrine. These truths, of wdiich we have just given examples, are not 
 isolated and disconnected from each other, but they are 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, parts that even 
 appear to clash, the same is true of almost every branch of knowledge. 
 The i:)hysiologist, the chemist, the astronomer will confess just this imper- 
 fection in their respective sciences. For who, for example, will pretend 
 that he understands the human body so thoroughly that he has nothing to 
 learn and no difficulties to explain? If all human knowledge is defective, 
 and if, in every department of research, barriers are set at some point to 
 the progress of discovery, how unreasonable to cry out against Christian 
 theology because the Bible does not reveal everything, and because every- 
 thing that the Bible does not reveal is not yet ascertained ! 
 
 In affirming, then, that the gospel is pre-eminently a religion of facts,
 
 382 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 there is no design to favor, in the slightest degree, the sentimental pietism 
 or the indifference to objective truth, whatever form it may take, which 
 would ignore theological doctrine. But there is a sort of explanation and 
 a sort of science which men, especially in these days, are prone to demand, 
 which, from the nature of the case, is impossible; and the state of mind in 
 which this demand originates is a fatal disquahfication for receiving or 
 even comprehending the gospel. 
 
 There is a disposition to overlook this grand peculiarity of Christianity, 
 that whatever is essential and mOst precious in it lies in the sphere of spirit 
 — of freedom. We are taken out of the region of metaphysical necessity 
 and placed among personal beings and among events which find their solu- 
 tion and all the solution of which they are capable, in the free movement 
 of the will and affections. To seek for an ulterior cause can have no other 
 result than to blind us to the real nature of the phenomena which we have 
 to explain. In order to present the subject in a clear light let me ask the 
 reader to reflect for a moment on the nature of sin. Look at any act, 
 whether committed by yourself or another, which you feel to be iniquitous. 
 This verdict, with the self-condemnation and shame that attend it, imply 
 that no good reason can be given for such an act. Much more do they 
 imply that it forms no part of that natural development and exercise of 
 our faculties 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 explanation. 
 
 Do you ask why one sins? The only answer to be given is that he is 
 foolish and culpable. You strike upon an ultimate fact and you will stay by 
 that fact, but to endeavor to make it rational or inevitable you must deny 
 morality, deny that sin is sin, and guilt is guilt, and pronounce the simple 
 belief in personal responsibility a delusion. What we have said of a single 
 act of wrong-doing holds good, of course, of morally evil habits and prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 Suppose again an act of love and self-sacrifice. A man resolves to give 
 up his life for a religious cause, or a woman, like Florence Nightingale, to 
 forsake her pleasant home for the discomforts and exposures of a soldiers' 
 hospital. What shall be said of these actions? Why, plainly you have 
 done with the explanation when you come back to that principle of free 
 benevolence — to the noble and loving heart — from which they spring. To 
 make them links in some necessary process by which they no longer origin- 
 ate in the full sense of the word, in a f lee preference lying in a sphere apart 
 from natural development and inevitable causation, would be an insult to 
 the soul itself. 
 
 Or take a benevolent act of another kind — the forgiveness of an injury. 
 A man whom you iiave grievously 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 preresolve on his part, a willing gift, a voluntary love. The sup- 
 position 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 explain. And the consequence would 
 follow if the injury which calls forth pardon were resolved into something 
 besides an unconstrained, inexcusable, unreasonable, and, in this sense, 
 unaccountable act. 
 
 So that in the sphere of spirit we come to facts in which we have 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 in the opera- 
 tions of the human mind, have no place. We do not account for events 
 here as in the material world by going back to forces which evolved them 
 and the laws which necessitated them. Enough that here has been a 
 choice to sin, there has been a holy will and a love that flinches from no
 
 CHRISTIANITY AN HISTORICAL RELIGION. 383 
 
 sacrifice. Our solutions are, to use technical language, moral, not meta- 
 physical. 
 
 We have to do, not with puppets moving about under the pressure of a 
 Wind compulsion, but with personal beings, endued with a free spiritual 
 nature. 
 
 The preceding remarks will suggest our meaning when we aflirni that 
 Christianity is a religion of facts. We may even go back of the method of 
 solution to the first truth of religion— that of God. the Creator. 
 
 To give existence to the world was the act of a personal being, who was 
 not constrained to create, but freely put forth His power, being influenced 
 by motives such as His desire to communicate good and increase the sum 
 of blessedness. The existence of the will of God is a fact which admits of 
 no further explication, and he who seeks to go behind the free will of God 
 in quest of some anterior force out of which he fancies the world to have 
 been derived lands in a dreamy pantheism, satisfying neither his reason nor 
 his heart 
 
 But let us come to the gospel itself. The starting point is in fact con- 
 cerning our character and condition— the fact of sin, or alienation from fel- 
 lowship with God. Refuse to look upon sin in this light, just as the unper- 
 verted conscience looks upon it, and the gospel has no longer any intelligi- 
 ble purpose. Unless sin brings a separation from God, with whom' we ought 
 to be in fellowship, and a union with whom is our true life, there is no sig 
 nificance in the gospel. 
 
 Here, then, wo begin not with an abstract theory or first proof of philos- 
 ophy, but with a naked fact, which memory and consciousness 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 are felt in every nerve. And sin, 
 be it observed, is no part of the healthy process 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 single stroke. 
 And what is salvation regarded as the work of God? It is a work. It is 
 not a form of knowledge, but is a deed emanating from 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, and rises from the dead, opening by what 
 He does a way of reconciliation with God. Th' method of salvation is not 
 a philosophical theorem, but a living friend of .:inners, suffering in their 
 behalf, and inviting them to a fellowship with Himself. It is the reconcil- 
 iation of an offender with the govornmont whose laws he has broken, and 
 with the Father whose house ue has deserted. 
 
 In like manner the reception of the gospel is not by the knowing 
 faculty, moving through thought. It is rather an act of the will and heart. 
 It is the acceptance of the gift. Repentance toward God and faith in our 
 Lord Jesus Christ are each an act, as much so as repentance for a wrong 
 done an earthly friend and faith in his forgiveness. What is repentance? 
 To cease to do evil and begin to do well, to cease to live to ourselves and to 
 begin to live to God. And what is faith? It is an act of confidence by 
 which we commit ourselves to another to be saved by him. When you wit- 
 ness the rescue of a drowning man who is struggling in the waves by some 
 one who goes to his assistance you do not call this a philosophy. Here is 
 not a series of conceptions evolved from one another and resting on some 
 ultimate abstraction, but here is life and action. There was distress and 
 extreme peril and fear on the one side with no means of help; there was 
 compassion, courage, and self-sacrifice on the part of him who did the good 
 deed. 
 
 And the metaphysics of the matter end when you see this So it is with 
 Christianity, though the knowledge of it is preserved in a book. It is not, 
 properly speaking, a philosophy. On the contrary, it is made up of the
 
 384 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 actions of personal beings and of the effect of these upon their relations to 
 each other. There is ill-desert, there is love, there is sacrifice, there is 
 trust and sorrow for sin. The story of the alienation of a son from an 
 t'arthly parent, of his penitence and return, of his forgiveness and restora- 
 tion to favor, is a parallel to the realities which make up Christianity. 
 
 The gospel being thus the very opposite of speculation, being historical 
 in its very foundations, being simply, as the term imports, the 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 which the Bible does not 
 profess to furnish, and to get from Christianity that which Christianity 
 does not undertake to provide, we shall almost invariably be misled. Let 
 us suppose, for example, that a person comes to the Bible, having pre- 
 viously persuaded himself that the verdict of conscience and the general 
 voice of mankind respecting moral evil are mistaken. 
 
 There has been no such jar in the original creation as the doctrine of 
 sin implies. There is no such perversion of the soul from its true destina- 
 tion and true life, no such violation of law is assumed. But there is noth- 
 ing save the regular unfolding of human nature passing through various 
 stages of progress affording to the primordial design. It seems strange 
 that anyone who has looked into his own heart and looked out for a 
 moment upon the world can hold such a notion as this. Yet the disbelief 
 which presents itself m the garb of philosophy at the present day plants 
 itself on this theory that the system of things or the cause of things, as we 
 experience it and behold it, is the ideal system. There has been no trans- 
 gression in the proper sense, but only an upward movement from a half- 
 brute existence to civilization and enlightenment, the last step of advance- 
 ment being the discovery that sin is not guilt, but a point of development, 
 ind that evil really is good. And the forms of unbelief which do not bring 
 forward distinct theories generally approximate more or less nearly to the 
 view just mentioned. The effect upon the mind of denying the simple 
 reality of sin, as it is felt in the conscience, is decisive. One who emvbraces 
 such a speculation can make nothing of Christianity, but must either 
 reject it altogether or lose its real contents in the effort to translate them 
 into metaphysical notions of his own. 
 
 A living God, a living Christ, with a heart full of compassion, offering 
 forgiveness, calling to repentance and his redemption can have no signifi- 
 cance. What call for a Divine interposition in a system already ideally 
 perfect, with all its harmonies undisturbed? Why break upon a strain of 
 perfect music? Why give medicine to them who are not ill? They that 
 are whole need not a physician. How evident that the failure to recognize 
 sin as a perverse act proceeding from the will of the creature incapacitates 
 one from receiving Christianity? 
 
 Now, suppose the case of a person who abides by the plain and well- 
 nigh inevitable declarations of his conscience respecting good and evil and 
 the utter hostility of one to the other. He has committed sin. His mem- 
 ory recurs in part to the occasions. Every day acids to the number of his 
 transgressions. His motives have not been what they ought to be. A sense 
 of un worthiness weighs him down and separates him, as he feels, from fel- 
 loivship with every holy being. He is not suffering so much from lack of 
 Knowledge. He needs light, it may be, but he has a profounder want, a far 
 deeper source of distress. He desires something to be done for him to 
 restore his spiritual integrity and take him up another plane where he can 
 find inward peace. 
 
 It is just the case of a child who has fallen under the displeasure of a 
 parent and under the stains conscience. The want of the soul in this situa- 
 tion is life. The cry is: " Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" 
 We will not stop to inquire whether this state of feeling represents the truth 
 or not; but suppose it to exist — how will a man, thus feeling, come to the 
 Bible or to the gospel? He is not concerned to explain the universe and 
 
 1
 
 CHRISTIANITY AN HISTORICAL RELIGION. 383 
 
 enlarge the bounds of his knowledge by exploring the myBteries of being. He 
 feels that no intellectual acquisition would give him much comfort- that 
 none could be of much value, as long as this canker of sin and guilt is within. 
 He craves no illumination of the intellect; at least, this desire is subordinate. 
 But how shall this burden be taken from the spirit? How shall he come 
 to peace with God and himself? 
 
 It is the bread of life he longs for. Nothing can satisfy him, in the 
 least, that does not correspond to his necessities as a moral being. He 
 needs no argument to prove to him that he is not what he was made to be. 
 and that his misery.is his fault. To him Christianity, announcing redemp- 
 tion through Jesus Christ, God's love to sinners, and His method of justify- 
 ing the ungodly, is adopted, and is, therefore, likely to be welcome. A sin 
 is a deed, so it is natural that redemption should be. 
 
 As sin breaks the original order, so it is natural to expect that the sys- 
 tem will be restored from the top. A penitent sinner is prepared to meet 
 God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself ; and this fact is sweeter 
 and grander in his view than all philosophies which profess, whether truly 
 or falsely, to gratify a speculative curiosity. Were it his chief 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 imperceptibly 
 spring up the false view concerning the gospel on which I have commented. 
 We say truly that the Bible is the religion of Protestants. Our attention 
 is directed to the study of a book. A one-sided, intellectual bent leads to 
 the idea that the sole or the principal object of Christ is that of a teacher. 
 He does not come to live and die and rise again and unite us to Himself 
 and God, imparting a new principle or moral and spiritual life to loving, 
 trusting souls; but He comes to teach and explain. If this be so, the next 
 step is to drop Him for a consideration as a person, and to fasten the atten- 
 tion on the contents of His doctrine; and who shall say that this step is 
 not logically taken? As the intellectual lement obtains a still stronger 
 sway, the interest in His doctrine is merely on the speculative side. 
 
 Historical Christianity, with its great and moving events and the august 
 personage who stands in the center, disappear from view and naught is left 
 but a residium of abstractions — a perversion and caricature of gospel ideas. 
 This proceeding may be compared to the course of one who should endeavor 
 to resolve the American Revolution into an intellectual process. Redemp- 
 tion is made up of events as real as the battles by which independence was 
 achieved. We need some explanation of the purport of those battles and 
 their bearing on the end which they secure. And so in the Bible, together 
 with the record of what was done by God, there is given an inspired inter- 
 pretation from the Redeemer HimselJ, and from those who stand near Him 
 on whom the events that secured salvation made a fresh and lively impres- 
 sion. The import of these events is set forth. And the conditions of attain- 
 ing citizenship in this new state in the kingdom of God, which is provided 
 through Christ, are defined. 
 
 From the views which have been presented, perhaps, it is possible to see 
 the foundation on which Christians hereafter may unite, and also how the 
 gospel will finally prevail over mankind. If redemption, looked at as the 
 work of God, is thus historical, consisting in a series of events which cul- 
 minates in the Lord's resurrection and the mission of the Holy Ghost, the 
 first thing is that these events should be believed. 
 
 So that Christianity, in both fact and doctrine, will become a thing 
 perfectly established; as much so in our minds and feelings as are now the 
 transactions of the American Revolution, with the import and results that 
 belong to them. It is every day becoming more evident that the facts of 
 Christianity can not be dissevered from the Christian system of doctrine; 
 that the one can not be held while the other is renounced; that if the
 
 386 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 doctrine is abandoned the facts will be denied. So that the time approaches 
 when the acknowledgment of the evangelical history, carrying with it, as 
 it will, a faith in the scriptural exposition of it, will be a sufficient bond of 
 union among Christians, and the church will return to the apostolic creed 
 of the early days, which recounts an epitome of the facts of religion. 
 
 THE NEED OF A WIDER CONCEPTION OF REVELA- 
 TION. 
 
 PROF. J. ESTLIN CARPENTER OF OXFORD. 
 
 The congress which I have the honor to address in this paper is a unique 
 assemblage It could not have met before the 19th century, and no coun- 
 try 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 religions of the world into line. The Christian 
 fathers of the 4th century credited Demetrius Phalereus, the large-minded 
 librarian of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 250 B. C, with the attempt to 
 procure the sacred books not only of the Jews, but also of the Ethiopians, 
 Indians, Persians, Elamites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Romans, 
 Phoenicians, Syrians, and Greeks. The great Emperor Akbar, (the contem- 
 poray of Queen Elizabeth) invited to his court Jews, Christians, Moham- 
 medans, Brahmans and Zoroastrians. He listened to their discussions, he 
 weighed their argument 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 religions. 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 Mohammedan world, all the rest may be consid- 
 ered barbarous," This congress meets, I trust, in the spirit of that wise old 
 man who wrote: " One is born a pagan, another a Jew, a third a Mussul- 
 man. The true philosopher sees in each a fellow seeking after God." With 
 this conviction of the sympathy of religions I offer some remarks founded 
 on the study of the world's sacred books. 
 
 I will not stop to define a sacred book, or distinguish it from those 
 which, like the"Imitatio Christi," the "Theologia Germanica," or "Pil- 
 grim's Progress," have deeply influenced Christian thought or feeling.. It 
 is enough to observe that the significance of great collections of religious 
 literature can not be overestimated. As soon as a faith produces a scripture, 
 i. e., a book invested with legal or other authority, no matter on how lowly a 
 scale, it at once acquires an element of permanence. Such permanence has 
 both advantages and dangers. First of all, it provides the great sustenance 
 for religious affection; it protects a young and growing religion from too 
 rapid change through contact with foreign influences; it settles a base for 
 future internal development; it secures a certain stability; it fixes a stand- 
 ard of belief; consolidates the moral type. 
 
 It has been sometimes argued that if the gospels had never been writ- 
 ten, the Christian church which existed for a generation ere they were 
 composed, would still have transmitted its orders and administered its sac- 
 raments, 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 centuries? The 
 diversity of the religions of Greece, their tendency to pass into one another, 
 the ease with which new cults obtained a footing in Rome, the decline of 
 any vital faith during the last days of the republic, supply abundant illus-
 
 NEED OF A WIDER CONCEPTION OF REVELATION. 387 
 
 trations of the religious weakness of a nation without scriptures. On the 
 other hand the dangers are obvious. The letter takes the piaee of the spirit 
 the transitory is confused with the permanent, the occasional is made uni- 
 versal, the local and temporal 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 directitln. discovered this 
 as the Greek version of the seventy made its way along the Mediterranean. 
 Take the Koran from Islam and where would have been its conquering 
 power? Read the records of the heroic labors of the Buddhist mis-sionaries 
 and of the devoted toil of the Chinese pilgrims to India in search of coj)ie8 
 of the holy books; you may be at a loss to understand the enthusiasm with 
 which they gave iheir lives to the reproduction of the teachings of the 
 Great Master; 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 temple has been entered; the songs 
 of praise, the commands of law, the litanies of penitence, have been fetched 
 from the tombs of the Nile or the mounds of Mesopotamia, or the sanctu- 
 aries of the Ganges. The Bible of humanity 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 revelation unconfined to any particular religion, but 
 capable of application in diverse modes to all. Suffer me to illustrate this 
 very briefly under three heads: 1. Ideas of Ethics. 2. Ideas of Inspira- 
 tion. 3. 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 the long run the 
 supreme importance of conduct. Here is that which, in the control of 
 action, speech, and thought is of the highest significance 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 evolution 
 within the same periods or mark them by the same crises. The develop- 
 ment of one is slower, of another more swift. One people 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, summoned to declare its innocence in such words as these: "I am 
 not a doer of what is wrong, I am not a robber, I am not a murderer, 
 I am not a liar, I am not unchaste, I am not the causer of others' tears." 
 Is the standard of duty here implied less noble than that of the deca- 
 logue? Are we to depress the one as human and exalt the other as 
 divine? More than five hundred 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 ess revelation of a higher ideal than the injunction of Jesus, "Resist 
 not evil, but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek turn to hin) the 
 other also? " The fact surely is that we can not draw any partition line 
 through the phenomena of the moral life and affirm that on one side lie 
 the generalizations of earthly reason, and on the other the declarations of 
 heavenly truth. The utterances in which the heart of man has embodied 
 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
 
 388 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 rela- 
 tionship affixed its law. The people possess this normal virtue. 
 
 In the ancient records gathered up in the Shu King the Duke of Chow 
 related how Hea would not follow the leading of Shang Ti— 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 to the whole philosophy of religion will no doubt be 
 discussed by other speakers at this congress. 
 
 Sulfer me in brief to state my conviction that the authority of con- 
 science only receives its full explanation when it is admitted that that dif- 
 ference which we designate in forms of " higher " and " lower "is not of our 
 own making. It issues forth from our own nature because it has first been 
 implanted within it. It is a speech to our souls of a loftier voice growing 
 clearer and more articulate as thought grows wider and feelings more pure. 
 It is in fact the witness of God within us; it is the self -manifestation of His 
 righteousness, so that in the common terms of universal moral experience 
 lies the first and broadest element of Revelation. But may we not apply 
 the same tests, the worth of belief, the gentleness of feeling, to more special 
 cases? If the divine life shows itself forth in the development of coscience, 
 may it not be traced also in the slow rise of a nation's thought of God, 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 and letters, the discovery of the crafts, the 
 inventions of civilization, poetry and song, art, law, philosophy, bear about 
 them the stamp of the superhuman. "From Thee," sang Pindar (nearest 
 of Greeks to Hebrew prophecy), " cometh all high excellence to mortals." 
 Such love is in fact the teaching of the unseen, the manifestation of the 
 infinite in our mortal ken. If this conception of providential 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 Egyptian hymns laid in 
 the believer's coffin ere Moses was born: 
 
 Praise to Amen-Ra. the good God heloved, the ancient of heavens, the oldest 
 of the earth, J^ord of Eternity, Maker Everlasting. He is the causer of pleasure 
 and light, maker of grass for the cattle, and of fruit 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 Eis creatures. We worship Thy spirit who alone hast made 
 us; we, whom Thou hast made, thank Thee that Thou has given us birth; we give 
 Thee praises for Thy meicy to us. 
 
 Is this less inspired than a Hebrew psalm? Study that antique record 
 of all the Zarathustra in the Gathas, which all scholars receive as the old- 
 est part of the Zend Avesta. Does it not rest on a religious experience 
 similar in kind to that of Isaiah? 
 
 Theologies may be many, but religion is but one. It was after this that 
 the Vedic seers were groping when they looked at the varied worship 
 around them and cried: "They call him India, Mitra. Varuna, Agni; 
 sages name variously 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 
 Greek 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 of freedom and universality of the spirit of Jesus. They were for 
 recognizing and welcoming truth wherever they found it, and they referred 
 it without hesitation to the ultimate source of wisdom and knowledge, the 
 Logos, at once the minor thought and the uttered word of God. The martyr
 
 NEED OF A WIDER CONCEPTION OF REVELATION. 389 
 
 Justin affirmed that the Logos had worked throuy-li Socrates, as it had 
 been present in Jesus; nay, with a wider outlook, he spoke of the seed of 
 the Logos implanted in every race of man. In virtue of this fellowship, 
 therefore, all truth was revelation and akin to Christ Himself. " What- 
 soever things were said among all men are the prcjperty of us C'hristiaiis." 
 The Alexandrian teachers shared the same conception. The divine intelli- 
 gence pervaded human life and history and showed itself in all that was 
 best in beauty, goodness, truth. The way of truth was like a mighty river 
 ever flowing, and as it passed it was ever receiving fresh stri'ams on this 
 side and that. Nay, so clear in Clement's view was the work of (ireek phil- 
 osophy that he not only regarded it like law and gospel as a gift of God, 
 it was an actual covenant, as much as that of Sinai, possessed of its own 
 justifying power, or following the great generalization of St. Paul. The 
 law was a tutor to bring the Jews to Christ. Clement added that philos- 
 ophy wrought the same heaven-appointed service for the (jreeks. May 
 we not use the same great conception over other fields of the history of 
 religion? " In all ages," affirmed the author of the wisdom of Solomon, 
 "wisdom entering into holy soul maketh them friends of (Jod and 
 prophets." So we may claim, in its widest application, the saying of 
 Mohammed : "Every nation has a creator of the heavens — to which they 
 turn in prayer — it is God who turneth them toward it. Hasten, then, emu- 
 lously after good, wheresoever ye be. God will one day bring you all 
 together." 
 
 We shall no longer, then, speak like a distinguished Oxford professor of 
 the three chief false religions — Brahmanism, Buddhism, Islam. Insofar as 
 the soul discerns God, the reverence, adoration, trust, which constitutes 
 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 
 more crude and confused, or pure and elevated, but they are in substance 
 the same. 
 
 " In the adoration and benedictions of righteous men," said the poet of 
 the Masnavi-i-Manavi, " the praises are mingled into one stream; all the 
 vessels are emptied into one ewer; because he that is praised is in fact only 
 one. In this respect all religions are only one religion." Can the same 
 thought be carried one step farther? If inspiration be a world-wide proc- 
 ess vmcontined by specific limits of one peeple, or one book, may the same 
 be said of the idea of incarnation? The conception of incarnation has 
 many forms, and in different theologies serves various ends. But they all 
 possess one feature in common. Among the functions of the manifestation 
 of the divine man is instruction; his life is in some sense or other a mode 
 of revelation. Study the various legends belonging to Central America of 
 which the beautiful story of the Mexican Quetzalcoatl may be taken as a 
 type — the virgin born who inaugurates a reign of peace, who estal)lishes 
 arts, institutes beneficeut laws, abolishes all human and animal sacrifices 
 and suppresses war — they all revolve around the idea of ihsclosing among 
 men a higher 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 he 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 V When men have become unwise, uubeliovinp, ignor.uit, 
 careless, then 1, who know the course of the world, declare "I am so-and-so." !Uid 
 consider how I can incline them to enlightenment, how they can become partakers 
 of the Budda-nature. 
 
 To become partakers of the divine nature is the goal also of the Chris- 
 tian believer. But mav 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 uai-
 
 390 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 versal truth? Was not this the meaning of Jesus when he bade bis followers 
 pray, "Our I'ather who art in heaven"? Once more (ireek wisdom may 
 supply us with a form for our thought. The Logos of God which became 
 flesli anil 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 
 which 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 Word of God is not of single 
 application. It is boundless, unlimited. For each man as he enters into 
 being, there is an idea in the divine mind— may we not say in our poor 
 human fashion?— of what God means him to be; that dwells in every soul, 
 and realizing itself not in conduct only, but in each several highest forms 
 of human eudeavor. It is the fountain of all lofty thought, it utters itself 
 through the creatures of beauty in poetry and art, it prompts the investi- 
 gation of silence, it guides the inquiries of philosophy. There are so many 
 kinds of voices in the world, and no kintl is without signification. So many 
 voices! So many words! Each soul a fresh word with a new destiny con- 
 ceived for it by God, to be something 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 frustrate it; in this 
 revelation each one of lis 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 are not 
 the essence which abides. To realize the sympathy of religions is the first 
 step toward grasping 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 and all. 
 
 CHRIST THE REASON OF THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 REV. JAMES W. LEE OF PARK STREET CHURCH, ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 The human mind uses three words to shelter and house all its ideas. 
 These are nature, man, and God. All ideas of the maternal universe are 
 put into the word nature. All ideas of humanity are lodged in the word 
 man. All ideas of the unseen, the infinite, the eternal, are domiciled in 
 the word God. 
 
 The realms for which these terms stand are so vast and so difficult of 
 access that the human race, after thousands of years of thought and effort, 
 has been able only partially to explore and settle them. 
 
 So deep and abiding, however, has been the conviction that the different 
 orders of existence denominated by these words are real, that ideas of them, 
 as Kant has well said, have been the presuppositions of all thinking. 
 
 Ideas of the self, the not-self, and of the unity that transcends and 
 includes the two, are the necessary and fundamental preconditions of all 
 thought. These ideas entered as strands mto the thread of the first 
 thought man ever had and are found to be the constituent elements of the 
 last thought of the most advanced philosopher. Without a self, of course, 
 no thought is possible. A self without a not-self finds nothing to think 
 about. With a self somewhere, and a not-self somewhere else, bound by 
 no unity of which the two are expressions, there could be no thought 
 again. A self utterly foreign to a not-self, a self with no origin common to 
 a not-self, a self with absolutely nothing in it corresponding to anything in 
 a uot-sclf could have no possible commerce the one with the other.
 
 CHRIST THE REASON OF THE UNIVERSE. 391 
 
 Relation between two things is the fundamental condition of com- 
 merce between them. Two dependent relatives are themselves the indis- 
 putable proof of an independent unity of origin and source. Man, the self, 
 is dependent, and nature, the not-self, is dependent. History witnesses the 
 constant and permanent relations between the two, hence, by the very 
 necessities of thought, we are driven to assume the reality of God, the 
 unity upon which the two depend, and of whose thought the two are 
 expressions. A chicken could make no scratches on the ground with its 
 foot that man could read. A chicken puts no mind in the prints (»f its 
 feet for the mind of man to interpret. Man can decipher tlie strange 
 letters on an Egyptian obelisk because the letters embody mind, and mind 
 is common to all men. Man can read nature because it contains mind, and 
 mind common to his own mind. Therefore the mind embodied in nature 
 and the mind active in man can come together, because they both are 
 expressions of one infinite mind. 
 
 As all thinking begins with ideas which presuppose the existence of 
 nature, man, and God, so all thinking continues, and will ever continue to 
 carry in solution the same ideas. Hence it will be found that all problems 
 which have come before the mind for solution have clustered alx)ut the 
 ideas of nature, man, and God. Religion and philosophy in all ages have 
 busied themselves about solving and explaining the mysteries which hang 
 about the self, the not-self, and the unity, which includes the two. 
 
 The value of any religion or philosophy will be determined in the future 
 by the solution which it gives to the problems which surround these funda- 
 mental ideas of human thought and experience. The philosophy or the 
 religion that claims the problems which surround these realms to be insol- 
 uble will have no lasting place in the growing thought of the human race. 
 The sure and steady progress made by ages of painstaking thought and 
 consecrated living toward clearing things up have constantly deepened and 
 widened the conviction among men that the problems brovight before the 
 mind by the words nature, man, and God are not soluble. As long as the 
 search for gold in the Rocky Mountains is rewarded by some grains in the 
 ore, the search will be kept up till all the mountains are explored. 
 
 Of nothing is there more settled and abiding conviction, among the 
 people who live on the earth to-day, than of the fact that the search for 
 truth in the past has been sufficiently rewarded to warrant men in keeping 
 up the search. Thus, as never before, students are digging into the heart 
 of the earth, observing its dips and upheavals; they are gazing into the 
 heavens, counting its stars, photographing their faces, and analyzing their 
 contents; they are traveling over the earth, observing man as the facts of 
 him come to light in his commerce, his law, his crime, his insanity, and his 
 enterprise; they are investigating the religious element in human nature, 
 classifying its manifestations, its age-long search for the unseen, its craving 
 for the infinite, and knowledge is increasing as never before. 
 
 While ideas of nature, man, and God, ideas of the not-self, the self, and 
 of the unity that includes the two are presupposed in the first thought of 
 the primitive man, it is not to be supposed that these ideas are consciously 
 held, or held in any articulate or developed sense. At first they are 
 inchoate, merely float in the mind in a mixed and undifferentiated way. In 
 the esteem of the primitive man the outside world covers the entire ground 
 of existence. Everything is alive. He barely distinguishes between his 
 own life and that of some other object. The unrecognized ideas of self and 
 of the infinite lead him to invest everything without with life like his own. 
 All things are together in a jumbled and confused mass. No order l)eing 
 within, no order is found without. Chaos within is met l)y cluios without. 
 
 (Jradually distinctions are made and living objects take a higher rank 
 than the non-living. The Great Spirit is gradually lifted from all things to 
 particular things. And then after a while, as in the case of Abraham, God
 
 392 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 is Been as one and man is seen as one and the child of God, and the world is 
 seen as one and as the home God has built for his child. At this stage of 
 thought civiUzation begins and rational history begins. The marvelous 
 civilization of Greece and Rome vi^ould never have been possible without 
 the thought of the oneness of God. Diogenes Laertius quotes one of the 
 Greek lyric poets as saying: "From one all things are generated; into one 
 all things are resolved." 
 
 As long as the ideas of nature, man, and God, which, according to Kant, 
 are the presuppositions of all thinking, are mixed in the mind without 
 detinition and without distinction, civilization is impossible. Confusion 
 within will reappear as confusion without. 
 
 Not only must these factors of thought be defined and separated the one 
 from the other, but each must receive its proper emphasis and hold the 
 place in the mind to which its objective existence entitles it. 
 
 In the philosophy of India too much is made of God. The idea of Him 
 is pressed to such illimitable and attenuated trantceudencethat with equal 
 truth anything or nothing can be predicated of Him. 
 
 In the system of Confucius too much is made of man. Ideas of the 
 Infinite above him and of the finite world below him are not clearly grasped 
 or defined, and, because of this, man fails to find his proper place and lives 
 on in the world without the help that belongs to him from above or below. 
 
 In the thought of Thomas Henry Buckle the boundaries of nature are 
 widened till but little room is left for man and God. 
 
 In the theory of Jean Jack Rosseau, man is emphasized to a point of 
 independence out of all proportion to his dependent and relative nature. 
 
 In the English deism of the 18th century God was represented as 
 what Carlyle calls an almighty clockmaker, the world as a machine, and 
 men as so many atoms related to one another mechanically, like the grains 
 of wheat in the same heap. In this system none of the factors of thought 
 were suppressed ; it failed because it did not correspond to the real nature 
 of the facts. No such a God, no such a world, and no such men existed as 
 English deism talked about. 
 
 In one respect, then, all religions and all philosophies are on a level. 
 They all seek a solution to the problems which hang around the same facts. 
 
 They are all faced by the same nature, with its matter and its force; by 
 the same man, with his weakness, his sorrow, his fear, his ignorance, his 
 death; by the same great Being who surrounds and includes all things and 
 who receives names from all peoples corresponding to their conceptions of 
 Him. What man seeks and has always sought is such a philosophy or 
 synthesis of the facts of nature, of man, and of God as harmonizes him 
 with himself, with his world, and with the Being he calls God. 
 
 We call Christ the reason of the universe because he brings to thought 
 such a synthesis of nature, man, and God as harmonizes human life with 
 itself and with the facts of nature and God. Christianity is not a religion 
 constructed by the human reason, but is such a religion as reason sees to 
 be in line with the facts of existence. Man is a thinker and needs truth; 
 he is under the necessity of acting and needs law; he has a heart and needs 
 something to love; he is weak and needs strength. But Christianity does 
 not simply bring to man a system of truth, for he is more than a thinker; 
 or a system of ethics, for he needs more than something to do; or a wealth 
 of emotion, for he needs more than satisfaction for his heart; or inexhaust- 
 ible supplies of strength, for he needs more than help in his weakness; 
 these are brought, combined, and harmonized in the unity of a perfect life. 
 
 His want can only be matched when these come together, set and 
 arranged in the harmony of a complete life. Cosmology is not enough, 
 anthropology is not enough. What man needs is to find cosmology, anthro- 
 pology, and theology flowing in the blood, and beating in the heart, and 
 thinking in the mind, and acting in the will of a life like his own. He needs
 
 CHRIST THE REASON OF THE UNIVERSE. 303 
 
 to see once the germs of hope and strength and aspiration which he feels 
 in his own nature reaUzed in a life lived under the same coucluioiiS with 
 which he stands face to face. 
 
 Whatever may be thought as to his probably being mistaken, one thing 
 is conceded— the facts of Chrisfs life and death and resurrection and 
 ascension underlie Western civilization and have been the jjotent factors in 
 its creation. If the men made a mistake who supposed they saw in Christ 
 the fulfillment of all prophecy, the harmony of all truth, the perfection of 
 all righteousness, the solution of aU problems, and the sum of all beauty, 
 then we think with perfect truth it may be said, this is the most marvelous 
 mistake in all history, for following the light of this mistake men have 
 come to the most enlightened and rational civilization of ancient or mod- 
 ern times. 
 
 Christ owes the unrivaleJ place He holds to-day among the sons of men 
 to the fact that He did not come simply explaining, or teaching, or phi- 
 losophizing, or theorizing, or poetizing, but came solving the problems man 
 saw in nature, in himself, and in God by living them out. 
 
 The mysteries which men had sought to clear up by thinking He cleared 
 up by His living, and when the contradiction of sinners became so great. J le 
 could proceed along the ordinary methods of living no further. He su hniitted 
 to death, and, arising from the grave, gave to men the essence of all truth, 
 the results of all righteousness, the fruits of all love, and the secret of all 
 time and eternity. 
 
 By His incarnation Christ united the two terms found in the antithesis 
 of an infinite'past and a finite present. By His resurrection He united in 
 a historic fact the two terms found in the antithesis of an infinite future 
 and a finite present, and by His ascension He gave triumph and undying 
 hope to life. 
 
 Let us now approach this question in a different way and see if we can 
 not directly get a knowledge of the respect in which Christ is the reason of 
 the universe. When we look out in nature we see objects. Each thing 
 seems to be independent of all the rest. There are rocks, and clouds, and 
 rivers, and birds, and stars, and moons. But to the person who has not 
 learned to think each one of these objects seems to be independent of all 
 the rest. 
 
 But a deeper view leads to the thought that things are related, that each 
 object has an environment, and a deeper insight is reached when the 
 observer comes to understand that the condition of all objects together with 
 their environments is space. Then it will be seen that objects might be 
 taken away and environments might be taken, but that space would remain. 
 An object is surrounded by its environment and the environment of an 
 object is surrounded by space, but space is surrounded by itself. Space is 
 limited and continued by itself, it is bounded and affirmed by itself. What- 
 ever is self -limited is infinite — hence space and time are infinite. 
 
 When we look carefully into the matter we find that environments influ- 
 ence their objects, and objects in turn affect their environments. So i-vents 
 and their environments mutually influence one another. In this way we 
 arrive at the conception of causality, and causality is a deep'.-r fact than 
 either time or space. In order that a cause may send a stream of influence 
 over to an effect there must be space, and there must be time. But Ix'fure 
 a cause can express itself in an effect, it must separate the power by the aid 
 of which it makes the expression from itself, and thus we are led to the 
 insight of self-cause, self -separation, and self activity. A self-causative, 
 self -active, omnipotent energy is the deepest thing and the first thing in 
 the universe. 
 
 This is the principle which is presupposed in all causative, all time, all 
 space, and all experience. Here we have the unity that incliiiles the self 
 and the not-self. JNor is this an abstract, barren, empty, sterile unity, corre-
 
 394 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 sponding to the transcendent, pure being of the Hindus. It is a dynamic, 
 self-active self-related unity, that includes within itself the wealth of all 
 worlds, of 'all intelligence, of all life, and of all love. Being self -causative, it 
 IS the subject that causes, and the object that is caused. Being self-active, 
 it is cause and effect in a Uving, intelligent unity. The complete form of 
 self-activity, self-causation, and self- relation is self -consciousness. Self-con 
 Bciousness contains within itself the subject that thinks, andthe object that 
 is thought, and also the identity of subject and object in a living, intelli- 
 gent personality. 
 
 But it has been in accordance with the conviction of all deep 'philosophy 
 and theology that what an absolutely perfect being thinks must, because it 
 is thought, exist. Ttiat is, with an absolutely perfect being thinking and 
 willing are the same. If what an absolutely perfect being thought did not 
 at the same time come to exist, then we would have him thinking one thing 
 and willing another, or we would be under the necessity of supposing that 
 he had thoughts or fancies that he did not reaUze. 
 
 In the absolute 'self-consciousness of God there is subject and object, 
 and the identity of subject and object, in one divine personality. But it 
 is necessarily that what the absolute subject thinks must be, and must 
 also be as perfect as the absolute subject. It is necessary also that the 
 absolute object must be one. 
 
 So in the divine self-consciousness the absolute subject is Father, and 
 the thought of the Father, or the absolute object, is the Son. But as the 
 Son is as perfect as the Father, it is necessary that what He thinks must be 
 also. 
 
 Here it is that Christian philosophy and theology get the imperfect 
 world. The Son thinks Himself first as eternally derived, as eternally 
 begotten. In the fact that the Son differs from the First person in that He 
 is eternally derived from Him is found the thought of Umitation, which is 
 expressed in the imperfect world in all stages and grades of existence, from 
 pure passivity up through space, and atoms, and force, and compounds, and 
 plants, and animals, to man, who is in the image of God and at the top of 
 creation. 
 
 In God as Father the idea of transcendence is met, and thus we have 
 the truth of monotheism; in God the Son, the idea of an indwelling God is 
 met, and we have the truth of polytheism. In God the Spirit, the idea of 
 God pervading the world is matched, and we have the truth of pantheism. 
 
 Here we have a trinity not such as would be constituted by three 
 judges in a court, or by three things imagined under sensible forms. The 
 relations between three such judges, or three such sensible things, would 
 be mechanical and accidental, and not absolute and essential. The Trinity 
 of the Christian Church is not simply the aggregation of three indi- 
 viduals, or the unity of three mathematical points. The Trinity revealed 
 in the Christian Scriptures is such as makes a concrete unity through and 
 by means of difference. This Trinity makes a unity, the distinguishing 
 feature of which is " fullness," not emptiness. It is a trinity constitutive 
 of a real, experimental, and knowable unity. God is revealed in the 
 scriptures as intelligence, life, and love, and the living process of each is 
 triune. The terms of a self, whose living function is intelligence, are 
 three, subject, object, and the organic identity of the two. The terms of 
 such a self are necessarily three, and yet its nature is necessarily one. 
 
 If God is intelligent He is triune, because the process of intelligence is 
 triune. There can not be mind without self-consciousness, and the object 
 of eternal self-consciousness is the eternal Logos, who is the full and com- 
 plete expression of the eternal mind. 
 
 Time or space is not necessary to the complete act of self-conscious- 
 ness. 
 
 The movement of the eternal mind passing through the Son into the 
 
 1
 
 CHRIST THE REASON OF THE UMVEL'SJ: :vx, 
 
 Holy Spirit, and then through the iinito world and Christian v. hi.uli Li.ek 
 to Himself, has been called a procession. A procession, because intiuite, 
 eternally complete. Thus, while God eternally goes from Himsi-lf He eter- 
 nally returns to Himself with spirits redeemed' by the Son, and ret,'eiie rated 
 by the Spirit, capable of sharing the love and joy and life of Himself. 
 
 This view makes it necessary that God through the Son create the 
 world. At this doctrine some people will stagger. One thing is sur(>, ( iod 
 has created the world, and if the necessity for creating it was not in His 
 nature, then creation is an accident. There is no reason where there is no 
 necessity. The necessity for a thing is the reason for it. If there was no 
 necessity for creation, the creative act becomes wholly irrational, (iod is 
 represented in the first chapter of the Bible as Creator. It is necessarv 
 that a creator create. 
 
 It is to be remembered, however, w'hile it is necessary that God create, 
 this is a necessity that falls within His own nature. This means that (Jod 
 is essentially a creative being. There is no necessity outside of (Jod by 
 which He is compelled to do anything. This would be the estal)lishmcnt 
 of a fate greater than God. All necessity relating to (Jod falls within His 
 own being and is that which defines what He rationally and I'ssentialiy is. 
 
 But while the doctrine makes the creation of the tinite world necessary, 
 it does not make sin or the self-assertion of a tinite si)irit n(>cessar"y. 
 But man is free with a body, made of the earth at the bottom of himseff, 
 and with a spirit the direct gift of God at the top of himself. J5etweeu 
 man as body and man as spirit there is the realm of choice. If he acts 
 with reference to himself as body simply, he sins. The possibility of sin 
 in the case of man is found in that in his personality there come together a 
 limited and an unlimited self, a carnal and a spiritual self, a self in time 
 and space, andia self under the form of eternity. 
 
 This doctrine helps us again to account for the two poles of men's 
 moral and intellectual consciousness. Human nature has a dual constitu- 
 tion. It is the vxnity of two principles, a principle of thought and will and 
 a principle of truth and right. As a physical being he is dual. The sub- 
 jective side of his physical self is hunger, the objective side of his ])hysical 
 nature is food. Now before he can live as a physical being the hunger and 
 the food must come together. 
 
 Now, on his subjective side, man feels he is free, but on his objective side 
 he feels he must obey. How is he to be free and obedient at the same time? 
 When we remember that the nature of man is a reprodviction of the nature 
 of the Son of God, and that the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father 
 and the Son flows out into humanity to enlighten, to quicken, to convince 
 of sin, and then to renew, to regenerate, and to organize into the Christian 
 Church, we will see that the truth the spirit presents to man's intellect is 
 adapted to it as food is to his hunger, and that the law the Spirit stimulates 
 and urges man to obey is the law of his own nature. 
 
 This doctrine gives us the meaning of the struggle, conflict, pain, which 
 are apparent throughout the realm of nature and human life. Leibnitz, 
 looking at the top of things, at health, at joy, sunshine, laughter, and pros- 
 perity, said this was the best possible world. Schopenhaur, looking at the 
 bottom, at storms, thorns, disease, poverty, death, said this was the worst 
 possible world. 
 
 The entrance of the divine procession into the limitatit)ns of time and 
 space is advertised by, the storm and stress, the ceaseless clash and strife 
 which begin among the atoms. This struggle is kept up through all 
 stages of organization until when we reach the plane of human life it is 
 expressed in cries and wails, in tragedies, epics, litanies, which become the 
 most interesting part of human literature. 
 
 Into this struggle comes the son of man and the Son of God. He meets 
 it, endures it, and conquers it, and is crucified, and His crucifixion is the
 
 396 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 culmination of the process of trial and storm and strife which began with 
 the atoms and continued through the whole course of nature. When 
 Christ comes up from the dead then the truth of the ages gets defined, 
 that through suffering and denial and crucifixion is the way to holiness and 
 everlasting life. Prom thenceforth a redeemed humanity becomes the 
 working hypothesis and the ideal of the race. Then it comes to be seen 
 that the whole movement of God looks to the organization of the human 
 race in Jesus Christ, the reason, the logos, the plan, and the ideal frame- 
 work of the universe. 
 
 THE INCARNATION IDEA IN HISTORY AND IN 
 JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 RT. REV, JOHN J. KEANE, D. D,, OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 The subject assigned to me is so vast that an hour would not suffice to 
 do it justice. Hence, in the space of thirty minutes, I can only point out 
 certain lines of thought, trusting, however, that their truth will be so man- 
 ifest and their significance so evident that the conclusion to which they 
 lead may be clearly recognized as a demonstrated fact. 
 
 Cicero has truly said that there never was a race of atheists. Cesare 
 Balbo has noted with equal truth that there never has been a race of 
 deists. Individual atheists and individual deists there have been, but 
 they have always been, and have always been recognized as abnormal 
 beings. Humanity listens to them, weighs their utterances in the scales 
 of reason, smiles sadly at their vagaries, and holds fast the two-fold 
 conviction that there is a supreme being, the Author of all else that 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 God and of the existence of 
 revelation is not a spontaneous generation from the brain of man. Tyndal 
 and Pasteur have demonstrated that there is no spontaneous generation 
 from the inorganic to the organic. Just as little is there, or could there 
 be, a spontaneous generation of the idea of the infinite from the brain of 
 the finite. The fact, in each case, is the result of a touch from above. All 
 humanity points back to a golden age, when man was taught 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. 
 
 Curiously, strangely, sadly as that primitive teaching of man by his Creator 
 has been transformed in the lapse of ages, in the vicissitudes of distant 
 wanderings, of varying fortunes, and of changing culture, still thecomjjara- 
 tive study of ancient religions shows that in them all there has existed one 
 central, pivotal concept, dressed, indeed, in various garbs of myth and 
 legend and philosophy, yet ever recognizably the same — the concept of the 
 fallen race of man and of a future restorer, deliverer, redeemer, who, being 
 human, should yet be different from and above the merely human. 
 
 Again we ask, whence this concept? And again the sifting of serious 
 and honest criticism demonstrates that it is not a spontaneous generation 
 of the human brain, that it is not the outgrowth of man's contemplation 
 of nature around him and of the sun and stars above him, although, once 
 having the concept, he could easily find in all nature symbols and analo- 
 gies of it. It is part, and the central part, of*the ancient memory 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 yearns to do. 
 
 Glancing now, in the light of the history of religions, at that stream of 
 tradition as it comes down the ages, we see it divide into two clearly
 
 I 
 
 THE INCARNATION IDEA IN HISTORY. 397 
 
 distinct branches, one shaping thought, or shaped by thought, in the eastern 
 half of Asia, the other in the western half. And these two soparuto 
 streams receive their distinctive character from the idea prevalent in the 
 east and west of Asia concerning the nature of man, and, consequently, 
 concerning this relation to God. 
 
 In the west of Asia, the Semitic branch of the human family, together 
 with its Aryan neighbors of Persia, considered man as a substantial indi- 
 viduality, produced by the Infinite Being, and produced as a distinct 
 entity, distinct from his Infinite Author in his own finite personality, and, 
 through the immortality of the soul, preserving that distinct individuality 
 forever. 
 
 Eastern Asia, on the contrary, held that man had not a substantial indi- 
 viduality, but only a phenomanal individuality. There is, they said, only 
 one substance— the Infinite; all things are but phenomena, emanations of 
 the Infinite. "Behold,"' say the Laws of Manou, "how the sparks leap 
 from the fiame and fall back into it; so all things emanate from Brahma 
 and again lose themselves in him." "Behold," says Buddhism, "liow 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 phenomena emanat- 
 ing from it for awhile, namely, man and all existent things. 
 
 From these opposite concepts of man sprang opposite concepts of the 
 nature of good and evil. In Western Asia good was the conformity 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, on the contrary, considered existence as simply and solely 
 an evil, in fact, the sole and all-pervading evil, and the only good was deliv- 
 erance from existence, the extinction of all individuality in the oblivion of 
 the Infinite. Although existence was conceived as the work of the Infi- 
 nite — nay, as an emanation comuig forth from the Infinite — yet it was con- 
 sidered simply a curse, and all human duty had this for its mean ing and 
 its purpose, to break loose from the fetters of its existence, and to help oth- 
 ers with ourselves to reach non-existence. 
 
 Hence again, in Western Asia, the future redeemer was conceived as one 
 masterful individuality, human, indeed, type andjiead of the race, but also 
 pervaded by the divinity in ways and degrees /more or less obscurely con- 
 ceived and used by the divinity to break the chains of moral evil and guilt 
 — nay, often they supposed of physical and national evils as well— and to 
 bring man back to happiness, to holiness, to God. Thus, vaguely or more 
 clearly, they held the idea of an incarnation of the deity, for man's good; 
 and his incarnation was naturally looked forward to as the crowning bless- 
 ing and glory of humanity. 
 
 In Eastern Asia, on the contrary, as man and all things were regarded 
 as phenomenal emanations of the Infinite, it followed that every man was 
 an incarnation. And since this phenomenal existence was considered a 
 curse, which metempsychosis dragged out pitifully. And if there was 
 room for the notion of a Redeemer, he was to be one recognizing more 
 clearly than others what a curse existence is struggling more resolutely 
 than others to get out of it, and exhorting and guiding others to escape 
 from it with him. 
 
 We pause to estimate these two systems. We easily recognize that their 
 fundamental ditference is a difference of philosophy. The touchstone of 
 philosophy is human reason, and we have a right to apply it to all forms
 
 ^98 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of philosophy. With no irreverence, therefore, but in all reverence and 
 tenderness of religious sympathy, we apply to the philosophies underlying 
 those two systems the touchstone of reason. 
 
 We ask Eastern Asia: How can the phenomena of the Infinite Being 
 be finite? For phenomena are not entities in themselves, but phases of 
 being. We have only to look calmly in order to see here a contradiction in 
 terms, an incompatibility in ideas, an impossibility. 
 
 Wo 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 end, and 
 was, therefore, not eternal nor infinite. And, if there is but one substance, 
 then the emanations, the phenomena, of the Infinite Being are himself; 
 how can they be evil? How can his incarnation be the one great curse 
 to get free from? 
 
 Again we ask: How can this human individuality of ours, so strong, so 
 persistent in its self-consciousness and self-assertion, be a phenomenon 
 without a substance? Or if it have as its substance the Infinite Being Him- 
 self, 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? For let us remem- 
 ber that acts are predicated not of phenomena, but of substance, of being. 
 
 Once more we ask: If human existence is but a curse, and if the only 
 blessing is to restrain, to resist, to thwart and get rid of all that consti- 
 tutes it, then what a mockery and a lie is that aspiration after human 
 progress which spurs 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 reasonable service." Human life, incarnation, 
 redemption, must mean something different from this. For the spirit that 
 breathes through the tradition of the East, the spirit of profound,. self- 
 annihilation.in the presence of the Infinite, and of ascetic self-immolation 
 as to the things of sense, we not only may but ought to entertain the 
 tenderest sympathy, nay the sincerest reverence. Who that has looked 
 into it but has felt the fascination of its mystic gloom ? But 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 phil- 
 osophy. Turn we then and apply the touchstone to the tradition of the 
 West. 
 
 Here it needs no lengthy philosophic reflection to recognize 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 Infinite. We recog- 
 nize that no multiplication of finite individualities can detract from the 
 Infinite, nor could their addition add to the Infinite ; for infinitude resides 
 not in multiplication of things, but in the boundless essence of Being, in 
 whose simple and all-pervading immensity, the .multitude of finite things 
 have their existence gladly and gratefully. " What have you that you have 
 not received ? And if you have received it, why should you glory as if you 
 had not received it ? " This is the keynote not only of their humble depend- 
 ence, but also of their gladsome thankfulness. 
 
 We recognize that man's substantial individuality, his spiritual immor- 
 tality, his individual power of will and consequent moral responsibility, are 
 great truths linked together in manifest logic, great facts standing together 
 immovably. 
 
 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 normal of the Infinite, in which truth and rectitude essentially reside.
 
 THE INCARNATION IDEA IN HISTORY. 3(H) 
 
 We see that the end and purpose and destiny, as well as the origin ot 
 the finite must be in the Infinite— not in the extinction of the finite individ- 
 uaUty-else why should it receive existence at all- but in its perfection 
 and beatitude. And therefore we see that man's upward aspiration for the 
 better and the best is no allusion, but a reasonable instinct for the right 
 guidance of his life. 
 
 All this we find explicitly stated or plainly implied in the tradition of the 
 West. Here we have a philosophy concerning God and concerning man 
 which may well serve as the rational basis of 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, each of them says: 
 " I am not the expected one: look forward and strive to be worthy to receive 
 Him." 
 
 Among all those great leaders Moses stands forth in special grandeur 
 and majesty. But in his sublime humility and truthfulness Moses also 
 exclaims: "I am not the Messiah; I am only His type and figure and pre- 
 cursor. The Lord hath used me to deliver His people from the land of 
 bondage, but hath not permitted me to enter the promised land because I 
 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 man- 
 kind from the bondage of evil and lead them into the promised land of their 
 eternal inheritance. Look forward and prepare 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. " Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and shall 
 bring forth a son and He shall be called Emmanuel." That is, God with 
 us. " A little child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the princi- 
 pality is on His shoulder, and He shall be called the Wonderful, the Coun- 
 sellor, the Mighty God, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of 
 Peace." 
 
 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 prediction of a future Savior and judge of 
 the world. 
 
 Greece hears the olden promise that Prometheus shall yet be delivered 
 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 they clung so obstinately. And pagan Rome, the 
 inheritor of all that had preceded her, hears the Sibyls chanting of the 
 Divine One that was to be given to the world by the wonderful Virgin 
 Mother and feels the thrill of that universal expectancy concerning which 
 Tacitus testifies that all were then looking for a great leader who was to 
 rise 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 Judah, of the family 
 of David, in the little town of Bethlehem, with fulfillment of all the pre- 
 dictions of the prophets, the Messiah appears. " Behold," says the mes- 
 senger of the Most High to the Virgin of Nazareth, "thou shalt conceive 
 in thy womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name 
 Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High; 
 and the Lord.God shall give unto Him 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, because I know not man?" 
 "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High
 
 400 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 shall overshadow thee; and therefore also the Holy One that shall be born 
 of thee shall be called the Son of God," " Behold the handmaid of the 
 Lord; be it done to me according to i hy word." 
 
 And what then? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
 with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and 
 dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and of His fullness we all have 
 received." And concerning Him all subsequent ages 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 Light, true 
 God of true God, begotten, not made, co-substantial with the Father, 
 through whom all things were made, who, for us men and for our salvation, 
 came down from heaven and was incarnated by the Holy Ghost of the Vir- 
 gin Mary and was made man." 
 
 But, again, to this tremendous declaration, which involves not only a 
 religion, but a philosophy also, we may, and we should, apply the touch- 
 stone 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 the 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, opjjosite substances are brought into unity, namely: spirit 
 and matter; the one not confounded with the other, 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 mount to the Infinite any 
 more than matter of itself could mount to spirit. But could not the Infi- 
 nite stoop to the finite and lift it to His bosom 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 stoou to this? Reason sees that to do so would cost the 
 Infinite nothing, since He is ever His unchanging Self; it sees, moreover, 
 that since 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 cre- 
 ative act, to thus lift up 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 see that it is this very thing that all humanity has been 
 craving for, whether intelligently or not. This very thing all religions have 
 been looking forward to, or have been groping for in the dark. Turn we 
 then to Himself and ask: "Art thou He who is to come, or look we for 
 another? " To that question He must answer, for the world needs and must 
 have the truth. Meek and humble of heart though He be, the world has 
 a right to know whether He be indeed " the Expected of the Nations, the 
 Immanuel, Lord with us " Therefore does He answer clearly and unmis- 
 takably: 
 
 "Abraham rejoiced that he should see my day. He saw it and was 
 glad." 
 
 "Art thou then older than Abraham?" 
 
 "Before Abraham was I am." 
 
 "Whoart thou, then?" 
 
 " I am the beginning, who also speak to you." 
 
 "Whosoever seeth me s eth the Father; I and ihe Father are one." 
 
 " No one cometh to the Father but by Me." 
 
 "I am the way and the truth and the life." 
 
 "I am the light of the world; he that foUoweth Me walketh not in dark- 
 ness, but shall have the light of life."
 
 THE INCARNATION OF GOD IN CHRIST. JOl 
 
 "lam the vine, you are the branches. Abide in me, and I in you. As 
 the branch can not bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, bo neither 
 can you unless you abide in uie, for without lue you can do nothiiif;." 
 
 He asks His (lisciples to declare who He is. Simon replies: "Thou art 
 the Christ, the Son of the L<iviug (.jod." 
 
 He answers: " Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas, because flesh and 
 blood have not revealed this to thee, but my Father who is in heaven." 
 
 Thomas falls on his knees before Him, exclaiming, "My Lonl and my 
 God!" He answers: " Because thou hath seen me, Thomas, thou haat 
 believed; blessed are they that halh not seen and have yet l)elieved." 
 
 His enemies threaten to stone liim, " because," they s'aiti, " being man. He 
 maketh Himself God." They demand that for this reason He shah Ijc put 
 to death. The high priest exclaims: " I abjure thee by the living (Jod that 
 thou tell us if thou be the Christ, the son of the living CJod. He answers: 
 " Thou hastsaid it. I am; and one day you shall sec me sitting on the right 
 hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven." 
 
 In fulfillment of the prophesies He is condemned to death. He declares 
 that it is for the world's redemption: " I lay down my life for my sheep. 
 No one taketh my life from me, but I lay down my life, and I have power to 
 lay down my life, and I have power to 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 pledge His 
 church has ever since been chanting the Easter anthem throughout the 
 world. 
 
 To that church He gives a commission of spiritual authority extending 
 to all ages, to all nations, to every creature — a commission that would be 
 madness in any mouth save that of God incarnate. 
 
 This is the testimony concerning Himself given to an inquiring and 
 needy world by Him whom no one will dare accuse of lying or imposture, 
 and the loving adoration of the ages proclaims that His testimony is true. 
 
 In Him are fulfilled all the figures and predictions of Moses and the 
 prophets; all the expectation and yearning of Israel. In Him is the full- 
 ness of grace and of truth toward which the sages of the Gentiles, with 
 sad or with eager longing, stretched forth their hands. In each of them 
 there was much that was true and good; in Him is all they had, and all the 
 rest that they longed for; in Him alone is the fullness, and to all of them 
 and all of their disciples we say: " Come to the fullness." 
 
 Edwin Arnold, who in his "Light of Asia" has pictured in all the colors 
 of poesy the sage of the far East, has in his later " Light of the World " 
 brought that wisdom of the East in adoration to the feet of Jesus Christ. 
 May his words be a prophecy. 
 
 O, Father, grant that the words of thy Son may be verified, that all, 
 through him, may at last be made one in Thee. 
 
 THE INCARNATION OF GOD IN CHRIST. 
 
 REV. JULIEN K. SMYTH OF THE CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, 
 
 BOSTON HIGHLANDS. 
 
 It is related that some Greeks once came to Jerusalem and to a fisher- 
 man of Bethsaida they said: "Sir, we would see Jesus." Hellas camo to 
 Israel; the nation of culture approached the people of revelation, and the 
 patrons, if, indeed, we may not say the worshipers, of the l)eautiful askt-d 
 to look into the face of Him who "hath no form nor comeliness," whosc^ 
 " visage was so marred unlike to a man and His form unlike to the sons of 
 men." A few years later a Tarsus Jew, a messenger of Jesus of Nazareth,
 
 402 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Btandin"- in the court of the Areopagites, said to the men of Athens who 
 asked concerning " the new doctrine:" "Whom ye ignorantly worship, Him 
 dechire I unto you." And the question of the Greeks has passed irom 
 mouth to mouth, as the story of the "man of sorrows" has been carried 
 around the vvorkl, until now, in this gathering together of all religions, it is 
 put forth as a question of humanity. ^ . , 
 
 To attempt to explain from the Christan standpomt the commg and 
 the nature of that Person, the influence of wliose life has been so creative 
 of spiritual hope and purpose, is a responsibility, the weightiness of which 
 is felt in proportion as it is believed that to as many as receive Him, to 
 them gives He the power to become children of God; that He is the Word 
 made tiesh, and that the glory which men behold in Him is in very truth, 
 " the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." 
 
 Christianity, in its broadest as well as its deepest sense, means the pres- 
 ence of God in humanity. It is the revelation of God in His world; the 
 opening up of a straight, sure way to that God; and a new tidal flow of 
 divine life to all the sons of men. The hope of this has, in some measure, 
 been in every age and in every religion, stirring them with expectation. 
 Evil might be strong, but a day would come when the seed of a woman 
 would bruise the serpent's head, even though it should bruise the Con- 
 queror's heel. God in His world to champion and redeem it! This is what 
 the religions of the ages have, in some form and with various degrees of 
 certainty, looked for. This is what sang itself into the songs and prophe- 
 cies 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 workbufure Him. He shall feed His lioek 
 like a shoplierd; He shall gather the lambs with His arms, ann carry them in His 
 bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. 
 
 Christianity is in the world to utter her belief that He who revealed 
 Himself as the Good Shepherd realizes these expectations and fulfills these 
 promises, and that in the Word made flesh the glory of Jehovah has been 
 revealed and all flesh may see it together. Even in childhood He bears the 
 name Emanuel, which, being interpreted, is " God with us." He explains 
 His work and His presence by declaring that it is the coming of the King- 
 dom — not of law, nor of earthly government, nor of ecclesiasticism — but of 
 God. 
 
 His purpose, to manifest and bring forth the love and the wisdom of 
 God; His miracles, simply the attestations of the divine immanence; His 
 supreme end, the culmination of all His labors; His sufferings, His victories, 
 to become the open and glorified medium of divine life to the world. It is 
 not another Moses, nor another Elias, but God in the world — God with us - 
 this, the supreme announcement of Christianity, asserting his immanence, 
 revealing God and man as intended for each other and rousing in man 
 slumbering wants and capacities to realize the new vision of manhood that 
 dawns upon him from this luminous figure. 
 
 Christianity affirms as a fundamental fact of the God it worships that 
 He is a God that does not hide or withhold Himself, but who is ever going 
 forth to man in the effort to reveal. Himself, and to be known and felt 
 according to the degree of man's capacity and need. This self-manifesta- 
 tion or " forthgoiug of all that is known or knowable of the divine per- 
 fections" is the Logos, or Word; and it is the very center of Christian 
 revelation. This word is God, not withdrawn in dreary solitude, but com- 
 ing into intelligible and personal manifestation. From the beginning — for 
 so we may now read the " Golden Proem" of St. John's Gospel, with its 
 wonderful spiritual history of the logos — from the beginning Ciod has this 
 desire to go forth to something outside of Himself and be known by it. 
 " In the beginning was the Word." Hence the creation. "All things were
 
 THE INCARNATION OF GOD IN CHRIST. 103 
 
 made by Him." Hence, too, out of this divine dcb-ire to reveal and iieconi- 
 modate Himself to man. His presence in various lornis of reli},Mou. '•lie 
 was in the world." Even in man's sin and spiritual blindness the eternal 
 Logos seeks to bring itself to his consciousness. 
 
 "The Light shineth in the darkness." IJut gradually through the ages, 
 through man's sinfulness, his spiritual percejjtions become dim and he sees 
 as in a state of open-eyed blindness <mly the forms through which the 
 Divine Mind has sought to numifest Himself. "He was in the worUl and 
 the world knew him not." What more can be done? Type symbol, relig- 
 ious ceremonials, scriptures — all have been employed. Has not man 
 sHpped beyond the reach of the divine endeavors? But the Christian his- 
 tory of the Logos moves on to its supreme announcement: "And the Word 
 was made fresh and dwelt among us, and we behekl H s glory, the glory as 
 of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Not some 
 angel come fi-om heaven to deliver some further message; not another 
 prophet sprung from our bewildered race to chide, to warn, or to exhort, 
 but the Logos, which in the beginning was with God and which was God, 
 the Jehovah of the old prophecies, whose glory, it had been promised, 
 would be revealed that all flesh might see it together. 
 
 And so in the Christian view of it the story of the Logos completes 
 itself in the story of the manger. And so, too, the Incarnation, instead (jf 
 being exceptional, is exactly in line with what the Logos has. from the 
 beginning, been doing. God, as the word, has ever been coming to man in 
 a form accommodated to his need, keeping step with his steps until, in the 
 completeness of this desire to bring Himself to man where he is, He 
 appears to the natural senses and in a form suitable to our natural life. 
 
 In the Christian conception of God, as one who seeks to reveal liims<'lf 
 to man, it simply is inevitable that the Word should manifest Himself on 
 the very lowest plane of man's life if at any time it would be true to say of 
 his spiritual condition : " This people's heart is waxed gross and their ears 
 are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed." It is not extraordi- 
 nary in the sense of its being a hard or an unnatural thing ft)r God to do. 
 He has always been approaching man, always adapting His revelations to 
 human conditions and needs. It is this constant acconunodation and 
 manifestation that have kept man's power of spiritual thought alive. The 
 history of religions, together with their remains, is a proof of it. The testi- 
 mony of the historic faiths presented 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 incarnation 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 very 
 footprints of the Incarnate Word, the gospel story is a story of toil, of suf- 
 fering, of storm and tempest; a story of sacrifice, of love so pure and holy 
 that even now it has the power to touch, to thrill, to re-create num's seltish 
 nature. There is an undoubted actuality in the human side of this life, 
 but just as surely there is a certain divine something forever speaking 
 through those human tones and reaching out through those kindly hands. 
 The character of the Logos is never lost, sacriticed, or lowered. It is 
 always this divine something trying to manifest itself, trying to make 
 itself understood, trying to redeem man from his slavery to evil and draw 
 to itself his spiritual attachment. 
 
 Here, plain to human sight, is part of that age-long effort of the Word 
 to reveal itself to man only now through a nature formed and born for the 
 purpose. We are reminded of it when we hear Him say: " Jiefore Abra- 
 ham was, I am." We are assured of it when He declares that He came 
 forth from the Father. And we know that He has triumphed when, at the 
 last, we hear his promise, "Lo, I am with you always." It is the Logos
 
 404 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 speaking. The divine purpose has been fulfilled. The Word has come forth 
 on this plane of human life, manifested Himself, and established a rela- 
 tionship with man nearer and dearer than ever before He has made Him- 
 self available and indispensable to every need or effort. "Without Me, ye 
 can do nothing." In His divine humanity He has established a perfect 
 medium whereby we may have free and immediate access to Gods fath- 
 erly help. " I am the Door of the sheep." " I am the Way, the Truth, and 
 
 In this thought of the divine character of the Son of Man, the early 
 Christians found strength and comfort. For a time they did not attempt 
 to define this faith theologically. It was a simple, direct, earnest faith in 
 the goodness and redeeming power of the God-man, whose perfect nature 
 had inspired them to believe in the reality of His heavenly reign. They 
 felt that the risen Lord was near them; that he was the Savior so long 
 promised; the world's hope, " in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the God- 
 head bodily." But to-day man claims his right to enter understandingly 
 into the mysteries of faith, and reason asks, How could God or the divine 
 Logos be made flesh? 
 
 Yet, in seeking for an answer to such an inquiry, we are at the same 
 time seeking to know of the origin of human life. The conception and 
 birth of Jesus Christ, as related in the gospels, is, declares the reason, a 
 strange fact. So, too, is the conception and birth of every human being. 
 Neither can be explained by any principle of naturalism, which regards the 
 external as first and the internal as second and of comparative unimpor- 
 tance. Neither can be understood, unless it be recognized that spiritual 
 forces and substances are related to natural forces and substances as cause 
 and effect; and that they, the former, are prior and the active formative 
 agents playing ufjon and received by the latter. 
 
 We do not articulate words and then try to pack them with ideas and 
 intentions. The process is the reverse: First the intention, then that inten- 
 tion coming forth as a thought, and then the thought incarnating itself by 
 means of articulated sounds or written characters. 
 
 By this same law man is primarily, essentially, a spiritual being. In the 
 very form of his creation that which essentially is the man, and which in 
 time loves, thinks, makes plans and efforts for useful life, is spiritual. In 
 his conception, then, the human seed must not only be acted upon but 
 be derived from invisible, spiritual substances which are clothed with 
 natural substances for the sake of conveyance. That which is slowly 
 developed into a human being, or soul, must be a living organism com- 
 posed of spiritual substances. Gradually that primitive form becomes 
 enveloped and protected within successive clothings, while the mother, 
 from the substances of the natural world, silently weaves the swathings 
 and coverings which are to serve as a natural or jjhysical body and make 
 possible its entrance into this outer court of life. 
 
 We do not concede, then, that there is anything impossible or contrary 
 to order in the declaration of the gospel, but "that which is conceived in 
 her is of the Holy Spirit." It is still in line with the general law of the 
 conception and birth of all human beings. The primitive form or nature, 
 as in the case of man, is spiritual. But in this instance it is not derivetl 
 from a human father, but is especially formed or molded by the divine crea- 
 tive spirit, formed as with us of spiritual substances; formed with a perfec- 
 tion and with infinite possibilities of development unknown to us; formed, 
 too, for the special purpose of being the perfect instrument or medium 
 upon and through which the divine might act as its very soul. 
 
 Because that primitive form is divinely molded or begotten, instead of 
 being derived from a finite paternity, it is unique. It is divine in first prin- 
 ciples. In the outer clothings of the natural mind and in the successive 
 wrappings furnished by the woman nature it shares our weakness. But
 
 H. DHARMAPALA, Ceylon.
 
 THE INCARNATION OF GOD IN CHRIST. 405 
 
 primarily, essentially, it is born with the capacity of becoming' divim- 
 throu^'h the removal of whatever is imperfect or linutin^ and through com 
 plete union with the divine which formed it for Himself. 
 
 Very like our humanities in all that pertains to the {,'rowth of tlio 
 natural body and natural mind would be this humanity of the Son of Man. 
 The same tenderness and helplessness of its mfantile body, the same possi- 
 bihty of weariness, hunger, thirst, pain; th^ same exposure, too, in the 
 lower planes of the mind, to tbe assaults of evil resulting in eternal struggle, 
 temptation, and anguish of spirit. And yet there is always an unlikenes.s' 
 a difference, in that the very primitive, determining forms antl possibilities 
 of that humanity are divinely begotten. 
 
 And so we think of this humanity of Jesus Christ as so formed and 
 born as to be able to serve as a perfect instrument whereby the eternal 
 Logos might come and dwell among us; might so express and pour forth 
 His love; might so accommodate and reveal His truth; might, in a word, so 
 set Himself on all the planes of angelic and human existence as to be for- 
 ever after immediately present in them, and so become literally, actually 
 God-with-us. 
 
 Gradually this was done. Gradually the divine life of love and wisdom 
 came into the several planes, which, by incarnation, existed in this human- 
 ity, removing from them whatever was limiting or imperfect, substituting 
 what was divine, filling them, glorifying them, and in the end making them 
 a very part of Himself. 
 
 This brings into harmony the two elements which we are apt to look 
 upon and keep distinct, the human and the divine. For Ho Himself tells 
 us of a process, a distinct change which His humanity underwent, anil 
 which is the key to His real nature. "The Holy Spirit," says the record, 
 " was not yet given, because that Jesus was notyetgloritied." Some divine 
 operation was going on within that humanity which was not fully 
 accomplished. But on the eve of His crucifixion he exclaimed: " Now is tht; 
 Sou of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him." It is this process of 
 putting off what was finite and infirm in the human and the substitution 
 of the Divine from within, resulting in the formation of a divine humanity. 
 So long as that is going on, the human as the Son feels a separation from 
 the divine as the Father and speaks of it and turns to it as though it were 
 another person. But when tlie glorification is accomplished, when the 
 divine has entirely filled the human and they act " reciprocally and unan- 
 imously as soul and body," then the declaration is: "I and the Father 
 are one." Divine in origin, human in birth, divinely human through glori- 
 fication. As to His soul, or immortal being, the Father; as to His human, 
 the Son; as to the life and saving power that go forth from His glorified 
 nature, the Holy Spirit. 
 
 This story of the divine life in its descent to man, this coming or incar- 
 nation of the Logos through the humanity of Jesus Christ, it is the sweet and 
 serious privilege of Christianity to carry into the world. I try to state it 
 I try from a new theological standpoint to show reasons for its rational 
 acceptance. 
 
 But I know that, however true and necessary explanations may be, the 
 fact itself transcends them all. No one in this free assembly is required 
 or expected to hide his denominationalism. And yet I love to stand with 
 my fellow Christians and unite with them in that simplest, most compre- 
 hensive creed that was ever uttered, Credo Domino. Denominationalism, 
 dogmatism aside ! Aside, too, all prejudices and practices. What is the 
 simplest, the fundamental idea of the being of Jesus Christ? Brother 
 men, are we not ready t > unite in saying it is, and saying it to the whole 
 round world ? The Lord Jesus Christ is the life or the love of God; mani- 
 festing itself to man, going out into the wmi 1, awakening the capacity 
 which is iu every man for spiritual, yes for divine life. Is not that the very
 
 406 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 heart of the gospel or rather is not that the gospel ? And is it now equally 
 true that up to this hour three is no fact so real no fact so powerful, no 
 fact that is working such spiritual wonders as the fact, the influence, the 
 being of Jesus Christ. 
 
 We are sitting here as the first great Parliament of Religions of the 
 world. We rightly believe, we boldly say, that from this time on the fath- 
 erhood of God and the brotherhood of man must mean more to us than 
 ever before, and none can be so timid but would dare to stand here and say 
 that in this hall the death-knell of bigotry has sounded. Yet it were a 
 sacrilege to suppose that the large tolerance which has been shown here 
 and which has secured for the representatives of every faith such a hospit- 
 able reception is the evolution of mere good nature. It is the spirit of 
 Him whose utterance of those simple words, which have been inscribed as 
 the text of the Columbian Liberty Bell, are already ringing in "The Christ 
 that is to be." " A new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one 
 another." 
 
 And the same lips also said: "Other sheep I have which are not of 
 this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice: and 
 there shall be one fold and one shepherd. " Because of such words we 
 listen with a new eagerness to all that men have to tell of their faiths; and 
 there is no declaration of truth, however old, from whatever source, by 
 whomsoever spoken, but has called out the heartiest tokens of approval, if 
 only it strikes down to what we feel to be the eternal verities underlying 
 our existence. To the surprise of many these declarations often bear a 
 striking similarity to some of the teachings of Christianity, when, in real- 
 ity, the marvel is that the religion of Jesus Christ should be so all-embrac- 
 ing and universal. 
 
 Nor is it to be forgotten that the Christ not simply taught the truth. 
 He so embodied it, so lived it; that He is the truth. And Christianity is not 
 afraid to say that the religion which bears his name is grounded not upon 
 truth— the abstract — nor a philosophy, nor an ecclesiasacism, nor a ritual, 
 but upon a person; a person so true, so perfect in holiness, that we believe 
 — nay, we feel, that He embodies the very life and spirit of God. And with 
 this manifestation has come a new conception of God as one who is w illing 
 to go any length in order to seek and to save that which is lost. And it is 
 this truth — God seeking man, man serving God; God entering into our. 
 experiences of joy or of pain, God fairly urging upon us His help and for- 
 giveness. This is the Christian's message to all the children of men. It is 
 not simply what Christianity has done, it is not simply what 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 His cradle. May there 
 be even greater cause for thankfulness in remembering that wise men from 
 the West started from His cross. 
 
 THE WORLD'S DEBT TO BUDDHA. 
 
 H. DHARMAPALA OF CEYLON. 
 
 The paper opened with a quotation from Max Muller: 
 
 If 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 prolilems 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 1 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 comprehensive, more 
 universal, and in fact more truly human a life, not for this life only, but for a 
 transflgured and eternal life, again I should point to India. 
 
 Ancient India, twenty-five centuries ago, was the scene of a religious 
 revolution, the greatest the world has ever seen. Indian society at that time
 
 THE WORLD'S DEBT TO BUDDHA. 407 
 
 had two large and distinguished reUgious foundalions thi- Sznianas and 
 Brahmanas. Famous teachers arose, and, with their diKcii)k-B, went among 
 the peopk^ preaching and converting them to their respective views. Chief 
 of them were Purana Kassapa, Makkhaii, (ihosala, Ajita. Kesahamhala, 
 Pakudha Kacckagara, Sanjaya Belattiputta and Niganta Natliajiutla.' 
 Amidst the galaxy of these bright luminaries there appeareil other thinkerB 
 and philosophers who, though they al)stained from a higher claim of relig- 
 ious reformers, yet appeared as schoiais of independent thought. Such 
 were Bavari, Pissa Metteyya, Mettagu, Puniuika, Dkotaka. Upasiva, Henaka, 
 Todeyya, Sela Parukkha, Pokkharadsati, Maggadessakes, Maggajivinp.' 
 These were all noted for their learning in their sacred scriptures, in gram- 
 mar, history, philosophy, etc. 
 
 The air was full of a coming spiritual struggle. Hundreds of the most 
 scholarly young men of noble families (Euiaputta) were leaving their homes 
 in quest of truth; ascetics were undergoing the severest mortifications to 
 discover the panacea for the evils of suifering. Young dialecticians were 
 wandering from place to place engaged in disputations, some advocating 
 skepticism as the best weapon to fight against the realistic doctrines of the 
 day, some a sort of life which was the nearest way of getting rid of exist- 
 ence, some denying a future life. It was a time deep and many-sided in 
 intellectual movements, which extended from the Circles of Brahmanical 
 thinkers far into the people at large. 
 
 The sacrificial priest was powerful then as he is now. He was the 
 mediator between God and man. Monotheism of the most crude type — 
 fetichism from anthropomorphic deism to transcendental dualism — was 
 rampant. So was materialism, froui sensual epicureanism to transcendental 
 nihilism. In the words of Dr- Oldenberg: "When the dialectic skepticism 
 began to attach moral ideas, when a painful longing f'^r deliverance from 
 the burden of being was met by the Ikst signs of moral decay, Buddha 
 appeared." 
 
 The savior of the world, 
 
 Prince Siddhartha styled on earth. 
 
 In earth, on heavens and hell- incomparable, 
 
 All honored, wisest, best, most pitiful. 
 
 The teacher (>f 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 per- 
 plexity of thought at the discovery of the existence of a religion called 
 after Buddha in the Indian philosophical books. Sir Williaui Jones, II. H. 
 Wilson and Mr. Colbrooke were embarrassed in being unable to iilentify 
 him. Dr. Marshman, in IS'li, said that Buddha was the Egyptian Apis, 
 and Sir William Jones solved the problem by saying that he was no other 
 than the Scandinavian Woden. The barge of the early Orientals was drift- 
 ing into the sand-banks of Sanskrit literature when in June, 1837, the 
 whole 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 archa?ologist, James Pramsep, by the trans- 
 lation of the Pali Ceylon history into English by Turner, and by the dis- 
 covery of Buddhist manuscripts in the temples of Mei)al Ceylon and other 
 Buddhist countries. In 1844 the first rational scientific and comprehensive 
 account of the Buddhist religion was published by the eminent scholar, 
 Eugene Purnouf. The key to the archives of tliis great religion was also 
 presented to the thoughtful people of Europe by this great scholar. 
 
 With due gratitude I mention ihe namesof the scholars to whose labors 
 the present increasing popularity of the Buddha religion is tiue: Spence. 
 Hardy, Gogerly, Turner, Professor Childers, Dr. Davids, Dr. Oldenberg, 
 Max MuUer, Professor Jansboll, and others. Pali scholarship began with 
 the labors of the late Dr. Childers. and the Western world is indebted to Dr.
 
 1 
 
 408 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Davids, who is indefatigable in his labors in bringing the rich stores of hid- 
 den wisdom from the minds of Pali literature. 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 teaching has 
 found favor with everyone who has studied his history. His doctrines are 
 the embodiment of universal love. Not only our philologist, but even those 
 who are prepossessed against his faith have ever found but words of praise," 
 says H. G. Blavatsky. Nothing can be higher and purer than his social 
 and moral code. "That moral code," says Max Muller, " taken by itself is 
 one of the most perfect which the world has ever known." " The more I 
 learn to know Buddha," says Professor Jansboll, " the morel admire him." 
 " We must," says Professor Barth, " set clearly before us the admirable 
 figure which detaches 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 sup- 
 plementary existence. 
 
 "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. He 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 
 point 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 boundless love, an indestructible element of faith in the final good, and 
 the proudest 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 are 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 that shade of a shadow of permanent existence 
 by a metaphysical tour de force of great interest to the student of philoso- 
 phy, 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 great- 
 est of modern idealists.'' 
 
 The tendency of enlightened thought of the day, all the world over, is 
 not toward theology, but philosophy and psychology. The bark of theo- 
 logical dualism is drifting into danger. The fundamental principles of 
 evolution and monism are being accepted by the thoughtful. The crude 
 conceptions of anthropomorphic deism are being relegated into the limbo 
 of oblivion. Lip service of prayer is giving place to a life of altruism. Per- 
 sonal self-sacrifice is gaining the place of a vicarious sacrifice. History is
 
 THE WORLD'S DEBT TO BUDDHA. 
 
 409 
 
 repeating itself. Twenty-five centuries ago India witnessed an intellectual 
 and religious revolution which culminated in the overthrow of monotheism 
 and priestly selfishness, and the establishment of a synthetic religion, This 
 was accomplished through Sakya Muni. To-day the Christian world is 
 going through the same process.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NINTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 19th. 
 
 RELIGION CONNECTED WITH ART AND SCIENCE. 
 
 The Hall of Columbus, on the ninth day of the Parliament 
 of Religions, could not accommodate all who endeavored to gain 
 admittance. Several speakers from Great Britain instructed 
 the attentive listeners. The first service of the day was in 
 charge of Dr. Barrows; in the afternoon. Dr. F. A. Noble was 
 the presiding officer; in the evening, Rev. J. H. Lewis of Plain- 
 field, N. J. At the opening of the day's proceedings, Dr 
 Brand of Oberlin, after silent prayer, led the audience in recit- 
 ing the universal prayer. 
 
 A LETTER. 
 
 LADY HENRY SOMERSET. 
 
 " A letter has been sent to me," remarked Dr. Barrows, " to 
 be read at this parliament, by one who is foremost in the ranks 
 of social reform in England and whose name has become the 
 household word in America as representing the highest and 
 noblest womanhood. I refer to Lady Henry Somerset, whose 
 communication is as follows ": 
 
 Ekstnor Castle, England, Sept. 8, 1893. 
 
 Rev. Dr. John Henry Barroivs, Chairman of the World's Religious 
 Congresses, Chicago. Honored Friend: You have doubtless been told, 
 with fatiguing reiteration, by your world-wide clientele of correspondents 
 that they considered the Religious Congresses immeasurably more signifi- 
 cant than any others to be held in connection with the Columbian Exposi- 
 tion. 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 leaders of the world, there has been, 
 so far as I have heard and read, the heartiest sympathy in your effort to 
 
 410
 
 TOLERATION. 4U 
 
 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 harmonious 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 of ten thought that the best result of this gre.'it and unique move- 
 ment for a truly pan-religious congress was realized before its meuibcrB 
 met, for in these days the press, with its almost universal hospitality 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 prac- 
 tical 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 tlian to think together. For this reason the congresses, 
 which are to set forth the practical workings of various forms of religion, 
 were predestined to succeed and their influence 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 move- 
 ment for united activity based on the fatherhood of God and the brother- 
 hood 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 iii 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 temperance worker. The same 
 was true in England of that lamented leader. Cardinal Manning, and is 
 true to-day of Mgr. Nugent of Liverpool, a priest of the people, universally 
 revered and loved. A concensus of opinion on the practical outline of the 
 golden rule, declared negatively by Confucius and positively by Christ, will 
 bring us all into one camp, and that is precisely what the enemies of lib- 
 erty, 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 assemble in 
 the White City of the West. 
 
 The Congress of Religions is the mightiest ecumenical council the world 
 has ever seen; Christianity has from it everything to hope; for as the ])lain9, 
 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 Me." 
 
 Believe me, yours in humble service for God and humanity, 
 
 Isabel Somerset. 
 
 TOLERATION. 
 
 PROF. MINAZ TCHERAZ OF LONDON. 
 
 " This congress," continued Dr. Barrows, "is itself a magnifi- 
 cent plea for and picture of toleration — a plea for spiritual lib- 
 erty and a picture of the realization of that liberty. We have 
 with us this morning one whom I am glad to present to you,
 
 412 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 who has himself suffered because of his devotion to liberty — 
 who is not permitted to return to his own country, but who now 
 lives in London, where he has the sympathy and the co-opera- 
 tion of the Armenians throughout the world, who still loves the 
 old land, a man who represents one of the oldest of nations, the 
 cradle of the human family, and I have asked him to speak, a 
 few words on 'Toleration,'" Dr. Barrows then introduced 
 Professor Minaz Tcheraz of London, upon whose head the Sul- 
 tan of Turkey has set a price on account of his pronounced 
 
 religious utterances. 
 
 I accept with the deepest gratitude the honor to-day conferred upon 
 me. I owe it to the inexhaustible kindness of our estimable president, Mr. 
 Bonney, and Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, who have in this way wished to 
 show their sympathy for the old Armenian Church. Born in the shadow 
 of this church, I love it for its tolerant and democratic spirit, which I will 
 have an opportunity to explain fully next Tuesday. It is this spirit which 
 has guided my steps toward this new pantheon. In Europe and America 
 I have met many skeptics — ladies and gentlemen — who think that the Par- 
 liament of Religions will be as the Falls of Niagara, a gigantic and barren 
 effort. This black prophecy has not succeeded in breaking my faith, because 
 the truly religious heart can not but be optimistic. For me this august 
 assembly, the highest theological school after that of nature, will have a 
 result which will suffice to immortalize the memory of John Henry Bar- 
 rows and his companions in arms. It will have laid the basis for a universal 
 tolerance. Ladies and gentlemen, fifteen years ago I was present in the 
 Armenian Church of Manchester, England, at an interview between the 
 Greek Archimandrite and the supreme patriarch of the Armenian Church. 
 To the words of union vittered by the brilliant Armenian the monk replied 
 as follows: " If there be no harmony between our two churches, the fault 
 is not with our peoples. They are like flocks of sheep.which long for nothing 
 more than to pasture together. It is with us. the shepherds who separate 
 them, that the trouble lies." Since the beginning of this parliament we 
 see on the same platform the pastors of all the nations, the representatives 
 of the most diverse religions, who treat each other with respect, and, what 
 is more, with sympathy and affection. 
 
 This scene of reconciliation, that unfolds itself before the eyes of a 
 large international gathering, united as is Chicago on the occasion of the 
 World's Fair, and the telegrajjh and the press transferring the scene before 
 the eyes of an entire humanity, is certainly wonderful progress. What can 
 result from this great parliament but the general conviction that religions 
 are not barriers of iron, which separate forever the members of the human 
 families, but are barriers of ice which melt at the first glance of the Son of 
 Love. These were the words which the Armenian patriarch at Constanti- 
 nople answered to the words of union from the patriarch of the Roman 
 Catholic Armenians: "The union must be by acts and not by words. Send 
 into my churches your preachers and I will send into your churches my 
 preachers; — let them preach freely but do not share their doctrines and let 
 the people follow freely the teachings that they think best." The Armenian 
 Catholic patriarch found this scheme too bold to be accepted, but the prel- 
 ate of the old Armenian Church has now at the last given example of 
 intolerance which deserves to be thought of. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, the memorable speakers to which we have listened
 
 GREER PHILOSOPHY AND CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 413 
 
 in this presence as well as those which we shall hear to-day, and until the 
 end of this parliament, will serve to re-enforce, even by the antaRouifim of 
 the religious systems, the desire for absolute tolerance. Humanity in our 
 East as well as in your West, prays for peace and love. It does not want a 
 religion which teaches of a Creator who hates his creatures. It does not 
 want a God who prefers an involuntary worship, to one which freely Hows 
 from the depths of the human soul. It will bless some day the council of 
 Chicago, even should this council proclaim for its creed nothing but this 
 one word, " tolerance " 
 
 Continuing, Professor Tcheraz said: 
 
 It affords me much pleasure to announce the first paper of the morning, 
 " The Greek Philosophy and the Christian Religion,'' by my distinguished 
 and illustrious preceptor and friend, Prof. Max Mulier of Oxford Uni- 
 versity. Prof. Max Mulier has rendered a brilliant service to philology 
 and science by his masterly trinslation of the sacred books. lie is a man 
 of whom Germany and England are equally proud. In his absence our 
 beloved president, John Henry Barrows, will have the kindness to read Max 
 Muller's paper. 
 
 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 PROF. MAX MULLER OF OXFORD. 
 
 Max Muller's paper, in the form of a letter, was read by the 
 chairman. 
 
 Easter Sunday, April 2, 1893: Detxr Sir: What I harp 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 Psycho- 
 logical Religion" that what I hope for is not simply a reform, but a com- 
 plete revival of religion, more particularly of the Christian religion. Y'ou 
 will hardly have time to read the whole of any 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 Saints Clement and Origen, came to embrace Christianity, 
 and to elaborate the tirst system of Christian theology. There was nothing 
 to induce them to accept Christianity or to cling to it if tliey had found it 
 in any way irreconcilable with their jjhilosophical convictions. They were 
 philosophers first. Christians afterward. They had nothing to gain and 
 much to lose by joining and remaining in this new sect of C'hristians. We 
 may safely conclude, therefore, that they found their own philosophical 
 convictions, the final outcome of 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 as it reached 
 Alexandria, whether in its Stoic or Neo-Platonic garb? It was the inerad- 
 icable 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 beyond all names and 
 comprehension, except so far as it is manifested or revealetl in the phe- 
 nomenal world." 
 
 What we call the different types, or ideas, or logoi in the world are the 
 logoi or thoughts, or wills of that being 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.
 
 414 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 So far all is clear and incontrovertible and a sharp line is drawn between 
 this philosophy and others, likewise powerfully represented in the previous 
 history of Greek philosophy, which denied the existence of that eternal rea- 
 son, denied that the world was thought and willed, as even the Klamaths, 
 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 oihers refused to take it, was to recognize the perfect realization of 
 the divine thought or Logos of manhood in Christ, as in the true sense 
 the Son of God, not in the vulgar mythological sense but in the deep 
 metaphysical meaning which had long been possessed in the Greek philoso- 
 phy. Th se who declined to take that step, such as Celsus and his friends, 
 did so either because they denied the possibility of any divine thought 
 ever becoming fully realized in the flesh, or in the phenomenal world, or 
 because they could not bring themselves to recognize that realization in 
 Jesus of Nazareth. Clement's conviction that the phenomenal world was 
 a realization of the divine reason was based 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 only, dying on 
 the cross for the truth as revealed to Him and by Him, could have been 
 based on historical grounds only. 
 
 Everything else followed. Christian morality was really in complete 
 harmony with the morality of the Stoic school of philosophy, though it 
 gave to it a new life and a higher purpose. But the whole world assumed 
 a new aspect. It was seen to be supported and pervaded 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 pattern of 
 the whole race of men, henceforth to be called " the sons of God." 
 
 This was the ground-work of the earliest Christian theology, as presup- 
 posed 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 Saints Clement and Origen. If we want to be true and honest Chris- 
 tians, 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 honest thinkers and believers. In the first sentence, "In the begin- 
 ning 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 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 con- 
 ception 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 pur- 
 posely rejected, at the time of the Reformation, a true revival of the Chris- 
 tian religion and a reunion of all its divisions may become possible, and I 
 have no doubt thau your Congress of the Religions of the World might do 
 excellent work for the resuscitation of pure and primitive ante-Nicene 
 Christianity. Yours very truly, F. Max Muller.
 
 MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 415 
 
 MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 
 
 PKOF. A. B. BRUCE OF GLASGOW. 
 
 The paper was read by Dr. Simon P. McPherson of Chicago. 
 
 "What is man'/" A ceutury ago our pious t,'randfathers wouKl liave 
 replied: "The lord and king of creation." The latest science has not 
 dethroned him. The evolutionary theory as to the Kenesis of thing's con- 
 fesses that man is at the head of creation as we know it. It not only con- 
 fesses this truth, it proves it, sets it on a foundation of scientific cer- 
 tainty; making man appear the consummation and crown of the evolu- 
 tionary process I'n that part of the universe with which it is our power to 
 become thoroughly acquainted. 
 
 It is not quite a settled matter that man is out and out the child of 
 evolution. That he is the product. of evolution on the animal side of his 
 nature is now all but universally acknowledged. Any dispute still out- 
 standing relates to the jjsychical aspect of his being— to his intellect and 
 his conscience. It is on this side admittedly that man's distinction lies 
 and that he stands furthest apart from the lower animal creation. Many 
 are inclined to abide by the position of Russell Wallace, who restricted the 
 application of evolution in the case of man to his bodily organization. Yet, 
 on the other hand, for one who is mainly concerned for the religious signifi- 
 cance of man's position in the universe, the interest l)y no means lies exclu- 
 sively on the more conservative and cautious side of'the question. Mak- 
 ing man out and out the child of evolution, if it can be done, without sacri- 
 fice of essential truths, has its advantages for the cause of theism. On 
 this view the process of evolution beccmies an absolutely universal mother 
 of creation, whereof man in his entire being is the highest and final prod- 
 uct. And what we gain from this conception is the right to interpret the 
 whole process by its end. By putting man in his highest nature a{)art 
 from the process and regarding him in that respect as the creature of an 
 immediate divine agency we lose this right. In reason and conscience out- 
 side the great movement he is neither explained by it nor does he ex])lain 
 it in turn. But bring him soul as well as body within the movement and 
 we have a right to point to all that is highest in him and 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 evolutionary 
 account of man all along the line. That means that we regard man phys- 
 ically, as shown by similarity of anatomical structure, connected with the 
 family of apes and oy the successive stages through which he passes in the 
 embryonic period of his history, betraying kinship with the whole lower ani- 
 mal 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 incrediljle. 
 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 trying to eat a stone or to dive into a rock; " iinjjlicit. uni)er- 
 ceived abstractions." Once more, man speaks, the brute, at most, can only 
 make significant signs. How far the human animal has outstripi)ed his 
 huml)ler brothers! 
 
 But great advances can be made by very small steps if sufficient tmie 
 be given. And there was plenty of time, according to the geologists. Man 
 has been in existence since the ice age say 'ioO.OOO years. Surely, within 
 that period, precepts might slowly pass into concepts, and inarticulate
 
 416 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 sounds into articulate words ! The dawn of reason inaugurates the crude 
 beginning of language, and the use of language in turn stimulates the fur- 
 ther development of reason. Of course, we are not to conceive of primitive 
 man as speaking in highly developed language, as Sanskrit or Greek; per- 
 haps for a long time he could not speak at all, but a man in body, he 
 remained a mere animai in the use of signs. And even after the epoch of 
 speech came 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 pronoun first, but in so leisurely a 
 way that it took perhaps a few thousands of years to learn to say " I." 
 
 Such is the account of the evolution of intellect given by experts, and 
 we accept it provisionally as in substance correct. We accept, further, the 
 evolution of morality. And that means that the sense of duty and moral 
 conduct have been evolved out of elements traceable in the brute creation, 
 such as the instinct of self-preservation, natural care of young, and the 
 social disposition characteristic of the ant, the bee, and the beaver. 
 
 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 develojj 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 laid emphasis. 
 This dc|»th and purity of parental and filial affections laid the foundation 
 of that great nursery of goodness, the family. Finally, out of the social 
 instinct, as real a part of human nature as the instinct of self-preservation, 
 came the power and disposition to appreciate tlie claims of the community 
 and to sacrifice the interests of the individual to the interests of the 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 appearances the 
 highest producible. If man had not been, it would not have been worth 
 while, for the lower world would not have come into existence. 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 pur- 
 pose. The agnostics can evade this conclusion by regarding the evolution 
 of the universe as an absolutely necessary and aimless process, which can 
 not but be, has no conscious reason for being, no purpose to arrive at any 
 particular destination, but moves on blindly in obedience to mechanical 
 law. IE 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. For us 
 this theory is once for all impossible. We must believe in God. maker of 
 heaven and earth. And believing in Him 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 God given ia the Hebrew writings. By abstaining from 
 all elaborate cosmogony and confining attention to the purely religious 
 aspects of the world, the scriptures have given a representation which, for 
 simple dignity and essential trust, leaves 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 scientific knowledge of the exact 
 method of creation. It is, however, associated with the perception that 
 man's place in the world is one of lordship. In both cases the Hebrew 
 prophet by religious intuition graspe 1 truths which our 19th-century 
 science has only confirmed. Man is lord, therefore God is manlike. The 
 point that needs emphasizing to-day is not that man is like God, but that 
 God is like man, for it is God. 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,
 
 MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 417 
 
 source of knowledge. And it confirms us in the use of this source to lin»' ihrt 
 ancient wisdom as represented by the Hebrew sage, to wliom weowellie 
 story of Genesis, indirectly indorses our method by prochiimint' tliat in 
 man we may see God's image. 
 
 Men everywhere and always have conceived their God as inanliki-. 
 They have done so too often in most harmful ways, imputing to the Diviuoi 
 human passions and vices. This, however lamentable and piTnicious, was 
 inevitable. There is no effectual cure for it except the growth of mankind 
 in its ethical ideal. The puritication of religion 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 being like man is false, and the great 
 thing is to get rid of anthromorphism, as Mr. Fiskc expressed it, "the 
 anthromorphisation " of the idea of God. The desideratum rather is to 
 conceive God not as like what man is or has been in any stage of his 
 moral development but as like what man will be when his moral develop- 
 ment has reached its growth. There has been, indeed, a rudimentary like- 
 ness all along from the day when man became in the incipient degree 
 human. It is not necessary to take the image of God ascribed to man in 
 Genesis in too absolute a sense. The likeness was in outline, ir 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 become. 
 
 It is safe to say that God is what man always has been in germ, a 
 rational, free, moral personality. But it is not safe to till 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 l)o con- 
 structed, therefore, on a basis of careful impartial, self criticism, casting 
 aside as unfit material for building our system not only all that can l)e 
 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 measvu-e of civilization reached in our social environ- 
 ment. 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 pro- 
 phetic 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 affirming with emphasis the essential affinity of the Divine 
 with the human, understand that even in that which is truly human, 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 proph- 
 ets to lead it in the way of moral progress, and set before it ideals in advance 
 of those which had been the guiding lights in the past. And yet it is pos- 
 sible that there may be prophets of by-gone days whose significance as 
 teachers has been by no means exhausted. This may be claimed pre- 
 eminently for liim whom Christians call their Lord. I do not expect a time 
 will ever come when men will 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 He has therein set the great truths that 
 God is manlike, and man Godlike, making man at his best the emblem of 
 God, 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 idea what a 
 father should be; and, howsoever bad a father may be, he will not give his 
 hungry child a stone instead of bread. Therefore, every father can know 
 God through his own paternal conscience, and hope to be treated by the 
 Divine Father as he knows he ought himself to treat his children. A!.d t)ie 
 better fathers and mothers grow the better they will know God. Theology
 
 418 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 will become more Christian as family affection flourishes. And what a ben- 
 efit it will be to mankind when Christ's doctrine of fatherhood has been sin- 
 cerely and universally accepted. Every man God's son; therefore, every 
 man under obligation to be Godlike, that is, to be a true man, self-respect- 
 intr, and worthy of respect. Every man God's son; therefore, every man 
 entitled to be treated with respect by fellowmen, despite of 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 have for- 
 feited 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 
 lighton his eternal destiny? Does 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. B hold, we know not anything! Yet it is worthy of 
 note that leading advocates of evolutionism are among the most pro- 
 nounced upholders of immortality. Mr. Fiske says: "For my own part I 
 believe in the immortality of the soul, not in the sense in which I accept 
 the demonstrable proofs of a science, but as a supreme act of faith in the 
 reasonableness of God's work." He can not believe that God niade the 
 world, and especially its highest creal ure, simply to destroy it like a child 
 who builds houses out of rocks just for the pleasure of knocking them down. 
 Not less strongly Le Conte writes: "Without spirit-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, 
 signifying nothing." 
 
 These utterances, of course, do not settle the question. But, considering 
 whence they emanate, they may be taken at least as an authoritative indi- 
 cation that the tenet of human immortality is congruous to, if it be not a 
 necessary deduction from, the demonstrable truths that man is the con- 
 summation of the great world-process by which the universe has been 
 brought into being. 
 
 THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM DAWSON, F. K. S., OF MONTREAL. 
 
 Prevented by age and infirm health from being present at the Parlia- 
 ment of Religions, I accede to the request of the chairman, Rev. Dr. Bar- 
 rows, to prepare a short summary of my matured conclusions of the subject 
 of the relations of natural science to religion. 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 dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 For such a purpose the term natural science may be held to include our 
 arranged and systematized knowledge of the earth and its living inhabit- 
 ants. It will thus comprise not only geology and the biological sciences, 
 but anthropology ami jjsychology. On the other hand one may take religion 
 in its widest sense as covering the belief common to all the more important 
 f.dths, and more especially 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 imperceptibly into that which is 
 revealed. Natural religion, if thereby we understand the beliefs fairly 
 deducible from the facts of nature, is in truth ck)sely allied to natural
 
 THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 419 
 
 science, and if reduced to a system may even be considered as a part of it 
 Our principal inquiry should therefore be not so much " How do scientiHc 
 results agree with religious beliefs or any special form of them?" butratlier 
 "How much and what particular portion of that which is held as relijriouH 
 belief is inseparable from or fairly deducible from the results of natural 
 science?" 
 
 All scientific men are probably prepared to admit that there must bo a 
 first cause for the phenomena of the universe. We can not, without 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 bo true of the 
 first cause as to origin and essence, it can no* be true altogether as to 
 qualities. The first cause must be antecedent to all phenomena. Thi- hrst 
 cause must be potent to produce all resulting effects, and must inckide 
 potentially the whole fabric of the universe. The first cause must be 
 immaterial, independent, and in some sense self contained or individual. 
 These properties, which reason requires us to assign to the first cause, are 
 not very remote from the theological idea of a self -executed, 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 that causes may be entirely unknown to us in themselves, 
 yet well known to us in their laws and their effects. Since, then, thi' whole 
 universe must in some sense be an illustration and development of its first 
 cause, it must refiect light on this primitive power, which must thus be 
 known to us at least in the same manner in which such agencies as gravita- 
 tion and the ethereal medium occupjing 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 numner of 
 operation, but we know well its all-prevailing 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; science would not 
 justify us in assuming the position of agnostic 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 previously, 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 number 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, something which, relating to an eternal and infinite existence, may 
 be compared with what will is in the lesser sphere of human consciousness. 
 In this way we can at least form a conception of a former all-pervading, yet 
 personal, agency, free, yet determined by its own innate constitution. 
 
 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 merges into 
 rational theism, and its first cause becomes the will of a Divine Being, 
 inscrutable in essence yet universal in influence and manifested in His 
 works. In this way science tends to be not only theistic but monotheistic, 
 and corrects those ideas of the unity 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 unchang- 
 ing will of infinite wisdom and foresight. Otherwise we should have to
 
 420 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 
 by instincts adapted to their needs and place in nature, and we have a 
 right to consider such instincts as in accordance with the will of their 
 Creator. Should we not regard the intuition of man in the same light, and 
 also what may be called his religious and moral instincts? Of these, per- 
 haps 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 immor- 
 tality 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 logically 
 carry us without revelation, and we may agree with the apostle Paul that 
 even the heathen may learn that God's power and divinity prove the things 
 that He 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 me" in some form more or less crude and imperfect. There are numer- 
 ous special points in revealed religion rospecting 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 com- 
 parable with that of man, but infinitely higher. 
 
 On this point a strange confusion, produced apparently by the philoso- 
 phy of evolution, seems to have affected some scientific thinkers, 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 existence. They forget 
 that it is no more immoral for a wolf to eat a lamb than for the lamb to eat 
 the grass, and regarding man as if he were derived by the " cosmic proc- 
 ess" 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 
 an,d immoral. 
 
 This absurd and atheistic exaggeration of the theological idea of orig- 
 inal 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 inen acquired a moral sense, and if, as 
 Darwin held, they originated in apes, the descent from the simple habits 
 and inoffensive ways of these animals to war and violence and injustice, 
 would be as much a " fall of man" as that recorded in the Bible, and could 
 have no connection with a previous inheritance of evil. But such notions 
 are merely the outcome of distorted philosophical ideas and have no affinity 
 with science properly so called. 
 
 Natural science does, moreover, perceive a discord between man, and 
 especially his artificial contrivances, and nature, and the cruel tyranny of 
 man over lower beings and interference with natural harmony and sym- 
 metry. In other words, the independent will, free agency, and inventive 
 powers of man have set themselves to subvert the nice and delicate adjust- 
 ments of natural things in a way to cause much evil and suffering to lower 
 creatures and ultimately to man himself. 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 directions 
 at least they diminish the woes of humanity.
 
 MUSIC, EMOTION, AND MORALS. 421 
 
 Science sees, moreover, a great moral need whicli it can not supply and 
 for which it can appeal only to the religious idea of a divine roiieiuption. 
 On this account, if on no other, science should welcome the belief in a 
 divine revelation to humanity; on other grounds also it can see no objec- 
 tion to this as to the idea of divine inspiration. The first cause manifests 
 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 whicli 
 gives man his rational nature. It is probable then that the mind of man is 
 the only part of nature shut out from the agency and comiuuiiicatitMis of 
 the all-pervading mind. This is evidently infinitely improbable. If so, 
 have we not the right to believe that divine inspiration is 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 can not assure us of this, but it makes no objection 
 to it. 
 
 This, however, raises the generation of miracle and the supernatural, 
 but in opposition to these science can not consistently place itself It has 
 by its own discoveries made us familar with the fact that every new acquisi- 
 tion of knowledge of nature confers powers which, if exercised previously, 
 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 possi- 
 bility of miracles have in fact been destroyed by the process of science, and 
 no 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 miracles impostures, too transparent to be credited by 
 intelligent persons. 
 
 In like manner the attitude of science to divine revelation is not one 
 of antagonism except in so far as any professed revelation is contradictory 
 to natural facts and laws. This is a question on which I do not propose to 
 enter, but may state my convictions. That the Old and New Testaments 
 of the Christian faith, while true to nature in their reference to it, infin- 
 itely transcend its teachings in their sublime revelations respecting God 
 and His purposes toward man. 
 
 Finally, we have thus seen that natural science is hostile to the old 
 materialistic worship of natural objects, as well as to the worship of heroes, 
 of humanity generally, and of the state, or indeed of anything short of the 
 great first cause of all. It is also hostile to that agnosticism which pro- 
 fesses to be unable to recognize a first cause and to the pantheism which 
 confounds the primary cause with the cosmos resulting from his action. 
 On the contrary it has nothing to say against the belief in a divine first 
 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 God and nature. As a consequence it will be found that a large pro- 
 portion of the more distinguished scientific men have been good and pious 
 in their lives, and friends of religion. 
 
 MUSIC, EMOTION, AND MORALS. 
 
 BEV. DR. H. K. HAWEIS OF LONDON. 
 
 " For more than twenty years," said Dr. Barrows, in intro- 
 ducing Rev. H. R. Haweis of London, " I have been familiar
 
 I 
 
 4^ THE PARLIAMENT OF BELtGIONS. 
 
 with the name and writings of the honored English clergyman 
 who is now to speak to us. He is one of the many representa- 
 tives that we have from the British Empire, one of the few we 
 have in person from England itself. We are delighted that he 
 
 has come to us." 
 
 It would be very hard for me to try and live to or speak up to the kind 
 words of your president. You are very judicious to give me some approval 
 before I begin speaking because it is impossible to know what your feelings 
 may be when I have done. 
 
 My topic is "Music, Emotion, and Morals." I find that the connection 
 between music and morals has been very much left out in the cold here, 
 and yet music is the golden art. You have heard many grave things 
 debated in this room during the last three or four days. Let me remind 
 you that the connection between the arts and morals is also a very grave 
 subject. Yet, here we are, ladies and gentlemen, living in the middle of the 
 golden age of music, perhaps without knowing it. What would you have 
 given to have seen a day of Raphael, or to have seen a day of Pericle, you 
 who have been living in this great Christian age? And yet the age of 
 Augustus was the golden age of Roman literature. The age of Pericles 
 was that of sculpture, the Medicean age of painting, so the golden age of 
 music is the Victorian or Star Spangled Banner age. 
 
 Music is the only living, growing art. All other arts have been discov- 
 ered. An art is not a growing art when all its elements have been discov- 
 ered. You paint now and you combine the discoveries of the past; you 
 discover nothing; you build now and you combine the resear :;hes and the 
 experiences of the past; but you can not paint better than Raphael; you 
 can not build more beautiful cathedrals than the cathedrals of the middle 
 ages; but music is still a growing art. Up to yesterday everything in 
 music had not been explored. I say we are in the golden age of music be- 
 cause we can almost within the memory of a man touch hands with Mo- 
 zart, Beethoven, and Wagner. Wc place their heads upon pedestals side 
 by side with Raphael and with Michael Angelo, yet we have no clear idea 
 of the connection between the art of music and morals, although we ac- 
 knowledge great men like Beethoven along with the great sculptors, poets, 
 and painters. Now let me tell you that you have no business to spend 
 much time or money or interest upon any subject unless you can make out 
 a connection between the subject and morals and conduct and life; unless 
 you can give an art or occupation 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 enslaves you, yet, perhaps, you 
 have to confess to yourself that you have no real idea of the connection 
 between music and the conduct of life. An Italian professor said to me 
 the other day, " 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 between music and the conduct of hfe. 
 
 Now, if after to-day, anyone asks you what is the connection between 
 music and morals, I will give it to you in a nutshell. This is the connec- 
 tion: 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
 
 MUSIC, EMOTION, AND MORALS. 423 
 
 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 gentle- 
 men, 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 emotion is 
 coupled with morals. You will all admit that if your emotions or feelings 
 were always wisely directed, life would be more free from the disorilers 
 which disturb us. The great disorders of our age come not from the jws- 
 session of emotional feeling, but from its abuse, its misdirection and the 
 bad use of it. Once discipline your emotions, once get a goofi quantity of 
 that steam power which we call feeling oi 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 
 and the life, conduct, or morals, what the connection between emotion and 
 morals is, that also must be the character of the connection 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 connection between 
 emotion and thought? " But that would carry me too far. In a word I 
 may say that thought without feeling is dead, being alone, f ou may have 
 a good thought, but if you have not the steam power of emotion or feeling 
 at the back of it what will it do for you? A steam engine may be a very 
 good machine, but it must have the steam. And so our life wants emotion 
 or feeling before we can carry out any of our thoughts and aspirations. 
 Indeed, strange is this wonderful inner life of emotion with which music 
 converses first hand, most intimately, without the meditation of thoughts 
 or words. So strange is this inward life of emotion, so powerful and impor- 
 tant is it that it sometimes even transcends thought. We rise out of thought 
 into emotion, for emotion not only precedes, it also transcends thought; 
 emotion carries on and completes our otherwise incomplete thoughts and 
 aspirations. 
 
 Tell me, when does the actor culminate? When he is pouring ft)rth an 
 eloquent diatribe? When he is uttering the most glowing words cf Shakes- 
 peare? No. But when all words fail him and when he stands apart with 
 flashing eye and quivering lip and heaving chest and allows the impotence 
 of exhausted symbolism to express for him the crisis of the inarticulate 
 emotion. Then we say the actor is sublime, and emotion has transcended 
 thought. 
 
 Now why has emotion or feeling got a bad name? Because emotion is 
 so often misdirected, so often wasted, so often stands for mere gush with- 
 out sincerity; it has no tendency to pass on into action. Hence, the ladies 
 in Dickens who are carried home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair, are 
 those who have the power of turning on the water-works at any 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. You would think 
 these men's feelings were at the boiling point, but when you ask them to 
 back their emotion with $100 you find that their emotion is of no use what- 
 ever. That is the reason why emotion has got a bad name. 
 
 But believe me, ladies and gentlemen, nothing good and true was ever 
 carried out in this world without emotion. The power of emotion, aye. of 
 emotion through music, on politics and patriotism; the power of emotion.
 
 424 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 aye, emotion tnrough music upon religions and morals— that, in a nutshell, 
 will be the reminder of my discourse. What does a statesman do when he 
 wants to carry a great measure through our Parliament or your House of 
 Representatives? He stands up and says, " I want to pass this law, " but 
 nobody will attend to him in Parliament. Then he goes stumping through 
 the country, he goes to the people and explains his measure to them and 
 at lust he gets the whole country in a ferment, and then he comes back to 
 Parhament or Congress and says: " Gentlemen, 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 can not oppose a law which 
 has the emotional feeling of the country back of it, and so the law is passed 
 which they would not listen to before he had kindled back of it the fire of 
 emotion. 
 
 Why, I remember in your great Civil War that Mr. Lincoln said that 
 Henry Ward Beecher was the greatest motive power he had in the North. 
 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. That was the power of emotion. And I 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 people 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 
 nothing but the steam power of feeling and emotion which carried that 
 great revolution for a united Italy. It may be true that Cavour was the 
 brain of the movement, and that Victor Emmanuel gave it its constitu- 
 tional element, but it was Garibaldi who aroused the great emotional feel- 
 ing, and Italy became united because he lived and fought and fell. 
 
 And now the connection between the national music and emotion. 
 There has never been a great crisis in a nation's history without some 
 appropriate air, some appropriate march, which has oeen the voiceless emo- 
 tion of the XJeople. I remember Garibaldi's hymn. It expresses the essence 
 of the Italian movement. Look at all your patriotic songs. Look at 
 
 John Brown's body is a-mouldering in the ground, 
 But his soul is marching on. 
 
 The feeling and action of a country passes into music. It is the power 
 of emotion through music upon politics and patriotism. I remember when 
 Wagner, as a very young man, came over to England and studied our 
 national anthems. He said that the whole of the Br-tish character lay in 
 the first two bars of "Rule, Britannia." It goes: (Here the reverend gen- 
 tleman gave an imitation of the movement of England's great national 
 song.) It means got out of the way; make room for me. It is John Bull 
 elbowing through the crowd. 
 
 And so your " Star-Spangled Banner " has kindled so much unity and 
 patriotism. The profoundly religious nature of the Germans comes forth 
 in their patriot hymn, "God Save the Emperor." 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 way," which is enshrined in 
 the British 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 me to entirely exclude religion from my lecture
 
 MUSIC, EMOTION, AND MORALS. 425 
 
 to-day, or the power of emotion through music upon relij,'ion, and 
 through rehgion upon morals, for religion is that thing which kindles and 
 makes operative and irresistible the sway of the moral nature. It is impos- 
 sible, with this motto, *' Music, Emotion, and Religion," for my text, to 
 exclude the consideration of the effect of rnusic upon religion. I read tliat 
 our Lord and His disciples, at a time when all words failed tliem and when 
 their hearts were heavy, when all had been said and all iuid been done at 
 that last supper— I read that, after they had sung a hymn, our Lord and 
 the disciples went out into the Mount of Olives. After I'aul and Silas had 
 been beaten and thrust into a noisome dungeon they forgot their jmin and 
 humiliation and sang songs, spiritual psalms, in the night, and the i)rison- 
 ers heard them. I read, in the liistory of the Christian Church, when the 
 great creative and adaptive genius of Rome took possession of that mighty 
 spiritual movement and proceeued to evangelize the lioman Empire, that 
 St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan in the 3d century, collected the Greek modes 
 and adapted certain of them for the Christian churches, and that these 
 scales were afterward revived by the great Pope (Jregory, who gave the 
 Christian Church the Gregorian chants, the first elements of emotion inter- 
 preted by music which appeared in the Christian Church. 
 
 It is difficult for us to overestimate the power (jf those crude scales, 
 although they seem harsh to our ears. It is difficult to realize the effect 
 produced by Augustine and his monks when they landed in Great Britain, 
 chanting the ancient Gregorian chants. When Ihe 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 Chris- 
 tian archbishop. 
 
 Still, as he went along with his monks, they chanted one of the Grego- 
 rian chants. That was his war cry: (intoning) 
 
 Turn away, O Lord, Thy wrath from this city, and Thine anger from its sins. 
 
 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 functions 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 
 you 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 feste Burg 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 they 
 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 
 night, in the solitude of the Welsh hills, as I saw a little light in a cottage, 
 and as I came near I heard the voices of the children singing: 
 
 Jesus, lover of my soul. 
 Let me to Thy bosom tly. 
 
 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 parents with the love of Jesus. Why, the 
 effects of a good hymn are incalculable. Wesley and Whitfield, and the 
 great hymn writers of the last century, and the sacred laureate of the high 
 church 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 pres- 
 ent. Do make your services congregational, and do not let the organist 
 " do " the people out of the hymns. Don't let him gallop them through
 
 426 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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. Hymns have an enormous power 
 in knitting together the religious elements of character. I never was so 
 much struck as in entering Exeter 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 harmonium and 
 she began a hymn. There were only a few people in the hall, but others 
 kept dropping in and they joined in the hymn ; and by the time they had 
 got through the twenty-fifth or thirtieth verse the whole of the hall was in 
 full cry. They were warmed up and enthusiastic, and then in comes Mr. 
 Moody, and he would play upon that vast crowd like an old fiddle. Believe 
 me, that emotion through music is a great power in vitalizing and cement- 
 ing and unifying the religious aspirations of a large, mixed congregation. 
 
 I now approach the last clause of my discourse. We have discovered 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 he. thor- 
 oughly explored. After that, all its elements have been discovered; 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 disposal 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; harmo- 
 nize 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 con- 
 solation, it not only has the power of expressing emotion, of exciting emo- 
 tion, but also the power of disciplining, controlling, and purifying emotion. 
 When you listen to a great symphony of Beethoven you vindergo a process 
 of divine restraint. Music is an immortal benefactor because it illustrates 
 the law of emotional restraint. 
 
 There is a grand future for music. Let it be noble and it will also be 
 restrained. When you listen to a symphony by Beethoven you place your- 
 selves in the hands of a great master. You hold your breath in one place 
 and let it out in another; you have now to give way in one place and then 
 you have to expand in another; it strikes the whole gamut of human feel- 
 ing, from glow and warmth down to severe exposure -and 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 age; it is not only a consolation, but a kind of 
 ministering angel in the heart. It lifts us up and reminds us and restores in 
 us the sublime consciousness of our own immortality. For it is in listening 
 to sweet and noble strains of music that we feel lifted and raised aboveour- 
 selves. We move about in worlds not realized; it is as the foot-falls on the 
 threshold of another world. We breathe a higher air. We stretch forth the 
 spiritual antennas of our being and touch the invisible, and in still moments 
 we have heard the songs of the angels, and at chosen seasons there comes 
 a kind of open vision. We have " seen white presences among the hills." 
 
 Hence in a season of calm weather, 
 Though inland far we be , 
 Our souls have sight of that immortal.sea, 
 Which brought us hither.
 
 RELIGIOUS AS DISTINGUISHED FROM MORAL LIFE. 427 
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A RELIGIOUS AS DISTIN- 
 GUISHED FROM A MORAL LIFE, 
 
 PRESIDENT SYLVESTER S. SCOVELL OF WORCESTER COLLEGE. 
 
 There is a certain loftiness in the port and mien of religion. It is con- 
 scious of power. It is strangely contidcnt, if it is not divine; It kiiowe 
 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 tilleth all with all." 
 If some moral life will have nature, it says, "Well, nature is God's, ami 
 when men come to understand nature fully they will come to know (Jod 
 and themselves and me better." If some moral life asserts its own suffi- 
 ciency; religion says: " Well, look some more '" (as Agassiz said to his half- 
 open-eyed student), "look some more into the self for which you seem suffi- 
 cient and you will see rif ts and chasms and disharmonies and imjjopsi hi lit ies 
 which reduced far older thinkers to the ethics of desjjair." If still other 
 morals assail the divine power of sudden reconstruction and peace, of for- 
 giveness and the justice of atonement, religion says: "Wait and see. 
 Whence is the righteousness coming into the v/orld, 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 projjortion 
 as they are religious, and not mere systems of ethics) share in this confi- 
 dence in proportion to the truth they contain. Our peerless 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 I heard the lingering harmonies ring 
 in the Baptistry dome of Pisa. What we happily emphasize in this Con- 
 gress of Religions is simply religion. That we write out in large letters, 
 and trumpet the great fact of it in all the tongues of men. We 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 almost 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 we blazon on the more 
 widely read scroll of our closing century's quick history the word 
 "Religion." 
 
 This, the 19th century, has carried forward out of the deadly con- 
 tests of the 18th, 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 price- 
 less heritage. What the world wants is the best religion. It wants it with 
 a deeper thirst than it wants silver or gold, orknow'ledge 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 xjositive blessings the relig- 
 ious 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. Extreme unitarianism tried it and withered. The French 
 Revolution tried it in the theo-philanthropists and Robespierre restored 
 God. The French people, since 1870, 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 French infidelity and German skep- 
 ticism. Scotch Presbyterian moderati?m tried it and was roused from fatal
 
 428 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 vegetable. The first can 
 feed the life of the second, but can not kindle it. The religious life devel- 
 ops more continuity, more fibre, and more propagative power than a moral 
 life. 
 
 Whatever else may and ought to be said, Mohammedanism's monothe- 
 ism told tremendously on the world. It overrode the weaker ethical sys- 
 tems, though in fearful contrast with the peacefulness of 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 proportion to the controlling posi- 
 tion of its religious elements. Its mission, however, is overwhelmingly evan- 
 gelical. This is the secret of its port and mein of power. "It is never 
 alone," as Christ was not. But moralism is always alone. To be more spe- 
 cific, the religious life has a different attitude altogether toward the super- 
 natural. The whole enlargement of life which this brings is a vital dis- 
 tinction of the religious life. Eyes are opened, ears opened; messages come 
 and are received, the moral life at best is bounded within the narrow rim 
 of things seen, and the tendency is to narrow it still more by emphasizing 
 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 exten- 
 sion of the being upward and forward immeasurable 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 man must 
 mips; what a calamity if all men would ihus deny the uppermost realm of 
 being. The candle can not 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, v/e are risen into that plane to which George 
 Eliot has said the just interest in men 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 different things 
 if man be immortal. They are the things they are, and which they are 
 coming 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 immortality. 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 Christian- 
 ity has ever attempted to restrain the race and that any other religion would 
 in vain undertake the task. Clifford (the most interesting of all who have 
 bemoaned the loss of faith) writes:
 
 RELIGIOUS AS DISTINGUISHED FROM MORAL LIFE. 429 
 
 Belief in God and a future life is a source of refined and tlovatod nloasuro to 
 those who can hold it. But the foregoing of a refined and elevated pli-asure 
 because it appears we have no right lo indulge in a, is not in itself and can not 
 produce as its consequences a decline of morality. 
 
 How then, the stepping of the benumbed hold of an Alpine climber 
 from the icy ledge would not by consequence dash him io pieces, if it sim- 
 ply proved that he must let go. Oh, sirs, the world's fearful fall into im- 
 morality can not be concealed. Despair shall come in place of hope. Every 
 earthly conflict will increase in bitterness, and every earthly iKJSsoBsion 
 seem more sternly to be clung to, if there is to be nothing but earth. Cliff- 
 ord's own despair proves it sadly enough. Take away this retineti ami ele- 
 vated 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 supernat- 
 ural! Thus the religious life, considered as individual or general, must 
 always surpass the merely moral because of its confessed and vital rela- 
 tions 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 
 we must " join the choir of the 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 Dead Sea, who spurned 
 Moses and forgot they had souls and were 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 con- 
 sequences of rev/ard and punishment, which form a part of its motive 
 power. "The Lord is at hand," says the religious life. "Thus saith the 
 Lord," says the religious life. Now, this strength of religion has displayed 
 itself so far, often, as to lean over to excess in a slavish jjunctuality 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. But this only proves 
 how superb the power is which God and intelligence command, and hope 
 of reward and fear of punishment give us, even in the moral arena. 
 
 However the religious life may have wandered in these directions, it has 
 shown everywhere wonderful vitality. 
 
 We desire to "put a hedge around the law." The religious life, there- 
 fore, 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 exposed to the surface. Sweeping 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 because the 
 gods saw everywhere religion: — 
 
 Let us do our work as well, 
 
 Both the unseen and the seen, 
 Make the house where God may dwell 
 
 Beautiful, entire, and clean. 
 
 Who doubts the flexibility of religious motives. They are as elastic as 
 the atmosphere, as divisible and equally constant in their pressure. You 
 may (presently) extract from Niagara's visible omnipotence the power to 
 light a smgle 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 communion with God, which the merely moral life— alas— 
 either ignores or denies.
 
 430 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 What is prayer? The outbreathing of innermost life 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 imperfectly, 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 privileges? Do our 
 world-parched souls long for them as the heart for the water-brooks? Ahl 
 We know 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 upward 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 England 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 realness of edu- 
 cation 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. Even so religion 
 will not forget other things, but she does accept the dominion of the heart. 
 Oh, how appropriately "Man shalt love the Lord thy God." (First great 
 commandment.) "Man shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (The second 
 ike 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 ; without the 
 boundless compass of a dying Christ? To what utter hardness are we left 
 by law and morals considered only in themselves? In the emotions and 
 affections are the springs of action. How shall the world do its work with- 
 out the religious life to cultivate and enlarge them? 
 
 In this great tract of the soul lies far the largest part of the common 
 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 may be 
 much poetry and pessimism. 
 To which we answer: 
 
 1. We are glad that it is confessed that men want something more interesting 
 than evolutional ethics. 
 
 2. 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 highest poetry is that of love, and it is the reali- 
 zation of this poetry that the ethics of evolution teaches, promises, and enjoins." 
 
 3. Quite right then to join in the lists against religion as to producing and 
 appreciating the poetry of unselfishness and love. The history of tho world thun- 
 ders its answer: love has made it from God to man; has descended from the cross 
 a"d rippled out into miUionfold currents swelling down the ages. The only broth- 
 erhood ever realized, even approximately, has been from Christian sources.
 
 RELIGIOUS AS DISTINGUISHED FROM MORAL LIFE. 431 
 
 4. Tlie love of evolution-the struggle for life and the survivul of tho fltf ..Kt i. 
 best seen by submerging nine rats in a cul'o and watching tl,.m«trnlTl^„»^^'*'' '** 
 Vive. The love of evolution is a minus (mantity waiLaint tlitm stiugglo to 8ur- 
 
 5. The religious life must b 
 terbe all that Kant'f 
 stars annihilating 
 stars. You remeiu _ _ 
 proposing himself as the end of his"being. 
 
 The whole meaning of the invincible imperative can not be contained in 
 the moral life. Even Kant did not find it so. returnin^^ as ho did, through 
 the practical reason to God and immortality. Conscience implies God m 
 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 
 <jocI 8 thoughts after Him,:and finds mind everywhere in the universe Tlie 
 affectations and emotions find their true object in divine things, and fn.m 
 theiserunout exuberantly and beneficently to all human needs. The will 
 tindsits freedom steadied, and the man back of the will certified by the 
 infinite personality of God. The conscience whispers approval, or them, 
 and rebukes us. The spiritual aspirations find their true direction only in 
 the religious life. How much of man is denied or docked by moralism? 
 
 And now we come to the religious life as concerned with sin. 
 
 Here we find the distinguishing element of repentance, which has 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). But the religious life above can know repent- 
 ance. It is made up of elements which do not appear in the moral life. 
 
 1. Fear of sin's eternal consequences. 
 
 2. Regard to the mercy of God. 
 
 3. Faith in God's promises, and the method of pardon he has proclaimed. 
 
 4. 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 bar of Paradise? And does not 
 every true act of repentance awaken the praises of intelligent spirits— sin- 
 less, themselves, in the presence of God? 
 
 This evangelical repentance refreshes the whole world 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 man's perishing or saving. It is the better- 
 ment 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 ourselves," as they are our 
 coming to the Father. Nothing can be more just, more rational, more sen- 
 sible, 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 to-day 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 
 does not intensify 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.
 
 432 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 How necessary to religion repentance is, is seen in these striking words 
 of Robertson, who was not prone to exaggeration in such a direction: 
 
 Formalism, even morality, will not satisfy the conscience of man. • » * 
 For when man comes to front the everlasting God. and look the splendor of his 
 iudements in the face, personal integrity, this dream of spotlessness and inno- 
 cence vanishes into thin air. Your decencies and your church-goings, and your 
 regularities, and your attachment to correct school and party, your gospel form- 
 ulas of sound doctrine— what is all this in front ot the wrath to comeV 
 
 Hold it closely, then, this distinguished character of the religious life. 
 The forgiven are forgiving: the elder son is implacable. For sinners the 
 religious life can answer. Ethics, as a means to salvation, must be left to 
 angels. Repentance is moral sanity. It is the truth of things. It sees 
 God's frown and seeks His favor. It stops sinning. It puts the stoniest 
 barriers in the way of sinning again. It looks to what we must be as well 
 as to what we have been. It bears the noblest fruitage in a hundred-fold 
 of good deeds and turns blasphemers into apostles. And the moralist can 
 not know it. 
 
 The religious life is sundered wholly from the moral life and elevated 
 above it by the initial fact of regeneration. 
 
 Here is a " new life" indeed. It is a " new man" with whom we have 
 to deal. It is an implanted principle which goes on to consequences of 
 greatest moment exactly in line with the initial impulse. At once it claims 
 to be more than the moral life, introducing new reasons for obedience even 
 to what was obeyed before from lower considerations. This is divine 
 energy received into the almost passive soul of man, but lifting it into a 
 permanent partaking of the divine life. 
 
 Here is the glory of the religious life — this marvelous, swift, mysterious, 
 subtle, but eternal, change. It may be as swift as the light and is as 
 inscrutable as the breathing of the wind. But " by their fruits shall ye 
 know them." Powerful as omnipotence can make it and enduring as the 
 stars; that change which no one can produce and none can describe; 
 to which the soul can only consent to its possession by the will of God to 
 turn it upside down and change its texture, color, and career — that is the 
 distinguishing characteristic of a religious life. There is nothing like it 
 in nature or in morals except in refined analogies. The only thing the 
 moralist can do about it is to deny it because he can not comprehend even 
 the experience of it. 
 
 HOW CAN PHILOSOPHY AID THE SCIENCE OF 
 RELIGION? 
 
 J. P. LAMDIS, D. D., PH. D., PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT 
 THEOLOGY AND HEBREW, DAYTON, OHIO. 
 
 Schleiermacher defined religion as "a sense of absolute dependence." But 
 it includes more than this feeling, namely, the apprehension of a supreme, or 
 at least a superior, being; that is, it includes knowledge. Even in the feel- 
 ing itself there is more than a mere sense of dependence, namely, reverence, 
 fear, love. An eminent philosophical Christian writer eays. "Religion is 
 the union of man with God; of the finite with the infinite, expressefl in 
 conscious love and reverence." James Freeman Clarke, seeking for a sim- 
 ple and comprehensive 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 include animism, fetichism, 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,
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION. 4:V] 
 
 "that man has a natural faith in supernatural powers, with whom ho can 
 commune, to whom he is related, and that this Ufa and this earth are not 
 enough to satisfy his soul." 
 
 What is science? In its broadcast definition science is systcMuatizod 
 knowledge. This, however, implies more than an orderly arrangement nf 
 facts. It includes the discovery of the principles and laws which undrrlii. 
 and pervade the facts. Science seeks to reach the higlu-st princi])lcs, tiioso 
 which have given shape and character to the facts, and among these prin- 
 ciples 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 grammar, 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. 
 "Each science," says Aristotle, '"takes cognizance of its peculiar truths." 
 " Any facts," says John Stuart Mill, " are fitted in themselves to be the sub- 
 ject 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 ttirough the senses. 
 ♦ * * Faith, hope, love, are as real as form, sound and color. The moral laws 
 also, which may be deduced from some such experiences, are real and perma. 
 nent. and 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 sciencs of religion requires the collation of a vast histor- 
 ical data, an exhaustive and true analysis of the facts of consciousness, the 
 discovery of the relations of these facts to one another, of the principles 
 which underlie and pervade them and the laws by which they are governed 
 and the logical arrangements or systemization of these elements or data. 
 
 The science of religion, as above defined, is broader than systematic the- 
 ology in the sense in which it is used by Christians, but if the term theology 
 be used in a somewhat Aristotleian sense it may stand to designate our 
 science of religion. Pherecydes and Plato, who wrote philosophically on 
 the gods and their material relations to the universe and to man, were called 
 theologians. Aristotle divided all speculative science in mathematical, 
 physical, and theological. He says: "There is another science which treats 
 of that which is immutable and transcendental. If, indeed, there exist such 
 a substance, as we shall indeed endeavor to show that there does, this tran- 
 scendental and permanent substance, if it exist at all, must surely bo the 
 sphere of the divine, it must be the first and highest principle." This he 
 called theology. 
 
 Whatever else theology or the science of rehgion must consider, the 
 three most prominent subjects must be: First, God, His being and attri- 
 butes, the source 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 consequence, the quest- 
 ion 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 Aristotle to the present time. With Aristotle 
 philosophy is the systematic and critical knowledge of the first or ultimate 
 principle of capital being. Herbert Spencer calls it " knowledge of the 
 highest degree of generaUty " and adds: "Science is partially unifieil
 
 434 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 knowledge," philosophy is completely unified knowledge." Cicero defines 
 it as" Scientia, rerum divinerum et humanarum causarumque." Science 
 is a divine thing and is the fount of human causes. The human mind can 
 not rest satisfied with merely phenomena or isolated fact or even the 
 orderly classification of facts and phenomena; it seeks to get below the 
 phenomena and accidents, to find the ultimate essence and meaning. It 
 would fain know the rationale of all things, physical and mental, natural 
 and supernatural. 
 
 Philosophy strives to comprehend m unity, and to understand the 
 ground and causes of all reality. This necessarily includes life in all its 
 aspects and relations. I should give the scope of philosophical inquiry, or 
 the philosophical encyclopedia as follows : Metaphysics or ontology, psychol- 
 ogy, logic, ethics, religion, ;esthetics, politics. These divisions partly 
 overlap'one another. On comparing the. scope of both the science of relig- 
 ion and philosophy it is seen in part they cover the same ground. The ulti- 
 mate objects about which they both treat are God, nature, and man. 
 
 Said Lord Bacon, "The three objections to philosophy are God, 
 nature, and man." The relations of philosophy, therefore, to the science 
 of religion are of necessity very intimate. We can not separate them 
 entirely, try we ever 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 procedure 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. But 
 the essential relations of philosophy to religion are shown by the history of 
 both, from ancient times to the present. While the ultimate aim of relig- 
 ion is practical and that of philosophy is speculative, no serious or thought- 
 ful mind can rest in the contemplation of the practical or utilitarian ele- 
 ments 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 philosophy. Rational 
 theology is indeed a part of philosophy. 
 
 Man finds himself to be a religious being. He has a sense of dependence 
 on a Superior Being. There are, we may say, deposits in his feelings them- 
 selves 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 advances in intellectual growth 
 and intelligence he begins to reflect on these phenomena. He will ask into 
 the meaning and ground of these feelings and of his beliefs. He believes 
 in God. Have we any true or real knowledge of such a Being, if he exists ? 
 What are the sources of this knowledge ? How far may we know Him, and 
 of what character is our knowledge of him ? These are all questions which 
 must be answered if we are able to have any such thing as scientific theol- 
 ogy or science of religion at all, but all these questions are also questions of 
 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 profoundest 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 historical facts 
 upon which a great part of the religious doctrine rests. Natural the- 
 ology is constantly assuming a more metaphysical or philosophical char- 
 acter. 
 
 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
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION. 4.T) 
 
 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 solutions belong to the realm of philosoi)hy. It is not inv 
 purpose to enter further into this question than to show its relation tli 
 philosophy. Some say the knowledge or the conviction of the existence of 
 God is innate, that it can not be proved. Others hold 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 metaphysics can neither prove nor disprove the existence of (J<m1. 
 Dr. McCosh does not admit that we have an intuitive kn*)wlodge of God. 
 but that " Our intuitions, like the works of nature, carry us uj) to (Jod, 
 their author." Yet he says: "The idea of God, the belief in God. may bi- 
 justly represented as native man." Many writers go so far as to speak of a 
 God-consciousness. Professor Fisher says: " We are conscious of (iod 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, philosophical and theological, who teach that 
 idea is innate, might be added, such as Des Cartes, l3r. Julius Miller. Dr. 
 Dorner, Professor Bowen, of Harvard University; Professor Harris, of Vale 
 University. Dr. McCosh says: " Among metaphysicians of the present day 
 it is a very common opinion that our belief in God is innate." Their 
 doctrines may be expressed thus: We have an intuitive, necessary belief in 
 the divine existence. 
 
 But belief implies knowledge more or less clear. " Necessary belief involves 
 necessary cognition." Hence God, as the object of our intuitive belief, 
 becomes in some sense the object of intuitive knowledge. For instance, if 
 one ask for an explanation of finite existence, the belief in the one infinite 
 being at once and intuitively presents itself. Says Luthardt: "'There is 
 nothing of which man has such an intuitive conception as he has of the 
 existence of a God. We can by no means free ourselves from the notion of 
 God." The eminent Max Muller 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 ahigher self ; a power 
 without which he feels that neither he nor jinything el.'^e would have any life or 
 realty. This s the first sense of the Godhead, is the source of all religion. It is 
 that without which no religion, true or false, is possible. 
 
 W^hen 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 opposite can not 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 jisserts 
 itself. It is necessary somewhat in the same sense as our conviction of the 
 moral law, or of right, is necessary— we can not 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 Compte. 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 ; i.e., it is held in some form by 
 all nations, tribes, and tongues. The claim has in a few instances 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
 
 4S6 THE PARLIAMENT OF RFLIOIONS. 
 
 found to be incorrect. Even Professor De Quatrefages, professor of 
 anthropology in unbelieving Paris, writes : 
 
 Oblieed in the course of my investigation to view all races, I have sought 
 atheism in the lowest as well as the highest. I have nowhere met it except in 
 individuals, or in more or less limited schools, such as those which existed in 
 Europe in tlie last century or which may still be seen at the present day. 
 
 The universality of this belief means, further, that it is a belief belong- 
 ing to the nature of all men. This denotes that all naen are capable of 
 having this belief. A horse is not capable of this belief, but, as a mat- 
 ter of fact, all sane men do have it, either in some degraded form or a 
 form more exalted. "" It is as natural to man to believe in a God as to walk 
 on two feet," said Lichtenberger. " What is certain is that no necessity 
 makes itself felt more imperatively in man than this which compels him 
 to believe in God," said Van Oosterzee. "The fundamental presupposition 
 of our personal existence and personal self-consciousness is the existence of 
 the Divine Personality." "Just as the outer world presents itself to the 
 senses for external recognition, so God, in and by the world, presents Him- 
 self 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 and knowledge, a question which has 
 been much discussed ever since the days of Origen. He uttered the dictum, 
 "Fides prtecepit intellectum." This was also held by Augustine, Anselm, 
 Calvin, Pascal. Anselm's motto was: "Credo ut intelligam." The doctrine 
 thus expressed by these eminent thinkers has been much discussed by 
 philosophers and theologians, but its solution belongs to the domain of 
 philosophy. I need only mention Calderwood, Sir William Hamilton, 
 Victor Cousin, SchieriTiacher, Jacobi, Christlieb. 
 
 Can the existence of God be proved, or do we rest solely on this innate 
 conviction? There is a vast amount of cumulative proof, which is as a 
 lafge reserve to support the inner conviction. The well-known classifica- 
 tion of these proofs is into the ontological, the cosmological, the teleologi- 
 cal, and the anthropological. Without discussing these, the mere statement 
 of them itself will determine their character as philosophical. The deter- 
 mination of their validity and force belongs to philosophy. The ontological 
 argument is purely metaphysical. Anselm 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; nt^cessary 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, e., of 
 one who does of necessity exist. Therefore, necessity of being belongs to perfec- 
 tion of being. Hence, an absolutely perfect being exists, who is God. 
 
 Gaunilo, 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 prove that a Centaur ever existed. Kant also, with a 
 quiet smile, remarked that he -might have an idea of $300 in his pocket 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. Anselm first developed it. Descartes first adopted it with 
 some changes. Leibnitz followed. The great theologians, Cudworth. 
 Stillingfleet, Howe, and Henry Moore, adopted it in their debates with the 
 infidels of their time. Cousin developed still another form of it. Validity 
 is allowed to it by Lvithardt, Dr. Dorner, Henry B. Smith, Dr. Caird, Pro- 
 fessor Shedd, Ulrici Thompson, Tulloch, and others. Dr. Shedd has an 
 elaborate answer to the objections of Gaunilo and Kant. 
 
 The cosmological and theological arguments ultimately rest on the
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION. 437 
 
 intuition of cause and effect. Theological has always been consiilered as 
 the most persuasive and powerful. Through all the ages since Anaxagoras 
 but especially since Socrates, the great mass of thinkers have laid Hpecial 
 emphasis upon it. John Stuart Mill advised the<jlogian8 to adhere to it 
 Yet it has been vehemently attacked in our time. Kant, although ho uru- 
 fessed respect for it, regarded it as inadequate, and so does lieriuann 
 Lotze. John Stuart Mill, on the other hand, says: " I think it must be 
 acknowledged that in our present state of knowledge, the adaptations of 
 nature afford a large balance of probability in favor of creation by inlelli- 
 geuce." Jenet's "Final Causes" is an admirable exposition of tho"8ul>ject. 
 It is to be remembered that moral proof is not mathematical demon- 
 stration; that no one line of argument is to be taken by itself alone; that 
 taken together, the ontological, the cosmological, the teleological, and the 
 anthropological arguments are like so many converging lines, all pointing 
 toward, even if they do not in strict demonstration reach, the common cen- 
 ter—God. Says Cousin: " These various proofs have different degrees of 
 strictness in their form, but they all have a foundation of truth which 
 needs simply to be disengaged and put in a clear light in order to give 
 them incontrovertible authority. Everything leads to God— we go to l£im 
 by different paths." Dr. Carpenter speaks of some departments of science 
 "in which our conclusions rest, not on any one set of experiences, but upon 
 our unconscious co-ordination of the whole aggregate of our experience; 
 not on conclusions of any one train of reasoning, but on the convergence 
 of all our lines of thought toward one center." 
 
 In connection with these arguments philosophy must explain the mean- 
 ing and vindicate the reality of cause. For religion the question whether 
 there are efficient and final causes is very vital. If Humes position bo 
 true there can be no science of religion- there is probably no God. 
 
 Religion says God is infinite and absolute. But can the infinite and 
 absolute be known by the finite? Can there be any relation between the 
 absolute and finite? An important question 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 unavoid- 
 ably postulate absolute being as their common basis. The persistence of 
 the universe is the persistence of that unknown cause, power, or force 
 which is manifest to us through all phenomena. Such is the foundation 
 of any system of positive knowledge. Thus the belief which this datum 
 constitutes has a higher warrant than any other whatever." He is here sub- 
 stantially on Aristotelian ground. 
 
 Again, can personality be postulated of the infinite or absolute? Phil- 
 osophy must both explain personality and how this can be consistent with 
 the infinite and absolute. This has been a great subject with the philos- 
 ophers. Witness Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Cousin, Hamilton. 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, percep- 
 tions, memories, imaginations, beliefs, volitions, etc., but in connection witli 
 each of these is also invariably given the self, and its antithesis, the not- 
 self. This conscious self thus experiencing or exercising sensations, judg- 
 ments, volitions, is what we call a person. If we should here adopt the 
 theory of James Mill and his son, John Stuart, that self is on ly a "perma- 
 nent possibility of feeling," all proper notion of selfhood or personality van- 
 ishes. The self, with these powers of thought, feeling, and self-determina- 
 tion, 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
 
 438 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of Grod. Materialism, which regards thought as only an efflux 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 sub- 
 stance, 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. Philoso- 
 phy 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 philosophy of service in the 
 discussion and elucidation of such attributes as trinity, 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 God- 
 head to be that of a triune being. The determination of the meaning of 
 such a doctrine, if not the possibility of it, belongs almost wholly to the 
 rational or philosopbical side of religion. 
 
 It belongs to philosophy or reason to determine the laws of evidence 
 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 possesses the truth and the divine revelation? Or are these elements 
 of truth and of revelation in several or in all of them? Plainly it belongs 
 to philosophical inquiry to determine these grave questions. I am a 
 Christian, and accept the Bible as a positive revelation from God; but if I 
 would justify and vindicate to myself this faith I must have recourse to 
 reason and philosophical principles. 
 
 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 theological doc- 
 trine. 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 Calvinism and Dr. Whedom his in the interest of Wes- 
 leyan 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 the science 
 of religion by keeping to her own proper sphere and diligently cultivating 
 that, and by teaching religion also to keep her proper sphere. A true philos- 
 ophy can do much for our science as a corrective 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 
 
 HINDUISM AS A RELIGION. 
 
 SWAMI VIVEKANANDA OF INDIA. 
 
 Three religions now stand in the world which have come down to us 
 from time prehistoric — Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. These all 
 have received tremendous shocks and all of them prove by their revival 
 their internal strength, but Judaism failed to absorb Christianity and was 
 driven out of its place of birth by its all -conquering daughter. Sect after 
 sect has arisen in India and seemed to shake the religion of the Vedas to 
 its very foundations, but, like the waters of the seashore in a tremendous
 
 HINDUISM AS A RELIGION. 
 
 4:{'j 
 
 earthquake, it has receded only for a while, only to return in an all absorb 
 ing flood, and when the tumult of the rush was over these sects had bt-on 
 all sucked in, absorbed, and assimilated in the immeuse body of another 
 faith. 
 
 From the high spiritual flights of philosophy, of which the latest (IIbcov- 
 eries of science seem like echoes, from the atheism of the Jains tutht- low 
 ideas of idolatry, and the multifarious mythologies, each and all have a 
 place in the Hindu's religion. 
 
 Where then, the question arises, where then the common center to 
 which all these widely diverging radii converge? Whore is the common 
 basis upon which all these seemingly hopeless contradictions rest? And 
 this is the question which I shall attempt to answer. 
 
 The Hindus have received their religion through the revelation of the 
 Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginni ig and without i-nd. 
 It may sound ludicrous to this audience— how a book can bo without begin- 
 ning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They moan the 
 accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by ditferent persons in 
 different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery 
 and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so with the laws that govern the 
 spiritual world; the moral, ethical, and spiritual relations between soul and 
 soul, and between individual spirits and the father of all spirits, were there 
 before their discovery and would remain even if we forgot them. 
 
 The discoverers ot these laws are called Rishis, and we honor them as 
 perfected beings, and I am glad to tell this audience that some of the very 
 best of them were women. 
 
 Here it may be said that the laws as laws may be without end, but they 
 must have had a beginning. The Vedas teach us that creaticm 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. But, then, God is sometimes potential and 
 sometimes kinetic, which would make Him mutable, andevorything muta- 
 ble is a compound, and everything compound must undergo' that change 
 which is called destruction. Therefore 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 existence, 
 "I," "I," "I," what is the idea before me? The idea of a body. Am I, 
 then, nothing but a combination of matter and material substances? The 
 Vedas declare, "No," I 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 happy, enjoying i)erfect 
 health, beautiful body, mental vigor, and with all wants supplied. Others 
 are born miserable. Some are without nands or feet, some idiots, and 
 only drag out a miserable existence. Why, if they are all createil, why 
 does a just and merciful God create one happy and the other unhappy? 
 Why is He so partial? Nor would it mend matters in the least to hold 
 that those who are miserable 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 been causes, then, to make a man miserable or happy Ijefore his 
 birth, and those were his past actions. Why may not all the tendencies of 
 the mind and body be answered for by inherited aptitude from y>arents? 
 Here are the two parallel lines of existence— one, that of the mind, the 
 other that of matter. ..
 
 440 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 If matter and its transformation answer for all that we have, there is 
 no necessity for supposing the existence of a soul. But it can not be proved 
 that thought has been evolved out of matter. We can not deny that bodies 
 inherit certain tendencies, but those tendencies only mean the physical con- 
 figuration through which a peculiar miud alone can act in a jjeculiar way. 
 Those peculiar tendencies in that soul have been caused by past actions. 
 A soul with a certain tendency 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 every- 
 thing by habit, and habit is got through repetitions. So these repetitions 
 are also necessary to explain the natural habits of a new-born soul. They 
 were not got in this present life; therefore, they must have comedown from 
 past lives. 
 
 But there is another suggestion, taking all these for granted. How is it 
 that I do not remember anything of my past life? This can be easily 
 explained. I am now speaking English. It is not my mother-tongue, in 
 fact, not a word of my mother-tongue is present in my consciousness; but, 
 let me try to bring such words up, they rush into my consciousness. That 
 shows that consciousness is the name only of the surface of the 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 demonstrative evidence. Verification is the per- 
 fect proof of a theory, and here is the challenge, thrown to the world by 
 Rishis. We have discovered precepts by which the very depths of the ocean 
 of memory can be stirred up — follow them and you will get a complete 
 reminiscence of your past life. 
 
 So then the Hindu believes that he is a spirit. Him the sword can not 
 pierce, him the fire can not burn, him the water can not melt, him the air 
 can not dry. He believes every soul is a circle whose circumference is 
 nowhere, but whose center is located in a body, and death means the change 
 of this center from body to body. Nor is the soul bound by the condition 
 of matter. In its very essence it is free, unbound, holy, and pure, and per- 
 fect. But somehow or other it has got itself bound down by matter, and 
 thinks of itself as matter. 
 
 Why should the free, perfect, and pure being be under the thralldom of 
 matter? How can the perfect be deluded into the belief that he is imper- 
 fect? We have been told that the Hindus s^hirk the question and say that 
 no such question can be there, and some thinkers want to answer it by the 
 supposing of one or more quasi-perfect beings, and use big scientific names 
 to fill up the gap. But namijg is not explaining. The question remains 
 the same. How can the perfect become tlie quasi-perfect, how can the 
 pure, the absolute, change even a microscopic particle of itb nature? The 
 Hindu is sincere. He does not v/ant to take shelter under sophistry. He is 
 brave enough to face the question in a manly fashion. And his answer is: 
 "I do not know." I do not know how the perfect being, the soul, came to 
 think of itself as imperfect, as joined and conditioned by matter. But the 
 fact is a fact for all that. It is a fact in everybody's consciousness that he 
 thinks of himself as the body. We do not attempt to explain why I am in 
 this body. 
 
 Well, then, the human soul is eternal and immortal, perfect and infinite, 
 and death means only a change of center from one body to another. The 
 present is determined by our past actions, and the future will be by the 
 present. The soul will go on evolving up or reverting back from birth to 
 birth and death to death — like a tiny boat in a temjjest, raised one moment 
 on the fc^aming crest of a billow' and dashed down into a yawning chasm the 
 next, roiling to and fro at the mercy of good and bad actions — a powerless, 
 helpless wreck in an ever-raging, ever-rushing, uncompromising current of 
 cause and effect. A little moth placed under the wheel of causation which
 
 I 
 
 HIND UISM AS A RELIGION. 1 1 1 
 
 rolls on, crushing everything in its way and waits not for the widows tear 
 or the orphan's cry. 
 
 The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of nature. Is there no 
 hope? Is there no escape? Thb cry that went up from the bottom of the 
 heart of despair reached the throne of mercy and words of hope and con- 
 solation came down and inspired a Vodic sage, and he stood up hufure the 
 world and in a trumpet voice proclaimed the glad tidings to the world 
 " Hear, ye children of immortal bliss, even ye that resisted in liightT Hi)heres! 
 I have found the ancient one. who is beyond all darkness, all dchision, and 
 knowing him alone you shall be saved from death again." "Childn'n 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 Hinilu 
 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 
 BO. It is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, live and shake .".tV 
 the delusion that you are'sheep — you are souls immortal, sjjirits free and 
 blest and eternal, ye are 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 unforgiv- 
 ing 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 bkjws, the tire burns, the clouds 
 rain, and death stalks upon the earth." And what is his nature? 
 
 He is everywhere, the pure and formless one, the Almighty and the all- 
 merciful. "Thou art our father. Thou art our mother. Thou art our 
 beloved friend. Thou art the source of all strength. Thou art He that 
 bearest the burdens of the universe; help me bear the little burden of this 
 life." Thus sang the 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 next life." 
 
 This is the doctrine of love preached in the Vedas, and let us see how it 
 is fully developed and preached by Ki-ishua, whom the Hindus believv to 
 have been God incarnate on earth. 
 
 He taught that a man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which 
 grows in water but is never moistened by water — so a man ought to live in 
 this world — his heart for God and his hands for work. 
 
 It is good to love God for hope of reward in this or the next world, but 
 it is better to love God for love's sake, and the prayer goes, " Lord, I do not 
 want wealth, nor children, nor learning. If it will be thy will I will g(j to a 
 hundred hells, but grant me this, that I may love thee without the hope of 
 reward — unselfishly love for love's sake." One of the 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 Himalayas with his queen, and there 
 one day the queen was asking him how it was that he, the most virtuous of 
 men, should suffer so much misery, and Yuchistera answered: "Behold, 
 my queen, the Himalayas, how grand and beautiful they are. I love them. 
 They do not give me anything, but my nature is to love the grand and beau- 
 tiful; therefore I love them. Similarly, I love the Lord. He is the source 
 of all beauty, of all sublimity. He is the only object to be loved. My nature 
 is to love him, and therefore I love. I do not pray for anything. I do not 
 ask for anything. Let him place me wherever he likes. I must love him 
 for love's sake. I can not trade in love." 
 
 The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held under bondage of 
 matter, and perfection will be reached when the bond sliall burst, and the 
 word they use is, therefore, Mukto— freedom— freedom from the bonds of 
 imperfection; freedom from death and misery. 
 
 And they teach that this bondage can only fall off through the mercy
 
 442 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of God and this mercy comes to the pure. So purity is the condition of 
 his mercy. How that mercy acts? He reveals himself to the pure heart, 
 and the pure and stainless man sees God, yea, even in this life, and then, 
 and then only. All the crookedness of the' heart is made straight. Then 
 all doubt ceases. Man is no more the freak of a terrible law of causation. 
 So this is the very center, the very vital conception of Hinduism. The 
 Hindu does not want to live upon words and theories— if there are 
 Existences beyond the ordinary sensual 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 universal soul, he will go to him direct. He must see him, 
 and that alone can destroy all doubts. So the best proof a Hindu sage 
 gives, about the soul, about God, is, "I have seen the soul, I have seen 
 
 And that is the only condition of perfection. The Hindu religion does 
 not consist in struggles and attempts to believe a certain doctrine or dogma, 
 but in reaUzing— not in believing, but in being and becoming. 
 
 So the whole struggle in their system is a constant struggle to become 
 perfect, to become divine, to reach God and see God, and in this reaching 
 God, seeing God, becoming perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect, 
 consists the religion of the Hindus. 
 
 And what becomes of man when he becomes perfect? He lives a life of 
 bliss, infinite. He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss, having obtained the 
 only thing in which man ought to have pleasure— God — and enjoys the 
 bliss with God. 
 
 So far all the Hindus are ageeed. This is the common religion of all 
 the sects of India, but then the question comes — perfection is absolute, and 
 the absolute can not be two or three. It can not have any qualities. It 
 can not be an individual. And so when a soul becomes perfect and abso- 
 lute, it must become one with the Brahman, and he would only realize the 
 Lord as the perfection, the reality of his own nature and existence — exist- 
 ence absolute; knowledge absolute, and life absolute. We have often and 
 often read about this being called the losing of individuality as in becom- 
 ing a stock or a stone. "He jests at scars that never felt a wound." 
 
 I tell you it is nothing of the kind. If it is happiness to enjoy the con- 
 sciousness of this small body, it must be more happiness to enjoy the con- 
 sciousness of two bodies, or thi-ee, four, five — and the ultimate of happiness 
 would be reached when it would become a universal consciousness. 
 
 Therefore, to gain this infinite, universal individuality, this miserable, 
 little individuality must go. Then alone can death cease, when I am one 
 with life. Then alone can misery cease, when I am with happiness itself. 
 Then alone can all errors cease, when I am one with knowledge itself. And 
 this is the necessary scientific conc-lusion. Science has proved to me that 
 physical individuality is a delusion; that really my body is one little, con- 
 tinuously changing body in an unbroken jcean of matter, and Adwaitam 
 is the necessary conclusion with my other counterpart — mind. 
 
 Science is nothing but the finding of unity, and as soon as any science 
 can reach the perfect unity it will stop from further progress, because it 
 will then have reached the goal. Thus chemistry can not jjrogress farther 
 when it shall have discovered one element out of which all others could be 
 made. Physics will stop when it shall be able to discover one energy of 
 which all others are but manifestations. The science of religion will become 
 perfect when it discovers Him who is the one life in a universe of death, 
 who is the constant basis of an ever-changing world, who is the only soul 
 of which all souls are but manifestations. Thus, through multiplicity and 
 duality, this ultimate 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 world of science of to-day, and the
 
 HINDUISM AS A RELIGION. 443 
 
 Hindu is only glad that what he has cherished in his bDsom for ukuk is 
 going to be taught in more forcible language and with further light by the 
 latest conclusions of science. 
 
 Descend we now from the aspirations of philosojjhy to the religion of 
 the ignorant? At the very outset, I may tell you tliat there is no i^olythe- 
 ism in India. In every temple, if one stands by and listcnis, he will limi the 
 worshipers apply all the attributes of God iuuluding omnipresence to 
 these images. It is not polytheism. "The rose called by any other name 
 would smell as sweet." Names are not explanations. 
 
 I remember when a boy a Christian man was preaching to a crowd in 
 India. Among other sweet things, he was asking the people, if lie gave a 
 blow to their idol with his stick, what coukl it do? One of his hearers 
 sharply answered, "If I abuse your God what can he do?" " You would l>o 
 punished," said the preacher, "when you die." "So my idol will punish yon 
 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 myself, " Can sin beget 
 holiness? " 
 
 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 the sky in prayer? Why are there so many images in the Catholic 
 Church? Why are there so many images in the minds of Protestants when 
 they pray? My brethren, we can no moi-e thmk about anything without a 
 material image than we can live without breathing. And l)y the law of 
 association the material image calls the mental idea up and vice versa. 
 Ommipresence, to almost the whole world, means nothing. Has G(jd super- 
 ficial area? If 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 our constitution, we 
 have got to associate our ideas of infinity with the image of a blue sky, or 
 a sea, some cover the idea of holiness with an image of a church, or a 
 mosque, or a cross. The Hindus have associated the ideas of holiness, 
 purity, truth, omnipresence, and all other ideas with different images and 
 forms. But with this difference. Some devote their whole lives to their 
 idol of a church and never rise higher, becavise 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 roalizatiim. Man is to 
 become divine, realizing the divine, and, therefore, idol or tenij)le 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 worshi])."" 
 says the Vedas, "is the lowest stage, struggling to rise high, mental i)ra\er 
 is the next stage, but the highest stage is when the Lord has l)cen real- 
 ized — " Mark the same earnest man who was kneeling before the idol tell 
 you, "Him the sun can not express, nor the moon nor the stars, the light- 
 ning can not express Him, nor the tire; through Him they all shine." He 
 does not abuse the image or call it sinful. He recognizes in it a necossiiry 
 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 s'n or youth a sin? Nor is it com- 
 pulsory in Hinduism. 
 
 If a man can realize his divine nature with the help of an image, would 
 it be right to cali 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 hun all the relig- 
 ions, from the lowest fetichism to the highest absolutism, mean st) many 
 attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the intinite. each deter- 
 mined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of these
 
 444 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 recognized 
 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 
 tit 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. The Hindus have discovered 
 that the absolute can only be realized or thought of or stated through the 
 relative, and the images, cross, or crescent are simply so many centers, so 
 many pegs to hang the spiritual ideas on. It is not that this help is neces- 
 sary for everyone, 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 anything 
 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 this, they are alv/ays 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 fire of 
 inquisition. And even this can not 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 world of religions is only a traveling, a 
 coming up, of different men and women, through various conditions and 
 circumstances, to the same goal. Every religion is only an evolution out of 
 the material man, a God — and the same God is the inspirer of all of them. 
 Why, 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 adaption. But in the heart of everything 
 the same truth reigns. The Lord has declared to the Hindu in his incar- 
 nation as Krishna. "I am in every religion as the thread through a string 
 of pearls. And wherever thou seest extraordinary holiness and extraordi- 
 nary power raising and purifying humanity, know ye, that I am there" 
 And what was the result? Through the whole order of Sanskrit philoso- 
 phy, I challenge anybody to find any such expression as that the Hindu 
 only would be saved and not others. Says Vyas, " We find perfect men 
 oven 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 agnos- 
 tic, 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 ideas of the Hindus. The 
 Hindu might have failed to carry out all his plans. But if there is ever to 
 be a universal religion it must be one which will hold no location in place 
 or time; which will be infinite, like the God it will preach; whose sun 
 shines upon the followers of Krishna or Christ, saints or sinners, alike; 
 which will not be in the Brahmin or Buddhist, Christian or Mohammedan, 
 but the sum total of all of these, and still have infinite space for develop- 
 ment, which in its catholicity will ?rr:brace in its 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 intoler- 
 ance in its polity, which will recognize a divinity in every man or woman, 
 and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be centered in aiding humai^- 
 ity to realize its divine nature,
 
 THE WORLD'S DEBT TO BUDDHA. .145 
 
 Aeeka'c! council was a council of the Buddhist faith. Akbar's Ihouirh 
 more to the purpose, was only a parlor meeting. It was reserved for A nieriua 
 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 Almra Mazila 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 some- 
 times dimmed and sometimes effulgent, till it made a circuit of ilie '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, v»'ho 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. 
 
 H. DHARMAPALA OF CEYLON. 
 
 He furnishes the paper, one section of which was read on 
 Monday (page 406). The distinguished Indian preacher pre- 
 faced the reading of his paper by the singing of a song, always 
 repeated in the temples of Ceylon before the services are com- 
 menced. 
 
 It is difficult to properly comprehend the system of Buddha by a spirit- 
 ual study of its doctrines, and especially by those who have been trained 
 to think that there is no truth in other religions. When the scholar Vach- 
 cha, approaching Buddha, demanded a complete elucidation of his doctrines, 
 he said: " This doctrine is hard to see, hard to understand, solemn and sub- 
 lime, not resting on dialectic, subtle, and perceived only by the wise. It is 
 hard for you to learn who are of different views, different ideas of fitness, 
 different 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 in it a 
 positivism. Buckner and his school of materialists thought it was a 
 materialistic system. Agnostics found in Buddha an agnostic and Dr. 
 Rhys Davids, the eminent Palo scholar, used to call him the " agnostic 
 philosopher of India." Some scholars have found an expressed monotheism 
 therein. Arthur Lillie, another student of Buddhism, thinks it a thcistic 
 system. Pessimists identify it with Schopenhaur's pessimism. The late 
 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 "tne wanting half of Bishop Buckley's well-known 
 idealist argument." Dr. Eikl says that Buddhism is a system of vast mag- 
 nitude, 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 pracf ical 
 morality, and, finally, a church organization as broad in its principlee and
 
 446 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 as finely wrought in its most intricate network as any in the world. All 
 this is moreover, confined in svich a manner that the essence and substance 
 of the' whole may be compressed into a few formulas and symbols fjlain 
 and suggestive enough to be grasped by the most simple-minded ascetic, 
 and yet so full of philosophic depths as to provide rich food for years of 
 meditation to the metaphysician, the poet, the mystic, and pleasant pastur- 
 at^e for the most fiery imagination of any poetical dreamer. 
 ° In the religion of Buddha is found a comprehensive system of ethics 
 and a transcendental metaphysic embracing a sublime psychoJogy. 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 jjrogress is impossible for hi<m who does not lead a life of 
 purity and compassion. The superstructure has to be built on the 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 the truth. 
 The rays of the sunlight 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 Muller: 
 
 There is an atheism which is not death; there is another which is the very life 
 blood of all true faith. It is the power of {living up what, in our best, our most 
 honest movfiments, we know to be no longer true. It is the readiness 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-sacriflee, tae 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 atheism 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 unprejudiced 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, passion, fear of expression of one's convictions, and 
 ignorance are the four bias'es that have to be sacrificed at the threshold. 
 To be born as a human being is a glorious privilege. Man's dignity con- 
 sists in his capability to reason and to think and to live up to the highest 
 ideal of pure life, of calm thought, of wisdom, without extraneous inter- 
 ventions. Buddha says that man can enjoy in this life a glorious exist- 
 ence, a life of individual freedom, of fearlessness and compassionateness. 
 This dignified ideal of manhood may be attained by the humblest, and this 
 consummation raises him above wealth and royalty. " He that is compas- 
 sionate and observes the law is my disciple.*' 
 
 Human brotherhood forms the fundamental teaching of Buddha — uni- 
 versal 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 broth- 
 erhood is obtained v/hen the first stage of holiness 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 suggest to others that life is not worth liAring. On 
 the contrary, the usefulness of life is emphasized for the sake of doing good 
 to self and humanity. 
 
 From the fetich- worshiping savage to the highest type of humanity man 
 naturally yearns for something higher. And it is for this reason that 
 Buddha inculcated the necessity for self-reliance and independent 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 no such 
 being, accepting the doctrine of evolution as the only true one, with corol- 
 lary, the law of cause and effect. He condemns the idea of a creator, but
 
 THE WORLD'S DEBT TO BUDDHA. 447 
 
 the Supreme God of the Brahmans and minor gods are accepted. But they 
 are subject to the law of cause and effect. This Supreme CJcxl is all love 
 all merciful, all gentle, and looks upon all beings with equanimity. Buddha 
 teaches men to practice these four supreme virtues. There is no dilforouce 
 between the perfect man and this Supreme (iod of the jjresont world. 
 
 The teachings of the Buddha on evolution are clear and expansive. We 
 are asked to look upon the cosmos " as a continuous process unfolding itwlf 
 in regular order in obedience to natural laws." We see in it all not a*ya\vn- 
 ing chaos restrained by the constant interference from without of a wise 
 and benettcent external power, but a vast aggregate of original elements 
 perpetually working out their own fresh redistribution in aceonlanee with 
 their own inherent energies. He regards the cosmos as an almost infinite 
 collection of material, animated by an almost intinite sum total of energy, 
 which is called Akasa. I have used the above definition of evolution as 
 given by Grant Allen in his "Life of Darwin," as it beautifully exi)reKsee 
 the generalized idea of Buddhism. We do not postulate that man's evolu- 
 tion began from the protoplasmic stage; but we are asked not to sjieeulate 
 on the origin of life, on the origin of the law of cause and effect , etc. So 
 far as this great law is concerned we say that it controls the jihenomena of 
 human life as well as those of external nature, the whole knowable universe 
 forms one undivided whole. 
 
 Buddha promulgated his system of philosophy after having studied all 
 religions. And in the Brahma-jola sutta sixty-two creeds are discussed. 
 In the Kalama, the sutta, Buddha says: 
 
 Do not believe in what ye have heard. Do not believe in traditions because 
 they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything 
 because it is renowned and spoken of by many. Do not believe merely because the 
 written statement of some old sage is produced. Do not believe in conjfctures. 
 Do notbeheve in that as truth to which you have become attached byhiil)it. Do 
 not believe merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. OTten oliBerva- 
 tion and analysis, when the result agrees with reason, are conducive to the good 
 and gain of one and all. Accept and live up to it. 
 
 To the ordinary householder, whose highest happiness consists in being 
 wealthy here and in heaven here;ifter, Buddha inculcated a simple code 
 of morality. The student of Buddha's religion from destroying life, lays 
 aside the club and weapon. He is modest and full of pity. He is conii)a8- 
 sionate to all creatures that have life. He abstains from theft, and he jjasses 
 his life in honesty and purity of heart. He lives a life of chastity and purity. 
 He abstains from falsehood and injures not his fellowman by deceit. Put- 
 ting away slander he abstains from calumny. He is a peacemaker, a speaker 
 of words that make for peace. Whatever word is huiBane, pleasant to tlie 
 ear, lovely, reaching to the heart, such are the words he speaks. He abstains 
 from harsh language. He abstains from foolish talk, he abstains from intox- 
 icants and stupefying 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 dehled by passion. 
 Pure as the air is the life of him who has renounced all worldly things. 
 How difficult it is for the man who dwells at home to live the 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 in to the homeless state, and then he passes a life of self-restraint, 
 according to the rules of the order of the blessed one. Uprightness is his 
 object and he sees danger in the least of those things he should avoid. Ho 
 encompasses himself with holiness, in word and deed. He sustains his life 
 by means that are quite pure. Good is his conduct, guarded the door of 
 his senses, mindful and self-possessed, he is altogether happy.
 
 448 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The student of pure religion abstains from earning a livelihood by the 
 practice of low and lying arts, viz., all divination, interpretation 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 
 vithout 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 
 dfibp-felt pity, sympathy, and eauanimity. 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 teachings, 
 and such a one has to lead an absolutely pure life. Buddha says: 
 
 Let him fulfill all righteousness; let him be devoted to that quietude of heart 
 which springs from within; let him not drive back the eistasy of contemplation; 
 let him look i hrough things : let him be much alone. FuUill all righteousness for 
 the sake of the living, and for tne sake of the blessed ones that are dead and gone. 
 
 Thought transference, thought reading, cliarordience, clairvoyance, pro- 
 jection of the sub-conscious self, and all the higher branches of psychical 
 science that first now engage the thoughtful attention of psychical 
 researchers are within the reach of him who fulfills all righteousness, who 
 IS devoted 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 and effect, are the common appanage of all 
 good men. 
 
 Prohibited employments include slave dealing, sale of weapons of war- 
 fare, sale of poisons, sale of intoxicants, sale of tiesh — 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 
 these five kinds of wealth in their past incarnations are influenced by the 
 teachings of Buddha. 
 
 Besides these, Buddha says in his universal precepts : He who is faith- 
 ful and leads the life of a householder, and possesses the following 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 truth, self- 
 restraint, liberality, and forbearance. 
 
 The pupil should minister to his teacher ; he should rise up in his pres- 
 ence, wait upon him, listen to all that he says with respectful attention, 
 perform the duties necessary for his personal comfort, and carefully attend 
 to his instruction. The teacher should show affection for his pupil. He 
 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 presenting 
 gifts, by courteous language, by promoting as his equals, and by sharing 
 with them his prosperity. They should watch over him when he has negli- 
 gently exposed himself, guard his property when he is careless, assist him 
 in difficulties, stand by him, and help to provide for his family. 
 
 The master should minister to the wants of his servants, as dependents; 
 he assigns them labor suitable to their strength, provides for their comfort- 
 able 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 attachment to the master: they rise 
 before him in the morning and retire later to rest; they do not purloin his 
 property, do their work cheerfully and actively, and are respectful in their 
 behavior toward him.
 
 fSE WORLD'S DEBT TO BUDDHA. 440 
 
 The religious teachers should manifest their kind feelings toward hiw- 
 yers. They should dissuade them from vice, excite them to virtuous ai-ts - 
 being desirous of promoting the welfare of all. Thoy should instruct thorn 
 in the things they had not previously learned, contirm them in the truths, 
 and point out to them the way to heaven. The lawyers should iniiiistcr t<) 
 the teachers by respectful attention manifested in their wonls, 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 adversity 
 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 courte- 
 ous behavior are worthy of respect under all circumstances antl will lie 
 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 or honor. Buddha also says: 
 
 Know that from time to time aTathagata is born into the world, fully enlight- 
 ened, blessed, and worthy, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy withknowl- 
 edge of the world, unsurpassed as a. guide to erring mortal, a teaclifrof gods and 
 men, a blessed Buddha. He, by himself, thoroughly iindeistand.s and f;i'fs. as it 
 were face to face, this universe, the world below with all its spiiits and the 
 worlds above, and all creatures, all religious teachers, gods and men. and In- thi-n 
 makes his knowledge known to others. The truth doth he proclaim, b(jth in iis 
 letter and its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its con- 
 summation; the higher life doth he proclaim, in all its purity and in all its per- 
 fectness. 
 
 1. He is absolutely free from all passions, commits no evil even in secrecy, ano 
 is the embodiment of perfection. He is above doing anything wrong. 
 
 2. Self -introspection— by this he has reached the state of supreme enlighten- 
 ment. 
 
 3. By means of his diviuf^ eye he looks back to the remotest past and future. 
 Knows the way of emancipation, and is accomplished in the three groat branches 
 of divine knowledge, and has gained perfect wisdom. He is in possession of all 
 psychic powers, always willing to listen full of energy, wisdom, and dhyana. 
 
 4. He has realized eternal peace and walks in the perfect path of virtue. 
 
 5. He knows three states of existence. 
 
 6. He is incomparable in purity and holiness. 
 
 7. He is teacher of gods and men. 
 
 8. He exhorts gods and men at the proper time according to their individual 
 temperaments. 
 
 9. 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 calm 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 attainment of salvation is by the perception of self through 
 charity, purity, self-sacrifice, self-knowledge, dauntless energy, patience, 
 truth, resolution, love, and equanimity. The last words of Buddha were 
 these: 
 
 Be ye lamps unto yourselves; be ye a refuge to yourselves; betake yourself to 
 aneternal voyage; hold fast to the truth as a lamp; hold fast as a refuge to the 
 truth; look not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves. Learn ye, then,, that 
 knowledge which I have attained and have declared unto you. and walk yo in Jt. 
 practice and increase in order that the path of holiness may last and long endure 
 for the blessing of many people, to the relief of the world, to the welfare, the 
 blessing, the joy of gods and men.
 
 450 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 THE RELATION OF THE SCIENCES TO RELIGION, 
 
 DR. PAUL CARUS, EDITOR OF " OPEN COURT," CHICAGO. 
 
 Among other things he said: 
 
 That conception of religion which rejects science is inevitably doomed. 
 It can not survive and is destined to disappear with the progress of civiliza- 
 tion. Nevertheless, religion will not go. Religion will abide. Humanity 
 will never be without religion, for religion is that innermost conviction of 
 man which regulates his conduct. Man has become man only through his 
 obedience to the moral law. Every neglect of the moral law lowers him; 
 every moral progress raises him. And who in the face of facts will say, 
 that the authority of moral conduct is not a reality in the world, that God 
 in the sense that science understands his nature and being does not exist, 
 and that religion, the religion of scientific truth, is error? 
 
 Religion will undergo changes, but it can not disappear; while it will 
 free itself of its paganism, it will evolve and grow. Religion is as inde- 
 structible as science, for science is the method of searching for the truth, 
 and religion is the enthusiasm and good-will to live a life of truth. 
 
 HISTORY AND PROSPECTS OF EXPLORATION IN 
 
 BIBLE LANDS. 
 
 DR. GEORGE E. POST. 
 
 The substance of the paper was as follows: 
 
 The work of biblical criticism is to present us with a correct text of the 
 books of the Bible. That of the biblical explorer is to search out in Bible 
 lands all that illustrates and confirms this text. It includes the study of 
 the physical geography, meteorology, geology, mineralogy, zoology, and 
 botany of these lands. It concerns itself with their ethnology, political, 
 social, and religious history, and their present and past manners and 
 customs. 
 
 There are five sources of information open to the biblical explorer: 
 Local tradition, ecclesiastical tradition, reports of travelers, systematic 
 survey, and excavation. 
 
 To America belongs the credit of introducing a new era of Palestine 
 exploration. This era dates from the publication of the immortal " Biblical 
 Researches in Palestine, " by Edward Robinson and Eli Smith in 1843, and 
 the " Narrative of an Expedition to the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea," 
 by Lieutenant Lynch, U. S. N., in 1850. 
 
 Now we find, by Biblical exploration, that the long-forgotten names of 
 obscure towns, embalmed in the often unaltered names of still more 
 obscure modern towns, are somewhat altered, but none the less easily 
 recognizable to any one familiar with Semitic philology or the laws of 
 Semitic transliteration and substitution. We find the very rock, or cleft 
 in a rock, where some trivial event of Hebrew history took place, cor- 
 responding exactly in terms of neighborhood and distance, and often of 
 name, to the necessities of the ancient narrative. We find, on excavation, 
 a complete confirination of the representations of the sacred writers on 
 points which ignorant critics, who have only studied the surface, have 
 disputed, while they scoffed at the statements of eye-witnesses whose 
 accuracy in these local details gives a strong presumption in favor of all 
 else they say. We find in a local tradition, of other than Christian parent- 
 age, the exact reproduction of au obscure passage in the sacred history.
 
 EXPLORATION JN BIBLE LANDS 451 
 
 We find in a local custom preserved throiit,'h long ages and revolutionH, 
 such as no other land has undergone, the graphic presentment of scent's as 
 old as Abraham and Moses, David and Hezekiah. 
 
 And we find all these lines of evidence converging on the sacred text, 
 shedding hght on what was obscure, making more vivid that which was 
 known, and gradually establishing the certauity of the voluino f)n tlio 
 utterances of which we build the structure of our civilization in tliis 
 world and our hopes of eternal life in the next.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 TENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 20th. 
 
 WORKING FORCES IN RELIGION. 
 
 The three sessions of the parliament on the tenth day were 
 conducted in the usual manner. On this date the Columbian 
 Peace Plow arrived at the Art Institute. It is made of imple- 
 ments of war emblematic of the time when nations shall learn 
 war no more, and is a contribution to the parliament. Dr. 
 Ernest Faber of China led in the universal prayer after the 
 morning session was called to order. Dr. Barrows, being the 
 presiding officer, introduced Rev. Henry M. Field, who spoke 
 a few minutes regarding the Parliament of Religious. 
 
 PLEA FOR TOLERATION. 
 
 EEV. DR. HENRY M. FIELD OF THE NEW YORK EVANGELIST. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I am glad to say only one word, one 
 word of greeting, and to express the joy that I feel 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, brought up in the 
 strictest sect of the Pharisees, believing there was no good outside of our 
 own little pale, I know, when I was a child, it was a serious question with 
 me whether Democrats could be saved. I am happy to have arrived at a 
 belief that they can be saved, though as by fire. 
 
 When I went across the ocean, I thought a Roman Catholic was a terri- 
 ble person, terrible, When I came to know the Roman Catholics, how- 
 ever, 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 
 the cardinal 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 
 
 452
 
 CHRISTIAN EVANGELISM. ^(q 
 
 to one of the White Fathers, " Are you willing to go into all those dan- 
 gers? " " Yes," said he. "When?" "To-morrow," was the reply. Su.-h 
 a spirit is magniticent, and wherever we see it, in any part of tlio 'world in 
 any church, we admire and honor it. ' 
 
 Ah ! but those followers of the False Prophet, they have no religion in 
 them! So I said until I had been in Constantinople and other citiesuf the 
 East, when I heard the call for prayers from the minaret anil wliere I saw 
 the devotion of those men fluttering their white turbans like so nwiny 
 doves, at sunrise and sunset going to the house of prayer. I was told by 
 one of the White Fathers about the observances of the Mohammedans. lie 
 said to me: " Do you know this is the tirst day of Ramidan, that 
 of the Mohammedan Lent?" They observe their lent a great deal better 
 than we 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 from 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 
 beyond the pale of every religion— that they are not regarded by the (Jreat 
 Father as his children. 
 
 So in Bombay I felt a great respect when I saw the Parsees at the rising 
 and setting of the sun uncovering their heads in homage to the great source 
 of life and light. So in the other religions of the East. Underneath all wo 
 find reverence for the great Supreme Power, a desire to love, and worship, 
 and honor Him. On the defects of those religions I will not speak. There 
 are enough people to talk of them, but this I do say here and in this jjres- 
 ence, that I have found that God has not left Himself without a witness in 
 any of the dark climes, or in any of the dark religions of this world. 
 
 CHRISTIAN EVANGELISM AS ONE OF THE WORKING 
 FORCES IN OUR AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 EEV. JAMES BRAND OF OBEELIN. 
 
 Christian Evangelism is the preaching or promulgation of the Gospel of 
 Christ. But this is 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 Chris- 
 tianity of special evangelistic movements which have appeared 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 1G70 to 1712. 
 but they were local and limited in extent. The first great movement which 
 really moulded American Christianity was in 17iO-17GO. called "The (Jreat 
 Awakening," under the leadership of Jonathan Edwards, Whitefield, Wes- 
 ley, 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 pop- 
 ulation of New England was not more than 250,000, and in all the colonies 
 about 2,000,000. Yet it is estimated that more than 50,000 persons wen- eon- 
 verted 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
 
 454 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 covenant," a pernicious system which had filled both the churches and the 
 pulpits with unconverted men. In 1740 men without any pretense of piety 
 studied theology, and " if neither heretical or openly immoral were 
 ordained to the ministry," and multitudes of men were received to church 
 membership without any claim to Christian life. 
 
 The great awakening reversed that state of things. Students of theol- 
 ogy were converted in great numbers, and prominent men to the number 
 of twenty, who had been long in the pulpits in and about Boston, 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 Chris- 
 tians. 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, in the 
 l^reaching of the gospel, the distinction should be maintained between the 
 regenerate and unregenerate, and that the church must be composed of 
 converted souls only, has been accepted by substantially all evangelical 
 denominations since that time. The great doctrines made especially prom- 
 inent in this religious movement were those required to meet the peculiar 
 circumstances of the times, viz., the sinfulness of sin, the necessity of con- 
 version, and justification by faith in Christ 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 18th century. 
 
 The second general evangelistic movement, 1797-1810, 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 formalism and relig- 
 ious 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 institu- 
 tions of a national character for the spread of a 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 to-day. The 
 " Plan of Union " in 1801 to evangelize New Connecticut — Andover Sem- 
 inary 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 Education Society, in 1815; the Methodist 
 Episcopal Missionary Society, in 1819; the Yale Theosophical Department, 
 in 1822; American Temperance Society, in 1826; American Home Missionary 
 Society, in 1830; East Windsor Theosophical Seminjtry, in 1833. Here again 
 all religious 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 concerned, 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 prevailing rational- . 
 istic and atheistic influence of France, had produced a spirit of pride and 
 self-sufficiency which was hostile to the authority of God and, of course, 
 antagonistic to the gospel. To meet this state of the public mind, Evangel- 
 istic 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 threatening to overwhelm the country in barren and self- 
 destructive materialism. 
 
 The third great movement was in 1830-1840. The tendency of the
 
 CHRISTIAN EVANGELISM. 455 
 
 human mind is to grasp certain truths which have proved specially effect- 
 ive in one set of circumstances and press ihem into service under diffi-nMit 
 circumstances, to the neglect of other truths. Thus the severity of (iod, 
 which had needed such peculiar emphasis in 1800, came to be urgetl to the 
 exclusion of those truths which touch the freedom and responsibility of 
 man. When, therefore, this third revival period began, the tri'itlis 
 most needed were the freedom of the will, the nature of the moral law, (lie 
 •ibility and therefore the absolute obligation of man to obey CJod and n'lako 
 himself a new heart. Accordingly, these were the mighty weapons which 
 were wielded by the great leaders, Finney, Nettleton, Albert Barnes, and 
 others, in the revival of that period. Thus a counter-corrective was admin- 
 istered 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 1857-9. At that time inordinate worldliness, the passion for gain 
 and luxury, had been taking possession of the people. The spirit of n-ck- 
 less speculation and other immoral methods of gratifying material ambi- 
 tion had overreached itself and plunged the nation into a financial panic. 
 The Divine Spirit seized this state of things to convict men of tlieir sins. 
 The result was a great turning to God all over the land. In this waken- 
 ing 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 bettor to 
 be righteous than to be rich, and that nations, like individuals, are in His 
 hands. 
 
 The latest evangelistic movements which are meeting this new era and 
 are destined to be as helpful to American Christianity as any prt-ccding 
 ones are those under the present leadership of men like Messrs. Moody and 
 Mills and their confreres. These revivals, though perhaj)S lacking the 
 tremendous seriousness and profundity of conviction which came from 
 the Calvin preachers dwelling on the nature and attributes of (Jod, 
 nevertheless exhibit a more truly balanced gospel than any jjreceding 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 privi- 
 lege of serving Christ, and the duty of immediate surrender. If men said. 
 "Is not the gospel being outgrown?" They said, "No, that can not be." If 
 they said, "Is the doctrine broad enough and deep enough to lead thcjjrog- 
 ress of the race in all stages of its development and be the text book of 
 religious teaching to the end of time?" They said " Yes." Why? IJecanse 
 Christ'steachings are based upon certain indestructible princij)li's of luiman 
 natvire that never change. They are based upon the moral sentinient (»f 
 the soul. 
 
 I have spoken of these general revivals as evangelistic movements. It 
 must not be inferred, however, that they are merely human undertakings. 
 They originate with the spirit of God. Leading men, whether as general evan- 
 gelists or evangelistic pastors, were moved by the divine sjjirit to yearn for 
 the deepening of religious life and the conversion of the multitudes. As 
 of old God from time to time chooses Him a Moses, tits him for his work, 
 and gives him a message. This divine superintendence, rather than any 
 human sagacity, explains the peculiar types of truth, and the sjii'cial a<lapt 
 ations of doctrines to the circumstances at different stages of our national 
 life, to meet the peculiar perils or tendencies of such times. This only 
 proves that Christ is the head of His Church, and does not abantlou it to 
 the discretion of any set of men. 
 
 The Scripture truths which have been si)ecially instrumental in thene 
 great spiritual awakenings, perhaps, should have a non-si)ecilic consiilera- 
 tion. Manifestly no one school of theology can claim jire eminence. Calvin 
 ism, old school and new school on the one hand, and Armenianism (in the 
 other, have been alike blessed at different times in the couvorBiou of
 
 456 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 conditional, and it was effective. 
 Whitefield's great topic was, " The necessity of the New Birth," because 
 this was a neglected truth. It was said at the time that Whitefield had 
 " infatuated the multitude with the 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 we are considering, 
 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 been 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 service of 
 consecrated church members. In such cases, church work becomes 
 spasmodic and the preaching of the pastor has often become educational 
 instead of being also distinctively evangelistic. This dependence of a 
 church upon great periodical movements and help for the conversion of 
 souls in its own 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. 
 
 1. A higher conception of the mission of the local church. The fact 
 should never be lost sight of that the local church itself is, after all, the 
 responsible body for the evangelization of its own vicinity. I would be the 
 last to disparage outside evangelists, but it is manifestly not God's 
 design that churches should depend upon any great combined movement. 
 They are to depend rather upon the Christlikeness of their own member- 
 ship 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 membership. 
 
 2. 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 dependence 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; these 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 rushing, 
 conceited, self-asserting, money-grasping, law-defying, sabbath-desecrat- 
 ing, contract-breaking, rationalistic age is that we are to return to the 
 profound preaching of the sovereignty of God. 
 
 RELIGIOUS STATE OF GERMANY. 
 
 COUNT A. BEKNSTOEFF OF GERMANY. 
 
 I shall try to give this short sketch as impartially as I can, though this 
 is not easy for one who stands in the midst of the contests about which he 
 is going to speak. Well-meaning patriots who wish to stir up the activity
 
 RELIGIOUS STATE OF GERMANY. 457 
 
 of good men often give a pessimistic view of things; others who wish to 
 show off their country well give a too favorable coloring of the state of 
 things. I mean only to say what is true. There is no necessity to give 
 any coloring. Things are bad enough without being exaggerated, but th('ro 
 is also sufficient good to mention without being obliged to add to the truth. 
 It may truly be said that Germany is a country where spiritual prob- 
 lems are fought out. I feel happy to belong to such a country, and to lu- 
 able to take an active share in those struggles. In order to undtTHtand tin- 
 present condition of Germany, wo must go back to some point in liistory 
 which gave a turning to affairs, and which forms even now the l)aKiH on 
 which religious life has developed. The first is the Reformation. Germany 
 is emphatically the land of the Reformation, by which, of course, I don't 
 mean to say that all (Jerniany is Protestant. Oh, no. The Reformation 
 has divided Germany into two hostile camps. It has been the Hourct> of 
 many political and religious difficulties. Yet we jjraise God's name for it. 
 The Reformation luckily had no political sides; it was a ixirely religious act. 
 Luther sought peace with God for hisown soul, and ail tho at-ts of pen- 
 ance could not satisfy the yearning of his heart. It was only when ho gut to 
 read a Bible — these bound teachers — and when he found in it that tin- just 
 shall live by faith, that he found the peace with God which his heart was 
 yearning after. Henceforth the two great principles of 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 cleansing blood of Christ. How- 
 ever, the mere intellectual truth alone does not suffice. We must, there- 
 fore, consider the feeling of the 18th century as the second turning i)oint. 
 Protestantism revived, but only in form; unbelief carried the day. The 
 great minds of the last century failed to see the truth of revelation. Tiiis 
 is to a great extent due to the fact that the repression of orthodox truths 
 had turned into enemies scholars who found a pleasure in quarreling on 
 points of mmor interest. The revival in religion be>gan in what we call the 
 wars of liberty. When the great Napoleon wanted to stamp Prussia out 
 of the maps of Europe, when the whole nation rose to defend its national 
 independence, men were turned to seek God in prayer, and since that day 
 earnest, liberal Christianity has made its way again in Germany. National 
 differences seemed of comparatively small value at that time, and King 
 Frederick William III. of Prussia combined in his religion tlu^ iniion of 
 the Lutheran and the Calvinist churches into one church, which ho called 
 Evangelist. Such a measure would be imposgil)le now, but in those times 
 of unbelief people had ceased to attach any value of differences in doctrine, 
 and the new revival was also spiritual, not ecclesiastical. Tho.se who be','an 
 to love their Savior gladly joined those whom they found similarly affected, 
 without asking to what church they belonged. 
 
 The increase of religious convictions, however, also increased the oppo- 
 sition of special doctrines. The old feud between Lutherans and Calvin- 
 ists began with renewed strength, and the friendly relations between Prot- 
 estants and Catholics made way to a sharp antagonism. About half a cent- 
 ury later the revolution of 1848 opened the eyes of many Christians to the 
 unsatisfactory state of many things, and the numerous works of home mis- 
 sions began about that time. Finally, in 1873, tho organization of a syn- 
 odal constitution for the Protestant Church brought a new element into 
 our religious life. Excuse my having begun witfi this historical introduc- 
 tion. The present is always in many respects the child of the past, and I 
 thought it would help to ascertain the present. 
 
 The division of Germany in 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 hasgreatly consolidated herself. Unhapjjv 
 measures of our government to rejjress her influence, which were in fon-e 
 in 1873, have only served to increase her power. With her strong discipline
 
 458 ! fHE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGION B. 
 
 on the power she wields over the people through the confeesional, witn tne 
 assistance of a numerous political party that represents her interest in Par- 
 liament, she undoubtedly has a large influence. But on the other side, 
 this has also helped much to arouse the Protestant feeling of the nation — 
 a large Protestant association for the protection of Protestant interests is 
 gaining new adherents every day. The commemoration of the LiUtheran 
 jubilee in 1883 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 German princes and representatives of the Queen of Great 
 Britain and of the King of Sweden and Denmark,'of the Queen of the Neth- 
 erlands, assisted at the reopening of the beautifully restored church of Wit- 
 tenberg, and publicly declared their adherence to the doctrines of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 With Protestantism the old feud between Lutherans and Calvinists has 
 made way to problems of greater importance. If I speak of the develop- 
 ment of Protestantism I 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 lialance 
 of heaven, this work will not be accounted 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 are fought out within the 
 national churches, and this is not only true, is voluntary conviction in the 
 press and by similar 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 testi- 
 mony of the old truths of the gospel, is a sure sign of her influence. 
 
 At first a number of persons were elected into the synod only because 
 they were expected to make opposition to the clergy, but this is long past. 
 Even 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 
 spiritual wants of our large metropolis. A large party of our church is 
 striving at a greater independence from the state. We deny not that we 
 have entered with mighty adversaries, but we are prepared 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. But 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 with- 
 out religion, but the so-called ethical movement found but few adherents. 
 A lieutenant-colonel left the army to work for a colorless Christianity, in 
 which everybody might go in, but his followers are not 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 Bible. 
 
 The greatest danger we are under is perhaps a new critical school of 
 theology. The lately deceased Professor Rietschl has introduced a new 
 system superior to the old rationalism, eminently clever, yet dangerous. 
 Biblical terms are used, but another meaning given to them. To this the- 
 ology Christ is not pre-existent from all eternity, tjutonly a man in whom 
 divine life has come to its highest development, the great fact of redemp- 
 tion only symbols; prayer is some way only a gymnastic exercise of the soul, 
 helpful as such to him who prays, but not heard in heaven. Numerous 
 students are under the charm of this school, and many people think that 
 it will soon have possession of all our pulpits. 
 
 I do not share their fear. There are too many forces of divine help in
 
 .THE SPIBIT OF ISLAM. 459 
 
 our congregations now to render this possible, and to these forces I must 
 lastly refer. We have faithful preaching in many of tnir churi-hes. and 
 where the gospel is'preached in power and in truth the churclu's arc Udt 
 empty. We have an honest tight for the truth in our synods, p^you in the 
 capital the orthodox Christians have rallied to gain the victory and they 
 carried the day. 
 
 Wc have the great organizations of home-mission work, deaconesseB' 
 institutions, reformatories, workingmen's city missions, and so forth. These 
 are only examples. 
 
 We have a large religious press. The sermons published by the Berlin 
 City Mission are spread in 112,000 copies every week. A groat number of 
 rio-called Sunday papers, that is, not political papers, which appear on Sun- 
 day, but small religious periodicals, which give good religious roailing t(i 
 the people, all circulated, besides the sermons, to a great extent by volun- 
 tary helpers. We are making way to bettor observation of the Ijord's day. 
 The new law on the social question 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 
 during the week. 
 
 Our emperor and empress have given a powerful stimulus to the build- 
 ing of new churches. The empress tries to stimulate the ladies to more of 
 what you call woman's work, and a society of 3,CCX) women in Berlin last 
 winter shows that her call was not in vain. We have altogether learne<l a 
 great deal more of aggressive Christianity. Oui; Sunday schcM)ls 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 former generations, quietly but steadily gains 
 ground. I would mention a number of eminent laymen who no longer 
 object to presenting the gospel publicly. We are not afraid for the cause 
 of believing evangelical Christianity in Germany; it is more a power now 
 than it ever was, though, of course, in every land and at all times only a 
 minority«truly and fully experience the depths of religious feeling. 
 
 I did not mention the last Jewish movement because I hold it to bo 
 purely political, not religious. It is one of the thingsthat we have to con- 
 tend with, but a beginning has been made. There is much darkness in 
 Germany, but there is also much light. May God grant that the light 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM. 
 
 MOHAMMED WEBB. 
 
 I wish I could express to you the gratification I feel at being able to 
 appear before you to-day, and that I could impress uj)on your minds the 
 feelings of millions of Mussulmans in India, Turkey, and Egypt, who are 
 looking to this Parliament of Religions with the deepest, the fondest hope. 
 There is not a Mussulman on earth who does not believe that ultimately 
 Islam will be the universal faith. It may surprise you to know that tivo 
 times a day, regularly, year in and year out, from every Mussulman's heart 
 goes forth the sentiment we have just sung— " Nearer, my God, to Thee." 
 To-morrow I expect to speak upon, "The Influence of Islam on S<jcial 
 Conditions," and I want to say at that time something about polygamy. 
 
 But to-day 1 have been requested to make a statement, very briefly, in 
 regard to something that is considered universally as part and parcel of 
 the Islamic system. There are thousands and thousands of people who 
 seem to be in mortal terror that the curse of polygamy is to be inflicted 
 upon them at once. Now, I want to say to you, honestly and fau-ly, that
 
 460 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 polygamy never was and is not a part of the Islamic system. To engraft 
 polygamy upon our social system in the condition in which it is to-day 
 woukl be a curse. There are parts of the East where it is practiced. There 
 are conditions under which it is beneficial. But we must tirst understand 
 what it really means to the Mussulman, not what it means to the Amer- 
 ican. I say that a pure-minded man can be a polygamist and be a perfect 
 and true Christian, but he must not be a sensualist. 
 
 When you understand what the Mussulman means by polygamy, what 
 he means by taking two or three wives, any man who is honest and faithful 
 and pure minded will say, "God speed him." Now, I don't intend to go 
 into this subject. With the gentleman who first spoke, I am an American 
 of the Americans. I carried with me for years the same errors that thou- 
 sands of Americans carry with them to-day. Those errors have grown into 
 history, false history has influenced your opinion of Islam. It influenced 
 my opinion of Islam and when I began ten years ago, to study the Oriental 
 religions, I threw Islam aside as altogether too corrupt for consideration. 
 
 But when 1 came to go beneath the surface, to know what Islam really 
 is, to know who and what the Prophet of Arabia was, I changed my belief 
 very materially, and I am proud to say that I ain now a Mussulman. 
 
 I have not returned to the United States to make you all Mussulmans 
 in spite of yourselves; I never intended to do it in the world. I do not pro- 
 pose to take a sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, and go 
 through the world killing every man who does not say, "La illaha illala 
 Mohammed resouls Allah" — "There is no God but one and Mohammed is the 
 Prophet of God." But I have faith in the American intellect, in the Amer- 
 ican intelligence, and in the American love of fair play, and will defy any 
 intelligent man to understand Islam and not love it. 
 
 It was at first suggested that I should speak on the theology of Islam. 
 There are some systems which have in them more theology than religion. 
 Fortunately Islam has more religion than theology. 
 
 There are various explanations of the meaning of the word religion. 
 One has but to read Max Muller's gifted lectures to understand what a 
 variety of meanings there are to the word. We may simply consider that 
 it means a system by which man hopes to inherit happiness beyond the 
 grave. What the conditions may be beyond the grave may be questioned 
 and speculated upon, but in its broader sense religion is that system which 
 leads to or gives to us the hope of a future life. In order to understand 
 Islam and its effects — to understand the spirit of Islam ^ — it is necessary to 
 take into consideration human nature in all its aspects. 
 
 Do you suppose that any active religionist who has studied only his own 
 system of religion, who knows nothing about any other system, can write 
 fairly of any other system? It is absolutely impossible. I have read every 
 history of Mohammed and Islam published in England, and I say to you, 
 there is not a single one of them, except the work of Ameer Ali of Calcutta, 
 which reflects at all in any'sense the spirit of Islam. We will take the 
 work of Washington Irving, for example. Washington Irving evidently 
 intended to be fair and honest; it is apparent in every line that he meant 
 to tell the truth, but his information came through channels that were 
 muddy, and while he is appalled at what he considers the vicious character 
 of the prophet, he is completeJy surprised at times to find out what a pure 
 and holy man he was. Now, the first book I ever read in English upon 
 Islam was "The Life of Mohammed," by Washington Irving, and the strong- 
 est feature of that work to me was its uncertainty. 
 
 In one page he would say Mohammed was a very good, a very pure and 
 holy inan, and it was a shame that he was not a Christian, but his impious 
 rejection of the Trinity shut him out from salvation, and made him an 
 impostor. These are not the exact words that Irving used, but they con- 
 vey practically his meaning. After saying these things he goes on to say
 
 MOHAMMED ALEXANDER RUSSELL WEBB.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM. 4C1 
 
 what a sensuous, grasping, avaricious tyrant the prophet was, and he closes 
 his work by saying that the character of the prophet is so enigmatical that 
 he can not fathom it. He is uncertain, finally, whether Mohammed was a 
 good man or a bad man. 
 
 Now, to understand the character of Mohammed and his teachings, we 
 must learn to read between the lines; we must learn to study human 
 nature; we must carefully analyze the condition of the Arabians at the 
 time Mohammed lived ; we must carefully analyze the existing social con- 
 ditions ; we must understand what woman's position was in the social 
 system; the various conditions that had possession of the whole Arabian 
 nation. They were not, however, a nation at that time, but ilividod into 
 predatory tribes, with all the vices and weaknesses that man possesses, 
 almost as bad as men in some of the slums of Chicago and New York! 
 Mohammed came among this people intending to purify and elevate themj 
 to make them a better people, and he did so. The history of Moiiammed- 
 anism we have in English, as I have shown, is inaccurate, untruthful, and 
 full of prejudice. 
 
 In order to understand the spirit of Islam let us take the prophet as a 
 child. He was born in Mecca. All historians^and I shall simitly now 
 state what Christian historians have written of him— are agreed that lie 
 was remarkable as a boy for the purity of his character. He was utterly 
 free from the vices which afflicted the youth of Mecca. As he grew to man- 
 hood, his character became unimpeachable, so much so that he was known 
 all over the city as "Al Ma'mun, the trusty." Those characteristics with 
 which he is accredited by Christian writers were manifested in no degree 
 whatever. 
 
 He began life as a merchant, following his uncle's caravans to Southern 
 Europe and Syria, and he demonstrated the fact that he was an excellent 
 business man. He was su.ccessful, so much so that the wealthy widow, 
 " Khadijah," whose husband had died, selected him to take charge of her 
 business interests. He had never displayed any disposition to associate 
 with the fair sex; sensuality was no part of his character at all. He mar- 
 ried this widow, and with her accumulated a large fortune, with which he 
 engaged in the same trade as his uncle, Abu Taleb. 
 
 This marriage, by the way, was not brought about by Mohammed. He 
 did not go to Khadijah and ask her to be his wife, but she, taking ijerhaps a 
 mercenary view of the situation, engaged him for Hf e to be her business man- 
 ager. Mohammed rejected the proposal at first, and would have refused it 
 altogether, but his uncle, Abu Taleb, said it was the best thing he could 
 do and that he should marry her. Notwithstanding the fact that the laws 
 of his country allowed him to take as many wives as he pleased. Christian 
 historians agree that he was true to Khadijah for twenty-five years, and 
 never availed himself of the opportunity to take another wife. He was 
 true to her until the day of her death. 
 
 Now, let us see what the word Islam means. It is the most expressive 
 word in existence for a religion. It means, simply and literally, resignation 
 to the will of God. It means aspiration to God. The Islam system is 
 designed to cultivate all that is purest and noblest and grandest in the 
 human character. Some people say Islam is impossible in a high state of 
 civilization. Now, that is the result of ignorance. Look at Spain in the 
 8th century, when it was the center of all the arts and sciences, when Chris- 
 tian Europe went to Moslem Spain to learn all that there was worth 
 knowing — languages, arts, all the new discoveries were to be found in Mos- 
 lem Spain, and in Moslem Spain alone. There was no civilization in the 
 world as high as that of Moslem Spain. 
 
 With this spirit of resignation to the will of God is inculcated the idea 
 of individual responsibility, that every man is responsible not to this man or 
 that man, or the other man, but responsible to God for every thought and
 
 462 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 act of his life. He must pay for every act that he commits; he is rewarded 
 for every thought ho thinks. There is no mediator, there is no priesthood, 
 there is no ministry. , , , ^ . , ,., 
 
 The Moslem brotherhood stands upon a perfect equality, recognizing 
 only the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. The Imam who 
 leads in prayer, preaches no sermon. He goes to the mosque every day at 
 noon and reads two chapters from the holy Koran. He descends to the 
 floor upon a perfect level with the hundreds, or thousands, of worshipers 
 and the prayer goes on, he simply leading it. The whole system is cal- 
 culated to inculcate that idea of perfect brotherhood. 
 
 The subject is so broad, there is so much of it, that I can only touch 
 upon it. There is so much unfamiliar to Americans and Englishmen in 
 Islam that I regret exceedingly I have not more time to speak of it. A 
 man said to me in New York the other day; " Must I give up Jesus and 
 the Bible if I become a Mohammedan?" No, no! There is no Mussulman 
 on earth who does not recognize the inspiration of Jesus. Thy system is 
 one that has been taught by Moses, by Abraham, by Jesus, by Mohammed, 
 by every inspired man the world has ever known. You need not give up 
 Jesus, but assert your manhood. Go to God. 
 
 Now, let us look at the practical side of Islam in reference to the appli- 
 cation of the spirit of Islam to daily life. A Mussulman is told that he 
 must pray. So is everyone else, so are the followers of every other religion. 
 But the Mussulman is not told to pray when he feels like it, if it does not 
 interfere with business, with his inclinations, or some particular engage- 
 ment. Some people do not pray at such times; they say it does not make 
 very much difference, we can make it up some other time. A little study of 
 human nature will show that there are people who pray from a conscien- 
 tious idea of doing a duty, but t'here are a great many others who shirk a 
 duty at every chance if it interferes with pleasure or business. 
 
 The wisdom of Mohammed was apparent in the single item of prayer. 
 He did not say, " Pray when you feel like it," but "Pray five times a day 
 at a certain time." 
 
 The Mussulman rises in the morning before daylight, because his first 
 prayer must be said before the first streaks of light appear in the East. 
 At just the first trace of dawn he sinks upon his knees aud offers his 
 prayer to God. The prayer can be said at no other time. That is the 
 time to say it. The result is he must get up in the morning to do it. It 
 encourages early rising. Now, you may say that is a slavish system. Very 
 true. Humanity differs very materially. There are men who need a slavish 
 system. We have evidences of it all around us, in every religious system 
 known. They want to be slaves to a system, and let us take that system 
 which will accomplish the best results. 
 
 His next prayer is said between 12 and 1 o'clock, or just as the sun is 
 passing the meridian. At no other time. The third prayer is between 4 
 and 5 o'clock. The fourth prayer is just as the sun has sunk in the West. 
 The light of the day is dying out. The last prayer of the day is repeated 
 just before he steps into bed. 
 
 There is a difference of opinion among those who want to argue over 
 doctrinal matters, as to the exact time of this evening prayer, but there is 
 no doubt about the other ones. Some Mussulmans will insist upon it that 
 you can pray any time after the sunset prayer. Others say no, you must 
 pray when you go to bed. I am inclined to believe from what I know of 
 the prophet's character that he intended that that was to be the last prayer 
 of the day, and that a man should go to sleep presenting his soul purified 
 to God. 
 
 Now before that man says a prayer he must wash himself — he performs 
 his ablutions. The result is that the intelligent Mussulman is physically clean. 
 It is not optional with him to take his bath and perform his ablutions
 
 THE SPIRIT OF ISL AM. 403 
 
 when he sees fit, but he must do it just before he prays. That sysU-iu is 
 applied to the masses intelligently, must secure beneticial results Th'ore 
 are Mohammedans who say they do not need to pray. The other MoLam 
 medans say, '-That is between you and God; I believe I must i)ray " Tlio 
 system is so thoroughly elastic, so thoroughly applicable lo all llio needH of 
 humanity, thatit seems tome it is e.xactly the system that wo need in «)ur 
 country, and ihat is why I am here, tliat is why 1 am in tlie Unile.l SIiiU-b 
 
 A gentleman asked me if we had organized a mission in New VorU l' 
 told him yes, but not in the ordinary sense; that wo simply wanted people 
 to study Islam and know what it was. The day of blind belief luis paKse«l 
 away. Intelligent humanity wants a reason for every belief, and J say that 
 that spirit is commendable and should be encouraged wherever it goes and 
 that is one of the prominent features of the spirit of Islam. 
 
 We speak of using force, that Mohammed went with a sword in one hand 
 and the Koran in the other. 1 want to show to you to-morrow that he diil 
 not do anything of the sort. No man is expected to believe anything that 
 is not in perfect harmony with his reason and common sense. 
 
 There is one particular spirit which is a part of the Islainistic idea that 
 prevails among the Moslems— and now I am speaking, not of the lower classes, 
 not of the masses of the Moslems that the missionaries sei^ when they go' 
 to the East, but I am speaking of the educated, intelligent Moslems.'and 
 they are the safest guides. No one would expect me to go into the slums 
 of Chicago to find a reflection of the Christian religion. Yon can not 
 expect to find it in the character and the acts and the thoughts of a poor, 
 ignorant coolie, who can neither read nor write, and who has associated 
 with the most degraded characters all his life. 
 
 But the spirit that prevails among the Moslems of the higher class is 
 indifference to this world. This world is a secondary consideration, and 
 the world beyond is the world to strive tor, the life beyond is the life that 
 has some value to it. It is worth devoting all our lives to secure in that 
 life happiness and perfect bliss. The idea of paradise naturally follows. 
 It is popularly believed that Mohammed talked of a paradise where beauti- 
 ful houris were given to men, that they led a life of sensual joy and lux- 
 ury, and all that sort of thing. That idea is no more absurd than the 
 golden streets and pearly gates idea of the Christian. Mohammed taught 
 us a spiritual truth, he taught a truth which every man who knows any- 
 thing of the spiritual side of religion ought to know, and he taught it in 
 a manner which would most readily reach the minds and hearts of his 
 hearers. 
 
 The poor Arabs who lived in the dry, sandy desert looked upon broad 
 fields of green grass and flowing rivers and beautil'ul trees as a j)aradiBe. 
 We who are accustomed, perhaps, to that sort of thing, some of us, run 
 away with the idea, perhaps, that a golden street and pearly gates are 
 better than that. His idea was to show them that they were to secure a 
 perfect bliss, and to an Arab, if he could reach an open field where the 
 grass grew green under his feet and the birds sang and the trees bore 
 pearls and rubies, and all that sort of things, it would be bliss. Mind you, 
 Mohammed never taught that, but he is credited with teaching it, and I 
 believe he taught something to illustrate this great spiritual truth that he 
 was trying to force upon their minds, and it has been corrupted into the 
 idea of a garden full of houris. 
 
 The next feature of the spirit of Islam is its fraternity. One of the 
 first things that Mohammed did after being driven out of Mecca and 
 located in Medinah was to encourage the formation of a Mosli-m brother- 
 hood, with a perfect community of property, a socialistic idea imi)raeticabie 
 in this civilization but thoroughly practical at that time. His followers 
 assembled around him and contributed all they had. The idea was, " Do 
 anything to help your brother; what belongs to your brother belongs to
 
 464 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 you, and what belongs to you belongs to your brother. If he need help, 
 
 help him." n -, • ^ 
 
 Caste lines are broken down entirely. We find on one occasion Omar, 
 one of the most energetic and vigorous of his caliphs, exchanged with his 
 slave in riding on the camel. The daughters of Mohammed in the house- 
 hold would divide the time grinding corn with the slaves. The idea was 
 taught, "your slave is your brother." Social conditions make him your 
 slave, but he is none the less your brother. This idea of close fraternity, 
 this extreme devotion to fraternity, was the cause of the Moslem triumph 
 at arms. In the later years, after the death of Mohammed, that idea was 
 paramount in every instance and it was only when that bond of fraternity 
 was broken that we find the decadence of the Islamistic power in Spain. 
 
 Readers of history can very readily trace where the first serpent made 
 its entry into the Islamistic social system, that serpent of disunion in divis- 
 ion. We find the Christians coming up on the other side, closely knit in 
 the same bond of brotherhood. Does that bond of brotherhood exist to-day? 
 It exists among the Mussulmans of India. It exists among the better class 
 of Mussulmans of Egypt and Turkey in a degree that would surprise you. 
 I knew an old man in Bombay who had lost everything and was being 
 helped along by his Mohammedan brethren. A wealthy man reputed to 
 be worth something like half a million or a million and a half dollars owned 
 a very beautiful yacht and this man went to him and said: "I want to 
 borrow your yacht to go fishing." " Certainly; take it whenever you want 
 it; it is yours." 
 
 During my stay in the East every time I visited Bombay, almost, that old 
 fellow would go out fishing. I dined in the house of a wealthy Mussulman 
 and that same old man came in. As he entered the door he said," Peace 
 be with you." A chair was set for him at the taole. We were eating at 
 the table at that time, in deference to me, possibly. Usually they eat upon 
 the floor in the most primitive fashion, and with their fingers, but the bet- 
 ter class of Mohammedans, or rather those who have acquired European 
 ideas, eat with the fork and knife, with glass furniture on the table, etc. 
 On that occasion we were at the table and this old man was invited to sit 
 down and take dinner with us. That fraternal idea impressed me more 
 deeply, possibly, than anything else. I felt that I was among my brethren, 
 and that Mussulmans were brothers the world over, and I know that is one 
 of the basic principles of the system, and that belongs strictly to the spirit 
 of Islam. 
 
 In closing, I want to say this: that there is no system that has been so 
 willfully and persistently misrepresented as Islam, both by writers of 
 so-called history and by the newspaper press. There is no character in the 
 whole range of history so little, so imperfectly understood, as Mohammed, 
 and I feel that Americans, as a rule, are disposed to go to the bottom facts 
 and to ascertain really what Mohammed was and what he did, and when 
 they have done so I feel that we will have a universal system which will 
 elevate our social system at least to the position where it belongs. 
 
 CHRIST, THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD. 
 
 EEV. B. FAY MILLS OF RHODE ISLAND. 
 
 We are all agreed that, in its present condition, this is not an ideal 
 world. We all believe that it is not what it is meant to be; we all hope 
 that it is not what it is to become. 
 
 The doctrine of Christianity centers not in a theory of morale, nor a 
 creed, but in a person. Christ is the revelation of what God is and of
 
 CHRIST, THE SAVIOR OF I'llE WORLD. 4G5 
 
 wliat man must bocuiiu>. lie revealed the character of God as love Biiffer- 
 iiijj for tlie sins of man. He showeil tho triumphant poRsiljility of Ufo 
 amjuj^ tlie hardest human comhtions, wlien livcil in ffllowsiiiii with (i(h1. 
 He tan<,'ht ono ^rt-at object h>sson of trial and triumph tiiat tlicrc ccndd 
 be no excuse for sin, and that there would l)e im (»sci.pc from ri^^hteousneKS. 
 His one threat mission ami messaj^e was that <ioil had "sent His Son into 
 the worltl not to coudeoia the worlil, but that tho world, through Hitu, 
 might be saved." 
 
 He was Himself the revelation of all history and mystery and proph- 
 ecy, concernin;^ (lod iind man. the origin and destiny of tho race, llis 
 whole concept it m of Himself was summed up in these words, "Christ, tho 
 Savior of tho World," and we get the full thought of His revelation by 
 emphasizing tlie latter part of this sujjreme title and realizing that He 
 oiime not to eavo selected individuals, nor any chosen race, i)ut to save tho 
 world that H's mission was to save humanity in all its rclationshii)S, to 
 save individuals, indeed, but alsc> to save society and the nations. 
 
 If Christianity is not litted and dostineil to be the universal life of man, 
 it is Htted for " nothing but to be cast out and to be tro<lden under the feet 
 of men," Christ stands or falls in connection with His claim to be the Savior 
 of tht> entire \Vorld. 
 
 Whenever in the tea<;hingB of Christianity there has been a limitation 
 of the extent of the atonement of Christ, for the saving of this world from 
 out its present conditions of bondage and sin in the glorious liberty of 
 redenijjtion, there has come a deadly paralysis of His spirit and of the prog- 
 ress 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 individuals might become acquainted 
 with God. 
 
 Ill the beginning was tho Word, and the Word was with God. and tho Word 
 was God. 
 
 The same was in the bccinnine: with God. 
 
 All thiu::s \v<!re made by Him, and without Him was not anythinp: made 
 that hatli been made. 
 
 There was tlie true light, even the light which lightcth every man coming 
 into the world. 
 
 He was in the world, and tho world was made by Him, and the world knew 
 Him not. 
 
 But as many as received Him. to them gave Ho tho right to become children 
 of God, ovcii to them that believo on His name, 
 
 "The true light that lighteth every man that cometh into tho 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 jjower to 
 become the sons of God." And then the "Word became tl(>sh and dwelt 
 among us and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the 
 Father, full of grace and truth."' 
 
 The scriptures of the Old Testament and the annals of all nations teach 
 us that "there nov(>r was a time when a iienitent and consecrated soul 
 might not walk with God." Enoch "walked with God," "and before his 
 translation he had his testimony that he jileased (Jod." Aliraham was 
 called "the friend of God." Moses was called "the man of (Jod." Soc- 
 rates was, in his true light, a true prophet of the Most High and a 
 forerunner of Jesus of Nazar(>th. 
 
 But tho mission of Christ was to save the world itself. As a recent 
 writer has wi-ll said, it is a deadly mistake to sujipose that "Christ simply 
 came to rescue as many as possilile out of the wretched and sinking world." 
 
 He came to give the church a "commission that includes the saving of 
 the wreck itself, the (juestion of its confusion and struggle, the relief of its 
 wretchedness, a deliverance from its destruction." This certainly was His 
 own concejjtion of His mission upon earth. 
 
 The tirst annunciation by his immediate forerunner, when be stood io
 
 46G THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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. 'I am the 
 livinir bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, 
 he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give him is my flesh which 
 I will cive for the life of the world." He said to His followers; "In the 
 world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the 
 
 ^°The mission of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world may be expressed, 
 as has already been suggested, in four conceptions. , „ ■ , 
 
 1 He has a new and complete revelation of God's eternal sutfenng 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. "(iod was in Christ, reconciUng the world unto Himself." He 
 revealed the meaning of forgiveness and of deliverance from sin. 
 
 A i)opular writer has suggested to us the vast distinction between indif 
 ferenco to sin and its forgiveness, which may well be illustrated by the 
 experience of an individual in forgiving injury against himself. Resent 
 ment against sin is a far higher experience than that of indifference to it, 
 but there is something far better than either, and that is to realize the 
 enormity of the transgressor at its very worst, and then to let resentment 
 be destroyed and a self-sacrificing love till the place that had been occupied 
 by the resentment. 
 
 It would be better for God to hate sin than to tolerate it; it would have 
 been better to punish the most trivial sin of tue most thoughtless sinner 
 with all the excruciating tortures of the most terrible unending hell con- 
 ceived by the imagination of man; but it was intiuitely 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 bleeding Lamb of God, and let Him 
 bear it away, as far as the east is from the west, into God's eternal forget- 
 f ulness of love. 
 
 A tender-spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me not long ago that 
 it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed 
 against him, and God's forgiveness of sin means something infinite in con- 
 trast 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 deliver- 
 ance from its penalty and power. It meant the realizing of it in God's own 
 soul in all its foul hideousness 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." 
 
 It has been costing God to forgive sin, all that it had cosst man to bear 
 it and more. This had to be in God's thought before He made the world. 
 In the words of a modern prophet, " The cross of Christ indicates the cost, 
 and is the pledge of God's eternal friendship for man." Jesus Christ came 
 to show us what God was. He was in no sense a shield for us from the 
 wrath of God, but " was the effulgence of God's glory and the very image 
 of his substance." He said to one of His disciples, "He that hath seen Me 
 hath seen the Father." The heart of His teaching was " God so loved the 
 world, that He gave His only begotten son." He taught, not that He had 
 come to reconcile God unto the world, but that "God was in Christ recon- 
 ciling the 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 prayer to His 
 Father, " I have declared Thy name unto them; yea, and I will declare it. I 
 have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work." 
 
 lie 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 decision, which gave to humanity the 
 
 J
 
 CHRIST, THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD. 467 
 
 choice of good antl evil. Ho had to take upon IlimRolf iiifiuitf Rufforint;; 
 until the world should be brought back to Him. The redenii)tiun of the 
 world by Christ is a part of the creation of the world for Christ. The cry 
 upon the cross, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" was the 
 exhibition of what had been in the 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 He might forgive us. 
 
 The Son of God was " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." 
 He was " fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was mani- 
 fested in these last times for us." Our hope of eternal life was promised 
 by " God, that can not 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 see it coming to Him from the 
 far-otf country to have its stripes healed with His love, its weakness made 
 strength with His self-sacriticing 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. 
 
 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 that 
 Adam was created in the image of God, 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 Eternal, but he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. The 
 second Adam was the son of man, revealing to us that the perfect man 
 differs in no 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 perfected His thought concerning us, that man shall have to become 
 in all things like unto Jesus Christ. Mauiel 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 Gentiles, " 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 
 from the beginning or the end, from the first to the last, with intimation 
 of force or fear, that can claim subjection from man or assert 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 
 God, that is manifesting itself in the reconciliation of all things. 
 
 Christ says: "I am the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, 
 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, ye without sin." He said that His own body 
 was the temple of God, and he taught his followers that they too were 
 to become temples of the living God in which God should meet with man. 
 
 He showed that the destiny of man was to be one with God, and that 
 infinite misery would be the result of the avoidance of this great oppor- 
 tunity, and that God would count nothing " dear to Himself or to man that 
 this might be accomplished." " Other foundation can no man lay than that 
 which is laid; which is Christ Jesus."
 
 168 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Under the pride and vanity of the nation; under the scheming and frivol- 
 ity and dishonesty and self-will of those who sit in high places in the 
 ejirth- under the disregard of the law of love by the social, commercial, 
 and industrial organizations of the day; under every disobedience of th(t 
 domestic and individual life, is the eternal righteousness of Jesus Christ, 
 striving for manifestation and "straitened until its baptism is accom- 
 
 The third great thought in connection with the salvation of Jesus Christ 
 is that, through the completeness of His redemption, there is no necessity 
 nor reason for any form of sin in the individual. 
 
 For ye have been pliinted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be 
 also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is cru- 
 oitlfd with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed that hencofortii we 
 shall not serve sin. Now if we l»e dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also 
 live with Him. Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead. dieih no more; 
 death hath no dominion over Him. For in that He died. He died unto sin once: 
 but in that Holiveth, He livethunto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves 
 to lie ilead unio sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 Let not .'^in tiierefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey m the 
 lusts thereof. . ,. « • u^ + 
 
 Neil her yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto 
 sin But yield your.selves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, 
 and your members as instruments of ri«rhteousness unto God. 
 
 For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, 
 but under grace. 
 
 A great preacher has told us that Christ is able to save " unto the utter- 
 most ends of the earth, to the uttermost limits of time, to the uttermost 
 period of life, to the uttermost length of depravity, to the uttermost depth 
 of misery, and to the uttermost measure of perfection." 
 
 The Quaker poet has beautifully written: 
 
 Through all the depths of sin and loss. 
 Drops the plummet of the 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. Behold, all things have become new." 
 
 It is when the soul is willing to say, " He was wounded for my trans- 
 gressions," that he is in a position to realize that if he will surrender him- 
 self 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 i-ighteousness of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The way of salvation for the individual through Christ is the knowledge 
 of the love of God making atonement for the sins of the world; the discern- 
 ing, the only real principle of power, in losing the life in order to save it, 
 and the glad forsaking of all things to become His disciple arid to " till up 
 that which is behind of the affections of Christ for His body's sake." 
 
 It is here that the teaching and the life of Jesus are in glorious unity. 
 The cross is not one thing and the Sermon on the Mount another. The 
 kingdom which the Prince of Peace came to establish on earth had for its 
 constitution those vital words which may be expressed 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, because of the redemption of the world 
 through Jesus Christ. 
 
 But if a man"ein willfully after that he hath received 1 he knowledge 
 of 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 des- 
 tiny of man, I do '' beseech you, that you receive not the grace of God in 
 vain."
 
 CHRIST, THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD. 409 
 
 The last thouofht concerning the salvation of the world through Jesus 
 Christ is that the loving righteousness of God must be tiually triumphant. 
 We can not conceive of a heaven in which man should not be a moral being, 
 and free to choose good or evil, as he is uixm this t^artli; and the joy of 
 heaven will consist largely in that glad fixity of will that shall eternally lose 
 itself in God. 
 
 But what a terrible conception comes to us of the lost world, when we 
 conceive ourselves, in sjiite of all the loving kindness and sacrifice of the 
 eternal God. as still choosing to go on in sin, determining to n>sist His love, 
 conscious of it. and yet without the power toescapeit. saying: "If I make 
 my l)ed in hell, l)ehold Thou art there," and yet choosing through the ages 
 and ages to turn away from the righteousness of God, and to pursue a life 
 of indifference and sin. 
 
 Though God be good and free be heaven, 
 
 No forop can lovo compel ; 
 And thougli the songs of sin forgiven 
 
 Might sound through lowest indl; 
 The sweet persuasion of Ilis voice 
 
 Eespeets thy sjinctity 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 dieth 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 estal)lish- 
 ment of righteousness, shall be with Him in the new earth, no other heaven 
 can be imagined. The redeemed earth shall be at least a part of heaven, 
 and the city which John saw, the new Jerusalem descending 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 people, and God Himself shall be with them and ho their 
 God. And He shall wipe away every tear from tlieir eyes and there shall be no 
 more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, 
 for Uie former things are passed away. 
 
 This must be the end of the atonement of the life and the death of 
 Jesus Christ and the keeping of His commandments, which are all summed 
 up in the great name of God, which is love. 
 
 With shame I confess that all the disciples naming the name of Jesus 
 Christ have not fully done His will in His spirit of self-sacrifice, and indeed 
 have sometimes scarcely seemed to apprehend it. If w^e had, it is my 
 honest conviction, that we could not be gathered here to-day as a " Parlia- 
 ment of Religions," but that we would all be praising God 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 do not practice the teachings of Jesus. If 
 China has not been heard from in words of even keener censure it has not 
 been because she has not had good cause, as she thinks of the opium curse 
 forced upon her by the laws of Christian England and of the action of the 
 corrupt legislatures and congresses and presidents who have enacted or 
 stood by and consented 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 something, 
 but with shame and tears I say it — as kingdoms and empires and republics,
 
 470 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 as states and municipalities, and in our commercial and industrial organ- 
 izations, and even, in a large measure, as an organized church, we have not 
 been practicing the teachings of Jesus as he said them and meant them, 
 as the earliest disciples understood and practiced them, and as we must 
 again submit to them, if we are to be the winners of the world for Jesus 
 
 It is no excuse to say that with Christians the nation is not the church. 
 That is a still further confession of comparative failure for, in so far as the 
 Christian church and Christian state are not coincident, the church has 
 come short of the command of the Master: " Go ye, therefore, and disci- 
 ple all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
 commanded you." 
 
 One of the local papers said the other day that perhaps the non-Chris- 
 tian delegates to this parliament might be converted to Christianity if 
 they could be taken about Chicago blindfolded. 
 
 There have been and are to-day in every Christian community white- 
 souled saints of God, who are following "the Lamb whithersoever He 
 goeth " and bearing His cross after Him, but let us be willing to say 
 plainly, although with shame, that while we have in the life and death and 
 resurrections and teachings of Christ and the descent of the Holy Ghost 
 the complete remedy for all the ills of individuals and nations, we have 
 lacked the power of conquest because organized Christianity has been 
 saying, " Lord, Lord," to her Master, and, as regards politics and society 
 and property and industry, has not been doing the things that he said. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin said that a generation of followers of Jesus, who 
 practiced his teachings, would change the face of the earth. And it is 
 true. When evil shall go forth with its deadly poison ready for dissemina- 
 tion, and find Christians who are meek and merciful and poor in spirit 
 and pure in heart, and who count it all joy to be persecuted for righteous- 
 ness' sake; when it shall dart its venomed tongue at men and women who 
 " resist not evil," who " give to him that asketh," and from the borrower do 
 not turn away; who " being struck upon one cheek turn the other also;" 
 who love their enemies, bless those that curse them, do good to them that 
 hate them, and pray for them that despitefully use them and persecute 
 them, who forgive their debtors because God has forgiven them; then 
 shall the old serpent find no blood that shall be responsive 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 of the impotence of 
 righteousness, but which was the wisdom and the power of God unto 
 salvation and the prophecy of the triumph of eternal love. 
 
 And 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 teach- 
 ings 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 also I say: That 
 the only hope of Asia, as of America and of Africa, as of Europe, is in the 
 love of God, and the establishment of His Universal Kingdom of Peace 
 which must be set up on esfrth 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 andhasgained 
 His greatest present triumphs in the West. When men shall have begun 
 again to practice the teachings of Jesus in every walk and relationship of 
 life, then there will be no social enigmas unsolved and no political ques- 
 tions unanswered; but men shall be in union with God and at peace with 
 one another; and heaven and earth shall be one in the creation of the "new 
 earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
 
 And there arc indications of such a triumph now. Every language may
 
 RECONCILIATION VITAL, NOT VICARIOUS. 471 
 
 be translated iato every other tongue of man. The last religion of the 
 world has been investigated and its teachings are open to the eyes of ail. 
 God to-day looks down on such a spectacle of sincere desire and of honest 
 purpose to know the truth as the groaning and travailing creation has 
 never before seen, and the only solution of all the (juestionings and differ- 
 ences and hopes of men must be in the principles of the ruler of the king- 
 dom of God: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and 
 with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength, and thy 
 neighbor as thyself." 
 
 No message of love to God and man has ever been in vain. No love of 
 man or God has ever perished from the universe; no life of love has ever 
 been or ever can be lost. This is the only infinite and only eternal message; 
 and this is the reason why the mission and 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 "Love never faileth; but whether 
 there will be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be 
 tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done 
 away. 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 mirror darkly, 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 
 
 By prophet bards forotold. 
 When, with the over-circling yoars. 
 
 Comes round the a{,'e of gold. 
 When peace shall, over all the earth, 
 
 Its ancient splendor fling, 
 And the whole worUl give back the song 
 
 Which now the angels shig. 
 
 And when, at last, we shall clearly know what we now dimly see in 
 Jesus Christ, that " Love is righteousness in action"; that mercy is the 
 necessary instrument of justice, that " good has been the final goal of ill "; 
 and 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 righteousness — then shall we also see that " there is one 
 body and one spirit, even as also we were called in one hope of our calling: 
 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and father of all, who is over 
 all and through all and in all." Then shall we see " that unto each one of 
 us was this grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ, and 
 we shall all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the 
 Son of God; unto a full-grown man ; unto the measure of the stature of the 
 fullness of Christ," and " Every kindred, every tribe, on this terrestrial ball, 
 to Him all majesty ascribe and crown Him lord of all." 
 
 RECONCILIATION VITAL, NOT VICARIOUS. 
 
 REV. THEODORE F. WRIGHT. 
 
 There are certain dicta of scripture which are universal because funda- 
 mental and fundamental because universal. One of these is that saying 
 of the Apostle John, " God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in 
 God and God in him." Once of sympathies so narrow that he was for 
 bringing fire from heaven down upon a village which would not receive his 
 Lord as He journeyed, he was now so tenderly conscious of the infinite love 
 which had sought him out and gathered him, that he conld say: " He that 
 loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love; beloved, if God so love us, we 
 also ought to love one another."
 
 472 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 John had attained to thiB conviction by the process of religious 
 experience Others have seen the same infinite fact written m vernal fields 
 and ripening harvests. Others find it in the intricate harmony of natural 
 forces They all see that there is as the center and source of life a fount- 
 ain of fatherliness which is even begetting and nurturing, so that, indeed, 
 we can not conceive of the idle God, the neglectful God, or the God of 
 limited interests. Our minds will not work until we place before them the 
 ever-creating God who neither slumbers nor sleeps; the ever-presenl help. 
 •' Peradventure He sleepeth" might be said of Baal, for there was no 
 answer; but when Elijah called on the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
 Israel, " tlie fire of the Lord fell." , , j. . , ^u wu * n 
 
 It is in the light of this fact of the universal divme love that the fallen 
 condition of man finds its remedy disclosed. There may have been a time 
 when this light was so dim that Judaism fancied its God a partisan, and a 
 regressive Christianity thought that it had ascertained the limits of the 
 divine care, but now we know that God is one, and that " His tender mer- 
 cies are over all His work." This being so, it is true to say that fallen man 
 was succored by the same love that created him. The father of the prodi- 
 gal does not sulk in his tent while some elder brother is left to search out 
 the wanderer and bring him in, pointing to the wounds he got in rescuing 
 him as a means of softening thebeartof the father; nay, the father watches 
 the pathway with longings, and sends his love after the boy, and when the 
 wayward one is yet a great way off, he sees, he hath compassion, he runs, 
 he falls on his neck, he kisses him, he bids ihem bring the robe, the ring, 
 the shoes, the fatted calf, he reproves the cold vindictiveness of the elder 
 brother, he is all shepherd-like. 
 
 We need not dogmatize as to the fallen state of man. Intellectually, 
 man has not fallen. He is as bright as he ever was. He is growing brighter. 
 The evolution of the intellect is indisputable. But as to the will, what is 
 man? Is he the worshiping child that he once was? Does he eagerly do 
 the truth he learns or does he find it necessary to compel himself 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 depths. The motives 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 days of Roman sensuality 
 and Jewish hypocrisy, and so do our daily chronicles testify to-day. 
 
 The cure for the lost sheep is to seek for it till it is found. "All we like 
 sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." (Is. liii. 
 6.) The question is: How should the Divine Lord accomplish the purpose 
 with which it must be teeming — the recovery of the last state? Our answer 
 is in general to say that the remedy was within the keeping of the infinite 
 love and wisdom which had so far made and conducted man, or we mvist 
 hold some view which limits the Holy One of Israel. If God would come 
 with any mercy He must descend to the place of the fallen. If He would 
 conquer the evil without destroying them, He must contend with them on 
 their own plane. To take upon Himself the nature born of woman would 
 be His means of redemption, He must take on the office of Joshua, who 
 led the people out of the wilderness into their inheritance. And a virgin 
 conceived and bore a son, and called His name Jesus — that is Joshua. The 
 Wisdom or Word of God was made flesh so that we behold the glory of the 
 Father. It was the Father in the Son who did the works. 
 
 How marvelously clear are the prophetic songs of Mary and Zacharias! 
 She said: " My spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior. He hath showed 
 strength with His arm. He hath holpen His servant, Israel, in remem- 
 brance of His mercy, as He spake to our fathers." And the father of the
 
 RECONCILIATION VITAL, NOT VICARIOUS. \~:\ 
 
 forerunner said: " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for lie hath visited 
 and redeemed His people; that we, being delivered out of tiie hands of our 
 enemies, might serve Him without fear all the days of our life; the day- 
 spring from on higii hath visited us, to give light to thorn that sit in dark- 
 ness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of jjeace." 
 Therefore John the IJaptist jtroclaimed Him as the "Laml) of (Joil that 
 taketh away the sin of the world," and then-fore He bade His liearers jire- 
 pare the way of Jehovah and make strait His i)ath. 
 
 Born of woman, and so o[)(mi to every temptation, He was early led to 
 find the written word, His light of life. Ho went about his Father's busi- 
 ness by expounding it. Tried in the wilderness, lie made no other answer 
 than the law. Going about tloing good. He healed the sick and gave sight 
 to the blind and brought good tidings to the meek. At Jerusalem he 
 cleansed the temple of its corruption even as he was daily rendering His 
 own nature the temple of God. The inevitable conflict was not shunned. 
 The perceived unfaithfulness of many did not provoke a word of resent- 
 ment. The attempts of habitual sinners of this world ami the other to 
 overthrow him failed again and again, but it was inevitable that there 
 must be a last and most direful assault. He foresaw it, but behold the 
 conduct of infinite love. He bathed His disciples' feet in order to teach 
 them the new commandment of love to one another. He bade them be 
 not troubled, and spoke of the peace He had to give to them. He chas- 
 tened Himself in the gartlen. On His way to the cross He asked tliem to 
 weep rather for themselves than for Him. He gave the mother a son to 
 care for her old age. To perjured Peter His answer had been but a look. 
 To the false accusations He had been dumb. For His love they were His 
 adversaries, but He gave Hmiself unto prayer. 
 
 Rising again He came with indescril)ablo gentleness to the recognition 
 of Mary Magdalene. To the two discouraged disciples He was all patience. 
 To doubting Thomas He was infinitely condescending. As He stood there 
 for the time made visible to their spiritual sight, having ent(>red where the 
 doors were shut, He was the embodnuent of prophecy fulfilled, of divine 
 love triumphant. He was. He is "our Lord and our God," "the bright- 
 ness of His glory, the express image of His person." 
 
 This is no merely vicarious act of a subordinate or additional person of 
 God. It was the act of God Himself to restore the vital union between 
 man and Himself, that union which man had severed by increasing self- 
 assertion, waywardness, and wickedness, and which could only be renewed 
 by contrition and return and reconciliation. In the case of the man 
 healed of his blindness in the ninth chapter of John we have fii'st the evil 
 condition, then the remedy offered, next the remedy accepted; at once the 
 cure effected, and finally a vital vinion of safety for him established with 
 the Lord, as shown by his saying, "Lord, I believe," and by his worshiping 
 Him. In luore difficult cases, as we know by some experience, the knowl- 
 edge of the remedy may be cold and unfruitful in the memory until in 
 seeking to lead a less selfish light, to be worthy of a loving wife or a 
 trusting child, or to consecrate our lives in full to the Lord's service, wo 
 begin to form new motives with the divine aid, to hate what we once wick- 
 edly loved, and to love what we once wickedly hated, and so, little by little, 
 born from above, a new heart is formed within us, and we come to act as 
 faithful rather than as unfaithful servants of the Lord, as friends rather 
 than as enemies. So do we cease to do evil and learn to do well, if we will. 
 
 Thus we may see that the will and the power 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 redeemed through repent- 
 ance and regeneration is just what man's fallen state required and 
 requires. It is precisely as Paul said: " God was in the Christ reconciling 
 of the world unto Himself." (2 Cor., v., 19.) And" again he said " In him
 
 474 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." (Col., xi 9.) " We dwell 
 in Him " said John once more, " and He in us; we loved Him because He 
 tirst loved us." " This is the true God and eternal life." 
 
 That uncreated beauty whieh has gained 
 My raptured heart, has all my glory stain 
 His loveliness ray soul has prepossessed, 
 And left no room for any other guest. 
 
 THE ESSENTIAL ONENESS OF ETHICAL IDEAS 
 AMONG ALL MEN. 
 
 REV. IDA C. HULTIN. 
 
 Of ethical ideas, not of ethical systems or doctrines, am I bidden to speak 
 to-day. Let me say ethical sense. ' It will mean the same and be more sim- 
 ple. The universality 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 whole then 
 that which is an essential quality of one part must be common to the whole. 
 Through all life not only an eternal purpose runs, but an eternal moral pur- 
 pose. "Human history has been a struggle 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 miiTor back the world, that chisels the lichen's circle and paints 
 the sunset, that draws the lily from the black ooze of the pond and calls 
 the atoms to their foreordained places in the crystal — this law is ineradi- 
 cably 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 accumu- 
 lates and passes on in increasing power from generation to generation, the 
 results of all struggle, and you have an all-sufficient answer about the whence 
 of this ethical sense. We do not deny the truth of the cumulative tendency 
 of experience, but we do deny that it solves all of the problem. Would this 
 not be evolution doing that which it claims can not be done, creating some- 
 thing out of nothing? If the fittest — morally as well as physically ^ — is to 
 survive, then there must have been something that had the element of 
 fitness to start with. In the fire-unit and world-stuft" of our solar system's 
 beginning there were the elements, or element, from which, through change 
 and growth, has come the multiplicity of the life of our world. What 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 human 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 \/ill not always be so, and what 
 will the life of it be when it is not an oak tree? Did sun and rain and storms 
 and seasons create the oak? Then plant a piece from your polished oak 
 table, give it to the earth and the sun, and the 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 places 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
 
 ESSENTIAL ONENESS OF ETHICAL IDEAS. 475 
 
 same invisible spirit that you mean when you pronounce another 
 Ucime. We each know that the other is but naming his or her best concej)- 
 tion of the intinile, and if we should i)ut all of these words together, we 
 would not have thf whole name, for the secri't of its iironuneiation lieth 
 with Him, whose children we all are. This all-pervading jirinci])!!' this 
 sense of right, of good, that we find to be the possession of all pt'()j)l('s. of life, 
 isitnot God in us! You may call it a categorical imperative, a jjrimitive ele- 
 ment in the soul, a sense rooted in the nature of things, the moral sense of 
 the universe, what you will, it is the sign and seal of our heredity from 
 God. Mine, yours, ours, humanity's. Humanity is not CJod-touched in 
 spots, with ])rimitive exterior revelations on mountain to\>p for a chosen 
 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 ! — then hunger for righteousness. An eternal search — 
 an eternal finding. The resistless sweep of the divine forces bears man on 
 to newer and ever newer birtlis. 
 
 We find that we can not speak of ethical principles without touching 
 religit)us realities. JL/et us identify morals with religion. Is it not time? 
 I do not mean by religion theological formulas, creeds, doctrines. I do not 
 mean a religion. I mean religion. The science of man's highest develoj)- 
 ment, jjhysical, mental, moral development. There is no part of life that 
 may not, ought not to be religious. You can not make one part of your 
 nature religious, as though it were a side issue of real living. In the last 
 analysis it becomes at-one-ment with the nature of things with God. Not 
 simply dependence on, as though there was a full sway from Him, l)ut con- 
 sciousness of unity, and as if we craved the imity as if He needed us and 
 e were hastening 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 condi- 
 tions. It is humanity on the road toward God 
 
 How rarely do we enter into the full possibilities of our high heritage. 
 They who have learned to live on the heights have been the prophet souls 
 of all ages and all races. The multitudinous voice of humanity has uttered 
 itself tiirough 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 possible 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 nuin is recognized and there is 
 a conscious reach toward him, but because back of worm and clod there is 
 the same persuasive power tliat impelled man to be man, that led him to 
 lay hold of the forces of the universe and comijcl them to serve him. 
 Through the realization of the divine potency of the ethical sense in the 
 experience of his own life, man becomes conscious of God, 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 meaning of these common relationships. Here is the 
 explanation of life's details. They are all manifestations of God. He is 
 Lord of these hosts; He is all. And we find Him only as we tread loyally 
 the pathway of the common jilace. Relationship to Him is the culmination 
 of all these lesser relationships.
 
 47G THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 We turn from seeking- Thee afar 
 
 And in unwonted ways. 
 To build from out our daily lives 
 
 The temples of Thy praise. 
 
 Humanity does not reach its best life through any scheme of redemp- 
 tion, but through an age-long struggle with God. It is not "What shall I 
 do to be paved?" but " What shall J do to inherit eternal life. The moral 
 man is obeying the God-voice, whether he knows to call it that or not. Is 
 he denied theological classification? Well, it will not be surprising if he 
 enters heaven without a label. He who can not hear God, see God, feel 
 God in the living, potent things of the every day must buy a book 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 not a law unto itself. 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 
 gathering, 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, reveahng 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 lightning" 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 emancipa- 
 tion 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 sense of the humanity of which she is a part is lifting her out 
 into the fullness of religious liberty. She does not come into the fellow- 
 ship to write creeds nor to impose dogmas, but to co-operate in such high 
 living as shall make possible religiousness. She comes to help do away 
 with false standards of conduct by demanding morality for morality, purity 
 for purity, self-respecting manhood for self-respecting womanhood. She 
 will help remove odious distinctions on account of sex and make one code 
 of morals do for both men and women. This not alone in the Western 
 world, where circumstances have been more propitious for woman's advance- 
 ment, 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 work of the world there 
 would not be needed so many clubs and associations and institutions for 
 philanthropic work. Men and women in the churches and out of them do 
 this work. While theologians are busy with each other and the creeds 
 these men and women, belonging to all countries and all races, who, perhaps, 
 have not had time to formulate their beliefs about humanity, are busy 
 working for it. Those who have never known how to define God are finding 
 Him in their daily lives. Faith? Yes, but faith without works is dead. 
 When the ethical intent has been 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 advancement it is useless. It 
 was well said from this platform a few days ago, not Christianity, but 
 Christ, I plead. Many of us are not particular about the Christian name, 
 but we do care about the Christ spirit; that same spirit that has been the 
 animating force in every prophet life. The religious aspirations that give 
 birth to the ethical science, that made to be alive old 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."
 
 RELIGION AND MUSIC. 477 
 
 When you reineniber sumo of the things th;it have been taught anil have 
 been done in the name of Christ, do you wonder that our brother said, "If 
 such be llie Christian ethics, well, wo are perfectly satisfied to be heathen." 
 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 peopled This 
 penticostal 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 fellowsiiip of this time may there grow a divinal love 
 for all that is liuman; a deeper reverence anil braver faitli 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. 
 
 RELIGION AND MUSIC. 
 
 PROF. WALDO S. PRATT OF HARTFORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 
 
 Where religion has been exalted among men there music has 
 been among her most honorable handmaidens. This union, seen 
 among the barbarous and civilized alike, is a reasonable and natural 
 union. It is not a caprice or fashion, nor an arbitrary or accidental connec- 
 tion. The more we know of the real nature and sources of both religion 
 and music the better we see why they should co-e.xist and co-operate. 
 Essentially diverse as the two certainly are, in themselves belonging to 
 different categories of thought, yet experience shows that between the 
 inward realities of religion and the outwai'd realities of music there exists 
 a genuine correspondence. Religion is the most ideal interest of practical 
 life, and music is the most ideal of the fme arts. The spiritual ideality of 
 religion lays hold eagerly upon the artistic ideality of music as a fit means 
 for its own incorporation, and the means proves singularly suitetl to the 
 desire. The basal substance of religion is essentially spiritual, but religion 
 in practical life is constantly taking on concrete forms, anil for this purpose 
 what could be more natural than to utilize such an artistic vehicle as that 
 of the art of tone? 
 
 To be sure, music naturally belongs with the social side of religion rather 
 than with its private side. The secret intercourse between the soul and 
 God has no absolute need of music or any other sensuous formulation. 
 Only so far as this inmost intercourse expands into a social institution, 
 where outward expression is a necessity, is there a special demand for such 
 a voice as that of music. The solitary worshiper may set his prayers and 
 praise in forms of song as a fuller moileof utterance than cold words, buthe 
 is not likely to do this unless he has first learned the value of song as an 
 implement of social intercourse. Music, in all its typical developments, is 
 a golden currency flowing back and forth among men, and is hardly con- 
 ceivable except where evoked by some strong social motive. 
 
 I am aware that this statement will be thought extreme. The old spec- 
 tacular or pyrotechnic notion of music still lingers as one of the relics of a 
 lifeless theory of the fine arts generally. To not a few, music is nothing but 
 the manufacture and explosion of tone fireworks, whose noise and brilliance 
 tickle the senses and amuse the attention without transmitting or being 
 able to transmit any particular message, certainly not a message of any 
 serious import. But such a notion, however common and well received, is 
 a crudity and an anachronism. Surely it totally fails to exfjlaiu the patent 
 facts of music's imperial position in civilizoil society. 
 
 Music stands with the drama and with literature as chief among the
 
 478 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Hno-irts to-day. not because of the sensuous sparkle and sweetness of its 
 ,,roaucts(.r because of their curious intricacy and statuesque subhmity 
 !;smeie constructions, but because, like the drama andjxke^ hterat^ure, it 
 
 merely as a surface delight, by whomsoever it may be put to lesser uses 
 his personal eloquence of music is its essential fascination and its secret of 
 nowor Music is a voice proclaiming something that demands utterance. 
 It is also an intelligible and persuasive voice setting the user in real rela- 
 tions of fellowship and influence as regards the hearer. No other view of 
 the nature of music will comport with the known facts of its place in the 
 economy of the civilized world. 
 
 Herein is the justiticatioii of the almost constant presence of music in 
 the social rites of 'religion. Common sense perceives, even in spite of tra- 
 ditional pressure to the contrary, that the core ot religion is not mere 
 beliefs not mere sentiments, not mere resolves, certainly not merely exter- 
 nal ritual or regimen. lieligion is not anything merely of or in or tor 
 the individual man. The core of religion is mutual communion or inter- 
 course between personalities, intercourse multiform, progressive, and of 
 iucHlculal)le spiritual content; and the primary communion that constitutes 
 religion is between man and God. One side of this mutual process, that 
 from man to God, is what we call " worship," using the word in the broad 
 sense that includes conduct as well as formal prayer and praise. The other 
 side of the process, that from Uod to man, is variously covered by terms 
 hke " revelation," " providence," "redemption," and the like. The recip- 
 rocality of the two processes is obvious, and the two together make up the 
 heart of religion. Just how the reciprocation occurs, by what terms its 
 many stages shall be distinguished, how the several stages are related to 
 each other-- these and many other kindred questions are not pertinent to 
 this paper. . 
 
 For us the important thing is to observe two features ot the visible 
 working of religion in the world. The first of these is that, although relig- 
 ion is essentially a spiritual affair, all we can know of it outside of our own 
 souls is through various sensuous embodiments; it is made manifest in 
 word and deed and character. The second feature is that, although relig- 
 ion is essentially a person^^l affair between every individual and God, its 
 necessity of outward manifestation makes it also a social affair; here, as so 
 universally in human life, the interaction of man with man is inevitable. 
 
 These two practical necessities in religion, the necessity of concrete man- 
 ifestation and the twin necessity of social value in such manifestation, have 
 their fullest expression in the institution, historic everywhere, of public 
 worship. In public worship may always be seen some concrete manifesta- 
 tion of currents of intercourse both from man to God and from God to 
 man, and in this manifestation there is a decided social reaction of man 
 upon man as they stand together in God's presence. These thoughts enable 
 us to see why music plays so large a part in the social manifestations of 
 religion in public worship. Music is a voice whereby unseen spiritual states 
 and motions are embodied and realized. As such a voice, it is an instru- 
 ment of intercourse between man and God and between men. Music may 
 have other reasonable applications, but there should be no question about 
 its religious application. The union of religion and music, as we said at the 
 outset, is a reasonable union. 
 
 Time fails for the amplification of these basal thoughts. Let us rather 
 turn to the corollaries that issue from them. Religious music, I have 
 claimed, is a language, not a mere festal robe, not a spectacular display, not 
 a lifeless apparition, but a language expressive of one personality and
 
 RELIGION AND MUSIC. 479 
 
 impressive upon other personalities. Assume that this is true, what 
 follows? 
 
 It follows, tirst, that as a lanfifuatxe its mossage or content should he 
 consonant with its occasion. Keli^nous music api)ears chirtiy as a pari of 
 public worship. What is the dcsi^ai of public worshijj? Is it not by the 
 help of symbolic sound and act to embody and consunuuate the inter- 
 actions between man and God whicii are religion, and at the same time to 
 embody and consummate the interactions between men in Ciod's jjresence, 
 which make religion a social as well as a personal ijower? The interactions 
 intended are between the sjjiritfiof the participants. The means em]jloyed — 
 music amonji: the rest — are jjertincnt only when they are expressivoof some 
 spiritual reality. Spiritual truthis the tirstof the qualities to bcdcmanded 
 in the thoroutih criticism of relisijious music. The message conveyed by 
 such music must be a genuine one, a heartfelt one, and one germane to the 
 ideal inter-relations between God and men and between men in his 
 presence. 
 
 But it will at once be objected that this doctrine is easy to preach, but 
 impossible to apply. It will be said that music has a protean suggest! ve- 
 ness, but no absolute content; that it is a powerful mental stimulant, l)ut 
 yields no solid nutriment; that it presents universal s}nibols or formula' of 
 emotional processes without supplying definite values for any of the 
 •mknown quantities emi)loyed. 
 
 Taking the relative accuracy of speech as a standard, this indictment 
 of vagueness is seemingly valid against music. Yet all language is made 
 up of conventional symbols, the precision and depth of which vary inhnitely 
 according to the standpoints of both si)eaker and hearer. Speech seems 
 precise and adequate because through extended usage the values of its 
 symbols have become relatively established and individualized. Music, 
 on the contrary, seems to many a mere haze or cloud of tones — massive, 
 perhaps, curiously compounded, roseate as v\'ith the glow of morning, but 
 impenetrable and mysterious nevertheless. Of what use is it, then, to talk 
 of the content of music':' How can the message of religious music be made 
 consonant with the design of public worship when no one can demonstrate 
 just what that message is and when some flatly deny that there is any 
 message whatever? 
 
 This charge that music, if it be in any sense a language, is a language 
 without any fixed values and manageable powers is natural enough and 
 common enough. Yet it can be successfully met in a variety of ways. Of 
 the many possible retorts I shall utilize here only three. On the subjective 
 side the known cliaracter of a man goes far toward fixing the meaning of 
 what he says. This fact is of radical importance in sacred music. The 
 time has been (and even still is) when the personal character of religious 
 musicians has been counted as of no value in fixing the meaning of their 
 music. Scoffers and profligates have been supposed capable of uttering 
 genuine messages of peace and love and joy, provided only that they use 
 the dialect of tone. Happily this foolishness is becoming antiquated. 
 Musical eloquence is being more and more tested as to subjective sin- 
 cerity exactly as every other kind of eloquence is tested. 
 
 Again, on the objective side, in every period and country established 
 manners and forms of musical utterance may be found among those who 
 are engaged in its study and use. A distinguished musician is reported to 
 have said, when asked to'speak of church music: "There is no such thing," 
 meaning that there is no style of music peculiar to church use. But this 
 opinion is not held by musicians generally. Most of them recognize a cir- 
 cle of qualities that constitute a religious style. In practical work their 
 artistic instinct leads them to determine with decided unanimity that cer- 
 tain compositions are by nature suitable for sacred use, and certain are not. 
 This artistic concensus regarding styles or forms is of the highest import-
 
 480 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 iince in a truly constructive theory of religious music. And once again, 
 the greater part of sacred music is vocal, and as such is a musical setting 
 of words. Surely this fact is decisive in fixing much of the value of musi- 
 cal expression in relation to religious purposes. Everyone vv'ill admit that 
 a verbal utterance must conform to the design of its occasion. Whether or 
 not a musical setting of words fully displays the verbal jewel committed to 
 it, to be otherwise determined in each case, but if a fair degree of suitable- 
 ness between text and setting be given, the problem of the consonance of 
 vocal music with its occasion should be plain almost to obviousness. 
 
 To recapitulate up to this point. Regarding sacred music as capable of 
 containing a message evidently and powerfully pertinent to the social man- 
 ifestations of religion, particularly in public worship, we have three ways 
 of cpntrolling the nature of this content or message, three paths always 
 open for earnest and enterprising progress. These three directions are, 
 briefly, the personality of religious musicians, the style of religious music, 
 and the words chosen for musical setting for religious use, including the 
 artistic consonance of the setting of the text. I forbear entering upon 
 details since the variety of views here represented about the methods of 
 public worship is too great to make detailed exposition proper, but the 
 apjjlication of these principles is manifest. 
 
 Every musician is not fitted to be a religious musician simply because 
 he is an artist. All kinds of music are not suited to be used as sacred 
 music simply because, artistically, they are interesting or even beautiful. 
 Setting words to music, however good, does not make the compound fit for 
 religious use, unless apart from the music they are thus fit and unless the 
 setting makes their fitness more apparent. These are cardinal principles 
 applicable to every phase of Christianity, and to every sincere religious 
 system whatsoever. They are axiomatic principles, needing only to be 
 stated to be accepted. And, yet, the history of religious music shows that 
 they have not always been perceived and certainly not always conscien- 
 tiously adopted as the rules of action. So long as they are unobserved, 
 religious music will be meaningless and neutral, if not false and positively 
 injurious. The specious cry of "art for art's sake " can not remove the 
 stubborn fact of experience that the finer-fine art is the more potent in its 
 message for good or for evil to every participant. 
 
 But there is another equally important side to this matter. We have 
 noted that if music be a language, its content should be consonant with 
 its occasion. We must now add that if it be a language its actual effect- 
 iveness should be diligently cultivated and perfected. Religious music, as 
 we have seen, should be genuinely expressive of something germane to 
 public worship. It should also be powerfully impressive to be really worth 
 while. Spiritual truth is the first of the qualities demanded; spiritual 
 power is the second. The first quality is mainly to be secured by magnify- 
 ing sincerity on the part of the one using such music. The second is 
 mainly to be secured by developing skill and by providing favorable cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 One frequently hears music in humble places among vmtrained singers 
 and players that is evidently sincere in its spiritual intent, but whose appli- 
 cation is so inartistic and untactful as to be quite ineffective. The zeal of 
 the gunner is most commendable, but his ammunition is poor and his aim 
 wide of the mark. Religious musicians of this sort ought to be respected 
 for their fidelity, but they suffer severely from technical criticism and 
 from the reaction of practical failure. It is unfortunately true that tech- 
 nical expertness without serious purpose often seems to be far more effect- 
 ive find valuable than even great earnestness of purpose without adequate 
 skill. So it has come to pass too often that religious music has been 
 intrusted to those to whom art is first and piety and edification second or 
 worse.
 
 RELIGION AND MUSIC. 481 
 
 It has been sometimes supposed that typical patriotism could be dis- 
 played by mercenary troops, if only they were veterans at their work. 
 Now, I venture to say that there will be unrest and ditlicidty whe'ever 
 reli}?ious music is handled without due ret,'ard to both truth and effective- 
 ness in conjunction and in due co-ordination. If a choice must bo made 
 no doubt truth is ideally of infinitely more value than mere outward 
 effectiveness. But sincerity without skill bunj^les its work so seriously as 
 really to discredit that which it seeks to serve. Music as a language is 
 highly special and peculiar. It may do more harm than good; even with 
 the best of intentions. Sincerity may carve the arrow, forge the tip, and 
 tit the feathers; but skill must see the mark and draw the bow. Truth is 
 as potent as steam or electricity, or any othernatural force; but truth, like 
 every physical force, must be made practically ellicieut by intelligent appli- 
 cation to a purpose before its power is manifest. 
 
 This brings me to two practical remarks. The first of these is that, 
 in many communities, there is altogether too much so-called religious 
 music. The forms of music are cultivated for traditional or sentimental 
 reasons, without a due sense of either the sincerity or the skill requisite to 
 make them valuable. The best interests of both religion and music would 
 be benefited by so checking such use as to force it to justify itself in both 
 directions. Many good things can be kei)t from deterioration only by some 
 kind of enforced rarity or choiceness. Speech is silver; but locjuacity is 
 pewter. The pure beauty and choiceness of words are sometimes only 
 seen when duly set off by golden silence. Love is sweet; but a life of 
 uninterrupted kisses ends in heart nausea. The divine cordial of tender- 
 ness must be sipped in drops or, perhaps, even put by for a time, if we would 
 keep its flavor and its restoring efficacy. 
 
 The poet, Sidney Lanier, with his seerlike insight, called music " love 
 in search of a word." His sensitive, music loving soul would have been 
 quick to agree, however, that a constant, heedless iteration of love's search 
 for utterance through tones would strip the language of song of all value 
 as a message bearer and hnally debase the love itself to a puppet. This is 
 what has happened with not a little religious music. It has been mechanic- 
 ally turned out by the yard and duplicated by the thousand until it is no 
 longer a message from one heart to another, and until it has actually 
 turned eonie tiearts to stone. Christianity has borne consummate flowers 
 of song, hymns that palpitate with precious heart throbs, melodies that 
 mount up on eagle's wings, anthems and oratories that seem to be fore- 
 tastes of the angelic praises; and yet these very blossoms have been so 
 imitated and reproduced in clumsy wax and flimsy paper that thousands 
 of would-be worshipers know nothing of the fragrant and fruitful orig- 
 inals and are even disgusted with the sham and paltriness of everything 
 called sacred music. This prevalent vulgarity of music in religious uses 
 is a grievous evil. It degrades the service of the art which is most 
 divine, not only by caricaturing its true serviceablenees l)ut by turning its 
 power to the slow destruction of the healthy religious feeling it was made 
 to build up. The remedy is largely to be sought in restriction, in absten- 
 tion, in prohibition, except when knowledge and skill and purpose all unite, 
 under favorable conditions, to take the tremendous forces of tone, as con- 
 centrated into the songs of voice and instrument, and turn them into pro- 
 pulsive and productive religious engines. Music is too precious to be 
 wasted or misused, least of all when on its golden petals is stamped the very 
 image of God's love as revealed in the Christian heart. 
 
 This suggests the other practical thought. Merely negative restraints 
 upon religious music will never make it good. They may cut off foolish and 
 fraudulent simulations of it. But* currency is not coined by suppressing 
 counterfeits. Side by side with restriction must be positive education. 
 JReligioa throughout the civilized world is a great social institution. It has
 
 482 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 its ecclesiasticdl organizations, its ranks of oflBcial leaders, its specialized 
 systems of instruction and training, its widespread and multifarious litera- 
 ture. In all these organized departments of religious activity, music should, 
 more than ever hitherto, be a prominent special object of thought, and care, 
 and effort. We have just been arguing that of certain pseudo-reUgious 
 music there should be less and less. What provision is being made by our 
 chief religious agencies that of real religious music there shall be more 
 and better ? This question is a pressing one. It is one to which little 
 satisfactorv answer is being given by our various religious bodies. 
 
 Among'the many branches of the Christian church, for example, there 
 are onlv a few communions in which music is explicitly recognized as a 
 true spiritual weapon, only isolated cases in which systematic musical dis- 
 cipline is regarded as in any way pertinent to religious education and 
 ministerial training, only a few noble men and women devoting their lives 
 to the study and use of religious music. One of the surest signs of neglect 
 of the subject is the rarity and poverty of literary work upon it. The 
 luminous treatises upon religious music in its larger aspects may be counted 
 on the fingers of one hand. Only in the single department of hymnody is 
 there any strong and ample thinking and publication, and even here hym- 
 nody is considered rather as a branch of poetry than as a mode of social 
 religious action. The consequence is that popular thought about religious 
 music, hymns, tunes, anthems, cantatas, oratorios, especially as related to 
 public worship, is notoriously defective, weak, fanciful, and unfruitful. 
 Speaking in a large way, it is safe to say that the churches have only barely 
 begun to master the skill to use music with thorough effectiveness, and 
 have not yet begun to supply that atmosphere of diffused popular appre- 
 ciation of religious music which is prerequisite to general and hopeful 
 progress. 
 
 I firmly believe that religious music as applied to Christian purposes is 
 as yet only in its infancy. How it is with non-Christian religions I do not 
 know; but with us the actual and the typical are very far apart. Nothing 
 but well considered and prolonged processes of education will bring them 
 together. The strong prejudices of some whose notion of music is wholly 
 wrong, the strong inertia of those whose eyes have never seen its majesty, 
 the deep-rooted traditions of the medieval time when music was only a 
 worldly luxury and diversion, the distrust engendered by the character and 
 work of many who wear the name of musician, the difficulties resulting 
 from the many secular uses to which music has been successfully put and 
 to which it has even been supposed exclusively to belong, the drift of our 
 time away from the more poetic and ideal of the fine arts — upon these and 
 many other obstacles to the desired educational advance we need not 
 enlarge. The path of true progress is beset with barriers, and is steep and 
 slippery. But unless our Christian energy and faith are willing to climb it 
 patiently and persistently the alternative is clear; either wise education, so 
 that sacred music shall better achieve its assumed mission, or a general 
 reduction and exclusion of it as an intruder and an alien. This thesis is 
 capable of much amplification and varied illustration, for which there is 
 here no time. 
 
 I do not share the belief of some musical enthusiasts that the coming 
 century will see such a degree of musical progress as to set music as the 
 exclusive language of higher sentiments of every sort. But I do believe 
 that in music, both instrumental and vocal, there are hidden vast treas- 
 ures of poetic truth and magazines of emotional power which are now 
 known only to the few and expended only for minor ends. The transcend- 
 ent human interest is religious truth and religious living. Music will cer- 
 tainly not have reached the culmination of its career as a fine art until it 
 has justly exhibited its unique aptitude for religious utterance and its 
 unique potency in religious stimulation. Within certain limits it is truly
 
 RELATION BETWEEN RELIGION AND CONDUCT. 483 
 
 unique. Within those limits its dignity oupht to be beyond debate, its serv- 
 ice freighted only with genuine benefit, and its use guarded and enhanced 
 by the best wisdom and the highest spirituality that religion can attain. 
 
 THE RELATION BETWEEN RELIGION AND 
 CONDUCT. 
 
 PROF. C. H. TOY OF HAliVARD UNIVERSITY 
 
 At the present time the external relation between conduct and religion 
 is an intimate one. All religious ministers and manuals are also instruct- 
 ors in ethics; our sacred books and our pulpits alike emphasize coniluct. 
 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 inter- 
 mingling of moral and religious ideas has been parallel with the growth of 
 society. One test of the elevation of a 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 general the highest culture that has the purest 
 religion. The union between the two elements of life is further strength- 
 ened by the fact that religion has given powerful sanctions to morality. 
 By a natural process of thought men have always identified their moral 
 conceptions with the will of the Deity, and ethical rules have been sup- 
 ported by theories of divine rewards and punishments. 
 
 The subject of our inquiry is to discover, if possible, the precise relation 
 between the religions and the ethical sides of our nature in order that each 
 may have due recognition and best perform its function in human develop- 
 ment. The necessary harmonious co-operation of the two can be secured 
 only by doing justice to both, by allowing neither to usurp the place of the 
 other. 
 
 Our thesis, then, may be expressed as follows: Morality is comple- 
 mentary to religion, or it is the independent establishment of the laws of 
 conduct which help to furnish the content of the unretined religious ideal. 
 Religion, properly speaking, has no thought content; it is merely a senti- 
 ment, an attitude of soul toward an idea, the idea of an extra human 
 power. The religious sentiment does not know what is the ethical char- 
 acter of its object till it has learned it from human life. Morality is the 
 human reflection of divine goodness, produced by the same human endow- 
 ments 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, testhetics, and ethics. Let 
 us look at certain facts in man's moral religious history which appears to 
 illustrate our part of this thesis. 
 
 First, it may l)e 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, Palestine, and Greece, 
 show remarkable unanimity in the rules of conduct which they lay down. 
 The common life of the people was about the same in all lands. Whatever 
 the status, a member in a given class in one country is not to be dis- 
 tinguished on the ethical side from his confreres elsewhere. Judean and
 
 484 THE PA.RLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Persian prophets. Chinese and Greek sages, when they are called on to act, 
 show 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 regu latino commerce and general social relations 
 were scarcely different throughout the ancient civilized world if we com- 
 pare similar periods and circles. David acts toward his enemies very much 
 as does one of the Homeric chieftains or one of the heroes of the Mahab- 
 harata. The internal politics and court life of Judea remind us of the 
 parallel history of China, India, and Egypt. The prevarication of Jere- 
 miah and the trickery of Jacob may be compared with the wiles of Odysseus 
 and with double-dealing the world over. Instances of beautiful friendship 
 between men like those of Jonathan and David, and Damon and Pythias 
 are found everywhere. 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 the whole to the increasing refinement and the increasing recog- 
 nition of the value of the individual. The position of woman was not 
 materially different in the different peoples. Notwithstanding certain 
 restrictions she played a great role, not only as wife and mother, but also in 
 literature and statesmanship, among Egyptians, Chinese, Hindus, Greeks, 
 and Romans. 
 
 From this ethical uniformity we must infer that the moral development 
 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 everywhere. 
 
 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 characterized by an almost 
 complete ignoring of the divine element in human thought. These are 
 Confucianism, Buddhism and Stoicism and Epicureanism. 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 sys- 
 tems, 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, which 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 community; instead of 
 which they of tener 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 of corruption. Protestants and Catholics 
 alike burned heretics. 
 
 The English Puritans of the 17th century were the most religious and 
 the most barbarous and unscrupulous of men. In our day the same evil 
 spirit sometimes disfigures our political assemblies and appears sometimes 
 also in our religious bodies. Trades and 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.
 
 RELATION BETWEEN RELIGION AND CONDUCT iSo 
 
 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 am owner there 
 can be no such thing as dishonesty. Thus, in a family, a fathor can not 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 something 
 gooi.1, as the means of supplying a want. Another dog or savage snatches 
 it. What is the feeling of the origmal possessor? Sim])ly that he has 
 lost a good thing, and that he desires to get it back. If lie fails to recover 
 it his judgment of the situation is two-fold; 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 successful marauder in hie turn suffers 
 similtvr loss and makes similar reflection. 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 a while acquires permanent property, a bow and arrow, 
 the loss of which involves not merely a momentary but a permanent failure 
 of resources. He perceives that he secures the greatest good for himself 
 by an understanding with his fellows which assume to each the use of his 
 own possessions. As social relations have become more numerous the 
 advantage of such an arrangement becomes more and more evident, and 
 the respect for the property of others becomes 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 members 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 prop- 
 erty 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 there 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 con- 
 trary 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 fol- 
 lowed King Richard to Palestine, the declaration of the poet that the waves 
 ran mountain high, the assertion of Tallrand 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-being. 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. 
 
 But there are two situations in which concealment is violation of truth- 
 fulness; when a man from his position is expected to speak and his silence
 
 486 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 will be misleading, and when, being a public teacher in science, art, or 
 religion he uses phrases which he knows to be understood by his audi- 
 ence in one sense while he employs them in another sense. There is still a 
 more subtle form of untruthfulness in which a man deliberately turns his 
 mind away from certain evidence for fear it will change his opinion. This 
 procedure is fatal to the intellect and to the soul; it obscures thought and 
 prevents conscience, and is therefore a worry to oneself. This is an illus- 
 tration of how the clever recognition of the dignity of the individual refines 
 our conceptions of duty. , .i- , 
 
 The same law of growth governs the history of the more general ethical 
 conceptions. Love in its earliest form is non-moral— it is mere desire or 
 instinct. The affection of the untrained man for his child, or his family, 
 or tribe, is not controlled by considerations of right. It must be ethically 
 ineffective till experience and culture have determined its proper objects, 
 Two conditions must be fulfilled before love can rise to the ethical plane. 
 First, it must be transformed from selfish desire into a single-minded wish 
 to secure the well-being of its object, and then it must know what is well- 
 being. Both these conditions are attained through social intercourse. 
 
 The standard of good is determined, as we have seen above, by the 
 observation of what is needed in society for the perfecting of each and all. 
 The devotion to the interests of the individual is likewise a generalization 
 from the facts of experience. The consciousness of one's own personality 
 and its needs leads to the recognition of the other personalities and her 
 claims. Thus the best ethical thinkers of the world have in different lands 
 come to the identification of oneself with others as the leading principle 
 of moral life— the golden rule. Only is it to be observed that this rule is 
 valueless unless a moral standard has been previously established. To do 
 to others as I wish them to do to me is morally inefficacious in conduct 
 unless I wish what is right. In a word, love is an impulse without moral 
 content. Its proper objects must be determined in part by ethical expe- 
 rience and its method of procedure must be learned in the same way. 
 
 It is no less true that it is from social intercourse that we gain the final 
 and fundamental standard of conduct, the idea of justice. The recognition 
 of individual rights is a product of reflection on social experience out of 
 which two conceptions inevitably flow — namely, the absolute right of the 
 individual to perfection, and the absolute right of society to perfection. 
 These two conceptions, which appear on the surface to be mutually antago- 
 nistic, are reconciled by the fact that the individual finds his perfection 
 only in society. 
 
 A fundamentally wrong theory of life is involved in the statement that 
 the individual surrenders certain rights for the sake of living in society. 
 The proper statement is that he comes to self-consciousness, to individual- 
 ity, and, therefore, to rights and perfection only in society. At the same 
 time, the content of justice is determined by social relations. It is only by 
 experience that we can say that we owe just so much to each person. When 
 we have determined this we have determined everything. There is nothing 
 higher than this. Love can do no more than recognize the rights of every 
 being, for to do more would be wrong. Mercy is only a name for a higher 
 thought of justice, it is the recognition of the fact that, under the circum- 
 stances, 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 observation 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 prop- 
 erly that regard for self-development which all the highest schemes of life 
 recognize as a fundamental and necessary principle. It is contained in the
 
 RELATION BETWEEN RELIGION AND CONDUCT. 487 
 
 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 unselfish- 
 ness. What 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 (jf happiness. 
 
 Religion, the souse of relation to the extra human power of the universe, 
 introduces us to a new social complex. In morality the parties are man 
 and man; in religion man and God. In our moral relations with a person 
 or government there are two classes of influence to be consitlered— the 
 moral power of the personality and a restraining or impelling i)o\ver 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 bettor for a college student, physically and 
 intellectually, not to study after midnight, and that he does stop work at 
 that hour. Whether this is a moral X'rocess depends on the consideration 
 which has formed his habit. If he has himself, through observation of 
 his life and that of others, reached the conclusion 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 ])enalties 
 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 may be considered to bo 
 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 con- 
 trol of self in the interest of organic development. But supernatural 
 sanctions are inorganic and non-moral, since they do not appeal to a rational 
 self-control. He who is honest merely to escape punishment or receive 
 reward fixed by external law is not honest at all. But 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 supernatural 
 sort that is meant. It is an interesting question how far the belief in these 
 is now morally effective. That it has at various times been influential can 
 not be doubted. In the ancient world and in medieval Europe the deity 
 was believed to intervene supernaturally in this life for the protection of 
 innocence and the punishment of wickedness; but this belief appears to be 
 vanishing and can not be called an effective moral force at the present day. 
 Men think of reward and punishment as belonging to the future, and this 
 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 retri- 
 bution is passing away; it is becoming more and more the conviction 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 element 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 them- 
 selves obligatory on the world of men, but they acquire a universal char-
 
 498 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 acter only when we remember that human nature itself is an effluence 
 of the divine and that human experience is the divine self -revelation. 
 
 Further, the consciousness of the divine presence should be the most 
 potent factor in man's moral life. The thought of the ultimate basis of 
 life, incomprehensible in His essence, yet known through His self-out- 
 puttinp 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 every-day fact; such a 
 purifying and uplifting influence as no merely human relationship has ever 
 engendered. 
 
 Religion, then, in itself furnishes us with no rules of conduct; it accepts 
 the rules worked out by human experience. There is no moral precept, 
 high or low, in any ethical manual or sacred book which has not been expe- 
 rienced, discovered, created, tested, approved by man himself, living his 
 life in svmpathetic relationship with his fellow-creatures. The deepest, the 
 ultimate source of our ethical codes, as actual phenomena, is social unity. 
 It is this that cultivates sympathy, evokes the recognition of the right of 
 the individual man to perfection, defines that perfection, and creates the 
 moral ideal. The building up of this unity is the highest moral duty of us 
 all, and offense to it is the blackest sin of which man is capable. He who 
 perpetuates distinction of caste and class, who by any social or religious 
 code rears artificial barriers between man and man, and thus hinders the 
 free interplay of social forces and the free communion and cb-operatipn of 
 individual men, commits a crime of far deeper import than the ordinary 
 offenses which excite our indignation. 
 
 Here we see the moral function of love, it has no code, but it is an 
 impulse which tends to foster unity. Nowhere is this fact more clearly 
 recognized than in the Sermon on the Mount, which denounces all selfish 
 antagonism, and involves, though it does not explicitly state, the conception 
 of social unity as the basis of moral life. Religion, accepting the ethical 
 code established by man, identifies it with the will and nature of Deity, a 
 procedure to which no exception can be taken. The impetus which thus 
 comes to the moral life is obvious. There is the enthusiasm which springs 
 from the consciousness of being a part of a vast scheme, buoyancy given 
 by hopefulness or certainty of final victory, and the exultation of loyalty 
 to a great aim and a transcendent person. 
 
 The true power of religion lies in the contact between the divine soul 
 and the soul of man. It must be admitted that to attain this is no easy 
 thing. To feel the reality of a divine personality in the universe, to value 
 this personality as the ideal of justice and love, to keep the image of it 
 fresh and living in the mind day by day in the midst of the throng of petty 
 and serious cares of life, demands an imaginative power and a force of will 
 rarely found among men. It is in this power that the great creative 
 religious minds have excelled. The mass of religious people are controlled 
 by lower considerations and never reach the plane of pure religious feel- 
 ing. Most men look to God as their helper in physical things or as an out- 
 side lawyer, rather than as their comrade in moral struggle. 
 
 Thus, religion has not come to its rights in the world; it still occupies, 
 as a rule, the low plane of early non-moral thought, but is there any reason 
 why it should continue in this massive shape? Is there anything to 
 prevent our living in moral contact w4th the soul of the world, and thence 
 deriving the inspiration and strength we need? What has been done by 
 some may be done in a measure by all. Inadequate conceptions of God and 
 of the moral life must be swept away, the free activity of the human soul 
 must be recognized and relied on, the habit of contemplation of the ideal 
 m-ust be cultivated; we must feel ourselves to be literally and truly 
 co-workers with God. 
 
 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.
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. 
 
 480 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN; ITS PRESENT CONDITION 
 AND FUTURE PROSPECTS. 
 
 HARNICHI KOZAKI, PRESIDENT OF DOSHISHA UNIVERSITY, JAPAN. 
 
 Progress of Christi;inity in Japan isquito remarkable. 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 missionaries have been working more than seventy years, and there 
 are more self-supporting churches tliere than in China, where a double or 
 thrice number of missionaries have been working nearly a century. In 
 Japan, Christian jjapers and magazines are all edited by the natives, not 
 only in name but in reality. 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 tofind the native Christians writing Christian books 
 or editing papers. Only recently the Christum, the most influential Chris- 
 tian paper in Japan, had a symposium to name fifteen books which are 
 most useful in leading men to Christianity, instructing Christians and giv- 
 ing good counsel to young people; and it is interesting to see that most of 
 the books named are those written or translated by Japanese Christians. 
 
 Christianity in Japan has already reached a stage that no other mis- 
 sionary fields have ever attained. Their native Christians not only take a 
 part in all discussions, but they are in fact leading all kinds of discussions, 
 theological as well as practical. They are leading, not only in all kinds of 
 Christian work, literary and evangelistic, educational and charitable, but 
 they are also leading Christian thought in Japan. Let me relate one or 
 two instances. 
 
 Some six or seven years ago, when we were contemplating the 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 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 con 
 fession was drawn up by a committee, consisting entirely of Japanese, and 
 adopted in the general council, in which missionaries took very little or no 
 part. In Japan missionaries 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 seen in other countries. 
 
 One distinctive feature lies in the peculiarity of the constituency of its 
 membership. In other countries female members always predominate. 
 For instance in most of the churches in this country, female members are 
 almost two to one in proportion to male members. The membership of the 
 Congregational Church in 1892 stands as follows: 
 
 Male members 170,000 
 
 Female members 350,000 
 
 But 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 
 year is this: 
 
 Male members 6.087 
 
 Female members 5,087 
 
 Another fact we may notice is the predominance of young people in our 
 churches. You may 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
 
 490 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONB. 
 
 vounff faces. We have not yet taken any statistics of members as to their 
 a<'e But anyone who has experience in Christian work there notes this 
 peculiarity. The last year when Dr. F. E. Clark, president of the Y. P. b. 
 C E was in Japan, in advising the need of that society, he said that young 
 people were hard to reach and were diffident and slow to take any part in 
 Christian work. But the case is different there. In many places young 
 peopb are the only people who are accessible. They 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 pre- 
 dominant and take everything into their hands that elderly people feel 
 often quite annoyed. „ ,, r^i . i -.-i. i 
 
 One more point is the predominance of the Shizoku or military class. 
 They have been and still are the very brains of the Japanese people. 
 Though they are not usually well off in material wealth, they are supe- 
 rior intellectually and morally. Christians in other missionary fields are 
 usually from the lower classes. In India the Brahmans rarely become 
 Christians, neither do the literary class in China. But in Japan the 
 Shizoku class take a lead. 
 
 These peculiarities in the constituency of the membership oi Christian 
 churches in Japan may be accounted for by the simple fact that the males, 
 the young, and the Shizoku classes are most accessible. The Shizoku class 
 as a body has had hitherto almost no religion, and they have been mostly 
 Confucianists. By the last revolution they 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 thus accessible 
 to new truth. And so it is with meri 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-supporting churches. 
 But 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 sectarian or 
 denominational spirit. About thirty different denominations of Protestant 
 churches, represented by about an equal number of missionary boards, are 
 on the field, each teaching its own peculiar tenets. But they 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 principle or spirit the greater is the number 
 of their converts. Anyone who is at all conversant with the history of 
 denominations knows that all over the world, other things being equal, 
 denominations having stronger denominational spirit are making greater 
 gains in their membership than those vi^hich have less. But in Japan it is 
 the exception. 
 
 We have been having, at first annually, but lately once in three years, 
 what was called " Dai Shin Baku Kwai," which is afterward changed into 
 the Evangelical alliance, the meeting of all Christians in Japan, irrespective 
 of denominations or churches— the most popular and interesting meeting 
 we have. Japanese Christians did not know any distinction in denomina- 
 tions or churches. But 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 circumstance which could in no way be controlled, 
 there is no wonder that these Christians begin to ask : Why should not 
 we, all Christians, unite in 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
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. 491 
 
 essentially undenominational. You may see that the church which adopts 
 Presbyterian forms of sovernmont 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 Kiuisuto Kio Kwai," "The Church of Christ in 
 Japan." 
 
 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 for a long time had no name 
 except this: "A Church of Christ." When it was found out that it is nec- 
 essary to adopt some name to distinguish itself from other churches, its 
 Christians reluctantly adopted the name of "Kumiai," which means "asso- 
 ciated"; 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 "Congregational 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 denominations 
 may be united in some way. 
 
 The third distinctive feature of Japanese Christianity is the prevalence 
 of liberal spirit in doctrinal matters. While missionaries are both preach- 
 ing and teaching the orthodox doctrines, Japanese Christians are eagerly 
 studying the most liberal theology. Not only are they studying, but they 
 are diffusing these liberal thoughts with zeal and diligence, and so I believe 
 that, with a small exception, most of Japanese pastors and evangelists are 
 more or less liberal in their theology. 
 
 While the Presbyterians in the United States are persecuting Drs. Briggs 
 and Smith, the Presbyterians of Japan are almost in a body on the side of 
 these two professors. While the A. B. C, F. M. is strenuously on the watch 
 to send no missionary who has any inclination toward the Andover theology, 
 the pastors and evangelists of the Kumiai churches, which are in close 
 connection with the same board, are advocating and preaching theology 
 perhaps more liberal than the Andover theology. Just to illustrate, some 
 years ago, in one of our councils, when we were going to install a pastor, he 
 expressed the orthodox belief on future life, which 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 a bishop of a certain church was visiting Japan, 
 he was surprised to learn that a young Japanese professor in the seminary 
 connected with his own church was teaching quite a liberal theology, and 
 he gave him a strong warning. 
 
 As to the creeds: When the " Church of Christ in Japan " was organ- 
 ized 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 creeds 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 of the same 
 denomination became soon dissatisfied with its narrowness, and so in 1890 
 they made their own creed, which is far simpler and broader. But even 
 this creed is not understood as binding to all, but only as a common 
 expression of religious belief and prevailing among them in general. 
 
 Though Japanese Christians are largely on the side of liberal theology 
 they are not in any way in favor of Unitarianism or even Universalism. 
 Some years ago there was a rumor that the Japanese were in general
 
 402 THt: Parliament of religions. 
 
 inclined to Unitarian Christianity. The most of our educated classes have 
 no religion. Though they favor some kinds of Christian ethical teachings 
 they have no faith in any religion or supernatural truth, and thus they are 
 seemingly in the same position ae certain Unitarians. But Christians are as a 
 whole loyal to Christ, and are all to be characterized as evangelical. Often 
 Unitarians and those who call themselves " Liberal Christians" are as nar- 
 row and prejudiced as some orthodox Christians. And, moreover, their 
 beliefs are too negative. Where there are bigoted, hard, orthodox Chris- 
 tians they may have soil to thrive on, but in such a place like Japan they 
 will tind 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 40 or 50 per cent, increase. This was 
 between 1882 and 1888. These years may be regarded as a iiowery era in 
 the annals of Japan. It was in 188.3 that, when we were having the " Dai 
 Shin Baku Kwai " in Tokio, perhaps the most interesting meeting in its 
 history, one of the delegates expressed his firm belief that in ten years 
 Japan would become a Christian country. This excited quite an applause, 
 and no one felt it as in any way too extravagant to cherish such a hope, 
 such was the firm belief of most Christians 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 years before, but in 
 some cases there can be seen a decline of religious zeal and the self-sacri- 
 ficing spirit. And so in these last few years the cry heard most frequently 
 among our churches has been, "Awake, awake, as in the days past." 
 
 To show the decline of that religious enthusiasm I may take an illus- 
 tration from the statistics of the Kumiai churches as to its amount of con- 
 tribution. In 1882 this amount was $6.72 per Christian; in 1888 this amount 
 ran down to $2.15, and in the last year there has been still more decline, 
 coming down to $1.95. In amount of increase of membership there has 
 been a proportional decline. Why there was such a decline is not hard to 
 see. Among various causes I may mention three principal ones. 
 
 1. 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 antiforeign spirit. During 
 this period the cry, "Repel foreigners," which was on the lips of every Jap- 
 anese at the time of the revolution, and since then unheard was again 
 heard. It was at this time that Confucial teaching was revived in all the 
 public schools, and the emperor issued a proclamation that the Western 
 ethical principles were not suitable to 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 
 1882 and 1888. This was the age of great interest in everything that came 
 from abroad. Not only was English eagerly taught, but all sorts of foreign 
 manners and custom were busily introduced. Foreign costumes, not only 
 of gentlemen, but ladies, foreign diet as well as foreign liquors became 
 most popular among all classes. Every newspaper, almost without excep- 
 tion, advocated the adoption of everything foreign, so that Japan seemed as 
 if it would be no longer an Oriental nation, but would become Occidental- 
 ized. It was at this time that such a paper as Jiji Shimpo advocated 
 adoption of Christianity as the national religion of Japan. It was no 
 wonder that people poured into Christian churches and that the latter 
 oQade unprecedented strides in progress. 
 
 But the pendulum swung to its extreme and now another movement 
 came in. The sign of reactionary and anti-foreign spirit might be seen in 
 everything — in customs, in sentiments, as well as in opinions. Then the
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. 493 
 
 "Japan for the Japanese" became heard in all the corners of the empire. 
 Everything that has flavor of foreign countries has been stigmatized as 
 unworthy of adoption by the Japanese, and, instead of it, everything native 
 is praised as superior or worthy of preservation. Buddhism, which has been 
 regarded for years as a religion of the ignorant and inferior classes, is now 
 praised as a superior religion, much superior to Christianity, and many who 
 once favored adoption of Christianity as the national religion are seen 
 publicly in Buddhistic ceremonies. Christianity is denounced as antago- 
 nistic 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 Chris- 
 tianity and national education has become the most popular theme among 
 certain classes of the people. Strong sense of national feeling has been 
 aroused among all classes of people, and now it is not strange that Chris- 
 tians also feel its influence. 
 
 And thus the doors to Christianity seem to have been closed, and we 
 have a great decline in its growth. But now, again, the pendulum has 
 reached another end, and there are signs that another era is ushering in. 
 Every movement has rhythm, says Herbert Spencer, and this is true in the 
 progress of Christianity in Japan. 
 
 One word as to the prospect in future. That Japan will not become a 
 Christian nation in a few years is a plain fact. But that it will become one 
 in the course of time is almost above doubt, and it is only a question of 
 time. Still " Rome can not be built in a day," and so it will take time to 
 Christianize Japan. That there are strong obstacles and great hindrances 
 can easily be seen. It may be easy to show the reasonableness of Chris- 
 tianity, but to instill the true Christian spirit into the heart of the people 
 is not an easy task. We can show them more easily the folly of other 
 religions, but to build up a true Christian church requires a long time. As 
 it was in the time of the apostles and prophets, so it will be in Japan that, 
 except a certain grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abideth by 
 itself alone. Unless a great many precious lives must be spent in this diffi- 
 cult and great work, we can not hope much for its results. 
 
 I am not at all anxious about the future of Christianity in Japan, as far 
 as its final victory is concerned. But there are many difficult problems 
 pressing us hard for their solution. I shall here simply state these prob- 
 lems in a few words. 
 
 1. The first problem that comes under our notice is that of relat'on 
 between Christianity and our nationality, namely, our national habit and 
 spirit. Professor Inonge and others have been raising their voices against 
 Christianity, claiming it is in conflict with our national spirit. And this 
 cry against Christianity has become so popular among Buddhists, Shinto- 
 ists, and Reactionists, that they make it the only weapon of their attack 
 against Christianity. But 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. 
 
 2. Relation between missionaries and native Christians is another 
 problem. How must they be related? In other countries, such as India 
 or China, such a question, perhaps, may never arise, but in Japan it is 
 entirely different. Japanese Christians will never be satisfied under mis- 
 sionary auspices. To be useful to our country, the missionaries must 
 either co-operate or join native churches and become like one of the native 
 workers. 
 
 3. Problem of denominations and church government is another diffi- 
 culty. Of course we shall not entirely dispense with denominations and 
 sects. But it seems rather foolish to have all denominations, which are 
 peculiar to some countries, and which have certain peculiar history 
 attached to them, in-troduced into Japan where no such history exists, and
 
 494 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 where circumstances are entirely different. And so we think we can reduce 
 the number of denominations. But how to begin is a hard problem. 
 
 So also with the form of church government. It is needless to say that 
 we need not or ought not to copy in :.nyway the exact forms of church 
 governments which are in vogue in the United States or any other coun- 
 tries But to formulate a form of government that suits our country the 
 best" and at the same time works well elsewhere, is quite a difficult task. 
 
 4' 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 missionaries and others 
 there is always more or less of husks mixed with genuine truth. And 
 at the same time every form of Christianity has some excellent truth in 
 it And it is hard to make distinctions between essentials and non-essen- 
 tials, 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 are 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 exe- 
 cuted 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 on earth." 
 
 RELIGION IN PEKIN. 
 
 ISAAC T. HEADLAND, A PROFESSOR IN PEKIN UNIVERSITY. 
 
 The Chinese are often supposed to be so poor that, even if they wished 
 they would not be able to support Christianity were it established in their 
 midst. Such a supposition is a great mistake. Not to mention the fact 
 that they are at present supporting four religions, viz., Confucianism, Bud- 
 dhism, Taoism, and Mohammedanism, 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 starve every year. It is said 
 that just outside of the Chien Men gate, which stands immediately 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 Beg- 
 gars' Bridge, where half -naked men and boys may be seen at any time, 
 except when the emperor himself passes, eating food which would not be 
 eaten by a respectable American dog. But while this is all true, it does 
 not alter the fact that there are more temples in Pekin than there are 
 churches in Chicago. There are temples of all sorts and sizes, from the 
 little altar built outside the door of the watchman's house on the top of 
 the city wall, to the great Lama Temple, which covers many acres of 
 ground, having an idol of Buddha 100 feet tall, and 1,500 priests to conduct 
 the worship. Similar to this great Buddhist Temple is the great Confucian 
 temple, not so large, and without priests, but equally well built and well 
 kept. The large Taoist Temple, immediately outside of the west side gate, 
 is expensive and well supported, and contains many priests, while the large 
 grounds of the Mohammedans, with their twenty-one mosques, are worthy 
 to be ranked with those above mentioned.
 
 RELIGION IN PEKIN. 495 
 
 Professor Headland had a series of pictures of scenes and 
 incidents among the district of temples in and about Pekin. 
 His address was largely explanatory of these pictures. Con- 
 tinuing, speaking of tlie temples, he said: 
 
 Besides these, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Moon, theTem- 
 plv' of the Earth, the Temple of Heaven, and th( Temple of Agriculture are 
 all immense structures of the most costly type. These are all state temples, 
 wheru the emperor performs worship for all the people, and the annual 
 sacriticcs of cattle and tiieep are by no means inexpensive. There ai-e few 
 churches ii. the United States which cost more than 8500,000, but some of 
 thi^oO I have just mci.tionea would far exceed, if not more than double, that 
 amount. The Roman Catholics have shown their wisdom in erecting 
 cathedrals, which, though not so ::pensive,far surpass the others in beauty, 
 design, and workmanship. They have three very tine cathedrals, the East, 
 the South, and the i 'ortli, the last of which would be an ornament to any 
 city in the United States. 
 
 The iollowing translation of the inscription on two tablets at the mouth 
 of a cave called Hermit's Cave will show how temples are sometimes 
 repaired. The cave is 8 feet square and 43^ 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 Ching Au on this mountain. Tsui Wei Shan. By whom this temple 
 was originally built many years ago is unknown. A number of tunuehs of the 
 emperor's p;dace have contributed to its entire restoration, and that tli(3 work is 
 completed, the buildings, idols, and Lo Han fully restored, 1 make this record 
 that the merit of these generous men may he 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, Wau Li, Empei or. 
 
 The number of temples in the city that are entirely out of repair is not 
 small. In the purchase of our mission premises we become the possessors 
 of no less than three temples, while one stands at our southwest and another 
 at our northwest corner, another at the southwest of our W. F. M. S. prop- 
 erty, another in front of our hospital gate, and still another near a large 
 well back of our houses. 
 
 The first one purchased has been turned into a dining-room for the pre- 
 paratory school of the Pekin University. When the workmen came to take 
 the gods out of this temple they first invited them to go out, and then car- 
 ried 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 ringing the bell at intervals 
 for some time, but this after awhile became so monotonous that he took 
 opium for the purpose of committing suicide. Our physician was called, 
 and, by administering the proper remedies, he was saved, and eventually 
 left. Our third temple was turned into a charity school last winter, in 
 which seventeen small boys are studying the catechism and other Chris- 
 tian books, and Durbin Hall takes the place of the temples. 
 
 All sorts of stratagems are resorted to by the priests to secure patron- 
 age. I have heard of an old priest whose temple was rapidly falling into 
 decay, who, after thinking of many ways, settled upon the following 
 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 ai d driver out ^ido while she entered 
 the temple. Not returning for a long time, the driver became iini)atient and made 
 a disturbance about his pay. Hereupon the priest entered lu iho midst of the 
 crowd that had gathered and asked what was the m;,tter. When told ho said 
 that it was impossible, that no old woman had come into th-; tcrr.ple, and invited 
 the driver to go and examine. He led him in among the g'nii which were 
 arranged around the building and the driver soon picked out the right one.
 
 496 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 But " said the priest. " this is not an old woman, this if one of the gods; 
 fall dowii and worship her and she will give you your money. 
 
 He did so and to his surprise found apiece of silver on the ground where 
 he knelt. When he returned to the donkey he found a string of cash on its 
 baok. 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 Buddhist 
 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 Cor- 
 inthians. 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 morals of 
 the people are not better than they are. "Like priest, like people." 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 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, 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 are found some of the worst priests, 
 as though when the getting of money for their support was off their minds, 
 having little left to occupy them, they entertain themselves by the gratifi- 
 cation of their passions. They may, however, like many other priests, be 
 misrepresented by their own people. 
 
 By "the most prosperous temples" we mean those to which the most 
 pilgrimages are made. Miao Feng Shan is forty miles west of Pekin; and 
 another, fifty miles east, is almost equally popular. To these, in the spring- 
 time, many thousands of people from all the surrounding 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 prisoners, tying their feet together, so 
 as to be able to take only short steps, being chained to another man, wear- 
 ing 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, ascend the hill at a little distance, then by a 
 cirpuitous route join another company and get another pandle and 60 pD
 
 RELIGION IN PEKIN. 497 
 
 as long as, by a change of clothes, they can escape detection of those dis- 
 tributing 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 Hoor. But no matter how poor the people may bo or what the char- 
 acter 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 the tem- 
 ple in the same village. I think that what I said in the beginning of this 
 article is literally true — what 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 
 81.50 each year in the worship of ancestors, of which at least two-lhirds is for 
 papermoney. Chinais estimated to contain about8iMi(io,Oii(i families. which would 
 give ^'Sit.WO.OOO. A fair estimate for the three annual burninf,'s to tiie vat,'raut dead 
 would be about $6,(mio to each hsien, or county, which would aygregate about 
 $10,000,000 for the whole country. Thoave aee amount burned by each family in 
 the direct worship of the gods in the temples maybe taken as about liaif that 
 expended in the worship of ancestors, or $10,000,(100 for all China. Thus we have 
 the aggregate amount of SlSO.tiOO.OOO spent annually in China for paper money for 
 use in their worship. 
 
 While it is impossible to make a correct estimate of the amount of 
 incense burned by the Chinese in their worship, we can nevertheless get 
 some idea. It is the custom to burn incense three times per day — morning, 
 noon, and evening. The amount burned thus by each family in the house 
 and at the temple amounts to about $4,000,000 per year. The rich, of 
 course, burn many times this amount, and some of the poor families jjer- 
 haps not quite so much. But S-i per year as an average is an under rather 
 than an over estimate of the amount of incense burned by each family. 
 This being true, the amount of incense burned by 80,000,000 families would 
 amount in one year to the enormous sum of $320,000,000. 
 
 As an incident of the afternoon meeting the chairman intro- 
 duced Rev. A. Marderos Ignados of Smyrna, who addressed 
 the meeting, through Mr. Kiretchjian as interpreter, as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 When I lived on the banks of the Euphrates, I used to hear of America 
 as the lower earth, and it seemed to me to be just as far away as the moon 
 seems to the Americans to-day ; but the Lord God sent his children from 
 this land to come to our land and preach the glorious gospel of Christ. 
 There were Christian people there already, but by the coming of the mission- 
 aries about 150 evangelical churches were organized. There is, then, a com- 
 munity of about 50,000 Protestants in Turkey now. Our circumstances do 
 not allow us to have a representative to come here and speak directly on 
 behalf of that community, but I have no doubt that the hearts of all that 
 people are with me to-day, and on their behalf I come to greet you, and I 
 expect that an opportunity will be given me to read a paper to you to show 
 what influence Protestantism has had in Turkey. 
 
 Herant M. Kiretchjian of Constantinople was introduced by 
 
 the chairman, and said : 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I should coneider myself happy, 
 under any circumstances, to come to this most wonderful Parliament of 
 the World's Religions, in the most wonderful country of the world, and 
 especially to stand here and represent that wonderful race known as the 
 young men of the Orient, who are the result of most wonderful conflicting 
 influences for centuries, for it certainly is the greatest honor that could
 
 498 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 come to any man. Again, it is a great honor to stand before any religious 
 bodvin the world and represent the greatest religions city of the world- 
 Constantinople. We have had there a religious parliament for 400 years, 
 and we have survived it. You are certainly like Constantinople to-day 
 when vou have a minaret in the Midway Plaisance and actually the gospel 
 of Mohammed has begun to be preached to you. I wish to assure you 
 that it is not going to stop, and I believe you will be specially interested 
 in the youncr men of the Orient because you may look upon them as the 
 outcome after 400 years, such as you, very likely, will become in the future 
 I shall have the great honor to speak to you, at some place here, about 
 the voun<^ men of the Orient, and I think you will regard them as some- 
 tliui'^ of importance, because young men, unless hindered by some great 
 accident are generally in the habit of becoming older men some day, and 
 if we are to have the same influence in the Orient that our forefathers 
 have had, supplying the world with almost all they have, I am sure it will 
 be a matter of 'interest to know what they think of religion— past and 
 future. In the meantime, you can be sure the young men of the Orient, 
 whose domain is from the waters of Japan to the ^gean, have the keenest 
 interest in the outcome of this religious parliament as a basis for the 
 brotherhood of man. 
 
 THE REDEMPTION OF SINFUL MAN THROUGH 
 JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 REV. D. J. KENNEDY OF SOMEKSET, OHIO. 
 
 In the consideration of different plans on the restoration of fallen or 
 faulty man no thinking mind can fail to attach the greatest importance to 
 the life, works, and death of Christ, the Savior revered, loved, and adored 
 by Christians. Men have disputed, and will probably continue to dispute, 
 about the true significance and value of Christ's life and mission. This 
 will not surprise us if we remember the prophecy of holy old Simeon: 
 " This Child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, 
 and for a sign which shall be contradicted" (Luke ii.,34), and that passage 
 of St. Pavil's First Epistle to the Corinthians: "We preach Christ crucified; 
 unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block and unto the Gentiles foolishness, 
 but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of 
 God and the wisdom of God " (I. Cor. i., 23). In the midst of the confusion 
 and obscurity of these doubts and disputes one bright truth shines out 
 clearly, namely: that the work of Christ is one of the most important facts 
 recorded in the history of the human race. We Christians believe that it 
 is not simply one of the most important, but the most important fact of all; 
 we believe of Christ all that St. Peter expressed when he said of the Cru- 
 cified: "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name 
 under heaven given to men whereby v/e must be saved" (Acts iv., 12). We 
 believe that Christ is the "Son of Justice" mentioned by the prophet 
 Malachi (iv., 2); that there is "health in His wings and hght in His path," 
 for He is "the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into 
 this world " ( John i., 9 ). 
 
 "The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" 
 (Mid. v., 17). We think that all men should heed the exhortation of St. 
 Paul,^ who wrote to the Colossians that they should continually give thanks 
 "to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot 
 of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness 
 and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love: in whom 
 we have redemption thnmgh His blood, the remission of sins" (Col. i., 12, 
 1.3. and 14). And we feel that all men should desire to fall down in adoration
 
 REDEMPTION OF SINFUL MAN THROUGH CHRIST. 499 
 
 before the Lamb and sing unceasingly the new canticle: " The Lainl) 
 that was slain is worthy to receive power and divinity and wisdom and 
 strength and lionor and glory and benediction" (Apol. v., 12). We are well 
 aware that all men do not share in these opinions, that all men do not 
 entertain the same sentiments with, regard to the Redeemer whose name 
 has made Nazareth illustrious and dear to the millions who are His follow- 
 ers. We are well aware that only '" to those th. t are called " is Christ " the 
 power of God and the wisdom of God" (I. Cor. i., 23). 
 
 The life, sufferings, and death of Christ for the redemption and salvation 
 of sinful man are a mystery of God's tender mercy tempered with justice; 
 we shall never fully understand the sacrifice of Calvary until that hapjjy 
 day when in the heavenly kingdom we shall see Gotl face to face; because 
 never until then shall we fully understand the greatness and sanctity of 
 God, the enormity of sin and the value of immortal souls that Christ died 
 to save. But in the meantime we and all who look upon Christ with the 
 eyes of faith, shall see enough to convince us that He is the power and 
 wisdom of God, the surpassing miracle of His omnipotent love. 
 
 Since we are here for a comparison of doctrines and not for controversy, 
 it is not our intention to set forth in this paper proofs of the divinity of 
 Christ and of His mission; it is intended to give a plain and necessarily 
 brief and imperfect exposition of the divine economy for the redemption 
 and salvation of man through Christ according to the teachings of the 
 Catholic Church. The subject is vast, the theme is grand. To many our 
 words will be but a new expression of truths that they have believed from 
 their earliest years; toothers they will, perhaps, be less famihar; to all they 
 will be an invitation to examine more closely the character and work of 
 Him whom they call the Redeemer of the world, because He died for all 
 men, and He is the propitiation not for our sins only but also for those of 
 the whole world (I. St. John, ii., 2) 
 
 What will be said of the life and death of this Redeemer and of the 
 benefits which He conferred upon mankind must not be regarded as the 
 teachings of any one man or of any special school; they are the tenets of 
 a church which, can claim 200,000,000 adherents, and are drawn principally 
 from the decrees of the Council of Trent, the most notable, perhaps, and 
 the best known of all the councils of the Catholic Church. In the sixth 
 session of that council, held on January 13, 1547, the justification of a sinner 
 is called a " translation from the state in which the sons of the first Adam are 
 born to the state of grace and adoption of sons of God by the second Adam, 
 Jesus Christ, our Savior " (Chap. iv.). We are born "children of wrath," 
 says St. Paul (Eph. ii., 3, and following), " but God (who is rich in mercy) for 
 His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in 
 sins, hath quickened us together in Christ (by whose grace you are saved), 
 and hath raised us up together and hath made us sit together in the 
 heavenly places through Christ Jesus." For, " as in Adam all die, so in 
 Christ all shall be made alive " (I. Cor. xv., 22). 
 
 Prom these texts it is evident that in order to understand the doctrine 
 of redemption and salvation through Christ it will be necessary to consider, 
 first, the condition of man before the fall of Adam; secondly, the condition 
 of man after the fall and before the death of Christ; thirdly, the condition 
 of man after the price of redemption had been paid by Christ. 
 
 The universal tradition, attested by various legends concerning the 
 "golden age" of man, assumes in the Catholic Church the form of a pre- 
 cise dogma which says that our first parents were constituted by Almighty 
 God in the state of original justice (Cone. Trid., sess. v., de Pecc, originali 
 can. 1). The late lamented Cardinal Manning, in his book on the '■ Internal 
 Mission of the Holy Ghost" (ch. i), describes this happy state in the follow- 
 ing words: " The general work of the Holy Ghost, as the sanctification of 
 the soul in man, began before the fall in the creation of man, for Adam,
 
 500 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 when created, was constituted in the state of grace. He was not created 
 in but constituted in the state of original justice. The distinction between 
 created and constituted is this: Original justice was no part of the nature 
 of man; it was a superadded gift, a supernatural perfection over and above 
 the perfection or integrity of humfui nature. It was not due to man 
 that lie should have the gift of original justice; his perfection consisted in 
 the body and the soul, the faculties and the powers— intellectual and 
 moral— which constitute human nature. But original justice is more than 
 this; namely, the gift of a supernatural grace and state by the indwelling 
 of the Holy Ghost in the soul, illuminating it by the infusion of his light 
 in the form of truth, and sanctifying it by the infusion of His grace in the 
 form of sanctity. This was original justice; and therefore Adam was in 
 two ways the son of (iod— he was the son of God by nature, because he 
 was created by God; and a son of God by grace, because the Holy Ghost 
 dwelt in him. Because he had this original justice he had also two other 
 gifts. He had immortality in the body, because he was without sin, and 
 he had perfect harmony and integrity or order in the soul, because the 
 soul was under the direction and guidance of the Spirit of God. There- 
 fore in Adam there were three perfections. There was the perfection of 
 nature, the body, and the soul; there was the supernatural perfection, or 
 the indwelling of the Holy Ghost and of sanctifying grace; there was the 
 preternatural perfection of immortality in the body and of harmony in the 
 soul in and with itself." In order to make the exposition complete it must 
 be added that, according to Catholic doctrine, these perfections were not 
 personal gifts granted to Adam as an individual; they were given to him, 
 by the bounty of God, as to the father and representative of the human 
 race. He was to be their custodian, not only for himself, but also for his 
 posterity. If he remained faithful all these gifts, natural, preternatural, 
 and supernatural, were to have been transmitted to his descendants. Had 
 Adam not sinned his children would have been born perfect in nature, 
 adorned with grace and supernatural virtues by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost; they would not have been subject to death, and there would have 
 been perfect harmony between all the parts of their nature; the lower 
 nature would have been obedient to the higher, because the higher and 
 nobler faculties of man would have been subject to the commands of God 
 by the direction of the Holy Ghost. Alas, this happy state was not to 
 endure forever! 
 
 God had distributed with a plentiful hand the wonderful treasures of 
 His bounty. He had enriched and adorned Adam with His choicest gifts; 
 He gave him control over the earth and all that it contained, placing him 
 just a little lower than the angels (Ps. viii., 6), and raising him in dignity 
 above all the creatures of the earth by the gift of intelligence and of free 
 will. By an act of this free will all was lost. Adam chose to listen to the 
 suggestions of the tempter rather than to obey the command of God; he 
 ate the forbidden fruit, and he had to die the death (Gen. ii., 17). "By an 
 act of disobedience," writes Cardinal Manning, " that first creation was 
 shattered, the presence of the Holy Ghost was forfeited, and the soul and 
 body of man were left in the substantial integrity which belongs to our 
 nature, but it was wounded with the three wounds of ignorance, of wicked- 
 ness, and of passion." The Council of Trent (Sess. V. de Pecc. Grig. Can. 1) 
 implicitly declares and defines that by the transgression of God's command 
 the first man lost' the justice and sanctity in which he had been constituted, 
 incurred the anger of God, together with the penalty of death, because a 
 captive under the power of Satan; and the whole r.i"xn, both in body and 
 soul, was mjured and changed for the worse. 
 
 What an unfortunate change! He who had been the beloved child of 
 God,_and an object of complacency to the three persons of the most Holy 
 Trinity, is now the enemy of God because he freely and ungratefully
 
 ktlDEMPTION OF SI^FUL MAN THROUGH CHRIST. 501 
 
 ignored his Creator. Supernatural grace and the infused virtues and gifts 
 of the Holy Ghost have departed; Adam is doomed to die. " God made man 
 incorruptible." we read in the Book of Wisdom (ii., 23), "but by the envy of 
 the devil death came into the world." Th.' harmony between the inferi(jr 
 and superior parts of man was dissolved, the sting of inordinate concupis- 
 cence was felt, and then began that ct)nHi t mentioned by St. Paul (Rom. 
 vii., 2.3) between the law of the members and the law of the mind, which 
 makes the life of man on earth what holy Job calls a continual warforo 
 (vii., 1). Man's intellect was darkened, his will for good was weakened; pas- 
 sion and an inclination to evil was the rule, not theexeepticm; the imagina- 
 tion and thought of man's heart were prone to evil from their youth (Gen. 
 viii., 21), and he became the slave of Satan, for, writes St. Peter (2 Ep. ii., 9), 
 " by whom a man is overcome of the same also is he the slave." 
 
 Adam of his own free will upset the Ihrst order of God's providence and 
 he now came under another order; he had been innocent and ju t, he was 
 now a guilty and fallen man; he could not enter into heaven, and he was 
 doomed to suffer the other miseries brought on 'oy his own sin until God 
 saw tit to send him a Redeemer. He, no doubt, soon repented of his sin; 
 and if he returned to God with a sincerely contrite heart the guilt would lie 
 remitted and he would not be punished eternally for it. But he was ijower- 
 less to repair the injury done, because the gifts and graces he had lost were 
 gratuitous favors, not due to his nature, but granted through pure love 
 and goodness by God; hence their restoration was subject to his good 
 pleasure. 
 
 Unfortunately for us this fall of the father of the human race affected 
 his posterity. The perfections of original justice would have passed to his 
 descendants had he remained faithful, but he failed to comply with the 
 conditions on which they had been granted, and, havingUost them himself, 
 he could not transmit them to his children. In consequence of his sin. we 
 too were deprived of the supernatural perfections that he possessed. Though 
 not guiltyof any actual, personal sins the children of Adam are, as St. Paul 
 says (Eph. ii. 3), " by nature children of wrath"; they are displeasing in' the 
 sight of God, because He does not see in their souls the graces, virtues, and 
 perfections He had intended for all, and of which they were deprived 
 through the fault of Adam by an act in which he was' morally the repre- 
 sentative of the human race. This is what is meant by original sin; at 
 least this is the explanation of its essence given by the majority of theolo- 
 gians; and if anyone tries to see in original sin, as taught by the church, a 
 personal act by which men offend God, he will not succeed, because it is not 
 a personal sin; it is the habitual state displeasing to God in which the souls 
 of men are left since the father of the human race offended God by an act 
 of proud disobedience. 
 
 With the supernatural grace the preternatural gifts were also lost. 
 'We became subject to death, not only as to a law of nature, but also as a 
 penalty, for " by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death, and 
 so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned." (Rom. v., 12), 
 We also experience the stings of conscience, the war of the flesh against 
 the spirit, which would, in the benevolent designs of providence, have been 
 prevented by the subjection of the'mind to grace. Our nature, also, was 
 wounded, like the nature of Adam, with the three wounds of ignorance, 
 weakness, and passion. Then began the rule of him who had the empire 
 of death — that is to say, the devil (Heb. ii., 14), whichi was to last until 
 Christ came to destroy that empire by his death. St. Augustine, in one 
 of his sermons, calls this unhappy condition a sickness of human nature 
 that had spread over the face of the earth ("Magnus per orbem jacebat 
 aegrotus"). And in another place he says that in consequence of sin the 
 nature of man, which should have been a beautiful olive tree planted and 
 watered and nurtured by the hand of God, and bearing fruits for eternity,
 
 ;-i02 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 became a miserable oleaster, contemptible and disagreeable by the ugliness 
 of its appearance and the bitterness of its false truits. (Serm. 342, No. 4.) 
 The work of the gardener had been interfered with and man was con- 
 demned to taste the bitter fruits of his own planting. He was displeasing 
 to God and he needed some one who could reconcile him with the Heavenly 
 Father by atoning for his sins; he had lost the graces of God, and of him- 
 self could not recover it; he was a slave under the power of Satan and 
 stood in need of a Redeemer. • -, xi.- -r, i ^-u jo 
 
 Immediately after the fall God promised this Redeemer— the seed of 
 woman that was to crush the sepent's head (Gen. iii., 15), but he did not 
 send him immediately; for 4.000 years man was left to experience the sad 
 consequences of the fall. St. Thomas Aquinas (De Incarn. Qu. I., art. 5 
 and G) and other theologians remark that the Redeemer did not come 
 immediately after the fall, because man. who had sinned by pride, should 
 be humbled so that he might acknowledge his own poverty and the need 
 of a savior. Neither was the coming of the Redeemer to be deferred until 
 the end of the world, because then man might have fallen into despair, for- 
 getting God and His promises and the rules of morals. Moreover, had He 
 come at the end of the world men would never have enjoyed the advantages 
 of the sublime example given to all ages by the Savior. Almighty God, then, 
 who ordered all things in the manner that would best promote His glory and 
 man's welfare, chose the most suitable time, and " when the fullness of time 
 was come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that He 
 might redeem them who were under the law, that we might receive the 
 adoption of sons." (Gal. iv., 4, 5.) This Redeemer was the Babe of Beth- 
 lehem, the son of the Virgin Mary, and His name was called Jesus, because 
 He came to save His people from their sins. (Matt, i., 21.) 
 
 And now that we come to consider the work of that Savior, where shall 
 we find the tongue of a Chrysostom to describe what St. Paul calls " the 
 abundant riches of God's grace in his bounty toward us in Christ Jesus"? 
 (Ephes. ii., 7.) The Apostle rejoices in having received the grace " to preach 
 among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ — that the manifold 
 wisdom of God may be made known — according to the eternal purpose 
 which he made in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ephes. iii., 8."! Men of all ages 
 have admired Christ; even those who do not believe in Him must admit, in 
 the light of history, that his preaching and his religion have changed the 
 face of the earth. The greatest intellects the world ever knew have felt 
 proud of the lines or pages which gave even a faint representation of his 
 greatness and loveliness; bright minds, loving hearts, eloquent tongues and 
 powerful pens have been employed in His service, and yet we have no 
 adequate description of the character and work of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 They could not paint him as man; much less could they tell us of the 
 infinite wisdom and dignity of the divinity that was in Him; for Christ 
 was, as all Christians believe, both God and man. The second person of 
 the Trinity assumed to itself the human nature which was formed in the 
 pure womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost. " God so 
 loved the world as to give His only begotten Son — that the world might be. 
 saved by Him." (John iii., IG, 17.) These are words which Christ spoke to 
 Nicodemus; they are the key to a mystery which no man can fully explain; 
 all we can do is to join with our feeble voices in the chorus of praises sung 
 in honor of the Savior, begging pardon of Him for the imperfections of our 
 ideas and expressions. 
 
 In the first place it must be borne in mind that God could, if He willed, 
 have chosen another method of redemption. Being Lord of all things He 
 might have condoned Adam's offense and restored to man his lost prerog- 
 atives without demanding any atonement. He might, if He willed, have 
 accepted in satisfaction for sin the salutary penances of Adam or of some of 
 his descendants (see S. Thom. de Incarn. Qu. 1, Article 2 ad 2). But, says
 
 REDEMPTION OF SINFUL MAN THROUGH CHRIST. 503 
 
 St. Athanasius (Serm iii Contra Anianos), in this wc must consider not 
 what God could have done, but what was best for man, for that was chosen. 
 Away, then, with all thoughts of excessive rigor on the part of God. He 
 willed to redeem and save us thi-ough the sulferings and merits of Christ, 
 because it was better for us; and at the same time He gave to the world the 
 greatest manifestation ever known of His own goodness, power, wisdom, and 
 justice, as we are told by St. John Damascene and St. Thomas Aquinas — 
 two princes of theology. 
 
 This plan of redemption was freely and lovingly accepted by the second 
 person of the Trinity, and the Son came into the world in the form of a 
 man that He might be our Savior; and as a Saviour He manifested Himself 
 from the tirst moment Oi His incarnation until the day of His ascension; a 
 Savior He is still, for as '^'. Paul tells us (Rom. viii. 34), sitting now at the 
 right hand of God He continually intercedes for us, offering to the Father in 
 our behalf His superabundant merits. He was a Savior by His teaching, by 
 His example, and by His death. The prophet Isaiah had foretold, 800 
 yeai's before His birth: " Behold, I have given Him for a witness before 
 the people, for a leader and lor a master to the Gentiles" (Iv., 4);and wlien 
 he came, after He had been baptized by St. John, the Father's voice fr<nu 
 the clouds announced that He was the divinely appointed teacher of man- 
 kind: '"This is P.Iy Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him," 
 (Matt, xvii., 5), and St. Peter afterward proposed that his Master's doctrine 
 was heavenly and salutary: "Thou, O Lord, hath the wordsof eternal life" 
 (John vi., 69). 
 
 Our Lord certainly fulfilled the mission of saving men by preaching; in 
 private and in public, during the three years of His public life, on the 
 mountain-tops and in the valleys, in the temple and in the houses of those 
 v/hom He visited, at the sea-shore and on the waters — everywhere He was 
 preaching, teaching men the truths of salvation ; and the worst enemy the 
 Christian religion ever had must admit that the doctrine of Chi'ist was 
 sublime, pure, holy, and salutary. But it is not sufficient to teach. Who- 
 ever wishes to change men and convert them from their evil ways can not 
 be contented with mere words. To His words must be added the influence 
 of His example, especially if His doctrine be disagreeable to those whom 
 He wishes to convert. Thus it was with our Savior. His teachings con- 
 sisted principally in inculcating the two great precepts of love and of 
 suffering, of charity and of the cross, of loving God above all things, and 
 of denying ourselves in order that we might be free to follow Him. But 
 He requked of men nothing that He did not practice. He went about, writes 
 St. Luke, " doing and teaching " (Acts i., 1). His life was so sublime and holy 
 that He could stand before the world and dare His enemies : " Which of 
 you shall convince Me of sin?" (John viii., 46.) None could say of Him 
 what He with so' much truth said of the Scribes and Pharisees: "They 
 bind heavy and insupportable burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, 
 but with a finger of their own they will not move them" (Matt, sxiii., 4). 
 
 He taught that we should love God, and of Himself He could say that 
 His daily food was to do the will of His Father 'John iv., 34). He taught 
 that we should not be over-attached to the goods of ■':his world, since men 
 can not serve God and mammon (Liike xvi., 13); and of Himself he could 
 truly say: "The Son of Man hath not w^here to lay His head" (Matthew 
 vii., 20). He taught obedience and submission to the will of God, and He 
 was obedient unto death, even unto the death of the cross (Philip, ii., 8). 
 He taught that we should be humble, becoming as little children (Matthew 
 xviii., 3); and He could say without fear of contradiction or reproach: 
 " Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart " (Matt, xi., 29). 
 He taught that we should be loving and kind toward our neighbor; and He 
 was so kind and tender-hearted that the sight of a hungry multitude would 
 cause Him to almost melt into tears, and on several occasions He performed
 
 504 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 miracles to supply their wants (Matt, xiv., 17 and fol., xv., 36 and fol.). A nd 
 BO it is with every part of his doctrine; in all things he gave the example, 
 that, as he had done so also we should act. It is for this reason that St. 
 Paul so often exhorts us to put on the new man (Eph.iv., 24), to put on 
 Christ (Gal. iii., 27; Rom. xiii., 14)., to be in all things conformed to his 
 example (I. Cor. iv., IG), for in the example he gave he was also our Savior. 
 
 But the saving influence of Christ is to be found principally Hin is 
 death ; because by his death He reconciled us with God (Col. i., 19; Eph. 
 ii., 14, 16), freed us from sin and satisfied God's justice (Heb. ix., 13 and fol- 
 lowing; I. John i., 7; Apoc i., 5), restored us to grace and justification (Rom. 
 ii., 25] Col. i., 21, 22) freed us from the power of Satan (Col. ii., 15), and made 
 us once more the^children of God (Col. i., 12, 13, 14). Christ came into this 
 world, lived among men, and died upon the cross in execution'.of a sublime 
 plan for man's redemption ; of a plan which nothing less than the infinite 
 wisdom of God could conceive, and nothing less than the omnipotence of 
 God could execute. "We have thought Him as a leper and as one struck 
 bylGod and afflicted," wrote the prophet Isais, "but He was wounded for 
 our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins." "He was offered up because 
 it was His own will, and by His bruises we are healed." God had been 
 offended, grieviously offended by the sin of our first parents, so much so 
 that from that time the gates of heaven were closed against men. Even 
 the souls of the just who died under the old law could not enjoy the hap- 
 piness of heaven ; they; were compelled to re.nain in a place called Limbo 
 until atonement had been made for the sin of Adam. And besides this sin 
 of the human race, there were other sins, black and shameful and hideous, 
 some of them, and as numerous, alas, as the sands on the seashore. There 
 were the personal actual sins committed from the time of Adam up to the 
 last breath of the last man that will live in the world. All these had to 
 be atoned for, and how could man hope to offer any satisfaction that would 
 bear the least proportion to the infinite sanctity of the God who had been 
 offended and insulted? 
 
 Then it was that our Savior consented to be a voluntary victim offered 
 up in expiation for the sins of the world. " The Word was make flesh and 
 dwelt among us " (John i., 14); Christ came into the world, true God and 
 true man. Being man He could suffer; being God, any one of yis actions 
 would have infinite value both for merit and for atonement. " God laid on 
 him the iniquity of us all," says Isaiah (liii., 6); by his death God's justice 
 was satisfied and man was redeemed; for, says St. Peter (I. Ep. i, 18) we 
 were " not redeemed with corruptible things as gold and silver, but with 
 the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled." Thus 
 was blotted out the handwriting of the decree that was against 'us (Col. ii. 
 14). By his deatli Christ not only freed us from evil, He also merited for us 
 the graces we ne ed in order that we may do good, performing actions meri- 
 torious of eternal life. Without Christ we can do nothing (John xv., 5). 
 All those who were saved under the old law were saved through faith in 
 the Redeemer to come; grace was granted to them owing to His foreseen 
 merits. In the new law all our sufficiency is from Him (II. Cor. ii., 3); all 
 graces are granted, as we ask them, " through the merits of our Lord and Sav- 
 ior Jesus Christ." He merited these graces for us by all the acts of His life, 
 but principally by dying for us; the precious blood shed on Calvary flows 
 through the church; it vivifies the sacraments, the channels of grace, by 
 partaking of which we drink from that " fountain of water springing into 
 life everlasting." (John iv., 14.) 
 
 After His ascension into heaven He sent the Holy Ghost, the spirit of 
 truth and love, to abide forever with His church, which is to continue on
 
 60P»Pl&HIlJLi 
 
 icih-, ri:t4EF-.t-i-V.CHi/AC-0 
 
 SWAMl VIVEKANANDA, 
 Hindu Monk.
 
 STONES WHEN THEY NEED BREAD. 505 
 
 sacraments, the ordinary channels through which grace is conveyed to the 
 souls of men, whether they be infants or adults. Not that grace is con- 
 ferred only by the sacraments; "The Spirit broatheth where lie wills" 
 (John iii., 8), and if wt; ask anything in Christ's name the Father will give 
 it (John xvi., 23). Nay more, thv Spirit of (Jrace is represented as con- 
 tinually standing at the gate and knocking, that the door of the sinner's 
 heart may be opened to admit the grace of God (Apoc. iii., 120), which will 
 excite within him horror for sin and a desire to return to God (Cone. Trid. 
 Sess. vi. dc Justif, cap. v.). 
 
 This grace is so powerful that after conversion the sinner must not 
 boast as if ho had not received the gift from heaven (1 Cor. iv., 7), and yet 
 he must not remain inactive. He must consent to grace and co-operate 
 with tlie movements of the Holy Spirit (Cone. Trid., loc. cit.). He must 
 prepare himself for justiflcation by believing in God and His i)ower; he 
 must hope in Him and begin to love Him, desiring to do penance and 
 receive the sacraments and lead a new life (ibid, cap. vi), thus disposing 
 himself to receive through the merits of Christ the abundance of grace 
 which will complete the work of sanctitication. When the sanctitication is 
 complete his sins are blotted out, he is the friend and lover of (lod by 
 charity, and an heir according to hope of life everlasting (ibid, cap. vii. and 
 Tit. iii., 7). Then the Holy Ghost dwells in his soul with the fullness of 
 His gifts; and if he persevere in the grace and love of God and the observ- 
 ance of the commandments, he will be one of those of whom St. Paul 
 writes: " Being now justifled by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath 
 through Him'' (Roman v., 9). 
 
 Even after receiving these benefits, men must work out their salvation 
 in fear and trembling (Phil, ii., 12, and Cone. Trid., ibid., cap. 13), because 
 man is weak and can fall again. Our Lord's passion and death repair the 
 injury done to the human race by the sin of Adam, but not all the prerog- 
 atives of our primitive happy state are restored in this life. Grace and the 
 friendship of God and the right to heaven are restored; but our nature is 
 still a wounded nature; the soul is not in perfect harmony; the unhappy 
 inclination to evil remains in us even after baptism and justification, for a 
 trial and as an occasion to practice virtue, say the fathers of the Council of 
 Trent. These trials have been left by a merciful Providence to remind us 
 of the fall and of the redemption; they are merely inclinations or tempta- 
 tions in which there is no sin if the will does not consent to them ; they 
 form the battle for good against evil, and those who strive lawfully will 
 receive a crown, says St. Paul. (II. Tim. ii., 5.) This struggle will last as 
 long as we are in this world, and those who persevere unto the end shall be 
 saved. (Matt, x., 22.) Only those who have been saved and are now with 
 God can see the full intent of the benefits conferred upon mankind by the 
 life, teaching, and death of the Redeemer; they alone see clearly how the 
 redemption of sinful man through Christ is a manifestation of the power 
 and wisdom of God; but even in the dim light of faith we understand 
 enough to make us feel eternally grateful to Christ and to the Father with 
 whom He reconciled us by His death. We see enough to make us believe 
 and feel that all men should repeat with appreciation and gratitude the 
 words of the new canticle, "sung by many angels round about the throne:" 
 " The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and divinity and 
 wisdom and strength and honor and glory and benediction." Amen! 
 
 STONES WHEN THEY NEED BREAD. 
 
 During the evening session Suani Vive Kananda spoke 
 extemporaneously for a few moments.
 
 506 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Christians must always be ready for good criticisms, and I hardly think 
 that you will care if I make a little criticism. You Christians are fond of 
 sendinK out missionaries to save the souls of the heathens, but why do you 
 not try to save the bodies of these poor heathens from starvation? In India, 
 during a famine, hundreds and thousands of Hindus die from starvation. 
 Thousands of churches have been erected in India by the Christians, but 
 thoy do not alleviate the pangs of hunger. The crying evil in the East is 
 not religion; they have religion enough and more than they need; it is 
 bread that these suffering millions in the East want. They ask us for 
 bread and we give them stones. It is an insult to a starving man to preach 
 him the doctrines of the metaphysics. 
 
 The speaker referred to statements characterizing the monks 
 of his order as beggars, replying that for the last twelve years 
 he had not known where the next meal was coming from. In 
 India a priest that preached for money or pay would lose caste 
 and be spat upon by the people. " I come here," he said," to seek 
 aid for my impoverished people, but I fully realized how diffi- 
 cult it was to do it." Mr. Vive Kananda concluded his speech 
 with reference to Hindu re-incarnation.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ELEVENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 21st. 
 
 CONNECTION OF RELIGION WITH SOCIAL 
 PROBLEMS. 
 
 A turning point was reached in the parliament on the 
 eleventh day, metaphysical speculation and theological presen- 
 tation gave way to the consideration of practical problems and 
 actual facts of life. There were three sessions of the great 
 congress on this date. The exercises were opened with prayer, 
 in the recital of which Rev. George F. Pentecost of London 
 was the leader. Before the first speaker on the programme was 
 called, the chairman read two papers, and appointed three com- 
 mittees to report a list of fifty or more of the best books on 
 religion. 
 
 THANKS FROM ARMENIANS. 
 
 Dr. Barrows read a letter from the Philharmonic Association 
 of America, thanking the parliament for according a cordial 
 reception to Professor Minas Teheraz as a representative of the 
 oppressed church of Armenia. 
 
 New York, Sept. 15, 1893. 
 
 Rev. John Henry Barroios, D.D., Chairman Parliament of Religions, 
 Chicago, III. Reverend Sir : lu the lamentable state of political and 
 religious persecution of our fellow-countrymen in Armenia, while the unani- 
 mously chosen successor of St. Gregory, the Illuminator, still languished in 
 exile in Jerusalem, while bishops and other clergymen were banished and 
 imprisoned for their zeal and fidelity to their church, and no prominent 
 clergyman was permitted to leave the country to come to this land, you 
 could not invite a worthier representative to speak in behalf of the oppressed 
 Church of Armenia than Professor Minas Teheraz, a thorough student of 
 the church and history of Armenia, an intrepid champion of her national 
 and religious rights, the ex-secretary of Patriarchs Varjabedian and Khri- 
 mian, and the faithful interpreter of their faith, hope, and feeling. It is no 
 less consolation to us, in our present troubles, to have such a delegation in 
 
 507
 
 508 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the Parliament of Religions to speak for our beloved church, one of the 
 most ancient and most liberal churches of Christianity ; one always sur- 
 rounded by non-Christian tribes, persecuted for centuries, and bearing 
 always high the banner of the cross, and testifying even to-day to the sin- 
 cerity of her faith and devotion by the blood of thousands of martyrs. 
 
 The Philharmonic Association of America begs you to accept the heart- 
 felt thanks of the Armenian colony in the United States for the courtesy 
 with which you have honored the representative of the Church of Armenia, 
 and hopes that his present mission, w'ith your kindly assistance, will bring 
 into light the true spirit and the liberahty of the institutions of the Church 
 of Armenia, and assist the number of sympathizers with Christian Armen- 
 ians in their present persecution and suffering. 
 
 I am, reverend sir, your faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 P. Matthews Ayvad, Secretary. 
 
 RESTORATION OF HOLY PLACES. 
 
 Dr. Barrows also read a letter from S. Horiuclii, secretary of 
 the ludo Busseki Kofuku Society of Tokio: 
 
 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 exercises in each of them, and promote the 
 convenience of pilgrims from Japan. These holy places are Buddha 
 Gaya, where Buddha attained to the perfect enlightenment; Kapilavastu, 
 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, one thousand 
 and twenty-six years before Christ— the world-honored Prince Siddartha 
 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 
 b(^gau to lament man's inevitable subjection to the various sufferings of 
 sickness, old age, and death; and discarding all his precious possessions 
 and the heirship to the kingdom, he went into a mountain jungle to seek, 
 by meditation and asceticism, the way to escape from these sufferings. 
 After spending six years there and finding that the way he seeks after was 
 not in asceticism, he went out from there and retired under the Bodhi tree 
 of Buddhism 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 open for all human beings, 
 so that everyone can bathe in his blessings and walk in the way of 
 enlightenment. 
 
 When the ancient King Asoka of Magadha was converted into Budd- 
 hism 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 
 tierce Mohammedans invaded and laid waste the country, there being no 
 Buddhist to guard the temple, it fell into the hands of a Brahmanist 
 priest, who chanced to come here and seize 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 repaired and 
 restored to its former state by the British government; but they could not 
 help being very much grieved to see it subjected to such desecration in the 
 hands of the Brahmanist Mahant, and communicated 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
 
 BROTHERHOOD OF CHRISTIAN UNITY. 509 
 
 center of Buddhist religion of grace to the hand of a Brahmanist priest, we 
 organized this Indo Busseki Kofuku Society in Japan to accompUsh the 
 object before mentioned; in co-operation with the Maha Bodhi Society, 
 organized by H. Dliarmapala and other brothers in India. These are the 
 outlines of the origin and object of our Indo Busseki Kofuku Society, and 
 I believe our Buddha Gaya movement will bring people of all Buddhist 
 countries into closer connection and be instrumental in promoting the 
 brotherhood among the people of the whole world. 
 
 BROTHERHOOD OF CHRISTIAN UNITY. 
 
 Theodore F. Seward was then introduced to explain the 
 
 objects of the brotherhood of Christian unity. Mr. Seward 
 
 said that two and one-half years ago a layman in a union 
 
 meeting made a simple suggestion in the line of Christian 
 
 unity. He said: 
 
 We can not break up the denominations; we should not wish to do so if 
 we could; we can not lead the people to accept one creed at the present 
 time; we can not secure organic u uity. But is there not somathmg we can do? 
 Suppose a larger circle be created, leaving all things as i-hey are, churches 
 and individuals, in the freedom of their belief; but form a larger fraternal 
 circle on the basis of love to God and man under the leadership of Christ. 
 It might be called the Brotherhood of Christian Unity. The suggestion 
 made in a small town was responded to from all parts of the country by all 
 classes of religious people. The poet Whittier wrote immediately to express 
 his satisfaction that the suggestion had been made, and joined the brother- 
 hood before his death. The following is a brief presentation of the objects 
 of the fraternity. It has received the indorsement of many more than 
 those whose names appear. It will be noticed that we simplj' unite our- 
 selves to this brotherhood under the declaration of love to God and man 
 under the leadership of Christ. 
 
 Chicago. September, 1893.— We. the undersigned, feeling it desirable to erys- 
 tallize, and as far as possible to perpetuate the remarkable spirit of unity which 
 has characterized the World's Parluiment of Eeligions.and being deterred by the 
 widely varied beliefs therein represented from offering a formulated expression 
 of views, herewith give, as individuals, our approval of the formula ol the Brother- 
 hood of Christian Unity, as a suitable bond with which to begin the federation of 
 the new world upon a Christian ba'-is. The formula is as follows: 
 
 For the purpose of uniting with all who desire to serve God and their fellow- 
 men under the inspiration of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. I hereby 
 enroll myself as a ra(>mher of the Brotherhood of Christian Unity. 
 
 Dr. John Henky Baeeows, Presbyterian. 
 
 Dk. Geoege Dana Boaedman, Baptist. 
 
 Dk. Lyman Abbott, Congi-egationalist. 
 
 Db. Alfred W. Momeeie, London, Church of England. 
 
 Dr. Edward Eveeett Hale, Unitarian. 
 
 Charles C. Bonney, New Church. 
 
 J. W. Plummee, Friend. 
 
 Bishop J. H. Vincent, Methodist. 
 
 Miss Feances E. Willard, President W. C. T. U- 
 
 Dr. Hiram W.Thomas, Independent. 
 
 Miss Jeanne Sorabji, Bombay, Church of England. 
 
 Minas Tcheeaz, King's College, Loudon, Armenian. 
 
 Bishop J. S. Mills, United Brethren. 
 
 Dr. W. F. Black, Christian. 
 
 Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant, London, Independent. 
 
 Db. Charles H. Eaton, Universalist. 
 
 Dr. Paulus Moort, Moni-ovia, Liberia, Episcopal. 
 
 Captain Allen Allensworth, Fort Bayard, New Mexico, U. S. Chaplain. 
 
 Prince Momolu Massaquoi, Vey Territory, Liberia, Episcopal. 
 
 Dr. Carl Yon Bergen, StocklKilm, Swedn, Independent Lutheran. 
 
 Bishop B. W. Arnett, African Method.st Episcopal.
 
 510 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 TEST OF WORKS APPLIED. 
 
 COLONEL THOMAS WENTWOKTH HIGGINSON. 
 
 He was introduced by Dr. Barrows as a man "whose life has 
 been devoted to social reform and who believed that the spread 
 of the Christian religion would have led to the abolition of 
 
 slavery." 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :— I should not dare to come 
 before you again, after the kindness with which you listened to me the 
 other day, but for the fact that my immediate departure from Chicago will 
 save me from the effects of your natural indignation and turn it fully upon 
 your chairman, whose shoulders have already to take care of so much. 
 
 I wish to call your attention to the fact that this is a turning point in 
 the history of this Parliament of Religions. Up to this time we have 
 devoted ourselves almost wholly to speculation and abstract ideas. To-day, 
 as you see by your programme, we turn to the actual facts of life and the 
 social questions which press upon us so tremendously. Those of you who have 
 gone up in the Ferris wheel may remember very well that when you got 
 about one hundred feet from the earth you began to have an uncomfort- 
 able sensation of having got up higher than your natural position and you 
 almost wished for a moment that you had given your place to the other 
 man who was anxious to step in before you. But as you rose higher and 
 higher this feeUng passed away, and when you got to the very top there 
 came a blissful moment when — though you were as high as you could get 
 in the air — you saw that you were not alone in the air. For the first time 
 you saw that you had comrades, and the top of the next car on the right and 
 the top of the next car on the left gave you a sense of safety almost as if 
 you were back on inother earth. 
 
 It was no matter who was in those cars. There might have been Rev. 
 Joseph Cook in the car on the right and Mohammed and his seventeen 
 wives in the car on the left. You could not see any of them, so you did not 
 suffer from their presence. At any rate you were as far as you could con- 
 veniently get. You had human beings on either side in as much danger as 
 you were and presently, with the blessing of Providence, you got back to 
 mother earth again. Oh, that descent to mother earth! Do you remem- 
 ber how mother earth seemed to rise to meet you? How every steeple 
 seemed sticking up in the air, how every high building came presently 
 within your vision, and how you blessed the muezzin as he called the noon- 
 time prayer in the mosque, if he happened to do it at that time! Gradu- 
 ally, step by step, you settled down into actual life again and you were glad, 
 even if you had the somewhat shady society of the Midway Plaisance. 
 
 That is the way we are coming back to earth to-day. We are entering 
 on the study of social reform. You' remember, perhaps, that story of the 
 Scotch candidate for the ministry who was being examined by one of the 
 sternest of the presbyters, or whatever they call them. Every one of his 
 examiners stood firm in favor of justification by faith and each one had fif- 
 teen minutes of questions, all bearing upon faith, to put to him. By and 
 by, when the candidate was in an exhausted condition, one indiscreet 
 examinersaid: "Well, what do you think of good works?" "Oh," said 
 the exhausted candidate, looking around at his persecutors, " I'll not say 
 that it might not be well enough to have a few of them." 
 
 Here to-day we are aiming to have a few of them. We have tried to con- 
 trast ourselves as our natural humility would permit with these visitors 
 from foreign lands. We have tried to apply the test of our convictions to 
 
 J
 
 TEST OF WORKS APPLIED. 611 
 
 feheirs, -with the universal feeling that each one of them might have been a 
 very respectable man if he had been brought up in our Sunday school. 
 Suppose we try them by this test of works, at last, and try ourselves by 
 the same test? it is not enough for our admirable chairman to marshal 
 us together and address us like St. Anthony, who preached to the fishes in 
 the old German poem. That poem records how eloquently the good saint 
 addressed them and how well they all listened to him. He explained to the 
 pickerel that they ought not to eat each other; he told the trout they 
 ought not to steal each other's food; and he said the eel ought not go eel- 
 ing around miscellaneously, getting into all manner of mischief. It is 
 recorded that the fishes heard him in rapture, but at the end the poem 
 says, at the end, after all: 
 
 The trout went on stealing. 
 
 The eels went on eeling; 
 Much delighted were they. 
 But preferred the old way. 
 
 Let us guard against that danger; and how can we guard against it so 
 well as by a little mutual humility when we ask ourselves how well any of 
 us have dealt with the actual problems of human life? When it comes to 
 that, after all, have any of us so very much to boast of? 
 
 . With the seething problems of social reform penetrating all our com- 
 munity and raising the question whether one day the whole system of 
 competition under which we live may not be swept away as absolutely as 
 the feudal system disappeared before it; with the questions of drunken- 
 ness and prostitution in our cities; with the mortgaged farms in our 
 country towns ; with all these things pressing upon us, is it quite time 
 for us to assume the attitude of infallibility before the descendants of 
 Plato and the disciples of Gautama Buddha? 
 
 The test of works is the one that must come before us. Every Oriental 
 that comes to us — and, curiously enough, I have heard half a dozen say 
 the same thing in different places — concedes to us the power of organiza- 
 tion, the power of labor, the method in actual life, which they lack. I do 
 not say that they deny us any virtue, except the knowledge of the true 
 God. They don't seem to think we have very much of that, and that 
 knowledge, as they claim, is brought to bear in virtues of heart as well as 
 in the virtues of thrift, of industry, or organization, and in the virtue of 
 prayer, in the virtue of trust, in the virtue of absolute confidence in God. 
 A friend of mine in Chicago told me the other day that when he was talking 
 w4th one of our Oriental visitors about some other place he was going to, 
 the question arose as to whether he could afford to go. The calm face of 
 the Oriental was utterly undisturbed during the discussion. " Oh," he said, 
 " I think I can go; I think there will be no trouble; I have S15 in my 
 pocket." 
 
 Put any of us, put the greatest Christian saint among us, 13,000 miles 
 away from home with only 815 in his pocket, and do you think that he would 
 be absolutely sure that unassisted Divine Providence would bring him back 
 without a call at his banker's? You find this curious combination of trials 
 running through the spiritual life, or what passes for such. We have come 
 here to teach and to learn. The learning is not so familiar to most of us, 
 perhaps, as the teaching, but when it comes to actual life we might try a 
 little of both. 
 
 And in thanking once more our chairman, as we ought to thank him 
 every moment of the day, not alone for the way he has organized this great 
 parliament, but for the sonorous decisions with which he even shtits the 
 door in our faces when we particularly want to get in — thanking him for 
 everything I can only give him this parting wish — that he may not be 
 like that once famous sportsman who prided himself on his good shootmg, 
 and boasted that in one instance the deer which he brought in had been
 
 512 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 shot by himself with a single bullet through the ear and through the left off 
 foot. His friend became a little solicitous about the statement, and he 
 turned to his black servant and said, " Sambo, isn't it so? " " Yes, massa," 
 said Sambo. " But how did you do it? ■ asked the incredulous. "Why," 
 said Sambo, " it was simple enough. De deer he just scratch he ear wiv 
 his off hoof and massa shot him." There was complete triumph on the 
 huntsman's part, and when his friend had gone he said: " Sambo, you did 
 that handsomely; thank you for getting me out of that." " Yes, massa," 
 said Sambo, "I did it once; I brought de ear and de off hind hoof togeder 
 once, but I speck I never can do it again." 
 
 " I am sorry," remarked Dr. Barrows, " that Colonel Hig- 
 ginson has ended his beautiful address with a word of skepti- 
 cism. I believe what has been done once can be done again." 
 
 RELIGION AND THE ERRING AND CRIMINAL 
 CLASSES. 
 
 EEV, ANNA G. SPENCER 
 
 The words "erring" and "criminal," while they have a constant mean- 
 ing, have also a variable application. That is to say, sin and crime are 
 always understood to be departures, of lesser or greater degree, by an indi- 
 vidual from the accepted moral standard of his time and people. Since, 
 however, moral standards change with changing social conditions and intel- 
 lectual 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, between the ancient Greek and Jewish 
 customs and legal codes in respect to child-life and 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 of 
 morals, one of the chief duties of mankind was to replenish and multiply 
 the people of the earth, and hence every act which tended toward the less- 
 ening of population, whether committed before or after the birth of a child, 
 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 quality 
 not the quantity of its citizens was the chief concern and therefore they 
 commended, not blamed, 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 v/henever 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 in the his- 
 tory of human slavery as that of racial peculiarity just noted. Slavery, 
 which was rightly characterized in both England and 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 capt- 
 ured in battle were tortured and slain, and in which thousands upon 
 thousands of the poor and helpless were butchered in times of peace to 
 make a tyrant's holiday. The unexampled heinousness of American slavery 
 consisted in the fact that it was the most monstrous anachronism of moral 
 history.
 
 RELIGION AND THE ERRING. 513 
 
 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 changing 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 consti- 
 tutes right action are as numerous as the distinct types of social relation. 
 This sense of moral obligation, which is the root of all persontU 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 the conscious response of the human being to those uni- 
 versal powers which make for cosmos out of chaos, for moral order out of 
 personal willfulness, 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 obe- 
 dient to the highest law of right perceived ; it has been emotionally the 
 yearning of the human heart to feel at one with a central heart of all lifo 
 and to pictvire that idea in worship and in art. 
 
 Accepting this definition of religion we find that the sense of obligatioi i 
 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 essential root of all eth- 
 ical 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 moral standards of the world. The 
 student finds it hard to accept even so excellent a guide as Mr. Lecky.when he 
 separates primitive religion so entirely from morals as in his analysis of 
 pgana religion and civilization. For Coulange has shown us how the ances- 
 tor-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 civili- 
 zation. It was only when the ethnic religions of the pagan world were 
 dying that they ceased to have influence over the moral life of the people. 
 
 Religion has often indeed been called upon to give a divine sanction to 
 actions already done from pressure of social exigencies or mistakes; 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 early Vedas, whose spirit 
 would indeed condemn it. On the contrary, the Hindu scriptures recom- 
 mending the burning of widows on their husbands' funeral pyre were writ- 
 ten after this, and, assisted and encouraged, suicide of widows had become a 
 common fact. But the child marriages and the ill-treatment andsutfering 
 of widows which resulted in the suttee were the outgrowth of some tenets 
 of the early Brahmanical faith. It is therefore strictly true to say that 
 while the first relation of religion to the erring and criminal classes is 
 that of supplying the sense by which we distinguish between right and 
 wrong, its second relation is that of a subtle and interior element, in vary- 
 ing moral definitions. 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 punishment 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 pro- 
 vision for dealing with its refractory members. In this form of human 
 association there was no written code of law, no trial, no assignment of one 
 specific penalty to one source of wrong-doing. The offender against the 
 reigning family powers met with instant judgment and personal penalty.
 
 514 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, 
 
 Prisons were private in those days, places in which the offender languished 
 or died in secret excepting some important member of an enemy's family 
 who was held for hostage. , .^ , , , a A-tt ^- *. 
 
 As the patriarchal order of society began to enlarge and differentiate 
 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 
 reli'^ous ideal, and civil crimes, or sins against the public well-being as 
 defined by a legal code or a well-knov/n custom. In this progress religion 
 played a ""reat accompanying part, for it was only as the family gods began 
 to enlaro'e into those of the city and even the common god of many allied 
 cities thus weakening the bond of ancestor-worship, that the state was 
 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 universal 
 powers, with which not only one family alone but all humanity was con- 
 nected,' the indidvidual sense of moral obligation was directed toward the 
 state instead of as formerly solely toward the kindi-ed of blood relation- 
 
 The sharpest contest between the ancient and the modern treatment of 
 the criminal and vicious lies in this, that in the old civilization 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 la?/ which is based upon the agree- 
 ment of many minds and wills. And, as we have seen, this change is chiefly 
 due to the twin enlargement of the social and religious ideas by which 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 penology is so much a part of the social and moral 
 history of the leading Christian nations that it must be traced almost exclu- 
 sively in Christendom. And this is not, as some think, because Christian 
 ethics are alone sufficiently advanced to apply thedoctrineof human broth- 
 erhood to the sinner and the criminal. Other than Christian teachers — the 
 noble Stoics, the gentle 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 toward the feeblest and the worst. 
 But our Western civilization has attained most completely of any the new 
 order of society, in which the individual, not the family, is the social unit. 
 And, therefore, it is our civilization which must first work out the i^roblem 
 of the just and wise relation of the state toward the individual who is 
 criminal and vicious. 
 
 Rome, because of her governmental genius which has led the world in 
 all forms of political development, shows the beginnings of modern pen- 
 ology better than any other nation. We must, therefore, trace a further 
 relation of religion to the criminal and erring classes through the changes 
 which supplanted the Grasco-Roman civilization by medieval Christianity. 
 In Rome's cosmopolitan life many different religions were allowed to thrive, 
 and the priest and the rulers of those religions had freedom to punish all 
 offenders against their own authority — that is to say, all religious sins — 
 according to their own discretion. But the Roman imperial government 
 arrived at a certain moral concensus of many nations in what is called the 
 "Law of Nature." This was obtained by selecting the rules of conduct 
 and social usages common to all the important nations represented in the 
 empire and setting them down in a written code. This soon established 
 the fact that certain violent crimes of murder and robbery were condemned 
 by a general moral sense. Then came the distinction ' between offenses 
 against the state or individual persons. An offense against the state was 
 punished by a single act of the state, a sentence against the offender, 
 usually of death or expatriation.
 
 RELIGION AND THE ERRING. 5i5 
 
 This offense against the individual person was earlier subject for juris- 
 prudence proper; in other words, for the assignment of a recognized 
 punishment to each sort of offense. We find that in Anglo-Saxon law 
 a sum was placed on the life of every free man according to his rank, and 
 a corresfjonding sum on every wound that could be intiicted on his person 
 and for nearly every injury that could bo done to his civil rights, honor, or 
 peace. The Roman "Twelve Tables" alk)tted with equal care the money 
 price of smaller thefts and other offenses against private person and 
 estate. Thus was introduced the idea of money in connection with punish- 
 ment, which in earlier times had been almost solely corporeal. 
 
 The first great step in the legal restriction of the personal will of the 
 reigning powers in respect to sin and crime was taken when Rome sepa- 
 rated the "free-born" from the slaves of a family and declared the former 
 released from the father's control and subject only to the state for punish- 
 ment of graver offenses. This established the public prison in addition to, 
 and often in place of the private dungeons of the family. 
 
 The prison, however, made a comparatively small showing in the old 
 world's paraphernalia of punishment. The death penalty was so freely used 
 and physical torture of all sorts was so marked a feature of i)unishment 
 that the prison in the olden times was most often only a place of temporary 
 detention for those on the way to cruel and fatal suffering. The idea of 
 imprisonment as itself a punishment aside from any hardship of torture 
 to be suffered by the prisoner, is essentially a new one. There seems to 
 have been but one public prison in Rome at the time of Juvenal. Her 
 methods of punishment by transportation, by enforced exile, by penal labor 
 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 criminal class. 
 
 When the Christian church ascended the throne of the Ctesars there 
 was no immediate change in the methods of punishment, although grad- 
 ually a very different scale of virtues was evolved leading to a very different 
 definition of the criminal and erring classes. The feudal system which 
 represented the state during the medieval system of Christianity marked, 
 indeed, a retrogression and not an advance from the ancient Roman code 
 of offenses and offenders. For again the prison became a secret part of the 
 family stronghold, and again the criminal and erring, at least of the lower 
 classes, were defined in a political sense almost exclusively by the individual 
 judgment of the reigning family head, who could punish almost unrestrain- 
 edly according to his will. The Christian church, in the meantime, 
 defined the criminal and erring in an ecclesiastical sense by its own stand- 
 ards, and punished them in its own secret places of torture, and by a 
 will as unrestrained. The to us almost incredible rights of the feudal lord 
 over his vassal's and his villein's person and estate prove that the power of 
 the chieftain class over offenders leads always to abuse and tyranny. And 
 the to us almost unimaginable tortures of the iuqviisition prove that the 
 personal power of the priestly class over offenders results in a confusion of 
 the moral sense. 
 
 The only chance for a just and wise science of penology lies along the 
 path which pagan Rome opened in her " Law of Nature;" that is, in the 
 development of a "common law" of righteousness based upon the more 
 universal elements in human thought and action, on which to found a 
 common code of punishment. Wht*i trte Roman law was re-established in 
 Christian courts, just as the dark ages lightened toward the dawn of our 
 modern day, a fresh start was taken toward this universal moral standard, 
 and the consequent rational definition of crime and sin, and the resulting 
 human treatment of the criminal and erring classes. Modern progress in 
 penology is marked by seven distinct steps, namely: 
 
 1. The establishment of the rights of all free-born men to a trial by hiw. 
 
 2. The abolition of slavery which brought all men under tCgis of one legal 
 3ode.
 
 51G THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 W Tho substitution of tho penalty of imprisonment for varied forms of 
 uhysical torturo and the limitation of the death penalty to a smaller number of 
 crimi'S and tiiose niorc universally aondemned by all men. 
 
 ■I Tlie recOKnition of national responsibility toward offenders, by which each 
 State accepts th.' task of controlling and caring for its own criminals instead 
 of transi)ortinB them outside its bounds. -^ , • • ,u • u.. 
 
 5 The ac'i.'eptan<-e of the principle that oven aconvicted criminal has rights 
 —richts to decent and humane treatment, which social custom must regard, 
 
 (J Tlio inauguration of a system of classification not only of offenses as 
 more or loss heinous, but of offenders as more or less guilty according to cir- 
 
 7 The beginning of experimental efforts in industrial and educational 
 directions toward the reformation of the criminal and erring— that is, their mak- 
 ing over into an accepted model of citizenship. 
 
 A few dates will help us to fix in our minds some points in this prog- 
 ress of penology. In 1215 the twenty-ninth section of England's magna 
 charta declared that "no free man shall be taken or imprisoned unless by 
 lawful judgment of his peers or the law of the land." This freed the 
 vassals of J^nglaud from the irresponsible tyranny of the nobles. The 
 agitation against domestic slavery in England, which began in the council 
 of London of 1102, was triumphant in the Abolition Act of 1806. The 
 emancipation of slaves in ail the British colonies succeeded in 1838-39. In 
 France the noble but ineffectual signal for the liberation of slaves given by 
 the constituent assembly was followed long after by the emancipation acts 
 of 1848. The church finally condemned sla /ery in 1839 by the bull of Pope 
 Gregory VI. These and other kindred acts placed all men under the law 
 and thus made possible the universal application of a civil code in Europe. 
 
 The policy of England in respect to the criminal and vicious was for 
 many years that of expatriation for many grave offenses. She found it 
 convenient to push off the edge of her little island onto the domains of her 
 colonies many of her undesirable children. James I., you remember, 
 shipped one hundred prisoners to our own Virginia in 1619, and in 1789 
 England sent her first cargo of convicts to Australia. In 1857 this trans- 
 portation of criminals was abolished by the English Parliament, thus 
 setting England right in the fourth step of penal reform. 
 
 Prance, meanwhile, had been enlightening the penal code of Europe in 
 another direction. In 1624 John Grevius, a preacher who had beem impris- 
 oned for his religious belief, published a book against torture, and in 1780 
 the attempt to extract confession from accused persons was abolished in 
 France. In 1791 the national convention recognized in its new penal code 
 simple imjirisonment as punishment for the first time in the history of 
 France, and for the fu-st time in such distinct form in Europe. 
 
 The lessening of capital crimes and the limitation of the death penalty to 
 the crimes most universally abhorred by humanity was a step slowly taken. 
 When our Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, England, in a retro- 
 gress've mood, the number of capital crimes had increased from thirty-one 
 at the accession of James to 223, while what would now be called minor 
 offenses were punished by death in every state in Europe. The Pilgrims 
 established in Plymouth Colony the most humane code in this and other 
 respects which the Christian world had yet seen, only five classes of crime 
 and those the most repugnant to all humane sentiment, carrying with them 
 the death penalty. And of these five but- two were ever actually enforced 
 in the case of an offender. 
 
 This was very different from the penal code of the Puritans of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay Colony, which made thirteen crimes capital, and also from that 
 of Virginia, which made seventeen crimes subject to the death penalty, 
 among these, be it remembered in passing, the crimes of refusing to attend 
 public worship after the third offense, and of being a Unitarian ! Gradually, 
 however, all the Christian States have lessened the number of capital 
 crimes until murder is now generally held to be the only offense against 
 society heinous enough to justify the legal taking of life, while there are 
 many opposed to capital punishment for any form of offense.
 
 HELIOION AND THE ERRING. 517 
 
 The first comprehensive, humane, and rationally consistent law in respect 
 to the estal)lishment and management of jjonal institutions which was ever 
 enacted was that which the combined wisdom of John Howard, the great- 
 est of prison reformers, and of Blackstone and Eldon, the great lawyers, 
 presented to the English Parliament, and which was passed in 1778. 
 Although for a long time it was rendered inoperative by the determination 
 of the English government to transport its criminals to British colonies, 
 it marks the actual advent of modern ideas of penology into codes of law. 
 This law suggested by Howard recognized the right of the criminal to good 
 sanitary conditions in jail and prison, to protection from extortion and 
 cruelty, to helpful employment where it could be given, and urged the need 
 of his education and moral training. When we consider what were the 
 conditions of European prisons when John Howard began his work of reform, 
 we can faintly estimate the power and use of his labors. Torture was still 
 known; cruelties of many sorts were practiced; miasma, filth of all sorts, 
 extreme cold, poor and insufficient food, almost utter nakedness prevailing, 
 and inevitably loathsome diseases; neglect of every sanitary and moral 
 regulation made terrible the common experience of the prisoner. This 
 experience might be mitigated for the richer and more influential offender 
 through the corrupt and corrupting system of jailers' fees, by which the 
 person who had the money to bribe the jailer and his associates might 
 secure the best rooms, good food, and plenty of intoxicating drink as well, 
 and medicine and care when ill. 
 
 These jailers' positions, you remember, were so remvinerative that no sal- 
 aries were attached to them, some men even paying for the chance to thus 
 fatten off the distresses of their outcast fellowmen. And when in this con- 
 nection we remember that only those guilty of the gravest crimes were 
 transported, leaving all minor misdemeanors to be punished at home, and 
 when we remember also that imprisonment for debt was very common, we 
 can faintly estimate the injustice to which the sentence of the courts con- 
 signed many whose worst fault was their poverty. 
 
 The Protestant Reformation resulted alike in Protestant and Catholic 
 countries in limiting the church power to the infliction of spiritual penalties 
 for ecclesiastic sins. The state then took into its own hands all otherf orms 
 of punishment along with many another social function once held within 
 the grasp of the Roman Church. Hence all the more modern progress in 
 penology has been carried along political lines. Yet Protestantism in Amer- 
 ica as well as in the Old World made its civil law conform to its religious 
 conceptions and used the strong arm of the court to enforce the moral 
 standards of the church. 
 
 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 relig- 
 ious 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 instructive to note the fact that the 
 difference between the harshness of the Puritan and Southern laws and 
 the more humane statutes of the Plymouth 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 the erring 
 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 man and 
 woman, a legitimate member of the human family, with inalienable rights 
 to protection and justice. One must, indeed, be isolated from the rest of
 
 5ig THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the world, for society's sake and perhaps for his own; one must be taught 
 the majesty of the hiw and subjected to moral discipline, butwhois entitled 
 to the best possible chance for moralimprovement. ' „ ^. 
 
 Tlie principle fibers itself upon three distinct contributions of the 
 Christian relitjion to our Western ^civilization. These three contributi(jns 
 are- First, the Democratic social idea; second, a conviction of the sacred- 
 ness of ail human life; third, the elevation of tenderness to a high place in 
 the scale of virtuoa. When the Christian religion declared that each soul 
 was its own, whether of bond or free, Jew or Gentile, man or woman, its 
 own to "ive to the Divine in loving service, it proclaimed a declaration of 
 indepenTlence which must, perforce, eventuate in the recognized self-own- 
 ership and control of each human being's person and estate. No matter 
 how long that result might be, as it was delayed by Roman imperialism in 
 the church itself, the freedom of the soul's choice of a heavenly kingdom 
 carried with it the Magna Charta of equality in social rights. 
 
 Again the idea of the worth and use of the single soul which was at 
 the heart of Jesus' doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood 
 of man gave to our civilization a conviction that the body of man, in which 
 the soul was enshrined, should not be lightly hurt or slain. This not only 
 did away with the pagan cruelties of the gladiatorial shows and the expos- 
 ure and destruction of infant life, but helped in the abolition of slavery and 
 mightily in the humanizing of penology. And last, the ideal character 
 which the Christian church worshiped in Christ, placing as it did tender- 
 ness, sacrifice, and service at the regal height of human virtue, gave an 
 irresistible impulse to those sentiments, and inspired a passion of human 
 love. The contribution of the Christian religion to our civilization has 
 borne direct fruit in the great change from tyranny and brutality to justice 
 and humanity in the administra.tion of the accepted moral law. 
 
 There is a new form of religion dawning upon the Western world and I 
 believe also upon the Eastern. Christianity was and is a composite faith, 
 compoundeLl of Jewish religious ideals, of Greek thought, Roman organiza- 
 tion, and of Germanic racial influences of domestic and social habit. The 
 new religious ideal which is shaping the reform movements of Christi- 
 anity, and of other great historic faiths as well, is the outgrowth on its 
 thought-side of that new conception of the universe and man's relation 
 to it, that new conception which is cosmical and universal rather than 
 racial or special. The new religious philosophy finds the synthesis of all 
 religions in the universal and eternal elements of human aspiration 
 toward the everlasting truth, the absolute right, the boundless love, and 
 the perfect beauty. This conception in brief puts at the center of all 
 things perceived or experienced " one law, one light, one element, and one 
 far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." This new 
 and scientific thought conception makes of morals, not a series of obliga- 
 tory commands given by one God or many gods to one race or many 
 races, but a turning of the will of man by the force of moral gravita- 
 tion toward that central law which reveals itself in the human con- 
 science and is developed through social influences, and in obedience to 
 which alone mankind finds his true orbit of action. This view of morals, 
 which is fast l^ecoming common to all enlightened men of all historic 
 dates, has already started the newest tendencies in the treatment of vice 
 and crime. Those newest tendencies we set down as reformatory, those 
 which aim to make over the criminal and erring into law-abiding and 
 respectable members of society. 
 
 There are two sides of this new reformatory movement in penology — 
 one which touches medical and one educational science. The first is busied 
 with the pathology of crime and vice, and is concerned with the influence 
 of heredity and original endowment; the other has to do with the culture 
 of the morally defective, and makes much of the effect of environment and
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE POOR AND DESTITUTE. 519 
 
 training upon that original endowment. The first teaches an intelligent 
 pity which traces evil to producing causes, and thus forbids all si)iritiial 
 arrogance to the well-born and bred. The other bids us to make haste to 
 give a new chance for growth to every ill-born and ill-bred man or woman; 
 and, moreover, is showing us how we may act in determined and wise alli- 
 ance with all those forces which make for general growth in the case of 
 each undeveloped man or woman. 
 
 The new scientific element in religion has given us social science of which 
 enlightened penology is a part. The okl word of religion said to the soul: 
 " Be ye perfect here and now, no matter how ye were born or trained, or in 
 what depths of social degradation ye find yourself." The new religion says 
 that also — such forever must be the clarion call to the will to work out a 
 personal salvation or i*; will c^ase to be religion. The religion of the future, 
 however, which is already born, has taken counsel of facts as well as of 
 faith, and it has added the social ideal to the personal. It has learned that 
 evil heredity, and poor physique, and degraded home infiuences, and bad 
 social surroundings, and toosevere toil, and too little happiness and educa- 
 tion make for millions of mankind walled barriers of circumstance, behind 
 which the dull and torpid soul catches but faint echoes of the divine 
 summons. 
 
 The relation of this new religion to the criminal and erring classes is 
 not only the tenderness of human sympathy which would not that any 
 should pensh; it is the consecration of human wisdom to social betterment 
 which shall yet forbid that any shall perish. In this new ideal of religion 
 the call is not only to justice for the criminal and erring after they come 
 within the scope of social control, but it is the call also to a study of those 
 conditions in the individual and in society which make for crime and vice; 
 and above all it is the call for the social lifting of all the v.'eaker souls of our 
 common humanity upon the winged strength of its wisest and best. The 
 new social ideal in religion calls upon us to make this world so helpful a 
 place to live in "for the least of these our brethren" that it shall yet be 
 as easy for the will to follow goodness " and the heart to be true, as for 
 grass to be green, or skies to be blue," in the " natural way of living." 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH TO THE POOR AND DESTITUTE: 
 
 CHARLES F. DONNELLY. 
 
 The paper was read by Bishop Keaiie. 
 
 The Christian Church was from the beginning always solicitous of the 
 poor, even in her early struggles and in the persecution she was then under- 
 going. This solicitude is shown in the first papal prescript, transmitted by 
 St. 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 St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr, wrote 
 his book, " On Good Works and Aims-Deeds," an admirable treatise on 
 Christian charity, for which he was distinguished. 
 
 Under the auspices of the church the primitive Christians established 
 means for the relief of the poor, the sick, and 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, asssociations of 
 religious women for redeeming those of their sex who were leading dis- 
 solute lives, and hospitals for the sick, the orphaned, the aged and afflicted
 
 520 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of ill kinds like the Hotel-Dieu, founded in Paris in the 17th century 
 anil stUl perpetuated. Of it Helyot wrote many years ago: 
 
 Tlioro is no one who sees the nuns of the Hotel-Dleu not only dress the 
 wouiKis of the patients, keep them clean and make their beds, but also, in the 
 mo"t uteiise cold \vinter. break the ice in the stream which runs through the 
 h()si)ital and so into it up to their waists to wash the linen impregnated with 
 1th of the must nauseous description, but must consider them as holy victims, 
 who from excess of love and charity, in order to serve their fellow-creatures. 
 voluntarily run into the jaws of death, which they defy, in a manner, amid so 
 much infection, occasioned by the great number of patients. 
 
 Another notable instance still to be seen of the church charities of 
 primitive times is to be witnessed to day in the Commune of Gheel, near 
 Antwerp, Belf,'ium, where there exists and has existed, tradition says, for 
 nearly twelve hundred years, a colony of the insane poor, now numbering 
 2,0(X), leading a home life, living, working, and associating with the people 
 of tli'e village instead of being in confinement in such buildings as are usually 
 provided for the insane elsewhere. The cost to the state of maintaining 
 the Ciheel colony is but small, comparatively, and the patients selected to 
 be sent there are thus happily and humanely provided for. 
 
 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. 600, by the hand of her own father, a pagan, who, having become 
 enraged at her conversion to Christianity, caused her to flee, and, pursuing 
 her there, beheaded her. An insane person witnessing (he 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. 
 
 It is fair to assume that the charitable religions of the neighborhood 
 saw early that the ancient methods of imprisoning the insane were irra- 
 tional, and so gradually surrounded them with couvditions 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 system 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 coming ; so the religious houses, the monasteries, 
 convents, asylums, and hospitals were the great houses of refuge and char- 
 ity the poor and needy had to resort to in their distress in later times. 
 
 With the Lutheran movement began the suppression of the convents 
 and monasteries, which had been the fortresses of the poor in the past, and 
 the land and houses so devoted to charity and religion passed from the hands 
 of their pious owners, by confiscation, into the control of the governments, 
 thus leaving the poor without any organized means of aid or provision for 
 their assistance. Thus the governments which had confiscated the religious 
 houses, were compelled to organize a method of relief of the poor themselves 
 and support them out of their treasuries. In the year 1536, the twenty-seventh 
 year of the reign of Henry VIII., a law was enacted by the Parliament of 
 England for the purpose of providing in some permanent way for the sup- 
 port of the poor, and that statute marks the period of the beginning of 
 all legislation by English-speaking communities for the public relief of the 
 poor. 
 
 The church, keenly alive to the conditions arising, soon found her sons 
 and daughters equal to the emergencies attending the disturbances of the 
 methods of poor relief followed by her for centuries. Then came a grand 
 procession of noble men and women, devoting their lives to the cause of 
 chanty and the salvation of their fellow creatures, and foremost in the 
 ranks were Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier and their followers, to 
 teach the Ignorant and assist the poor, not only in European countries but
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE POOR AND DESTITUTE. 521 
 
 ia the remoter regions of Asia and among the Indians and negroes of 
 America, while the followers of St. Francis and St. Dominic labored in 
 their pious ways at the work to which their saintly founders had conse- 
 crated their lives centuries before the government aid to the poor was 
 dreamed of. 
 
 But there appeared in the 17th century a man surpassing all who pre- 
 ceded him in directing the attention of mankind to the wants and necessi- 
 ties of the poor and to the work of relieving them — the great and good 
 St. Vincent de Paul, whose name and memory will ever be revered while 
 the church of Christ endures, born April 24, 1.57G, in the little village of 
 Pouj', near Dax, south of Bordeaux, bordering on the Pyrenees, ordaintnl 
 priest in IGOO, and later fell into the hands of the Turks and was sold as a 
 slave at Tunis. He escaped and found his way to Rome. After a time he 
 resolved to devote his life to the poor. He established rapidly hospitals 
 for foundlings, houses for the aged poor, a hospital for the galley slaves at 
 Marseilles, the Congregation of Priests of the Mission, parochial confra- 
 ternities for charitable work, companies of ladies for the service of the 
 Hotel-Dieu, and the Daughters of Charity, who are better known in our 
 country as the Sisters of Charity, and whose charitable and self-sacriticing 
 lives serve as a constant reminder to us of our own duty to the sick and 
 destitute. St. Vincent de Paul's life closed the 27th of September, 1660. 
 The rule of his Congregation of Priests of the Mission is a summary of the 
 gospel maxims designed for daily life. He spent nearly thirty years 
 in arranging it, and one of the later popes said that its perfect ijractice 
 would be a sufficient title to canonization. His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. 
 has formally declared St. Vincent patron of the Charities of the Universal 
 Chvirch. The churclx is indebted to him for showing the way that holy 
 women may, though religious, be in the world and yet preserve the sanctity 
 of the religious state, and accomplish more by their works and example 
 with believers and unbelievers than they could by the life of the cloister, or 
 than could be accomplished by the most eloquent sermon preached in the 
 grandest of cathedrals. 
 
 In the great work of St. Vincent de Paul nothing commends itself more 
 to this practical age than his plan of enlisting large bodies of laymen to 
 co-operate with the clergy by establishing confraternities in each parish of 
 men who devote themselves to seeking out, visiting, and relieving the sick, 
 the orphaned, and the destitute. Such associations 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 they do. 
 France leads in such organizations naturally enough, but the United States 
 is emulating her successfully, and will, in view of what has been accom- 
 plished here of late years, soon surpass 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 jjoint a few of the many active 
 rather than the contemplative orders and congregations that 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 with- 
 out achieving the same success, and conspicuously the Alexian, or Cellite 
 Brothers, founded in 1.32.5 at Aix-la-Chapelle, devoted to nursing the sick, 
 especially in times of ijestilence, the care of lunatics and persons suffering 
 from epilepsy. In 1572 the 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
 
 522 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 was founded at Rheims, in 1680, the congregation of the Brothers of the 
 Christian Schools for the instruction of poor children; in 1804 the 
 Christian Brothers were founded in Ireland, mainly for the educa- 
 tion of poor youths ; at Ghent the congregation 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 
 182-4 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 children, and this religious 
 body of women has now several hundred houses established 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 estab- 
 lished, in 18:50. At St. Servan, in Brittany, some peasant women, chiefly 
 young working women and domestic servants, instituted the Little Sisters 
 of the Poor in 1840, having for their object the care of the aged poor, irre- 
 spective of sex or creed, and they, too, have hundreds of houses now in 
 nearly all the large cities of the world. 
 
 Nearly all the orders, congregations, and societies here mentioned are 
 to-day represented by many hundreds of their members and houses through- 
 t)ut, not only the United States, but all the countries in North and South 
 America. And some of them existed on this continent when the only path- 
 ways across it were made by the Indian and the wild beast of the primeval 
 forests; for Catholicity had its home here before the other denominations 
 professing Christian religion to-day had existence, and when the ancestors 
 of all the people of the United States were professing the same faith as the 
 great founders of many of the charities mentioned and were co-workers 
 with them in their pious labors. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest service the church rendered the poor was in the 
 work of social regeneration, especially in Europe, where the individual man, 
 at the advent of Christianity, lived amid slavery, the degradation of women, 
 indifference to human life, and the neglect of the aged and infirm, while the 
 whole social edifice rested on an odious tyranny sustained by military force. 
 To reform morals, to impose a check on power, to abolish slavery, and to seek 
 the reconstruction of society, where paganism and barbarity mainly pre- 
 vailed, was the task of the church from the beginning. Society was'strong, 
 the individual was weak; there was no encouragement to cultivate the feel- 
 ing of x)ersonal independence; there was no comprehension of the dignity of 
 man, and none of that respect for every individual with which God intended 
 he should be surrounded. The church alone battled for the dignity of man, 
 for the progress of individuality, and educated man to comprehend and 
 believe he was not made for the earth, or the kings of the earth, but for 
 God, his Father and Creator, and after His own image and likeness, and 
 for Him alone. 
 
 And so man's mind was gradually raised from the dust, from pagan igno- 
 rance and superstitions to the dignity and grandeur which the Christian 
 m\il attains in fully contemplating its destiny. To regenerating the social 
 state the church devoted her efforts until she gradually saw the dawn 
 of that civilization for which she had been contending, lighting the world 
 to a future when the individual would be respected, his family held 
 sacred, and governments would exist to protect men and not to tyrannize 
 over them. She has been the exemplar of democracy herself; of the equal- 
 ity of all men before her laws at all time; of the equal right of king and 
 peasant before her altars; of the right of the humblest of her members to 
 be elevated to the priesthood, the episcopacy, or the papacy, as well as 
 the most rich and influential; to-day a shepherd boy becomes her pope, 
 to-morrow a swineherd. 
 
 The consideration of the relations of the church to the poor necessarily
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE POOR AND DESTITUTE. 523 
 
 involves observing the relations of the State to the poor as well, that is, 
 the reasoning on which is based the claim of the right of support by the 
 citizen from the State in time of need, rather than from the church. One 
 may take the dictum of Sir William Blackstone as stating the matter, 
 when he says: 
 
 The law not only rogards life and member, and protects every man in the 
 enjoyment of them, but also fiirnishos him with everything necessary for th<ir 
 support. For there is no man so indigent or wretched but he may demand a sup- 
 I)ly sufficient fe)r all the necossitic^s of life from the more opulent pai't of the com- 
 munity, by means of the several statutes enacted for the relief of the poor, a 
 humane provision; yet, though dictated by the principles of society, discounte- 
 nanced by the Eomau laws. 
 
 But is the state the best almoner? In ancient times in England it was 
 considered wiser to leave the whole duty of providing for the poor to those 
 who would be required by humanity and religion to care for them, namely, 
 the clergy, regular and secular, and that duty devolved on them for centu- 
 ries, as we have seen. Out of the tithes, the products of the labor of the 
 monasteries, and the charitable contributions given by the laity to disj)cnse, 
 came the sole means of maintaining the poor in Catholic England, there being 
 no compulsory methods by common law, or statute, looking to their sup- 
 port, and Blackstone himself credits the monasteries with the principal 
 support of the poor in Catholic times. 
 
 Under the modern system of poor laws it is evident that all the work of 
 charity is not accomplished by the governments, either in England or in 
 our own country, to which we transplanted the poor laws enacted by Par- 
 liament in their entirety. The thousands of private charitable and i^hilan- 
 thropic organizations which exist in England and the States of America 
 to-day, to supplement the work of the overseers of the poor and other 
 functionaries engaged in the administration of the public charities, is an 
 overwhelming refutation of the claim that laws for the relief of the poor 
 make all the provision for them which is necessary. 
 
 The charity which is dispensed officially is sometimes dispensed with 
 kindness, often formally, coldly, and indifferently, and sometimes heartlessly. 
 With the experience of the ages behind it the church goes forward in the 
 work of assisting the poor rather than abandon the greatest of Christian 
 duties to the state to perform. Other denominations of Christians are 
 generally rivaling her in the work, and there they can meet on common 
 ground with her, 
 
 For all mankind's concern is charity. 
 
 The affecting death of Father Damian among the lepers of Molokaoi 
 was better than all polemical discourses to allay religious rancor where it 
 may exist, and to awaken in the mind of all refiecting Christians the impor- 
 tance 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 probable that within a few years great changes will be made 
 by the Catholic Church itself in the administration of many of its char- 
 ities 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 19th century. The 
 slender equipment of the poor child in the past for the part h; had to 
 play in life; the continuovis or casual administration of alms to the desti- 
 tute, instead of leading them kindly and firmly forward from dejjendence 
 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 Ecclesia: " Where Peter is. there is the church." and 
 Rome was made by the poor fishermen of Galilee the seat of the church 
 nearly nineteen hundred 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
 
 524 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 church to th(> 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 
 contriljuting to the opening of asylums for strangers there in distress. 
 Prior to the advent of secular rule there, under the existing government, 
 the income for her charities was S8CX),()00 per annum, with a population less 
 than ITo.CXX). The Santo Spirito Hospital was established in 1198, by Inno- 
 cent III.', for the care of foundlings; in 1548 the Via Lungara Hospital, for 
 the insane, originated; in 15:51 the Hospital for Convalescents, in the Trin- 
 ita di I'ellegrine, was founded by St. Philip Neri; in 1540, the orphanage of 
 Sta. Maria in Aquiro; in 1560, the Hospital of St. Galla, a temporary refuge 
 for tlie homeless poor, where they received a supper and bed; in 1686, the 
 Hospital of St. Michael, for the aged of both sexes; in 1693, the Apostolical 
 .\lmonrv, established by Innocent XIII., its officers being ecclesiastics who 
 divided 'the city into eleven districts for dispensing medical aid, nourish- 
 ment at the houses of the poor of each district where needed, and trans- 
 porting the sick to a suitable hospital when required. Three hospitals 
 existed for diseases requiring surgical operations and special treatment: 
 St. Giacomo, with .366 beds, founded in 1.3.38; St. Gallicano, with 180 beds, 
 commenced in 1724, and Sta. Maria della Consolazione, with 156 beds. The 
 Lying-in Hospital of St, Roch was opened in 1770, and the Hospital of Ben- 
 fratelli in 1581. 
 
 There were also the Asylum of St. Catarina di Funari, for female 
 orphans, established by St. Philip Neri, two hospitals especially dedicated 
 *X) medical cases, St. Savior's, for females, with room for 570 patients, and 
 Santa Spirito Hospital for men. To those may be added many others, like 
 the Conservatory of the Mother of Sorrows, and the Borromeo, the asylum 
 of the Trinitarians and of St. Euphemia, the Asylum of Divine Providence 
 in the Ripetti near St. Pietro in Mentorio, and St. Mary's Refuge — all the 
 latter named institutions being for orphans. There was a number of small 
 asylums for poor and aged widows, confraternities for the sick and dying, 
 and the Society of the Divine Piety, for the relief of families in reduced 
 circumstances, founded as far back as 1679. 
 
 It is impossible in a summary of this nature to give more than an out- 
 line 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 gratuitous 
 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 regionary schools; a 
 number of parochial schools, and besides 374 general, or public free schools 
 for the young, with 484 teachers, and 14,000 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 charitable 
 institutions, the inmates of which are maintained almost entirely by the 
 contriliutions of their co-religionists, who, with their fellow-citizens of other 
 denominations, share in the burden of general taxation, proportionately to 
 their moans, in maintaining the poor at the public charitable institutions 
 besides. A truly anomalous condition, but arising from the strong adher- 
 ence 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 poor 
 of their means, not through public officers and bureaus, but through those 
 who serve the poor in the old apostolic spirit, with love of God and their 
 less fortunate neighbor and brother actuating them. In the scheme of the 
 dispensation of public charity relief is extended on the narrow ground that 
 there i.s some imi)lied obligation on the part of the state to maintain the 
 citizen in his necessities in return for service rendered or expected; but the 
 church imposes the burden on the conscience of every man of helping his
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE POOR AND DESTITUTE. 525 
 
 neighbor in distress, apart from any service done or expected, and teaches 
 that all in suffering are entitled to aid, whether they live 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 bo in the future, 
 as she has been in the past, in advance of the state in all examples of 
 beneficence. 
 
 Bishop Keane paused during the reading of the paper 
 submitted by Mr. Donnelly and said: 
 
 I would like to interject three principles right here. First, I wish to 
 draw a distinction between poverty and destitution. Christ would blesa 
 poverty, but Christ would never bless destitution. Christ was poor, his 
 apostles were poor, but Christ and his apostles never were miserable or 
 destitute. It is a mistake to suppose that the church of God gives any 
 sanction or benediction to destitution or wretchedness. 
 
 The second principle is this, as has been superbly shown this morning: 
 Christianity stands for two great ideas — individualism and communism, 
 socialism. Our divine Lord said: "Whatever ye do for the least one of 
 these ye do for me." He meant that whatever was done for any individual 
 soul, human like ours, though a miserable, poor, suffering body, that in it 
 we are to recognize the great unity of all in Christ, 
 
 The third principle was this: All these holy men and women, in order to 
 consecrate themselves, lived in retirement, fully appreciating the fact that 
 they were not running away from the world, but that they did so in order 
 to do the Lord better service. And so, in the great normal schools and 
 institutions where they take in the greater fullness of the spirit of Christ, 
 that they go out and do better work. My heart was glad when I listened 
 last night and heard our good friend, the Hindu, confess that for years he 
 did not know where he was going to get his next meal. That was the way 
 with these poor Franciscan monks. They were reduced to poverty in order 
 that they might better consecrate themselves to the service of God every- 
 where. 
 
 And let me also say here, because it is in close connection with the 
 thought printed in the paper, from my heart I indorse the denunciation 
 that was hurled forth last night against the system of pretended charity 
 that offered food to the hungry Hindus at the cost of their conscience and 
 their faith. The question might well be asked whether among Christian 
 people such a system was possible; and yet we have only to look back 
 to the history of the famine in Ireland in order to know that such things 
 have been. A shame, a disgrace, to those who call themselves Christians. 
 But I am happy to state, in answer to a half -question also asked last night, 
 and in connection with this subject, that in China and in India, the Sisters 
 of Charity and the Little Sisters of the Poor have many institutions in 
 which they are pledged by holy vows to care for the indigent, no matter 
 what might be their faith, without asking any man to be guilty of the 
 sham hypocrisy of pretending conversion in order to get bread. 
 
 I will go farther and say: We were startled at the denunciation that 
 came also from the heart of the Hindu monk last night, of the Christian 
 system of the atonement, as he understood it. I sympathize with him 
 from his standpoint. There have been men who through a mistaken piety 
 have so exhausted the supremacy of God as to utterly annihilate all respon- 
 sibility and the co-operation of the human free will. For any such system 
 or idea of the atonement of Christ I have no more sympathy than has our 
 Buddhist friend. I say to him let him go on criticising us Christians; we 
 do not hear half enough of this. I firmly believe in the principle laid down 
 by dear Bobby Burns: 
 
 O wad some power the giftie gie US 
 To see oursel'sas ithers see us.
 
 626 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 And if by these criticisms Vivekananda can only stir us and sting us 
 into better teachings and better doings in the great work of Chrir' in the 
 work!, I for one will be profoundly grateful to our friend, the great Hindu 
 monk. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. 
 
 PROF. F. G. PEABODY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Each age in the history of human thought is marked by one central 
 problem which stands out from a distance against the horizon of the past 
 as the outline of some mountain stands out, miles away, against the sky. 
 In one age, as in that of Luther, the center of European thought lay in a 
 problem of theology; in another age, as in that of Kant, this commanding 
 interest was held by a question of philosophy; fifty years later, in the time 
 of Darwin, the critical problem was one of science, and both the theologian 
 and philosopher had to recast their formulas under the new thought 
 of evolution. And now, fifty years later still, with a distinctness hardly 
 reached before, a new era finds its center of interest in a new problem. 
 
 We do not have to wait for the philosophic historian to look back on our 
 time as we look back on that of Luther or Kant or Darwin for the mark 
 which must always stamp the present age. It is already past a doubt what 
 the Great Master of the ages, in his division of labor through the history of 
 man. is proposing that this special age of ours shall do. 
 
 The center of interest, alike for philosophers and agitators, for thinkers 
 and workers, for rich and poor, lies at the present time in what we call the 
 "social question." The needs and hopes of human society, its inequalities 
 of condition, its industrial conflicts, its dream of a better 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 age. Never before in 
 the history of the world were the moral senses of all classes thus awakened 
 to the evils of the present or the hopes of the future. 
 
 Once the relations of rich and poor, or employer and employe, were 
 regarded as, in large degrees, natural conditions, not to be changed, but 
 simply to be endured. Now, with a great suddenness, there has spread 
 through all the civilized countries a startling gospel of discontent, a new 
 restlessness, a new conception of philanthropy. 
 
 The same subjects are being discussed in workingmen'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, some- 
 times into very tragic ones, but such questions have at least two redeem- 
 ing traits which make the age devoted to them a fortunate age. They are 
 very large questions. Some epochs in history have been devoted to ques- 
 tions which were very near, but very small, such as questions of personal 
 culture or taste, and some to questions which very large, but very remote, 
 such as the controversies which once rent Christendom as to the interior 
 nature of the Godhead, but for the present we are happily freed both from 
 smallness 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 
 
 Here 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,
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. 527 
 
 in which it is invigorating and wholesome to live. It has many ot tho 
 characteristics of the time when Jesus of Nazareth, reading the signs ol 
 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 because 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 preach the 
 acceptable year of the Lord." We, 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 a gospel of social welfare and to the healing and 
 recovering of the bruised and broken-hearted of the modern world; and 
 that is what makes this year of the Lord, to any thoughtful student of 
 human progress, 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 atti- 
 tude of Christ's disciples toward these varied programmes 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 accu- 
 rately, 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 into the sacred- 
 ness 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 distresses and problems of the 
 time, then those most concerned with such distresses and problems will 
 have no interest in the Christian church. The simple fact which we have 
 to face to-day 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. 
 
 I asked that honest and temperate leader of the working class in Eng- 
 land, John Burns, two years ago, what he thought would be the future of 
 religion in England — and he answered: " I see no future for it. It plays no 
 part in the workingman's programme." That is one v/ay f or the Christian to 
 stand toward the social question. He tries to evade responsibility for it; 
 and forthwith the Church of Christ is helpless to reach and redeem the 
 lives of a whole section of mankind. But the opposite way is hardly 
 less vicious and, just now, a more probable peril. The pressure of these 
 new interests is just now so groat that indifference to them is unlikely. 
 The churches are accepting these human questions as a part of their 
 religious dvity. 
 
 The theological seminaries are adding to their instrviction the new field 
 of sociology. The preachers are dealing with the social question. Is there 
 not some danger, one may well ask himself, that the new humanitarianism 
 may crowd out the old religion? Are our sermons to become discussions 
 of political economy? Are our churches to be transformed into labor 
 unions? Is our theological education to be given over to economics? Is 
 religious worship to be abandoned for social reform, and the need of Christ 
 to be forgotten in the need of society? So the pendulum of opinion swings
 
 528 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 from one extreme to the other -from indiflference to absorbing interest, 
 from the Christ who shuts out social problems to the social problems 
 which shut out Christ. And in both situations are the two factors of the 
 problem which lies to-night before us— the eternal needs of the soul in 
 worship, and the pressing question of the day, the churches on the one 
 hand and the world on the other, Christ and the social question stand unad- 
 justed and opposite. . . , , • t i.-u 
 
 And so we return again to our original question. Is there no organic, 
 normal relation between the two? When the Christian returns to the 
 social questions is he, on the one hand, turning away from the themes of a 
 Christian church, or is he, on the other hand, sacrificing Christ to society, 
 or is there lastly, any law laid down by Christ Himself which directs a 
 Christian in his study of such affairs? That is the question with which we 
 turn to Christ, and He gives us a clear and often reiterated reply. One of 
 the first things which strike one as he reads the gospel is that Jesus Christ 
 was a great individualist. His appeal is always to the single life; his 
 central doctrine of humanity is that of the infinite worth of each single 
 soul* 
 
 Nothing can make up for the loss of the individual. The shepherd goes 
 Dut after the one lost sheep; the woman sweeps the house to find the one 
 bit of money; the gain of the world is nothing if a man loses his own soul. 
 Thus Christ and his teachings stand forever over against the schemes 
 which are going to redeem the world by any impersonal mechanical plan, 
 He seeks to save men one at a time; His kingdom is within; He calls His 
 disciples singly; He calleth His own sheep by name and leadeth them out. 
 It is a personal relation, an individual work. 
 
 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, sprang from this root of 
 the worth of even the humblest soul. The Protestant 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 movement of progressive societies," says Sir Henry 
 Maine in his " Ancient Laws," " has been uniform in one respect. The indi- 
 vidual IS steadily substituted for the family as the unit of which civil laws 
 take account. So far, then, the method of Christ seems to stand apart 
 from the problem of society. It seems to confirm Christians in their neu- 
 trality toward social questions and needs. What has the church, from this 
 point of view, to do with social questions? The church has but to deliver 
 the message of Christ for the saving of the individual soul. 
 
 But, in reality, there is one whole side of the teaching of Jesus which 
 such a view entirely ignores. Suppose one goes on to ask humbly: " Why 
 does Christ thus appeal to the individual? why is the single soul of such 
 infinite worth to Him? Is it for its own sake? Is there this tremendous sig- 
 nificance about my little being and doing that it has its own isolated 
 worth? Not at all. A man's life, taken by itself, is just what it seems — 
 a very insignificant affair. What is it that gives significance to such a 
 single life? It is its relation to the whole of which it is a part. Just as 
 each minutest wheel is essential in some great machine, just as the health 
 of each slighted limb or organ in your body affects the vitality and health 
 of the whole, so stands the individual in the organic life of the social 
 world. "We are members of one another," "We are one body in Christ," 
 " no man liveth or dieth to himself " — so runs the Christian conception of 
 the common life ; and in this organic relationship the individual finds the 
 meaning and worth of his own isolated self. What is this conception in 
 Christ's own language? It is his marvelous ideal of what he calls "The 
 Kingdom of God," that perfected world of humanity in which, as in a per- 
 fect body, each part should be sound and whole, and thus the body be com-
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. 52& 
 
 plete. 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 of great price. It may come slowly, a? 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 kingdom of 
 God arrives, then and there only will the hopes of Jesus Christ be fulfilled. 
 "Thy kingdom come "is the central prayer of the disciple of Christ. 
 What does this mean, then, as to Christ's thought of society ? It means 
 that a completed social order was his highest dream. We have seen that 
 he was the great individualist of history. We now see that he was the 
 great socialist as well. His hope for man was a universal hope. What he 
 prophesied v/as just that enlarged and consolidated life of man which many 
 modern dreams repeat, where all the conflicts of selfishness should be out- 
 grown, 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 sin- 
 gle soul and yet hope thus for the kingdom ? How can he be at once the 
 great individualist and the great socialist of history ? Are we confronted 
 with an inconsistency in Christ's doctrine of human life ? On the con- 
 trary, 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 sucn inestimable value? Because of its 
 essential part in the organic social life. And why is the Kingdom of God 
 set before each individual? To free him from all narrowness and selfish- 
 ness of aim. Think of those great words of Jesus, spoken as he looked back 
 on his completed work: "For their sakes, I sanctify Myself." " For their 
 sakes '' — that is the sense of the common life workin^^ ar a motive beyond 
 all personal desire, even for holiness itself. "I sanctify Myself" — that is 
 the way in which the common life is to be saved. The individual is the 
 means; the Kingdom of God is the end. 
 
 The way to make a better world is first of all to make your own soul 
 better, and the way to make your own soul better is to stir it with the sense 
 of the common life. And so the same master of the problem of life becomes 
 at once the most positive of individualists and the most visionary of social- 
 ists. Hi^ first appeal is personal: " Sanctify thyself ." His second call is 
 the common life: "For their sakes "^ — and the end and means together 
 make a motto of a Christian life — " For their sakes I sanctify Myself." Such 
 is Christ in his dealing with the social question. He does not ignore the 
 social problems of any age, but he approaches them always at their personal 
 ends. With unfailing sagacity he declines to be drawn into special ques- 
 tions of legislation or programmes of reform. Changes of government are 
 not for him to make. " Render unto Ctesar the things that are Ciesar'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 pan- 
 acea. He simply brings all such schemes and dreams to the test of a 
 universal principle, the principle of sanctifying oneself for others' sakes, 
 the two-fold principle of the infinite worth of the individual and the intmite 
 hope of a kingdom of God, and of every plan and work which is proposed
 
 630 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 for social welfare, Chi-ist says: "Let it begin with the indiyidual-his char- 
 acter his liberty, his enlargement of life— and then out of this individual 
 sanctiticalion will grow the better social world." 
 
 Such I say is Jesus Christ in His relation to human society. And now, 
 havinc unfolded before ourselves the principle of His teaching, let us go on 
 to see its practical application to the questions which concern the modern 
 world Here is the Chi-istian, facing the modern social order, and asking 
 himself how its seriousness and plans are to be met. How pressing, how 
 burnin"- are these questions which thus surround us, and in some of them 
 each of us 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 penis 
 both to the persons involved and to the welfare of us all. There is the 
 problem of the employer and the problem of the employed; each with its 
 own responsibility, its irritations, and its threats. And then, growing out 
 of all these conflicts and equalities of the time, there are the dreams of 
 some transformed 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 disputes. 
 
 Men are groping for some door which shall open before them into a 
 better social future, but they are like mon bewildered in the dark, and the 
 key they carry does not fit the lock they want to turn. And then comes 
 Christ into the midst of modern society with the principle He has made 
 clear— the principle of the Christian individual giving himself to the social 
 order — and the door of each one of these social problems swings open as 
 He comes and Chi'ist passes through from room to room, the master of them 
 all. Let us see how this answer of Christ to the social questions fits the 
 lock of each such case. 
 
 What has Christ, let us ask in the first place, to say to the problem of 
 poverty? What is the Christian's way of dealing with the poor? As we 
 look back over the long history of Christian charity, it might seem as if 
 one would have to say of it that it was the history of one long and costly 
 mistake. Prom the beginning till now Christians have, of all people, most 
 indulged themselves in indiscriminate almsgiving, fostering pious frauds, 
 encouraging mendicancy, often holding poverty itself to be a virtue and 
 often embarrassing the work of scientific relief. Who are so devoted to 
 sentimentalism in charity, one might ask, as the religious people? Where 
 is bt^ggary most conspicuous and most shiftless but in European countries 
 like Italy or Spain, where the Church of Christ has had for centuries uninter- 
 rupted control? And where do spurious poverty and pious mendicancy 
 find their easiest victims to-day, if it is not in the hearts of the Christian 
 congregations. 
 
 All such criticisms have much to justify them; but they only indicate 
 how the Church of Christ has failed to grasp the method of Christ. The 
 fa(;t is that the Christian Church has been so deeply impressed with one- 
 half of Christ's truth — the worth of the individual — that it has often for- 
 gotten the other half — the service of the whole. It has found an independent 
 insignificance in each humblest life — the beggar, the helpless, the poor — and 
 forthwith has proceeded not to Uft them out of their condition, but to sup- 
 port them just as they were. Thus it is that Christians have been led into the 
 most mistaken charity. Almsgiving has been a part of their religion. The 
 problem before them has been not that of education to usefulness, but 
 simply that of temporary relief. 
 
 And, meantime, what is Christ's own attitude toward poverty? Every 
 soul, he says, no matter how humble or depraved, is essential to God's 
 kingdom. It has its part to take in the perfect whole. Every soul ought 
 to be given a chance to do and be its beet. It must be helped to
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. 531 
 
 help itself. The question of the Christian is to make as much out of that 
 life as can be made. It must be made the life of a man, not tl>e life of 
 a brutal, degraded mendicancy; the life of a woman, not a life of starved 
 and tempted labor. 
 
 Thus Christian charity is not the mere relief of temporary distress, or 
 the alms which may tempt to evil ; it is personal, painstaking interest — 
 the taking trouble to lift up, the dismounting, as you pass, like the 
 Samaritan, pouring into the wounds of the fallen one the oil and wine you 
 had meant for yourself; the putting the victim of circumstances on your 
 own beast, and taking him where he shall be cared for and healed. 
 
 Christian charity meets a drunken woman in the streets, as did a fair 
 young girl the other day, takes the poor slatternly wretch gently round 
 the waist, walks down the crowded thoroughfare and puts the half uncon- 
 scious woman to bed, warms some soup, leaves her to sleep, aud 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 affection. In short, Christian 
 charity sees in the individual that which God needs in His perfect world, 
 and trains it for that high end. There is more Christian charity in teach- 
 ing a trade, than in alms, in finding work, than in relieving want. 
 
 What Christ wants is the soul of His brother and that must be trained 
 into personal power, individual capacity, self help. Thus, true Christian 
 charity is the one with the last principle of scientific charity. It is the 
 transforming of a helpless dependent into a self-respecting worker. It is 
 as when Peter and John stood at the beautiful gate of the Temple and the 
 lame man lay there, as the passage says, " hoping that he might receive an 
 alms," but Peter fastened his eyes on him and said: "Silver and gold have 
 I none, but such as I have give I unto thee. In the name of Jesus of 
 Nazareth rise up and walk." 
 
 Such is Christ in dealing with the poor. And now we turn, on the 
 other hand, to the opposite end of the social order. What, I ask again, has 
 Christ to say to the rich ? What is the Christian theory of wealth, and its 
 rights and uses ? One might again reply, as he looks at some sign of the 
 time, that thore was no such thing as a Christian theory of wealth in the 
 modern world. The same awful warning which Christ once uttered 
 against the rich of His time seems to be needed in all its force by many 
 rich men to-day. 
 
 Luxury and ostentation, indolence and extravagance are eating into the 
 heart of modern life as they did in that earlier Roman world, and we begin 
 to understand the solemn wisdom of Christ when he said: "How hardly 
 shall they who have riches enter into the Kingdom." But, in reality, Ibis 
 condemnation of Jesus was directed, not against the fact of wealth, but 
 against the abuses and perils of wealth. He was thinking of men's souls, 
 and He saw with perfect distinctness how wealth tends to harden and 
 shrivel the soul. "The cares of this world, and the deceitfulnes;: of 
 riches," as He said, " choke the world, and it becometh unfruitful." 
 
 He would have seen the same thing now. We might as well face the 
 fact that one of the severest tests of character which our time affords has 
 to be birne by the rich. The person who proposes to maintain simplicity 
 and sympathy, responsibility and high-mindedness in the midst of the 
 wealth and luxury of the modern times is undertaking that which he had 
 better at once understand to be very hard. The rich have some advantages, 
 but they unmistakably have also many disadvantages, and the Christiani- 
 zation of wealth is beyond question the most serious of modern problems. 
 
 But this is not saying that rich men should be abolished. Wealth only 
 provides a severer school for the higher virtues of life, and the man or 
 woman who can really learn the lesson of that school has gained one of the 
 hardest but also one of the most fruitful experiences of modern times. 
 Never before did the world provide so many opportunities for the services of
 
 532 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 wealth and never before, thank God, did so niany rich men hold their 
 wealth as a trust for whose use they owe responsibility to their God. 
 
 What then does Christ ask of the rich? He asks that they should 
 take the place in the organism of modern society which no one else can 
 fiko so well If wealth will not do its duty, then Christ sweeps it aside as 
 •i' hindrance of the coming kingdom, as he did with that young man who 
 iiid .rii'iit possessions. But if the rich will but meet the rare opportunity 
 whidi the new times aflford, 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 
 hapi)iness of the wise uses of wealth for the common good. Wealth is like 
 an V other gift of God to you, like your health, or your intellectual powers, 
 or yoin- 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, 
 selfisnly used, become the curses of life. Your bodily strength may be the 
 source of destructive passions; your intellectual gift may leave you a cynic 
 or a snob; your wealth may shrivel up your soul. But, taken as trusts to 
 use, the body and brain and wealth are all alike gifts of God which, the 
 more they are held for service, the more miraculously they enrich and 
 refresh the giver's life. 
 
 Thus, to rich and poor alike, Christ comes with his two-fold doctrines of 
 society. And now take the same teachin^r into the larger world of our mod- 
 ern industrial affaus. How does Christ enter into the economic problems 
 of modern life? How does he deal with the relations of employer 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 victory of shrewdness and cunning, a close shading of one's 
 conduct between what is absolutely illegal and what is just within the 
 limits of the game? What is modern industry, in short, but the new way 
 of warfare in which the armies of great corporations 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 I suppose that if Jesus Christ could come again into the modern world 
 He would at once recognize that the great present opportunity for bearing 
 witness to Him was in the midst of this battlefield of modern industrial 
 life. There are three v/ays with which you may deal with such problems 
 as the business world of to-day affords. One is to run away from them as 
 the early monks and hermits ran away from the world of earlier times. It 
 was so bad a world that they could not conquer it and so they fled to their 
 caves and monasteries to escape its attacks. 
 
 Precisely this is the spirit of the new monasticism — the spirit of Count 
 Tolstoi, the sp'rit of many a communistic colony, calling men away from 
 all the struggles of the world to seclusion and simplicity. It is a beautiful 
 dream — this of retreat from all the strain of life, and yet it is none the less 
 a retreat. It is not fighting the battle of life, but it is running away. It 
 does not solve the problem of the modern world; it leaves it for other peo- 
 ple 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 with the world is to stay in it, but tn be afraid of 
 it. Many good people do their business timidly and anxiously, as if it ought 
 not to interest them so much. That is a very common relation of the Chris- 
 tian to business. He thinks it is somehow wrong to care so much for his 
 business. He hears this world and its affairs spoken of as a vale of tears, 
 a pilgrimage to some better home, but he still feels the joy of business 
 effort, and in the strain of business competition he has to give ten hours 
 
 I
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. 533 
 
 a day to things which on Sunday he condemns, and so his life is hopelessly 
 divided. He can be a Christian only half — much less than half — the time. 
 His religion and his business are enemies. The world he has to live in is 
 not Gods world. 
 
 There is 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 iige. 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 
 clays. So the Christian takes the business world. In this warfare of indus- 
 try, which looks so shapeless and unpromising, the Christian sees the 
 possibilities of service. It is not very clean or beautiful, but it can be 
 shaped and moulded into an instrument of the higher life. That is the 
 Christian's task in the business world. 
 
 Christ comes into the business world of to-day 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. Enter into it. 
 Be as sagacious, far-sighted, intelligent, judicious as the children of this 
 world. Be a thoughtful, good man of business. And then add to this self- 
 culture the larger motive, the bringing in of My kingdom. Ask yourself 
 this question of your business: 'Am I in it hindering or helping the better 
 life of men? Am I in any degree responsible for the ends of the present 
 industrial system, or am I lessening them by the methods of my own? Is 
 my success at the cost of my employes' degradation, or do they share the 
 satisfaction of my own 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 busi- 
 ness men to show." 
 
 We hear much of the philanthropy of the x^resent age, and certainly 
 there never was an age in which so many prosperous people felt so strongly 
 called to generosity and benevolence. But the most profitable philan- 
 thropy which this age is to see is, after all, not to come through what we 
 call charity, but through better methods in the business world. 
 
 In an English volume of essays, published a few years ago, the author 
 describes what he calls "Two Great Philanthropists." One was a founder 
 of orphan asylums and charities, a kind and noble man; the other was 
 Leclaire, the beginner of the system which gives every employe an interest 
 in the business of the firm; and the second, so thought this essayist, was 
 the better philanthropist. He was right. 
 
 The Christian in iDUsiness to-day is looking for every stable relation 
 between employer and employed. Co-operation is to him better than com- 
 petition. He sees his own life in the light of the common good. The 
 Christian in business discovers that good lodgings for the working classes 
 are both wise charity and good business. The Christian in business holds 
 his sagacity and insight at the service of public affairs. He is not ensnared 
 in the meshes of his own prosperity. He owns his wealth; it does not own 
 him. The community leans on him, instead of his being a dead weight on 
 the community. He teaches us the higher use of wealth instead of warn- 
 ing us of its fearful perils. And when the Christian business man dies, 
 the properties he controlled do not rise in the market, because the risk of 
 his management is gone, but the business world says of him: "This man 
 was a consistent Christian. He did not fear or flee from the world, but 
 he made it the instrument of the higher life of man. In this world's battle 
 he was a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Let us, finally, follow the principle of Christ one step further still.
 
 534 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Beyond the rich and the poor, beyond the employers and the employed of 
 the present social world, there appear on the horizon of modern society still 
 larger schemes and dreams of some better future which shall make our 
 present social problems superfluous. Now, what is Christ's attitude toward 
 such hopes as these? How does Christ stand to the "great programmes cf 
 change which are now so confidently proposed? What has Christ to say to 
 the abolition of all private capital and the system of collective ownership? 
 What is the relation of Christ to the plan of socialism? 
 
 First of all, as we have already seen, it is plain that Christ can not be 
 claimed for any one theory of the function of governments or the order of 
 society. He repeatedly refused to be involved in such questions. When 
 one said to Him. " Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inherit- 
 ance with me," He answered: "Man, who made Me a judge or a divider 
 over you? " Thus Christ is not the advocate for one or another scheme for 
 socialistic change, for He dwelt not in the region of such special schemes, 
 but in the region of universal principle. 
 
 But let not the Christian suppose from this that Christ's theory of 
 property is more conservative or more encouraging to the hoarding of 
 wealth than these plans of change. His theory is in reality much more 
 radical. For it holds not that part of your property is not your own and 
 ought to be put at the service of the general community. Christ 
 holds that all we get is a gift to us from the common life, and that we owe 
 both it and ourselves to the common good. 
 
 We do not make money. We simply put ourselves where, from the 
 common life, profit flows in on us. We do not own our wealth; we owe our 
 wealth. Life in all its aspects is a trust put into our hands. It is not 
 our own. It is lent. To some are given five talents, to some two, to 
 some one. Unequal gifts necessitate social inequality. But all these 
 varied talents are for service of the Master who reckons with us. This 
 is no easy doctrine. It is a more sweeping one than any revolution 
 which the socialist proposes. 
 
 The difference may be stated in a formula. The thorough-going indi- 
 vidualist of the present order says: "Each one for himself; that is the 
 best law of society. Each one of us is to be responsible for himself 
 and himself alone." Then the socialist says: " No, that is mere selfishness 
 and anarchy. Let all of us, on the contrary, be responsible for the life of 
 each. Let us enlarge and strengthen the power of government, until at 
 last the state, which is but another name for all of us, sees that each of 
 us is happy." 
 
 But Christ carries us beyond both the individualist and the socialist in 
 his programme of society, for. He says, the true order of the world is when 
 each of us cares for all of us, and holds his own life, his power, money, 
 service, as a means of the common good. The dream of socialism and the 
 reaction of individualism are comprehended and reinforced by this teach- 
 ing of the infinite value of the individual as the means by which the better 
 society is to come in. The socialistic dream of the future is of a co-opera- 
 tion which shall be compulsory — dictatorial government; the Christian's 
 dream is of a co-operation which shall be voluntary, free, personal. The 
 one makes of society an army with its discipline; the other makes of it a 
 family with its love. In one we are officers and privates; in the other we 
 are brethren. So Christ stands in the midst of these baffling, complex- 
 questions of these present times — questions of wealth and poverty, ques- 
 tions of employers and employed, questions of revolution and reform, ques- 
 tions of individuaUsm and socialism. The two views seem in absolute 
 opposition. 
 
 Individualism means self-culture, self-interest, self -development. Social- 
 ism means self-sacrifice, self-forgetf ulness, the public good. Christ means 
 both. Cultivate yourself, He says, make the most of yourself, enrich your-
 
 THE WOMEN OF INDIA. 535 
 
 self, and then take it all and make it the instrument of self-sacrilice. Give 
 the perfect developed self to the perfect common good. The only perma- 
 nent socialism must be based on perfected individualism. The Kingdom 
 of God is not to come of itself; it is to come through the collective conse- 
 cration of individual souls. 
 
 Such, I suppose, is the message which Christ has been from the begin- 
 ning trying to explain to this world. Over and over ;.gain 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 refor- 
 mation of the community through the regeneration of its individuals. So 
 sta- ds Christ to-day. To every outward plan which is honest He says: 
 '* Go on and God speed you with all your endeavors 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 accom- 
 plish the whole programme of a revolutionized society but it will be neither 
 a permanent nor a happy order until you have better men to use it. The 
 kingdom begins within. The wedding garment makes ready for the wed- 
 ding 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 plans which look for 
 wholesale, outright, dramatic transformations in human affairs, plans for 
 redeeming the world all at once, and the old way of Christ, the way of 
 redeeming one soul at a time, looks very slow and unpicturesque and 
 tiresome. 
 
 None the less, believe me, the future of 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 our daily drink, but 
 which is charged with poison and turbid 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 persistent, the pollutions keep 
 sweeping down on us from the sources of the stream. And then the wise 
 engineer seeks those remote sources themselves. He cleanses each little 
 brook, each secret spring, each pasture bank, and then from those guarded 
 sovirces the great river bears down purity and health to the great world 
 below. So the method of Christ purities the modern world. It seeks the 
 sources of life in the individual soul, and then out of the myriad such 
 springs which 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 are 
 refreshed. 
 
 THE WOMEN OF INDIA. 
 
 MISS JEANNE SEEABJI OF BOMBAY. 
 
 I would ask you to travel with me in thought over 13,000 miles across 
 the seas to have a glimpse at India, the land of glorious sunsets, the conti- 
 nent inhabited by peoples differing from each other almost as variously as 
 their numbers in language, caste, and creed, and yet I may safely say I can 
 hear voices in concord from my country saying: "Tell the women of 
 America we are being enlightened, we thirst after knowledge, and we are 
 awakening to the fact that there is no greater pleasure than that of 
 increasing our information, training our minds, and reaching after the goal 
 of our ambitions." It has been said to me more than once in America that 
 the women of my country prefer to be ignorant and in seclusion ; that 
 they would not welcome anybody who would attempt to change their mode
 
 536 THE PARUAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of life. To these I would give answer as follows: The nobly born ladies, 
 Zananas, shrink not from thirst for knowledge, but from contact with the 
 outer world. If the customs of the country, their castes and creeds 
 allowed it, they would gladly live as other women do. They live in seclu- 
 sion, not ignorance. Highly cultured British women, with love for the 
 Master burning in their hearts, have the exceptional privileges of being 
 their companions and teachers, and they have marveled at the intelligence 
 of some of them. 
 
 'Tis religion that does give 
 Sweetest comfort. 
 
 These secluded ladies make perfect business women. They manage 
 their affairs of state with a grace and manner worthy consideration. Do 
 we wish 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 brilliantly, for it is the life 
 that speaks with far greater force than any words from our lips, and let us 
 with solemnity grasp the thought that we may be obstacles in the paths of 
 others. Are we living what we preach about? Do we know that some one 
 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 uplifting of 
 women. Schools and colleges were open where the women may attain to 
 heights at first thought impracticable. The Parsee and Brahman women 
 in Bombay twenty years ago scarcely moved out of their houses, while 
 to-day 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, painting, horsemanship come as 
 easily to them as spelling the English language 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 
 Guzerap; also Calcutta, Alahabad, Missoorie, and Madras. The latter col- 
 lege 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 high 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 snowin woman? Allow 
 me to bring before you in thought that form of a beautiful woman of 
 India, the Pundita Rambai, who has opened the Sharida Sadan or widows' 
 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 Pun- 
 dita Rambai 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. 
 Havmg prepared themselves to fill important posts they have gone back to
 
 BUDDHA. 537 
 
 their country and their Ufe 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 hand in 
 hand; her faith in 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 
 removed from our midst just as she was about starting her grand work, 
 and the artist of song, Mme. Therze Langrana, whose God-given voice 
 thrills the hearts of men and women in London. My countrywomen have 
 been at the head of battles, guiding their men with word and look of com- 
 mand. My countrywomen will soon be spoken of as the greatest scientists, 
 artists, mathematicians, and 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 women, true 
 women, pure women, the greatest as well as the least of God's creatures. 
 
 A woman? Yes, 1 thank the day 
 
 When I was made to live. 
 To cast a bright or shining ray. 
 
 To love, to live, to give; 
 To draw aside from paths of sin 
 
 The halt, the lame, the blind. 
 A woman, glorious, noble, grand, 
 
 A woman I would be. 
 To live, to conquer, 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. 
 
 BUDDHA. 
 
 • RT. REV. ZITSUZA ASHITSU 
 
 The paper was read by Dr. Barrows. 
 
 Is it not, really, a remarkable event in human history that such a large 
 number of the delegates of different creeds are come together, from every 
 corner of the world, as in a concert, to discuss one problem of humanity — 
 universal brotherhood — without the least jealousy? I am so happy in 
 giving an address as a token of my cordial acceptance of the membership 
 of this Congress of Religions. 
 
 My subject is Buddha, This subject might be treated in two ways, 
 either absolutely or relatively. But 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 relativity, in treating this subject, and will explain the 
 highest human enlightenment, which is callea Buddha, according to the 
 order of its five attitudes; that is, denomination, personality, principle, 
 function, and doctrine. 
 
 Denomination. Buddha is a Sanskrit word, and is translated Kakusha 
 in Chinese language. The word kaku means enlighten, so one who enlight- 
 ened his own mmd, and also enlightened those of others, was called Buddha. 
 Buddha has three personalities, namely, Hosshin, Hoshin, and Wojin. 
 Now, in Hosshin, Ho means law, and Shin means personality, S(3 it is the 
 name given to the personality of the constitution after the Buddha got 
 the highest Buddhahood. This personality is entirely colorless and form-
 
 538 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 less but, at the same time, it has the nature of eternality, omnipresence, 
 and'unchangeableness. Hosshin is called Birushana in Sanskrit, and Hen- 
 issai-sho in Chinese, both meaning omnipresence. 
 
 Then in Hoshin, Ho means effect, so this is the name given to the per- 
 sonality of the result, which the Buddha attained by refining his action. 
 Its Sanskrit name is Rushana, and in Chinese it is Joman, in which Jo 
 means clear, and Man means fullness, and when put together it means a 
 state of the mind free from lust and evil desire, but full of enlightened 
 virtues instead. ,. , . ^^ j t i_- 
 
 This personality has another designation which is called Jiyn-shin, 
 meaning an enjoying personality. And it is again sub-divided into two 
 classes of Jijivu and Tajiyu. Jijiyu means to enjoy the Buddha himself, 
 the pleasure of attaining to the highest human virtues ; while Tajiyu, which 
 is also called world enlightenment, designates the Buddha's benevolent 
 action of imparting his holy pleasure to his fellow-beings with his supreme 
 
 doctrine. .-,-,.■,.■,, j_j_ • 
 
 In short the former is to enlighten one's own mind, while the latter is 
 to enlighten those of others. These two make a whole as Hoshin, which 
 is the name given to the personality of the constitution, as I mentioned 
 before, attained by the Buddha by his self -culture. So this personality 
 has a beginning, but no end. 
 
 Lastly, Wojin is the name given to a personality which spontaneously 
 appears to all kinds of beings in any state and condition in order to preach 
 and enlighten them equally. In Sanskrit it is called Shakammi, and in 
 Chinese, Noninjakumoku. Jakumoku means calmness, and Nonin means 
 humanity. He is perfectly calm, therefore he is entirely free from life and 
 death. He 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 Buddha's intellectual activity, and at the same time they 
 are the distributes of his one supreme personality. Nay, in the way of 
 explanation, we can say that these three personalities are not the monopoly 
 of the Buddha, 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 
 Buddha, who is most enlightened of all? Nothing but that he is devel- 
 oped, 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 Buddhism we, the ordinary beings, are also called 
 Risoku Buddha, or beings with nature of Buddha. But, as our minds are 
 unfortunately full of lusts and superstition, we can not be called Kukyo- 
 Boku Buddha, as Ahaka, or Gautama, is. He is so entitled because 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 
 Buddha already enlightened hereafter." 
 
 Personality. The person of Buddha is perfectly free from life and 
 death. (Fusho fumetsu.) We call it Nehan or Nirvana. Nehan is 
 divided into four classes— Honrai Jishoshojo Nehan, Uyo Nehan, Muyo 
 Nehan, Mujusho Nehan. 
 
 Honrai Jishoshojo Nehan is the name given to the nature of Buddha, 
 which has neither beginning nor end, and is perfectly clear of lust like a 
 perfect mirror. But such an excellent nature as I just mentioned is not 
 the peculiar property of Buddha, but every being in the universe has just 
 the same constitution as Buddha. So it is told in Kegon Sutra that 
 " there is no slight distinction between Mind, Buddha, and Beings." 
 
 Uyo Nehan is the name given to the state little advanced from the above,
 
 BUDDHA. 539 
 
 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 quite 
 empty and clear, but there still remains one thing, that is, the body. So it 
 is called Uyo, 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 annihilation and there 
 nothing is traceable. 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 perfectly 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 grand desires of Buddhahood, the four mer- 
 ciful vows accompany them, saying: 
 
 I hope I can save all the beings in the universe from this ignorance ! 
 I hope I can abstain from my inexhaustible desires of ignorance ! 
 I hope lean 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 and 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 round 
 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 throughout 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 does that one form mean? It is nothing but another 
 designation of absolute unity, and that stamps out figures, means the 
 innumerable phenomena before our eyes which are the shadow or appear- 
 ance of the absolute unity. 
 
 Thus the mind and the figure (or color) reflect each other; so the mind 
 can not be seen without the figure, and the figure can not be seen without 
 the mind. In other words, the figure and mind are standing relatively, so 
 the figure can not exist without the mind, and the mind can not exist with- 
 out the figure. It is told in Svitra 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, ea:th, 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 prin- 
 ciple of Buddha is the mind. 
 
 Function. Three sacred virtues are 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 judging. 
 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 abso- 
 lute wisdom is called Monju Bosatsu, or Buddha of intellectual light
 
 540 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 (Chiye Kivo Butsu), or Myochi Mutorin (marvelous wisdom, nothing com- 
 parable). 
 
 The graceful humanity is a production of wisdom. When intellectual 
 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 told 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 pleasure 
 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 are 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 is 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 compre- 
 hends 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 loadstone attracts iron. This 
 is one of the four holy vows of Buddha, that is: "I hope I can save all the 
 beings in the universe from their ignorance." 
 
 Although the Buddha have these two virtues of wisdom and humanity, 
 he could never save a being if he had not another sacred virtue, that is, 
 courage. But ho 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 severity, 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 aud 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 has, 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 mani- 
 fest that these three sacred virtues are essential functions of Buddha. 
 
 Doctrine. After Shaku Buddha's departure from this world, two dis- 
 ciples, Kasho and Snan, collected the dictations of his teachings. This is 
 the first appearance of Buddha's book, and it was entitled " The Three 
 Stores of Hinayana (Sanzo)," which means it contains three different classes 
 of doctrine, namely, Kyo, or principle, Ritsu, or law, and Ron, or argument. 
 
 Now, firstly, Kyo (Sanskrit Sutra) is a Chinese word which means per- 
 manent, so that it designates the principle which is permanent and is 
 taken as the origin of the law of the Buddhist. Secondly, Ritsu (Sanskrit 
 Vini) means a law or commandment, so that this portion of the stores con- 
 tains the commandments founded by the Buddha to stop human evils. 
 Thirdly, Ron (Sanskrit Abidaema) means argument or discussion, so this 
 part contains all the arguments or discussions written by his disciples or 
 followers.
 
 BUDDHA. 541 
 
 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 Hinayana 
 and Mahayana were prevailing together among the countries of India for a 
 long time after the Buddha's departure. But when several hundred years 
 were past they were gradually divided into three jjarts. One of them has 
 been spread toward northern countries, such as Thibet, Mongolia, Man- 
 chooria, etc. One has been spread eastward through China, Corea, and 
 Japan. Another branch of Buddhism is still remaining in the southern 
 portion of Asiatic countries such as Ceylon, 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. 
 
 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 ourselves 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 doctrine of Buddhism 
 is Hinayana, and that so-called Mahayana is nothing but a portion of 
 Indian pure philosophy. They are wrong. They have entirely misunder- 
 stood. They have only poorly gained with their scanty knowledge a smat- 
 tering of Buddhism. They are entirely ignorant of the boundless sea of 
 Buddha's doctrine rolling just beneath their feet. His preaching is really 
 BO great that the famous Chishadaishi 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 four Agons; 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: First, 
 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, calmness and 
 emptiness is the profound state of Nirvana. 
 
 Next he preached to his followers of the Engaku class about the doc- 
 trine 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 Nirvana by closely pursuing 
 the course of mental culture. 
 
 Then he taught six glorious behaviors to his followers of the Bosaku 
 class, by which man becomes Buddha, such as charity, good behavior, for- 
 bearance, 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 tho 
 time is called the Ho-do epoch. 
 
 Next comes the epoch of Mahayana, or 'the time when he taught the 
 personality of wisdom^ that it is perfectly spiritual and entirely colorless
 
 542 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 and formless. By this toachins he led his higher disciples to comprehend 
 the constitution of the spiritual world. -^ * t,- , 
 
 \nd he at last brought his disciples to the highest summit of his doc- 
 trine 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). ^ .^^ a i ^ * ^t. 
 
 These five epochs are so arranged according to the development ot 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 proceeded, step by 
 step, to the absolutely highest truth ^ n ^ ^au , 
 
 This is a brief explanation ot the five epochs ot Buddha's preaching. 
 Now let me speak a few words of the so-called eight teachings. 
 
 First comes Ton, that is, sudden, and it is a teaching for the persons 
 who have a quick perception. Second comes Zen, that is, by degrees, and 
 it is a teaching for the class of beings who can only develop gradually, step 
 by step. Third comes Himitsu, that is secret, and it is the teaching which 
 does 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 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. 
 
 Sixth comes Tsu, that is correspondence, and it is the preaching which 
 corresponds with those three, the fifth, the seventh, and the eighth. Sev- 
 enth comes Beku, that is difference, and it is a teaching quite different 
 from those with which the last corresponds. Eighth comes En, 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 teaching 
 principle. These eight teachings are the doorway through which the Bud- 
 dhists enter the perfect enlightenment. 
 
 Daizokyo, or " complete work of Skaku Buddha," is really a wonderful 
 store of truth. Most students in Buddhism lose their courage and ambi- 
 tion 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 be forgotten, and will naturally lead scholars into 
 deeper and deeper parts of the sea of spiritual tranquility 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 
 believe that your characteristic quick perception has made you understand 
 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 enlightenment. 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 civiliza- 
 tion of the ■20th 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 native country
 
 BUDDHA. 543 
 
 is also the kingdom where theflowersof truth are blooming? in great beriuty 
 and profusion at all seasons? Come to Japan. Don't forget to take will'i 
 yc u 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 Kof uku 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 ijriests 
 to perform devotional services in them, and promote the convenience of pil- 
 grims from Japan. These holy places are Buddha Gaya, where Buddha 
 attained to the perfect enlightenment; Kapilavastu, 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 sufferingsof sickness, old age, and 
 death; and, discarding all his precious possessions and the heirship of the 
 kingdom, he went into a mountain jungle to seek, by meditation and ascet- 
 icism, the way of escape from these sufferings. After spending six years 
 there, and finding that the way besought v/as not in asceticism, he went out 
 from there and retired under the Bodhi tree of Buddha Gaya, where at hist, 
 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 
 enlightenment. 
 
 When the ancient King Asoka of Magadha was converted to Buddhism, 
 he erected a large and magnificent temple over the spot to show his grati- 
 tude 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 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 repaired and re- 
 stored to its former state by the British government, but they could not 
 help being very much grieved to see it subjected to such desecration in 
 the hands of the Brahmanist Mahant, and communicated 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 Brahmanist 
 priest, we organized this Indo Busseki 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 Busseki 
 Kofuku Society; and I believe our Buddha Gaya movement will bring 
 people of all Buddhist countries into closer connection and be instrumental 
 iu promoting the brotherhood among the people of the whole world.
 
 544 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CONDITION. 
 
 ALEXANDER WEBB, A MOHAMMEDAN. 
 
 Ono of the {greatest mistakes the follower of any religion can make is 
 to form and express a positive opinion of the moral effects of another 
 reliirious svstem from the general conduct of those who profess to follow it, 
 and at the' same time to ignore the faults and weaknesses of those who are 
 within the fold of his own faith. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that among 
 the masses of believers, religious prejudice is so strong as to prevent 
 the exercise of a calm and just discrimination in the examination of an 
 
 °^Tt^would be' neither just nor truthful to assert that every man who 
 lives in an American city, town, or village is a Chriotian 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 mauner, and yet I regret to 
 say that it is quite generally done in Europe and in America. There are in 
 Asia to-day many thousands of people who call themselves Mussulmans and 
 yet who have a no more truthful conception of the character and teachings 
 of Mohammed than they have of the habits of the man in the moon. If one 
 or a dozen of these should commit an act of brutal intolerance or fanati- 
 cism would it be just to say that it was due to the meritable tendencies of 
 their religion? . •. » n 
 
 There are several reasons why Islam and the character of its followers 
 are so little understood in Europe and America, and one of these is that 
 when a man adopts, or says he adopts, Islam he becomes known as a Mus- 
 sulman and his nationality becomes merged in his religion. As soon as 
 a Hindu embraces Islam his character disappears. 
 
 If a Mohammedan, Turk, Egyptian, Syrian, or African commits a crime 
 the newspaper reports do not tell us that it was committed by a Turk, an 
 Egyptian, a Syrian, or an African, but by a Mohammodan. If an Irishman, 
 an ItaUan, a Spaniard, or a German commits a crime in the United States 
 wo do not say that it was committed by a Catholic, a Methodist, or a Baptist, 
 nor even a Christian; we designate the man by his nationality. There are 
 thousands of men in the prisons of our country whose religious belief, if 
 they have any, is rarely or never referred to. We do not refer to them as 
 Christians simply because their parents attended a Christian church, or they 
 themselves had a church membership at some time in the remote past. But, 
 just as soon as a native of the East is arrested for a crime or misdemeanor, 
 he is registered as a representative of the religion his parents followed or 
 which he has adopted. 
 
 We should only judge of the inherent tendencies of a religious system 
 by observing carefully and without prejudice its general effects upon the 
 character and habits of those who are intelligent enough to understand its 
 basic principles, and who publicly profess to teach or follow it. If we find 
 that their lives are clean and pure and full of love and charity, we may 
 fairly say that their religion is good. If we find them given to hypocrisy, 
 dishonesty, uncharitableness, and intolerance, we may safely infer that 
 there is something wrong with the system they profess. 
 
 In forming our estimate of a religion we should also calmly analyze its 
 fundamental and consider the racial and climatic influences that surround 
 its followers, as well as their national habits and customs. 
 
 I take it that we all desire to know the truth, and that we are willing to 
 have our attention called to the fact if we make a mistake in our estimate 
 of our neighbor's religion. That was the sentiment that possessed me ten 
 years ago, when I began the study of the Oriental religions, and I hope that 
 it largely influences the minds of all who hear me to-day. 
 
 Another of the most potent reasons for the unfavorable opinion of Islam
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CONDITION. 545 
 
 and its professed followers which prevails in America and Europe to-day, is 
 the disposition of the people of the West to judge the people of the East by 
 our Western standard of civilization. We of the West believe that our 
 wonderful progress in the arts and sciences, and the perfection of those 
 means by which our jjhysical comfort and pleasure are secured, gives us 
 just cause to feel superior to those who do«iot bask in the sunshine of our 
 19th-century civilization. In a general way, and with some few exceptions, 
 perhaps, we consider our social system admirable, and when we find that 
 many Mohammedans, Buddhists, Hindus, and other Eastern people do not 
 join with us in this opinion, we console ourselves with the belief that it is 
 because they are heathens and incapable of recognizing and appreciating a 
 good thing when they see it. It would, vuidoubtedly. surp'rise some of my 
 hearers to know what many of the more intelligent'Mussulmans and Hin- 
 dus of India think of this civilization of ours of which we are so proud. 
 
 There is a class of Mussulmans and Hindus and Buddhists in the East, 
 with whom the Western missionaries rarely come in contact, and when they 
 do there is no discussion of religious doctrines, because these "heathens" 
 have learned by experience that it is worse than a waste of time to argue 
 over such matters; but generally they are men of profound learning, who 
 speak English as fluently as they do the Oriental tongues, and who arc well 
 versed in all the known systems of religion and philosophy. It will prob- 
 ably surprise many people here to know that nearly all the more Intelli- 
 gent and highly edvicated Mussulmans of India are quite as well informed 
 as to the history and doctrines of the other religious systems as they are 
 concerning their own. 
 
 We Mussulmans firmly believe that the teachings of Moses, Abraham, 
 Jesus, and Mohammed w^ere substantially the same; that the followers of 
 each truly inspired prophet have always corrujjted and added, more or less, 
 to the system he. taught, and have drifted into materialistic forms and 
 ceremonies; that the true spirit has often been sacrificed to what may, per- 
 haps, be called the weak conceptions of fallible humanity. 
 
 In order to realize the influence of Islam upon social conditions, and to 
 comprehend and appreciate the teachings of Mohammed, his whole life and 
 apparent motives must be inspected and analyzed carefully and without 
 prejudice. In view of the very unsatisfactory and contradictory nature of 
 much that has been written in English concerning him, we must learn to 
 read between the lines of so-called hist jy. When we have done this we 
 will find that the .ethics he taught are identical with those of every other 
 prominent religious system. That is to say, he presented the very highest 
 standard of morality, established a system of worship calculated to pro- 
 duce the best results among all classes of his followers, and made aspira- 
 tion to God the paramount purpose of life- 
 Like every other truly inspired teacher, he showed that there were 
 two aspects or divisions of the spiritual knowledge he had acquired — one 
 for the masses who were so thoroughly occupied with the affairs'of this 
 world that they had only a very small portion of their time to devote to 
 religion, and the other for those who were* capable of comprehending the 
 higher spiritual truths and realized that it was better to lay up treasures 
 for the life to come than to enjoy thtj pleasures of this world. But his 
 purpose, clearly, was to secure the most perfect moral results by methods 
 applicable to all kinds and conditions of humanity. 
 
 In analyzing the hades or sayings of the Prophet, aside from the Koran, 
 we should always bear in mind the social conditions prevalent among the 
 Arabs at the time he taught, as well as the general character of the people. 
 Presuming that Mohammed was truly inspired by the Supreme Spirit, it is 
 quite reasonable to suppose that he used quite different methods of bring- 
 ing the truth to the attention of the Arabs 1.200 years ago than he would 
 follow before an audience of intelligent, educated people, such as sits before 
 me, in this 19th century.
 
 546 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Before proceeding further I desire to explain that, in order to show 
 ele-irly the influence of Islam upon social conditions, it will be necessary to 
 nmke some comparisons between the habits and customs 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 pur- 
 iMwe is to show, as lucidly and distinctly as possible, a side of the Islamic 
 faith, which is quite faniiliar to my fellow-countrymen, and which is the 
 life of the Moslem social fabric. . , . „_ 
 
 There are a number of ol>jections 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 bear me to prove 
 the truth of what I say. Nearly, if not quite all, the objections J refer to 
 have their birth anil growth in ignorance 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 exclusion of 
 females, is a part of the^Islmaic 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 ne\v wife every year. There is no such requirement in the Koran, and 
 what surprised me most was that such an intelligent, well-educated man as 
 tiie 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 
 I)rotected in the exercise of their rights and privileges. 
 
 Islam has been called " The religion of the sword," and there are thou- 
 sands of good people in America and Europe who really believe that 
 Mohammed went into battle with the cword 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 unjustly, too. 
 
 The truth is that the Prophet never encouraged nor consented to the 
 propagation of Islam by force and the Koran plainly forbids it. It says: 
 
 Let there be no forcing in religion; the right way has been made clearly dis- 
 tinguishable from the wrong one. If the Lord has pleased, all who are on the 
 earth would have bolieved 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; whficver, therefore, denieth Yaghoot (literally error) and believeth in 
 (iod Jiath taken hold on a strong handle that hath no flaw. And God is He who 
 heareth, knoweth. 
 
 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 W(juld 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 with the unbelievers and not to fight unless it was neces- 
 sary 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 forbids 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
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CONDITION. 547 
 
 should never loose sight of the social and political conditions prevalent in 
 Arabia at the time the Prophet lived and the Koran was comyjiled. 
 
 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 per- 
 fect 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 subject. It is the 
 thirty-fifth verse of the thirty-third sura: 
 
 Truly the men who resign themselves to God (Moslems), 
 
 Aud the women who resign themselves. 
 
 And the believing men. 
 
 And the believing women, 
 
 And the devout men. 
 
 And the devout women, 
 
 Aud the men of truth, 
 
 And the women of truth, 
 
 And the patient men. 
 
 And the patient women. 
 
 And the tuimble men. 
 
 And the humble women. 
 
 And the men who give alms. 
 
 And the women who give alms. 
 
 And the men who fast. 
 
 And the women who fast. 
 
 And the chaste men. 
 
 And the chaste women. 
 
 And the men and women who oft remember God, 
 
 For them hath God prepared forgiveness and a rich recompense. 
 
 Could anything have been written to emphasize more forcibly the per- 
 fect equality of the sexes before God? The property rights which Ameri- 
 can women have enjoyed for only a few years have been enjoyed by 
 Mohammedan women for 1,200 years; and to-day there is no class of women 
 in the world whose rights are so completely protected as those of the Mus- 
 sulman communities. 
 
 And now, having endeavored to dispel some of the false ideas concern- 
 ing 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 nothing in it that tends to immo- 
 rality, social degradation, nor 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, irreverent, or fanatical, fails utterly to grasp the meaning of the 
 religion he professes. 
 
 But there is something more in the system than the mere teaching of 
 morality and personal purity. It is thoroughly practical, and the results, 
 which are plainly apparent among the more intelligent Moslems, show how 
 well the Prophet understood human nature. It will not produce the kind 
 of civilization that we Americans seem to admire so much, but it will make 
 a man sober, honest, and truthful, and will make him love his God with all 
 his heart and all his mind, and his neighbor as himself. 
 
 Every Mussulman who has not become demoralized by contact with 
 British civilization prays five times a day, not whenever he happens to feel 
 like it, but at fixed periods. His prayer is not a servile, cringing petition for 
 some material benefit, but a hymn of praise to the one incomprehensible, 
 unknowable God. the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent ruler of the 
 universe. He does not believe that by argument and entreaty he can sway 
 the judgment and change the plans of God, but, with all the force of his 
 soul, he tries to soar upward in spirit to where he can gain strength, to be 
 pure and good and holy and worthy of the ha{)piness of the future life. His
 
 548 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 purpoBe is to rise above the selfish pleasures of earth and strengthen his 
 spirit wings for a lofty flight when he is at last released from the body. 
 
 Before'^every prayer he is required to wash his face, nostrils, mouth, 
 hands, and feet, and he does it. During youth he acquires the habit of 
 washing himself five times a day, and this habit clings to him through life 
 and keeps him physically clean. He comes in touch with his religion five 
 times a ilay in a manner which produces results proportionate to the intel- 
 ligence and spiritual developmeut of the man. His religion is not a thing 
 ai)art from his daily life, to be put on once a week and thrown aside when 
 it threatens to interfere with his business or pleasure. It is a fixed and 
 inseparable part of his existence and exerts a direct and potent influence 
 on hie every thought and act. Is it to be wondered at that his idea of 
 civilization differs from that of the West? That it is less active and pro- 
 gressive, less grand, and imposing, and dazzhng, and noisy? 
 
 I will confess that when I went to live among the intelligent Mussul- 
 mans I was astonished beyond measure at the social conditions I encoun- 
 tered. I had acquired the idea that prevailed generally in this country 
 and Europe, and was jjrepared to find the professed rollowers of Islam 
 selfish, treacherous, untruthful, intolerant, sensual, and fanatical. I was 
 very agreeably disappointed. I saw the practical results of Islam mani- 
 fested in honesty, truthfulness, sobriety, tolerance, gentleness, and a degree 
 of true brotherly love that was a surpriee to me. The evils that we Ameri- 
 cans complain of in our social system — drunkenness, 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 appearance 
 and habits of the Englishmen. I have never seen a drunken Mi:ssulman 
 nor one who carried the odor of whisky or beer about with him. But I 
 have heard that some of those who have become Anglicized and have 
 broken away from the Moslem dress and customs actually do drink beer 
 and whisky and smoke cigarettes. 
 
 I have been in mosques where from 500 to 3,000 Mussulmans were gath- 
 ered to pray, and at the conclusion of the prayer T was hemn)od in by a 
 hundred of them who were eager to shake my hand and call me their 
 brother. But I never detected those disagreeable 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 reports 
 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 children, 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 respec>ed companion and 
 helpmeet, 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, wearing 
 a dress that some people might consider immodest, and waste her health 
 and jeopardice 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 other public gatherings in search of amusement, but finds her pleasure 
 and recreation at home in the pure atmosphere of her husband's and chil- 
 dren's love and the peaceful, refining occupations of domestic life. Both 
 she and her husband, as well as their children, are taught and believe 
 that It IS better to retire at 9, just after the prayer of the day, and arise 
 before daybreak and say the morning prayer just as the first rays of the 
 eun are gildmg the eastern horizon. 
 
 I
 
 I 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CONDITION. 549 
 
 Another feature of the Islamic social life that has impressed me is the 
 ttter absence of practical joking, or what is popularly known as "guying." 
 There is little or no sarcasm, bitter irony, cruel wit among the Mussul- 
 mans calculated to cause their fellows chagrin, shame, or annoyance, 
 wounding the heart and breaking that bond of loving fraternity which 
 should subsist between men. The almost universal disposition seems to be 
 to cultivate unseltishness and patience, and place as little value as possiblo 
 upon the things of this world. 
 
 In the housetiold of the true Mussulman there is no vain show, no labored 
 attempt to follow servilely the fashions, including furniture antl ornaments, 
 in vogue in London and Paris. Plainness and frugality are apparent every- 
 where, the idea being that it is far better to cultivate' the spiritual side of 
 our nature than to waste our time and money trying to keep iip appear- 
 ances that we hope will cause our neighbors to think that we have more 
 money than we really have, and are more aesthetic in our tastes than we 
 really are. 
 
 " But," some one 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 coun- 
 tries 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." 
 
 He also told me that while he was on a steamer at Constantinople, he 
 gave a Turkish boatman a lira, or about $5 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 cigar- 
 ettes and the exact change. 
 
 In April last a lady at the Dosbrosses street ferry in New York gave her 
 cloak to a young man to hold while she purchased her ticket. She has not 
 seen him since. 
 
 A Mussulman, if he is hungry and has no lodging-place, may walk into 
 thehouseof a brother Mussulman and be sure of a cordial, hospitable wel- 
 come. He will be given a seat at the frugal meal and a pl;ice where he can 
 Kpread his 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, " Assallam 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 hundreds of houses in the fash- 
 ionable streets were closed and empty and their owners were living luxuri- 
 ously 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 engineering 
 skill of her conquerors, bore fruit in a hundred-fold. Cities innumerable 
 sprang up in the rich valleys of the Guadalquiver and Guadiana. whose 
 names, and names only, still commemorate the vanquished glories of their 
 past. Art, literature, and science prospered as they then prospered nowb^ry
 
 550 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 else in Europe Students flocked from France and Germany and England 
 to drink from the fountains of learning which flowed only in the cities of 
 the Moors. The surgeons and doctors of Andalusia were in the van of 
 science ; women were encouraged to devote themselves to serious study, 
 and a lady doctor was not unknown among the people of Cordova. Mathe- 
 matics, astronomy and botany, philosophy and jurisprudence were to be 
 masterpd in Spain and in Spain alone. The practical work of the held, the 
 scMentitic 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 per- 
 fection 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 in 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 enlightenment. 
 
 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 e.xists to-day 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 the intelligent compre- 
 hension of the true teachings of the Prophet, lives in his religion and 
 makes it the paramount principle of his existence. It is with him in all his 
 goings and the comings during the day and he is never so completely occu- 
 pied with his business or worldly affairs that he can not turn his back upon 
 them when the stated hovir of prayer arrives and present his soul to God, 
 His love, 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." 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 
 
 PROF. KICHAKD T. ELY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 
 
 Christianity is a social force above everything else. Its social char- 
 acter is a distinguishing feature of Christianity. Other religions are also 
 social forces, but it strikes me that in the degree to v/hich Christianity 
 carries its social nature we have one of its essential peculiarities. 
 
 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 treatment of the social doctrines of Christian- 
 ity. Judaism was a social force which worked chiefly within national 
 boundaries, audits aim within the nation was to establish an ideal common- 
 wealth, 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 pov- 
 erty 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
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 551 
 
 of a national ideal never fully attained, but never forgotten by noble souls 
 in Israel. Every revival of pure religion meant an effort to reach this ideal 
 of national life. The prophets were great social reformers who voiced tlie 
 yearning cry of the nation for righteous social rehitions. The Jewish law, 
 differing from the Roman codes of the Western World, was not chietiy neg- 
 ative and repressive, but positive and constructive. It perpetually 
 commanded "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 right- 
 eousness which did not include a brotherly aim as but filthy rags. All the 
 legislation of Moses had in view the development of a national 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 produce 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 ail. Sedition and rebellion were regarded as crimes. Equality 
 of all in faculties and in fitness for government were absurdities not enter- 
 tained. 
 
 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 relating 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 conditions of the land tenure. The pur- 
 pose of the land was to furnish a sbusistence and to promote the acquisi- 
 tion 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 truisms iterated 
 and reiterated by the Manchester men, who fancy themselves far wiser 
 than this greatest of legislators, but because the receipt of interest would 
 have militated against the fundamental social purposes which Moses 
 desired to accomplish. It is, of course, conceded that conditions were dif- 
 ferent 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 iai thy land." At least two things were 
 evidently dreaded in the taking of interest. The growth of inequality 
 among them and the opportunity it afforded for economic gain without 
 direct personal exertion. 
 
 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 
 rtianger is enjoined, he, after all, is regarded as one separated from the 
 tango of complete ethical obligation.
 
 552 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Jesns came with an avowed determination 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 lie 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 neighbor? is a question answered in the parable of 
 the (Jood 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-eco- 
 noniical institutions of the Jews. But it must be remembered in this con- 
 nection that it is the letter that killeth, but the spirit which giveth life. 
 The exact law of Moses respecting land and interest, for example, can not 
 be reproduced in modern society. But all who profess allegiance to Christ 
 must endeavor to universahze their spirit. The church is a universal anti- 
 poverty society, or she is false to her Founder. It is hoped t hat I will not be 
 misunderstood in saying that she also stands for anti-millionairism, because 
 extremes are 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, mean withdrawal 
 and withholding the products of the mind of man, while public art galler- 
 ies signify public uses of that which is essentially public in its nature. As 
 a social force, Christianity favors private frugality and generous public 
 expenditures. We may express all this and something more in the state- 
 ment 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 identification of oneself with humanity. Fullness of life in every depart- 
 ment must be sought in human society. Wealth, art, music, literature, 
 religion, even language itself, are all social products. What Christianity 
 teaches in this respect social science, rightly understood, teaches also. Iso- 
 lated life means material poverty and the absence of intellectual achieve- 
 ments. Man becomes great only when humanity moves within him. 
 Art is great only when it is an expression of the social life. Master- 
 pieces of art were exposed on the highways of a nation able to appreciate 
 them. Literature makes epochs when in a writer the national life pul- 
 sates 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 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 lib- 
 erty at all in the true sense of the word) is anti-Christian. Individual 
 salvation, in the strictest sense of the word, is an impossibility, because it 
 implies a denial of that which is fundamental in Christianity. 
 
 Christianity has been distinguished in the World's Parliament of Relig- 
 ions into true and false— and this is well. There is false Christianity, which 
 may be termed anti-Christ— for if there is any anti-Christ it is this— which has 
 brought reproach on the name of Christianity itself. It is this false Christian- 
 ity which fails to recognize the needs of others, and centers itself on individ- 
 ual 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 
 
 d
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 553 
 
 sense be called a Christian land. But we can not bo 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 condemned 
 by Christ in the strongest language. It does Hot 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. Ho 
 who does so now violates the principles of universal brotherhood. 
 
 Shall a land be called Christian which slaughters human beings need- 
 lessly 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 Chicago be called Christian, 
 maintaining its grade crossings and killing innocent persons by the hun- 
 dred 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 Chris- 
 tianity 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 ques- 
 tions which arise in this connection. If any one individual before me 
 knew that he himself, or his mother, we will say, would be horribly muti- 
 lated or crushed to death in case some needed improvements in an indus- 
 trial establishment or on a railway were not introduced within six mouths, 
 how he would bestir himself to have these improvements introduced! 
 But we complacently fold ovir 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 char- 
 acteristic of religions to give minute directions for the formation of the 
 social life of the nation. These minute directions and detailed specifica- 
 tions have, doubtless, in many instances, promoted brotherhood, for the 
 time being, at least, but not providing for changes they have later retarded 
 progress. As Christ established a universal brotherhood He could not 
 even for any one time promulgate a social code, and still less could He pre- 
 scribe legislation for all time. He gave the spirit, however, to which the 
 legislation of every country and every 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 
 progress. 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 recognized and obedience 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 oneself but for the promotion of the wel- 
 fare of all humanity. Ineqvialities in attainment were implicitly recog- 
 nized, 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. Perhaps the spirit of the gospel of Christ in this respect has 
 not been better expressed by anyone than by the French socialist, Louis 
 Blanc, who says:
 
 1 
 
 554 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 M-in ha'5 roc 'ivod of nature certain faculties-faculties of loving of knowing 
 of aftii-tr nur t l..«so liavo by no means been given hira in order tb,at he should 
 [:Lcn'is^Uu.msu.itarily; they ai;ebatfj^ the supreme m-lica^jon of that which 
 
 scat ter about your 1 ight. Weakness is a creditor of strenKt,h ; ignorance of learn- 
 iiiL' The more a man can. the more he ought; and this is the meaning of those 
 Deautilul words of the gospel: " Whoever will be chief among you. lethimbo your 
 servant." Hence the axiom, from every one according to his faculties; that is 
 one's duty. 
 
 Wo may thus say that Christianity as a social force stands for the con- 
 servation of energy. It seeks the utilization of all human power for the 
 advancement of the welfare of man, and it tends to preserve the achieve- 
 ments of the past because it means peaceful progress. It may be thus 
 said that Christianity stands for progress emphatically, but for conserv- 
 ative progress. 
 
 Christianity means a mighty transformation and turning of things 
 upside down, and while it seeks to bring about the most radical 
 changes in peace, it has forces within it which nothing can vi^ithstand and 
 resistiinco to which is sure to result in revolutionary violence. It is thus 
 that Christ said he came to bring not peace, but a sword— signifying the 
 opposition of malevolence to social progress; yet a fruitless opposition, for 
 in the end the peace of Christ musl triumph. 
 
 Wo can imagine Christ among lur to-day, pointing, as of old, to ourgreat 
 temples and warning us that the time will come when one stone of them 
 shall not rest upon another. We can imagine Christ pointing to our grade 
 crossings, and to our link and pin couplers, covered with the blood of muti- 
 lated brakemen, and crying out to us: " Woe unto you, hypocrites, ye do 
 these things, and for a pretense riake long prayers." We can also imagine 
 Him summoning before our vision the thousands who have lost their limbs 
 in needless industrial accidents, and pointing to the hospitals to relieve 
 them, and the charities to furnish them with artificial limbs, and again 
 uttering His terrible maledictions: " Woe unto you, hypocrites! " We can 
 also imagine Him iu 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 vis- 
 ited upon us, either as we have or have not ministered to those who needed 
 our ministrations — the hungry, thj naked, the prisoner, and the captive. 
 The reward: " Come ye blessed of my P^ather, inasmuch as ye have done 
 it unto the least of these ye have done it unto me; " the penalty: " Inas- 
 much as ye have not done it unto the least of these — depart from me." 
 
 WHAT JUDAISM HAS DONE FOR WOMAN. 
 
 MISS HENRIETTA SZOLD. 
 
 Briefly, the whole education conferred by Judaism lies in the principle 
 that it did not assign to woman an exceptional position; yet, by taking 
 cognizance of the exceptional position assigned to woman by brute force, 
 or occupied by her on account of her physical constitution and natural 
 duties, Judaism made that education effectual and uninterrupted in its 
 effects. It would, indeed, be possible to begin with our own Emma 
 Lazarus, distinguished for gifts alike of hoart and brain, and pass upward 
 through history, mounting from Jewish woman's achievement to Jewish 
 woman's achievement, our path marked by poetesses, martyrs, scholars, 
 queens, and proj^hetesses, until we reach the wilds of our patriarchs. Yet, 
 by these last only may we hope to be taught about Jewish women. In
 
 WHAT JUDAISM HAS DONE FOR WOMAN. 555 
 
 Jewish history, as in that of the rest of mankind, leaders in poUtics, in 
 thought, in spiritual endeavor, are only milestones. They but indicate the 
 categories of phenomena that deserve attention. Nor do I conceive that 
 it would be a help to dwell upon the acknowledged virtues of the modern 
 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 f ulsomely treated. We wish to know, as it were, the ancestry 
 of such steadfast, incorruptible virtue. Moreover, Judaism is so compact 
 a system that it is hazardous to speak of any kind of faith. By reason of 
 its conservatism it requires more inexorability than any other system. Our 
 question calls for the spiritual data about the typical woman whom Juda- 
 ism has prepared for 19th-century work. To discover them we must go 
 back to 1,900 years ago, to the women of the time of Abraham. 
 
 Abraham stands out in the historic picture of mankind as the typical 
 father. He it was of whom it was known that he would command his 
 children and his household after him that they should keep the way of the 
 Lord, to do righteousness and justice. What was Sarah's share in this 
 paramount work of education? Ishmael was to be removed in order that 
 Isaac, the disciple of righteousness and justice, might not be lured away 
 from the way of the Lord. In connection with this plan, wholly educa- 
 tional in its aims, it is enjoined upon Abraham, " In all that Sarah may 
 say unto thee, hearken unto her voice." 
 
 The next generation again illustrates, not the sameness in function, but 
 equality in position of man and woman. Isaac and Rebecca differ in their 
 conception of educational discipline and factors. But Rebecca, more ener- 
 getic than her husband, follows up sentiment and perception with prac- 
 tical action. She makes effectual her conviction that mankind will be 
 blessed through the gentleness of Jacob, while Esau's rule means relapse 
 into barbarism. 
 
 From the trend of the story we may infer that there must have been 
 much unwholesome discussion between father and mother about the com- 
 parative merits of the two favorites, and the methods of bringing up chil- 
 dren in general. There in an echo in Rebecca's plaint: " I am weary of my 
 life, because of the daughters of Heth," whom Esau had married. "If 
 Jacob," she continues, " takes a wife from the daughters of Heth such as 
 these, from the daughters of the land, what good wiil life do me?" And 
 although we are told earlier in the narrative that the wives of Esau "were 
 a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebecca," it is only after he has been 
 prodded by his wife's words that Isaac charges Jacob, " Thou shalt not 
 take a wife from the daughters of Canaan." Finally, whatever may ha e 
 been the difference of opinion between them in regard to their children's 
 affairs, before their children father and mother are completely at one, for 
 when the first suspicion of displeasure comes to Esau it reaches him in 
 Isaac's name alone. We are told that " then saw Esau that the daughters 
 of Canaan were evil in the eyesof Isaac, his father. (Gen. xxviii., 6.) Isaac, 
 the executive, had completely adopted the tactics of Rebecca, the advisory 
 branch of the government. 
 
 The scene, moreover, is remarkable by the fact that we are shown the 
 first social innovator, the first being to act contrary to tradition and the 
 iron-bound customs of society. Rebecca refuses to yield to birth its rights, 
 in a casein which were involved the higher considerations of the guardian- 
 ship of truth. And this reformer was a traditionally conservative W(>nian. 
 Rebecca is, indeed, the most individual of the women of patriarchal days, 
 both in her feminine aftractions and inner womanly earnestness. To her 
 strong character, it is do^ubtless due, that Isaac became a strict monoga- 
 mist, 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
 
 I 
 
 5CG THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 come down to us from the days of the patriarchs. Wo hear of the motners 
 of the greatest men, of Yochebed, the mother oJ Moses, and of Hannah, 
 the mother of Samuel, and the sole dirc/.or of his earthly career. We 
 still road of fathers and mothers, acting in equal conjunction, as in the dis- 
 astrous youth of Samson. The law ranges them together: "If a man 
 have a stubborn and rebellious son, who hearkeneth not to the voice of hie 
 father, or the voice of his 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., 18, 19.) It is sutRcient to indicate a king's evil character to say : 
 "For a daughter of Ahab had he for a wife" (II. Kings viii., 18), attesting 
 abundantly a wife's influence, though it be for evil. Nor could Abigail'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 husband 
 most beautifully in this passage, which distinguishes between the husband 
 of a Jewish woman and the lord of a medieval Grisedis : " And it shall 
 happen at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi (my hus- 
 band) and shalt not call me any more Balali (my lord). * * * And I 
 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. And 
 I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulnestj." (Hosea ii., 18, 21,22.) 
 
 But Israel was a backsliding nation. Even its purity of family life — 
 crowning glory — was sullied, as for instance, at Gibah (Judges xx.), and by 
 David (II. Sam. xi., xii.). In the process of time, Israel came into contact 
 with strange nations, with their strange gods and their strange treatment 
 of women. It went after idols whose worship consisted of unchaste rites. 
 Israel's son married the daughter, not of the stranger, but of a strange god. 
 It was the Israelite's crown of distinction that his wife was his companion, 
 whose equality 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 taught Israel the folly of worshiping 
 strange gods, but the blandishments of the daughters of a strange god 
 produce the enactment of many a law by the rabbis of the Talmud. Here 
 was the problem that confronted them: Israel's ideals of womanhood were 
 high, but the nations around acted up to a brutal standard and Israel was 
 not likely to remain untainted. Thus Mosaic legislation recognizes the 
 exceptional position occupied by woman and profits by its knowledge 
 thereof, to lay down stringent regulations, ordering the relation of the 
 sexes. 
 
 We have the rights of woman guarded with respect to inheritance, to 
 giving in marriage in the marriage relaticfh, and with regard to divorce. 
 The maid-servant, the captive taken in war, the hated wife, 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 divorce 
 among the Jews were civil transactions connected with certain amount of 
 formality. We hear of the bill of divorcement as early as the times of 
 Moses. Marriage was preceded 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 mar- 
 riage itself. Thus Malachi's expression, " the wife of thy covenant," was 
 not an empty phrase. It indicates a substantial reality and at the same 
 time emphasizes 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. 
 
 Ihe subject of marriage and divorce is by them considered so important 
 
 that one whole treatise out of the six constituting the Mishnah is devoted 
 
 1 -iil^ m ^ its treatment is so multifarious and exhaustive that only a verv 
 
 BkiUed ralmudist and an equally systematic mind would be able to arrang
 
 WHAT JUDAISM HAS DONE FOR WOMAN. 557 
 
 all the details under satisfactory heads sufficiently to i^ive it a just idea of 
 its admirable perfection. 1 am not able to do more than give some 
 instances and some laws in order to illustrate howtlio 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 husband, or 
 divorce. This contract had to be duly signed and properly drawn up. More- 
 over, a widow is entitled to this mimimum sum even though no mention is 
 made thereof in the contract. With regard to the position 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 husband; if his is superior hers is superior, 
 A husband must provide his wife with food and raiment, is obliged to 
 ransom her if she is taken captive, and owes her decent burial. A wife's 
 duties are also defined. She must grind, bake bread, wasu the linen, nurse 
 her children, make her husband's bed, and woi-k in wool. If she has a serv- 
 ant at her disposal she is not obliged to grind, nor to bake bread, nor to 
 wash the linen. Her work diminishes with the number 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 idleness 
 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 hei 
 dowry, for idleness may bring about mental alienation." This last dread of 
 idleness throws light upon the praise accorded the virtuous woman: " The 
 bread of idleness she doth not eat." Furthermore, there are regulations 
 fixing the wife's right to property, her husband's claims upon it, as upon 
 what she may earn; even the girl in her father's home could own property, 
 of which she could dispose 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 give an idea of the Jewish divorce law is 
 the following: The school of Shamiuai — clinging to biblical ordinances — 
 says that "a wife can be divorced only on account of infidelity." 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 beau- 
 tiful 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 ajjply for a divorce with- 
 out assigning any reason which motives of delicacy may prompt her to 
 withhold. The idea underlying this seeming laxity is that when a man or 
 a woman is willing to apply for a divorce on so trivial a ground, then, regard 
 and love having vanished, in the interests of morality a divorce had better 
 be granted, 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 distin- 
 guishing it far beyond other nations of antiquity are these: A man, as a 
 rule, could not divorce his wiie without providing for her; he could not 
 summarily send 'her from him, as was, and is, the custom of Eastern 
 countries, but was obliged to give her a duly drawn-up bill 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 sen- 
 sibilities of women. In a mixed marriage, the child follows the religion of
 
 558 TBE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 its mother If men and women present themselves when alms are distrib- 
 uted the 'women must be attended to lirst so that they need not wait. 
 When men and women had cases before Rabba, he first dispatched those 
 of the women, as it is a humiliation for women to wait. Again, if an 
 orphaned boy and an orphaned girl have to be supported by public charity, 
 the girl is to be helped lirst, for begging is more painful to a woman than 
 a man. Under no circumstances 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 influence. A daughter must remain with her mother. 
 If a man dies, and his sons, his heirs, who are obliged to provide for the 
 dauo-hters out of the inheritance, wish to do so at their own home, while 
 the ''mother wishes to keep 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. All the duties toward children rest upon the father not upon the 
 mother. All the duties toward parents rest upon sons and daughters alike. 
 All the positive commandments which must be observed at a fixed time are 
 obligatory on men and not on women. 
 
 These and such are the provisions which, originating in the hoary past, 
 have entrenched the Jewess' position even unto this day. Whatever she 
 may be, she is through them. But what is she? 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 tlie Talmudic sentence applies: "It is a woman 
 alone through whom God's blessings are vouchsafed to a house. She 
 teaches the children, speeds the husband to the place of worship and 
 instruction, welcomes him when he returns, keeps the house godly and 
 pure, and God's blessings rests upon all these things."' 
 
 Now. finally, with what fitness to meet 19th century demands has Juda- 
 ism endowed her daughters? Our pulses are quickened and throbbing 
 with the new currents of an age of social dissatisfaction and breathless 
 endeavor. The 19th-century Jewess is wholly free to do as and what she 
 wishes, nor need she abate a jot of her Judaism, Judaism does not, indeed, 
 bid her become a lawyer, a physician, a book-keeper, or a telegraph opera- 
 tor, nor does it forbid her becoming anything for ^vhich her talents and 
 her opportunities fit her. It simply says nothing of her occupations. 
 Moreover, by reason of her Jewish antecedents, the Jewess stands ready to 
 cope with the new requirements of life. Her fitness for moral responsibil- 
 ity has always been great, and as for her mental capacity, it has not oozed 
 away under artificial homage, nor been paralyzed by exclusion from the 
 intellectual work and practical undertakings of her family. Judaism per- 
 mits her daughters to go forth into this new world of ours to assume new 
 duties and responsibilities and rejoice in its vast opportunities; but it says: 
 " Beware of forfeiting your dignity." Remember, morever, that like moth- 
 ers in all ages, be they kindly or unkindly disposed to women, I shall stand 
 and wait, aye, and be ready to serve you. My Sabbath lamp shall ever be 
 a light; in its rays you will never fail to find yourself, your dignity, your 
 peace of heart and mind. 
 
 INDIVIDUAL EFFORT AT REFORM NOT SUFFICIENT. 
 
 PKOF. C. R. HENDEESON, D. D., UNIVEllSITY OF CHICAGO. 
 
 Men, when compared with an ideal standard, are informed and 
 deformed. Vivid is the contrast between an undeveloped babe and an
 
 INDIVIDUAL EFFORT AT REFORM NOT SUFFICIENT. 550 
 
 athletic soldier, between the wasp waist of a Paris fashion plate ami the 
 vigorous grace of the Venus of Milo in the Louvre gallery. Mankind has 
 an ideal standard or it would never see deformity. It is the moral 
 ideal which we identify with our object of worship. Our religion stands 
 over against an actual conduct and character, awes us to shame, stirs us to 
 divine discontent, tills us with sublime aspirations. 
 
 Deformed men perform monstrous deeds. Their works are imperfect, 
 sometimes hellish. Outward actions proceed from inner states, reveal the 
 soul, then return upon the soul to torment and detiki it. The artist becomes 
 enamored of his statue. The story of Frankenstein shows a man at work 
 upon a giant without a conscience, and this work of his hands terrorizes 
 the maker as his tyrant. 
 
 Men, out of the impulses of their bodies and the treasures of their souls, 
 form families, schools, newspapers, courts, governments, churches, ami then 
 these social institutions turn back upon men and shape them as in iron 
 moulds. 
 
 The necessity of reform is acknowledged by all. It is a perpetual neces- 
 sity. 
 
 Evolution proceeds by correction of discrepancy between ideal and fact. 
 
 In this process intuition and exijerience toil as rivals and as partners. 
 
 Reform is primarily a change of the inner mac. Changes of i iistitutions 
 must be made by man, and such changes imply spiritual advance or vener- 
 ation. It forever remains true that man has the power of eternal life, and 
 this can never be completely embodied in a form of social organizati<m. 
 
 When we come to the instruments of reform we must find them in insti- 
 tutions, in social organs. The individual is always a member of the social 
 body, and can be touched only through socialized agencies. 
 
 A human person is by nature — that is, by divine creation and appoint- 
 ment — a social being. Inner instinct and outward conditions make him 
 social. He is born into the family, a natural social institution, and there 
 he ic nourished, protected, taught the rudiments of all the intellectual pos- 
 sessions of his race, as language, morals, trade, play, justice, and religion. 
 
 Arrived at the advdt stage he discovers a social network of schools, jour- 
 nals, governments, churches, customs, laws, already jjrepared to act upon 
 and for him. These have not much respect for his individual will. He 
 tindc it easier to bow than to re-shape. By reform, then, we may mean a 
 change of ourselves, or of others, from a lower to a higher moral levt 1, and the 
 proposition I shall illustrate is this: We can not ignore socialized effort 
 embodied in physical form without great loss of power and efficiency. 
 
 It is wise to state the case for purely individual and spiritual efforts at 
 reform. 
 
 The wise man of virtvie is above human law so far as his will is with the 
 Perfect who is the source of law. The good man, with treasures above, 
 provides for his family, deals honestly with his customers, is faithtui to 
 his tasks without once thinking what the priests may do in case he neglects. 
 His own conscience requires of him costly actions which no legislator 
 would dream of requiring. Having been treated graciously by the Loi-d. 
 he gladly takes up a cross; he makes sacrifices for others. It would be 
 impossible to frame statutes to inclose such refined and delicate feelings, 
 such soaring motives. 
 
 It is vain to attempt to make men moral and religious by statute and 
 penalty. The magistrates can make a hypocrite, but never a believer. The 
 Kingdom of God will ever be beyond the institutions of power and authority 
 and can never be identified with the State. The State has an eye to overt 
 actions, but can not measure motives and sentiments. There are vast tracts 
 of holiness on which the ruler of state can never lay his surveying chains. 
 
 No human government was ever, or ever will be, found wise and good 
 enough to control a voluntary and ideal conduct of a nation. Moral laws,
 
 560 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 i)roiiml"ateil by human law-givers, in the name of deity, are sure to par- 
 take of "the imperfections of the age; they become obsolete, then obstructive. 
 Even pocialists, who would extend the powers of government over all capi- 
 tal, would leave men secure in the title of their homes and the exercise of 
 
 their faith. i. ^ l.^ t- 
 
 The coarse machinery of the best human law can not create the relig- 
 ious life, and its interference is sure to mar that life. A bridge factory is 
 not adapted to the production of delicate microscopes and chronometers. 
 
 Reforms must deal with individuals. There is no substitute for per- 
 sonal knowledge, choice, and effort. Surround a man with the most favor- 
 able environment, furnish him with every solicitation to goodness, remove 
 from him temptation to do evil, and there still remains the necessity of the 
 one supreme, finally decisive act of will. 
 
 Social acts are compounded of separate personal decisions. Blood is red 
 because the several globules are red. A forest is green because the leaves 
 are green. A society is moral when its members are moral. To influence 
 andleform society means, primarily, the instruction, conversion, improve- 
 ment of distinct persons. 
 
 It is said that society has the criminals it deserves. So it has the con- 
 gressmen or couucilmen it deserves. Its legislature will represent the peo- 
 ple as truly as the hands of a clock will report what the inside works are 
 doing. It is needful to dwell on these two aspects of the subject, because 
 many of those who are zealous for social and communal enterprises do not 
 always make it clear that they see the necessity for individual and spiritual 
 regeneration of character. 
 
 By advocating a truth with one-sided argument we bring that truth into 
 contempt. Only related truth is strong and convincing. 
 
 There is no real ground for difference between those who advocate per- 
 sonal action and those who plead for social action. A plant lives by its 
 roots and also by its leaves, since its food comes from both soil and air. 
 
 We turn to the correlated and complementary truth: Individual effort 
 at reform must be a part of a social plan and spiritual forces must become 
 embodied if they are to be redemptive. This principle is implied in the 
 Christian teaching of the incarnation and of the church. 
 
 Paul's comparison of humanity redeemed to a body composed of recip- 
 rocally dependent and united members expresses the principle. The old 
 Roman fable of the " Billy Goat and Its Members" was used by the orator 
 to reconcile alienated citizens in turbulent times. 
 
 A society is not exactly like a human body in all particulars. There are 
 obvious and essential differences. But there are likenesses which make 
 the comparison instructive. All conscious members of a community are 
 vitally dependent on all others at some point. It would be useless to urge 
 this commonplace truth if it were not so often practically denied. There 
 lingers a deep suspicion in many devout minds that in pressing society 
 reforms we are neglecting personal and spiritual methods. 
 
 Law and custom are like the serpent whose length goes around the 
 world. Who shall lift its folds? To change the individual all environ- 
 ments^ must be considered. So far as the social fact is helpful we may use 
 it. When that environment is saturated with evil we must have much 
 charity for the individual and attack the system which enslaves him. 
 
 Most reform work would proceed with greater speed and less haste and 
 loss if this fact of social environment was more fully considered. It does 
 not annihilate freedom and responsibility, but it modifies the practical 
 possibility of action for all of us. Let us bring these rather abstract state- 
 ments into the light of concrete problems. 
 
 How can we reform the " Abnormal Man " ? 
 
 The dependent pauper, the defective in mind, the delinquent criminal 
 —how shall we save these and help them to live a useful life ?
 
 INDIVIDUAL EFFORT AT REFORM NOT SUFFICIENT. 561 
 
 Many sood people live as though there were no abnormal men. Their 
 preaching, their labors, their measures are well adapted to ordinary citi- 
 zens living in homes under the influences of newspapers and churches. 
 
 C. D. Wright surveys the whole range of misery in this country and 
 Europe and declares : " As the condition of the laborer rises, pauperism 
 and criminality fall. Employment of the unemployed will notstt^p pauper- 
 ism and crime, education Vv^iil not, Christianity will not, but all tiiese com- 
 bined will work together with great power for gooil, and will go far.'' 
 
 Schiffle says: " Social, and not merely individual evil, immorality and 
 lawlessness grow to be a widespread power, and temporarily a collective 
 power, superior to law and morality. This power organizes itself into a 
 formidable army to fight against morals and law, as in the dangerous 
 classes." 
 
 These organized bandits have their halls, clubs, and associations in all 
 our great cities. They crack their whips over political conventions and 
 dictate measures and nominations to mayors and governors and councils. 
 
 These facts are enough to show that to save one abnormal n^an out of 
 this ruin we must go systematically and mildly to work. Guerrilla fighting 
 has its place, but organization of animals alone will contend successfully 
 with entrenched forces led by the prince of darkness. 
 
 We may take the labor movement as an illustration of the necessity olc 
 united and general action. It would be easy to drag out of jjast and con- 
 temporary history many examples of the selfishness, cruelty, and stupidity 
 of the agitators and leaders of organized laborers. The story is dreary 
 enough. But, if we consider their superior advantages and responsibilities, 
 the selfishness, cruelty, and stupidity of organized capitalists will quite 
 match those of the laborers. 
 
 But back of all foul abuses of co-operation — aouses which are the legiti- 
 mate fruit of centuries of oppression, misrule, and enforced ignorance — is 
 the sublime motive of this labor reform. There is a struggle of humanity 
 to live a genuine human life; to rise above animalism and barbarism; to 
 enter into the heritage of the ages; to enjoy the pure delights of home, the 
 beauty of art, the revelations of science, the justice of the state, the fresh 
 air, and divine symbohsm and the freedom of sons of God. The lion in the 
 hour of creation is pictured as pawing to be free from the clay. This move- 
 ment has a profound significance, for its inmost impetus comes from God 
 and its ideals lead to God. 
 
 The roots of this tree of freedom may grow in black soil, soaked and 
 fertilized with blood, but its blossoms and fruit will be fair. If for fifty 
 years the labor agitators have been obliged to make their way with rude 
 weapons along an obstructed path, the fault is not all their own. An 
 intelligent and discriminating sympathy of religious people with what is 
 good in the trade-union movement would diminish the tendency to use the 
 language and arms of military. 
 
 If the income of the laborer is to be sufficient to lift him from the con- 
 dition of brute and slave ; if his home is to become a fit human habitation, 
 where virtue is possible ; if his sense of injustice and spirit of revolt are to 
 be appeased ; if his attention is to be won and held for the ideal elements 
 of life ; then agitator, pastor, politician, statesman, jurist, editor, and capi- 
 talist must b& instructed in the ways of agreement. At this point the 
 university comes into touch with all the other institutions of human 
 advancement. 
 
 Turn now to the commercial man. 
 
 For him also, love, joy, righteousness, and peace are elements of the 
 Kingdom of God. But their sphere of manifestation is not merely the closet 
 of secret prayer and the temple of prayer. The bank and the factory are 
 his sanctuary, where God is praised or blasphemed. 
 
 Take a typical example. There is a religious dealer in clothing, upright
 
 562 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 in purpose, just and humane in feeling. It is his business to sell at a 
 narrow margin, or profit, certain cotton garments which are made by a 
 thousand women. Their wages are so low that slow starvation, disorderly 
 houses, rickety and enfeebled offspring, and drunken husbands rise like the 
 tides of ocean about an island, pitiless as a wave. i, ^, ^ ^ 
 
 This honest and humane merchant comes to be aware of the tacts. 
 Their images harrow his conscience, disturb his dreams, and poison his 
 pleasures. He determines to add to the wages and put the advance in the 
 price of his goods. This he attempts alone. His competitors, less scrup- 
 ulous, undersell him and drive him toward bankruptcy. What can this 
 religious merchant do alone? Absolutely nothing. He can not persuade 
 his competitors to agree with him to raise the price of wages and of goods 
 to a living rate. They would laugh at him as a dreamer and a fanatic, and 
 the law might declare his effort culpable as a conspiracy to hinder free 
 
 And so the wages of the seamstresses fall in London. When, fifty years 
 ago, Tom Hood wrote his "Song of the Shirt," the seamstresses in England 
 earned 2% pence an hour; to-day most of them can not average more than 
 13^ pence per hour. The wages of the men have risen during the same 
 time, and men are organized to vote. Women are not organized and do 
 not vote. The aristocratic friends of poor women in England began by 
 giving them alms, but they have come co urge factory inspection and 
 trades unions. 
 
 It is in this path of universal law and labor unions that we must travel 
 if our religious merchant dare to be honest and humane. 
 
 Wealth does not render the richest traflacker independent of social help 
 in the foundation of his own character. To his aid must come the masses, 
 if he will wash the blood of guilt from his own garment. 
 
 It is easy for a theologian or a pastor with a reasonable salary to teach 
 the duty of being honest in the face of the world, but when the rate of 
 income falls to 90 cents a day, and uncertain at that, the dependence of 
 spirit on the body and the independence of both on society becomes felt. 
 The sheltered preacher of individual morality declr.r^s that he does not 
 need state law to make him honest, chaste, just, loving, and benevolent. 
 Only in part true. Law has done more for his moral education than he 
 thinks. Christian people generally are greatly influenced in their moral 
 standards by statutes of commercial law. Many a good deacon was not 
 conscious that he was stealing from his neighbor until reminded by a legal 
 definition which stopped his path. Religious manufacturers were not 
 aware that they were murdering their employes with dust until told by the 
 inspectors. 
 
 Here are thousands of merchants selling goods marked " all wool " when 
 they know cotton is liberally mixed in, because " all do so." Here are 
 Christian men selling adulterated tea, coffee, spices, as " absolutely pure," 
 because " their competitors do the same." 
 
 Is there no need of social help for personal protection? 
 
 Metaphysically a cashier may remain honest without the auditing of 
 his accounts, but practically he needs the help of the directors to watch 
 him, even if he is a Bible-class teacher. When Paul took money for the 
 Jerusalem saints he was compelled to have witnesses and letters. Com- 
 mon sense is not in antagonism to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 International morality is made possible by social co-operation and by 
 that alone. 
 
 Germany is called a Christian nation. Prance is called a Christian 
 nation. Italy is the home of the head of the Roman Church. They all 
 possess a creed, through state churches, which certainly forbids murder. 
 Yet they all stand around, day and night, as nations, ready to commit mur- 
 der at a moment's notice, on the largest possible scale. France, alone, can 
 not disarm. Nor can victorious Germany. 
 
 I
 
 I 
 
 INDIVIDUAL EFFORT AT REFORM NOT SUFFICIENT. 563 
 
 The great, powerful, and rich people must ask the conseut of its neigh- 
 bors to be able to obey one of the simplest duties of ordinary morality. 
 
 The Christian churches are now attempting to give the gospel to the 
 residents of the sluins in our cities and to the inhabitants of the dark con- 
 tinent. In this effort the church meets the slave trade in the heart of 
 Africa and the cursed drink traffic on all continents. Does any man imagine 
 that mere individual effort would be adequate here, or even serious, with- 
 out legislation? P^ar be it from me to cast any reproach on the magnificent 
 labor« of great evangelists or on the silent and continuous labors of humble 
 workexS in obscure places. We honor them all. But God has used the 
 organs of social power to help these individual toilers and such helps are 
 evidently to be augmented in the future. 
 
 The Louisiana planter can not till his field without the protection of the 
 dike, which is under the care of the government. The water supply of 
 many Pennsylvania towns depends on the Delaware River, and the purity of 
 that river depends on the conduct of people of other States whence its 
 flows. The usefulness of Christian missions in India greatly depends on 
 the discipline of the British army and on the habits of European sailors 
 and merchants. After thirty-cne years spent in India, Archbishop Jeffries 
 makes this terrible charge: "For one really converted Christian, as the 
 proof of missionary labor, the drinking practices of Eng-land have made a 
 thousand drunkards." Says Dr. Reichel, of the Moravian missions : " A 
 cry of horror rises from all mission fields. Drunkenness reached the Lapps 
 in Europe and nearly destroyed them before the gospel reached them." 
 American traders and the Hudson Bay Company have done similar work 
 among the nations of this continent. Of the 300,000 natives who inhabited 
 the Sandwich Islands when they were discovered " civilization " destroyed 
 all but 40,000. British rum has not only reduced but actually obliterated 
 the Hottentot. In East Africa German merchants import liquor in the 
 face of Mohammedan protest. It is said the Congo Land was bought with 
 alcohol, and even savages protested against this factor of "Christian" 
 commerce. The New York Times said: "Every ship that takes mission- 
 aries to Africa carries enough poisonous rum and gin to offset a thousand 
 missionaries." To endure this crime without protest is not meekness, but 
 stupidity and cowardice. 
 
 In our great cities we have already proofs of the supreme value of 
 co-operation. The organizing ability of Mr. Moody increases the efficiency 
 of all his co-workers a hundred-fold. The city mission societies, the Sun- 
 day-school connections, illustrate the power of concerted labors, for they 
 accomplish what individual members of local churches could never achieve 
 in isolation. But there is room in our home mission work for vast improve- 
 ment. In every city and in every commonwealth immense resources of 
 money and energy are abandoned between the churches. 
 
 In many cities the teaching of vice and crime is permitted by the 
 authorities to undo the work of the missionaries. The preacher begs for a 
 hearing and the local political tyrant laughs and insults, bribes and domi- 
 neers. The saloon, the brothel, and the gamblers are indulged while the 
 timid and modest Salvation Army lass toils at the foot of a steep and lofty 
 mountain of difficulty. But we are on the eve of a new era. Co-operation 
 is the watchword of the hour. " Union Is Essential " carried with it the 
 triumph of moral triumph. 
 
 The good citizen will use his political power to overthrow political obsta- 
 cles to reform; as head of the family he will make the domestic circle the 
 nursery of all virtue and charity and worship; as a member of the church 
 he will seek to associate his labors in harmony with his brethren for the 
 common welfare. The public schools will enlist his interest as the founda- 
 tion of universal intelligence, and through all his individual efforts he 
 will sink his egotism, his conceit, his pride, his vanity, his ambition, his
 
 564 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 partisanship, his sectarianism. Above all will be the banner of love, whose 
 symbol is the cross— the cross itself— not a badge of a party, but God's own 
 sign of universal salf-sacrificing Fatherhood and Brotherhood. 
 
 RELIGION AND LABOR. 
 
 REV. JAMES M. CLEAllY, PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OP ST. CHARLES 
 BORROMEO, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
 
 At this moment the condition of the working population is the question 
 of the hour, ajid nothing can be of higher interest to all classes of the State 
 than that it should be rightly and reasonably decided. But it will be easy 
 for Christian workingmen to decide it aright if they form associations, 
 choose wise guides, and follow the same path which, with so much advan- 
 tage to themselves and the commonwealth, was trodden by their fathers 
 before them. 
 
 Thus speaks Pope Leo XIIL. in his great treatise on labor. This illus- 
 trious character, whom Divine Providence has chosen to direct the des- 
 tinies of the Catholic Church during these closing years of the 19th 
 century, clearly comprehends 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 welfare and hvimanity's 
 home beyond the grave, but his luminous mind and his generous heart sur- 
 render their best and most devoted energies in tho interest of human hap- 
 piness 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 Himeelf 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. 
 
 The church having taught every child of Adam who earned his bread 
 by laborious toil to assert his own dignity and to understand his own 
 worth, and having hitherto led a hopeless multitude from the dismal gloom 
 of slavery to the cheering brightness of the liberty of the children of God, 
 bravely defended the i-ights and the privileges of her emancipated children. 
 "The church has regarded with religious care the inheritance of the poor." 
 The poor are the special charge of the church. Every living soul is in 
 God's immediate care, the rich as well as the poor; there is no distinction 
 of class or privilege with Him. Every soul, whether refined or rude, is in 
 His keeping. But with an especial care He watches over those who "eat 
 bread in the sweat of their brow." None need the Divine Comforter more 
 than the weary children of toil and none need and have received the sym- 
 pathy of the church as they do. 
 
 In his exhaustive encyclical on the condition of labor Leo XIII. 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 can not 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 can not be meas- 
 ured 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 kingdom of heaven. He has a right, of which
 
 ' RELIGION AND LABOR. 565 
 
 lO man has the pownr to deprive him, "to the pursuit of life, liberty, ami 
 happiness. ' Every aian has a God-given right to live in decency and 
 comfort. 
 
 Ljabor has a right to freedom; labor has also a riglit to protect its own 
 independence and liberty. Hence labor unions are 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 plead- 
 ing of our own Cardinal Gibbons for the cause of organized labor at the 
 See of Peter. In organization there is strength, but labor must use its 
 power for its own protection, not for invading 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 lAea that 
 the workman is treated unjustly by organized capital. 
 
 That form of strike, however, by which labor unions use unlawful 
 means to prevent willing men who are anxious to earn a livelihood for their 
 families from engaging in honest work, can in no way be defended, and 
 must surely fall under the unqualified censure of religion. Labor has a 
 right, it is true, to prevent its own degradation, and is justified in insisting 
 that wages shall not be so reduced as to prevent Christian men from living 
 like civilized beings, but religion, which is the guardian angel of social 
 order and just law, must insist tiiat when such evils threaten society they 
 are remedied by legislation and not by appeals to force. 
 
 Our Christian civilization must not be endangered by false maxims and 
 narsh methods of social economy. Our civilization is a failure if it aims only 
 tet the protection of wealth and the guardianship of property. " III fares 
 the land to hastening ills a prey where wealth accumulates and men decay." 
 Men are more precious than money. The contented Christian homesof an 
 intelligent people, happy in the opportunity of earning a decent competence 
 for the present and future needs, are the safest and most hopeful support 
 of a nation and encouraging evidences of a national prosperity. 
 
 Religion's duty is to teach the rich the responsibilities of wealth and the 
 poor respect for order and law. The security of capital against the discon- 
 tent and envy of labor, is the best security also for the workingman. When 
 capital becomes timid and shrinks from the hazard of investment, labor 
 soon feels the pangs of hunger and the dread specter of want casts its dis- 
 mal shadow over many a humble home. 
 
 Religion is the only influence that has been able to subdue the pride 
 find the passions of men, to refine the manners and guide the conduct of 
 human society, so that rich and poor alike, mindful of their common 
 destiny, respect each other's rights, their mutual dependence, and the rights 
 of their common Father in heaven. The religious teachers and guides who 
 apply the principles of the " Sermon on the Mount " to the everyday affairs 
 of men, and lead humanity upward 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. 
 
 Among the records of noble men and deeds of unselfish devotion, 
 covering the second half of this 19th century, emblazoned in brilliant 
 characters of glorious light, there will be found by grateful generations yet 
 unborn the name and memory of him who might have taken a leader's 
 place among the proudest aristocracy and the most haughty nobility in the 
 world. By position and fortune, by education and social environment, he 
 was regarded as an ornament in the brilliant assemblages of wealth and 
 exclusive refinement. His cultured mind and refined nature might have 
 found peace, honor, congenial friendship, and the world's applause in his 
 lofty place at the summit of idolized wealth and power. 
 
 But with burning love for God, his great soul was on fire with an
 
 1 
 
 5(j0 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 unquenchable love for humanity. He sought companionship with the 
 poor. He devoted his unrivaled gifts of head and heart to the uplifting of 
 the weary sons of toil. With magic voice and tireless pen he pleaded the 
 cause of 'labor inspired by the loftiest sentiments of religion. When shall 
 we see his like again? Can toiling humanity ever forget him? Religion 
 reveres his memory. Need I name him?— Henry Edward Manning, the 
 immortal Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. 
 
 The great English cardinal, whose sympathetic heart was the repository 
 of the confidences of the poor, who often stood a peacemaker between excited, 
 irritated labor and cold, unfeeling capital, to save the city of London from 
 scenes of wreck and carnage, was a tireless and consistent advocate of arbi- 
 tration as a means of reconciling the differences that arise between employer 
 and employed. The world has outgrown, let us hope, the barbarism of 
 brute force as a means of deciding disputes between men and nations. 
 
 Mankind has only recently been taught a lesson, the influence of which 
 must be felt wherever men have contests over their rights or immunities. 
 England and the United States arbitrate their differences over the seal 
 fisheries in Bering Sea and the country against whose interests this distin- 
 guished court renders its decision accepts the verdict with as good grace as 
 the great nation that is the fortune winner in the contest. In past ages 
 matters of far less moment have been the means of deluging nations in 
 rivers of blood. 
 
 Let capital and labor come nearer together and, in close contact with 
 their common humanity, honestly and intelligently harmonize all their dif- 
 ferences on a basis of justice to all. The interest of labor in the security of 
 capital IS equal only to the concern of labor for its own prosperity. Con- 
 tented, prosperous labor is capital's most secure safeguard. The rich and 
 jjoor have a common destiny and common hope; both are hastening onward 
 through a "valley of tears," to appear before a common Father, who in 
 tender love will show justice and mercy to all His children. 
 
 Ayssa, by v/hich Sidi Ben Aissa is sometimes known, means literally 
 "Our Lord Jesus," and it has been surmised by some that the sectaries 
 are a remnant of the Ophites, who were once scattered through Barbary.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TWELFTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 22d. 
 
 CIVIL SOCIETY, RELIGIOUS DEBT, FOREIGN 
 MISSIONS. 
 
 Strange surprises and sharp contrasts rendered the 22d of 
 September a day of variety at Columbus Hall. The amphi- 
 theater was thronged with people within a few minutes after 
 the doors were opened, At the afternoon session a symposium 
 on foreign missions was held, and eminent professors, of 
 various faiths, took part in the discussion. 
 
 Before the parliament was called to order in the morning, 
 Rev. Jeiikin Lloyd Jones introduced the archimandrite of the 
 apostolic and patriarchal throne of the orthodox church in 
 Syria — a man who attracted great attention owing to the 
 peculiarity of his garb and personal appearance. He was 
 alw'ays bareheaded and wore his hair in flowing locks, which 
 reached half-way down his back. He had a full, dark beard, and 
 a look in his eyes as if in constant meditation. In presenting 
 the archimandrite Mr. Jones said: 
 
 He is a mac with whom I have exhausted all the Arabic I can com- 
 mand, and he has exhausted all the English he can command, which is a 
 little more than I can of Arabic, in getting acquainted. I have found out 
 tliis much about him: His name is Christopher Jebara. He comes to us 
 from the far-off church of Damascus. He is the archimandrite of the 
 apostolic and patriarchal throne of the orthodox church in Sj'ria and the 
 whole East. He comes to us witli a pamphlet which a friend, a graduate 
 of the Syrian Protestant college at Beyrout, has Englished out of the 
 Arabic in which it was first written; and, more than that, he comes 
 to us with this pamphlet bearing as its title, "Unity in Faith and 
 Harmony in Religion"— -a title that must justify your enthusiasm and 
 respect. Without passing any judgment on the contents I have looked 
 into it enough to find myself surprised and delighted that away outthere 
 on the classic grounds of Damascus there is working the same spirit, a 
 groping for the same result, as that which lies so close to the heart of this 
 
 567
 
 
 5G8 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 conpresB. I may Bay further that I know the archimandrite commands 
 the reppect and confidence of certain members of this parliament who are 
 privili'j,'c'd to be acquainted with him. He brings 600 copies of this 
 pamphlet and wishes you to possess yourselves of copies and write him 
 your opinion of its contents. It is an honest, a scholarly, and a labored 
 attempt to discover the fundamental basis that underlies the three great 
 monotheistic religions of the world, Judiibm, Christianity, and Moham- 
 medanism, and to find in the Old Testament and the New Testament and 
 the Koran a certain fundamental revelation, which, being recognized, 
 would meet largely the hunger of the human heart. 
 
 The exercises of the morning then began by the recital of 
 the universal prayer by Dr. Philip Schalf . After being intro- 
 duced by Dr. Barrows as a Christian sciiolar, honored alike in 
 America and Europe, Dr. SchafP took the floor for a few 
 moments and spoke as follows: 
 
 This is rather short notice to speak to one wno has just risen from the 
 dead. A little more than a year ago I was struck down by apoplexy, but 
 I have recovered by the mercy of God and I am a miracle to myself. I was 
 warned by physicians and friends not to come to Chicago. They said it 
 would kill me. Well, let it kill me. I was determined to bear my last 
 dying testimony to the cause of Christian union in which I have been 
 interested all my life. But I think the Lord will give me strength to sur- 
 vive this Parliament of Religions. The idea of this parliament will survive 
 all criticism. The critics will die, but the cause will remain. And, as sure 
 as God is the truth, and as sure as Christ is the way, the life, and the 
 truth, His word shall be fulfilled and there shall be one flock and the one 
 shepherd. 
 
 RELIGION AND WEALTH. 
 
 EEV. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D. D. 
 
 Religion and wealth are two great interests of human life. Are they 
 hostile or friendly? Are they mutually exclusive or can they dwell 
 together in unity? In a perfect social state what would be their relations? 
 
 What is religion? Essentially it is the devout recognition of a supreme 
 power. It is belief in a creator, a sovereign, a lather of men, with some 
 sense of dependence upon him and obligation to him. The religious life is 
 the life according to God, the life whose keynote is harmony with the divine 
 nature and conformity to the Divine will. 'What will the man who is living 
 this kind of a life chink about wealth? How will his religion affect his 
 thoughts about wealth? If all men were in this highest sense of the word 
 religious, should we have wealth among us? 
 
 To answer this question intelligently we must first define wealth. The 
 economists have had much disputation over the word, but for our purposes 
 we may safely define wealth as consisting in exchangeable goods. All prod- 
 ucts, commodities, rights w^hich men desire and which in this commercial 
 age can be exchanged for money w^e may include under this term. But the 
 question before us has in view the abundance, the profusion of exchangea- 
 ble goods now existing in all civilized nations. There is vastly more in the 
 hands of the men of Europe and America to-day than suffices to supply 
 their nnmediate physical necessities. Vast stores of fuel, of clothing, and 
 ornament, of luxuries of all sorts, millions of costly homes, filled with all 
 
 I
 
 RELIGION AND WEALTH. 509 
 
 manner of comforts and adornments, enormous aggregations of machinery 
 for the production and transportation of exchangeable goods — these are a 
 few of the signs of that abundance toward which our thought is now 
 directed. 
 
 Our question is whether, if all men lived according to God, in perfect 
 harmony with His thought, in perfect conformity with His will, th(> world 
 would contain such an abundance of exchangeable goods as that which we 
 now contemplate? 
 
 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 Brahman culminates in 
 mendicancy; he reaches perfection only when he rids himself of all the 
 goods of this world. 
 
 Buddhism does not demand of all devotees the ascetic life, but its emi- 
 nent saints adopt this life, and poverty is regarded as the indispensable con- 
 dition of the highest sanctity. Tlie sacred order founded by Gautama was 
 an order of mendicants. Three garments of cotton cloth, made from cast- 
 off rags, are the monk's whole wardrobe, and the only additional possessions 
 allowed him are a girdle for the loins, an alms-bowl, a razor, a neetlle, and a 
 water-strainer. The monastic rule has had wide vogue, however, in Chris- 
 tian communions, and the great numbers of saintly men have adopted the 
 rule of poverty. Many of the early Christian fathers use very strong lan- 
 guage in denouncing the possession of wealth as essentially irreligious. 
 
 The corner-stone of monasticism is the sanctity of poverty. It is not too 
 much to say that for ages the ideal of saintliness involved the renunciation 
 of wealth. Nor is this notion confined to the monastic ages or the monastic 
 communities. There are many good Protestants, even in these days, who 
 feel that there is an essential incompatibility between the possession of 
 wealth and the attainment of a high degree of spirituality. 
 
 Doubtless the ascetic doctrine respecting wealth finds support in certain 
 texts in the New Testament. " Ye can not serve God and Mammon." How 
 hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God." " Who- 
 soever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath he can not be my 
 disciple." 
 
 It will not be difficult for the student to find other words of Jesus relat- 
 ing to the possession and use of the good things of this world in which the 
 subject is placed 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 can not, I think, be clearly drawn 
 from the New Testament. Nevertheless this doctrine has greatly influenced 
 the thought, not the life, of the Christian church. 
 
 This feeling has been stiengthened also by the abundances of wealth. 
 How grave these abuses have always been I need not try to tell; it is the 
 most threadbare of truisms. Love of money, in Paul's words, has been "a 
 root of all kinds of evil." The desire of wealth is the parent of pride and 
 extortion and cruelty and oppression; it is the minister of treason anil 
 corruption and bribery in the commonwealth ; it is the purveyer of lust and 
 debauchery; it is the instigator of countless crimes. 
 
 It is in these abuses of wealth, doubtless, that devout men have found 
 the chief reason for their skepticism concerning it and their renunciation 
 of it. It is often difficult for ardent and strenuous souls to distinguish 
 between use and abuse. What is the truth in this case? Do the author- 
 ities rightly interpret the will of God? Is their manner of life the i)erfect 
 life? Would God be better pleased with men if they had no possessions 
 beyond the supply of the actual needs of the hour? 
 
 The earth's riches are simply the development of the earth's resources. 
 It is plain that these material resources of the earth readily submit them- 
 selves to this process of development under the hand of man. Is it not
 
 570 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 equally plain that these processes of development have followed, for the 
 most part, natural laws ; that these grains, and fruits, and roots, and living 
 creatures have simply been aided by man in fulfilling the laws of their own 
 
 life? 
 
 in order that men may reach intellectual and spiritual perfection there 
 must be opportunity for study, for meditation, for communion with nature. 
 Tliere must be time and facilities for travel, that the products and thoughts 
 of all climes may be studied and compared ; that human experience may be 
 enlargetl and human sympathies broadened and deepened. It is no more 
 possible that humanity should attain its ideal perfection in poverty than 
 that maize should fiourish in Greenland. 
 
 If, then, the material wealth of the world consists simply in the develop- 
 nient'of powers with which nature has been stocked by the Creator, and if 
 this development is the necessary condition of the perfection of man, who is 
 made in the image of God, it is certain that in the production of wealth, in 
 the multiplication of exchangeable utilities, man is a co-worker with God. 
 
 So much has religion to say concerning the production of wealth. I am 
 sure that the verdict of the religious consciousness on this part of the 
 question must be clear and unfaltering. 
 
 But there is another important inquiry. That wealth should exist is 
 plainly in accordance with the will of God— but in whose hands? Religion 
 justifies the production of wealth; what has religion to say about its dis- 
 tribution? The religious man must seek to be a co-worker with God, 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 God's plan. 
 The existing distribution is far from being ideal. While tens of thousands 
 are rioting in superfluity, hundreds of thousands are suffering for the lack 
 of the necessaries of life ; some are even starving. That the suffering is 
 often due to indolence and improvidence and vice — a natural penalty which 
 ought not to be set aside — inay be freely admitted, but when that is all 
 taken acount of there is a great deal of penury left which it is hard to 
 justify in view of the opulence everywhere visible. 
 
 What is the rule by which the wealth of the world is now distributed? 
 Fundamentally, I think, it is the rule of the strongest. The rule has been 
 greatly modified in the progi'ess of civilization; a great 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 essentially as Rob Roy describes it: To everyone 
 according to his power is the underlying principle of the present system of 
 distribution. It is evident that under such a system, in spite of legal 
 restraints, the strong will trample upon the weak. We can not believe that 
 such a system can be in accordance with the will of a Father to whom the 
 poor and needy are the especial objects of care. 
 
 A striking illustration of the fact that this is the fundamental principle 
 of the existing industrial order is seen in the recent occupation of the 
 Cherokee lands. Our government had a little property to distribute. And 
 on what principle was the distribution made? Was the land divided among 
 the neediest, or the worthiest, or the most learned, or the most patriotic ? 
 No; it was offered to the strongest. Only those of the toughest muscle and 
 greatest powers of endurance had any chance in the melee. The govern- 
 ment stood by to prevent the competitors, so far as possible, from killing or 
 maiming one another in the scramble; it tried to enforce the rules of the 
 game; but the game was essentially a contest of strength. 
 
 What other rule of distribution can religion suggest.' Let us quote a 
 few comprehensive words from Dr. Newman Smyth: "Three socialistic
 
 RELIGION AND WEALTH. 571 
 
 principles have been proposed; to everyone alike; to e eryono accordlnfj to 
 his needs; to everyone accordinf? to his work. But would either be a suf- 
 hcient ethical distribution? What, under perfect economic conditions, 
 would be an ideal distribution of goods? The first principle of distribu- 
 tion, to all alike, would itself occasion an unequal distribution, because all 
 have not equal needs, or the same capacity lor reception or ability to use 
 what is received; heaven can do no communisn'.; every cup will be tilled, and 
 but there may be dilferences in the sizes of the cups. The second principle 
 may be charitable but it is not just, as needs are no standard either of 
 service rendered or true desert. The tliird may bo just, but it is not merci- 
 ful. In a perfect distribution of good, justice, mercy, and regard for pos- 
 sible use may be combined." 
 
 These words bring clearly before us the problem of distribution. I 
 think that we can see that none of these methods, taken by itself, would 
 furnish a rule in perfect harmony with divine justice and benignity. The 
 communistic rule is clearly unjust and impracticable. To give to all an 
 equal portion would be wasteful in the extreme, for some could by no pos- 
 sibility use their portion; much of it would be squandered and lost. Some 
 could use productively and beneficently ten times or even a thousand times 
 more than others. The divine wisdom must follow somewhat closely the 
 rule of the man in the parable who distributed his g(jods among his serv- 
 ants, giving " to every man according to his several ability." But ability 
 here is not ability to take, but ability to use beneficently and productively, 
 which is a very different matter. 
 
 The ability of men productively and beneficently to use wealth is by no 
 means equal; often those who have most power in getting it show little 
 wisdom in using it. One man could handle with benefit to himself and fel- 
 lows ^100,000 a year; another could not handle $1,000 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 woidd be altogether 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 per- 
 verted. It is impossible for us to ascertain 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 function 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 dis- 
 tributed 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 niuch as he 
 can wisely use to make himself a better man, and the comuuuiity 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, ami it 
 would be folly greatly to change the laws until radical changes have taken 
 place in human nature.
 
 572 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 WHAT THE BIBLE HAS WROUGHT. 
 
 KEY. JOSEPH COOK OF BOSTON, 
 
 The 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. The 
 worth of the Bible results, in the next place, from its containing, as a 
 whole, the highest religious and ethical ideals known to man. There is the 
 Bible, taken as a whole and without a forced interpretation, a coherent 
 system of ethics and theology, and an implied philosophy dazzling any other 
 system known to any age of the world. In asserting the religious infalli- 
 bility of the scriptures I assume only two things: 1. The literal infallibility 
 of the strictly self-evident truths of scripture. 2. The veracity of Christ. 
 
 It is a fact, and a verifiable, organizing, redemptive fact, that the script- 
 ures teach monotheism, not polytheism, iiot pantheism, not atheism, not 
 agnosticism. This pillar was set up early. It has been maintained in its 
 commanding position at the cost of innumerable struggles with false relig- 
 ions and false philosophies. It has resisted all attack and dominates the 
 enlightened part of the world to-day. Man's creation in the image of God 
 is the next columnar truth. This means God's fatherhood and man's son- 
 ship. It means God's sovereignty and man's debt of loyalty. It means the 
 unity of the race. Men can have communion with each other only 
 through their common union with God. It means susceptibility to relig- 
 ious inspiration. It means free will with its responsibilities. 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, however, and dominates the enlightenei'' 
 portions of humanity at this 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 Assyriologists 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. 
 
 Hope 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 tell from the divine order and is then represented asunder pro- 
 bation with grace. "The seed of 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 — wholly erect after 
 ages of earthquakes. This marvelous pillar is the central portion or the 
 earliest scriptures. All the laws in the books in which the Decnlogue is 
 found, cluster around it. Even if it were known where and how and wher
 
 WHAT THE BIBLE HAS WROUGHT. r,73 
 
 the Decalogue originated, the prodigious fact yet remains that it works well. 
 Who knows where the multipUcation table originated? It works well. Wlio 
 can tell who invented the system of Arabic notation, giving a ditfereut 
 value to a tigure according to its position? The books do not inform us. 
 This system is based on a very retined knowledge of numbers, and is ])roba- 
 bly a spark from the old Sanskrit anvil; but the Hindu writers ascribe 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 cathedral of the scriptures, 
 or rather a whole transept of pillars. Three thousand years they have been 
 the highest manual of devotion known among men. Nothing like them, as 
 a collection, can be found in all antiquity. Greece has spoken, Ronu^ has 
 had the ear of ages, modern time has uttered all its voices, but the Psalms 
 remain wholly unsurpassed. They express, as nothing outside the Holy 
 Scriptures does, not only the unity, the righteousness, the power, and 
 the majesty of God, but also His mercy, His condescension. His pity, His 
 tenderness. His love. They are the blossoming 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 religious history, 
 and it has been. The Jews were to be scattered among all nations and yet 
 preserved as a separate people, and they have been. 
 
 The Sermon on the Mount is the next pillar, and it stands where nave 
 and transept of the Biblical cathedral open into the choir. " The Sermon 
 on the Mount," Daniel Webster wrote on his tombstone, " can not be 
 merely human production. This belief enters into the depth of my con- 
 science. The whole history of man proves it." There stands the clustered 
 column, there it has stood for ages, and there it will stand forever. 
 
 The Lord's Prayer is the next column. It has its foundation in thepro- 
 foundest wants of man; its capital in the boundless canopy of the father- 
 hood of God. Neither the foundation nor the capital will crumble, nor 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 the 
 scriptures. The gospels, and especially the fourth gospel, are the inmost 
 sanctuary of the whole divine temple. " I know men," said Napoleon, 
 "and I tell you that Jesus Christ was not a mere man." Mrs. 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 Bushnell, " 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, instituted 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
 
 I 
 
 574 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 eastern window that looks on better ages to come, and is perpetuanj. 
 tiooded with a divine illumination. Goethe represented the Philistme as 
 failini' to admire cathedral windows because he sees them from the outside, 
 whihrthey are all glorious if seen from within the temple. All this is true 
 of the majestic windows in the biblical cathedral, including the most 
 sacred spiritual history of the church, age after age. 
 
 The foundation stones beneath all the pillars and beneath the altar in 
 the Cathedral of Revelation are the strictly self-evident truths of the 
 eternal reason or the divine Logos, who is the essential Christ. God is one, 
 and so the system 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. And all the strength of the foundation stones belongs to the pillar 
 and pinnacle of the cathedral of the holy word. And the form of the 
 whole cathedral is that of the cross. The unity of the scriptural archi- 
 tecture, built age after age, is one of the supreme miracles of history. It 
 is a self-revelation of the hand that lifted the biblical pillars one by one 
 according to a plan known unto God from the beginning. And the cath- 
 edral itself is full of a cloud 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, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." "Oh, how love I thy 
 law; sweeter is 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 trimmed from the start. But take the 
 scriptures as a whole and from them you can gather an inspiration 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 Bible, and press 
 those clusters of grapes and there is an odious stench of polygamy and 
 slavery in the resulting juices. I will say nothing of the other sacred 
 books. There are adulterated elements in all of them however good some 
 of the elements may be. Now it is nothing to me if Professor Brooks can 
 show that some fly has lighted here or there on one or two of those golden 
 clusters of grapes and speckled it. Now, don't misunderstand me, for I 
 think that parts of the Bible were absolutely dictated by the Holy Ghost. 
 I believe the Lord's Prayer is exactly as God gave it. Was Christ inspired ? 
 If anybody ever was he was. 
 
 RELIGION IN HAWAIIAN LANDS. 
 
 EEV. EDV/AED P. BAKER OF HAWAII. 
 
 Little Hawaii is the smallest of nations. Its population is 90,000, 
 scarcely the equal of a fourth-rate American city. But this small nation 
 has at the same time more religion in it than any I know of, considering its 
 size. In one Hawaiian town alone are a Catholic church, four Protestant 
 churches, speaking as many languages— Hawaiian, English, Japanese, 
 Portuguese, and Chinese— a Chinese temple, Confucian, and a Japanese 
 temple. Buddhistic. There was in that place some months ago a sort of 
 survival of the Tower of Babel and the day of Pentecost combined, in the 
 shape of a polyglot religious meeting, in which there was prayer and dis- 
 c(jurse in five languages— Hawaiian, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, and 
 Lnghsh— and the different nations of which that meeting was composed 
 heard every man speak in his own tongue. So that I feel at home in this 
 parliament, for votary of Christianity as I am. I have repeatedly held par- 
 laments, conferences, or inquiry meetings with the priests of Buddhism to 
 earn from them their method cf solving the problem of existence, and have 
 listened to their preaching in their own temples, as they inculcated our
 
 RELIGION IN HAWAIIAN LANDS. 
 
 575 
 
 ordinary 19th-ceiitury morality. Nor should I omit to say that l^iiddhitni 
 is (as I am able to state of my own personal knowledge) a'mi.ssionary relig- 
 ion, the Buddhistic temple located in the ])lace of my rcsitleufo having 
 been erected in part by funds sent thither from Japan by the Lincheu sect 
 of that religious faith. 
 
 Hawaiians here recently asked to be taken under the wing of the Amer- 
 ican eagle, but the United States (so I have just seen in the papers) does 
 not want Hawaii. Very well. If Uncle Sam doesn't want her, John IJuU 
 does. And Hawaii will then be something, when at lengtli shall bo estab- 
 lished that tinest of all routes for the circumnavigation of the globe, the 
 chief points of which are Liverpool, Halifax, the Canadian Pacific, Van- 
 couver, the Hawaiian islands, Australia, India, the Suez canal, and (jibral- 
 tar. The Atlantic Ocean is the present Mediterranean of the world ; but 
 the future Mediterranean of the world will be the Pacific Ocean. The pos- 
 sessor of the Hawaiian islands will hereafter ilominate the Pacific Ocean. 
 Has Uncle Sam made up his mind that the Nortli Pacific is to be a closed 
 British sea ? But Mr. Phelps' seal fishery argument at Paris doesn't look 
 in this way. Uncle Sam should not be too afraitl of wetting his feet. Abra- 
 ham Lincoln used to speak of Uncle Sam's web feet. 
 
 A small request, truly, Hawaii makes of Columbia for just barely help- 
 ing us to secure civilized government. Hawaii is too small to take care of 
 herself. I submit, ladies and gentlemen, that 90,000 is not poi)ulation 
 enough to constitute a sovereign, independent nation, levying war and con- 
 cluding peace. It is all very well to say that Hawaii must be autonomous 
 and free ; bvitso saying is as if the good Samaritan had said to the wounded 
 man at the roadside : "I will not help you myself, nor let anybody else. I 
 am going to stand guard over you to see that you are kejjt in a condition in 
 which you are perfectly free to do as you please." 
 
 That land where the hurricanes even are as gentle zephyrs; that land of 
 fire, and which contains the two greatest volcanoes on the face of the earth 
 (we Hawaiians are the true fire worshipers); that land which God has not 
 yet finished creating (and new land was actually formed as late as 1887); 
 that land of the bread fruit, magnolia, and palm; this land, I say, though 
 small, sends its greeting to the whole world in parliament assembled and 
 expresses the hope that with all of the civilized world Dr. John Henry Bar- 
 rows will organize a second great Parliament of Religions to meet in the city 
 of Paris in the year 1900, in the 20th.-century world's exposition. 
 
 CRIME AND THE REMEDY, 
 
 EEY. olympia beown. 
 
 It is a significant and encouraging sign that in this great Parliament of 
 Religions so much time is given to practical questions, such as are sug- 
 gested by intemperance, crime, the subordination of woman, and other sub- 
 jects of a similar character. The practical applications of religion are to-day 
 of more importance than philosophical speculation. All the religions of the 
 world are here, not to wrangle over the theological differences, or forms, or 
 modes of worship, but to join hands in one grand heroic effort for the uplift- 
 ing of humanity. 
 
 We live in an humanitarian age when religionists 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 chil- 
 dren. Not how they may appease the wrath of an offended deity and 
 purchase their own personal salvation hereafter, but how they can bless 
 their fellowmen, here and now. "If ye love not your brother whom ye 
 have seen, how can ye love God whom ye have not seen? "
 
 57G THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 ?L'he cause and cure of crime is one of the most important questions that 
 can ongafje the attention of theologian, philanthropist, or statesman. In 
 the comi)lox society of modern times, crimes are multiplied, 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 represent- 
 ing all nations, customs, and languages, society is necessarily heterogeneous, 
 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 seltishness prompt 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 these evils, lessen crime, and out of these 
 varied elements to present at last the perfected, well-rounded human char- 
 acter which shall combine all the best qualities of the various nations and 
 people congregated here, while at the same time eliminating the vices and 
 weakness of each one. 
 
 The causes usually given for crime are many, such as poverty, evil asso- 
 '^iations, intemperance, etc. But these are rather the occasions than the 
 causes of criminal conduct. The true philosopher looks behind all these 
 and linds in inherited tendencies one of the most fruitful causes of crime. 
 •' The fathers and the mothers, too, have eaten sour grapes and the chil- 
 dren's teeth are on edge." 
 
 It is not the intoxicating cup but the weak will which causes drunken- 
 ness, 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 careful 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 wrongdoer and our means of tracing such connections 
 are so limited that we really know bvit a small part of the whole truth. 
 
 A few years ago public attention was called to a widely circulated 
 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 crim- 
 inality. 
 
 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 poor- 
 houses and jails of that region for generations. 
 
 In a recent report of one of our great reformatories, the superintendent 
 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, and each one is inter- 
 ested to have everybody else do right, especially his 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 convicted of 
 murder committed in the most cruel and bruta'T 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 v/ise 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, but that his reputed
 
 CRIME AND THE REMEDY. 577 
 
 parents had adopted him as an infant in a distant part of the country, and 
 had reared and educated him as their own child. Little was learned con- 
 cerning 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 again in the son. 
 
 This is but one instance, but it is the type of many that are familiar to 
 students of this subject, all showing that the criminal is often the victim of 
 the mistakes, the evil passions, the crimes of those who went before. As the 
 drinking habit results, in after generations, in epilepsy, insanity, and various 
 forms of nervous disease, 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 perpetuates itself thus from generation to 
 generation, gathering ever new strength and force witii time. How stop 
 this supply of criminals? 
 
 There is but one answer, men must be better born, and that means that 
 they must have better mothers. We are learning that not only the sins of 
 the fathers, but the mistakes and unfortunate conditions of the mothers 
 bear terrible fruitage, even to the third and fourth generation. God has 
 intrusted the mother w'th the awful responsibility of giving the fijrst 
 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 giving 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 a new life sending forth upon earth an 
 avenger, to lift his hand against every man, to blast tlie joys of life, and to 
 weigh like an incubus upon society. Woman becomes thus an architect of 
 human life with all its possibilities 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 nome and in the marriage relation. 
 
 Old and New Testament scriptures alike announce the divine fiat that 
 man is to leave all things, his father and his mother, if need be, and cleave 
 unto his wife. His personal preferences, his ambitions, his business of the 
 world, his early affections, all must 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 moulding 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 fore- 
 heads the stamp of the diviuie. 
 
 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 life-time for board and clothes, it is 
 evident that we are not fulfilling the scriptural law. No wonder the world 
 is cursed with cowards, idiots and criminals when the mothers of the race 
 are in bondage. Only in an atmosphere of freedom can woman accomplish 
 her grand destiny. Napoleon, on being asked what Prance most needed, 
 replied, good mothers. What Prance, America, and all lands need is a free 
 motherhood. Helen Gardner well says: "Moral idiots, like Jesse Pom- 
 eroy and Reginald Burchall, in life, Pecksniffs, Betty Sharps, and Fred 
 Harmons, in fiction, will continue to cumber the earth as long as conditions 
 continue to breed 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 
 that bear them, and as woman is elevated, her mental vision enlarged and 
 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
 
 578 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of character antl position depends the future of humanity. We shall have 
 taken the first and all-important step in doing away with crime and lessen- 
 in" the number of criminals when we have emancipated motherhood. The 
 euTancipation of women means society redeemed and numanity saved. 
 With the elevation of women education will become more effective. Not 
 onlv will children be better born, but there will be higher ideals, new 
 incc'utives, 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 brothorht)od of man. We believe in a God who has made all 
 things good and beautiful in their time, and whose supreme and beneficent 
 law wilt work out the final victory of the good. We believe that even the 
 poorest, most ill -horn, most misdirected human being possesses capabilities 
 of goodness which are in their nature divine and indestructible, and which 
 mu^st 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 intluence 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 deal- 
 ing 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. 
 
 But 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 appli- 
 cation 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 legislatures are still so much imbued by 
 the material and utilitarian spirit of previous ages of selfishness, how 
 secure such laws as shall represent the ijhilanthropy and 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 early des- 
 tiny 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 thehigher objects of legislation, namely, the develop- 
 ment of a redeemed and perfected humanity. When the mothers sit in 
 council those subjects which affect the improvement of society, the protec- 
 tion of the weak, the reformation of the wicked, 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 Chris- 
 tianity that it has recognized and enthroned womanhood. 
 
 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 woman, and he sent woman forth to proclaim the risen Lord, 
 and so to-day he commands woman to go abroad publishing the gospel of a 
 world's salvation. .'\nd shall men, churches, or governments dare longer to
 
 ETHICS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 579 
 
 jTohibit women from obeying the command and fulfilling the diviun 
 decree? All reforms wait for woman's freedom. The only effectual remedy 
 for crime is the enlightenment, independence, and freedom of motherhood. 
 
 ETHICS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 The next paper was written to show that God is infinite and 
 supreme, the only mind and spirit and the only law or intelli- 
 gence of the universe. After some preliminary observations, 
 the author proceeded to define Christian Science, which, it was 
 claimed, had materially benefited mankind. Countless num- 
 bers had been restored to physical and mental health through 
 its practice, and thousands more put on the right road to spirit- 
 ual blessings. It was contended also that Christian Science 
 elucidates all cause and effect from a mental instead of a phys- 
 ical standpoint. Moreover, it was believed to reveal the scien- 
 tific relationship between God and man. In practice it was 
 the power of truth over error. Mind, according to the writer, 
 is the center and circumference of all being, and is divine and 
 not human. Continuing in this strain it was contended that if 
 drugs and medicines were the proper remedial agents, Jesus 
 would have used them and taught their proper use to His disci- 
 ples. It was mind and not matter that determined the nature 
 of disease. If material laws were designed for the government 
 of mankind, those laws would not have been disregarded by 
 the Savior. Christian Science cured by its influence on the 
 mind, which was the real seat of pain and suffering. Matter 
 not having prescience or faculty could not suffer. It was the 
 mind and the mind only which was afflicted by disease, and 
 mind alone, under the guidance of the Christ-like spirit, could 
 alone act on mind for the eradication of disease as well as the 
 spiritual improvement of the race. 
 
 This great truth was gradually dawning on the scientific 
 world. There was more and more a disinclination to rely upon 
 medicine, and an increased tendency to follow the law of health 
 suggested by the pure in mind and spirit. Corporal sense 
 might hide truth, health, harmony, and holiness, but divine
 
 584 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 science revealed truth and forever destroyed error. The tenets 
 of the followers of Christian Science embraced their taking the 
 Scriptures for a guide to eternal life. They believed in and 
 adored one Supreme God, and acknowledged Christ and the 
 Holy Ghost, and man as the divine image and likeness. They 
 acknowledge also, the forgiveness of sin and the present and 
 future punishment of sinners. 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
 
 ALICE C. FLETCHEB. 
 
 The North Amorican continent, extending from the tropics to the polar 
 seas, presents wide diversity of physical aspects,and many distinctive environ- 
 ments which have left their impress upon the arts and cults of its peo- 
 ples. Within this extended area there are t'-vo races, the Eskimo, which 
 will not come under our consideration to-day, 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 tome possess- 
 ing 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 permeated by the ideas of 
 another '>'hile preserving its own language intact, as with us, who speak an 
 Aryan tongue, but have become imbued with the religious thought 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 implements and 
 weapons have been found associated with the remains of extinct specimens 
 of animals. This evidence of antiquity is re-enforced by the recent dis- 
 covery of an eminent Mexican archaiologist, who has found the key to the 
 interpretation of the ancient Mexican calendar, thereby revealing a system 
 of time measurements based upon the recurrence of a certain relative posi- 
 tion of the sun and moon, which required for the completion of its grand 
 cycle 1,924: years. By the lowest calculation this calendar was in use 2,300 
 years B. C 
 
 Thus 4,000 years ago the Mexicans were using a highly artificial calendar, 
 one that, so far as is known to-day, could not have been borrowed from 
 any other people, since nothing like it has been discovered in any other 
 part of the world. How many years must have been spent in the observa- 
 tions which led to its construction who can say? But we know that from 
 the completion of this system the Mexican people had fixed religious rites 
 and that their elaborate worship was regulated by cycles within the great 
 cycle of their wonderful calendar. 
 
 Startling as is the fact that in this so-called new world we are able to 
 study a culture more than 4,000 years old, stranger facts may come to light 
 in the near future. The point to be emphasized is, that here in North
 
 RELIGION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 585 
 
 America exists a race of great antiquity that has conserved social and relig- 
 ious forms which, speaking broadly, antedate those of the historic periods 
 of the East. Here we can study not only the slow growth of society, but 
 the equally slow and unequal development of man's mental and spiritual 
 nature. 
 
 A comprehensive sketch of the religion of the North American Indian 
 can not be given within the limits of this paper, much less a definite pict- 
 ure. Only the indication of a few salient points is possible, and even these 
 will not be easy to make clear because of our own complex methods of 
 thought. Anythmg approaching a consensus of Indian beliefs can be 
 obtained only from a careful study of the myths of tlie people, of their cere- 
 monies, their superstitions, and their various customs, and by searching 
 through all these for the underlying prhiciple, the governing thoughts and 
 motives. Nowhere among the tribes can be found any formulated state- 
 ment or belief; in no ceremony or ritual does ther.e appear anything resem- 
 bling a creed. This paper is therefore predicated upon points of general 
 unity. The vagueness of the Indian's metaphysics must never be lost sight 
 of, and to eliminate any scheme comprehensible to us from his mass of poet- 
 ical and often seemingly inconsequential thought is an exceedingly deli- 
 cate and difficult task. One runs the risk of formulating something, which 
 although true in the premises, might be unrecognizable by the Indian 
 himself. 
 
 The aboriginal American's feeling concerning God seems to indicate a 
 power, mysterious, unknowable, unnamable, that animates all nature. 
 From this power, in some unexplained way, proceeded in the past ages cer- 
 tain generic types, prototypes of everything in the world, and these still 
 exist, but they are invisible to man in his natural state, being spirit types, 
 although he pan behold them and hear them speak in his supernatural vis- 
 ions. Through these generic types, as through so many conduits, flows the 
 life coming from the great mysterious source of all life into the concrete 
 forms which make up this world, as the sun, moon, and the wind, the water, 
 the earth, and the thunder, the birds, the animals, and the fruits of the 
 earth. 
 
 Among these prototypes there seems to have been none of man him- 
 self, but in some vaguely imagined way he has been generated by them, 
 and his physical as well as his spiritual nature is nourished and augmented 
 through them. His physical dependence upon these sources of power is 
 illustrated in his ceremonies. Thus, when the tribe was about to set out 
 upon the hunt as in the buffalo covintry, the leaders, who represented the 
 people, gathered together in a solemn ceremony. They sat crouched about 
 a central tire, each wrapped in the skin of a bulfalo, their attitude and 
 their manner of partaking the food for the occasion were in imitation of 
 this animal. They became as buffalo putting themselves in the line of 
 transmission, so to speak, appealing to the generic or typical buffalo that 
 the life flowing from this particular projection of the creative i>ower into 
 the specific buffalo might be transmitted to them that when they killed 
 and ate of the creature they might be imbued with its strength. 
 
 This is all very simple to the Indian; nothing is mysterious where all 
 is mystery. Ignorant of the processes of nature, everything is simply 
 alive to him and all life is the same lif^, continually passing over from one 
 form to another. He takes the life of the corn when he eats it and its life 
 passes into and re-enforces his own equally with the life of the animal 
 which goes out under his hand. So he hunted, fished, and planted, having 
 first appealed to the prototype for physical strength througTi a ceremony 
 which always included the partaking of food. 
 
 But the Indian recognized other needs than those of the body, his 
 spirit demanded strengthening and, to satisfy its needs, he reversed his 
 manner of appeal. Instead of gathering together with his fellows, he went
 
 586 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIOtONS. 
 
 apart aud remained in solitude upon the mountain or in the recesses of the 
 forest instead of eating in companionship, he fasted and mortified his 
 body sought to ignore it, denied its cravings, that some spirit prototype 
 might approach him and re-enforce his spirit with life drawn from the 
 great uiinamable power. Whatever was the prototype which appeared to 
 him, whether of bird or loeast, or of one of the elements, it breathed upon 
 him' and left a song with him which should become the viewless messenger 
 speeding from the heart and lips of the man, to the prototype of his vision, 
 to bring him help in the hour of his need. ^ , , 
 
 When the man had received his vision, before it could avail him, 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 semblance or emblem. This he 
 carried ever after near him as a token of remembrance, but he did not wor- 
 ship it. His aspiration does not appear to have rested upon the prototype, 
 although his imagination seems to have carried him no farther, but in some 
 vague way each man had thus his mode of individual approach to the 
 unnamable source of life. 
 
 The belief that everything was alive and active to help or hinder man 
 not only led to numberless observances in order to placate and win favor, 
 but it also prevented the development of individual responsibility. 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 sacrifice, arising from a consciousness of evil in 
 himself, for the Indian 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 intri- 
 cate belief, the numerous ramifications of which underlie every public and 
 private act of the race. 
 
 Personal immortality was universally recognized. The next w^orld resem- 
 bled 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 societies, and the elabo- 
 rate dramatization of myths, with its masks, costumes, 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.
 
 CHURCHES AND CITY PROBLEMS. 587 
 
 Hospitality was a marked virtue in the race. 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 obstacle in the way 
 of civilizing the Indians, as civilization depends so largely upon the accumu- 
 lation of property. 
 
 In every home the importance of peace was taught and the quarrelsome 
 person pointed out as one not to be trusted, since success would never 
 attend his undertakings, whom neither the visible nor invisible power 
 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 
 the sacred pipe ceremony. The symbols used jjoint 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. Marquette, 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 dif- 
 ferent 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 benign influence of the 
 pipes strangers were made brothers and enemies became friends. In the 
 beautiful symbolism and ritual of these fellowship pipes the initiated were 
 told in the presence of a little child who typified teachableness that hap- 
 piness 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 mercy and its kindred graces. 
 
 We are recognizing to-day that God's family is a large one and that 
 human sympathy is strong. Upon this platform have been gathered 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 can not his sacred symbol 
 serve its ancient office once more and bring him and us together in the 
 bonds of peace and brotherliGod? 
 
 CHURCHES AND CITY PROBLEMS. 
 
 PEOF. A. W. SMALL, PH. D., OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 
 
 This paper consists of thirty-three theses, with comments upon those 
 which are not self-evident. The first four theses refer to the standpoint 
 and standards of judgment adopted by the writer, the following twelve to 
 the peculiarities of city problems, the next seven to the present relation of 
 the churches to the people nearest to these problems, and the remaining 
 ten to suggestions toward a programme of church action. 
 
 1. The standpoint of this paper is not that of theology, but of positive 
 sociology. 
 
 It can not be too early understood that positive sociology is not a secret 
 ally of one theology against another. The coming regime of positive
 
 588 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Bociolocv will compel revision, change of emphasis, correction of perspective 
 bv every theology in the world. When all this has taken place, however, the 
 varieties of metaphysical conception, from which principles of theological 
 difference are derived, will still rema n. The regime of positive sociology 
 must surely change the ratio of influence exerted by the known and the 
 unknown, the positive and the speculative. But after every last item of 
 positive knowledge shall have been discovered and scientifically correlated, 
 the mental necessity of forming ultimate judgments will be unchanged. 
 This "eniusof the mind will still divide men into metaphysical and theo- 
 logical schools, long after they are agreed upon physical and social facts 
 
 and sociological policies. ■, xi. , • -n *. -u *. 
 
 The occupation of the metaphysician and theologian will not be termi- 
 nated by sociology, but the absolutism of metaphysics and theology can 
 never return. Sociology alone will not cause any man to abjure Papacy, 
 or Episcopacy, or Presbyterianism, or Independency. Sociology will not 
 confute Augustinianism, or Armenianism, or Socinianism. The regime of 
 sociology will not abolish ecclesiastical and philosophical diversity. It will 
 assist in the organization of that diversity into unit. The guardians of 
 church polity and doctrine have no cause of offense against sociology. 
 
 Human life does not consist in ecclesiastical order nor in theological 
 formula any more than it consists in the abundance of the things pos- 
 sessed. Sociology is actively concerned with these manifestations of life 
 only in so far as either of them is disproportionate to the whole of life. 
 That condition exists whenever formal elements of ecclesiastical order or 
 doctrine conventionally bind the word of God. The demand of sociology 
 upon theology is not that it shall justify itself against the attacks of 
 counter-theology, but that it shall somehow guarantee a permanent policy 
 of endeavor to reproduce Christlikeness in every relation of human life. 
 
 2. The positive evidence thus far available is sufficient to justify sociolo- 
 gists; whether in sympathy with any theology or not, in adopting the 
 working hypothesis that the principles of ultimate social science will be 
 reiterations of essential Christianity. 
 
 Positive sociology is, therefore, in natural and necessary accord with the 
 churches, in proportion as the latter are intelligently devoted to the essen- 
 tials rather tha-n the accidents of religion. 
 
 3. Christianity and the churches are as distinct as gravitation and water 
 wheels, or steam and cylinders. The present discussion deals not with the 
 force, but with the machinery. 
 
 This paper assumes that every movement of genuine human welfare, 
 however gained, is a realization of the eternal purpose which Christianity 
 declares. We assume, also, that the predestination of mankind to increas- 
 ing excellence and welfare will be demonstrated and progressively fulfilled 
 through the agency of spiritual forces which no organization nor class nor 
 condition of men can monopolize or control. Our problem is, therefore, 
 not, " Will progress in genuine humanity be made among .the inhabitants 
 of cities ? " but, " Will the churches be able to lead the progress ? "_ 
 
 No one can grasp the conditions of the problem until he can realize that 
 the churches are legitimate objects of criticism as much as families o/ 
 schools or states. Churches are venerable just in proportion as they are 
 useful. Churches are divine institutions in just so far as they fulfill a 
 divine mission. There is no more necessity for assuming that churches, as 
 now constituted and motived, are the last resort for the establishment of 
 the Kingdom of God than there was for the like assumption in favor of the 
 Hebrew theocracy. 
 
 Theology will always and Christ will never be debatable. This indis- 
 putable element is the life of the church and the hope of the world. The 
 problem of the churches in the cities is fundamentally the same as the 
 problem of Christianity everywhere ; the problem named, not of reducing
 
 CHURCHES AND CITY PROBLEMS. 589 
 
 all phases of life to forms of church life, but of transforming all secular 
 life into phases of Chi-istiau life. The Christ, greater than the creeds, and 
 greater than the churches, is the gift with which any church that retains 
 the New Testament may bless society. 
 
 What then distinguishes the religious problems of cities? We answer: 
 
 5. Life in modern cities presents human wants in their most importu- 
 nate and complex forms. In cities motives to concrete good and evil are 
 intensified to their maximum. 
 
 6. In city life the highest premiums are placed on seltishment of every 
 sort, from the grossest to the most refined. 
 
 7. In cities the relative importance of economic advantage is put at the 
 highest appraisal. 
 
 8. The relations which occasion the greatest number of social contacts 
 in cities are those which involve collision of economic interests. 
 
 9. In cities the importance of personality tends toward the minimum. 
 In the great throng individuals are rated less and less as persons and 
 
 more and more as larger or smaller factors in the calculation of selfish gain. 
 Those individuals who have no special prominent representative character 
 or function tend to lose the prestige of their dignity as persons. They 
 count as so many impersonal atoms of a mass, or as so many forms in the 
 various political and economic grounds which each plays in his own 
 interest. 
 
 The greatest majority of the inhabitants of cities come in contact with 
 their fellows most frequently in transactions in which each party is strongly 
 tempted to seek a maximum of selfish advantage, while each is under min- 
 imum restrained from those fraternal sympathies which contest the domin- 
 ion of economic motive. 
 
 We encounter each other as landlord eager for the highest rate of rent, 
 and as tenant equally eager to get the best housing for the least money. 
 We collide as employers bent on getting the most labor for the smallest pay, 
 and as employes sharp on the scent of the lightest work for the highest 
 wages. We face each other from the opposite sides of the counter, the one 
 party to dispose of goods at a profit, the other to buy, if possible, without 
 allowing a profit. We know the majority of immediate associates only in 
 their economic relations. We do not know landlord or tenant, employer 
 or workman, dealer or customer, as a man. We get accustomed to hasty 
 dealings with each other on the economic basis only, and the constant tend- 
 ency is to think of each other as impersonally as we think of the goods at 
 the bankrupt sale. 
 
 We do not associate the majority of the people who directly concern us 
 economically with domestic relations and sentiments; with trials and mis- 
 fortunes and sorrows; with social hopes and ambitions; with intellectual or 
 spiritual aspirations. What they have in common with us is hidden. The 
 elements of our opposition are plain. 
 
 In a civilization of small communities, in each of which the life of every 
 family is more or less familiar to every other, the conditions of social prob 
 lems are in wide contrast with all this. The industrial revolution of this 
 century, consequent upon the introduction of machinery, and further, the 
 congestion of one-third of our American population in the cities, has unso- 
 cialized the life of the great majority of urban populations. Acquaintance- 
 ship with the members of the community has given place to unsympathetic 
 economic intercourse, in which the greater number of conscious relations 
 of man to man are contacts of contest, not of co-operation. 
 
 Let me not be understood to assert that the decisive factors of city life 
 are disjunctive, rather than conjunctive. The contrary is the fact; all 
 anarchy would have ruined every great city long ago. I am speaking of 
 certain negative effects of city life upon the social instincts of the people, 
 not as precluding a rejoinder on behalf of the cities, but as constituting a 
 distinctive municipal condition.
 
 590 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 10. Essential values thus tend most strongly to reversal in cities. Instead 
 of appraising goods by their service to manhood, men in cities are under the 
 severest temptation to value manhood according to its productivity of goods. 
 Men are measured by the same standards as draught horses and steam 
 
 engines. ... . , , 
 
 11. The social isolation of the majority in great cities increases with the 
 growth of population. 
 
 Men do not know by sight or manner the people whose business is under 
 the same roof. Men living in the same block are as complete strangers to 
 each other as though their homes were on opposite continents. In a walk 
 of tive minutes, nine-tenths of the people of a great city can enter districts 
 where they are practically as utter strangers as though they had traveled a 
 thousand miles. 
 
 12. Under these circumstances personal responsibility develops. 
 
 The esteem of friends is among the mos', efficient builders and preservers 
 of character. Conduct is the consequence as well as the cause of reputa- 
 tion. Our acts are often restrained from descent to the level of our charac- 
 ter by the force of our friends' expectations. When, on the other hand, 
 men feel themselves lost in a great human mass, in which the individual is 
 held accountable only for satisfaction of the average mass standard, the 
 tendency is to interpret that standard in the most unsocial terms, and to 
 apply it with the highest license. 
 
 13. The foreign conditions contain the principles of difference bet^v^een 
 the relations of men in cities and in smaller communities. To these condi- 
 tions we may trace most of the evils or degrees of evil peculiar to cities. 
 
 Full account of these conditions must be taken in dealing with our 
 problem. They afford the largest scope in modern society for fierce and 
 heartless selfishness. They incessantly threaten to break down the safe- 
 guards of civilization against reversion to physical struggle for the survival 
 of the fittest. The mirror held up to city life reflects contrasts and para- 
 doxes which socialists describe as an orgy or egoism — the egoism of class 
 against class, the egoism of property against egoism of poverty, the egoism 
 of opportunity against the egoism of necessity. 
 
 14. Chief among the symptoms of these conditions, by no means wholly 
 due to the circumstances of cities, and by no means contiBed to cities, but 
 aggravated and accumulated in urban populations, are: 
 
 1. Poverty and crime. 
 
 2. Insecurity of labor. 
 
 3. Minimizing of wages. 
 
 4. Inliuman surroundings of labor in certain Industries. 
 
 5. Unsanitary housing. 
 
 6. Under-nutiition; not alone from low wages, but from ignorance or neglect 
 of domestic economy. 
 
 7. The drink curse. 
 
 8. The saloon curse (from evils, but distinct in many causes and conse- 
 quences, thus constituting two separate social problems). 
 
 9. The luck superstition; betrayed in speculation, betting, gambling, lot- 
 teries, preposterous endowment, and insurance gift enterprises and the thou- 
 sand and one simihir somethiuK for nothing schemes. 
 
 10. Showy and extravagant business customs, especially of agents spending 
 employers' money; consequent extravagance and ostentation in personal liabits 
 and temp'^tion to peopie of lower income. 
 
 11. Suustitution of boarding-house, apartment-house, or hotel for the homo. 
 
 12. Bread-winning by mothers. 
 
 13. Child labor. 
 
 14. Scaling of wages by sex instead of by work. 
 
 15. Degradation of women; by which I refer to the whole hive of curses, 
 physical, economic, domestic, political, and moral, that swarm about the institu- 
 tion of prostitution, a group of phenomena a hundred-fold more significant than 
 public opinion has ever suspected. 
 
 It). Propagation of "defectives." 
 
 17. Political betrayals of the ignorant and weak. 
 
 18 Progressive widening of social distances between class along with recip- 
 rocal misunderstanding and distrust. 
 
 19. Organization and distinctive warfare of mutually dependent industrial 
 classes.
 
 CHURCHES AND CITY PROBLEMS. 591 
 
 20. Abnormal materializing of the life of all classes; viewed from another 
 standpoint, 
 
 21. Alienation of the intelligent and responsible, as well as the less prominent 
 from practical spiritualizing agencies. 
 
 22. Go\ ernmental control by ballots instead of by brains, 
 
 15. The life of the great majority of residents in cities is practically 
 bounded by some or all of these facts. Within these limitations the 
 masses live and move and have their being. To the masses, therefore, 
 doctrines of humanity and duties and religion that do not deal directly 
 with these realities are simply mythologies and riddles. 
 
 1(3. The conditions thus specified are already schools of broader 
 brotherhood than has been possible in any previous century. They consti- 
 tute unique opportunity for the churches. Our question is: How must 
 the churches improve the opportunity? 
 
 We turn then to the present relations of the churches to conditions in 
 question. 
 
 11. The churches, as such, do not think the thoughts nor taPK the lan- 
 guage, nor share the burdens which for the masses in cities contain the 
 real problems in life. 
 
 In the cant phrase of the day, God and immortality, as represented by 
 the churches, cut almost no figure at all among the practical calculations 
 of the majority. The typical man to-day is a practical positivist. 
 
 Whether he believes in God or not he believes in principles of fairness 
 that ought to rule among men, especially among his competitors. 
 Whether he believes in heaven or hot, he believes that this world can be 
 made to contain vastly more happmess than has ever been realized, and he 
 has little use for a religion that shows less interest than he feels in means 
 of securing present welfare. Never has it been so necessary as to-day for 
 religion to commend itself by direct championship of a just and generous 
 brotherhood, which immediately diminishes the aggravations of unhappi- 
 ness and increases the aggregate of comfort. Never have the masses been 
 so suspicious and contemptuous of every religion which fails to justify 
 itself by manifest usefulness of this description. 
 
 18. City churches are only partially conscious of the tendencies which 
 threaten to reduce them to the status of class institutions. The proposi- 
 tion does not refer directly to those tendencies toward social distinctions 
 which have embarrassed the work of city evangelization. The reference is 
 to those tendencies toward separation which arise from the contrast between 
 ecclesiastical and positive ideals of religion. 
 
 Let an ordinary man who has not enjoyed special religious training, but 
 who has been busy all his life in the struggle for existence in a great city, 
 wander next Sunday into the nearest church. He will find not only a pas- 
 tor, but a congregation decently attentive to the contemplation of life as 
 they see it when composed for religious observance. But life as they see it 
 under those circumstances has few points of contact with life as the stranger 
 sees it. The conceptions which ' control the whole service are as remote 
 from the life which the visitor encounters as biological hypothesis of hered- 
 ity would be to the average stock-breeder or as doctrines of ultimate atoms 
 would be to the boiler-maker or plumber. The ideas throughout the serv- 
 ice are related to the thought world of the stranger somewhat as the 
 allegories of Spenser's " Fairy Queen " to the commonplaces of Will Carle- 
 ton's Ballads. 
 
 Probably neither the stranger, nor the church which casually welcomes 
 him, satisfactorily explains why the service fails to inspire and attract. Let 
 us not callous ourselves any longer in self-exculpating attempts which 
 defame humanity by discussing such cases as simply exhibitions of the 
 "enmity of the natural heart to God." Men's sins have no more community 
 with God than the demons had with Christ; but man's nature always does 
 and always will yearn after Gpd, as the heart of the child tvv itp mother.
 
 592 t::1'J parliament of religions. 
 
 There is as stubborn enmity to God in the refusal of the church to conform 
 its methods to the world's needs as there is in the refusal of the world to 
 conform its needs to churchly methods. 
 
 Other elements enter into the case, of course, but it must be admitted 
 that ill-balanced loyality to the transcendental fraction of their mission 
 has weakened the iuHuence of the churches upon men as men, and might 
 still further degrade the churches into mere clubs of peculiar people, with 
 peculiar opinions. t-,- ^ 
 
 The plan of campaign common among the churches: V irst, remould men's 
 conceptions in accordance with our own philosophical and theological 
 generalizations; second, with these new intellectual conceptions as prem- 
 ises and fulcra, apply religious forces for regeneration and reformation. 
 The fallacy antl miscalculation in this policy, so far as it is directed toward 
 men who were not to the manner born, is precisely that implied in the plans 
 to catch sparrows after putting salt on their tails. The type of person 
 developed by our busy, nervous, utilitarian city life will not subject himself 
 to a tedious discipline for the sake of giving people against whom he is 
 strongly prejudiced a chance to prove that he is wrong and they are right. 
 
 These city people have no patience and they see no inducement to work 
 over their experiences and emotions and opinions from contact with tlie 
 world in the symbolical phrase and systematic formula. To gain the ear 
 of men as men, rather than as hereditary Catholics, or Lutherans, or Cal- 
 viuists, the churches must reverse the requirement. The churches must 
 learn to translate their message and their ideal into literal language and the 
 prosaic endeavor of ordinary life. The churches must learn to apply their 
 systems to the visible improvement of concrete conditions. If men are 
 indifferent to the kingdom of heaven they are capable of interest in the 
 monarchy of Satan in their own city hall, and in that condition they will 
 hardly care to dispute the existence of a personal devil. If men will not 
 believe in hell let the chvirches show them the sweatshops. 
 
 If the churches make slow progress in saving genteel and moral sinners 
 from damnation in the next world, let them diminish the damnation of this 
 world by rescuing and purifying the victims of gambling hell and saloon 
 and brothel. If divine retribution seems to men only a phrase, let the 
 churches inspire human retribution against the responsible authors of the 
 miseries which our cities conceal. If the churches can not rally men for a 
 revival of religion, let them band together to cleanse the whole Augean 
 stable of modern selfishness in vice and injustice and inhumanity. This 
 manifestation of the human element of religion will presently introduce 
 the complementary Godward factor of religion. In his last book Dr. Strong 
 has wisely said: 
 
 Christ fed the multitude and healed their diseases because He loved men. 
 and that, in most cases, was the natural and most conviucing way to show His 
 love. Men must be reached on the plane onwiiieh they live. The lives of the 
 laultitude are chiefly physical. Though spiritual needs are the deepest they rise 
 into conscious wants only occasionally, while physical needs maKe themselves 
 felt daily and hourly. Huncer, and ookl, and pain are far more real to the many 
 than the sense of sin or high spiritual aspiration. If, then, Christ was to con- 
 vince men of His love, He must do it by meeting needs which they actually felt. 
 
 And Christ's examnle is a good one for His church to follow. If she is to 
 reach the masses she must do it on the plane where the masses live. If she 
 would convince them of her love (of wliich they surely need to be convinced), 
 she must do it in ways th.it appeal to them. She must deal with things which 
 they regard as real. And having laid hold of men on their physical plane she 
 can then lead them up to the spiritual. -TAe JSIem Era, p. 225. 
 
 19. The churches have no explicit policy toward city problems; they 
 lack intelligent interest in them; they are even suspicious of every 
 endeavor to commit the churches to co-operation in solutions. 
 
 Recent papal deliverances upon the attitude of the Roman Church 
 toward labor problems are probably the nearest approach to a settlement 
 of denominational policy with reference to any of the problems under
 
 CHURCHES AND CITY PROBLEMS. 51)3 
 
 discussion. The doctrines which are the working equipment for the major- 
 ity of our churches were formulated centuries before present conditions 
 existed. The churches that have not brought thi>ir etiuipuient down lo 
 date, and still venture to deal with modern social problems, an; Tony Well - 
 ers, trying to till the office of train dispatcher. Most of the churches are 
 non-committal upon these subjects, or else so general in their declarations 
 that their influence has no visible effect. 
 
 We offer a single illustration of the difference of churches to solutions 
 of these problems. In January of the present year, a certain instructor in 
 social science mailed to the pastors or clerks of 487 different churches a 
 printed blank asking for certain specific information, as a c<;ntribution 
 to knowledge of the social conditions in the populations to which these 
 churches ministered. With each blank was a stamped and adilressed 
 envelope. Of the 487 churches questioned, 108 replied. Discounting blanks 
 returned to sender because addresses were not found, less than 25 per cent 
 of the churches addressed had interest enough in the solution of their own 
 social problems to furnish the particulars requested. This was not in a 
 fi-ontier State, nor in a city whose churches are supposed to have withdrawn 
 from contact with actual life. It was in the city which contains more 
 perplexing social relations than any other in America: the most ]jractical 
 and public-spirited city in the world, in which we are holding our con- 
 vention! 
 
 It may be worth mention that the only group of churches in the whole 
 number, every one of which furnished the desired information, was the 
 group classified in the directory as undenominational. 
 
 With reference to the proposition that the churches are suspicious of 
 attempts to commit religion to the solution of concrete social problems, it 
 will be sufficient to say that in the large, and not least influential division 
 of Christians known as evangelical, it is doubtful if a pulpit discourse xs 
 ever delivered upon any of the practical problems in question, without an 
 apology somewhere in the address to prove that consideration of such sub- 
 jects is actually religiovis. 
 
 20. The churches owe it to themselves to settle the primary question 
 of religious aim, viz.. Has or has not the church, besides its mission con- 
 cerning man in his relations to God and eternity, a co-ordinate mission 
 concerning man in his relations to his fellows and the present time? 
 
 By " co-ordinate " I mean no more and no less than Jesus meant when 
 he said the command to love thy neighbor as thyself is ''like" the com- 
 mand to love God, and that no other commandment is greater than these. 
 (Mark xii., 28-31; John xiii., 34.) 
 
 The most serious charge now hanging over the Christian church is thst 
 it has abolished the parity of these commands. Belief that the charge is 
 just accounts for this respect and distrust of the church in large sections 
 of society. It does not fall within the scope of this paper to discuss the 
 co-ordinate importance of love to God and love to man in the structure of 
 Christianity. It is sufficient to point out that, until the present temper of 
 men is revolutionized, a predominantly transcendental religion, chietty con- 
 cerned with the infinite and the eternal, and only accidentally and sub- 
 ordinately interested in the finite and the temporal, may as well abandon 
 hope of commanding social influence. The churches that practically 
 repudiate the co-ordinate and paramount authority of the Sinaitic com- 
 mand to love God, and the" new " Christian command to love each other 
 (John xiii., 34), place themselves in opposition both to the Pounder of Chris- 
 tianity and to every respectable ethical standard. 
 
 All the ecclesiastical dignity in the world can not impose upon this gen- 
 erational religion that belittles the present interest of average men. In 
 other words, the question whether the churches of our time shall lead in 
 the solution of the problems of cities must wait for the decision of the
 
 594 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 churches whether they will recognize both hemispheres of their Christian 
 mission. In the language of the writer just now quoted: 
 
 If the church is willing to teach by her example that Christianity is divorced 
 from iihlhiathropy, and reform, and social science, and the progress of civliza- 
 tion, or that these are broader than Christianity, she must be content with a little 
 place, and never dream of conquering the world for Christ. But if she aims at 
 universal conquest, she must show a universal interest in human atiairs.— 6irojiff, 
 the New Era, p. 240. 
 
 21. As already claimed, the ultimate solution of these problems will be 
 Christian, but it remains to be seen how generally the Christian churches 
 will be agents of the solution. 
 
 22. The churches have two alternatives, viz., first, they may confine 
 themselves to the functions of spiritual editication, of indoctrinating the 
 children of their members, of defending their denominational orthodoxy, 
 and of evangelizing at home and abroad. 
 
 (If this alternative be chosen, the function thus reserved by the churches 
 is logically fundamental, but it is practically partial and self-limited for 
 reasons already noticed. We may estimate this work as first in dignity 
 among social forces, yet it is only one among many concurrent agencies. If 
 the churches should thus restrict themselves it would be a refusal to exe- 
 cute their whole commissions as ministers plenipotentiary of Christianity.) 
 
 Second, the churches may accept the full responsibility of revealers 
 and realizers of right relations of men to each other as well as of men to God. 
 
 In this case every situation in which a human being confronts an actual 
 life problem is an occasion for the church to signalize both the spiritual 
 and the social elements of religion. 
 
 23. The choice of these alternatives does not turn upon denominational 
 standards of theology. 
 
 There is not a sect represented in this parliament which can consistently 
 ignore either the spiritual or the social hemisphere of religion, its own 
 principles being the criterion. Every religion here represented is a relation 
 to God, under some name or form. On the other hand, and still more to 
 oor immediate purpose, this World's Congress of Religions has once for all 
 estopped Christians from claiming for their religion a monopoly of the ideal 
 and the policy of universal brotherhood. Christian churches may profess a 
 zeal for God which reduces fraternity to an inoperative sentiment, but 
 transfer of assets to a preferred creditor is prima-facie fraud in religion not 
 less than in business. 
 
 Assuming that the churches acknowledge responsibility in connection 
 with the social problems of cities, the remaining theses contain hints toward 
 solution. 
 
 2i. The conditions and symptomatic evils considered can be modified 
 only by systematic application of appropriate means to concrete ends. 
 
 25. The churches are not solving the problems of cities when they are 
 hearing their ministers argue that something is wrong if men who are 
 able and willing to earn their living can get no chance to work. The min- 
 ister may be doing his part in the argument, but where the minister's duty 
 ends the business of the church begins. 
 
 The means must be employed in actual contact w:ith the evils to be 
 remedied. 
 
 The work of the social church can not be confined to the church head- 
 quarters. The demonstration which Mr. Moody has given for one phase of 
 religious work is in progress at Toynbee Hall, and Hull House for another. 
 
 26. The tasks imposed by the needs of city populations requires the 
 multiplication of church workers. 
 
 The responsibilities of social religion can not be discharged for the 
 church by a few salaried proxies. The pastor and church officers should 
 be the organizers and leaders of experts in as many special applications of 
 religious energy as there are special evils to be remedied.
 
 CHURCHES AND CITY PROBLEMS. 595 
 
 27. Wise discipline and disposal of social forrje requires precise knowl- 
 edge of sound facts and mature judgments of social tendencies. 
 
 Social science is as necessary to the leader in social religion as military 
 science to the leader in war, or political science to the leader in legislature. 
 Neither piety nor theology insures fitness to solve social problems any more 
 than to bake bread or practice medicine. 
 
 28. No single church, not even the largest, can effectively proceed alone 
 against each of the conditions or symptoms involving degradation of city 
 life. 
 
 Each of the tasks which we are confronting could employ a corps of 
 workers as numerous as the police or fire department. 
 
 29. On the other hand the task can not be accomplished by distribu- 
 tion among churches. 
 
 The»problems are general. No one of them can be isolated and concen- 
 trated within the reach of a single church. 
 
 30. Co-operation and methodical division of labor among the churches 
 would most effectively apply present resources, and would take the largest 
 number of possible religious workers from the retired list into active 
 service. 
 
 The association of charities is an example, and may the day soon come 
 when every city in the world will have reached this latest and most benev- 
 olent stage of philanthropic development. The churches, as churches, 
 should be represented and united by similar organizations in the endeavor 
 to remove every condition and overcome every evil that is oppressing our 
 fellowmen. 
 
 31. Social co-operation between churches does not involve artificial 
 denominational union. 
 
 There will always be in the world a quota of people who think. A 
 respectable portion of the number will be Christians. No more grateful 
 service can be rendered to a thinker than dissent from his opinion and exhi- 
 bition of reasons for the difference. In so far as denominational diversity 
 stands for actual variety of belief and judgment, it is a medium of religious 
 and social progress. They are not the profouudest who clamor for religious 
 union based on confessional compromise. 
 
 32. On the other hand, social co-operation of churches is the only cred- 
 ible evidence of their belief that effective fraternity is a religious obligation 
 more imperative than protection of denominational prestige. 
 
 Others besides politicians serve the public only when the service can be 
 coined into party capital. 
 
 33. The basis of social co-operation should be common recognition of 
 the obligation of brotherhood. 
 
 If the Samaritan and the hotel-keeper on the Jericho road had post- 
 poned the co-operation until they settled their doctrinal differences, the 
 stranger would have perished as thousands are perishing in our cities 
 to-day, from the inhumanity of religion. 
 
 It is difficult for the theorist to anticipate the practical ingenuity of 
 any Chicago workers. Since this parliament convened, the problem 
 of the unemployed in Chicago has evoked spontaneous union for solution 
 of the problem between representatives of Baptists, Congregational ists, 
 Episcopalians, Jews, and the Salvation Army. The churches are suffering 
 in their own spiritual life for more such co-operation. In our sectarian 
 isolation we are like men holding a single cup of the battery. We must 
 join hands with men at the other pole to feel the galvanic current. 
 
 Let us record the hope and the prediction that this Parliament of 
 Religions will promote municipal co-operation of all men who love their 
 fellows ; each respecting the other's right to worship God according to 
 the dictates of his own conscience, each pledging to the other his loyal 
 fellowship toward helping every brother man to achieve life in more and 
 more abundance.
 
 596 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 WORLD'S RELIGIOUS DEBT TO ASIA. 
 
 P. O. MOZOOMDAB. 
 
 All the addresses delivered by P. C. Mozoomdar, the repre- 
 sentative of the Brahmo-Somaj at the Parliament of Religions, 
 were particularly pleasing to his audience of Western admirers, 
 but none were more so than that read on " The World's 
 
 Religious Debt to Asia." 
 
 The first gift conferred by Asia on the religious world is insight into 
 nature. The Oriental discovers, contemplates, and communes with the 
 spirit of God, who, in his view, fills all creation. Nature is not a mere 
 stimulus to mild poetry; nature is God's abode. He did not create it and 
 then leave it to itself, but He lives in every particle of its great struct- 
 ure. Nature is not for man's bodily benefit, but for his spiritual emanci- 
 pation also. It is not enough to say the heavens are God's handiwork, but 
 the heaven is His throne, the earth is His footstool. Our Nanak said: 
 "Behold, the sun and moon are His altar lights, and the sky is the sacred 
 vessel of sacrifice to Him." In the vast temple of nature Asia beholds the 
 Supreme Spirit reigning, and worships Him through the great objects His 
 hand has made. Nay, more, the Oriental beholds in nature the image of 
 God. " I offer my salutations unto the bountiful Lord," says Yogavasista, 
 " who is the inner soul of all things, reveals Himself in heaven, in earth, in 
 the firmament, in my own heart, and in all around me." 
 
 To the Asiatic the Immanent Spirit embodies himself in nature's beauty 
 and sweetness, to be immersed in which is to be nursed in God Himself. 
 We receive, from every object we see, a suggestion of something unseen, 
 something higher, inner, something divine and immortal. " Whatever is 
 on earth," the Persian poet Sadi says, "is the resemblance and shadow of 
 somethfhg that is in the spheres; again, that light is the shadow of some- 
 thing more resplendent, and so up to the light of lights." When no audi- 
 ble speech was heard what meant the royal psalmist by saying "the heavens 
 declare the glory of God, day uttereth speech unto day and night showeth 
 knowledge unto night." It was the law of the Lord, His statutes. His pre- 
 cepts that filled David's heart, and he heard the celestial music of his con- 
 templation re-echoed in all the universe. " When." says the Bhagavadgita, 
 " Arjuna, the faithful warrior, looked up to the divine form he saw there 
 the glory of the mountains, the sweep of the rivers, the bloom of the flow- 
 ers, and the animated beauty of mankind." Thisdoes not mean that nature 
 and God are one, but nature is the primary form and image of God's 
 spirit. 
 
 The book of creation is in God's handwriting — it is His language; nature 
 is His revelation. The roar of the hurricane is a feeble echo of His eternal 
 voice. The thundersof the sea breaking in fury over the immovable rocks 
 are the faint utterances of His might. The midnight firmament, with its 
 mighty arches of light, shows His vast bosom bending over the repose of 
 the good and the bad alike. 
 
 The forces of nature strike the Asiatic not as blind or fantastic, but as 
 the manifestations of a personal will. The life of nature is the life of God. 
 Our own personality, which originates so many activities, unfolds a person 
 who originates and preserves the universal power of all things. In Asia, 
 therefore, nature is not a mere design, or mere law, or uniformity, but the 
 arena of God's personal activity. 
 
 But personal activity means providence. When the Spirit fills all things, 
 is imaged in all things, is revealed by all things, and, as a person presides 
 
 1
 
 WORLD'S RELIGIOUS DEBT TO ASIA. 597 
 
 over all activities, the whole world is full of His providence. It is for this 
 reason that Vedic sages beheld in every force and phenomenon of nature 
 an inworking light of the Divinity. There was God in the sun, God in the 
 Himalayas, God in the all-investing sky, God in the ex[)anse of the round, 
 blue sea, but all these gods luerged into one supreme Brahma, the meaning 
 of which word is "God is great, and makes everything groat." Thus the 
 senses and the soul form a vast organ, on which the contemplation of nature 
 plays her august harmony, and through which insight makes her super- 
 natural, yet most natural, revelations. 
 
 How, then, can we tire of our mountains and rivers, or the sacred soli- 
 tude of the forests? Mount Sinai is neither cold nor dumb; but there is 
 no Moses to hear the commandments, or bare his feet to the burning bush. 
 The roses of Sharon are still in bloom, the nightingale's song still fills tiie 
 midnight silence, but there is no Hafez to realize that the Great Behjved 
 dwells in the garden and welcomes his faithful devotees. The fountain 
 Zemzem flows on by the side of Mecca, but the Prophet is forever gone, 
 and the pilgrim hordes spread infection and uncleanness. Nature is spirit 
 ual still, but man has become material, and Asia calls vipon the world to 
 once more enthrone God in His creation. Reconciled with nature, at one 
 with the creation, inspired by the soul of beauty in all things, Asia is at 
 one with God. 
 
 The second lesson which Asia teaches is introspection. This means 
 beholding the spirit of God within your own heart; it is spirituality. 
 Nature inspires the Old Testament, Job, David, Jiaia^ the Rig Vedas, the 
 Avesta; the spirit makes the New Testament, the Upanishads, the religion 
 of Sadi-Rowland Roum. Is there any light of beauty or intelligence, or 
 harmony in outward things which has not its original seat in the minds of 
 the observer? From -observation to introspection the step is easy and 
 natural. On the framework of your own soul the warp and woof of all the 
 worlds are woven, the universe of light and order is to be seen within. 
 There is no glory without which the soul does not put there from within 
 itself. This marvelous creation is sometimes described as an objective 
 dream, a medium of communion between the human and the divine, the 
 self- manifestation of the spirit who appeals through our senses to the kin- 
 dred spirit within. 
 
 Neither in scripture nor m nature, nor in church, nor in prophet, is the 
 spirit of God realized in His fullness, but in man's soul, and there alone is 
 the purpose of God fully revealed. He who has found Him there has found 
 the secret of the sonship of man. 
 
 Believe mo the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet in 
 Jerusalem worship the Father. But the hour eometli and now is when the 
 true worshiper siiall worship tlie Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father 
 seelceth such worship. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship 
 Him in spirit and in truth. 
 
 Until, therefore, we behold God as the spirit in the only spirit realm we 
 have access to, namely, our own souls, how is true worship possible? The 
 Taitirya Upanishad says: "When the devotee is established within the 
 unseen, formless, unspeakable spirit of God in Himself, only then is he 
 perfectly fearless." This sense of the supreme fact of the spirit's dwelling 
 glows into attitudes of blessedness which intensifies every other faculty of 
 the soul. All mental powers turn themselves into channels through which 
 the abundance of divine manifestation pours within. The sentiments, the 
 imagination, the powers of intelligence, the resolutions of the will, are all 
 kindled into that spirit of prophetic fire which glows m the inspiration of 
 the Orient. 
 
 And thus Asiatic philosophy, whether Hindu, or Gnostic, or Sufi, is the 
 philosophy of the spirit, the philosophy of the supreme substance, not of 
 phenomena only. AH Asiatic poetry breathes the aroma of the sacred man- 
 sions, glows with the light of the dawning heavens. The deepest musiC is
 
 598 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 spiritual music, the noblest architecture is raised by the hand of faith. 
 When the spirit of God indwells the spirit of man, literature, science, the 
 arts, nay, all ideals and all achievements find their national source, the 
 whole world is spiritualized into a vision of the eternal. 
 
 Has the spiritual nature an end to its possibilities ? The Oriental mind 
 does not really deny the being of the outward world, but, seeing God within 
 its own being,' the outer becomes only a phase of the inner spirit. It is not 
 logic nor observation, nor even the scripture that reveals God to the rapt 
 Oriental mind ; it is through his own instincts that he has the deepest view 
 of the unity and perfection of the godhead No dialectic subtlety or analytic 
 skill is unknown in the East, but there the philosopher is the seer also. 
 Asia has the seeing of God within her spirit, and what is seen can not be 
 disproved by what is said. The progress of true religion is not in the con- 
 version of the so-called heathen, but in the conception, the inspiration, and 
 realization of the ideal of the man of spirit. 
 
 The Supreme Spirit manifests Himself in the soul as reason, as love, as 
 righteousness, as joy. The product of reason is wisdom, and true wisdom is 
 universal. " In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, 
 and the word was God." What is true in Asia is true in Europe, what is 
 true before Christ is true after Christ, because Christ is the spirit of truth. 
 Whoever conceives the unmixed truth m science or in faith, in art or in 
 literature, conceives the imperishable and the eternal. 
 
 In the high realms of that undying wisdom the Hebrew, the Hindu, the 
 Mongolian, the Christian, are ever as one, for that wisdom is no part of 
 themselves, but the self-revelation of God, The Hindu books have not 
 plagiarized the Bible, Christianity has not plundered Buddhism, but uni- 
 versal wisdom is like unto itself everywhere. Similarly, love, when it is 
 unselfish and incarnal, has its counterpart in all lands and at all times. 
 The deepest poetry, whether in Dante, Shakespeare or Kalidasa, is uni- 
 versal. The love of God repeats itself century after century in the pious of 
 every race; the love of man makes all mankind its kindred. True holiness is 
 the universal ideal, however much personal prejudices or passions stand in 
 the way of the light. Hence Asia, seeking the universal God in her soul, 
 has discovered God to all the world. 
 
 This process of seeking and finding God within is an intense spiritual 
 culture known by various names in various countries; in India we call it 
 Yoga. The self-consecrated devotee finds an immersion in the depths of 
 the indwelling deity. God's reason becomes man's reason, God's love 
 becomes man's love. God and man become one. Introspection finds the 
 universal soul— the over-soul of your Emerson — beating in all humanity, 
 and a human and divine are thus reconciled. 
 
 Asia has taught the world to worship. Asia is the land of impulse. 
 Religion there has meant always sentiment, joyousness, exaltation, excite- 
 ment in the love of God and man. All this impulse the Asiatic throws into his 
 worship. With us Orientals worship is not a mere duty; it is an instinct, a 
 longing, a passion. There is a force that draws every drop of dew into the 
 sea, a spark into the conflagration, a planet to the sun. They feel in the 
 East a similar force of impulse draws them into the depths of God. That 
 is woi-ship. " As the hart panteth for the brook of living water, so my soul 
 panteth for God." Routines and rituals are, indeed, known in the East; 
 they are to keep the undevout in the practice of religion; but for the spirit- 
 ual the impulse toward God is irresistible. The love of God is a growing 
 passion, a wine that inebriates, a madness of the spirit. 
 
 The holy festival in the East, whether it is song or ceremony, or praise 
 or prayer, is an intense excitement. This longing for the companionship 
 of the spirit is half human, half divine. It is man calling after God, and 
 God seeking after man. No devotional act is complete which is not an act 
 of advance on the part of God and man; no prayer is true which does not
 
 WORLD'S RELIGIOUS DEBT TO ASIA. 599 
 
 bring with it a blessed consciousness of acceptance; but worship is then 
 worthy of heaven when it is uttered m tearful and fervid love. When the 
 devotee feels conscious that he is accejjted, an ecstasy of trust fills him, 
 the rapture of his love overpowers him. He cries, he laughs, he sings, ho 
 dances, he falls into a trance. Such phenomena are not confined to one 
 religion or one country. The Hebrew Miriam tianced and thecongrogaticm 
 played upon clamorous instruments of music. Mohaujmed fell into tits of 
 unconsciousness. Hafez was reputed as a madman. The Vaishnavas of 
 India dance and violently sing in their devotional excitement. The vagrant, 
 Puran,thus describes the condition of the devout worshiper: 
 
 He sings the names of the dearest one, his heart is melted with holy love, he 
 laughs loudly, or ho cries or ceaselessly prays, and at last, overcome by common 
 impulses, dances like a man beside himself. 
 
 This kind of excitement can not be agreeable or suitable to all men, but 
 it shows the extreme to which devotional impalses run in Asia. 
 
 The uttered worship of the East none can limit. Can anyone number 
 the songs of praise, the invocations, the entreaties which rise night and day 
 like a ceaseless noise of many waters to tiie throne of heaven? The universe 
 itself is to the Oriental like a vast devotee which uttereth ceaselessly the 
 words of adoration, and we, each one of us, feebly respond to these utter- 
 ances; blessed is he who responds from his deepest heart. But at last 
 speech becomes inadequate and devotion lapses into silence. Our worship 
 is then profoundest when we find no language adequate to express our love 
 and trust. The East, therefore, cultivates the habit of devotional silence. 
 But silence also becomes too oppressive, and takes shape in the offerings and 
 acts of worship. Flowers, incenses, sacrificial tires, sacramental food, sym- 
 bolic postures, bathings, fastings, and vigils are oftentimes more eloquent 
 than words. There is no spirit without form. Ceremonies without spirit 
 are indeed dangerous, but when words fail before God symbols become 
 indispensable. 
 
 All true worship is two-fold in its direction, it is godward, and it is man- 
 ward. The honor and love of God are sure to lead to the honor and love of 
 man. In Asia we almost worship our spiritual guides; we almost idolize 
 the objects we love. The man of God stands next to God. We do not 
 understand spiritual democracy; we look out for towering personalities, 
 nay, even in loving our equals. We are fired by a divine enthusiasm. 
 Opposite moods are reconciled m the character of the spiritual man. Ten- 
 derness and sternness, rebuke and forgiveness mingle into a strange dig- 
 nity. Meekness, penitence, gentleness, forgiveness, affectionateness, lofty 
 indignation, weeping, compassion, are attitudes of the love of man. The 
 devotee is not only kind to man but kind and compassionate also to all liv- 
 ing things. The beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, the Bweet human- 
 ities of Buddha, thus become realities of the true mstuict of worship. 
 
 Adoration fails, the flower fades, the fire quenches, the incense becomes 
 dust, but when the spirit abides in the rapture of joy and love within the 
 depths of God, it forgets the world's distractions, and when similarly the 
 love of man becomes to it a passion, it becomes one with mankind. One- 
 ness with God and man therefore in perfect love is the ideal of Eastern 
 worship. 
 
 What lesson do the hermitages, the monasteries, the cave temples, the 
 disciplines and austerities of the religious East teach the world? Renuncia- 
 tion. The Asiatic apostle will ever remain an ascetic, a celibate, a home- 
 less Akinchana, a Fakir. Orientals — we are all the descendants of John 
 the Baptist. Anyone who has taken pains at spiritual culture must 
 admit that the great enemy to a devout concentration of mind is the force 
 of bodily and worldly desire. Communion with God is impossible so long as 
 the flesh and its lusts are not subdued. Hence renunciation has always 
 been recognized as a law of spiritual progress in Asia. It is not mere
 
 600 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 temperance, but positive asceticism; not mere self-restraint, but self-morti- 
 fication; not mere self-sacrifice, but self -extinction: not mere morality, but 
 absolute holiness. The passion for holiness ctnquers the passion for self- 
 indulgence and leads to much voluntary suffering. Poverty, homelessness, 
 simplicity have characterized the East. The Brahmans do not charge a 
 fee for teaching sacred knowledge, the missionaries of the Brahmo-Somaj 
 never take a salary. ,-,,,■, r^ «,«- ,i 
 
 The foxes had holes, the birds had nests, but the Son of Man had not 
 where to lay His head. To the gates of Kapilvastu, where he was to be 
 lord and Mng, Buddha went as a wandering mendicant, with his alms-bowl 
 in his hand, begging from house to house. The sight was too painful for 
 the feelings of the aged king, his father, so that he entreated the illustrious 
 mendicant would go to beg elsewhere, and not bring shame to the royal 
 bouse he had forsaken. Buddha calmly replied: " You, O King, are faithful 
 to your ancestors, who were kings, but I am equally faithful to my ances- 
 tors, who were all mendicants." Mohammed lived in a cave and found 
 enough nourishment in a few dates. The Fakir in Moslem countries 
 and tlie Sadhu in India are regarded with universal awe. Those orders of 
 Christians who, like the Roman Catholics, have adopted this principle of 
 renunciation, have made the greatest impression upon Asiatic communi- 
 ties. It is a sign of the times that even Protestant orders are reverting to 
 the monastic principle of Asia. This has its danger, but it is still more 
 dangerous to allow carnality and worldliness to mix in a spiritual life. 
 Jesus presided at the marriage feast, Sakya Muni shocked his early dis- 
 ciples by eating hearty meals; Mohammed married wives; Nanak, the 
 founder of the Sikhs, kept a shop; St. Paul stood upon his political rights 
 as a Roman citizen, not because of worldly-mindedness, but in the faithful 
 discharge of their holy duties. Their hearts were austere and unselfish as 
 ever. 
 
 Once upon a time, so goes the Indian legend, the saintly ascetic Suk- 
 deva visited the palace of the royal devotee, the Rajah Janak. The man of 
 au sterity was struck at the wealth and magnificence of his host. The throne 
 on which he sat, his wives, his attendants, his robes, his chariots disgusted 
 Sukdeva, The Rajah Janak, by insight, knew the thoughts of his simple- 
 minded guest. To disabuse him Janak suddenly set on fire his palace by 
 the power of magic. There was a fearful uproar, everybody hurrying to 
 save what was most precious to himself. Even Sukdeva rushed to snatch 
 away from the fire a narrow strip of rag, worn round his loins, his only 
 belonging, which he had hung up to dry. Only Rajah Janak sat calmly, 
 smiling, free from care. The fire was as soon put out as it had been set up, 
 and the royal devotee, addressing the ascetic saint, said: 
 
 "Thou,0 Sukdeva, lost thy peace when thy rag was threatened, but I 
 could look calmly on while all my palace with its wealth was burning to 
 ashes. Renunciation is not to abstain from much and be over-fond of 
 the little, but to retain our peace at the loss of everything we have, be it 
 little or great." 
 
 Self-conquest or renunciation is but one part of the part of the culture 
 of the will into spirituality. The other is obedience, self-consecration, 
 merging oneself into the supreme self of God and the sublime service of 
 humanity. Self-discipline is only a means to the higher end of reconcilia- 
 tion and oneness with the will of God. The grain of wheat falls and dies 
 in the earth, that it may produce a hundred-fold, and he who spends his life 
 for God keeps it unto immortality. Death has been, and always will be, 
 the price of the attainment of God; and the service of man, death of all 
 service and finality. Who can say, who did say, " Not my will but thine be 
 done?" He who struggled with the last cup of agony, and vv'ho looked up 
 to serve God and man while the murderer was at the gate. Call it renun- 
 ciation, call it stoicism, call it death, the fact is ' here that he who dies to
 
 WORLD'S RELIGIOUS DEB 2' TO ASIA. 601 
 
 himself can only find rest in God or reconciliation with man. This great 
 law of self-effacement, poverty, suffering, death, is symbolized in the mystic 
 cross so dear to you and dear to me. Christians, shall you ever repudiate 
 Calvary? Oneness of will and character is the sublimest and mostdithcult 
 unity with God. And that lesson of unity Asia has repeatedly tanght the 
 world. 
 
 Thus by insight into the immanence of God's spirit in nature, thus by 
 introspection into the fullness of the divine presence in the heart, thus by 
 rapturous and loving worship, and thus by renunciation and self -surrender, 
 Asia has learned and taught wisdom, practiced and preached contempla- 
 tion, laid down the rules of worship, and glorified the righteousness of God. 
 
 But how can I, within a brief half-hour, describe the mystic spirituality 
 of a great continent, from which all religions, all prophets, all founders, all 
 devotions, and all laws of righteous life have come? I have uttered only 
 one word and leave the rest to your spiritual discernment. I know Asia • 
 has to learn a great deal from the West. I know that even such qualities 
 of the Asiatic as I have described require to be assimilated in a new dis- 
 pensation of God, the future religion of mankind. But Europe has gone 
 out to the East and the new religion has dawned in the Brahmo-Somaj. 
 
 In the West you observe, watch, act, and speculate. In the East we 
 contemplate, commune, and suffer ourselves to be carried away by the 
 spirit of the universe. In the West you wrest from nature her secrets, you 
 conquer her, she makes you wealthy andprosperous, you look upon her as 
 your slave, and sometimes fail to realize her sacredness. In the East nature 
 is our eternal sanctuary, the soul is our everlasting temple, and the sacred- 
 ness of God's creation is only next to the sacredness of God Himself. In 
 the West you love equality, you respect man, you seek justice. In the 
 East love is the fulfillment of the law; we have hero worship— we behold 
 God. In the West you establish the moral law, you insist upon propriety 
 of conduct, you are governed by public opinion. In the East we aspire, 
 perhaps vainly aspire, after absolute self -conquest and the holiness which 
 makes God its model. In the West you work incessantly, and your work 
 is your worship. In the East we meditate and worship for long hours, and 
 worship in our work. Perhaps one day, after this parliament has achieved 
 its success, the Western and Eastern man shall combine to support each 
 other's strength and supply each other's deficiencies. And then that 
 blessed synthesis of human nature shall be established which all jjrophets 
 haA'B foretold, and all the devout souls have sighed for. 
 
 Some years ago, when I saw Professor Tyndall after his great Belfast 
 address, he spoke to me thus: " The sympathies of such men as you are 
 the crumbs of comfort left me in my unpopularity. Because I will not 
 accept religion in the hands of those who have it not they revile me. I 
 complain not. True religion once came from the East, and from the East 
 it shall coiue again." 
 
 This, perhaps, was too great a compliment ; at least, I regarded it as such. 
 But looking back into the past it can not be denied that the world's relig- 
 ious debt to Asia is very great. In the East we are a subject race; we are 
 talked of with contumely; the Asiatic is looked upon as the incarnation of 
 every meanness and untruth. Perhaps we partly deserve it. Perhaps in 
 being allowed to associate with you, free and noble children of the West, 
 we shall learn what we have failed to learn hitherto. Yet in the midst of 
 the sadness, the loneliness, the prostration of the present, it has been some 
 consolation to think that we still retain some of our spiritual ground; to 
 reflect on the prophecy of Ezekiel: " Behold, the glory of the Lord cometh 
 from the way of the East."
 
 (302 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE NEGRO RACE. 
 
 REV. J. E. SLATTERY OF ST. JOSEPH'S SEMINARY, 
 BALTIMORE, MD. 
 
 In 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. . . . .i j 
 
 Just as in the order of nature we have a common origin, so in the order 
 of grace we 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 faith in Jesus Christ, for as many of you as 
 have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew 
 nor Greek ; there is neither bond nor free ; there is neither male nor 
 
 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 Chris- 
 tian religion only but nature itself cries out against slavery." 
 
 Our Christian advantages flow from our spiritual birth and adoption into 
 the family of God. It is from truth that comes our dignity, 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 intercom- 
 munion of faith should have also an intercommunion of charity. Chris- 
 tians 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 orna- 
 ments of their basilicas, in order to redeem slaves. Two orders were estab- 
 lished in the church for the redemption of slaves— the Orders of the Most 
 Holy Trinity and of Our Lady of ivlercy. 
 
 Furthermore, by restoring free labor, which had died out under Roman 
 CfBsarism and Roman slavery, the church raised the dignity of the work- 
 man and struck at the same time the death-knell of slavery. After the 
 rise of negro slavery in the 15th and IGth centuries the Caiholic Church 
 applied her great principles of the natural unity of the human race and the 
 same supernatural destiny to that infamous traffic. Urban VIII., Ben- 
 edict XIV., and Gregory XVI. condemned it. 
 
 Wherever the Catholic Church has influence there is no negro question. 
 Brazil by a stroke of the pen emancipated her slaves, while the United 
 States waded through oceans of blood to emancipate them. Whatever 
 misery afflicts Spanish America, the Catholic instinct of human equality 
 has delivered it from race antagonisms. There is no negro problem in 
 Catholic South America. 
 
 The Catholic Church forever restricts bondage to bodily service, the 
 bondman being in her eyes a man, a moral being with a conscience of his 
 own, which no master under any cloak may invade. For she has the one 
 law for master and slave, one code of morality binds both; each is account- 
 able for his own deeds before the just Judge. " God," says St. Augustine, 
 "gave man dominion over the irrational creatures but not over the rational." 
 The church, moreover, always insisted on the Christian marriage of the 
 slave, thereijy holding that he is a person and not a chattel. 
 
 For she teaches that marriage is a free contract, into which none but 
 persons can enter. Catholic theologians also hold that the ministers of 
 marriage are the contracting parties; now none but persons can be
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE NEGRO RACE. G03 
 
 ministers of the sacrament. Hence in blessing the marriage of the negro 
 slaves, the holy church recognized their iiianhood and external liberty. 
 
 It may be well, however, to emphasize the position of the Catholic 
 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 
 Savior, and destined to the same heaven as the white man. In matters of 
 morality she makes no difference. The Decalogue of Moses obliges blacks 
 as well as whites; the precepts of Sunday worship, of Friday abstinence, of 
 Lenten fast bind the blacks as strictly as they do the whites. For both 
 races have the same baptismal, marriage, and burial services, the same 
 doctrine, the same sacraments, the same worsliip. the same communion, 
 the same promises, the same privileges, the same hopes. 
 
 A pen picture may describe the negroes as numbering eight to nine 
 million; living 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 and all made to feel a 
 frightful ostracism which descends so deep as to exclude 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 view to be taken. They are not rebels 
 against public authority. They 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; they willingly listen to the word of God; 
 their hearts burn for the better gifts. They are hard-working; jjatiently, 
 and forgivingly do they bear their wrongs. 
 
 It is related of Michael Angelo that, going along the streets of Rome, he 
 espied a rough, unhewn block of marble. "There is an angel hidden 
 there," he said, pointing to the stone. Having had it brought to his studio, 
 the immortal artist soon began to chip at it, and to hack at it, and to shape 
 it, till finally there came forth from it the faultless angel in marble which 
 his prophet eyes had seen in it. 
 
 A similar block of marble is the negro ; far harder to work uj on than 
 the Carrara lump of Michael Angelo, because the chisel must be applied to 
 the human heart. And has the negro a human heart? Is he a man? Yes, 
 thank God ; he is a man, with all the affections and longings, all the 
 faculties and qualities of human kind. Behold, then, it is his manhood that 
 is the first ground of our hope. 
 
 The future of the negro appears, therefore, hopefiil, fcr it rests prin- 
 cipally on the great truth that the human race is one. There is one Lord, 
 one God, one Father of all. From this we rise to the supernatural destiny 
 of our common humanity : One Jesus Christ, one church, one life of pro- 
 bation, one heaven, one hell. The negro has everything that makes a man, 
 everything that makes a Christian. As the negro passed out of slavery, it 
 was the Catholic Church which could say to him, with the apostle, in his 
 new relation: "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to 
 fear, but ye have not received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry: 
 "Abba! Father!" 
 
 Yes, the human race predestinated to Christian grace and so admirably 
 recognized by the church is the foundation of our hopes. The negro's 
 heart, like the white man's, is essentially good. Here we have a foothold. 
 Grace, we know, builds upon nature. 
 
 The manhood of the negro race, moreover, is a truth of religion, and 
 one which Leo XIII. has well insisted upon in his letter to the Bishops of 
 Brazil at the time of the emancipation of the slaves of that country. " It 
 was sin," he writes, " which deserved the name of slavery; it was not nat- 
 ural. From the first sin came all evils, and especially this perversity that 
 that there were men, who, forgetful of the original brotherhood of the race, 
 instead of seeking, as they should naturally have done, to promote mutual
 
 G04 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGION J. 
 
 kindness, and mutual respect, following their evil desires, began to think of 
 other men as their inferiors and to hold them as cattle born to the yoke." 
 And the argument which we hear so often in political agitation and read so 
 much in the public press, viz., that by nature the black man is inferior, Leo 
 XIII. declares an outrage on our common humanity. 
 
 If, then, the n(>gro may be called a man among men and an heir to all 
 the glorious privileges of humanity and also of Christianity, what, we may 
 ask, are the meai.s t j be employed to place him in possession of this divine 
 heritage? There is, I believe, one true means for his advancement, and 
 that is the negro himself, guided and led by Christianity. The first 
 element in the elevation of the human race is the black man himself. To 
 attempt anything for the blacks without making the black man himself 
 the chief instrument for good would be to attempt the play of " Hamlet " 
 with the part of Hamlet left out. 
 
 His future demands the building of his character, and this is best done 
 by the mingled efforts of brotherly white men and worthy black men. His 
 temperance, his passions and other inherent qualities, in great measure, 
 also his industrial and social environments, are beyond his control, and he 
 needs the aid of the best men of his own race, but associated with and not 
 divorced from the co-operation of the best of the white race. 
 
 In the formation of his character, which is his weak spot, chief stress 
 should be laid on moral training and education. External influences, con- 
 trolled by noble men and women of both races, will count for more with 
 him than with us. We can hardly appreciate how much the negro has to 
 contend with while making his moral growth, for neither the antecedents 
 nor surroundings of our black countrymen are calculated to draw out the 
 noblest side of human nature. That personal encouragement to well doing, 
 to ambition to rise above degrading circumstances, so necessary to all of 
 us, so indispensably so to him, the black man rarely receives. Neither by 
 nature nor by traditional training can the colored people, taken as a body, 
 stand as yet upon the same footing of moral independence as their white 
 brethren. The careful, patient, and Christian intervention of the whites 
 and the best of the blacks, working together in using all the means 
 demanded for the formation of manhood and womanhood, is their right as 
 well as their need in the present hour. 
 
 They must be given the ample charity of Christ in their development, 
 just as they have been given the full equality of citizenshiij. And in all 
 this Catholics will lead the way. The influence of Catholics will be 
 extended to foster and develop in the colored race those traits which tend 
 to impart a sterling, self-reliant character. 
 
 Let us bear in mind that among whites of every kind there is an immense 
 amount of partly Christian and partly natural tradition, which is weak 
 among the blacks by no fault of their own. There is the home, the domes- 
 tic fireside, the respect for Sunday, the sense of respectability, the weight 
 of the responsibilities of life, the consciousness of duty, the love of hon- 
 esty, which is regarded as true policy, the honor of the family name, the 
 fear of disgrace, together with the aspirations for a share in the blessings 
 and privileges which our country and civilization afford. And while very 
 many of our white countrymen are not Catholics, are even but nominal 
 Christians, still these weighty influences wield a potent charm for good over 
 their lives. 
 
 In regard to the negro race, however, these hardly exist; at best they 
 may be found in isolated cases, though it is true that very encouraging 
 signs of them are seen occasionally. Yet a vital part in the natural develop- 
 ment of the negro will be secured by these elements in the sense of responsi- 
 bility, the dignity, as well as duty of labor, and lastly, self-denial and thrift.
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEGRO. 605 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEGRO. 
 
 BISHOP BENJAMIN W. ARNETT, D. D., OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST 
 EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 We have gathered from the East, from the West, from the North, from 
 the South this day to celebrate the triumph of human freeilom on the 
 American continent. For there is not one Blave within all of our borders. 
 There is no master. From Huron's lordly liootl 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 apprehended until we 
 see the dust standing erect in the form of man, with body, soul and spirit; 
 a compound of matter and inind, 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 whi<;h clusters so much his- 
 tory, so much hope and so much liberty. We have met for the tirst time 
 since the children of Noah were scatteredon the plainsof Shinar. The par- 
 liament at Shinar plotted treason against the divine command and provi- 
 dence; inaugurated a rebellion against heaven; their tongues were con- 
 fused and they were banished until this day; in fact, this is the adjourned 
 meeting, from Shinar to Chicago. They met to show their disloyalty to 
 God; we have met to discuss the subjects which are ultimately connected 
 with our present 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 examine the 
 truth, in order that our faith might be strengthened and our hopes bright- 
 ened and our love increased toward the fundamental truths of each of our 
 religions. 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 philosophy about the relations of God, 
 man, and the world. In fact, we are to see whether the fundamental truth 
 of philosophy is not the same as the fundamental truth of theology, which 
 is God. It has been said that philosophy searches, but religion reveals 
 God. Our duty will be to show that revealed religion is superior to natural 
 religion in giving us a true knowledge, the new and true conception of God; 
 His nature, His attributes, communicable and uncommunicable; His rela- 
 tion to the physical, moral, and mental world, as the Creator, Preserver, 
 and Governor. 
 
 But there are two revelations of God: the one written and the other 
 unwritten. The unwritten revelation of God is nature, from whose forms 
 of matter and systems of operating forces flash the suggestions of infinite 
 power, goodness, and wisdom. The Bible is the written revelation of God, 
 and is open to the gaze of man, and subject to interpretation. It con- 
 tains truths which are subject to explanation. The theologian is the inter- 
 preter, not alone of the Bible, but of nature and providence. He is to 
 interrogate nature and to give her answers according to the rules of reason 
 and science. He is to interrogate the truths as found in revelation and 
 explain them in the light of the church of God. 
 
 The negro is older than Christianity, as old as man, for he is one of the 
 legitimate sons of his father and grandfather. In some way or other he 
 has been connected with the history of every age and every work, so that
 
 606 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 no history of tho past is complete without some reference to the negro or 
 his home, Africa, whoso soil has been abundantly fruitful in some of the 
 best and many of the worst of human productions. 
 
 The negro's home, Africa, was the home of Dido, of 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 Christianity it 
 contributed more than its proportion of the early agents of the propagators 
 of the new religion. Luke, the beloved physician, was from Cyrene, 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 
 African city, who became the cross-bearer of the Son of God on His way 
 to Calvary. 
 
 Africa, having contributed either by birth or blood to the establish- 
 ment of the religion of Christ upon earth, certainly her sons and daughters 
 ought to be permitted to enjoy the blessings purchased with so much sor- 
 row, sutTering, and tears. Among the early teachers of Antioch was one 
 Simon, who was called Niger. Thus we have at least one evangelist and 
 four of the early teachers of Christianity who were Africans. 
 
 We do fervently pray and earnestly hope that the meeting held this day 
 will start a wave of influences that will change some of the Christians of this 
 land and 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 right of an American citizen; the right to life, liberty, 
 and happiness, and that be given us the right 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 b 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 or pity, but treat us as American citizens, 
 as Christian men and women; do not chain your doors and bar your win- 
 dows and deny us a place in society, but give us the place that our intelli- 
 gence, our virtue, our industry, and our courage entitle us to. " But admit 
 none but the worthy and well qualified." 
 
 We do not shun judgment, but we ask to be judged justly and without 
 prejudice; hear both sides of our case before you render a verdict, and then 
 render it according to the testimony given. Judge us not by the color of 
 our skin, nor the texture of our hair, but judge us by our intelligence and 
 character. When you weigh us, weigh ovir virtues against our vices; our 
 intelligence against our ignorance; our industry against our idleness; our 
 accumulations against our poverty; our courage against our cowardice; 
 our strength against our weakness. 
 
 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. You won't find the model negro 
 there; he has moved from such places thirty years ago. It is possible to 
 find some of his children still lingering about the old homestead, but the 
 Christian and model negro is living in the city of industry and thrift, and 
 in the cottage of comfort and ease, which he has dedicated to religion, 
 morality, and education, and morning and evening, the passer-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. We 
 know what has been done in the name of Christianity, in the name of 
 religion, in the name of God. We were stolen from our native land in the
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARY METHODS. 607 
 
 name of religion, chained as captives and brought to this continent 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 our souls; they sold us to teach 
 the principles of religion; they sealed the Bible to increase our faith in Uod; 
 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 Hesh went down 
 the interest in our souls became small; when the slave trade was abolished 
 by the strong hand of true Christianity, then fulse 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. 
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARY METHODS. 
 
 In the afternoon debate, foreign missionary methods gave 
 both the text and direction to its treatment, and the discussion 
 was taken part in by eminent professors of various faiths — 
 missionaries and those to whom they had been sent. In intro- 
 ducing the debate. Dr. Barrows said: 
 
 I remember receiving a letter from one of the speakers of this afternoon, 
 who sits here in Chinese costume, in which he said that if a thoroughly 
 practical character could be given to this Parliament of Religions it would 
 restore the unlimited hope and ardor of the apostolic age to Christian mis- 
 sions. Charles Darwin is the greatest name in modern science. Charles 
 Darwin was a contributor to foreign missions. Some people have called 
 this parliament one of the great spiritual efforts of a century. This parlia- 
 ment is to be followed for eight days by a congress of missions. We have 
 on the platform with us a number of persons experienced in foreign mis- 
 sions We have the president of the Robert College at Constantinople, 
 which college is in a large degree the creator of free Bulgaria. We have 
 with us those who can bring to us experience in the improvement of the 
 methods of Christian methods in other lands, and I am glad that we are 
 to hear from those who are not in the Christian fold. I am glad we are to 
 have their criticism as well as their praise, for they will give us both. I 
 take great pleasure in introducing as the first speaker of the afternoon, 
 Mr. Dharmapala of Ceylon. 
 
 H. DHARMAPALA. 
 
 Mr. Dharmapala, who was received with applause, said: 
 
 This question of foreign missions constitutes an important problem that 
 requires solution before the 20th century dawns, and I ask you to give it 
 earnest and thoughtful consideration. The question is how to evangelize 
 the non-Christian countries. For nineteen centuries you have had Chris- 
 tianity in Europe, but only during the last three centuries have attempts 
 been made to propagate it in the East. The Buddhists have a record to show 
 that the Christian nations of three centuries ago did not do their duty as 
 Christ wanted it done, and therefore Christianity failed in the East. The 
 programme that has been constructed, the i)latform you have built up 
 must be entirely reconstructed if Christianity is to make progress in the 
 East. You must send men full of unseltishness. They must not go as 
 those missionaries of modern days go, but they must iiave a spirit of self- 
 sacrifice, a spirit of charity, a spirit of tolerance, as well as the spirit of 
 lowliness and meekness which characterized Jesus Christ.
 
 608 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The conditions of our country are different from those of yours. Your 
 great slaughter-house here is a shame and a curse to civiHzation and we 
 do not want any such Christianity in Ceylon, in Burmah, in Japan, or in 
 China. We want the lowly and meek and gentle teachings of Christ, not 
 because we do not have them now, but we want more of them. I tell you, if you 
 want to make Christianity an influence in the East vou must send there 
 men of gentleness, lowliness, meekness, and tolerance. The missionaries 
 sent to Ceylon, China, or Burmah, as a rule, have not the tolerance that 
 we need. The missionary is intolerant; he is Beltish. Why do not the 
 natives mix with him? Because he has not the tolerance and unseltishness he 
 should have. Who are his converts? They are all men of low type. Seeing 
 the selfishness and intolerance of the missionary not an intelligent man 
 will accept Christianity. Buddhismhad its missionaries before Christianity 
 was preached. It conquered all Asia and made the Mongolians mild. Its 
 preachers do not go in this grand, fashionable costume of yours, but in the 
 simple garb you see upon this platform. They did not go with a Bible in 
 one hand and a rum bottle in the other, but they went full of love and 
 compassion and sympathy. With these attributes they conquered and 
 they made Asia mild. Slaughter-houses were abolished, public houses were 
 abolished, but they are now on the increase because of the influence of 
 Western civilization. 
 
 It is left for you, this younger family of European nations, to change 
 this. You are intelligent, you are free from the bonds of theology and 
 dogma, and I want you seriously to consider that the 20th century evangel- 
 ization is in your hands. I warn you that if you want to establish Chris- 
 tianity in the East it can only be done on the principles of Christ's love and 
 meekness. Let the missionary study all the religions; let them be a type 
 of meekness and lowliness and they will find a welcome in all lands. 
 
 EEY. GEORGE T. CANDLIN. 
 
 Rev. George T. Candlin of Tientsin, West China, followed 
 Mr, Dharmapala. He said: 
 
 With your permission I will commence my few remarks by saying that 
 I fully indorse all that the previous speakers have said as to the needs of 
 radical reform in Christian missions and as to the character of Christian 
 missionary work required. But I take this one exception: That I do not 
 indorse, and I venture before this parliament to repudiate, the personal 
 remark made in regard to the missionaries of Ceylon, of India, and of 
 Japan, Mr. Chairman, in regard to that question I will only say that I am 
 no advocate for forcing our Western modes of life, our Western social 
 customs, upon the East. I do not wish to Americanize or to Anglicize the 
 Hindus or the Chinese, but neither do I want to be turned into a Hindu 
 nor do I want to be turned into a Chinaman ; and I say this in regard to the 
 countries of India, of Ceylon, and Japan, that if there are no true 
 Christians and no meek and lowly followers of the meek and lowly Jesus 
 amongst them, then there is not one in America a:id there is not one in 
 England, and the Christian world does not contain a true Christian, 
 
 Dr. Barrows has asked me, in live or six minutes, to give you my belief 
 ris to the necessity for a radical change in mission methods, and what is 
 likely to follow this great Chicago parliament. That is a large order, and 
 it must be executed with dispatch. Fortunately. I can tell you what I 
 think this parliament ought to result in. and in one sentence, or, as Dr. 
 Haweis would say, I can put it in a nutshell. This parliament has a prac- 
 tical end-— something which concerns neither to-day nor to morrow, some- 
 thing which does not concern the news in the newspaper and a glorification 
 of ourselves, but Bomething which concerias the future, the great future, 
 and the eternity.
 
 KEV. GEO. T. CANDLIN. 
 Tientsin, West China.
 
 1
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARY METHODS. 609 
 
 This parliament ought to result in the bringing about between ChriBtiaii 
 church and Christian church of different denominations the same relations 
 of unity as now exist between member and member of the sami' church. 
 But I will venture to put b(>foreyou the first commandment of the Cliicago 
 parliament, and the second is like unto it. We, ])erhaps, can not gt't to the 
 very end of Christian progress and reach th(» mill(>nnium with our hand 
 within measurable time, but I sincerely believe ^hat we can get this 
 between the Christian religion and non-Christian faiths— we can establish 
 such relations of mutual respect, toleration, and love as now exist between 
 Christian church and Christian church. 
 
 Well, that is the whole of my scheme. In the first place, I will be frank 
 with you. I hope the chairman will stop me when the time is up. I don't 
 think that this question mainly depends upon the missionaries at all. After 
 fifteen years in the mission field and a careful study of mission ])roblems I 
 venture to say that the missionaries of the Christian world, taken as a 
 whole, are far in advance in sentiment on this question of the churches at 
 home. We are your representatives and your agents, and if ever we have 
 power to bring about this glorious result it must be by your help, and by 
 your help alone. 
 
 Now, I am quite of the belief that these two things must go together — 
 the conversion of the v/orld and the union of Christians. I don't know 
 which will come first, but I know they have both got to come. I know that 
 neither can come alone before the other. You remember old Thomas Car- 
 lyle's famous question as to the shams, hypocrisies, and lies of his day. It 
 was this: " Given a world of knaves, to deduce honesty from their united 
 action?" 
 
 Let me put a similar one to you: " Given a Christendom of religious 
 sects wrangling about minor points of doctrine and produce a universal 
 harmony from their united action." When I read Carlyle's question I 
 treated it as a conundrum and gave it up. I would advise you to do the 
 same, and to be sure that the way to convert the world is by the union of 
 Christendom. A popular speaker on this platform, the other day, spoke of 
 the non-Christian religion as torsos. I am not sure — let me speak with care 
 and reverence on so vital a question— I am not sure that Christianity, as 
 we know it is more than a torso, and I do venture to say that no individ- 
 ual church — Roman Catholic, Protestant, Methodist, Presbyterian (call it by 
 what name you like) — noindivitlual church of Christendom adequately rep- 
 resents, nor the whole taken indiscriminately, until they shall be united in 
 one, ever can adequately represent what Christianity means. 
 
 We have our gleams of light and every religious system existing on the 
 face of the earth to-day exists to bear witness to some part of the truth 
 which the rest of Christendom has ignored or made light of. Now, I want 
 to enlarge a little upon another subject. I am quite sure that this Chicago 
 parliament will act in a thoroughly missionary spirit. Let me mention to 
 you how greatithis parliament is, not merely from the fact that it is held 
 in the great city of Chicago, not merely from the fact that it is exerting 
 marveloud influence on the people of the city and upon the people of Amer- 
 ica, but in this also that the Christian workers all around the glol)e are 
 looking — some of them, I am bound to say, with very serious mistrust, others 
 with trembling hope — to see what this parliament has to say on the mis- 
 sionary question. 
 
 I am sure you will say this, that all we have heard from our brethren of 
 other faiths, while it' leads us to sincerely, unstintedly, and joyfully recog- 
 nize the truth, the good, which entitles them to take their j)lace as a part 
 of the religicms world, and as containing a part of the universal revolution 
 of God — still it will commit itself unreservedly to tlie principle that com- 
 munication of the Christian ideas is of priceless value to the world. If you 
 don't you turn your back on Jesus Christ.
 
 GiO THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 There may he 10,000 things doubtful in our Christian religion, but one 
 thino- is not doubtful, if anything is certain, and that is that it is for the 
 world— redeeming grace stretches perpendicularly as high as heaven, and 
 reaches horizontally all around the equator and out to both poles. Jesus 
 Christ was the first Christian missionary. Ho came farther, traveled more, 
 bore more hardship in the cause of His religion than all His believing follow- 
 ers put together, and therefore we shall never pause and never falter in the 
 belief that our religion is to be given freely, unreservedly, with royal bounty 
 to all the sons of men. 
 
 There is not any injustice to the non-Christian religions in this, because 
 what we claim for ourselves we concede to others. I beheve that of the ten 
 great religions here represented every one is convinced that there is going 
 to be a final consummation of all things when their religion will be univers- 
 ally triumphant. If you think so, work for it ; we won't hinder you. If 
 you have any religious beliefs of value to us we want them. The meaning 
 of Christianity, from a missionary point of view, is infinite desire to give and 
 infinite willingness to receive. 
 
 Christianity has a great big supplement to it. It has a great big guest 
 chamber, and' it is capable of entertaining a great deal. It has got a 
 "finally" to its sermon for the world. And let me tell you what that 
 "finally" is. Listen to it. He was a missionary, a very great missionary, 
 who told us the "finally" of Christianity. "Finally, my brethren,? what- 
 soever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 
 just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, if 
 there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." 
 
 " NARASEMACHANYA. 
 
 A learned Brahman of Madras, Narasemachanya, in perfect 
 English, addressed the company as follows: 
 
 If success be the criterion by which to gauge an undertaking, and if 
 missionary success mean the conversion of the Hindus, then it must be 
 confessed that missionary work in India is a failure. None cast any asper- 
 sion on the missionaries. Successful they may not always be, but their 
 motive is a noble one. There are American missionaries in India who 
 could have achieved an honorable, if not a brilliant, success in their own 
 country, and they are 10,000 miles from the native land of their fathers, in 
 an inhospitable climate, among an unsympathetic people, toiling and striv- 
 ing, hoping for their reward, not from man, but from God. There they are 
 devoting their lives to the cause of their religion. Against such purity of 
 motives, against such noble unselfishness, let none say a word. 
 
 Why, then, does not Christianity in India spread faster? Why don't 
 the natives adopt it in numbers? For this there are many reasons. Into 
 the vexed questions as to the benefits the Hindus have derived from Eng- 
 lish rule I shall not enter. I belong to that class of my countrymen who 
 believe in having a little more bread to eat and a little less of the much- 
 admired Western civilization. But there is another class, a love-in-a-cot- 
 tage class, v/ho believe in the efficacy of Western civilization to feed half- 
 starved millions, but, be this as it may, the English advocacy of Christianity 
 did not benefit it much, for, with the conqueror's pride, they can not bring 
 themselves down, or rather can not bring themselves up, to practice the 
 humility which they preach. 
 
 The religion which a conquering nation, with an exasperating conscious- 
 ness of superiority, condescendingly offers to the conquered must ever be 
 disgusting to the recipient, however good it may be. Suppose the early 
 apostles of Christ, with a band of victorious marauders at their back, had 
 gone about Europe with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other, 
 
 I
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARY METHODS. 611 
 
 saying, " Accept the Bible or you die." Do you think their religion would 
 have been as generally acce^jtable as it was? No, it was their humility, 
 their suffering and their martyrdom which won where sword and lire can 
 not win. But, you may say, Mohammedanism did win by the sword. But 
 there were political conditions in Arabia and Western Asia which made it 
 easy for Mohammedanism to win. 
 
 Then there is the difference between your temperament and ours. We 
 are brought up so differently from you that the things that effect you do 
 not affect us. Those parables in which you see so many beauties, those say- 
 ings and doings of the Savior, v.hich seem to be an all-suflicient guide for 
 you through life, nay, your very belief in the necessity of a vicarious Savior, 
 which is the corner-stone of your faith, are to us mere words. They convey 
 no impression, they carry no conviction. 
 
 The character of the Hindus is a strange and unanalyzable mixture. I 
 do not know why it is so, but religion after religion hasjf'ailed in India. The 
 followers of the gentle sage, Gautama Buddha, have been driven out of 
 India. Sankaracharya, the very man who was instrumental in this, did not 
 succeed in numbering any large following. Ramanuja, Madhia, and Desika 
 have a few followers, but they succeeded in dividing up the people, and not 
 in uniting them. 
 
 At present the various new religons, such as the Brahmo-Somaj, the 
 Arya-Somaj, and the various other societies, do not have very many fol- 
 lowers. They are only a handful, and the small waves of reformers dash 
 themselves against the rock of the older-established faiths. Thus you will 
 366 that the religions which rise up among themselves are not welcomed 
 with enthusiasm. No wonder, then, that a religion like Christianity — a 
 religion of foreigners, containing ioeas, some of them new, some of them 
 strange, and some of them repugnant co our preconceived notions — meets 
 with such scanty welcome. 
 
 Again, your missionaries, in their iconoclastic eagerness, attack some of 
 our prejudices which are not necessarily un-Christian. Thus our inter- 
 mingling with other castes is made a necessary article of faith of the con- 
 verted Hindu, and let me tell you, from my own experience, that it is to us 
 a physical repugnance. Eating with lower castes is a nauseating proc- 
 ess to us; we can not do it if we try. It is a curious fact that in Pondi- 
 cherry there are Catholic Hindus who pride themselves on being Christians. 
 To them Christianity was only a change of coat. 
 
 There is another custom of the Brahmans far more deeply ingrained and 
 far more difHcult to uproot, l mean their prejudice against animal food. 
 I remember, myself, how I felt when first I tried to accustom myself to it 
 Words can not describe the nauseating disgust and repugnance of my whole 
 soul. So long as Christians, by tacit silence, make people believe that the 
 eating of animal food is a necessary preparatory course to be gone through 
 before baptism, so long then will you find you have a stumbUng-block in 
 the way of the evangelization of India. 
 
 Oh, tell your missionaries to preach from street to street that Christ 
 never said: "You must kill and eat to be a Christian." Lot them din into 
 the people's ear that a man may be a Christian without being a carniv- 
 orous one. 
 
 I shall close this address with a few words as to how Christian mission- 
 aries ought to work. They complain that they can not get a hearing, but 
 supi)Ose 100 of your zealous young Christians, clad in the saffron rol)es(if 
 humble mendicants, preach from house to house, singing the jjraise of Him 
 who died for love, do you think the people w'ould refuse to hear them? 
 At first they may be jeered, they may be ridiculed, but did not the prophets 
 endure similar trials? 
 
 You may think I am advocating an impossible attempt. About 200 
 years ago a poor Jesuit, Father Beschi by name, went about the country
 
 612 THE PARLiAMEiSlf OF tiELtGtOM 
 
 doing these very things, and he read before the king of Madhi-a a poern orl 
 the Life of Christ, which, notwithstanding its forced style, compares favor- 
 al)ly with Edwin Arnold's " Light of the World." To-day, the much-mis- 
 understood Salvationists are doing the same. They are the stuff of which 
 missionaries ought to be made. 
 
 If these my remarks put you in the right track, if thfey give you some 
 of our feelings, so that it will smooth your way for future efforts, I have 
 not spoken in vain. 
 
 REV. R. E. HUME. 
 
 Eev. R. E. Hume of India said 
 
 It would be far pleasanter to my heart to tell eome of the victories 
 of missions than to attempt suggestions as to how we might do our work 
 better, if that were the subject which was assigned to me. I would tell 
 my brother from Madras what he does not know. He tells the truth as he 
 sees it, that in the City of Madras and in the university of which he is a 
 graduate the converts of the Christian faith take a higher standard than 
 the Brahmans. I would tell him that in the arcade from 1871 to 1881 the 
 census of the British government, not miss jaiy reports, says thai when 
 the population increased 6 per cent the Christian population increased 32 
 per cent. 
 
 I would tell him that by the report, not of missions but of the British 
 government census, in the decade from 1881 to 1891, when the ijopulation 
 of the country increased 10 per cent, the native Christian community 
 increased 23 per cent, and if I ever have permission to tell the story of 
 what the director of public instruction, in his own city, has said — I have it 
 in my xjocket now, but it is not my subject^I will show how he prophe- 
 sies that in a generation all thetpositions of influence and of responsibility 
 will be in the hands of the Christian community of India. That is not 
 my subject, and I would rather speak with sympathy of my brothers and 
 sisters who are at the front, and it is no pleasure ever to say anything 
 behind one's back, and were it not for that mighty faith which is the 
 inspiration of this congress, that the missionaries to the end of the world 
 will hear what is said here, my tongue would be silent now to suggest how 
 even we might do our work better, for what I want to do is to strengthen 
 their hearts and their hands. 
 
 We do make our mistakes We are not as Christ-like as we ought to 
 be We confess it to you and to our God. We want to be better. We are 
 willing to have our Buddhist and our Brahman friends tell us how we can 
 be better. Anyone who will help us to be more humble and moi"e wise will 
 do us good, and we will thank him, whoever he be. 
 
 As the subject is "How We Might Do Our Work Better," I will say a 
 few words first on the relations of missionaries and non-Christians, and the 
 first thing is, we might some of us know their thoughts better. We ought 
 to study their books more deeply, more intelligently, more constantly. We 
 ought to associate with them, in order to know their inmost thoughts, and 
 their feelings, and their aspirations better than we do. 
 
 The second suggestion which I would make, and which is at the kernel 
 of this parliament, is, where we recognize truth we should more cordially 
 and more gladly recognize it. When we fail to do so, it is disloyalty to our 
 God and it is jealousy of our Ood, for, at bottom, it means that we suppose 
 that this great Father of our Indian anfi our Chinese and our Japanese 
 brethren had not yet given them those kindergarten lessons which we sup- 
 posed we had to give, and find that he had taught them, and we sometimes 
 feel surprised when we ought to be grateful to the God of all Truth, who, 
 through His eternal word, enlighteneth every man who cometh into the 
 world. When we see truth anywhere, we ought cordially and gladly to 
 
 I 
 
 I
 
 MOHAMMEDAN KORAN AND ITS DOCTRINES. 01 .T 
 
 tecognize it as from the Father of Light ; ami it is jealousy of God if we 
 think that half-truth or some measure of truth is to be a hiuilrauce t<j our 
 work. That it will l)o a hindrance or a help depends largely upon our 
 attitude toward it. 
 
 If we ft'cl that this is. jx'rhaps, some kind of hindrance to the universal 
 spread of the kins,^dom, it will be, through our instrumentality, somewhat 
 of a hindrance. We should not be afraid of the half-way jkiusck to Chris- 
 tianity, as we sometimes are. We should feel that it is u h<-li) to us when 
 we recognize it as the eternal reason the lamb slain before the foundation 
 of the world, which has b( en influencing the hearts and the minds of these 
 men to give them thus knowledge of Himself. 
 
 And the third point which I would note is a point which I desire our 
 Christian brethren in this country to carefully bear in mind. Sometimes 
 we are criticised for it, and I think sometimes we make our mistakes. It is- 
 that there are phases of Christian truth and doctrine which are put before 
 Orientals as essential to Christianity which I do not believe, and which 
 some.of us do not believe are essential to Christianity. There are things, 
 taught in the name of Christ which are only Western theology, which are 
 only Western comprehensions of truth as we see it. Th^^re have l)eeni 
 things i)ut about the nature and person of Christ, about the character of 
 his atoning work, about the doctrine of retribution, about the doctrines of 
 scripture, wdiich have, instead of attracting, repelled the minds of non- 
 Christian people. 
 
 What, now, is to be done by men who believe these Western things? It 
 is hard for a man to say that he is to give another message than that which 
 seems in him truth, but I would have my brethren and sisters remember 
 that even our divine Master exercised a restraint in regard to what He 
 believed to be true when He saw that men were not in a position to accejjt 
 it; and I, for my part, believe that it is sometimes better to teach less 
 than what you believe to be the whole truth, when you have reason to know 
 that the statements, as you would put them, instead of bringing men to the 
 essential Christ, to the heart of Christiaxiity, drive them from it. 
 
 THE MOHAMMEDAN KORAN AND ITS DOCTRINES. 
 
 REV. GEORGE E. POST. 
 
 Dr. George E. Post of Bey root, Syria, was the next speaker. 
 As he stepped to the front of the platform he hekl aloft a thick 
 volume in black covers, from which in the course of his speech 
 he quoted extensively. The book was a copy of the Koran, 
 and Dr. Post's evident object in reading from it was to contrast 
 the text with some of the utterances of Mohammed Webb in his 
 address on Thursday. 
 
 I hold in my hand a book which is never touched by 200,000,000 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, a book every word of 
 which to these 200,000,000 of the human race is considered the direct 
 word of God, which came down from heaven. I propose without note or 
 comment to read to you a few words from the sacred book, and you may 
 make your own comments upon them afterward. 
 
 In Chapter Ixvi. it is said: " O Prophet, attack the infidel with arniB."
 
 614 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 And Chapter ii. savs: "And fight for the rehgion of God against those 
 wiio 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 enjoined you against the infidels, but this faithful unto 
 you; yet perchance vehate 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 tlesert who are left behind, ye shall be called forth against a mighty 
 and a warlike nation, ye shall fight against them orf they shall profess 
 Islam." And this may be translated, " until they profess Islam." In Chap- 
 ter 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 multi- 
 tude, but it was no manner of advantage to you and the earth was too 
 straightifor 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 a similar 
 
 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 asTplease you two, or three, or four, and not more." In the 
 same chapter I read: " Ye may with your substance provide wives for your- 
 selves." I read, however, that these were not sufficient provisions for the 
 Prf)phet 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 thy 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 particular 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 privilege 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 mean- 
 ing of these words. Some think that Mohammed was thereby forbidden 
 to take any more wives than nine, which number he had then, and is sup- 
 posed 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 four sorts mentioned in the passage quoted. 
 
 There is one chapter which I dare not stand before you, my sisters 
 mothers, and wives, and davighters, 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 comment of their great leaders and the- 
 ologians, those men on whom they rely for the interpretation of the Koran. 
 The chapter is called " Prohibition." If I were going to name it I should 
 call it "High License." Chapter xxiv. says: " And compel not your maid 
 servants to prostitute their bodies." In Chapter xxxiii. it is revealed to the 
 Projjhet 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 boots which God had granted
 
 MOHAMMEDAN KORAN AND TTS DOCrRINES. 
 
 01 ; 
 
 thee." Now let us lioar the Koriin on tho subject of divorce. "Yo may 
 divorce your wife twice, but if tho husband divorce her a third time she 
 shall not be lawful for him aj;ain until she marry another husband. But, 
 if he also divorces her, it sliaii be no crime in thi'm if they return to each 
 other." Chapter iv.: " If ye b(^ desirous of exehan^Mn^'' a "wifi" for another 
 wife and yo have already ^iven one of them a talent, take not anythinj; 
 away therefrom." In Chapter iv. it is said: " Ve are also forbidden {otake 
 to wife three women who are nuuriod except those women whom your 
 right hands shall possess as slaves." But this was not enout^h for the 
 Prophet. There had to bo a special 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 expenseB. 
 The Prophet had no sooner received the request tlian ho gave them their 
 option either to continue with him or be divorced. In th.is passage C>od is 
 supposed to be tho speaker. He says: "O Prophet, say unto thy wives, 
 if ye seek this present life and the pomp thereof, come, I will make a hand- 
 some provision for you, and I will dismiss you with an honorable dismis- 
 sion; but if ye seek God and his apostle, 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 Zeid, who was a winsome 
 youth, and Mohammed loved him. The father of the boy hearing 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 qualities, 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, pre- 
 ferred to remain. He 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 thvis he adopted him. This occurred 
 before the proclamation of Islam. After the revelation of Islam, Moham- 
 med gave the boy a beautiful girl named Zeinab to wife. Some years after 
 their marriage Mohammed visited the house of Zeid in the hitter'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 had determined the matter concerning them; 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 God with 
 regard to those who jjreceded him (for the command of God is a deter- 
 minate decree) who brought the messages of God and feared him, and 
 feared none besides God; and God is a sufficient accountant. Mohammed 
 is not the father of any m.aD amxuag you, but the apostle of God and the 
 seal of the prophets." 
 
 REV. DR. HAWORTH. 
 
 The closing address was given by Rev. Dr. Haworth, a mis- 
 sionary to Japan. 
 
 I fear that in the short time at my disposal I shall be like the surgeon 
 who has time only to probe the wound without applying the healing balm. 
 The only result of the operation may be to bring odium upon the operator. 
 
 k
 
 (516 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIOiONS. 
 
 There must be a sore to be treated. The announcement of the topic 
 proves that there are those who think the methods of missionaries can be 
 improved. There are plenty of missionaries who recognize this; but his 
 is not a grateful task who essays to;tind fault with a foreign missionary. 
 I quite remember the indignation aroused in Japan a few years ago when a 
 brother came over from China and, after a short stay in Japan, went back 
 and published a sharp criticism on our missionary methods. We are ah 
 ready to admit that offenses do come because of our hmitations, but woe 
 unto him who charges the offenses home to us. 
 
 Nevertheless, at the risk of failing to make myself understood in so 
 short a time, and, therefore, offending some, I venture to add my word in 
 the direction of emphasizing the need of improvement in missionary 
 methods. 
 
 Being from Japan you will naturally expect me to speak of the particu- 
 lar phases of the missionary problem which are more or less peculiar to 
 that field. Those who heard the very interesting paper of Professor 
 Kosaki on Wednesday afternoon, on this platform, will be ready to believe' 
 that in Japan, at least, it is high time for missionaries to mend their ways, 
 or get out and let Brother Kosaki and his Christian countrymen work out 
 their own salvation. 
 
 If, in the great problems before the church in Japan, the problem of rec- 
 onciling Christianity with the "National Spirit." the problem of adjusting 
 the relations between the missionaries and the Japanese Christians, the 
 problem of denominationalism and church government, the problem of 
 determining what are the essential doctrines of Christianity and of written 
 creeds, the problems which affect the very life and continuity of Christ's 
 church in Japan; if in these vital and perplexing questions the missionaries 
 can be of no service, as Mr. Kosaki says; if the Japanese must work out 
 these difRcvilt problems alone, and are able to do it. the explanation of this 
 strange situation must be, either that the missionary has done his work so 
 well that the pupil is equal in all respects to the teacher, who might as 
 well withdraw, or else the missionary has spent thirty-five years in gi'ap- 
 pling with the great problem of Christianizing Japan only to prove himself 
 in the end a colossal and preposterovis failure 
 
 And further, if the Congregationalists of Japan are substantially on the 
 side of the very theology which the American board eiiiphatically discoun- 
 tenances; if the Japanese Presbyterians almost to;a man are^sn the side of 
 Professors Briggs and Smith, while the General Association in America 
 persistently declares that those learned men are dangerous lej^ders; if 
 these two great churches in Japan, which include the large majority 'of the 
 Christian population of the country, are so wide of the mark of American 
 orthodoxy, the inference will be that the missionaries are either untrue to 
 the churches that sent them out, or that they are' unable to influence to 
 any considerable extent the^converts they have made. 
 
 And if the missionaries' influence in Japan is so startlingly small it is 
 only a question of a little time when the church of America will withdraw 
 its support and leave the church in Japan to do its own teaching and 
 preaching, and pay its own bills. The Christians of America will not give 
 money to maintain missionaries in a land where they can be only subor- 
 dinate helpers, utterly impotent in solving the vital questions of the 
 church, while so many other fields are drawing us with Macedonian cries 
 which must be answered. 
 
 Now I am not here to take exceptions to Professor Kosaki's excellent 
 paper. I know his sympathetic heart and kindly feeling toward the mission- 
 aries. I am only pointing out. from the view point of the audience which 
 heard him, the inferences which must come from his statements. With 
 other important modifications, which I have not time to make, but which I 
 am sure Professor Kosaki himself would accept, the paper gives a true pict- 
 ure of the situation in Japan.
 
 MOHAMMEDAN KORAN AND ITS DOCTRINES. CI 7 
 
 It is true the missionary has not the inHuonce he unco had in Japan and 
 still has in most other iields. And this can not be explained wholly on the 
 ground of our success there. Japan is not evanj^elized to-day. With 
 ■iO.OOO baptized Christians out of 4(),000.(H)0 people, with the rate of annual 
 increase in the church diminishing,' rather than increasinj^, with all these 
 uusolvel problems pressing upon the infant church, let not Cliristian 
 America listen for one moment to one who would say that our work for 
 Japan is done. 
 
 And to those who may feel like advising us to leave the work to the 
 Japanese workers there ought to be sufficient answer in Brother Kosaki's 
 frank portrayal of the unsteady gait of the national advance, and in the 
 pathetic confession that in all the troublous questions before the church no 
 light appears— no prophet has yet arisen in Japan who is able to lead the 
 church through the wilderness. 
 
 Noble indeed is the specter of this ancient nation struggling in the 
 throes of a new birth. History will forever preserve the unique movement 
 by which an Oriental people has laid hold on the civilization of the West. 
 But in the ebb and flow of the conflict between the old and the new it is 
 too much to expect that spiritual stability which must underlie all real 
 progress. At one time welcoming all things foreign with unthinking zeal, 
 at another raising the war-cry — there is no room in such a condition for 
 the calm vision which knows how to build for eternity. Everyone knows 
 that the perpetual motion of the pendulum is not progress. It only marks 
 the progress of other things that do move. I am here to say th;it in my 
 judgment Japan does need the missionary as much and more than ever 
 before.
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THIRTEENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 23d. 
 
 LOVE OF HUMANITY AN OUTGROWTH OF 
 RELIGION. 
 
 The three sessions of the thirteenth day of the parliament 
 in Art Institute were well attended, and the keynote of all 
 the speakers in the Hall of Columbus was peace and unity. 
 Dr. J. H. Barrows presided at the morning session; the Rev. 
 L. P. Mercer of the New Jerusalem Church was chairman in 
 the afternoon; at the evening session, in the absence of the chair- 
 man of the parliament, Rabbi Hirsch was the presiding oflBcer 
 The exercises of the morning were opened by repeating the 
 Lord's Prayer. 
 
 RELIGION AND THE LOVE OF MANKIND. 
 
 EX-GOVERNOE HOYT OF WYOMING. 
 
 After Rev. Walter M. Barrows led in the universal prayer, 
 Dr. J. H. Barrows said: " We have the pleasure of having with 
 us this morning J. W. Hoyt of Washington, formerly Governor 
 of Wyoming, a gentleman who has been connected with philan- 
 thropic work for many years. He has been present as an 
 official, I believe, at all the world's expositions excepting the 
 first, and he had charge of the Russian famine relief fund in 
 Washington. He can probably say to us a few words at the 
 opening of this day in which international obligations will be 
 considered by the parliament." 
 
 Mr. Hoyt, who was greeted with a round of applause, 
 said: 
 
 After such an introduction I regret the necessity to say that owing to 
 the great pressure of duties in connection with u.3 exposition, and to the 
 
 618
 
 RELIGION AND THE LOVE OF MANKIND. 610 
 
 abfiiimptioD that I should merely for a moment address this body of i)eoi)le, 
 I uo not appear before you with any elaborate paper, but with such 
 thoughts only as I have been able to collect during the last one or two 
 days. 
 
 Let us thank God that, in this first great parliament of all the religious 
 faiths, a day has been set apart for the study of " religion and the love of 
 mankind." During the lasi two weeks distinguished representatives of all 
 the great religions of the world have ably, and with a courtesy and spiritual 
 grace that can never be forgotten, presented the cardinal doctrines which 
 serve to identify and distinguish them. The benefit that will come of this 
 friendly association of the great and good of all nationalities is beyond the 
 power of calculation. Having severally met and heard the representatives 
 of other faiths than our own, and found in them the same high purpose 
 and devotion to the truth of which we are ourselves conscious, our sympa- 
 thies must have broadened and our hope in the greater future been newly 
 kindled. 
 
 If it should seem that none have yet set forth in the most simple and 
 explicit terms what religion is in the truest and highest sense, it has, 
 nevertheless, become apparent that it is not a mere form of worship, with 
 however rich an adornment of symbol and ceremony; that it is not any 
 particular body of theological dogmas, however interesting, historically, 
 intellectually, or ethically. It has surely come to be understood that in a 
 generic way it comprehends all frames of sentiment, all sorts of faith, all 
 forms of worship to which man is moved by his fears, or drawn by his 
 hopes toward the everywhere apprehended, if not always clearly recog- 
 nized, sources of infinite power and goodness; and finally, that while its 
 mainspring. on the part of man is the love and worship of the Supreme 
 Author and Supporter of all things, yet in the mind of God the great office 
 of religion is to insure the present and eternal welfare ofmankind. 
 
 Religion is a fact of man's existence, has its origin not in any conceiv- 
 able need on the part of God, whose infinity of perfections excludes even 
 the most shadowy tliought of the want of any sort, but rather in the finite- 
 ness 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 insuffi- 
 ciency, is everywhere and always feeling after God. In other words, religion 
 is to be recognized as an outgrowth of the very constitution of man, with 
 his numberless wants of the body so fearfully and wonderfully made; of 
 the Godlike intellect and will so equal to the discovery of natural laws and 
 to a final conquest of the material world, of the undying soul, so capable 
 of unutterable anguish as well as of a joy almost divine. Aye, it is because 
 of this very constitution of man that there lias 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 mankind. 
 
 Of all this there can be no question. But there is a very serious ques- 
 tion of how far the several religions of the world can actually 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 of useless theories and forms 
 as to have been lost sight of and then made of no effect. Is not this a 
 question of profound importance? And where is the religious organization 
 that does not quake when it is propounded? 
 
 And there is yet another question of even greater practical moment, 
 namely, whether religious faiths, thus made confiicting 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 redemi^tion 
 from the bondage of sin, and for his advancement to the dignity and glory 
 of the ideal man as he was in the mind of God when He said, "Let us 
 make man in our own image."
 
 620 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The religion that the world needs, and will at last have, is one that shall 
 make ior the rescue and elevation of mankind in every realm and to the 
 highest possible degree— one in which the lofty ideas of the most perfect 
 living here, and of endless progress toward perfection in the great here- 
 after, shall so engage the powers and aspirations of its votaries as to leave 
 no thought for the profitless theories which, at present, so absorb and divide 
 the champions of the many faiths. There had been substantial and valu- 
 able 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 had its first full and complete expression in Jesus 
 of Nazareth, who, by His supreme teachings, sounded the depths and swejjt 
 the heavens of both ethical and religious truth. One searches the litera- 
 ture of all kinds and all peoples in vain for treasures comparable with the 
 sermon on the Mount. If it were studied and practically accepted of all 
 men, how (luickly it would revolutionize society everywhere. 
 
 Thou shiilt 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 the prophets. 
 
 How grandly simple this declaration, so comprehensive of all there is 
 that is vital. Who 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 living and doing will 
 himself be transformed and exiled. " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self." What meaning there is in this divine commandment. "As thyself." 
 Here is a theme for many volumes ; involving the science of living, the art 
 of living, the high duty 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 multitude but 
 dwarfed, crippled, diseased, and comparatively feeble caricatures 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 power as fit them for man's intended mastery 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 conception of the grand possibilities of the 
 moral forces of mankind. 
 
 Finally, can it be doubted, that having this perfect love of God and 
 this true and exalted love of self, man would spontaneously love his neigh- 
 bor? Nay, does not that love of the heavenly father necessarily imply a 
 love of one's fellows since the fatherhood of God involve 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." "For all the law is fulfilled in 
 one word," said the Apostle Paul; "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self." 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 man has been a divine theory of exalted man 
 in all the ages. It is only the Cains of the world who had dared openly to 
 ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?" In the earlier ages the fraternal senti- 
 rnent found no higher expression than in the negative comment of the 
 divine Buddha. " Do not unto others what ye would not have them do unto 
 you." But in the divine Christ it found affirmative expression in these 
 positive words: " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye 
 ven so unto them." 
 
 In this doctrine is founded the fraternities of peoples as well as the
 
 RELIGION AND THE LOVE OF MANKIND. 621 
 
 brotherhood of iiulividual man. Wo eometimes forget that the individual 
 man stands for the race and that the law of Christ, '• Do unto others what- 
 soever ye would have them do unto you," is as bin(Unf^ upon peoples, upon 
 the afi^gregations of men in their relation and intereourse with other 
 peoples as it is upon me or upon you as individuals in the world. How 
 forgetful has been mankind of the sublime truths of tho brotherhood of 
 man in all the ages. What have meant the wars in all history? Has not 
 the history of the race been written in blood? Is it not a fact that even 
 religious congregations and the champions of variovis faiths have drawn 
 the sword and mingled in the strife? Let us thank (iod for the dawn of a 
 better era — that time is coming, aye, is at hand, when no nation on earth 
 will dare to chaw the sword, or set forth the glistening bayonet without the 
 universal consent of mankind. There is a duty of self-preservatitm which 
 the individual man and the individual nation must recognize. Aggressive 
 warfare without a submission of one's rights and claims to justice before a 
 high court of arbitration representing all the nations, let us hope, is at an 
 end. If there were established, and there will be established at an early 
 day, a high court of international arbitration that will lay down the law, 
 that will expound and apply the law, if indeed necessary, to the extent of 
 making the repudiating nation, the nation that shall refuse obedience to 
 that law, an outlaw in the world. With that time shall come the reign of 
 peace for which our truly beloved bishop and these priestly men from many 
 lands have struggled long. I hope this Parliament of Religions will go forth 
 as an army with Christian banners bearing upon them the high symbols of 
 the cross and all symbols that represent religion and humanity and make 
 peace for all nations. I believe the day is at hand. Let us join one and 
 all in the devout prayer to Almighty God that it may early come, that all 
 may unite in the grand chorus: *' Glory to God in the highest; peace on 
 earth, good will toward all men." 
 
 Dr. Barrows then read the following letter from Germanus, 
 
 the metropolitan bishop of Athens: 
 
 Athens, Greece, July 28, 1893. 
 Most Honorable President: With great desire we have accepted 
 your letter of invitation, accompanied with exact explanation of the pro- 
 gramme of the Religious Congress soon to be held. We have been very 
 glad in our hearts for that happy idea of assembling such a religious con- 
 gress, in which, with such scientific exactness and entirety, all the existing 
 differences of all the religions of earth will be examined and discussed, and 
 that which surpasses will be brought to light, and that those who are far 
 from the truth, if they do not come immediately into a re dizing sense of 
 the text of scripture which holds the promise that we will be one faith, 
 one shepherd under our Jesus Christ, they will at least approach to it, and 
 be gradually illuminated by the lightof the true faith, and walking straight 
 in the roads of the gospel by the grace of the Holy Ghost, and holding 
 unshaken faith which the blessed preachers of God, the apostles, after hav- 
 ing received it, delivered by word or by epistle to those who are with them. A 
 great sorrow holds me because I could not fulfill this my great desire either 
 by my presence or by representative. Meanwhile, being absent and far 
 away bodily, but being present by my spirit, I never cease to send up my 
 prayers to the Highest, and to require a beam of light from the divinity which 
 shall illumine your greav congress, and serve as a reward of your labors in 
 bringing it together. 
 
 With great respect, I am yours truly, 
 
 Metropolite of Athens, Ghermanus.
 
 (522 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 THE GROUNDS OF SYMPATHY AND FRATERNITY 
 AMONG RELIGIOUS MEN. 
 
 A. M. POWELL OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF NEW YOEK. 
 
 It is in behalf of one of the smaller religious bodies, the Society of 
 Friends, that I am invited to speak to you. In the time allotted, it would 
 be quite impossible to cover exhaustively the whole held of my broad sub- 
 ject, "The Grounds of Sympathy and Fraternity Among Religious Men." 
 
 It is altogether natural and proper that in form and method and ritual 
 there should be diversity, great diversity, among the peoples interested in 
 religion throughout the world, but it is also possible, as it is extremely 
 desu-able, that there should be unity and fraternity and co-operation in the 
 promulgation of simple, spiritual truth. To illustrate my thought I may 
 Bay that not very long ago I went to one of the great Salvation Arm.y 
 meetings in New York with two of my personal friends, who were also 
 members of the Society of Friends. It was one of those meetings full of 
 enthusiasm, with volleys innumerable, and we metthatgifted and eloquent 
 queen of the army, Mrs. Ballington 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 much in common; you add a little quiet, and we 
 add a little noise." 
 
 The much in common between these two very. different peoples, the 
 noisy Salvationists and the quiet 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 fraternity among relig- 
 ious men and religious women. Every people on the face of the earth has 
 some conception of the sui>reme and the 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 complete ideal of all. It embraces 
 most fully the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of mankind. 
 
 Justice and mercy and love it maintains as due from each to all. There 
 are no races, there are no territorial limitations or exceptions. Even the 
 most untutored have always been found to be amenable to the presentation 
 of this fundamental Christian thought exemplified in a really Christian 
 life. Here I may illustrate by the experience of William Penn among the 
 Indians of North America. He came to them as their brother and as' their 
 friend, to exemplify the principles of justice and truth. It is a matter of 
 history that the relations between Penn and the Quakers and the Indians 
 have been exceptional and harmonious on the basis of this ideal brother- 
 hood of man. Alas, that all the Indians in America might not have had 
 representatives of this Quaker humane thought to deal with ! What a dif- 
 ferent page would have been written in American history. 
 
 Many years later another Friend was sent out under President Grant's 
 administration to labor as asupsrintendent among the Indians — the noble- 
 hearted, true Quaker, Samuel M. Janney. As he went among the Indians 
 committed to his charge, he not only undertook to deal with them with refer- 
 ence to their material interests, but he also sought to labor among them as 
 their friend and in a certain sense as a religious helper and teacher. He 
 talked with those Indians in Nebraska about spiritual things. They could 
 understand about the Great Spirit as they Hstened to him, and he told 
 them, furthermore, the wonderful story of Jesus of Nazareth, 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 Father, 
 but he could not impress them, in the face of their sad experience with a 
 so-called Christian nature, with the virtues of the Son. 
 
 Finally one old chief said to him: " We know about the Father, but the 
 Son has not been along this way yet."
 
 FRATERNITY AMONG RELIGIOUS MEN. ('.23' 
 
 f do not wonder in tlie lif;ht of the record whicli this Bo-culled ChriBtiiin 
 nation had made in dealing,' with those Indians, that they thought tliat 
 they had never seen the Son out that way yet. It is, ahis, to our shame as 
 a people that it must bo said as a matter of historic truth that the very 
 reverse of the Christian spirit has been the spirit shown in deahng with 
 the In.tiaus, who have been treated with bad faith and untold cruelty. 
 
 A fresh and living instance of this spirit is illustrated in the chapter we 
 are now writing so shamefully in our dealings with the Chinesi^. We are 
 sending missionaries abroad to China, but what are we teaching by example 
 in America with reference to the Chinese but the godless doctrine that 
 they have no rights which we are bound to respect? We are receiving 
 lessons, valuable and varied, from these distinguished representatives of 
 other religions, but what are we to say in their presence of our shortcom- 
 ings measured by the standard of our high Christian ideal, which recog- 
 nizes the brotherhood of all mankind and God as the common Father? 
 
 I want to say that the potential religious life — and it is a lesson which 
 is being emphasized day by day by this wonderful parliament — is n(jt a 
 crt'ed but character. It is for this message that the waiting multitude 
 listens. We have many evidences of this. Among the recent deaths on this 
 side of the Atlantic which awaken world-wide echoes of lamentation and 
 regret, there has been no one so missed and so mourned, as a religious 
 teacher in this century, as Phillips Brooks. 
 
 One thing above all else which characterized the ministry of Phillips 
 Brooks was his interpretation, as a spiritual power in the life, of the indi- 
 vidual human soul. The one {>oet who has voiced this thought most widely 
 in our own and in other countries, whose words are to be found in the after- 
 part of the general programme of this parliament, is the Quaker poet, 
 Whittier. His words are adapted to world-wide use by all who enter into 
 the spirit of Cliristianity 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 are doing here, but wemust seek them especially in the direc- 
 tion of unity and action for the removal of the world's great evils. 
 
 I believe we stand to-day at the dividing of the ways, and whether or 
 not there shall follow this Parliament of Religions any permanent com- 
 mittee, or any general organization, looking to the creation of a universal 
 church, I do hope that one outcome of this great commingling 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-gov- 
 ernor 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 Bering Sea arbitration. 
 What a blessing that is as compared with the old-fashioned method of set- 
 tling differences between this country and Great Britain by going to war. 
 We may rejoice and take courage in this fresh illustration of the practica- 
 bility 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 Bering Sea dispute. Among the exhibits down yonder 
 at the White City, which you doubtless have seen, is the great Krupp gun. 
 It is a marvelous piece 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 name or form, wdl 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.
 
 624 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 This parliament has laid very broad foundations. It is presenting? an 
 object lesson of immense value. In June I had the privilege of assisting 
 here in another World's Congress wherein were representatives of various 
 nationalities and countries. We had on the platform the distinguished 
 Archbishop of St. Paul, that great liberal Catholic, Archbishop Ireland. 
 Sitting near him was Father Cleary, his neighbor and friend— another 
 noble man. Sitting near those two Catholics was Adjutant Vickery, of the 
 Salvation Army, the representative of Mrs. Ballington Booth, who was 
 unable through sickness to be present. Near these were several members 
 of the Society of Friends, and along with them were some Episcopalians, 
 Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and one Unitarian whose face I see 
 here to-day. All these were tremendously in earnest to strike a blow at 
 one of the great obstacles to the progress of Christian life in Europe — state 
 regulated vice. 
 
 I can not deal with that subject now, but I may say that it is the most 
 infamous system of slavery of womanhood and girlhood the world has ever 
 seen. It exists in most European countries, and it has its champions in 
 America, who have been seeking by their propagandism, to fasten it upon 
 our large cities. It is one of the most vital questions of this era, and it 
 should be the care and responsibility of religious people everywhere to see 
 that as speedily as possible this great shame shall be wiped away from 
 modern civilization. 
 
 Let me tell you an incident that occurred in Geneva, Switzerland, three 
 or four years ago. There jumped out of a four-story window down to the 
 court below a beautiful young girl. Marvelously, her life was spared. A 
 noble Christian woman, whom I count it a privilege to number among my 
 personal friends, went to this poor girl's side and got her story. In sub- 
 stance it was this: 
 
 She had been sold for a price in Berlin to one of the brothel keepers of 
 Geneva, and, as his property, 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 providentially her life was 
 spared. What must be the nature of the oppression that will thus drive 
 its victim to the desperate 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 fearful 
 responsibility. Though it may not have the actual system of State regu- 
 lation, we call ourselves a Christian country, and yet, in this beloved 
 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 capable of consent- 
 ing to her own ruin. Shame, indeed; it is a shame; a ten-fold shame. I 
 appeal in passing, for league and unity among religious people for the 
 overthrow of this system in European countries, and the rescue and 
 redemption of our own land from this gigantic evil which threatens us 
 here. 
 
 I now pass to another overshadowing evil; the ever-pressing drink evil. 
 There was another congress held here in June; it was to deal witn the vice 
 of intemperance. I had the privilege of looking over forty consular reports 
 prepared at the request of the late Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine. In 
 every one of these reports intemperance was shown to be a producing 
 cause of a large part of the vice, immorality, and crime in those countries. 
 There is need of an alliance on the part of religious people for the removal 
 of this great evil which stands in the pathway of practical Christian prog- 
 ress. 
 
 Now, another thought in a different direction. What the world greatly
 
 THf: t;SSENTlALS OP kELlGiON. 625 
 
 needs to-day in all fountries is greater Bimplicity in connection with the 
 religious life and propagantlism. The Society of Friends, in whose behalf 
 I appear before y(ni, may fairly claim to have been teachers by example in 
 that direction. Wo want to banish the si)irit of worldlin(>ss from every 
 laud which has taken pcjssession 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 tlu^ prisons of Old England 
 and of New England in the direction of divinely inspired womanhood. We 
 believe 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 1)6 leagues and alliances to help bring about this needed change. The 
 individual stands alone, unaided, comparatively powerless, l)ut in organ- 
 ization there is great jxiwer and in the fullness of the life of the S|)irit, applied 
 through organization, it is possible to transform the world for its benefit 
 in many (hrections. 
 
 Someone has described salvation as being simply harmonious relation- 
 ship between CJod 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 nationalities, to bring about 
 this greater harmony between each other and between God, the Father of 
 us all. Then, finally, in all lands and in every soul, the lowliest as well as 
 the highest, may this more and more become the joyous refrain of each, 
 " Nearer, My God, to Thee; nearer to Thee." 
 
 THE ESSENTIALS OF RELIGION. 
 
 EEV. ALFRED W. MOMERIE OF LONDON, ENGLAND. 
 
 We who have attended the sessions of these congresses have, I think, 
 learned one great lesson, viz., that there is a unity of religion vmderlying 
 the diversity of religions, and that the important work before us is not so 
 much to 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 Columlnis as a center, it will spread and spread 
 and spread, until it at last reaches the f urtherest limits of the habitable 
 globe. 
 
 There is a story told of a man of a theological 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 falling 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 religion. 
 She told him that about all there was left of the once flourishing commu- 
 nity was "myself and Jock" (meaning her husband), "and I am not sovei-y 
 sure of Jock," she added. My own views at one time very much coincided 
 with the old lady's. 1 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 to-day 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 them, for it is the clergymen who are responsible
 
 626 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 mainly for the bigotry of the laity. I am glad 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 fiame. But there have 
 been one or two glorious exceptions. I should like to quote you two or 
 three verses from one of your own bishops: 
 
 The pari.sh priest. 
 
 Of austerity, 
 
 Climbed up in a high church steeple. 
 
 To be nearer God, 
 
 So that he might hand 
 
 His word down to the people. 
 
 And in sermon script. 
 
 He daily wrote 
 
 What ho thought was sent from heaven; 
 
 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 my 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 discover 
 whether there are any subjects in regard to which the great religious 
 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 tliebloodof bullocks or of he-goats. Bring no more vain oblations: 
 incense is an abomination unto me; your new moons and Sabbath I can not jiway 
 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 evil 
 thoughts, words, and works to hell. Confucius was so anxious to fix men's 
 attention on their duty that he would enter into no metaphysical specula- 
 tion 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 himself, without the mediation of a priest. On 
 one occasion, when he met a sacrificial procession, he explained to his fol- 
 lowers that it was idle to shed the blood of bulls and goats, that all they 
 needeci was change of heart. So, too, he insisted on the uselessness of fasts 
 and penances and other forms of ritual. 
 
 Neither going naked, nor shaving the head, nor wearing matted hair, 
 nor dirt, nor rough garments, nor reading the Vedas will cleanse a man. 
 * * * Anger, drunkenness, envy, disparaging 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 cleansi' the iieart. 
 
 That is the religion of the Buddhas. 
 
 And in the farewell address which he delivered to his disciples he 
 called his religion by the name of Purity. "Learn," he exhorted, "and 
 
 J
 
 THE ESSENTIALS OF RELIGION. 627 
 
 spread abroad the law thought out and revealed by me, that this purity of 
 mine may last long and be perpetuated for the good and happiness of mul- 
 titudes." To the same ett'ect spoke Christ: "Not everyone that sayeth 
 unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but ho that dooth 
 the will of My Father." Mohammed again taught the selfsame doctrine 
 of justification by work: 
 
 It is not the flesh ami biood yc sucriflced; it is your piety, which is acceptable 
 to (it)(l. • * * Woo to thoiu that iiuilve u show of piety and refuse to iielp the needy. 
 It is not ligliteoiisness that ye turn your faces in prayer toward the East or toward 
 tne ^V('st, but ritjhtoousness is of those who perforin the covenants which they 
 have covenanted. 
 
 This was the teaching of the great religious teachers of the world. But 
 these old forms of religion are hardly now recognizable. You have only U) 
 read Davies' Book on Buddhism and the great poem to which reference has 
 been made, and you will see 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 substance 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 asttnder 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 subtleties, 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 Vv'ith the religion as religion 
 was understood by the greatest teachers— the true religion which tlie world 
 has had. That is a fact which all the great religious teachers of the world 
 have agreed upon, that conduct was the only thing needful. 
 
 But it may be objected that a religion of conduct is nothing but moral- 
 ity. Some people have a great contempt for morality, and I am not sur- 
 prised at it. They are accustomed to call men moral who restrain them- 
 selves from murder and manage just to steer clear of the divorce court. 
 That kind of morality is a contemptible thing. That is not real morality. 
 We shoidd imderstand 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 morality involves religion. Don't mis- 
 understand me; I am far from denying the imjiortance of an explicit recog- 
 nition 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 v/hom he hath not seen?" Nor is an explicit 
 recognition of God the essence of religion. Who shall define essence of 
 religion? If a man say that he loves God and hatelh 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. Religion may be lacking in metaphyi-ical 
 completeness; it may be lacking in original consislency; it may be lacking 
 in it.sthetical develo()ment; 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, tlu>refore it follows that there 
 must be implicit recognition of God. I tell you there is a strange surprise 
 awaiting some of us in the great here;ifter. We shall discover that many
 
 628 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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," 
 
 INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. 
 
 THOMAS J. SEMMES OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 During six and a half centuries, from Numa to Augustus, the temple of 
 Janus was closed only six years. Roman civilization is characterized 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 religions; the manner in which the 
 Christians regarded things, human and divine, was essentially opposed to 
 the Roman view and inspired a profound antipathy. It is no doubt true 
 that in proportion as the intellectual faculties develop, men learn to appre 
 ciate their superiority over the material element. But intellectual develop- 
 ment of itself does not weaken the influence of the body on the soul; it only 
 impresses on the passions more retined tendencies. It stimulates gener- 
 ous emotions, such as the love of glory and patriotism; it excites in the ego- 
 tist the thirst for riches and honors. This is the reason why the military 
 spirit is manifested even in an advanced state of civilization; 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 really no 
 existence, the Roman world was in fact a federation of peoples, under the 
 same ruler as sovereign 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 different. At a later period appear- 
 ances 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 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 deso'ation, was com- 
 pletely 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 foreign power was arranged 
 by Pope John XV., A. D. 1002. and drawn up in his name. In 1298 Boni- 
 f:ice VIII. acted as arbitrator between Phil Bel and Edward I. 
 
 Since the French revolution the condition of society has changed; 
 slavery has been abolished throughout Christendom; the liberty as well 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 rehabilitation; 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 funda- 
 mentally Christian, not Pagan, for Paganism defied force, duty, pleasure, 
 and it believed the unfortunate deserved the anger of God. This society
 
 INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. 625 
 
 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 nations, 
 and statesmen think that international wars will disappear before the arbi- 
 tration tribunal — before a more advanced civilization. In 1883 the Senate 
 of the United States voted in favor of insertinj^ in our treaties an arbitra- 
 tion clause, the arbitrators to consist of eminent juris consults not engaged 
 in politics. President Grant, in his message to Congress in 1873, mystically 
 said: "I am disposed to believe that the Author of the Universe is jjrepar- 
 ing the world to become a single nation, speaking the same language, which 
 will iiereafter render armies and navies superfluous." In 1874 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 Presi- 
 dent was authorized 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 '-toguar- 
 antee peace on earth." The United States, in many instances, has adiled 
 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 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 international arbitra- 
 tions, and the advance of public opinion toward that mode of settling 
 national controversies may be measured by the gradual increase of arbitra- 
 tions during the course of the century. Prom 1793 to 1818, a period of hfty- 
 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 thirteen of these arbitrations, the United States, other 
 American states, and European nations were interested in twenty-three. 
 Asiatic and African states were interested in three, and European nations 
 only were interested in eighteen. 
 
 The most celebrated, the most delicate, and the most difficult arbitration 
 of the century, is that which at Geneva adjudicated the claims of the 
 United States against Great Britain, for non-conformance of its duty as a 
 neutral during the late Civil War. The most interesting arbitration of the 
 century was that in which the highest representative of moral force in the 
 world was accepted in 1885 by the apologist of material force to mediate 
 between Germany and Spain. Leo XIII. revived the role of the Popes in 
 the middle ages. The sensibilities of both nations had been intensely 
 excited by events at the Carolines and at Madrid; under these circum- 
 stances the acceptance of mediation by Spanish pride and German pride 
 forces us to acknowledge, says Frederick Papy, "that the spirit of peace 
 has made progress in the public conscience and in the intelligence of govern- 
 ments." 
 
 Peace leagues and international conferences, and associations for the 
 advancement of social science, have for over thirty years endeavored to 
 elaliorate an international code with organized arbitration. The French 
 opened to the world the Suez Canal by an analagous phenomenon. Laborers 
 group themselves into unions and hold their international congresses, and 
 substitute the patriotism of class for the patriotism of peoples and form, as 
 it were, a state in the midst of 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 railways transport 
 with extraordinary velocity men and merchandise from one extremity of
 
 G30 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 soli- 
 darity suggests success in formulating some plan for reorganizing a perma- 
 nent judicial 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 
 right to iaviolability. There may be some countrieslof large and some of 
 small territories, but these are not large or small countries, because as 
 nations they are 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 arbitra- 
 tion depends npon the practicability of so organizing it as to secure 
 impartiality. Many suggestions have been made by the wise and the learned, 
 by philosophers, statesmen, and philanthropists, but none seem 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 jurist of high authority, in his 
 introduction to the recent work of Count Kamarowski, entitled "The 
 International Tribunal," makes an interesting quotation from the Specta- 
 tor and English Revieui, in which the writer says: 
 
 Humanity is in search of an arbitrator whose impartiality is indisputable. In 
 many respects the Pope 13 by position designed for this oflHce. He occupies a 
 rank which permits monaichs as well as republics to have recourse to iiim with- 
 out sacrifice of dignity. As a conseriuence of liis mission the Pope is not only 
 impartial between all nations, but ho is at such a degree of elevation that their 
 differences are imperceptible 10 him. The dilficulty about religion is becoming 
 weaker every day. No country can liave stronger prejudices on this subjectthan 
 Germany, yet Prince Bismarck has consented t<> ajiply to the liead of the Roman 
 Church. Evidently the Carolines are of little importance to Prince Bismarck, 
 but that the fact that the most liaughty statesman of Europe recognizes, in 
 the face of the world, that he can witliout loss of dignity submithis conduct in au 
 international atTairt(j the judgment of tlie Pope, is an extraoi'dinary 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 200,000,000 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 hegem- 
 ony can not affect his judgment, religion and state are practically disas- 
 sociated throughout Christendom, so that in matters of religion all are free 
 to follow the dictates of conscience without fear of the civil power, and 
 therefore political motives can not disturb his equililirium; provision could 
 be made for the exceptional controversies to which his native country 
 might be a party. 
 
 The Pope, if selected at all, wo uld exert the atithority thus vested in 
 him by virtue of the assent of nations, and the nature of the authority 
 would be civil, the exercise of which would commit no one to hopeless 
 supremacy or to ecclesiastical doctrines based on it. Indeed, to avoid all 
 religious objections, the exceptional position of the Pope might perhaps be 
 better used, not to decide controversies, but to select arbitrators, or a 
 majority of them, for that purpose, under regulations to be prescribed by 
 treaty. 
 
 What a blessing to the world would be the adoption of some plan of arbi- 
 tration, what a relief especially to Europe! The Paris Figaro, in speaking of
 
 RELIGION AND THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 631 
 
 European armaments, ;il)out a niontli ago, said: " In 1870 Europe devoted 
 annually for preparations lor war the sum of about three milhirds; at pres- 
 ent the annual expenditure for the same purpose is five millards. In 1870 
 Europe kept on a peace footing a littl;^ more than 2.000,000 men; to-day 
 she keeps a little more than o,500,00() men. In 1870 Europe ( stimatod that 
 in case of war she coukl place in line as a su))r(>me effort about 7,000,000 
 men; to-tlay she could have 12,500,000, and her legislation tends to carry 
 that number to 22,000,000." 
 
 •' The ogre of war," says Bastiat, " devours as much for its digestions 
 as it does for its repasts." Two-thirds or three-fourths of the budget of 
 each nation are ilevoted to the work of death. Personal and ol)ligat()ry 
 service have motUhed the conditions of war. "All the ])eoples," says Jides 
 Simon, "employ all their money to prepare all their men for a war which 
 all the peoples dread and all the men abhor." Nations are no longer 
 l)(^liind their armies, they are the armies themselves. A general mol)iliza- 
 tion embraces the entire available population; only the men over forty-tive 
 years of age and the women and children are nt)t enrolled in the regiments; 
 civil and sociallife are susijonded. Science perfects tactics and armament; 
 she is mistress of war and changes from hour to hour its implements, its 
 methods, and its dimensions. "War," as was said by the King of the Bel- 
 gians in 1887, " has become terrible, and those whom it takes by surprise 
 are lost." 
 
 In the next war, armies will not be confronted, but nations, and the con- 
 querors, exhausted by their victories, will contrive to forever extinguish in 
 the conquered the idea of revenge, hence Europe hesitates at the ijerspec- 
 tive of this supreme shock, and in the year 1891 one of Italy's statesmen, 
 in a public discourse, gave warning to his countrymen that the certainty 
 of victory and the certainty of acquiring glory would not compensate for 
 the infinite injury of the disastrous conflict. 
 
 WHAT CAN RELIGION FURTHER DO TO ADVANCE 
 THE CONDITION OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO? 
 
 MKS. FANNIE BARRIEK WILLIAMS. 
 
 Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams of Chicago was introduced 
 to the audience by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, who said : 
 
 The president has accorded me the privilege of presenting to you the 
 next speaker, my friend, helper, and parishioner; one whose heart is in sym- 
 pathy with all that is helpful. In this city the Providence Craudall Club 
 has been a force that has done much. I was almost on the point of saying 
 it has done more toward breaking down color lines on the levels of culture 
 and refinement than any other force I know of, and the speaker whom 
 I am now about to present has been one of the vital forces in that club, and 
 I still hope that it will not be many months before Providence Crandall will 
 be presented to the younger American people in her true light, and be no 
 longer a forgotten heroine in the great cause of emancipation. When the 
 American peoples recognize in Providence Crandall what she is, the great 
 pioneer in the cause of equal rights, it will be because Fannie Williams 
 will have adequately -written her biography, upon which she is now at work. 
 
 Mrs. Williams said: 
 
 The strength and weakness of the Christian religion as believed, 
 preached, and practiced in the United States, is aptly illustrated in its 
 influence as a civilizing and educational force among the colored jjeople of
 
 632 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 this country. The negro was brought to this country by Christians for 
 the use of Christians, and he has ever since been treated, estimated, and 
 cau^'ed bv what are called Christian ideas of right and wrong. 
 
 The neo-ro 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 
 product of Christian influences. The vices and virtues of the American 
 neo-ro are the same in kind and degree as those of the men and women 
 fnnu whom he has been learning, by precept and example, all that he 
 kncnvs of God and humanity. The fetiches and crudities of the dark con- 
 tinent 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 belong 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 instru- 
 ment 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 musf not be disturbed, 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 wide. 
 
 Such was the false, pernicious, and demoralizing gospel preached to the 
 American slave for two hundred years. But, bad as this teaching was, it 
 was scarcely so demoralizing as the Christian ideals held up for the negro's 
 emulation. When mothers saw their babes sold by Christians on the 
 auction block in order to raise money to send missionaries 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 igno- 
 rant as to how far false 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 vinder the old dispensation of the slave Bible. But it is 
 not any 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 people 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 servants. 
 
 Knowing full well that the religion ofl'ered 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 netrro 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 and revenge in 
 every violent form, when to ravage and to kill was the all-controlling pas- 
 sion 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
 
 RELIGION AND THE AMERICAN NEGRO. G33 
 
 that degradation, left their widows, their daughters, their mothers, wealth, 
 and all the precious interests 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 responsibility. Nowhere in Christen- 
 dom has such nobleness of heart and moral fortitude been exampled among 
 any people, and a recollection of the negro's conduct under this extraordi- 
 nary 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 col- 
 ored American, in spite of his lack of real religious instructicm. The Afri- 
 can Methodist Eijiscopal Church, with its million members, vast pnjpcrty 
 in churches, schools, academies, publications, and learned men and women, is 
 an enduring monument to the righteous protest of Christians to establish 
 the mean sentiment of caste in religion and degrade us to a footstool posi- 
 tion at the shrine of Christian worship. The colored churches of all 
 denominations in this country are not evidences of our unfitness for relig- 
 ious equality, but they are so many evidences of the negro's religious hero- 
 ism 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 earth or in heaven. 
 
 There is another and brighter side to the question as to how far the 
 Christian religion has helped the colored jjeoijle of America to 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 susceptible to the higher influences 
 of the false teachings thereof. Though the Bible was not an open book 
 to the negro before emancipation, thousands of the enslaved men and 
 women of the negro race learned more than was taught to them. Thou- 
 sands of them realized the deeper meanings, the sweeter consolations, and 
 the spiritual awakenings that are a part of the religious experiences of all 
 Christians. These thousands were the nucleus out of v/hich 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. womanhoo I -of the negro race, and at all times gave the 
 benefit of the best religious teachmgs 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 citizenship 
 stripped of all possessions, unfurnished with intelligence, untrained in the 
 school of self-sacrifice and moral restraint, v/ith no way out of the wilder- 
 ness of their ignorance of all things, and no leadership. They saw these 
 people with no home or household organizations, no social order, no 
 churches, no schools, and in the midst of i)eople who, by training and 
 instinct, could not recognize the manhood of the race. They saw the gov- 
 ernment give these people the certificate of freedom and citizenship with- 
 out telling them what it meant. They saw politicians covint these people 
 as so many votes and laughed at them when pleading for schools of learn- 
 ing 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 Chris- 
 tian churches came instantly, heroically, and powerfully to the rescue. 
 They began at once not only to create a sentiment favorable to the uprising
 
 034 ' THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of these people, but began the all-important work of building schools 
 
 and churchcB. , . . , i, ^.i » • i ^ u 
 
 They aroused the philanthropic impulse of the American people to such 
 a degree that millions of money and an army of men and women have cov- 
 ered the hills of the South with agencies of regeneration 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 crim- 
 inal offense to teach black men and women to read and write, have, under 
 the blessed influence of the missionary work of the churches, been wonder- 
 fully converted, and are now making appropriations for the education of 
 colored childrtm and founding and maintaining institutions 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 educa- 
 tion among us. That the whole South should commit itself to the principle 
 that the colored people have a right to be educated is an immense acquisi- 
 tion 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 thousands of the best homes in the country. The moral 
 force that vouched for the expenditure of nearly S40,000,0U0, 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 development of the negro 
 race. Bearing in mind all this good work done by the churches since eman- 
 cipation, 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 limitation to their development. 
 
 At the risk of underestimating church work in 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 char- 
 acter 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 answer to 
 the question. What can religion further do to advance the condition of 
 the colored people of the South? It is not ditficult to specify wherein 
 church i iterests have failed and wherein religion could have helped to 
 improve these people. In the first place the churches have sent among us 
 too many ministers who have had no sort of preparation and fitness for the 
 work assigned them. With a due regard for the highly capable colored 
 ministers of the country, I feel no hesitancy in saying that the advance- 
 ment of our condition is more hindered by a large part of the ministry 
 intrusted with leadership than by any other single cause. 
 
 Only men of moral mental force, of a patriotic regard for the relation- 
 ship of the two races, can be of real service as ministers in the South. 
 Lsss theology and more of human brotherhood, less declamation and more 
 common sense and love for truth, must be the qualifications 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
 
 RELIGION AND THE AMERICAN NEGRO. G35 
 
 to righteousness. The tendency of creeds and doctrine to obscure 
 rehgiou, to make complex that which is elemental and simjile, to suggest 
 partisanship and doubt in that which is universal and certain, has seriously 
 hindered the moral ])rogress()f the colored people of this country. 
 
 The home and social life of these people is in urgent need of the purify- 
 ing power of religion. We do not yet sutKciently api^reciate the fact that 
 the heart of every social evil and disorder among the colored people, espe- 
 cially 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 
 Bociety. 
 
 In nothing was slavery so savage and so relentless as in its attempted 
 destruction of the family instincts of the negro race in America. Individ- 
 uals, not families; shelters, not home; herding, not marriages; were the 
 cardinal sins in that system of horrors Who can ever express in song or 
 story the pathetic history of this race of unfortunate people when freedom 
 came, groping about for their scattered otfspring with only instinct to 
 guide them, trying to knit together the broken ties of family kinship? It 
 was right at this point of rehabilitation of the home-life of these people 
 that the philanthropic efforts of America should have begun. It was right 
 here that religion in its humanitarian tendencies of love, in its moral direc- 
 tion and i)urifying 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 are but half done so long as the 
 homes are uninstructeil in that practical religion that can make pure and 
 sacred every relutionsliip it t<nu;hes of man, wcnuan, and child. 
 
 Religion should not leave these people alone to learn from birds and 
 beasts those blessed meanings of marriage, motherhood, and family. 
 lv«ligion should not utter itself only once or twice a week through a minis- 
 ter from a pulpit, but should oi)en every cabin door and get immediate 
 contact with those who have not yet learned to translate into terms of con- 
 duct the promptings of religion. 
 
 How ardently do we all hope that the heart of American womanhood 
 will yet be aroused and touched by this opportunity to elevate and broaden 
 the home-life of these unfortunate women in black. It ought never to be 
 said that a whole race of teachable women are permitted to grope their 
 way unassisted toward a realization of those domestic virtues, moral 
 impulses, and standards of family and social life that alone are badges to 
 responsibility. There neeels no evidence to show that these unfortunate 
 people are readily susceptible to these higher and purifying influences of 
 religion. Come from what source they may, Jew or Gentile, Protestant or 
 Catholic, or from those who profess no religion, but who indeed are often 
 the most religious, the colored people are eager to learn and know those 
 lessons that make men and women morally strong and responsible. 
 
 In pleading for some organized effort to improve the home-life of these 
 people we are asking for no.hing but what is recognized everywhere as the 
 necessary protection to the homes of all civilized peoi)le. Witness how 
 beautifully and grandly the women of Christendom are organized to pro- 
 tect the homes against the invasions of intemperance. The Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union has gathered up the religious impulse of 
 American womanhood for God, home, and native land. Again, to this 
 union of pure hearts against the sin of intemperance is that other union in 
 behalf of ijure homes — "The Social Purity Society "; in fact, good women 
 and brave men continually stand guard at the entrance of American homes, 
 except that of the negro. Our homes need in a special degree those moral 
 helps, promptings, inspirations, and protections that are now and every- 
 where the necessary safeguards even to the homes of those people who are 
 cultured in all things spiritual and mental. 
 
 There is still another and important need of religion in behalf of our
 
 636 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 advancement. In nothing do the American people so contradict the spirit 
 of their institutions, the high sentiments of their civilization, and the 
 max-inis of their religion as they do in denying to our men and women the 
 full rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 The colored people have appealed to every source of power and authority 
 for reliefs, but in vain. For the last twenty-five years we have gone to Legis- 
 latures, to political parties, and even to churches for some cure for prejudice, 
 but we have at last learned that helps from these are merely palliative. 
 It is a monstrous thing that nearly one-half of the so-called evangelical 
 churches of this country repudiate and haughtily deny fellowship to every 
 Christian lady and gentleman happening to be of African descent. It is a 
 shameful thing to say of the Christian religion as practiced in one part of 
 our country that a young colored man susceptible of spiritual enlighten- 
 ment will tind a readier welcome in a saloon or any other place than he 
 will in any evangelical church. 
 
 The fact is that the heart of America is fearfully wrong in its under- 
 standing and sentiment concerning the colored race. The golden rule of 
 fellowship taught in the Christian Bible becomes in practice the iron rule 
 of race hatred. That distinguished representative from Japan who startled 
 this parliament the other day by arraigning Christendom for its many 
 hypocrisies must have had in mind the irreligious conduct of white Ameri- 
 can Christians toward black American Christians. 
 
 The hope of the negro and other dark races in America depends upon 
 how far the white Christians can assimilate their own religion. At present 
 there seems to be no ethical attitude in public opinion toward our colored 
 citizens. White men and women are careless and meanly indifferent about 
 the merits and rights of colored men and women. The white man who 
 swears and the white man who prays are alike contemptuous about the 
 claims of colored men. 
 
 In every profession, in every trade and occupation of men there is a 
 code of ethics that governs the relationship and fosters the spirit of fra- 
 ternity among its members. This is the religious sense of the people 
 applied to the details of practical life. Yet, even these religious prompt- 
 ings to deal rightly too often stop short of reaching the man or woman who 
 happens to be black. What we need is such a re-enforcement of the gentle 
 power of religion that all souls, of whatever color, shall be included within 
 the blessed circle of its influence. The American negro in his meager 
 environments needs the moral helpfulness and contact of men and women 
 whose lives are larger, sweeter, and stronger than his. It should be the 
 mission of religion to give him this help. 
 
 BABBI JOSEPH SILVERMAN. 
 
 Eabbi Joseph Silverman was introduced and spoke briefly : 
 
 One of the keenest and most injurious evils that can befall a man or a 
 people is to be misunderstood — perhaps worse to be misrepresented. The 
 individual who has experienced both knows the vital sufferings that were 
 his. To worship truth and be accused of falsehood; to be religiously virtu- 
 ous and be charged with vice; to aspire to heaven and by the world be con- 
 signed to purgatory; to be robbed of one's identity and be clad in the 
 garb of another inferior being; to see one's principles distorted, every motive 
 questioned; one's words misquoted, every act misunderstood; one's whole 
 life misrepresented, and to be a caricature in the eyes of all men, without 
 the power of redress, is to suffer all the unmitigated pangs of mortification. 
 
 The very fact that the Jews once formed a separate race, and a distinct 
 nation, and still maintain themselves as an independent religious com- 
 munity, has created prejudices from which have grown up also many
 
 RELIGIOUS MISSION OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS. C'37 
 
 errors regarding this people in other directions than those already men- 
 tioned. 
 
 Rabbi Silverman then went on to point out some of the spe- 
 cilio errors which existed in the popular mind concerning the 
 Jews. He said they were accused of exclusiveness and clannish - 
 uess, whereas they are the most gregarious and broadly social 
 — the only remnant of clannishness being that which was com- 
 pelled by the conduct of those who, either purposely or igno- 
 rantly, persisted in thus misunderstanding them. The Jew 
 was maliciously represented as a consumer, as distinguished 
 from a producer, when by birthriglit he was a tiller of the soil, 
 and had been compelled, through centuries of persecution, to 
 become a trafficker in moneys and gems. And nothwithstanding 
 the age of the persecution the Jew was to-day found in all 
 departments of agriculture and the mechanical arts, while his 
 contributions to music and art and literature were notable. The 
 same character of error concerning the Jew extended to his 
 religious faith, and this largely because of the prevailing error 
 that the Jews crucified Jesus of Nazareth. Rabbi Silverman 
 concluded his paper as follows : 
 
 We deplore and condemn the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. He was 
 without doubt one of nature's noblemen, pure in sentiment and action, a 
 great leader and reformer of men, and as such, fell a victim to the fanati- 
 cism and jealous power of Rome. His was the execution of an innocent 
 man. 
 
 When the truth is once known and the Jew is placed in the right light 
 before the world, we believe prejudice will be removed, errors corrected, and 
 persecution will cease and love prevail. 
 
 We are worshiping the same God, the creator and preserver of us all. In 
 the words of Malachi, "Have we not all one father? Has not one God 
 created us all? Why shall we deal unjustly one against the other?" May 
 truthprevail, may love reign supreme. May that brotherhood of man be 
 speedily realized in which there shall be no distinction as to nationality or 
 creed. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS MISSION OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAK- 
 ING NATIONS. 
 
 REV. HENRY H. JESSUP, D. D., OF BEIROUT, SYRIA. 
 
 There is a divine plan in all human history. It embraces nations as 
 well as individuals, and stretches on to the end of time. Every nation 
 and people is a part of the plan of God, who has set to each its bounds 
 and its sphere of service to God and man. 
 
 For I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
 And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns»
 
 638 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 But no nobler service has been given to any people, no nobler mission 
 awaits any nation than that which God has given to those who speak the 
 
 "inVsOO the English-sneaking population of the globe numbered 24,000,- 
 000 It now numbers not less than 108,000,000, an increase of over 400 per 
 cent and it rules over two-fifths of the total area of the globe. It stands 
 on a'vantage ground of influence. Its voice sounds through the nations. 
 
 The four elements which make up its power for good and fit it to be the 
 divine instrument for blessing the world are: 
 
 1. Its historic pliUi ting and training. 
 
 2. Its googriiphical position. . 
 
 3. Its physical and political traits. ,■ ^ ^-^ . 
 
 4 Its moral and loligious character; which, combmed, constitute: 
 s! Its divine call and opportunity, and result in its religious mission, its duty 
 and responsibility. 
 
 1. The historic planting and training. In the beginning of the 7th 
 century the Saxon race in Britain embraced the religion of Christ. From 
 that time through nine centuries the hand of God was training, leading, 
 disciplining, and developing that sturdy Northern race until the hidden 
 torch of truth was wrested from its hiding-place by Luther, and held aloft 
 for the enlightenment of mankind just at the time when Columbus dis- 
 covered the continent of America, and opened the new and final area for 
 the activity and highest development of man. 
 
 2. The geographical position. A map of the world, with North Amer- 
 ica in the center, sliows at a glance the vantage ground, the strategic posi 
 tion of Great Britain and the United States. Their vast seacoast, the 
 ionumerable harbors facing) the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the mari- 
 time instincts of the two nations, their invigorating climate, matchless 
 resources, world-wide commerce, facilities for exploration and travel, and 
 peculiar adaptation to permanent colonization in remote countries, give 
 these people the control of the world's future, and the key to its moral and 
 ethnical i^roblems. 
 
 While no other European race has succeeded in planting successful col- 
 onies 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 America, South Africa, and Australia. 
 
 These great nations are permeated with the principles of the Bible ; 
 their poetry, history, science, and philosophy are moral, pure, religious ; 
 they are founded on a belief in the divine existence and Providence, and in 
 final retribution; in the sanctions of law, and in the supremacy of con- 
 science; in man's responsibility to God, and the ruler's responsibility 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 principles as these are destined 
 to mould and control all mankind. The United States are impressing deeply 
 the semi-Latin populations of South America, and England and America 
 are affecting France. 
 
 A sincere religious spirit, a God-fearing integrity, will mould a nation 
 only in one way, and the upward, Godward growth of such a people will 
 affect, by its vital energy, other nations and peoples. 
 
 5. With such a unique combination of historic, geographical, political, 
 and religious elements, it is easy to see what constitutes the divine call 
 and opportunity, the religious mission and responsibility of these great 
 nations. The true ideal of the religious mission of a nation embraces its 
 entire intellectual, moral, and social relations and duties to its people and 
 to all other peoples. 
 
 It is thus a home and a foreign mission. To its own citizens this mission 
 is one of religious liberty, the promotion of Sabbath rest, temperance, 
 social purity, and reverence for the laws of God. The Anglo-American
 
 RELIGIOUS MISSION OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS. G39 
 
 peoples should foster and defend those principles which their fathers fouf,^ht 
 to secure, and keep pure the foundation whoso 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 sur- 
 render the control of our educational system, our moral code, and our holy 
 Sabbath rest from toil to our brethren from other lands, wIkj have; come at 
 our disinterested invitation to share in these blessings, but who, as yet 
 hardly free from the shackles of Old World absolutism or the despair-begot- 
 ten dreams of unbritlled license, are not yet assimilated to our essential and 
 vital principles of liberty and law, of perfect freedom of conscience, tem- 
 pered by the absolute subjection of the individual to the pul)lic good. 
 
 Let us each rear his own temple for the worship of his God according 
 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 huger-posts of metal or stone, but as living, speaking, 
 acting guides. They are set for an example— to exhibit reform in act, to 
 shun all occasions 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 standpoint of conscience and 
 equity. The Alabama and Bering Sea arbitrations have been an object 
 lesson to the world more potent in exhibiting the true spirit of Christianity 
 than millions of printed pages or the persuasive voice of a hundred mes- 
 sengers 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 gratitute 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. 
 
 To the semi-civilized and heathen nations our religious mission is one of 
 helpfulness, uplifting and enlightening. The sympathies of our Christian 
 faith are all with the poor, the suffering, the ignorant, the oppressed. We 
 are bound in honor and gratitude to give to those hundreds of millions the 
 Word of God, that golden key which shall unlock to them all our precious 
 treasures of knowledge and truth, of faith and happiness. 
 
 The highly favored Northern races are called by every prompting of the 
 law of love to go to the help of the less-favored continents of the south. 
 Christ bidvS the strong to help the v/eak,the blessed to succor the unblessed, 
 the free to deliver the enslaved, the saved to evangelize the unsaved. We 
 owe them the benefits of civilization, the principles of justice, honor, and 
 veracity, our social comforts and joys, intellectual education and uplifting, 
 the relief of physical suffering, the blessings of medical science and skill, 
 and, above all, the bright hopes and celestial promises of the gospel of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 But we find ourselves confronted and thwarted at the very gateway of 
 the Asiatic and African as well as the Polynesian races by that monster 
 of hideous mien, the "Sacra auri fames," the accursed European greed for 
 gold — gold earned at any price, gold in exchange for opium, gold for poison- 
 ous, maddening liquors, degrading and crazing, with their flood of foulness 
 and death, men, women, and children made in the image of God. African
 
 640 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 chiefs and insular kings, pagan princes and Mohammedan sheikhs entreat 
 us with tears to save their people from devouring tire enkindled among 
 them by our own countrymen. . .., , ^, . 
 
 American citizens and British subjects vie with each other in pouring 
 these streams of " distilled damnation," these brain-poisoning, nerve-destroy- 
 ing narcotics and intoxicants, into the dark continent, the solitary islands, 
 and the colossal empire of China. The European and American Uquor 
 traffic in Africa is pronounced by' commercial and philanthropic men to be 
 a greater evil than the slave trade and to threaten the entire extirpation 
 of the African races. We are denounced by these children of nature in 
 their helplessness and woe, as worshipers of a god of gold, as wilUng to sac- 
 rifice the bodies and souls of men to this gilded fiend of avarice. 
 
 We who are strong and bidden by our Master to bear the infirmities of 
 the weak, and instead of this, men bearing the name of Christians, are 
 shamelessly taking advantage of their weakness for the lowest and most 
 groveling motives, to betray and destroy them. Where is the inspiration 
 of our marvelous providential history? Where the fruitage and out- 
 growth of our political, moral, and religious training? Where our obedi- 
 euce to the divine call and summons to the rescue of the sons of men? 
 Where our following of the Golden Rule? Where is our sympathy; where 
 our gratitude; where our honor? Let us all resolve that our nation and 
 people shall no longer be compromised by complicity in these accursed 
 forms of sordid traffic. 
 
 Our mission is one of peace. Von Moltke, surveying his army of 1,000,000 
 panoplied warriors, may declare war to h^i a divine institution; zealous 
 enthusiasts may call for an Anglo-American alliance, which, by its armies 
 and navies, could dictate laws to the world; but we are called to a propa- 
 gandism of amity and peace. We are to guarantee to our sons and daugh- 
 ters of toil one full day's rest in seven; an equitable adjustment of all 
 social and labor questions that arise; the protection of our children from 
 the gilded tempting cup which at last " biteth like a serpent and stingeth 
 like an adder." 
 
 This, then, is our mission: That we who are made in the image of God 
 should remember that all men are made in God's image. To this divine 
 knowledge we owe all we are, all we hope for. We are rising gradually 
 toward that image and we owe to our fellowmen to aid them in returning 
 to it in the glory of God and the beauty of holiness. It is a celestial 
 privilege and with it comes a high responsibility. 
 
 From this responsibility there is no escape. If we are true to it we 
 shall stand up for liberty, truth, and righteousness; we shall be pure, we 
 shall be peaceable; we shall use our wealth, our moral and political power 
 to root out wrong and sin from our homes, our public councils, our land, 
 and our commerce, so that wherever our flags may float, neither slavery 
 nor the drink traffic, legalized impurity nor illicit trade can lift their heads. 
 The pride of wealth, the consciousness of irresistible military power on 
 land and sea, would soon transform our cwo great nations from being twin 
 sisters of love and justice, truth and peace, into a double-headed monster 
 of war and ambition, consumed with insatiate greed of universal dominion, 
 and we should at length degenerate into that frightful Hindu ideal of the 
 final age of the world, " the age of progressive misery and all prevailing 
 woe." 
 
 In the palace of Behjeh, or Delight, just outside the fortress of Acre on 
 the Syrian coast, there died a few months since a famous Persian sage — the 
 Babi saint, named Beha Allah, the " Glory of God '"—the head of that vast 
 reform party of Persian Moslems who accept the New Testament as the 
 word of God, and Christ as the deliverer of men, who regard all natives as 
 one, and all men as brothers. Three years ago he was visited by a Cam- 
 bridge scholar, and gave utterance to sentiments so noble, so Christlike, 
 that we repeat them as our closing words : 
 
 \
 
 THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH OF ARMENIA. eil 
 
 That all nations should become one in faith, and all men as brothers; that 
 the bonds of affection and unity between tlie sons of men sliould be strength- 
 ened; that diversity of religion should, and dilleronees of race, bo annulled; 
 what harm is there in this? Yet so it shall be. These fruitless strifes, these 
 ruinous wars shall pass away, and the "most great peace" shall come. 
 
 Do not you in Europe iK^ed this also? 
 
 Let not a man glory in this, that lie lovos his country; let him rather glory 
 in this, that he loves his kind. 
 
 THE SPIRIT AND MISSION OF THE APOSTOLIC 
 CHURCH OF ARMENIA. 
 
 OHANNER CHATSCHUMYNA OF ARMENIA. 
 
 According to the general testimony of historians, Christianity was intro- 
 duced into Armenia in the 1st century. In the year 3i A. D. the apostle 
 Thaddeus went to this country, and in the year GO A. D. Bartholomew fol- 
 lowed. They preached the gospel and were martyred. These apostles 
 were, therefore, the founders of the Armenian.' Church. Besides them two 
 others, Simeon and Judah, preached in Armenia. But Christianity did not 
 become the established religion until the year 302 A. D., although during 
 this interval thousands of Armenians became martyrs for Christianity. In 
 that St. Gregory Illuminator enlightened the entire Armenian nation, and 
 Christianity became the religion of the king as well as of the people. In 
 the Armenian language to "enlighten " means to " Christianize." Whether, 
 therefore, we date the establishment of Christianity from the 1st century 
 or at the beginning of the 4th, the Armenian Church remains the oldest 
 Christian church in the world. 
 
 Because of its past it has a peculiar place among other churches. While 
 the church is only one element in the lives of other nations — an element 
 sometimes strong, sometimes less strong — in Armenia it embraces the whole 
 life of the nation. There are not tv/o different ideals, one for Christianity, 
 the other for nationality. These two ideals are united. The Armenians 
 love their country, because they love Christianity. Church and fatherland 
 have been almost synonymous in their tongues. 
 
 The construction of the Armenian Church is simple and apostolic. It 
 is independent and national, xhe head is called the patriarch catholicos 
 of all Armenians in whatever part of the world they may be. He is elected 
 by the representatives of the nation and clergy, in Etchmidzin, at the foot 
 of Mount Ararat. Any Armenian, even a layman, can become head of the 
 church if the general assembly finds him worthy of this high office. Since 
 Armenia has been divided among the three powers — Turkey, Russia, and 
 Persia — the election of the catholicos is confu-med by the Russian emperor. 
 The bishops are elected by the people of each province and are anointed by 
 the catholicos. The ordinary clergy are elected by each parish. The par- 
 ish is free in its election, and neither bishop nor catholicos can assign a 
 priest to a parish against its wish. Each church being free in its home 
 work, they are all bound with one another and so form a unity. 
 
 The people share largely in the work of the church. All assemblies which 
 have to decide general questions, even dogmatic matters, are gathered from 
 both people and clergy. The clergy exist for the people and not the people 
 for the clergy. 
 
 The Armenian clergy have always been pioneers in the educational 
 advancement of the nation. They have been the bringers in of European 
 civilization to their people. From the 5th century to this very day young 
 men intended for the priesthood are sent to the Occident to study in order 
 that Christianity and civilization may go hand in Jiand. The country owes 
 everything to its clergy. They have been first in danger and first in civil- 
 ization.
 
 642 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The spirit of the Armenian Church is tolerant. A characteristic feature 
 of Armenians, even while they were heathen, was that they were cosmopol- 
 itan in religious matters. Armenia, in early ages, was an America for the 
 oppressed of other lands. From Assyria, as we read in the Bible, in the 
 Book of Kings, Adramelik and Landssar escaped to Armenia. From China. 
 Hindustan, and Palestine they went thither, carrying their religious 
 thoughts and their idols, which they worshiped side by side with the Arme- 
 
 ' Christianity has entirely changed the political and moral life of 
 Armenia, but the tolerant spirit has ever remained. For more than fifteen 
 hundred years she has been persecuted for her faith and for conscience's 
 sake, and yet she has never been a religious persecutor. She calls no church 
 heterodox. The last catholicos, Makar I., said once to me: "My son, 
 do not call any church heterodox. All churches are equal, and everybody 
 is saved by his own faith." Every day in our churches prayers are offered 
 for all those who call on the name of the Most High in sincerity. 
 
 The Armenian Church does not like religious disputes. She has defended 
 the ideals of Christianity more with the red blood of her children than with 
 big volumes of controversies. She has always insisted on the brotherhood 
 of "all Christians. Nerces, Archbishop of Zanbron, Cilicia, who was called 
 the second Apostle Paul, in the l'2th century defended and practiced the 
 very ideals and equality of all churches and the brotherhood of all men 
 which the most liberal clergymen of this century believe in. 
 
 The Armenian Church has a great literature, especially in sacred lyrics, 
 which has had a vast influence over the people. But the purifying influ- 
 ence of our church appears chiefly in the family. In no land is the family 
 life purer. For an Armenian the family is sacred. Ethnologists ask with 
 reason: "How can we explain the continvied existence of the Armenian 
 nation through the fire and sword of 4,000 years? " The solution of this 
 riddle is in the pure family lite. This is the anchor by which the storm- 
 beaten has been held. It is a singular fact that Armenia never had, even 
 in her heathen time, either polygamy or slavery, although always sur- 
 rounded by nations who follov/ed this evil practice. 
 
 Women in Armenia have always had a distinguished place in the 
 church. The first Christian martyr among women in the whole world was 
 an Armenian girl, Sandooct, the beautiful daughter of the king Sanstreek. 
 In the .5th century, as says the historian, Equishe, the songs of the Arme- 
 nian women were the psalms and their daily readings the gospel. 
 
 Geographically, Armenia is the bridge between Asia and Europe. All 
 the nations of Asia have traveled over this bridge. One can not show a 
 single year in the long past through which she has enjoyed peace. Every 
 one of her stones has been baptized many times with the sacred blood of 
 martyrs. Her rivers have flowed, not with water, but with blood and tears 
 of the Armenian nation. Surrounded by non-Christian and anti-Christian 
 peoples, she has kept her Christianity and her independentnational 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 Babylonians, 
 the Parthians, and the Persian fire worshipers. Armenia herself has lost 
 everything; crown and scepter are gone; peace and happiness have departed; 
 to her remains only the cross, the sign of martyrdom. Yet 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 Armenian Church is to help 
 humanity. 
 
 \
 
 GREEK CHURCH CHARACTERISTICS. 643 
 
 GREEK CHURCH CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 REV. r. PHIAMBOI^IS, IN CHARGE OF THE GREEK CHURCH, CHICAGO, 
 
 Most Honorable President Charles C. Bonney, Most Reverend John 
 Henry Barroirs, and Very Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen: At tiret 
 I wish to beg your pardon if I make any mistake, not being well versed in 
 the English language. In coming here as a delegate to the Religious Con- 
 gress I did not come to discuss Christianity and the Christian truths, nor 
 the existence of a god, because I think I would attack your Christian con- 
 science. All the Christian delegates of this parliament have spoken enough 
 of Christianity and the existence of God, and I think a repetition of it would 
 be vain labor. 
 
 I did not come to teach you to become Christians, because you are 
 Christians, perhaps, with a small exception of non-Christian hearers. I did 
 not come to teach you to believe in one god, father god, god without 
 beginning and end, god eternal, immaterial, personal, living god, omnipo- 
 tent saint, just, almighty, provider, god of mercy, god of love, god creator 
 of every being, creator of heaven and earth, invisible, incomprehensible, 
 intellectual, god having mind, and where there is a mind there is a word, 
 where there is a word there is a spirit, and consequently in a god of three 
 persons there is a mind of the Father, the word of the Son, and the spirit 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 I say I do not come to preach such aged, becavise you and every Chris- 
 tian believe. I do not come to discuss that the God of love and mercy sent 
 His son to earth, who took tiesh from the blood of a holy virgin and became 
 man — became man equal to us, but without sin; perfect God and perfect 
 man mysteriously united in one person. 
 
 I do not come to teach you anew gospel, because our gospel is always 
 new. You know very well that its truths are unchangeable and eternal, 
 the rudder of the action of every Christian, the guide for salvation. But I 
 come into your presence as a representative of the truths of the orthodox 
 church and to greet you with our love. 
 
 Let us see where is the truth and the righteousness in the philosophical 
 systems. They have been proved unable to find the truth and satisfy the 
 requests of the human hearts, and the results of those philosojjhical sys- 
 tems were a ridiculous polytheism, and humanity had been edvicated in 
 desperation to find the truth, when a man of Judea preached, saying, " I 
 am the truth, I am the light of the world, I will send to the world the Holy 
 Ghost, the spirit of the truth, and He will say every truth." Now let us 
 examine. Has that man said the truth? Two thousand years passed 
 almost from that epoch and all the nations who came in connection with 
 His preaching say "yes," but let us continue to examine where this truth 
 remained pure and clear and unmixed with some errors. 
 
 I read the scri^jtures and I see that our Jesus Christ sent His Holy 
 Ghost, the spirit of the truth, to all the disciples without exception. The 
 apostles were the first Christian church with the spirit of the truth. But 
 the apostles sometimes dispvited among themselves upon religious ques- 
 tions. They decided it, however, by leaving it to the apostles and elders of 
 the church. Has the orthodox church kept this example of the apostles, 
 namely, the discussion and the union after the decision? Let us look at 
 the history of the church. The Jews of Judea, according to the jjrophets, 
 were waiting for a messiah. When, in the fullness of time, a boy was born 
 in Bethlehem, and when He was old enough to preach the kingdom of 
 heaven, and that ITe was the Son of God, He met great opposition until He 
 was crucified. After His resurr^t^tion His disciples continued the work of 
 their teacher, and the subject of their teaching was the person of Jesus 
 Christ, the crucified. St. Paul, an eminent and learned Jew, at first a
 
 644 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 persecutor of Christianity, finally became the chosen vessel of Jesus 
 Christ. Jesus Christ was to the Jews a scandal, and to the Greeks a fool- 
 ishness. The apostles began at first their preaching among their compa- 
 triots, the Jews, but their followers were few. Then they, and especially 
 St. Paul, applied to the nations, and especially to the Greeks of Asia 
 Minor ; afterward to the Thessalonians, and Phillipians, of Macedonia, to 
 Athenians, Corinthians, and, at last, to Romans, or to the Jews and Greeks 
 of Rome. 
 
 Some Greek Christian churches had been established, and for this rea- 
 son the Evangelists wrote their gospel in the Greek language, as other 
 disciples did their epistles. I said above that Christianity met a great 
 opposition. It was to fight against all the religions of that epoch; against 
 the prejudices, the philosophical systems; it was to fight against tyranny, 
 against all the world, and to conquer. The emperors m" Rome armed them- 
 selves against it, and the weapon cut off tender ann feeble creatures. But 
 Christianity became the religion of the Roman states. Meanwhile the 
 opposition continued under other shapes of false Christian philosophy, 
 that is, the heresies, and it began to enter the inclosure of the church 
 under the shape of truth and agitated the peace of the church. Clouds 
 of heresies troubled the ceremony of the church, which cut them off by 
 the weapon of the true doctrine, by the weapon of the Holy Ghost accord- 
 ing to the example of the apostles, and they guarded the Christian doctrine 
 far from any error. All these synods agreed about the Christian and evan- 
 gelical truths and composed the Christian creed as it is to-day except the 
 filooqua, which entered in the church without the ecumenical decision at 
 the 9th century. And the opinion of the whole church was one, and they 
 had true love of Jesus Christ and the truth of the Holy Ghost. In that 
 time have been seen most eminent theologians, Christian philosophers, and 
 writers of the Christian doctrine, and the most of them took part in these 
 synods. 
 
 Unfortunately the human interest, the human proud and politic, 
 unknown to the united church, entered at the 9th century the sacred 
 inclosure of the church and a great schism and division followed between 
 the East and West. This division resulted in retarding Christianity and 
 theprogressof Mohammedanism, whose motto is " Kill the Infidels," because 
 everyone who is not a Mohammedan, according to the Koran of the 
 Prophet, is an infidel, is a dog. 
 
 It is not my desire to speak about Turkish tyranny, but I will say a few 
 words concerning! the Christian kings of Europe. The people of the Orient 
 suffered and still suffer; Christian virgins are dishonored by the followers 
 of the moral Prophet, and the life of a Christian is not considered as pre- 
 cious as that of a dog. But the kings of Europe, the Christian kings, 
 thinking only of themselves and their interests, see from afar this barba- 
 rous state of affairs, but without sympathy, and for that reason I stated 
 that politics had entered the church. 
 
 Regarding the orthodox church, we are true to the examples of the 
 apostles; we follow the same road in religious questions and after discus- 
 sion do not accept new dogma without the agreement of the whole ecu- 
 menical church; neither do we adopt any dogma other than that of the 
 one united and undivided church, whose doctrine has been followed until 
 to-day. The orthodox apostolic Catholic church contains many different 
 nations, and every one of them uses its own language in the mass and 
 litany and governs its church independently, but all these nations have the 
 same faith. The patriarchs, metropolites, archbishops, and bishops are all 
 equal. There is no difference in their rank ; freedom, fraternity, and cere- 
 mony range between them. This is, in short, the church which I repre- 
 sent. The church which does not request the authority over other 
 churches or mix itself in politics — the church of the apostles who had the
 
 INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND AZtlTY. 645 
 
 spirit of truth. And can wo say that the truth, far from any error, is not 
 found in such a church? 
 
 In tinishing this short exhibition of my church I raise my eyes on high 
 and pray: 
 
 O Thou Holy Ghost, the spirit of the truth. KinK < f Kiiies. Thou who illumi- 
 nated the lioly apostles. Thou who illuminated Tliy saints apostolic. Thy united 
 and undivided church and synods; O Timu Holy Ghost who illuminates every 
 man coming into the world; Thou who illuminated Columljus, the hero, to give 
 the whole continent to humanity; Thou who illuminated this glorious people of 
 America to fight against slavery and for fnu'dom. and they conquered; Thou 
 who illuminated the eminent presidents of this religious congress, from which 
 an immense light will be spread over all the world that great benevolences for 
 the gospel and humanity are expected; O Thou hloly Gliost, hear my humble 
 prayer, and grant us that all men of the earth may become one flock under one 
 shepherd, and that our Jesus Christ be the only head of the church. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND AMITY. 
 
 REV. S. L. BALDWIN, D. D., OF NEW YORK. 
 
 These words are rightly associated in the theme assigned me for discus- 
 sion at this time, for it is only by justice that real amity between nations 
 can be secured. Nations are just as much bound to be governed by justice 
 as individuals. 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 look- 
 out for advantages for itself, to secure all that it can from other nations 
 and give as little as possible in return. This is reckoned smart diplomacy 
 and, it must be confessed, is still the basis of action with too many nationp 
 professing to be governed by Christian principle. 
 
 But the true basis for international conduct as for that of the individ- 
 ual is the golden rule, " Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men 
 should do to you do ye even so to them." Or the rule laid down by Con- 
 fucius, which may be called a negative form of the golden rule, " What you 
 do not like when done to yourself, do not do toothers." Between the old 
 brute law of " might makes right " and the 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 acknowledg- 
 ing that nations and individuals are alike bound to be governed by consid- 
 erations 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." 
 
 Mazzini, Italy's Christian hero and patriot, voiced the true sentiment 
 when he said : " Poreiuost 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 country were added duties 
 toward humanity. Man then learned that, wheresoever thera existed a 
 human being, there existed a brother; a brother with a soul immortal as 
 his own, destined like himself to ascend toward the Creator, and on whom 
 he was bound to bestow love, a knowledge of the faith, and help and coun- 
 sel when needed." 
 
 In order that there may be pleasant relations between nations, treaties 
 are formed. Of course, the object of such treaties should be to secure and 
 preserve peace and good fellowship, and to do this by acting in accordance 
 with the demands of justice and righteousness in all dealings with each 
 other. Justice Field, of the Supreme Court of the United States, in his 
 dissenting opinion on the Geary law, well said:
 
 646 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Aliens domiciled within ttie country by its consent are entitled to all the guar- 
 antees for the protection of their person and property which are secured to 
 n'itiv.»-born citizens. Tlio moment any human being comes within tho lurisdic- 
 tion of the United States, with the consent of the government— and such consent 
 will always bo implied when not expressly withheld, and m the case of. the Chi- 
 nese laborers before us was in terms given by treaty — he becomes subject to all 
 their laws and amenable to their punishment and entitled to their protection. 
 Arbitrary and despotic authority can no more be exercised over them with refer- 
 once to their persons and property than over the persons and property of 
 n'ltive-born citizens. They differ only from citizens in the respect that they can 
 not vote or hold any public office. As men having our common humanity they are 
 nrotectiMl by all the guarantees of the constitution. To hold that they are subject 
 toany dilTereutlaw, or are less protected in any particular, is, in my judgment, 
 against the teachings ot our history, the practice of our government, and the 
 language of our constitution. -,,<.- i. -j • 
 
 Let us test this doctrine by a few illustrations: If a foreigner, who resides m 
 the country by its i^onsent. commits a public offense he is subject to be cut down, 
 maltreated imprisoned, or put to leath by violence without accusion made, trial 
 had andjudgmi^nt of an established tribunal following the regular'forms of judi- 
 cial'procedure''' If any rule in the administration of justice is to be omitted or 
 discarded in his case whatrule is it to be? If one ruie:may be laid aside in his case 
 another rule may be laid aside, and all rules may be so treated. In such instances 
 a rule of evidence may be setaside in one case, a rule of ideading in another. The 
 testimony of eye-witnesses may be rejectedand hearsays adopted, or no evidence 
 at all may be received, but simply an inspection of the accused, as is often the 
 case in tribunals of Asiatic countries where personal caprice and not settled rules 
 prevail. That would be to establish a pure, simple, undisguised despotism and 
 tyranny withlrespect to them and their class, and such an exercise of power are not 
 permissible under our Constitution. 
 
 Certainly the object of all treaties between nations must include and 
 keep foremost the idea of securing exact justice to the citizens and subjects 
 of the nations represented. If this be true, it is no less true that treaties 
 once made should be faithfully kept by both parties to the agreement. 
 This has always been the accepted principle of civilized nations. Nothing 
 is considered more sacred than a treaty and, by the constitution of the 
 United States, the treaties made by the government were placed with the 
 constitution and the laws enacted under it as the supreme law of the land. 
 
 If the provisions of a treaty may be set aside at the caprice of one party 
 without any consultation with the other, by mere legislative enactment, 
 they become of little value. No nation ought to feel at liberty to violate a 
 treaty in any way until every possible means of securing a desired change 
 by way of diplomatic action has been exhausted, and even in that case, 
 justice can not approve the violation of a treaty unless it can be clearly 
 shown that some fundamental interest absolutely requires such a course 
 after due notice to the other parties concerned. These principles are so 
 fundamental, and so necessary, to any good understanding betw'een nations 
 that they have never been seriously called in question until in these latter 
 days of disregard for treaty obligations under supposed political exigencies. 
 
 A new doctrine is promulgated in certain quarters, but a Christian 
 nation, with the history and principles which traditionally belong to our 
 government, should repudiate with vehemence any deflection from the 
 original principles of fidelity to our treaty obligations, which characterized 
 all the early history of the nation. 
 
 In further pursuance of justice it is evident that in case of disagree- 
 ment between nations there should be some method of coming to a good 
 understanding without resorting to the barbarous practice of war, which 
 is, after all, an appeal to the old motto of brute force, " Might makes 
 right." 
 
 Christian principle suggests in such cases that other nations be called 
 in to arbitrate in the matters of disagreement, and the two greatest nations 
 of the world, England and the United States, have set a most laudable 
 example in this respect in the arbitration by which the Alabama claims 
 were settled, and in the recent case concerning the seal fisheries in the 
 quarters adjacent to Alaska. It is to be hoped that Christian principle in 
 this matter is becoming strong enough to substitute this sensible method
 
 INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND AMITY. 647 
 
 for settling differences in the place of appealing to war, in which the blood 
 of many innocent persons will be shed, and sorrow brought to multitudes 
 of households without really settling in any just way a single issue involved. 
 
 In the light of justice the duty of strong nations toward weak ones is 
 very clear. It certainly is not to conform to the old practice of absorbing 
 them or dividing them among the stronger nations and thus blotting them 
 out of existence, but as treating them as weak children in a loving family 
 are treated, giving to them the greater consideration because of their weak- 
 ness, and the stronger ones emulating each other in a strife for pre-emi- 
 nence in kindness of treatment toward those who need it most. If this 
 Christian principle can but prevail among nations, just rights will be 
 secured to all, and injustice will be prevented. The weak will be as well 
 off as the strongest, because the strongest will combine to secure every just 
 right to the weakest. 
 
 Politicians of the day may call this a Utopian scheme, but the world is 
 steadily advancing toward the adoption of this principle, and we may look 
 for the time when it shall be the accepted principle of all the great nations 
 of the world, and we may repeat with emphasis the noble words of John 
 Boyle O'Reilly: 
 
 Wherever a principle dies- 
 Nay, principles never diel 
 
 But wherever a ruler lies. 
 And a people share the lie. 
 
 Where right is crushed by force. 
 
 And manhodd is stricken dead- 
 There dwelloth the ancient curse. 
 
 And the blood on the earth is red! 
 
 And just as surely as the curse will abide where right is crushed by 
 force so the blessing of the Highest will abide wherever justice rules in the 
 conduct of a nation. 
 
 One most important matter to be considered at this time is the applica- 
 tion of these principles to the question of immigration. ISo just objection 
 can be made to laws intended to secure the welfare of a country, to pi-otect 
 it against anarchists, law breakers, and harmful immigrants of every kind. 
 Laws may be devised to secure this result, as, for instance, the requisition 
 of a certificate from the American consul of the port from which the immi- 
 grant sails that he has given evidence he is a person of good moral charac- 
 ter and purposes to becoiiie a law-al)iding resident of the United States. 
 Or, a limitation of the number of immigrants that will be permitted on 
 any one vessel entering the port of the United States. Or, even, a certain, 
 definite head tax imposed upon every immigrant entering the country and 
 made large enough to secure a reasonable prospect of self-support on the 
 part of the individual. General laws on any of these lines can be justified 
 as being not only in the interest of our own country, but of the immigrants 
 themselves. 
 
 But any discrimination against any race or people, 'as such, is of the 
 nature of an essential injustice and cannot be defended on any principle of 
 divine or human law. If, as an illustrious instance of how not to do it, we 
 examine the conduct of the United States government in regard to the 
 Chinese in the light of the principles laid down, we can only be filled with 
 humiliation. At the outside, we asked China to reverse her ancient princi- 
 ple of keeping strictly to herself and to consent to the free emigration of 
 her people, which was accomplished by the persuasion of Mr. Burlingame. 
 
 In the treaty which was proclaimed July 28, 1868, was this article: "The 
 United States of America and the Emperor of China cordially recognize the 
 inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance, 
 and also the mutual advantage of free migration and emigration of their citi- 
 zens and subjects respectively from the one country to the other for the 
 purpose of curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents."
 
 648 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 This is not a Chinese idea but an American idea, which we insisted 
 upon having recognized by the emperor of China, and to which he gave 
 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 restric- 
 tion. The reason assigned for this curious action was the fear that we 
 would be overwhelmed by a vast number 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 105,000; 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. For 
 the three years previous 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. But, at our instance, a new treaty was 
 made, and the right to limit immigration was secured, which our govern- 
 ment 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 those 
 wno had returned to China with the certificates of the government in 
 their hands assuring their right to return to this country. Under this 
 enactment members of Christian churches in this country who arrived at 
 San Francisco, trusting to the pledge of the government which they held 
 in their hands that they should be allowed 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 English merchant in invalid condition who was accompanied by a 
 faithful Chinese nurse — who had watched him through a dangerous illness 
 
 and who was informed at San Francisco that this nurse could 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 to come to preach to his own countrymen in 
 this country, but was informed 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 and 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 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 propor- 
 tion to the alleged offensn. 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 oi" 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 
 constitution fill me with apprehension. These guarantees are of priceless value 
 to every resident in the country, whether citizen or alien. lean not but regard 
 the decision as a blow a'^ainst constitutional liberty when it declares that Con- 
 gress has the right to disregard the guarantees 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 the most . 
 favored nation, but this solemn promise seems to have been utterly 
 
 I
 
 UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD. 649 
 
 ignored when this unblushing violation of our treaty was enacted into 
 Bo-ciilled law, What apology is there for such action? None whatever. 
 The reasons urged against the Chinese have been frequently shown to bo 
 without weight. 
 
 In regard to the charge of their lessening the price of labor and bring- 
 ing ruin to the American laborer, Rev. Dr. L. A. Banks, a native of Oregon 
 and for many years a native'of the Pacific Coast, has said: 
 
 One of the most deplorable features of the whole matter, aside from the direct 
 dishonor of such action, is that no intelligtmt man bolieves for a moment that 
 such a bill could have been passed on its merits; but that members of Congress 
 of both parties permitted themselves to be made the tools of an iufamt)us race 
 prejudice because it was understood that the electoral vote of the racilic 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 there was no just cause for the 
 cruel persecution the Chinese reci^ived. It was not a question of low wages 
 through Chinese competition, for during those years the highest wages paid to 
 workiugmen in the civilized world were paid on the Pacific Coast. 
 
 We have already shown that the charge of coming in overwhelming 
 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 $11,000,000 earned in 
 California in one year, $9,000,000 was spent in this country and only $2,000,- 
 000 was sent to China, and some of the same orators who dwelt on this 
 charge against them commended the Irish immigrants in this land for send- 
 ing $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 prej- 
 udice and political schemes, and I quote further these stirring words from 
 the same noble representative of the Pacific Coast: 
 
 This legislation does not represent Christianity, and it does not fairly repre- 
 sent the average citizenship of this country. It represents the narrow-minded and 
 vicious elements of the Pacitic Coast population, who are given power to work 
 this disgrace because of the shameless cowardice of political leaders in all 
 parties. It is surely a time 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 public sentiment in this country— a current that is not swayed by the beer 
 saloon and the "sand lot." The outspoken indignation of Christians throughout 
 the country will arouse such a ground-swell of public 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, bo saved 
 from disaster, our commerce 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 we 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 republic. 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. 
 
 UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD. 
 
 PRINCE WOLKONSKY. 
 
 Prince Wolkonsky of Russia termed the subject of his 
 address " A Reply " to this letter, which he read as a preface 
 to continued remarks, as follows:
 
 650 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Chicago, U. S. A., September 15, 1893. 
 Prince Serge Wolkonsky. Bear Sir: There will be a meeting next Monday, 
 SeDtember 18th at 4 p. m.. in Room 23 of the Art Palace, to decide, if possible, 
 UDon a formula which may serve as a bond for universal brotherhood. 
 
 One representative of each faith and order will be invited. The invitation is 
 hereby extended to yourself. If you can not be present, will you kindly reply, 
 fit-iMne whether you regard the inclosed form as suitable for the purpose. 
 
 ^ Yours, respectfully, Theodore F. Sewabd. 
 
 When I received the above invitation I did not know whether this would 
 be a private gathering for a friendly exchange of ideas or a public session 
 with regular speeches and addresses, but the appeal touched me too pro- 
 foundly not to try to prepare myself for both. In the following lines I take 
 the liberty of setting forth the ideas which have been suggested to me by 
 Mr. Seward's kind invitation. 
 
 Much has been spoken of universal brotherhood during these last weeks, 
 many eloquent speakers, inspired with the theme, elicited enthusiastic 
 applauses, thousands of persons left the halls of the congress with softened 
 hearts and with a firm resolution to bring the beautiful theories into their 
 practical life— and still a kind of doubt prevents us from trusting in any 
 palpable result. For a long time I have been searching for the reason of 
 that doubt, which never ceased trailing clouds upon the pure sky that 
 shone over those brotherly gatherings; and I think I finally have found 
 the reason. 
 
 We speak of brotherhood as of a thing to be founded; we look at it as 
 if it were an institution, a thing that had to be created and organized, a 
 thing that did not exist and that we wanted to exist. People seemed to 
 say: "We are not brothers, but let us try to become so. ^es, let us try 
 to become brothers, though difficult it may be; let us strive, for we are civ- 
 ilized people, and there is no real civilization without brotherhood. Broth- 
 erhood is the crowning of all civilization." 
 
 Alas, brotherhood is not the crowning — it is the basis, and if a civiliza- 
 tion is not built on that basis, no posterior efforts can remedy the evil. It 
 is not to become brothers. We must try not to forget that we are brothers. 
 It is not because we are civilized that we speak of instituting a universal 
 brotherhood on earth. It is becavise we are not — or, far more, because we 
 are wrongly civilized that we strain our brains to institute a condition that 
 never ceased to exist. Human brotherhood is not a club where membership 
 is needed to enjoy the privileges. Not by instituting societies or associa- 
 tions shall we inspire feelings of brotherhood, but in breaking the exclu- 
 siveness of those which exist. 
 
 We must not forget that associations are not the aim, but only an instru- 
 ment. If we regard those " religious club " as an aim in themselves, our 
 membership becomes a seclusion from the rest of humanity; it becomes a 
 contraction instead of an expansion, an end instead of a beginning; it 
 generates death instead of generating life. It is not what we do when we 
 go to the meeting, nor the fact of our going that is important, but what we 
 do when we leave the meeting. When we believe that we will see that asso- 
 ciations and clubs are not the principal thing. We will not breathe with- 
 out full lungs until the day we understand that human brotherhood is not 
 a question of badge, and tlaat, if we really wish to bring brotherhood in life, 
 we have to turn our eyes other ways. Where? This is the great question. 
 I will try to answer it as I understand it. 
 
 Our modern civilization — or, rather, let us not use this word, for it sup- 
 poses a perfection, and hence can not be applied to anything that exists on 
 earth— no, we will say our ways of teaching and learning, there is the evil 
 we must fight against if we want to deliver the idea of human brotherhood 
 from the dust and smoke and mud which cover it so that we are able to 
 forget that it exists, and speak of it as a new thing to be instituted. Our 
 ways of teaching are the evil, so I said and so I repeat, for our ways of
 
 UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD. 651 
 
 teaching are shameful. From childhood on we are taught that human 
 beings are divided as civilized, enlightened, uncivilized, barbarians, etc.— I 
 do not know the exact definitions used in American scliool-books, nor do I 
 know the exact group to which I have to belong, as being a Russian — but 
 the fact is that from our childhood on we are trained to divide those whom 
 we call our brothers into different categories, according to their more or 
 less proximity to those summits of civilization, the benefits of which we 
 enjoy, and the more learning wo want to show the more we accentuate and 
 underline these divisions of liumanity. 
 
 Anil when, in the course of later life, a few of us get rid of that habit 
 of classifying our similars; when, under the influence of travel or through 
 learning foreign languages, or under the iufiuenco of some brojid-minded 
 representatives of our churches or of representatives of universal science, 
 we at last become aware tliat all nations are composed of men like our- 
 selves, then we consider this conviction as our highest personal merit and 
 the greatest proof of our enlightenment and culture. Is it really to our 
 culture we owe thf^se feelings of brotherhood? Is it not fa'- more to the 
 fact of having succeeded in shaking off from our souls the deposits of a 
 wrong education? 
 
 Now, I ask you all, is that the spirit which ought to animate all edu- 
 cation? Just allow me to tell you what happened to a Russian peasant — 
 of course uncivilized. 
 
 A peasant one day undertook a journey. With a bag on his shoulders 
 he started off and walked through Germany, France, a part of Italy, and 
 Austria without knowing a w'ord of any other language but his own. When 
 he came back his land owner — the civilized man — asked him •' How it was 
 possible he could make himself understood in foreign countries among 
 foreign people? And the peasant — the uncivilized — replied in the most 
 genuine way, " Well, why shouldn't they understand me, are they not 
 human beings like myself? " 
 
 I leave you to decide which of the two was the more civilized one, and 
 whether I am wrong in affirming that our modern education does just the 
 contrary of what it should do. 
 
 To return to our subject, we think that the question of universal broth- 
 erhood is an educational question — that it ought to be put at the very bot- 
 tom of the primary school and not at the very top of the university. And, 
 by the way, do you know what might become a school for teaching human 
 brotherhood? The Midway Plaisance at the World's Fair. You hardly 
 believe that, and still it is so, and if I tell you why you will agree with me. 
 
 The Midway Plaisaiace is generally considered as a resort of pleasure. 
 For me it is the most sad thing I know, because it is human life exposed 
 as a show, human beings deprived of their feelings and reduced to the 
 state of a catalogue exhibit, a moving panorama of human empty forms. 
 And we civilized people who go and buy our entrance to the Cairo Street 
 or the Arabian circus, we even do not inquire whether these human 
 brothers of ours have a human soul under their interesting and picturesque 
 costumes. We look at those Arabian riders, at their equestrian exercises, 
 the showy colors of their dresses, their movings, their wavings, their cheer- 
 ing, and we stare at them like at animals; we are allowed to approach for 
 our 25 cents. " It is quite safe. Don't be afraid." And the clapping chil- 
 dren around us exclaim: " Oh, mamma, look at those barbarians ! " 
 
 Now, if " mamma " had been educated on the basis of human brother- 
 hood, do you know what she would have answered? She would say: "No, 
 my child, they are not barbarians. Why do you think they are? Is it 
 because their dresses are so showy? But don't you see how much prettier 
 they are than ours, how much character they have — and they are dresses 
 of their country. Meanwhile ours are but bad copies of ugly patterns we 
 receive from abroad. Why do you think they are barbarians? Is it
 
 652 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 because their faces are so brown? They are children of the morning land; 
 they live in open air; they bathe themselves in sunshine. Meanwhile we — 
 we breathe the putrifled atmosphere on State Street. Is it because they 
 raise much cheers you think they are barbarians? My child, my dear 
 child; do not say so; you do not understand them. If you do not under- 
 stand what another man says it does not mean that the other man is a 
 barbarian. 
 
 " Their language is a beautiful one. It is a jewel set in filigree. Their 
 poetry is the finest dream humanity has dreamed. No, my child, don't say 
 they are barbarians ; don't be afraid of them ; step closer. You will see 
 they are men just as we, only far better than we are, for they have pre- 
 served their human soul in that purity with which it was given to all of us 
 by the Creator, and which we lost so long ago. They are the embodiment 
 of such high ideas of chivalry and duty as we never had. Don't be afraid, 
 my child, step closer. You see his open, honest eyes. He does not look at 
 you a bit with the same mistrust as you. He knows you are a man like 
 him." 
 
 So would "mamma" speak had she been brought up with ideas of 
 human brotherhood, and we would congratulate her, but if, instead of that, 
 she says to her child with a smile of motherly satisfactior , " Yes, of course, 
 he is a barbarian; but then we are civilized, and therefore we must grant 
 him our love," then we exclaim, " Away with such a brotherhood; you 
 can not become a brother of a man if you do not feel that you are his 
 brother." 
 
 So, if you really wish that humanity should be united in feeling of uni- 
 versal brotherhood, do not go to the meeting, do not become a member of 
 the association, do not waste a dime for a badge, and, going home, return 
 to your children, gather them around you and tell them: " Children, let us 
 learn, for we must know what other people are, because other people are 
 our brothers, and we must know our brothers, because if we do not know 
 them we may not recognize them, and it is a crime not to recognize one's 
 brother. So, children, let us learn, and learn, and learn, for we are, too, 
 civilized." 
 
 There are many ideas on human brotherhood. I am glad to have had 
 the opportunity of proclaiming them publicly; for, after having written 
 this paper, I did not go to that meeting, and I want those who asked me 
 and expected me to go, I want them to know why I did not go and why I 
 never will. ' 
 
 A PROTEST AGAINST ERRONEOUS IDEAS. 
 
 The evening session was called to order by Rabbi Hirsch, 
 He said: " To-night we must do things by proxy. The chair- 
 man is not here. I act as his substitute. Most of the authors 
 of the papers that are to be read to-night are not with us, and 
 they will be represented by proxy. We have, however, the 
 Archbishop of Zante with us, and he will read a brief protest 
 against superstitions that are prevalent in the East." His 
 Grace, the Archbishop of Zante, then came forward and said: 
 
 Most Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen : I am not a Jew. I am a Chris- 
 tian, a profound believer of the truth of the gospel. I am always bound to 
 defend the truth, and for this reason I present a paper here to-night.
 
 SOME TEACHINGS OF THE KORAN. 653 
 
 Professor Snell said: " His Grace, the Archbishop of Zaiite, 
 has asked me to read for hiui this statement regardinji: the 
 belief curreut in tho Orient, and in many parts of Europe to 
 the etfoct that Jewish people are in the habit of catching Cliris- 
 tian children and sacrificing them upon the altar." 
 
 In the East the belief is current among the ignorant masses of thepop- 
 uhition that the Jews use for purposes of religious rights the blijotl of 
 Christian children, and in order to procure such blcjod do not shrink from 
 committing murder. In consequence of this belief outbreaks against the 
 Jews are frequent and the innocent victims are subjected to many indigni- 
 ties and exposed to great danger. In view of the fact that such erroneous 
 ideas are also current among the ignorant of other countries, and during 
 the last decade both Germany and Austria were the scenes of trials of 
 innocent Jews under the accusation of having committed such ritvial mur- 
 der, I, as a Christian minister, ask this congress to record our conviction 
 that Judaism forbids murder of any kind, and that none of its sacred 
 authorities and books command or permit murder or the use of human 
 blood for ritual practices or religious ceremonies. The circulation of such 
 slander against the adherence of a monotheistic faith is un-Christian. The 
 origin of the calumny must be traced to the Roman conceit that early 
 Christians used human blood in their religious observances. It is not con- 
 sonant with Christian duty to allow this horrible charge to go unrebuked, 
 and it is in the interest of Christianity's good repute that I ask this parlia- 
 ment to declare that Judaism and the Jews are innocent of the imputed 
 crime as were the Christians of the 1st century. 
 
 SOME TEACHINGS OF THE KORAN. 
 
 J. SANNA ABOU NADDARA. 
 
 An interesting paper prepared by J. Sanna Abou Naddara 
 of Paris was read by Professor Snell, on the Koran and other 
 sacred scriptures. The paper said in part: 
 
 The Koran has been translated into all languages. I shall not speak of 
 its holiness, lest I profane it, and, besides, I am not a Mohammedan priest 
 — am a deist — a very faithful believer in God and a sincere admirer of all 
 those who make Him known to men, and celebrate His sublime work. The 
 Koran is tolerant, human, and moral. The Koran has mercy upon slaves. 
 I may even say Mohammed was the slave's friend. Allow me to show you 
 that Mohammed and his followers are not, as some suppose them to be, 
 adversaries to instruction: nay, they are great friends of knowledge. The 
 Koran says, "Learned men are the heirs of profits," and that learning is a 
 divine precept that every Mussulman must fulfill. These words show us 
 how greatly the Prophet of Islam appreciated instruction, as he bids his 
 followers to go and acquire knowledge, even if it were to China, a very 
 long voyage at that time, when steamboats and railways were unknown. 
 Mohammed also said: "Expect no good from a man who is neither learned 
 nor a student." Moslem doctors, philosophers, and poets have written and 
 said much upon this subject. In Turkey, in Syria, and in Egypt, not only 
 numerous schools for boys were founded but for girls also, as women are 
 highly regarded by the Prophet Mohammed and his followers.
 
 654 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Islam had and has still many female writers and poets. Mohammed 
 said of women: "Happy and fortunate is the man who has only one wife, 
 pious and virtuous." This is favorable to monogamy, otherwise he would 
 have said: "Happy is ho who possesses a good number of wives." He said 
 also to his friends: "I love three things in your world— namely, women, 
 perfume, and prayer." This denotes that the Prophet of Islam appreciates 
 woman, since he places her first in what he cherished in this world. The 
 Koran is so favorable to the fair sex that its fourth chapter, which is long 
 enough, is consecrated to woman, whose cause it gallantly pleads, and in 
 speaking of divorce, the apostle of Allah says that, even if a man had given 
 his wife a talent, if he divorces her he has no right to take anything back 
 from her. 
 
 I terminate my humble words by calling divine blessings on the enlight- 
 ened members of the Parliament of Eeligions and by praying the Lord to 
 crown their undertakings with happy success. 
 
 AMERICA'S DUTY TO CHINA. 
 
 DK. W. A. P. MAKTIN, PRESIDENT OF THE IMPERIAL TUNG WEN 
 COLLEGE, PEKIN. 
 
 Among the hundreds of inviting themes offered in the official programme 
 1 have selected 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 fruitless contemplation, 
 or one that exalts ceremonial observances, at the expense of justice 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 v/hen he says that "pure and undefiled religion is to visit the widow 
 and the fatherless in their affliction, and to keep oneself 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 does not in some degree 
 exert this kind of elevating and sanctifying influence. But it is not claim- 
 ing 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 imparts 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 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. 
 
 Before taking up the discussion of our specific duties let us for a moment 
 take a view of our own indebtedness to China. The word duty in its 
 primary sense signifies what we owe. Gathering a fullness of meaning and
 
 AMERICA'S DUTY TO CHINA. 
 
 G55 
 
 rising with the growth of morals and the development of language, 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 imj)elled to do from any ccjnsideration that 
 binds the conscience. In either sphere we shall discover a number of 
 weighty obligations which wo have to discharge toward the people of China. 
 
 To begin with those of the lower order, our obligations for benefits 
 received — rich are the gifts which that ancient empire has jioured into the 
 lap of our western civilization; gifts, which, like air and sunshine, we enjoy 
 without taking the trouble to reflect on their origin, though their with- 
 drawal 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 sjjlendid 
 dress materials that set (jtf the beauty of our women. 
 
 To China we are indeljted for at least one of ovir 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 the way of India, 
 Byzantium and Arabia, had its original root in the Chinese ijhilosophy of 
 Too, one of the religions represented here to-day. Its votaries, seizing on a 
 hint of the transmutations of matter, which they found in that oldest of 
 the sacred books :2.000 years ago, of their country, the Yi King, or Book of 
 Changes, not only conceived the idea of obtaining gold from baser metals, 
 but came to believe in the possibility of evolving from this perishable body 
 an imperishable spiritual existence. Thus at an early date we find among 
 the Chinese the search for the secret of making gold and compounding the 
 elixir of immortality — the twin pursuits that have tired the ambition of 
 alchemists in all subsequent ages. 
 
 Are not these few items, if taken alone, sufficient to warrant the infer- 
 ence that the nation which originated such things is not undeserving of 
 respect, or a benefactor of the human race? 
 
 But I hasten to emphasize another obligation which connects itself, 
 directly with thegreat event commemorated by this Columbian Exhibition. 
 For to China, beyond a doubt, we are indebted for the motive that stimu- 
 lated 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 narrative of Marco Polo's resi- 
 dence at the court of Kublar Khan (A. D. 1280) in Combalar, the present 
 city of Pekin. His imagination was filled with the splendors of Cathay — 
 the name that Polo gives 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 relig- 
 ion 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 tie might arrive at the Asiatic Eldorado after pass- 
 ing 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 western course. 
 
 Convinced as he was that by steering to the West he might arrive at 
 that land of wealth and culture, without the aid of the mariner's compass 
 he would have been powerless to pursue such course. Indeed, 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.
 
 656 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Lonff lay the ocean paths from him concealed. 
 Liglit came from heaven— the magnet was revealed. 
 Then first, Cohimbus. with the grasping hand 
 Of mighty genius, weighed the sea and land. 
 There seemed one waste of waters— long in vain 
 His spirit brooded on the Atlantic main. 
 When sudden, as creation burst from naught. 
 Sprang a new world through his stupendous thought. 
 
 This heaven-sent helper came to him, as ah-eady intimated, by way of 
 China, for it was to the Chinese that the directive properties of the magnet 
 were lirst " 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 tind their way across the Pacitic and to preoccupy 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 transmitted, 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 doul)t 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 of religious opinions? 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 tii-st 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 aspiration of Columbus, the needle itself spoke to him of China, seem- 
 ing to say: " Fear not the trackless ocean — here is a guide that I have sent 
 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 quality of 
 always pginting 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 eqvially mysterious? Is it worthy of less admiration, 
 because capable of being indefinitely multiplied? And is our debt to China 
 the lighter because the instrument 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 made 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 grateful 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 flag floating over a pavilion draped with shin- 
 ing silks — with a pyramid of tea chests on one hand, and on the other a 
 house 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: 
 
 1 We have excluded your laborers and skilled workmen because our people 
 arena their competition. We have even enacted a law that not one of them who
 
 AMERICA'S DUTY TO CHINA. 
 
 657 
 
 turns his back on our slioros shall bo permitted to ro-cntor our ports. Still we 
 would like to have you lii^ip us with our big show, and for this OL'casion wo aro 
 willing to relax the ngor of (Uir rules so far as to admit a few of your workingmon 
 to aid in arran^'ing your exhibit— under bond, bo it understood, that they shall 
 clear out as soon as the display is over. 
 
 What wonder that a proud and seusitivo 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 olllcial reply as comniunieated by Minister Denby in a 
 dispatch to the Secretary of State. Reporting an interviev^^ with the Chi- 
 nese premier, Li Hung Chang, ho says: 
 
 I then took up the subject of tTie Chicago exposition and advised him to send 
 a fleet to Hami'ton lloads to show the world the groat progrens China has l.itely 
 made in tiio (Tcatioii of a modem navy, i found, however, that it was useless to 
 argue the subject with liim. He said he would not send a fleet, and that China 
 would have no exhibition at ('hicago. 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 senti- 
 mental consideration, 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 
 civilization. 
 
 "Who is my neighbor?" is a question which every human soul is bound 
 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 individuals. 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 five times as great as ours and more 
 accessible to us than to any of the great nations of Christendom; China, I 
 say, is pre-eminently our neighbor. 
 
 What, then, is the first of the duties we owe to her ? It is unquestion- 
 ably to make her peoples partakers with ourselves in the blessings of the 
 Christian religion. Here, in this Parliament of Religions, 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 hini through the labyrinth 
 of earthly veils is bound to offer it to his brother man. Who can deny that 
 we may derive a great advantage from the comparison of our religious 
 experience? And who that believes that (in Buddhistic 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 look out; 
 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? 
 
 " Why should we not send religions to your country? " once said to me a 
 distinguished Chinese professor in the Imi)erial University of Pekin. 
 Careful not to say that it was " because water does not flow uphill,"! 
 replied: " By all means; send them and make the experiment."
 
 658 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 "But would your people receive them with favor? " he asked again. 
 " Certainly " said I; " instead of being a voice crying in the wilderness 
 they would be'welcomed in our city halls, and their message would be heard 
 
 ^^ Do you suppose that my esteemed colleague at once set about forming a 
 missionary society? He was proud of his position as professor of mathe- 
 matics, 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, 
 which lie called " Shonyto," or " Tien," and had some shadow of a notion 
 of a life to come, as evidenced by his worshipof ancestors; but his religion, 
 such as it was, was wofuUy wanting in vitality, and marked by that Saddu- 
 ceean indifference which may be taken as the leading characteristic of his 
 school despite the excellence of its ethnical system. 
 
 Another religion iodigenous to Chiar is Taoism; but as the Chinese say 
 of their famous Book of Changes that " it can not be carried beyond the 
 seas" we may say the same of Taoism— it has nothing that will bear trans- 
 portation. 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 achemy, which they con- 
 tinue to pursue, their religion has dwindled into a compound 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. Prom his palace on the Tunghu Mountains of Kiongsi he 
 exercises a serious sort of spiritual jurisdiction over everything in the 
 empire, the tutelar deity of the city being by him selected from a list of 
 dead Mondouins. He is supposed, moreover, to control all the bad spirits 
 that molest mankind and the visitor is shown long rows of jars, each bear- 
 ing the seal of the pontiff and an inscription indicating that some culprit 
 was there confined. Such is Taoism at the present day, and though it 
 exercises a tremendous power over the minds of the superstitious, its doc- 
 trines and methods would hardly be deemed edifying in other parts of the 
 world. 
 
 Buddhism has a nobler record. It imported into China the elements of 
 a spiritual conception of the universe. It has implanted in the minds of 
 the common people a tirm belief in rewards and punishments. It has cher- 
 ished a spirit of charity, and, in a word, exercised an influence so similar to 
 that of Christianity that it may be considered as having done much to 
 prepare the soil for the dissemination of a higher faith. But its force is 
 spent and its work done. Its priesthood has lapsed into such a state of 
 ignorance and corruption that in Chinese Buddhism there appears to be no 
 possibility of revival. In fact it seems 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 leap 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 ceremonies 
 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 individul mind, much as gases are mingled in the atmosphere, but 
 without any definite proportion. Each of these systems has, in its meas- 
 ure, 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 religion — one which combines the merits of 
 all three, while it heightens them in degree. 
 
 J
 
 AMERICA'S DUTY TO CHINA. 659 
 
 To the august character of Shongti, the SuprcrtK} Ruler, known but 
 neglected, feared but not loved, Christianity will atld the attraction of a 
 tender Father — bringing Him into each heart and housci in lieu of fetiches 
 now enshrined there. Instead of liuddha, 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 transmigration 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, quickening the conscience and sancti- 
 fying 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 of steam- 
 boats and. telegraphs. When electricity has come forth from its hiding 
 I)lace to link the remotest quarters of their laud in instantaneous sympa- 
 thy, ministering hght, force, and healing, does it not suggest to them the 
 coming of a spiritual energy to tlo the same for the human soul? 
 
 This spiritual power, I hokl it, is pre-eminently the duty of Americans 
 to seek to impart to the people of China. When Christianity comes to them 
 from Russia, England, and France, all of which have pushed their terri- 
 tories up to the frontiers of China, the Chinese are prone to suspect that 
 evangelization under such auspices is only a mask for future aggression. 
 It is not Christianity in itself that they object to, so much as its connec- 
 tion 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 persecution of their 
 countrymen, was regarded by the Chinese as their best friend, because an 
 impossible enemy. Our treaty of 1858 gives expression 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 regai-ded 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 people the practice of justice and 
 charity." 
 
 This brings us to the duties especially incumbent on our government, 
 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 cor- 
 responding good to the Chinese empire. 
 
 Take, for example, our commerce. Do we impoverish China by taking 
 her teas and silks? Do we not, on the contrary, add to her wealth Ly 
 giving in exchange the materials for food and clothing at a less cost 
 than would be required for their production in China? The value of 
 our commercial interests in that empire may be inferred better 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 steamships bridging the 
 Pacific. What dimensions will they not attain when our States West of the 
 Mississippi come to be filled with an opulent population; and when 
 the resourcss of China are developed by the application 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! A new land as rich as 
 Cathay, and new and old clasping hands across a broad exjjanse of ocean 
 whitened by the sails of a prosperous commerce. Already has such a dream 
 begun to be fulfilled and to the ijrospective expansion of our commerce
 
 660 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 got 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 xjroducts of China from our 
 markets and not to divert 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 repealing that 
 odious law which may not be forbidden by the letter of our Constitution, 
 iiut which three eminent members of our Supreme Court have pronounced 
 to be in glaring opposition to the spirit of our magna charta. 
 
 In September, 1888, the Chinese government had under advisement a 
 treaty negotiated by its minister in Washington in which, to escape the 
 indignity of an ordinary 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 amend- 
 ments which China desired to propose. But the exigencies of a Presidential 
 campaign led our government to apply the "closure" with an abrupt- 
 ness almost unheard of in diplomatic history, demanding through our min- 
 ister in Pekin 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, as 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 round — 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 prede- 
 cessors in the severity of its enactments, was successfully floated. Could 
 such a course have any other effect than that of exciting in the mind of 
 China a profound contempt for our republican institutions, and in abiding 
 hostility to our people? One of our leading journals has characterized that 
 law as "a piece of buncombe and barbarous legislation," of which the 
 administration 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 people be wel- 
 comed as friends, and America may yet recover her lost influence in that 
 great empire of the East. 
 
 WOMAN AND THE PULPIT. 
 
 EEV. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWEI,L. 
 
 Feelings which come unbidden from the influence of our surroundings 
 tend to produce the willing acceptance of anything to which we are accus- 
 tomed. We live so much more vividly in the present than in the past or 
 future that anything here and now seems to have more claim upon us than 
 higher ideas which wait to be realized. Chilly rain falling steadily for a 
 day or two makes it difficult to shake off the feeling that the same weather 
 will continue without limit. Experience tells us that warmth and sun- 
 shine will be here directly, but it is not easy to recall the sensation pro- 
 duced by cheerful, bright days. If this is true of events to which we are 
 accustomed, how much more, then, of the less familiar, larger facts of his- 
 tory. The present becomes the instructive measure of the future.
 
 WOMAN AND THE PULPIT. 
 
 661 
 
 The tendency is much more influential than may be supposed in the 
 settlement of many of the great 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 capable women in the 
 Christian pulpit. Serious arguments against feminine preaching were 
 answered long ago. It is no longer believed that women are pre-emi- 
 nently deficient in mind or character. Many of the older matrons and 
 unmarried women, and some even of the young mothers have already 
 demonstrated their capacity for doing large amounts of benevolent outside 
 work without detriment either to the home, to society, or to their own 
 highest womanly natures. Wherever any of the fairly acceptable women 
 preachers are heard and known long enough to make their speaking and 
 good work familiar and appreciated there it is already accepted that the 
 sex of the worker is not a bar to good work. The easy adaptability to new 
 duties is admitted without question. 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 clergy- 
 woman 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. " WhafU 
 you be?" 
 
 The boy reflected awhile 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 jjreach sometimes." 
 
 But the world is so miscellaneously broad that some of the best men 
 never heard a woman preacher. They never tried to apply the higher 
 criticism to some of St. Paul's much-quoted sayings about women. They 
 verily believe that to hinder "female preaching and ordination" to the 
 utmost stretch of their ability is doing God's service. They tighten, 
 reclasp, and rivet afresh with more glittering steel loosened ecclesiastical 
 bonds which belonged to less enlightened ages, for they sincerely think 
 that the world wide woman movement is only a perverse, detestable off- 
 shoot of pernicious infidel tendencies. 
 
 A greater intellect blunder than this timid, illogical assumption has 
 seldom been made. Religious creeds have been shaken to their founda- 
 tions. But 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 both service and money so lav- 
 ishly for home and foreign benevolences that the church is both astonished 
 and bewildered, though it opens the mouths of its sacks to receive the sup- 
 plies and it establishes unusual church offices, as that of deaconess, and 
 evangelist to afford safe outlets 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 of work certainly to no obvious disavantage to any worthy interest. 
 This great Parliament of Religions is in evidence that narrow conserva- 
 tism is rapidly decreasing and that our conception of the religious 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 impotent aids to the bringing out of his princiiJal figures, so the 
 past is an essential background form the present.
 
 G62 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 
 exclusively than men have represented such hardships under later civiliza- 
 tions. That this so-called matriarchate was a higher state of civilization 
 than the present no one can well believe; yet, that it had less tendency in 
 any way, good or bad, to limit the 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 needlessly interwoven 
 that they are all pushed violently into the rear. 
 
 If Christianity had fully decided the modern status of society there 
 would have been neither male nor female in church, or state, or education, 
 or property, or influence, or work, or honor. Choice 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 Christianityis: 
 " In honor preferring one another." As the heavens are high above the 
 earth, so is that principle above those who have largely controlled the rela- 
 tions of men and women. Compare 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 separate from the 
 community interests. The tribe or clan was a social unit for offense, 
 defense, and ownership. Their gods were tute'ary, 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 govern- 
 ment 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 to-day, having more leisure time than 
 men, are most active in affairs of society for their class and in benevolences 
 for the less favored. In that condition of morals women could only safely 
 bequeath 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 successful 
 otherwise. The infamous schemes which have baffled every subsequent 
 civilization, which have destroyed many, and which must destroy all if not 
 repudiated, the futile schemes for securing virtuous wives and legitimate 
 children without entirely discontinuing a wide license for husbands, fathers, 
 sons, had not arisen for these simpler heathen folks. 
 
 Too much is at stake here to allow anything but plain speaking. God 
 forbid that I should charge all good men and women with willingly 
 upholding this basest of all injustice. We inherit our early environments. 
 Custom binds us to the ethics which we accept while life is roseate; but 
 the men and women of this parliament can afford to look all facts in the
 
 WOMAN AND THE PULPIT. 
 
 6G3 
 
 face. The later enforced civil inferiority of women, their legal pauperism 
 from the day when they became wives, the church's solemn requirement of 
 wifely obedience, tlie husband's custody of the wife, the entire education 
 for debilitating, seclusive timidity and dependence, ail spr;ing from the 
 same baneful root. It has demoralizeil even our idea of a strong, beautiful 
 womanhood. And woman's long exclusion from the pulpit, from the most 
 consecrated place which Christianity has kept for its supposed best and 
 noblest, is the outgrowth of the same basal iniquity. 
 
 Is this a hard saying? No living historian who takes as his search-light 
 modern methods of studying sacred, secular, domestic, and civil society in 
 mutual dependence can question this conclusion. No other explanation is 
 adequate to the various facts. The East adopted close veiling and almost 
 literal imprisonment of high-class and favorite women. Why, if not to 
 enforce wifely chastity? Even the small feet of the best classes of Chinese 
 women have an equally probable origin. Helplessness was security. The 
 lower class could be left in greater freedom. But mental fetters are more 
 potent than physical bonds. Two antipodal religions, Mohammedanism and 
 the Latter Day Saints, bound the consciences, befogged the intellects, and 
 crucified the souls of women to give religious sanction to polygamy for men. 
 One high moral standard was not adopted. There were but two alternatives 
 — either plural wives whose supposed welfare in time and eternity was hung 
 upon the skirts of exalted husbands, or Christendom's half-disguised, cruel 
 separation of feminine humanity into two divisions, the sheltered monog- 
 amous wives and those unwedded others. Of the two plans, which is the 
 most un-Christian, let the casuists decide. 
 
 The highest code of morals is not elastic, but both men and women must 
 look aloft before they can cordially appreciate its teachings. To be hedged 
 about by conventions is not to learn a self-reliant rectitude. Was there 
 ever a reason why capable, good women should not have continued to be 
 expounders of the highest truth to which their era could attain? They 
 have always manifested a special aptitude for religious devotion. About 
 twice as many women as men are members of churches in all sects, whose 
 ministers are received by vote, and they are more persistent in their attend- 
 ance on religious services everywhere. This has always been largely true. 
 Has it ever been wise to fetter conscience, or to nourish a weak self-con- 
 sciousness in the illumined presence of a great hope which points on to an 
 endless triumphant feature? 
 
 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 we think of Jesus as possibly hindered 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 mon- 
 strous as to absorb and stifle the divine proclamations 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 pil- 
 grimages. But who were his personal friends? Did He not say, " Mary 
 has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her? " It 
 was not Jesus who established the apostolic succession. 
 
 If only superficial feminine propriety 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 preserved. There is no 
 impropriety in proclaiming truth from the highest housetop. The most 
 consecrated pulpit is less sacred than the living principle. If reverent lips 
 proclaim holiness and truth, the gaze of the thousands who listen can brush 
 no down from the cheek of maidenhood or wifehood. Our ancestors took
 
 66i THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 their lives in their hands when they came to colonize this country. 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 plowsbrMcs of intem- 
 perate 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 inevitable. 
 
 In 1853 an orthodox Congregational church called a council and 
 ordained three women pastors, w^ho had been already settled among them 
 for six or eight months. Then followed a long waiting of ten years. In 
 18(53 two women were ordained by the Universalist Church, Rev. Olympia 
 Brown, one of the speakers on this platform, and Dr. Augusta J. Chapin, 
 the first woman to be honored in this year of grace as D. D., who is also 
 chairman of the woman's branch of this parliament. In that second 
 decade so far as yet ascertained, three other women received ordination — 
 only five in all. In the third decade thirty or forty w^ere ordained, and in 
 the fourth decade about two hundred have received ordination from many 
 denominations— Congregationalists, Universalists, Christian, Unitarian, 
 Protestant Methodists, Free Baptists, and many other sects. 
 
 Numbers of our most earnest religious speakers have not chosen to seek 
 ordination. Most of these women are, or have been, stated preachers or 
 pastors of churches, and are believed to have proved themselves to be suc- 
 cessful above the average in promoting the religious welfare of the church 
 and community. This memorable and commemorative season's succession 
 of congresses in this place, dedicated first to progress then to art. is an 
 excellent gauge of to-day's opinion. Even this temple has not felt itself 
 to be profaned by the platform presence of women, and it is believed that 
 the hundred of feminine voices which have been heard will leave no dis- 
 cordant echo behind. This annealing world's Parliament of Religions 
 welcomes half a score of women to share in the presentation of compara- 
 tive religions. 
 
 The sympathetic recognition of the magnetic Influence of the sex as 
 teachers is recognized, the need of representation for the protection of 
 material interests is conceded, but who anticipates that the entrance of 
 another type of humanity actively into the world's thought, with its modi- 
 tied insights and inspiration, must widen the spiritual horizon. Women 
 are needed in the pulpit as imperatively and for the same reason that they 
 are needed in the world — because they are women. Women have become — 
 or when the ingrained habit of unconscious imitation has been superseded, 
 they will become — indispensable to the religious evolution of the human 
 race. Every religion for the people must be religion sought after and 
 interpreted by the people. So only can it become adequate mentally and 
 spiritually to ths universal needs and to the intelligent acceptance of a 
 whole humanity. Every teacher, having taken into his own heart a cen- 
 tral principle, around which clusters a kindred group of ideas, all bap- 
 tized in the light of his believing soul, brings to us vividly 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 pulpit of the 
 future will be a consecrated platform, upon which may stand every such 
 soul, and freely proclaim those best and highest convictions which most 
 convince, strengthen,, comfort, and elevate his own mental and spiritual 
 being. 
 
 1
 
 RELIGIONS AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. GGo 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE MOTHER OF RELIGIONS ON 
 THE SOCIAL QUESTION. 
 
 RABBI H. BEEKOWITZ, D. D., OF THILADELPHIA, PA. 
 The paper was read by Dr. Joseph Stolez of Chicago. 
 
 Here, in the assembly of so many of her spiritual children, in the midst 
 of the religious which have received from her nurture and loving care, 
 Judaism, the fond mother, may well lift up her voice and bo heard with 
 reverent antl affectionate 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. Prom the very tirst she proclaimed the dignity, nay the duty of 
 labor by postulating God, the Creator, at work and setting forth the divine 
 example unto all men for imitation, in the command: '"Six days shalt thou 
 labor and do all thy work."' Industry is thus hallowed l)y religion and relig- 
 ion in turn is made to receive the homage of industry in the fultillment of 
 the ordinance of Sabbath 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 trodden 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 energy to solve, according to the eternal law of the Eternal Right- 
 eous, every new phase of the every recurring problems in the social relation- 
 ships of men. 
 
 When the son of Adam, hiding in the dismul covert of some primeval 
 forest, heard the accusing voice of conscience in bitter tones upbraiding 
 him, he defiantly made reply: "Am I my brother's keeper? " Then the 
 social conflict began. To the question then asked, Judaism made stern 
 reply in branding with the guilt-mark of Cain every transgression of human 
 right. From then until now, unceasingly through all the long and trying 
 centuries, she has never wearied in lifting up her voice to denounce wrong 
 and plead for right, to brand the oppressor 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, injunctions, 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, inequalities 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 thyself," she says;" this is natural, 
 this is axiomatic, but remember it is never of itself a moral injunction. Ego- 
 ism 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 vaga- 
 bond, 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 
 undreamed-of benefits." 
 
 In this reciprocal relation between the responsibility of the individual 
 for society and of society for the individual lies one of Judaism's prime 
 characteristics. She has pointed the ideal in the conflict of social principles 
 by her golden precept: "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself- -I am 
 God." (Lev. xix., 18.) According to this precept she has so arranged the
 
 066 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 inner affairs of the family that the purity, the sweetness.and tenderness of 
 
 the homes of her children have become proverbial. 
 
 Houor thy f ;itlicr and thy mother. (Ex. xx., 12.) ••„<,, 
 
 The widow and the orphan thou shall not oppress. (Ex. xxu.. ^.) 
 Before tho hoary head shalt thou rise and shalt revere the Lord thy God. (Lev. 
 
 ^''"^Auci thou Shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. (Deut, vi., 7.) 
 
 Those and hundreds of like injunctions have created the institutions of 
 lovin{» and tender care which secure the training and nurture, the educa- 
 tion 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 of 
 immortality sheds its radiant light." 
 
 Judaism sets education before all things else and knows but one word 
 for charity— zedakah, i. e., 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 
 due to every creature, guarding each with this motive, from the cradle to 
 the grave. With her sublime maxim, " Love thy neighbor as thyself— I am 
 God,'" Judaism set up the highest ideal of society as a human brotherhood 
 under the care of a divine fatherhood. According to this ideal, Judaism 
 has sought, passing beyond_the environments 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 Genesis, 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 accordingly the sanctification of men unto the noblest in 
 the injunction to the "priest-people" — "Holy shall ye be, for I, the Lord 
 your CJod, am holy." (Ex. xix., 22.) 
 
 The freedom of the individual was the prime necessary consequence of 
 this precept. Grandly and majestically the Mosaic legislation swept aside 
 all the fallacies which had given the basis to the heartless degradation of 
 man by his fellowman. Slavery stood forever condemned when Israel went 
 forth from the bondage of Egypt. Labor then for the first time asserted its 
 freedom, and assumed the dignity which at last the present era is vindicat- 
 ing 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 honored as in the Hebrew commonwealth. The wage system was 
 inaugurated 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 conditions 
 of the different lands and different ages always have arisen and always will 
 arise, the Jewish legislation in its inception and developiiient affords an 
 extraordinary contribution. It has studiously avoided the fallacies of the 
 extremists of both the communistic and individualistic 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 cruelties. He that saith, " What is mine is 
 thine, and what is thine shall remain thine," he has the wisdom of the 
 righteous. He that saith, " What is mine is mine, and what is thine is 
 also mine," he is utterly godless. (Pirque Aboth v., 13.) 
 
 Judaism has calmy met the wild outbursts of extremists of the anti- 
 poverty nihilistic types with the simple confession of the fact which is a
 
 RELIGIONS AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. C.G7 
 
 resultant of the imperfections of human nature. "Tho needy will not be 
 wanting in the land." (Deut. xv., 11.) The brotherly care of the needy is 
 the common solicitude of the Jewish legislatures and jjeople in every age. 
 Their neglect or abuse evoke the wrath of prophet, sage, and councilor 
 with such a fury that even to-day none but the morally (.lead can with- 
 stand their eloquence. The effort of all legislation and instruction was 
 directed to a harmonization of these two extremes. 
 
 The freedom of the individual was recognized as involving the develop- 
 ment of unlike capacities. From this freedom all progress springs. But 
 ail 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 ijossessions was 
 regarded as only a trust, because everything is God's, the Father's, to be 
 acquired by industry and perseverance 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 rituals, 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 fallow, all produce free to the consumer, the tithings of field 
 and flock, the loans to the brother in need without usury, and the magnifi- 
 cent system of obligatory charities, which still hold the germ of the wis- 
 dom of all modern scientific charity. " Let the poor glean in the fields " 
 (Lev. xix., 10), and gather through his own efforts what he needs, i. 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 character, living under certain 
 conditions and environments which probably do not now exist in exactly 
 the same order anywhere. We can not use the statutes, but their aim and 
 spirit, their motive and method we must adopt in the solution of the social 
 problem even to-day. Consider 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 cry- 
 ing 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 to-day 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 spirit- 
 ual children, that in her bosom they may find comfort and rest. "Come 
 back to the cradle of the world, where wisdom first spake,"' she cries, "and 
 learn again the message of truth that for all times and unto all generations 
 was proclaimed through Israel's precept, "Love thy neighbor as thyself, 
 for I am God." (Lev. xix., 18.) 
 
 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, nor the nihilist, but simply and only according to the 
 eternal laws of morality of which Sinai is the loftiest symbol. The 
 guiding principles of all true social economy are embodied in the simple 
 lessons of Judaism. As the world has been redeemed from idolatry and
 
 G68 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 modern 
 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 truth 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 instance 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 Religious. May the voice of the mother not plead in vain. May the 
 hearts of the nations be touched, and all the unjust and cruel restrictions 
 of ages be removed from Israel in all lauds, so that the emancipated 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 Baron de Hirs?i Trust, and the 
 Viirious Jewish organizations of the civilized world from Palestine to Cali- 
 fornia prove Israel's ardor for the honors of industry; may the wisdom of 
 her schools, counsel of her sages, the inspiration of her law-givers, the elo- 
 quence of her prophets, the rapture of her psalmists, the earnestness of all 
 her advocates increasingly win the reverent attention of humanity to, and 
 fix them unswervingly upon, the everlasting laws of righteousness, which 
 she has set as the only basis for the socLol structure.
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 FOURTEENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 24th. 
 
 Large audiences assembled at the two isessions of the con- 
 gress this day. Minute parliaments of religion were held in 
 several churches, which, however, did not interfere with the 
 interest taken in the great parliament itself. The papers sub- 
 mitted follow : 
 
 HOW AMERICAN CIVILIZATION HAS BEEN 
 AFFECTED BY CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 PKOF. THOMAS o'GORMAN. 
 
 By right of discovery and possession, dating back almost 900 years, 
 America is Christian. On the waters of Lake Michigan, close to the Con- 
 vent of La Rabida, are moored three Spanish caravels and a little further 
 away one Viking ship. All three — convent, caravels, and Scandinavian 
 craft — are evidences of an acquaintance between America and the church 
 in times when the only Christianity in existence was Catholic. This fact 
 is sufficient justification for a change I have allowed myself to make. In 
 the programme this paper has for title, " Relation of the Catholic Church 
 to America." For wider latitude and juster account I make it " Relation 
 of Christianity to America." 
 
 The strange Viking boat carries the relation to a period antedating 
 Columbus by almost five hundred years. About the year 1000 Christian 
 colonists from Norway founded in Greenland a Christian community, which 
 for 400 years — that is, almost down to the days of Columbus — possessed a 
 body of Catholic priests and a continuous line of bishops in communion 
 with the popes of Rome. From Greenland, traders and missionaries pushed 
 westward to the mainland. Trading posts and mission stations, if not per- 
 manent settlements, arose on the coasts of New England and the natural 
 products of this country found their way to Europe and even to Rome, the 
 capital of Christendom, as payment of the Peter pence from the Catholic 
 people of far-away Greenland and Vinland. In the show-cases of the Con- 
 vent of La Rabida in your White City are some of the many contemporary 
 documents which prove these facts and imply a relation, existing long before 
 Columbus between Rome and the land that was to become in later ages 
 the cradle of the American Republic. For reasons, which it is not my pres- 
 ent task to indicate, the intercourse had gradually grown intermittent 
 and had all but ceased when Columbus appeared. At any rate, it had 
 never dawned on the mind of Europe that the far-away Scandinavian col- 
 ony was in a new continent. Greenland and Vinland were supposed to be 
 
 669
 
 670 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. ■ 
 
 connected in some way with Northern Europe, and to be a southern dip of 
 the known continent into habitable western latitudes from inhabitable 
 polar regions. So much for the older acquaintance between the church 
 
 The Spanish convent and caravels indicate a relation that began 400 
 years a^o; a relation which was to Europe the revelation of a New World, 
 what the Scandinavian relation had not been; a relation that has not 
 ceased since, as had the Scandinavian; a relation that at first fitted like 
 some distant dream before the eyes of Spain in the solemn halls of Sala- 
 manca, that gradually took on some faint reality beneath the walls of 
 Granada, in the quiet port of Palos, that finally became fact on the newly 
 found shores of San Salvador, in the shadow of the cross raised on Ameri- 
 can soil by the successful discoverer. The books, pamphlets, lectures, and 
 articles written in this Columbian anniversary prove beyond a candid 
 doubt that the discovery of America was eminently a religious enterprise, 
 and that the desire to spread Christianity was, I will not say the only but 
 the principal motive that prompted the leaders engaged in that memorable 
 venture. Before you can strip the discovery of its religious character you 
 must unchristen the admiral's flagship and tear from her bulwarks the 
 painting of the patroness under whose auspices the gallant craft plowed 
 her way through the terrors of the unknown ocean. 
 
 The inspiration that gave the Old World a new continent was also the 
 cause of its colonization and civilization. Various popes from Alexander 
 VII., 1493, to Leo XI., 1514, approved and legalized discovery and occupa- 
 tion in America. The purpose of their bulls was to prevent or settle diffi- 
 culties and wars between rival claimants to the new lands. The indirect 
 results of their intervention were of untold benefit to humanity. That inter- 
 vention promoted the geographical study and knowledge of the globe, insti- 
 gated Magellan's voyage around the world, created the partition of the 
 continent, and hence also the colonial system out of which this great nation 
 is born. 
 
 When I say that religion was the primary motive in the maning of the 
 American nations, I make all due allowance for subsidiary and lower 
 motives, for greed and cruelty, and all the baser passions which in all things 
 human, alas, accompany and follow the nobler virtues and higher intentions, 
 and seem, when they alone are looked at, to overshadow and damn Chris- 
 tian civilization. Yet, granting all this, it Jc true to say that religion often 
 originated, always upheld and blessed the colonization of this continent, 
 and the founding of the great commonwealths that to-day make America 
 the admiration of the world, and to-morrow may make it the world's 
 master. 
 
 In the North our missionaries softened the nature and manners of the 
 aborigines and prepared them for the civilization into the possession of 
 which the United States is leading them slowly but surely. If you would 
 know our Indian ward such as he was before he came into contact with 
 our religion, read the Jesuit Relations or Parkman's historical works. If 
 you would know the benefit he has gained by the contact, study the Indian 
 of a later period, consider him as he is to-day, when he is so surrounded by 
 our civilization that he can not but breathe in its infiuence. I do not deny 
 the evils which Christians, untrue to their religious creed, have inflicted on 
 the native races, but I do say that on the whole they have been benefited 
 by Christianity and that the government of this country intends and 
 steadily seeks their greater good in spite of the obstacles that contending 
 churches and still more contending politicians raise against its benign 
 desires and efforts. The improvement of a race, like the improvement of a 
 man, is always at the cost of cruel experiences; such is the price of 
 evolution. 
 
 In South America Christianity has swept away pagan civilizations, fail
 
 AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY. 671 
 
 in appearance, but roekinpf with slavery and human sjicrificos, and has fash- 
 ioned into Christian Hfe the niilHons of natives who compose in very great 
 part the republics of that half of our continent. There are dis(jrders there, I 
 confess, in state and church, which we in the North have hajjpily escaped; 
 disorders in the state which are the striving after that purer and more solid 
 democracy, which was our dower frou) the cradle, and was sealed to ub as 
 an heirloom once for all by the blood shed in the first successful assertion 
 of our independence; disorders in the church which are the fatal outcome 
 of a civilization not yet perfected, and above all of a union with the state 
 which hampers the free and natural working of the church. Yet, despite 
 all this, we may safely predict that there, as here, as in our motherland, 
 Europe, in past ages, Christianity, if you but give her time, will beget a perfect 
 civilization, and that the republics of the South will move up to the first 
 ranks in the grand march of humanity to the goal of Christian progress. 
 Thus, by her action on the native races of the New World, an action which 
 may be said to begin only, and can not be judged fairly at this stage of its 
 working, Christianity has made large additions to the family of civilized 
 man, and has given birth to communities that may yet play an important 
 part in the future history of the world. 
 
 But the field of my study is not so much all this continent as that por- 
 tion of it which we inhabit, and which is allowed by common consent, on 
 account of its sviperiority in all that makes civilization, to be called par 
 excellence America. Here was a virginal soil, sterilized so to speak, of all 
 the germs of the politics of the old world. Here was an asylum lying open 
 to the peoples of the earth; here was to grow a new nation made of contri- 
 butions from all the nations, constituted in a political structure that had 
 been unknown, or at least untried, by mankind in the past. In what rela- 
 tion does this republic stand to Christianity? That is the question before 
 us. 
 
 It was religion that wafted the first colonists to our shores. They came 
 to seek liberty of worship, and some of them, while finding that boon for 
 themselves, refused it to others. But there came to Maryland a band of 
 emigrants who, by the original design of their founder. Lord Baltimore, 
 and later by their own legislative enactment in colonial assembly, erected 
 into law within their province civil and religious liberty for all Christians. 
 The first Marylanders were Catholics, and to them belongs the glory of 
 that which is the proudest boast of the American citizen, freedom of relig- 
 ion. When the colonies entered into federation and formed the United 
 States, the Maryland enactment became part of our Constitution. Relig- 
 ious equality came to us as the natural and necessary result of political 
 development. 
 
 If the original States were born of the divisions of Christianity, the 
 Union of the States was born of the sinking of those divisions in religious 
 equality. This is secured by two provisions in the Constitution. "No 
 religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any ofBce or public 
 trust under the United States." This excludes the establishment of any 
 particular church by doing away with the religious tests which had been 
 required in the colonies for the holding of office. " Congress shall make no 
 law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
 thereof." This enactment constitutes a bill of rights, guarantees to all 
 churches fnll liberty and forbids Congress ever to abridge that liberty. It 
 is a denial on the part of the Federal Government of control over religion, an 
 acknowledgment that it is incompetent in the matter. The line marked out 
 by those two provisions was the only one left open to the fathers of the 
 Republic. 
 
 They were not creating a nation out of nothing; they were unifying into 
 a nation isolated, independent communities having established churches. 
 The recognition of any one church would have made the unification
 
 672 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 impossible; it was possible only by the equality of all before the government. 
 The necessities of the situation imposed this relation and emphasized to 
 the world the providential destiny of the United States, which is to be a 
 home to all nations and creeds. 
 
 American Christianity, therefore, is a self-supporting, self-governing 
 religion in independent but friendly relation to the civil power. Both are 
 equally necessary to constitute an organic nation, as soul and body to con- 
 stitute a man; both meet on questions of public morality, without which 
 there is no society. The church gives stability and strength to the founda- 
 tions of the state; the state protects the church in her property, legisla- 
 tion, and liberty. 
 
 This is quite different from the red republican theory of Europe. With 
 us, separation of church and state rests on respect for the church, since the 
 state owns to be incompetent in the religious sphere. With them the sep- 
 aration rests on indifference, not to say hatred, since they exclude the 
 church from the common rights with which the moral as well as the phys- 
 ical individual is endowed by nature; in truth their separation is not pro- 
 tection but persecution. Religious liberty is freedom in religion, not from 
 religion, as civil liberty is freedom in and under law, not from law. Much 
 as religion needs the protection of the State in the enjoyment of the ina- 
 lienable rights granted by the Creator to the religious society as well as to 
 the individual man. the state is more in need of the support of religion. 
 
 The omission of God's name from the Constitution was not an intended 
 slight, nor is it the denial of His sovereignty. As well say that the omis- 
 sion of God's name from the Book of Esther and the Song of Solomon makes 
 them atheistic. Our political charter presupposes God and Christianity, 
 presupposes the main facts and the past history of Christianity, and is 
 bound to them by discovery and colonization. The oath required from all 
 officers of the Federal Government, the exemption of Sunday from their 
 working days, the subscription " In the year of our Lord, " are a recogni- 
 tion of God and imply that the Lord Jesus Christ is the turning point of 
 humanity, the source and beginning of a new order. The statement that 
 our government is based on and has its spring from the people does not 
 exclude the higher scriptural statement that all power is from God, for the 
 derivation may well be, and in fact is, from God to the people, from the peo- 
 ple to their chosen governors. 
 
 Look at the fundamental articles, the formative principles of the Repub- 
 lic — "all men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with 
 certain inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness; to secure these, just governments are instituted among men, 
 deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." These are 
 Christian principles asserting God, creation, the rights of the creature, and, 
 by implication, the duties that are correlative to those rights. To these 
 principles the Catholic Church gave an impregnable foundation when, in 
 the council of Trent, she defined that reason is not totally obscured and 
 will is not totally depraved. How can the capacity of self-government be 
 predicated of a being in total depravity? And as the church by her teach- 
 ing concurred in the foundation, so she also concurred in the preservation 
 of this republic by the devotion of her children, especially in the two wars 
 for independence and union. 
 
 Think you there was insincerity in the admiration of Leo XIII. so often 
 expressed for our Constitution, and notably when, on the occasion of his 
 sacerdotal jubilee five years ago, he was presented by President Cleveland 
 with a gift that was prized above the jewels of European potentates, a copy 
 of the Constitution of the United States? Think you it was blasphemy his 
 Legate, Archbishop SatoUi, proffered in this hall the other day, when he 
 exclaimed: "Catholics of America, go forward with the gospel of truth in 
 one hand and the Constitution of the United States in the other? " 
 
 H
 
 AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY. G73 
 
 We may truly say that with us separation of church and state is not 
 separation of the nation from reHgion. The American conception is that the 
 religious character of the nation consists mainly in the religious belief of 
 the individual citizen ami the conformity of conduct to that belief. "There 
 is no country in the whole world," said DeTocqueville, " in which the Chris- 
 tian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in 
 America; it directs the manners of the community, and by regulating 
 domestic life it regulates the state. I am certain that Americans hold 
 religion to be indisjjensable to the maintenance of republican institutions.*' 
 
 Let me enumerate some evidences of the influence of Christianity on 
 individuals and domestic society, and, through them, on the organic nation, 
 or the state: Respect for the clergy and voluntary support generously 
 given them; multiplication and maintenance of churches, private schools, 
 Sunday schools. Young Men's Christian Associations, benevolent and char- 
 itable societies, religious associations for the relief of every misery, ])hysical 
 and spiritual, to which humanity is liable; cooperation of men, irrespect- 
 ive of creeds, in issues of public morality, reform, or charity, and the con- 
 sequent softening of sectarian prejudices; obser^-ance of Sunday, not only 
 by rest from ordinary work, but by attendance at public worship; labors 
 and contributions for missions, especially for the Christianizing of our 
 African and Indian neighbors; zeal and practical work for temperance aud 
 social purity; respect for woman, and the opening to her of new avenues 
 and fields of occupation, the giving to her a vote in questions that come 
 close to her as wife and mother, such as temperance and education; the 
 movement to make the punishment of crime reformatory; finally, the gen- 
 eral interest taken in the development of religion, the evolution of its teach- 
 ing, the interior life of its churches, and the connection of all social and 
 philanthropic progress with religion. 
 
 Such a wide and deep Christian life in the component parts of the state 
 can not but influence the state itself; of what I should call the states' 
 Christianity, I give the following evidence: 
 
 1. Not only does the Federal Government make Sunday a legal day of rest for 
 all its ofHcials but the States have Sunday laws, which do not enforce any 
 specific worship, but do guard the day's restfulness. Moreover, certain religious 
 hoUdays are made legal holidays. 
 
 2 Presidents and governors in ofHeial documents recognize the dependence 
 of the nation on God and the duty of gratitude to Him. As notable examples 
 I will cite Washington's first and last addresses, Lincoln's second inaugural 
 and Gettysburg speech, and Cleveland's second inaugural. 
 
 3. Our courts decide questions of church discipline and property that come 
 before them according to the charter and the constitution of the church in 
 litigation. 
 
 4. The action of Congress in regard to Mormonism is an upholding of the 
 Christian marriage and in all the States bigamy is a crime. Immorality is not 
 allowed by the civil power to flaunt itself ia public, but is driven to conceal- 
 ment and the Decalogue, inasmuch as it relates to the social relations of man. 
 is enforced. 
 
 5. Celebrations of a public and official character, sessions of State Legisla- 
 tures and congresses are opened with prayer. Chaplains are appointed at public 
 expense for Congress, the army, the navy, the military and naval acad(^mies. the 
 State Legislatures and institutions. When Franklin moved for prayer in the Fed- 
 eral convention he gave the following reason: " How has it happened that we 
 have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to 
 illuminate our understandings? The longer 1 live the more convincing proofs I 
 see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men." 
 
 6. More than once it has been decided by courts that we are a Christian peo- 
 ple, and that Christianity is part of our unwritten law, as it is part of the com- 
 mon law of England. 
 
 Such, briefly, is the relation of Christianity to the American Republic, 
 when we consider only its internal life. Are we not justified in concluding 
 that here Christianity has added to her domain a nation which is the most 
 active, the most progressive, and not the least intellectual in this 19th 
 century? 
 
 And now a few words as to the religious character of the external life
 
 674 THJi: PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of the Republic, by which I mean the relations of this nation with other 
 nations. The Christian religion is the Gospel of peace to men, and its 
 founder is the Prince of Peace. It is the slow work of an ever ascend- 
 in"- evolution to bring about the abolition of war in the world, the triumph 
 of'Christianity, the climax of her development shall be the substitution of 
 right for might, of reason for violence, of charity for force in the adjust- 
 ment of disputes among nations. Happy the day for humanity when all 
 people shall be federated in the acknowledgment of a Supreme Court provi- 
 dentially raised above all national jealousies and territorial interests for 
 the final settling of their quarrels! We see the dawning of that day, and 
 the dawn is in the skies of this Republic. 
 
 As early as 1882, the Senate of Massachusetts adopted resolutions 
 expressing " that some mode should be established for the amicable and 
 final adjustment of all international disputes instead of a resort to war." 
 Various other legislatures gave expression to the same sentirnent, and the 
 sentiment grew apace on the Nation. In 1874 a resolution in'favor of gen- 
 eral arbitration was passed by the House of Representatives. The move- 
 ment spread to other countries. In 1888, 233 members of the British Parlia- 
 ment sent a communication to the President and Congress urging a treaty 
 between England and the United States, which should stipulate that any 
 differences or disputes arising between the two governments which can not 
 be adjusted by diplomatic agency shall be referred to arbitration. In the 
 same year the government of Switzerland proposed to tho United States 
 the conclusion of a convention for thirty years, binding the contracting 
 parties to submit their mutual differences t<> arbitration. The noblest 
 spectacle of modern times was given to the world when two great and pow- 
 erful nations, England and the United States, showed in the settlement of 
 the Alabama claims that the magnitude of a controversy and the heat of 
 public feeling were not an insuperable barrier to a peaceful settlement by 
 arbitration. 
 
 The best known, as it is the latest arbitration treaty, is the one for- 
 mulated by the International American Conference, under the secretaryship 
 of Mr. Blaine, whereby the Republics of North, Central, and South America - 
 adopt arbitration as a principle of American international law for the 
 settlement of disputes that may arise between two or more of them. They 
 characterized this in the preamble of the proposed treaty as the only 
 Christian and rational procedure, as between individuals so also between 
 nations. Transmitting tiiis proposal to Congress, President Cleveland, in 
 his message, remarks that the ratification of the measure would constitute 
 one of the happiest and most hopeful incidents in the history of the Wes ern 
 Hemisphere. 
 
 Since the establishment of our government, the United States has 
 entered into forty-eight agreements for international arbitration, has acted 
 seven times as arbitrator between other governments, has created thirteen 
 tribunals under its own laws to determine the validity of international 
 claims. Most of the questions thus arbitrated involved national rights and 
 honor, and might have been considered as just and necessary causes of 
 war. "Though I have been trained as a soldier," said General Grant, " and 
 have participated in many battles, there never was a time, in my opinion, 
 when some way could not have been found of preventing the drawing of 
 the^sword. I look forward to an epoch when a court, recognized by all 
 nations, will settle internafciona! differences, instead of keeping large 
 standing armies as they do in Europe.' 
 
 I will add the words of Lord Hobhouse: "The more I have studied 
 history the stronger has my conviction become that many wars are cause :1 
 by the stupidity or ambition of a few persons, many by a false sense of 
 honor, many by misunderstanding the fact." 
 
 If peace with honor be the motive and end of war, can not that be
 
 WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS WROUGHT FOR AMERICA. 675 
 
 secured more efficaciously and nobly by arbitration at tho bar of reason? 
 Shall not future ages look upon the wars of the i)ast as the relics of barba- 
 rism clinging to men still striving up the path of pi'ogress and not fully 
 imbued with the spirit of Christianity? 
 
 From our review of the relations between religion and the republic, we 
 may conclude that this is not an irreligious nation; we art^ encouraged to 
 hojx' for its steady progress in all that is noble and elevating, and to pre- 
 dict for it the grandest future reserved to any race of the i)res('nt day. 
 Our roots are in the good, our upgrowth must needs be toward the l)etter. 
 The affirmation of any one truth, logically followed out, leads to thc! knowl- 
 edge and affirmation of all truth. The American Republic began in the 
 affirmation of certain fundamental evident truths of reason; our dimiinant 
 tendency, therefore, the law of our progression, is toward comjjlete truth, 
 if we but remain true to the spirit that called us into being and still, thank 
 God. animates our present living. 
 
 We believe that divine providence led to the discovery of this conti- 
 nent, and directed its settlement, and guided the birth of this nation for a 
 new and more complete application to political society of the truths 
 affirmed by reason and Christian revelation, for the upbuilding of a nation 
 as great religiously as it is politically, of a nation that shall find its perfec- 
 tion in Catholic Christianity. With that freedom allowed every speaker in 
 this parliament of religions, I affirm my sincere conviction that Catholic 
 Christianity is the fullness of truth, natural aad supernatural, rational and 
 revealed; that Catholic Christianity is the strongest bulwark of law and 
 order in this Republic. If ever our country should fail and fall, it is not 
 from the Catholic Church that shall come the shout of triumph at the 
 failure and fall, for never has she had a fairer field of work than the United 
 States of America. 
 
 WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS WROUGHT FOR 
 AMERICA. 
 
 DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D. D., OF NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 God be praised for this Congress of Religions! Never before has Chris- 
 tianity — the one true religion — been brought into such close, open, and 
 decisive contrast with the other religions of the world. This is, indeed, the 
 Lord's controversy. The altars are built, the bullocks slain, the prayers 
 offered, and the nations stand beholding. Now, then, the god that 
 answereth by fire, 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 common with all other religions is the being of 
 God. Its differentiating truth is God manifested in tlesh, as it is written: 
 "God BO loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso- 
 ever believeth in Him shovild not perish, but have evex'lasting 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 is 
 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 government 
 and the best average man. All religions must submit to that criterion. By 
 their fruits ye shall know them. Daniel Webster said:
 
 676 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 I have been able to hold my own in controversy with mere theoloeians, but 
 there is one thing that silences me. I hav< an old unele, John Colby, up among 
 the New Hampshire hills, whose simple Christian lite puts all my arguments to 
 Bhame. 
 
 This IB indeed the crucial test. The God that answereth by fire — the 
 fixe that burns up imjjurity and selhshness — let Him be God! 
 
 A like result is obtained when a frank comparison is instituted between 
 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 pur 
 pose, however, we must concentrate our thought upon America, the young- 
 est of the sisterhood, a mere infant of days. 
 
 Ours is distinctly a Christian nation. President Dwight of the Colum- 
 bia Law School — than whom there is no more competent authority in these 
 premises—says: " It is well settled by decision of the courts of various 
 States that Christianity is a jjart of our common law." We need not, how 
 ever, fall back upon the rulings of courts and Legislatures. The history of 
 America gives jjroof on every page that the gospel of the crucified Naza- 
 rene is interwoven with our entire national fabric. 
 
 If it be objected that the name of God is not in our national symbols, 
 we answer: " Would that it were there; but its omission is of little prac- 
 tical 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 humble recognition of the divine favor this 
 claim is fearlessly made. 
 
 The discovery. At the very outset we trace the hand of Providence 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 waiting 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 wtis a conquest for Christ. 
 
 It would be interesting to conjecture what would have been the result 
 had the Celts or the Norsemen, Eric the Red, or the hardy sons of Sigraat, 
 been permitted to effect a landing and rear their pagan altars along the 
 Atlantic coast. This, however, could not be. 
 
 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. In glancing at the 
 successive migrations hitherward, one is reminded of that old time Pente- 
 cost, when strangers came from everywhere — Parthians, Medes, and 
 Elamites, Greeks, Arabians, and dwellers in Mesapotamia, all seeking the 
 place of worship. It is our humble prayer that the baptism of heavenly 
 fire and power may rest upon them all. 
 
 The place of honor is accorded to the Puritan, to the Huguenots, and the 
 beggars of Holland, all of whom were fugitives from civil and religious 
 oppression. The influence of their sturdy devotion to truth and righteous- 
 ness has been a potent influence among us. 
 
 Aye, call it holy ground. 
 The ground whereon they trod, 
 • They left unchanged what there they found- 
 Freedom to woiship God. 
 
 The people of America are a distinct people. A conglomerate formed 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-
 
 I 
 
 WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS WROUGHT FOR AMERICA. U77 
 
 ->cixoa element in our population is relatively slack. The minj^ling of many 
 bloods has {)roduced a new ethnic product which can be aptly designated 
 only as American. The jjiocess of assimilalion still goes on. The seas are 
 dotted with ships from every quarter of the globe, bringing the poor and 
 weary and disappointed, eager to lenew their hopes and rebuild their fort- 
 unes in the land which gives no 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 standi)oint from which, look- 
 ing down into the steerage, one may behold at a glance tiie most serious 
 problems of American politics. Here is our hoj)e and here is our danger — 
 the source of our national strength and of our utmost weakness. The best 
 and worst are gathered here. Youth and vigor in quest of golden opportu- 
 nities. 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 antl preserved us as a nation. In Him we trust. 
 
 It is a fact of prime importance, furnishing, perhaps, a key to the prob- 
 lem, that, with scarcely an exception, the dominant races of history 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 welfare and prosperity. 
 
 At ja 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 populace: "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 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 a^gis 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 scattered peoples unto Him. 
 "I, if I be lifted up, "(said He, "will draw all men unto Me." 
 
 The life-blood of popular government is equality. In this lies the 
 rationale of individual and civil freedom. But equality is only another 
 name«for the brotherhood of man, and the brotherhood of man i^ 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 Dec- 
 laration 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 nations 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 Golgotha, the mountains are 
 
 I
 
 G78 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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. Among the relics of our early struggle for 
 freedom is a bell inscribed with the legend: "Proclaim liberty throughout 
 all the earth, unto all the inhabitants thereof." Our fathers deliberated long 
 and anxiously over the truth which it rang forth. While they were sitting 
 ia council, the old sexton waited in the belfry above with his hand upon 
 the rope. A lad stood in the doorway ready to give the signal. As the 
 day wore on the bell-ringer's heart misgave him. "Alas, they dare not," he 
 said; " the great truth falters on their lips;" but presently the«deed was 
 done, for God presided in those councils. The lad ran out upon the broad 
 steps and shouted, "Ring, ring!" Then the sexton pulled with all his 
 might and sent'the clangor around the world. 
 
 The principle wrought out. The truth thus formulated was, however, 
 not made operative for almost a hundred years. The curse of human 
 bondage was among us. Here was a curious anomaly, involving an irre- 
 pressible conflict. A free people, claiming equality as their birthright, held 
 4,000,000 of their fellows in chains. But God reigneth, and the hearts of 
 the nations are in His hand asithe rivers of water. One Sunday in 1863, in 
 the City of Washington, a congregation of colored people were engaged in 
 worship when a man. entered, strode down the middle aisle, a,nd endeavored 
 to speak. His hands were raised above his head, his lips moved, but his 
 tongue clave to the roof of his mouth. The preacher paused in his dis- 
 course, the people gazed and wondered. At length the man found utter- 
 ance, " Men and brethren, we are all free this day before God." The President 
 had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and the colored people of 
 America were " free and equal " at last. 
 
 Expressed in the ballot — this truth, conceived in our revolutionary war, 
 and born out of the travail pains of our great rebellion, finds its ultimate 
 expression in the ballot. 
 
 * * * a weapon strange yet 
 
 Better than the bayonet; 
 A weapon that comes down as still 
 
 As snowflakes fall upon the sod. 
 And executes a freeman's will 
 
 As lightning does the Will of God. 
 
 Our election franchise rests in the fundamental truth of equality. One 
 man is as good as another. One man, one vote; by eternal right no more 
 and no less. There is no primogeniture in the great family. We are free 
 and equal because we are all divinely born. It was a great truth, and far 
 beyond his time, when Tarquin the Proud announced, when, being asked 
 the secret of safe government, he walked up and down his garden, scepter 
 in hand, uttering not a word, but whipping off the tallest poppies' heads. 
 It was the same truth which pious Melville afterward set forth when remon- 
 strating with his sovereign in behalf of the popular right of assemblage: 
 
 Yourmajpsty must needs be reminded that there is a king born in Scotland 
 before whom James VI. and all must bow. 
 And who is that, sir? 
 King People, sire! 
 
 This is distinctly a religious principle. Wherever a constitutional gov- 
 ernnaent has ignored its birthright— to wit, the Fatherhood of God, express- 
 ing 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 mists and 
 darkness of chaos. A common birth is the sure ground of mutual respect. 
 All adventitious conditions go for naught. 
 
 The rank is but the guinea's stamp; 
 The man's the gowd.
 
 WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS WROUGHT FOR AMERICA. 679 
 
 No man can trace a prouder lineage than the believer in a true democ- 
 racy, for ho is " the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the 
 son of Ciod." 
 
 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 bis 
 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 nostrils, is Christian. 
 Its ideal is suggested by its earliest name, San Salvador. 
 
 A free Republic, whore, 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 oui 
 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 homes are palaces. The hut becomes a cottage where there 
 is no feudal mansion. There are lands where homes are merely dorma- 
 tories 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, wh^n his day's work is over, 
 makes it his El Dorado. 
 
 His wee bit ingle blinking bonnie, 
 
 His clean hearthstone, his thrifty wife's smile. 
 
 The lisping infant prattling on his knee. 
 
 Do a' his weary oarking 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 ordi- 
 nance. It may be noted that in lands where God and the Bible are rever- 
 enced, wife and mother and home are sacred words. The influence of 
 religion may be but an imperceptible factor in the peace and happiness of 
 many homes, yet the gospel of 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 sanctity in religion is 
 our public schools. The distinctive feature of our national system of edu- 
 cation is civil control. This, 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. John Milton, in the days of the English commonwealth, wrote: 
 
 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 common weal. 
 
 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 to build a schoolhouse. 
 The teaching of religion was compulsory 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 godless school. Remove the Bible from curriculum if you will, you can 
 not eliminate God from history and science. His name shines from the cur- 
 rent pages of our text-books like the sun reflected from the heavens on a 
 starry night. 
 
 It is obvious that, as the education of the masses is necessary to the
 
 080 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 public weal, the state can not safely farm out the contract to anybody 
 whatsoever, religious or otherwise. By a wise provision of its constitution, 
 it can not lend itself or any portion of its funds to the fostering of a sect. 
 Neither can it tolerate for an hour any ecclesiastical interference from any 
 quarter, at home or abroad, with its own management of the public educa- 
 tion. Here is a prerogative absolute and inalienable, growing out .of the 
 nation's right of self-preservation. The public school is one of the great 
 pillars of our government. Withered, therefore, be the hand that is raised 
 to destroy it! 
 
 Still another of our institutions having distinctive teachers and borrow- 
 ing them from the sanctions.of Christian religion is the workshop. We have 
 no caste, no titled orders, no aristocracy, save that of brains and industry. 
 The American toiler" is the peer of all his fellow-citizens. The highest 
 places of honor and emolument are wide 'open before him. The father of 
 our country was once a surveyor's apprentice. A farmer, a flatboatman, a 
 journeyman tailor, a tanner, and a canal boy have followed one another in 
 quick succession in the chief magistracy. Manhood goes for more than blue 
 blood. What a man is and does, not what his father was and owned before 
 him, is the criterion of popular regard. Whether this could be the case 
 in any other than a Christian land is greatly to be doubted. It never has 
 been; it remains to be proved that it could be. 
 
 A just recognition of the dignity of labor is a necessary inference from 
 the light and teachings of the carpenter of Nazareth. That " best of men 
 that ever wore flesh about him" toiled in the shop, with chips and shavings 
 about his feet and the implements of his trade on the bench before him, 
 so entermg into sympathy with the cares and struggles of workingmen. 
 That sympathy is the most potent — though oft unrecognized — facto in 
 the adjustment of the industrial problems of our time. He taught lair 
 wages for honest toil. His "golden rule" is the effective remedy for 'tetr ikes 
 and lockouts. Hood's " Song of the Shirt " and Mrs. Browning's " Cry of 
 the Children '' are but paraphrases of a good Samaritan. Wherever the 
 mind that was in Christ Jesus prevails the man and his master are bound 
 to see, face to face and eye to eye. And nowhere, as we believe, has that 
 consummation been more nearly reached than in the industrial conditions 
 of the New World. Indeed " man " and " master " are here invidious terms. 
 The man is his own master. There is no employer' in the land who dare 
 strike or wantonly affront his humblest employe. A common birthright of 
 the great Father blots'out all mastership, and a fellow-feeling toward the 
 elder brother has made us wondrous kind. Not that all things are as they 
 should be. The millennium is still a good ways off. There are wrongs to 
 be righted and middle walls of separation to be broken down. But so long 
 as the leaven is in the meal there is hope that the lump may be leavened. 
 And however the American workman may at times complain of his lot — 
 toil being ever a burden and the want of it a greater- -he would not for a 
 moment consent to an exchange of place with any other workman on the 
 earth. He owns himself; as a rule, he owns his home and he still owns, in 
 fee simple, one-seventh of his time. The thing that was written of " The 
 Village Blacksmith" may be said of a million others: 
 
 His brow is wet with honest sweat. 
 
 He earns whate'er he can; 
 He looks the whole world in the face, 
 
 For he owes not any man. 
 
 It remains— in thus briefly canvassing our national indebtedness to 
 religion— to speak of the establishment. If other nations had their way of 
 expressing the religious preference of the people, we more. A national 
 church, indeed, we have not; but we have that which is deemed incom- 
 parably better, religious freedom. This is the American establishment, 
 freedom of heart and conscience, freedom to believe what we will respecting
 
 WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS WROUGHT FOR AMERICA. G81 
 
 tne great problems of the endless life, freedom to consult our personal eon 
 viction as to whether, or where, or how we will worship God. 
 
 This involves an absolute divorcement of church and state. At this 
 point the unanimity of sentiment within the church is as entire as without 
 it. We want no national church; we want no clergy feeding at the public 
 crib. Our experiment has been tried for 100 years and is fully vindicated. 
 Its opposite, the union of church and state, was long ago characterized by 
 our famous Irish orator: "That foul and adulterous connection which 
 pollutes the purity of heaven with the abomination of earth, and hangs the 
 tattered rags of political piety on the insulted cross of a crucified 
 Redeemer." This arraignment is severe, but just. Since the day when the 
 theocracy was merged in the gospel commonwealth there never has been a 
 national church which has not demonstrated two things, to-wit: That the 
 church itself was enfeebled by the union, and that" the state would have 
 gotten on better without it. Wherefore, at this moment, would that this 
 establishment was upon the docket everywhere. Welcome the day when, 
 the round world over, no man shall be answerable for his creed save at the 
 judgment bar of God! 
 
 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 intellectually, socially and 
 politically, every way. As the atmosphere presses upon the human body 
 with a force of fifteen pounds to the square of surface, so religion presses 
 upon the body politic, and all the more if it be free as air. The estab- 
 lishment as usually found represents 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 establishment 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 power, each supplementing 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 Caesar the things that are Caesar's." On this the chvirch recog- 
 nizes the function of the civil administration as the impartial champion of 
 the religious rights of all. 
 
 In this view of the inter-relation of church and state 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 this principle the influence of the churches is enlisted 
 in civil reform. Under it has grown up the organized charities which 
 cover the land. The church withholds 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 con- 
 travention 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 force, 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 evangelizer, throws 
 its luminous shadow over courts and legislatures, homes, workshops and 
 schoolhouses, from the Lakes to the Gulf, from Sandy Hook to the Golden
 
 682 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Gate. San Salvador is our country's name; land of the Savior may it 
 
 Our citizens are free men, with that freedom wherewith Christ's truth 
 makes free. If our country, in one brief century, has advanced from insig- 
 nificance to an honorable place among the great jjowers, it is because a 
 kind Providence has most signally favored us. If we entertain the hope 
 of a still more glorious future, it is because we are confident that our prin- 
 ciples of civil and religious freedom rest in the unimpeachable sanction of 
 divine right. 
 
 
 PRESENT OUTLOOK OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 REV. GEORGE T. PENTECOST OF LONDON. 
 
 Rome was the center of the world's political power, as it was the chief 
 seat of the world's religious philosophies. There was the throne of the 
 Caesars; there the Pantheon with its many gods, and there the famous 
 schools of philosophy. There, also, was a small Christian church — com- 
 posed of a few believing Jews, a larger number of poor f reedmen and slaves, 
 with here and there an "honorable" person, and some servants of Caesar's 
 household — the fame of whose faith had been spread abroad, until Paul, 
 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 capital. He 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 massive exposition of the gospel which the 
 Christian church possesses. This epistle has been rightly designated the 
 Magna Charta of the Christian faith. It is certainly 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 compete with the 
 triple power of Rome, and win men and women to Christ by means of the 
 foolishness of preaching Christ and Him crucified? 
 
 How could he hope to win even the common people from the age of old 
 religions of the heathen world, which still held the masses in the shackles 
 of superstition ; how overcome the aristocratic infiuence of the philoso- 
 phers, who still dominated the cultured portion of the empire ; and espe- 
 cially how could he hope to exalt into some 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 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 everyone that 
 believeth." 
 
 Here is sublime faith and courage in what seemed to the world a mad- 
 man's dream. His reasons for his faith are crowded into this single sen- 
 tence, 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. We are not ashamed of 
 the gospel of Christ, and are ready to preach it and vindicate it in the face
 
 PRESENT OUTLOOK OF RELTOIONS. G83 
 
 of all 1 ho 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 dis- 
 pute with the wise men and scribes of the school, nor to contend with the 
 darkest superstitions which enthralls the minds of millions yet unenli^dit- 
 ened by the cross of Christ. In this regard it is a groat jnivilege for us 
 Christians to meet face to face in this parliament tin; representatives of 
 many ancient religions and equally ancient philosophies; to give to them 
 a reason for the faith and hope that is in us and show them the grounds 
 upon which we 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 gicat country no political power to hinder us 
 or make us afraid to worship God according to the dictates of our own con- 
 science. Demanding absolute liberty Tor ourselves, we are no less strenu- 
 ous in our demand that they of other faiths shall enjoy the like freedom. 
 
 When Paul ceclared, "lam 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 can not bear the closest scrutiny fro;^ i every 
 point of view, either respecting its historical basis of fact, its divine 
 rationality, its ethical system, or its power to bestow 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 superstition 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 men 
 of this world may deem the gospel of Christ, great as are the forces — polit- 
 ical, religious, and philosophical — arrayed against it, I am not fearful of the 
 final outcome of the conflict of Christianity with the religions and philos- 
 ophies of Paganism, nor, indeed, with the strong arm of the world's polit- 
 ical 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 relig- 
 ions on myths whose fancied existence antedated history. This is an easy 
 way to secure antiquity for any faith. There are those among us that, as 
 compared with their faiths, hold faiths but as the infant of days. The 
 Brahman will tell us that for 4,000 years his Aryan ancestors have wor- 
 shiped the Indian triad on the banks of the Ganges and at Jumna; that 
 the holy city of Benares was the flourishing seat of theirfaith before Abra- 
 ham left Ur of the Chaldees, and that it has had an unbroken municipal; ly 
 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 Badas and their Puranic heroes, they easily antedate ali 
 other faiths by this convenient method. 
 
 In our prosaic century, however, these magnificent claims for an antiq- 
 uity which antedates historic times by millions of years go for nothing. 
 
 On the other hand, Christianity is i)eculiarly buttressed by historic fads. 
 We are often charged by Orientals with being the propagators of a modern
 
 684 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 faith, because, by our own claims, Jesus Christ did not appear until the 
 couip'arativeiy 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 2,000 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 approaching. 
 Christ was believed on in the wilderness when Moses was bringing the 
 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, fiinging 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 ot Him 
 who is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 
 
 If this statement is deemed to be overdrawn, we are prepared to com- 
 pare the literature of Christianity with that of all other rehgions; I mean 
 its foundation literature, and trace back, step by step, checking it with his- 
 torical records of the past, written in books with the pen, graven in the 
 rock, and contained in monumental ruins either above ground or under 
 the mounds of past ages. But we claim no revelation 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 are found. 
 Every turn of the archaeologist's faith confirms the truth of them. In this 
 respect we are not ashamed of the gospel. Its historical antiquity stands 
 unrivaled among the religions of the world. 
 
 We are 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 appearance in this world nineteen 
 centuries ago was not ari unexpected event. For centuries, even from the 
 beginning of man's spiritual need. He had been looked and longed for, fore- 
 told in a hundred predictions, uttered by prophets of many ages and of dif- 
 ferent types of mind and in many countries; gazed upon in spiritual vision, 
 and sung forth by psalmists of many centuries; his coming is set in symbol 
 and sacrifice, in type and ceremony. An entire nation, whose wonderful 
 people are still scattered amongst all nations had 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 His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was 
 made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the 
 Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resur- 
 rection from the dead." 
 
 Every detail of His advent was predicted ages before He came; every 
 circumstance and characteristicof His ministry was the subject of prophecy. 
 His resurrection predicted the spread of His gospel among all nations fore- 
 told. In this respect the gospel stands without a rival upon the fact of the 
 world. 
 
 The heroes of the world's religions have been either myths or unlooked- 
 for men springing up among their fellows, for whom their disciples neither 
 looked nor were prepared. Who prophesied the coming of Confucius, or 
 Zoroaster, or Krishna, or Buddha? Moreover, none of these heroes or leaders 
 of men was in any sense a savior. They were, at best, teachers, throwing 
 their followers back upon themselves to work out their own salvation as 
 they best might. Jesus stands on an entirely different platform, declaring
 
 PRESENT OUTLOOK OF RELIGIONS. 685 
 
 Himself to be the Way, the Truth, and the Light. And so at His birth 
 the angels heralded: " For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, 
 a Savior which shall be unto all people." 
 
 Cliristianity is not belief in a doctrine nor primarily a life-work, but it 
 consists in a living union with a living Savior. 
 
 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 branchof promises fulfilled. Thegreat truth of Christianity 
 alone appealed to previous promises and prophecies. In every developmentof 
 fact and doctrine in the Christian religion this is the appeal made, ''accord- 
 ing to the scriptures," or, "as God had afore promised," or, "thus it is 
 written and thus it behooved." Christianity was planted a promise 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 throughout the world, and lifted them high up against 
 the sky. The naturalists tell us that the topmost 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 prophets until we unearth them in the Garden 
 of Eden. 
 
 We are not ashamed of the divine author of Christianity. Whether we 
 consider the character of Jehovah-God of the Old Testament — or of the 
 Jesus-God of the New Testament — there is nothing that suffers by the 
 highest ethical criticism which may be applied to them. In the Old Testa- 
 ment, from the beginning, God proclaims Himself in love, holiness, right- 
 eousness, truth, and mercy. One passage out of hundreds will suffice for 
 an illustration of this. When God gave to Moses 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," that is, the character of God. " And 
 the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merci- 
 ful and gracious, long-suflFering 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 philosoph- 
 ical speculation extant 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 informity," and " tempted in 
 all points like as we, yet without sin," the " Friend of publicans and sin- 
 ners" coining 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 increase 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 language of a distinguished 
 Hindu gentleman and scholar, uttered in my presence in the old Mahratta 
 city of Rome and before an audience of 1,000 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 teach- 
 ers and philosophers of the world, who, while not claiming for themselves 
 divinity, are put forth by their followers as the highest and brightest
 
 686 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 examples of human wisdom and character, is only to dazzle their wisdom, 
 dwarf their character, and reveal their thousand, and sometimes nameless, 
 thouo-hts in the resplendent brightness 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 worship. ,, -, ^, , 
 
 It is the moral glory of character that has compelled the homage of 
 those even who blindlv reject His supernatural origin, compelling flippant 
 Strauss to say: " Jesus represents within the sphere of religion and the 
 culminating point, beyond which posterity can never go, yea, which it can 
 not even equal. He remains the highest model of religion within the reach 
 of our thought, and no perfect piety is possible without His presence in the 
 
 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, expresses the conviction " 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 will search in vain in history 
 to find one equal to Jesus Christ or anything which can approach the gos- 
 pel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature afford me 
 anything v/ith 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 Savior. Why is it that 
 " rationalism to-day can not 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 unhesi- 
 tatingly all His words would have long ago been repudiated by the world. 
 There is no such discrepancy between the teachings of Jesus and the char- 
 acter of Jesus as is generally manifest between the teachings of Hinsua 
 in the Geta, and the character of Hinsua as set forth in the Parana. 
 
 We are not ashamed of the ethical basis of the gospel. Without deny- 
 ing 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 religions 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 regenerate 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 
 ^vhich 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 — midway between 
 Egypt (luxurious and dissolute) and the nations dwelUng in and about 
 Canaan, whose moral vileness was so great that the very land was ready to 
 vomit them out. 
 
 God halted the Israelites to declare to them not only his character, but 
 
 I
 
 PRESENT OUTLOOK OF RELIGIONS. 68? 
 
 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 excep- 
 tion of the single commandment in respect to the Sabbath 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 superi- 
 ority 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 4,000 years, tested by 'every intervening age and the most rigid criti- 
 cism which the advancing 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 atten- 
 tion 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. Therefore, in speaking to His 
 disciples. He first ratified the ancient code and then expounded it. 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 Sermon 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 Commandments: Who has ever assumed to revise the Sermon on the 
 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 Ser- 
 mon 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 found in the writings of most ancient 
 teachers. Notably, it has been declared that the beautiful maxim of 
 Christ known as the Golden Rule was borrowed by Jesus from some relig- 
 ious 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 Savior, are lifted out of 
 the dark and negative surroundings into their positive and unselfish full- 
 ness. They are energized and filled with the fullness of His own life, hence- 
 forth going forward unfettered to their mission of regenerating the world 
 of fallen humanity. 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 freshness and power of an original revelation from God 
 in the lips of Jesus? How is it that, 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 ques- 
 tion, far in advance of all statements which the world had ever had, and 
 which stand to-day 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 
 toward 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 
 be put away and man set free from its intolerable guilt and bondage. 
 Beside this, again, the misery of death is unfolded, while life and immor- 
 tality are brought to light. All these questions have been matters of phil- 
 osophical inquiry, albeit the inquiry has confessedly been made in the dark.
 
 688 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The latest utterances from scientific headquarters have declared that con- 
 cerning them science is agnostic, without knowledge or the power to know. 
 But Jesus handled these mighty questions with a master's hand and floods 
 them with the clear light of midday revelation. 
 
 We 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 following: Incarnation, atonement, regeneration, and resurrection. 
 It will be observed that these great doctrines are all inseparably associated 
 with facts and life. In other words Christianity is a history, a doctrine, 
 and a life. History back of its doctrine, doctrine growing out of its his- 
 tory, and life springing from these. The final test of the truth of the 
 history and the doctrine is the life which results from them. Let me briefly 
 summarize these: 
 
 By the incarnation, roughly speaking, we mean that revelation which 
 God made of Himself, in Jesus Christ. All natural religions and philoso- 
 phies show us man seeking after God if happily he may find Him, but here 
 only do we see God seeking after man. The incarnation 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. Origi- 
 nally 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's char- 
 acter, and the very brightness of His glory. This not only in respect of the 
 risen glorified Christ, but of the man Christ Jesus as He lived and moved 
 among men. What shall we say of that matchless life, its purity, 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 imagina- 
 tions? Do they compare them with the fabulous and mythical stories of the 
 gods and heroes of the Orient? When preaching to the educated English 
 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 Pur- 
 anic 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 and 
 heroes stand only in stories, but each miracle of Christ was a living seed of 
 power and love planted in human nature, and has sprung up and flourished 
 again, bringing forth after its kind wherever the gospel 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 suffer- 
 ers 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 embodiment 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 God's image restored to us, and through Him 
 acting in grace toward men. 
 
 " Sir," said an old gray-haired Brahman to me one day, " I am a Hindu 
 and always shall be, but I can not 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
 
 PRESENT OUTLOOK OF RELIGIONS. 689 
 
 and most stressful questions of the human mind. How God may still " bo 
 just and yet the justitier of the ungodly." How in forgiving transgression, 
 iniquity, and sin, He establishes and magnifies the law. 
 
 This is the very heart of the gospel. Here is no doctrine of vengeance 
 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 righteousness of God, which is by 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 righteous- 
 ness 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, becomes a son filled with the mind of 
 Christ, living and walking in fullest 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 fashioned 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 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 
 dwelling place and instrument of the regensrated spirit of man and the 
 permanent 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 responsibili- 
 ties and an assured victory over death, by an immortality which reaches 
 beyond the grave into the infinite future, not an absorption into the original 
 God, not an extinction in eternal unconsciousness. This goal is not reached 
 by a series of transmigrations almost endless in extent, but at a bound 
 when the summons comes for us to depart and be with Christ which is far 
 better, and in the subsequent 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 brotherhood of 
 man, as suggested in Paul's great speech on Mars Hill, is'a statement that 
 causes us to blush for shame, and I may say that it is a teaching unique in 
 Christianity. It is not found in the Hindu Buddhistic Bible. The 
 unknown God whom those two superstitious Athenians 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 anyone
 
 690 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of us " Christ the Son of God and of man, in His incarnation, joined Himself 
 to the race by a clean descent from Adam, so that His salvation has intro- 
 duced brotherhood in the highest and best sense into the unity of race 
 relationship. A brotherhood real in every respect, making every man 
 equal, before God, with every other man, and placing woman where she 
 belongs, at the man"s side, neither slave nor inferior, but companion, wife, 
 
 and helpmeet. , . ^ t .^ • ^i 
 
 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 indwelling 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 ren- 
 ders 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 services 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 will exact it of them. 
 
 GOVERNMENT CENSUS OF CHURCHES. 
 
 REV, H. K. CARROLL, D. D. 
 
 The first impression one gets in studying the results of the government 
 census of the churches is that there is an infinite variety of religion in the 
 United States. We have churches small and churches great; churches 
 white and churches black; churches high and churches low^; Christian and 
 pagan, Catholic and Protestant, liberal and conservative, orthodox and 
 heterodox, Calvanistic and Armenian, trinitarian and unitarian, native 
 and foreign. All phases of thought are represented by them; all possible 
 theologies, all varieties of polity, ritual, usage and forms of worship. 
 
 In our economical policy as a nation w-e have emphasized the impor- 
 tance of a varied industry. We like the idea of manufacturing or pro- 
 ducing just as many articles of merchandise as possible. We have invented 
 more curious and useful things than any other nation. In matters of relig- 
 ion we have not been less enterprising and productive. We seem te have 
 about every variety known to other countries with not a few peculiar to 
 ourselves. Our native genius for invention has exerted itself in this direc- 
 tion also, and worked out some curious results. The American patent 
 covers no less than two original Bibles— the Mormon and Oahsape — and more 
 brands of religion, so to speak, than I can now stop to enumerate. 
 
 There are so many religious bodies that it is desirable, if we would get 
 a comprehensive idea of them, to arrange them, first in grand divisions, 
 second in classes, and third in families. 
 
 I would specify three grand divisions: First, the Christian; second, 
 the Jewish; third, miscellaneous. Under the last head come the Chinese, 
 Buddhists, the theosophists, the ethical culturists, some communistic 
 societies, and pagan Indians. The Jewish division embraces simply the 
 orthodox and reformed Jews. The Christian division contains, of course, 
 the great majority of denominations and believers, Catholics, Protestants, 
 Latter Day Saints — all bodies not Jewish, pagan, or anti-Christian. 
 
 We commonly divide the Christian bodies into classes, as Catholic and
 
 GOVERNMENT CENSUS OF CHURCHES. G91 
 
 Protestant, Evangelical and non-Evaugelical. In the Catholic classes 
 there are seven representatives in this country— the Roman Catholic, the 
 United Greek Catholic, the Russian orthodox, the Greek orthodox, the 
 Armenian, the old Catholic, and the Reformed Catholic. The Reformed 
 Catholics are Catholic only in name and origin, being thoroughly Protestant 
 in belief and practice. The Roman Catholics and the United (ireek 
 Catholics are substantially one. The latter acknowledge the sovereignty of 
 the Pope, but are allowed to use a Greek ritual, to have a married clergy, and 
 to give the cup in communion to the laity as well as to the clergy. All the 
 Catholic bodies, except the Roman, are small and unimportant as repre- 
 sented in the United States, ranging in numbers of communicants from 
 100 to less than 14,000. 
 
 It was an American Presbyterian, in the great gathering of representa- 
 tives of the numerous Presbyterian branches of all lands, in Belfast, Ire- 
 land, some years ago, who exclaimed: "We are little better than a lot of 
 split peas." His observation might be given a much wider range. It is 
 much more applicable to Protestants than to Presbyterians — we are " a lot 
 of split peas." If there were in Milton's day " subdichotomies of petty 
 schisms," wonder what phrase that great master of vivid expression would 
 coin to fit the numberless divisions and subdivisions into which Protestant- 
 ism has fallen since. We no longer classify these divisions as units, but as 
 families of units. 
 
 The Presbyterians are not simply one of these divisions, but a whole fam- 
 ily. The Methodists, who were a sort of ecclesiola in ecclesia in Wesley's day 
 in England, are now an ecclesia ecclesiarum the world over. According to 
 the scientists, no atom is so small that it may not be conceived of as con- 
 sisting of halves. It may be divided into halves, and these ha' vee may in 
 turn be divided, and so on ad infinitum. No denomination has thus far 
 proved to be too small for division. Denominations appear in the census 
 returns with as few as twenty-five members. I was reluctantly compelled 
 to exclude one with twenty-one members. The reason was that while they 
 insisted that they were a separate body and did not worship with other 
 churches, they had no organized church of their own. Twelve of them 
 were in Pennsylvania, divided between Philadelphia and Pittsburg, six 
 were in Illinois, and three in Missouri. They were so widely scattered they 
 could not maintain public worship. They called themselves Reformed 
 Presbyterians. 
 
 These divisions and their causes and results would make a very interest- 
 ing study if' it were not so beset with difficulty. The anxious student finds 
 himself in a maze of meaningless titles at the very threshold of his labors. 
 No worse puzzle was ever invented than that which the names of the 
 various denominations constitute. We have, for example, the " Presby- 
 terian Church in the United States," and the " Presbyterian Church in the 
 United States of America"; the "Reformed Church in the United States," 
 and the " Reformed Church in America." Which is which? I believe there 
 are many members of these bodies who could not tell. The only apparent 
 distinction in each of these cases is geographical. 
 
 But what is the difference between the "United States" and the 
 "United States of America?" How, in the name of goodness, is anybody 
 to distinguish between the Presbyterian Church in the United States and 
 the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America? It is said that 
 there is a theological distinction between the "Reformed Chvirch in the 
 United States" and the "Reformed Church in America." One is sujjralap- 
 sarian — I forgot which — and the other is sublapsarian, and I do not know 
 that I could tell now the precise difierences which these terms indicate. 
 I presume the learned theologians of the two churches understand whether 
 they are supralapsarians or sublapsarians; but what about the poor lay- 
 men? Do they know? Can they be expected to know? The way we learn 
 
 L
 
 692 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 to distinguish between the two churches is by identifying the Reformed 
 Church in America as the " Dutch" body, and the Reformed Church in the 
 United States as the "'German" body, and bo whe-i we want to use these 
 titles intelligently we bracket the words "Dutch" and "German " in con- 
 nection with them. 
 
 Of Presbyterians there are four bodies of the reform variety. I have 
 always had great difficulty in distinguishing between them. One is called 
 the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 
 another the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America. One has a 
 synod and the other a general synod. I have found in their monthly 
 organs a more sure method of distinction. One of these has a blue and 
 the other a pink cover. The blue-cover organ represents the general synod 
 and the general synod represents the Reformed Presbyterian Church of 
 North America. The pink-covered organ represents the synod and the 
 synod represents the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States 
 of America. 
 
 There are twelve bodies of Presbyterians to be distinguished and seven- 
 teen bodies of Methodists, and Methodist titles are scarcely more helpful 
 than Presbyterian. We have the Methodist Episcopal, which is recog- 
 nized as the parent body, and which we sometimes distinguish as the 
 Northern Church, though it covers the South as well as the North. We 
 have the Methodist Episcopal South, which resulted from the division in 
 1844. We have the African Methodist Episcopal, Zion, the Colored Meth- 
 odist Episcopal, the Union American Methodist Episcopal, the AfricAn Union 
 Methodist Protestant, the Zion Union Apostolic, and the Evangelist Mis- 
 sionary—all colored bodies. We have also three bodies of Congregational 
 Methodists, none of which is congregational in fact, with Free, Independ- 
 ent, Protestant, Primitive, and other varieties of Methodists, the why of 
 which must forever remain an inscrutable mystery to the mass of 
 mankind. 
 
 Of Baptist bodies we count thirteen, including the Regular, North, 
 South, and Colored; the Freewill in two varieties; the General, Separate, 
 United, Six Principle, Seventh Day, Primitive, and Old Two-Seed-in-the- 
 Spirit Predestinarian; also the Baptist Church of Christ, which claims to 
 have descended direct from the apostles. Beginning with the three prin- 
 cipal bodies, called "Regular," we might, following the old classification of 
 verbs, describe the Baptists as " regular, irregular, redundant, and defect- 
 ive." The most curious of all Baptist bodies is the Old Two-Seed-in-the- 
 Spirit Predestinarian. Here'we have a title that is definitive. It describes 
 and distinguishes. 
 
 These Baptists are predestinarian . They believe that every action , whether 
 good or bad, of every person and every event was predestined from the 
 beginning; not only the initial sin of Eve and the amiable compliance of 
 Adam and the consequent fall of man but the apostasy of Satan. They 
 are thoroughly predestinarian; and are not only predestinarian, but they 
 are Old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian. The two seeds are good and 
 evil; and one or the other of them will spring up into eternal life or eternal 
 death, according to the nature of the predestination decreed in each 
 particular case. 
 
 There are four bodies of brethren who object to any other designation. 
 They are properly known as (Plymouth) Brethren. By putting the word 
 Plymouth in parentheses we can distinguish them from other bodies of 
 Brethren; but how shall we distinguish each of these four bodies of (Ply- 
 mouth) Brethren from the other three? The device I was led to adopt for 
 the census was that of Roman numerals, thus; 
 
 (Plymouth) Brethren I. 
 (Plymouth) Brethren II. 
 (Plymouth) Brethren III. 
 (Plymouth) Brethren IV. 
 
 The word Plymouth in parentheses in each case.
 
 GOVERNMENT CENSUS OF CHURCHES. G93 
 
 We count in all 143 denominations in the United States, besides 150 or 
 more congregations which are independent or unassociated with any church . 
 Of the 143 separate denominational bodies six are Adventist, thirteen Bap- 
 list, three (River) Brethren, four (Plymouth) Brethren, seven Catholic, two 
 Christian Connection, nine Communistic, four Dunkard, four Quaker, two 
 Jewish, two Mormon, sixteen Lutheran, twelve Mennonite, seventeen 
 Methodist, twelve Presbyterian, two Episcoi)alian, two Reformed, and two 
 United Brethren, with twenty-three single denominations, such as the 
 Congregationalists, Moravians, Disciples of Christ, Christadelphians, Chris- 
 tian Scientists, and Salvation Army. 
 
 Many of the 143 separate bodies are very small and unimportant. We 
 can pick out ninety-seven, of which no one has as many as 25,000 communi- 
 cants. Seventy-five have less than 10,000 communicants each; fifty-four 
 less than 2,500, and thirty-two less than 1,000. Of bodies having 25,000 and 
 upward there are only forty-six, or about one-third of the whole number. 
 The other two-thirds are made up of denominations having from 20,000 to 
 25,000. It is the little bodies, therefore, that give religion in the United 
 States such a divided aspect. If most of them were blotted out we should 
 lose little that is very valuable, but much that is queer in belief and 
 practice. 
 
 For example, Theosophists, who believe that by cultivating the plane 
 of consciousness which lies between the spirit and the mind things which 
 men call "miraculous" can be accomplished; and Shakers, who practice 
 religious dances and hold that God is both male and female; the Church 
 Triumphant, who look upon their leader as Christ; the Koreshans, who 
 hold that immortality is possible to their disciples here on earth; the 
 Christian Scientists, who believe that good and health are real, and evil 
 and disease unreal — imaginings of the mind— and, therefore, curable by 
 mental instead of spiritual processes; and the Harmonyites, who believe 
 that those who marry may be saved, after a probation of purification, who 
 are noted for the whisky they make at the " Golden Rule " Distillery. 
 
 What is it has caused these numerous divisions? The diflferences in 
 some cases between branches bearing the same generic name are important, 
 but in others they are not. How shall we explain the fact that there are 
 six kinds of Adventists, thirteen kinds of Baptists, seventeen kinds of 
 Methodists, twelve kinds of Presbyterians, and so on through the list? Let 
 us take the Methodist family and inquire how so many branches arose. 
 
 There are no doctrinal differences in Methodism to accountfor its divis- 
 ion. They are all Armenian in theology, agreeing in their opposition to 
 the Calvanistic decrees. They emphasized the points of doctrine which 
 Wesley made distinctive, and they agree generally in the minor matters of 
 usage. They are one in spirit, and each has the family resemblance in many 
 respects. 
 
 They differ, first, in church government. Some are Episcopal, others 
 Presbyterian, with presidents of conferences instead of bishops, and one is 
 independent. The oldest of the existing divisions, the Methodist Protest- 
 ant, became separated from the parent body upward of sixty years ago in 
 a controversy over the admission of laymen into the governing body of the 
 church. Those who espoused this reform believed that bishops and presiding 
 elders were autocratic, and when thev formed a system of their own they 
 brought the laymen to the front, and sent bishops and presiding elders to 
 the rear. This was a divison on principles of government. 
 
 Eight of the branches became such because of the color or race differ- 
 ence. All these, I believe, except one, separated from a white body. Two 
 other divisions, the American Wesley an and the Methodist Episcopal South, 
 were due to the slavery question, which has been one of the most prolific 
 causes in the history of the last fifty years of ecclesiastical controversy and 
 secessions. Another body, the Free Methodists, was the result of too
 
 694 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 little forbearance and too harsh exercise of discipline on the one side, and 
 of extravagances of preaching and behavior on the other. In other words, 
 there was a misunderstanding, a quarrel, and a separation. There are 
 three Congregational Methodist branches, two of which have had a similar 
 origin and none of which, strange to say, is really congregational in form 
 of government. The primitive branch comes to us, not by division but 
 from England through Canada. To summarize, ten of the seventeen divis- 
 ions were due to the race or the slavery question, and six to controversies 
 over practical questions. The other was imported. 
 
 Of the twelve Presbyterian bodies, all are consistently Calvanistic but 
 two the Cumberland and the Cumberhind Colored, which hold to a modi- 
 fied' Galvanism. All use the Presbyterian system of government with 
 little variation. What, then, is it that divides them? Slavery divided the 
 Northern and Southern, the race question the two Cumberland, bodies; one 
 branch is Welsh and the rest are kept apart largely by Scotch obstinacy. 
 They have close points of agreement, but they differ on questions that 
 seem to others utterly insignificant. . n ■, ■, t-,- ^ 
 
 We may, I think, sum up the causes of division under four heads: h irst, 
 controversies over doctrines; second, controversies over administration or 
 discipline; third, controversies over moral questions; fourth, ambitious and 
 disputatious persons. • . • . 
 
 We are a nation made up of diverse race elements. All varieties of 
 speech, habits of thought, mental, moral, and religious training are repre- 
 sented among us by the older and the newer, the European and the Asiatic 
 immigration. Here there is the utmost freedom for all forms of religion, 
 with no exclusive favors to any. We must expect from such commingling 
 currents, counter-currents and eddies of religious thought. Different sys- 
 tems of doctrine, different forms of worship, and different principles of 
 discipline are brought into contact, and each has its influence upon the 
 others. Calvinism affects Armenianism and Armenianism Calvinism. The 
 Teutonic element modified the English, and is modified by it in turn. 
 Catholicism has been most profoundly affected by Protestantism, and some 
 elements of Protestantism by Catholicism. Thus there are various forces 
 acting upon religion in the United States and producing phenomena in our 
 religious life which some day will command most careful study. 
 
 I can not stop to consider the tendencies manifested in the history of 
 religion in the United States, but I must say a word about that toward 
 liberal views Most denominations have become more liberal than they 
 used to be. It was the manifestation of this liberal spirit which caused 
 many of the divisions of the past sixty or seventy years. Let me give you 
 an illustration of this tendency. A band of Dunkards came across the sea 
 from Germany to Pennsylvania in 1719. They were a very simple people, 
 interpreting the Bible literally, fashioning their outward as well as their 
 spiritual lives by it, and believing they were called by God to be a peculiar 
 and exclusive people. 
 
 More unworldly men and v/omen never inhabited cloister. They were 
 in the world but not a part of the world. They thought it a virtue to resist 
 its customs and ignore its fashions. In the character and cut of their gar- 
 ments, in the manner of wearing their hair, in the way they ordered their 
 homes and their daily life, they were separate and peculiar. They adopted 
 stringent rules of discipline, to prevent the trimming of the beard, the 
 wearing of hats instead of bonnets, the laying of carpets, the use of pianos 
 and similar acts in order to keep pure and unspotted from the world and 
 maintain their simplicity of life and faith. 
 
 For many years the influences of the world seemed to have no effect 
 upon them, but gradually innovations crept into their habits, their disci- 
 pline was insensibly relaxed, and the questions sent up to their annual 
 meeting grew more numerous and perplexing, and differences of opinion 
 
 J
 
 GOVERNMENT CENSUS OF CHURCHES. 695 
 
 grew quite common. One year this question was presented among others: 
 " How is it considered for brethren to establish or patronize a high school? " 
 After canvassing the Bible carefully for light the following answer was 
 returned: "Considered that brethren should not mind high things, but 
 condescend to men of low estate." 
 
 Nevertheless, the high school was established and has since developed 
 into a college. The Dunkards within a decade have split into three bodies. 
 Association with others insensibly changed the views and habits of a num- 
 ber of them and led to innovations. These innovations were resisted by 
 the more conservative, and division, where full toleration was not possible, 
 was the inevitable result. Consequently the body that liad persisted for a 
 century and a half as an unworldly, harmonious, and united communion, 
 was divided into three branches — a progressive, a conservative, and an old 
 order branch. 
 
 I must now return to another and less interesting but not less impor- 
 tant phase of the subject, and take a dry plunge into the dusty sea of 
 statistics. Character and quality we can describe by figures of rhetoric, 
 but to express quantity and number we must use the figures of the 
 renumeration table. We have a census every ten years of our population, 
 resources, and activities, and the results appear in scores of bulky volumes 
 which the public never sees and nobody ever reads, but which a few 
 benevolent-minded, self-sacrificing men study for the laenefit of mankind 
 in general. The last census, that of 1 890, embraced all religious bodies 
 among its greatly extended inquiries, i.nd we have, therefore, for the first 
 time, complete returns for all forms of religion represented in the United 
 States. 
 
 These returns show how many ministers, organizations or congrega- 
 tions, church edifices, and communicants each denomination has, together 
 with the seating capacity of its edifices and their value. Also how they 
 are distributed among the counties. States, and Territories. The Roman 
 Catholic is now the largest of the churches in number of communicants, 
 liaving in round numbers 6,231,000. A hundred years ago it had only 
 about 25,000, and fifty years ago it had about 1,200,000. According to this 
 it has increased in the last century five-fold. This enormous growth is 
 due chiefly to immigration, and does not mean that Catholicism is con- 
 verting our Protestant population to its faith. 
 
 Thousands of Catholics become Protestants where hundreds of Prot- 
 estants become Catholics. Canada, Ireland, Germany, Poland, and Italy 
 have been pouring streams of Catholic immigrants into the United States. 
 This is why the Catholic Church has more communicants than any others. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church comes second, with more than 2,240,- 
 000; the regular Baptists (colored) third, with 1,362,000; the regular Bap- 
 tists (South) fourth, with 1,308,000, and the Methodist Episcopal South 
 fifth, with 1,210,000. 
 
 Taking the value of church property as our next item — that is, the value 
 of houses of worship, their furnishings, and the lots on which they stand— 
 we find that the Catholic Church is first again, its property being valued 
 at $118,000,000. The Methodist Episcopal Church is second, reporting 
 $97,000,000: the Protestant Episcopal third, ^81,000,000; the Northern Pres- 
 byterian fourth, §74,000,000, and the Southern Baptists fifth, $49,000,000. 
 Two of these denominations, the Episcopal and the Presbyterian, are not 
 among the five I have just mentioned as having the largest number of com- 
 municants. They stand third and fourth respectively in the table of 
 church property, showing that they are much more wealthy in proportion 
 to communicants than the other denominations. 
 
 In number of organizations, or congregations, the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church comes first with 25,861, and the Roman Catholic last with 10,231. 
 The Southern Baptists are second with 16,450, the Southern Methodists
 
 696 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 third with 15,000, and the colored Baptists fourth with 12,650. The reason 
 the Catholic congregations only number two-tifths as many as the Method- 
 ist Episcopal is because their parishes are so much larger and more popu- 
 lous. In some cases a Catholic parish embraces from 12,000 to 16,000 com- 
 municants, all using the same edifice. It is a common thing in the cities 
 for Catholic churches to have five and six different congregations every 
 
 To recapitulate: The Roman Catholic Church is first in the number of 
 communicants, and first in the value of house property, and fifth in num- 
 ber of organizations and houses of worship, the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church is first in the number of organizations and houses of worship, and 
 second in the number of communicants and value of church property. 
 
 Let us now see how the five leading denominational families or groups 
 stand. The Catholics, embracing seven branches, come first as to commu- 
 nicants with 6,258,000; the Methodists, embracing seventeen branches, 
 come second with 4,598,000; the Baptists, thirteen branches, are third with 
 3,743,000; the Presbyterians, twelve branches, are fourth with 1,278,000, and 
 the Lutherans, sixteen branches, are fifth with 1,231,000. It will be 
 observed that the combined Methodist branches have about 1,600,000 fewer 
 communicants than the combined Catholic branches. 
 
 As to the value of church property, the Methodist family is first, the fig- 
 ures being $132,000,000. The Catholic family is second, $118,000,000; the 
 Presbyterian third, $95,000,000; the Episcopalians fourth, $82,835,000; the 
 Baptists fifth, $82,680,000. 
 
 Thus, among denominational families, the Catholics are first in the num- 
 ber of communicants, second in value of church property, and fourth in the 
 number of organizations and houses of worship and value of church prop- 
 erty. These figures are for the five leading denominations, and the five 
 leading denominational families. The grand total for all denominations, 
 Christian and non-Christian, is as follows: 
 
 Ministers 111.000 
 
 OrKanizations 165.250 
 
 Houses of worship 142.600 
 
 Value of church property $680,009,000 
 
 Communicants 20,643.000 
 
 According to these figures nearly one person in three of our center pop- 
 ulation is a member or communicant of one or another of 143 denomina- 
 tions. This can not be regarded as an unfavorable showing for the 
 churches. It indicates a religious population of 57,720,000. That is, the 
 communicants, with all adherents added, constitute 57,720,000, leaving 
 about 5,000,000 to compose the non-religious and anti-religious classes, 
 including free-thinkers and infidels. 
 
 We have no warrant for believing that the majority of these 5,000,000 
 who are outside the religious population are atheists or disciples of Inger- 
 Boli. There are but few real atheists; few who do not have some belief 
 concerning a Supreme Being and a future. But most of the 5,000,000 are 
 probably opposed to the churches for various reasons. And we must not 
 forget that in the millions counted as the religious population are many 
 who are indifferent to the claims of religion and scarcely or never go into 
 a house of worship. Adding these and the large number of members on 
 whose lives religion exercises practically no power to the 5,000,000, we have 
 a problem of sufficient magnitude to engage the mind, heart, and hand of 
 the church for a generation. One out of twelve persons is either an active 
 or passive opponent of religion; two out of every three are not communi- 
 cants of any church. 
 
 Of the 165,250 organizations, all are Christian but 1,855, or a little more 
 than 1 per cent, and all are Protestant except 12,131, or a little over 7 
 per cent. That is, Christian organizations form nearly 99 per cent of 
 the total, and Protestant organizations about 93 per cent. Of the 20,643,000 
 
 1
 
 GOVERNMENT CENSUS OF CHURCHES. G97 
 
 members, all are Christians except 347,623, and all are Protestant except 
 6,605,494:. That is, Christian members form 9734 P^r cent of the total, and 
 Protestant members OS per cent. The Catholic percentage is about 30)^, 
 and the Jewish and miscellaneous only 1^. 
 
 To hasten through this wilderness of figures. I call your attention to 
 the fact that of the 153,122 Protestant organizations all but 747 are evan- 
 gelical, and of the 14,037,417 Protestant members, all but 1,568 are evangel- 
 ical. TJiat is, counting the Universalists of the evangelical class, where I 
 really think they belong, 98 per cent of Protestant organizations are evangel- 
 ical, and over 99 per cent of Protestant communicants belong to evangelical 
 denominations. Of course, not all members of evangelical denominations 
 are evangelical; nor all members of uon-evaugelical denominations non- 
 evangeiical. There is a great freedom of belief in these days. 
 
 You will want to know how the churches are growing in comparison 
 with the population, and what churches grow fastest. There are some who 
 like to make it appear that Christianity is not growing at all; that it is 
 declining. The facts do not support them. In the last ten years, the net 
 increase in our population was a little less than 25 per cent. A comparison 
 of the returns of churches, representing 16,500,000 members, shows that in 
 the same period their net increase was about 35 per cent, or 10 per cent 
 greater than the increase of the population. The largest percentage of 
 gain was 6S, which belongs to the Lutheran family; the next was 57, by the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church South; the third, 48 per cent, by the Protest- 
 ant Episcopal Church; the fourth, .39 per cent, by the Presbyterian fam- 
 ily; the fifth, 37 per cent, by the regular Baptists, North, South, and 
 colored; the sixth, 33 per cent, by the Congregationalists, and the seventh, 
 30 per cent, by the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 We must, of course, remember that all the houses of worship have been 
 built by voluntary contributions. They are valued at §630,000,000 and 
 furnish sitting accommodation for 43,500,000. They have been provided 
 by private gifts, but are offered to the public for free use. The government 
 has not given a dollar to provide them, nor does it appropriate a dollar for 
 their support. And yet the church is the mightiest, most pervasive, most 
 persistent, and most beneficent force in our civilization. The church affects, 
 directly or indirectly, all human activities and interests. It is a large prop- 
 erty holder, and influences the market for real estate. 
 
 It is a corporation and administers large trusts. 
 
 It is a public institution and requires protective legislation. 
 
 It is a capitalist, and gathers and distributes large wealth. 
 
 It is an employer, and furnishes means of support to ministers, organists, 
 singers, janitors, and others. 
 
 It is a relief organization, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and 
 assisting the destitute. 
 
 It is a university, training children and instructing old and young by 
 public lectures on religion, morals, industry, thrift, and the duties of citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 It is a reformatory influence, recovering the vicious, the immoral, and 
 dangerous elements of society, and making them exemplary citizens. 
 
 It is a philanthropic association, sending missionaries to the remotest 
 countries to Christianize (which is another word for civilize) savage and 
 degraded races. 
 
 It is organized beneficence, founding hospitals for the sick, asylums 
 for orphans, refuges for the homeless, and schools, colleges, and universities 
 for the ignorant. 
 
 It prepares the way for commerce, deepens and widens the channels of 
 trade, and creates and stimulates industry. 
 
 Architects, mason's carpenters, painters, and other artisans, are called to 
 its service to build its houses of worship. Mines, quarries, and forests are
 
 1 
 
 6d8 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 worked to provide the materials, and railroads and ships are employed in 
 transporting them. It requires furnishings, and the looms that weave them 
 are busy day and night. It buys millions of Bibles, prayer-books, hymn- 
 books, and papers, and the presses which supply them never stop. 
 
 Who that considers these moral and material aspects of the church can 
 possibly think meanly of it? It is so beneficent in its aims, so unselfish in 
 its plans, and so impartial in its distributions of its blessings. It is devoted 
 to the temporal and eternal interests of mankind. Every corner-stone it 
 lays, it lays for humanity. Every temple it opens, it opens to the world; 
 every altar it establishes, it establishes for the salvation of the soul. Its 
 spires are fingers pointing heavenward; its ministers are messengers of 
 good tidings, embassadors of hope and angels of mercy. 
 
 What is there among men to compare with the church in its power to 
 educate, elevate, and civilize mankind? 
 
 I
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FIFTEENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 25th. 
 
 There was no lack in attendance or interest on this day, 
 Christophore Jibara, Archimandrite of the Apostolic and Patri- 
 archal Throne of the Orthodox Church in Syria and the 
 whole East, was the prominent figure in the morning session. 
 He stood by the side of Prince Wolkonsky of Russia, who 
 read his paper as follows: 
 
 A VOICE FROM SYRIA. 
 
 CHRISTOPHOKE JIBARA, ARCHIMANDRITE. 
 
 My Brothers and Sisters in the Worship of God: All the religions 
 now in this general and religious congress are parallel to each other in 
 the sight of the whole world. Every one of these religions has supporters 
 who realize and prefer their own to other religions, and they might bring 
 some arguments or reasons to convince others of the value and truth of 
 their own form of religion. From such discussions a change may come, 
 perhaps even doubts about all religions, or that all of them are identical 
 faiths may be produced. And, therefore, the esteem of every religion may 
 fall or decrease; doubt may be produced against all the inspired books, or a 
 general neglect may happen, and no one will remain to hold a certain 
 religion, and many may entirely neglect the duties of religion for the reason 
 of restlessness in their hearts, and the opinion which prevails in one form 
 of religion, just as is going on among many millions in Europe and America. 
 Therefore, I think that a committee should be selected from the great 
 religions to investigate the dogmas, and to make a full and perfect compari- 
 son, and approving the true one and announcing it to the people. 
 
 This is easy to do in America, and especially in Chicago, as here the 
 means for realization may be found. First, there is full religious liberty; 
 second, there is great progress in all branches of science; third, there is 
 presence of great learning; fourth, wealth and benevolence; fifth, the piety 
 of the American people in general, and their energy in so many things, 
 useful to all humanity, making America a refuge to all nations. 
 
 Columbus found America for the Old World, and discovered a home for 
 the oppressed of all nations. As Columbus discovered America, so must 
 the Americans find the true religion for the whole world, and show the 
 people of all nations a new religion, in which all hearts may find rest. 
 
 I think and believe that when the gospels and the Koran, which are 
 really one, are reconciled, and the two great peoples. Christians and 
 Mohammedans, are also reconciled, the whole world will come into unity 
 
 699
 
 700 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 and all differences fade away. All the human kind will become brethren 
 in worshiping the true God and following Christ, the Savior of the world; 
 and I, as a servant of religion during all my life, have come from far-away 
 Damascus on my own account and in my poverty, in the midst of apprehen- 
 sion of the enmity of ministers who may make me a target for their 
 reproach. 
 
 I came here also to express my ideas before this great congress, which 
 are written in a treatise called " Unity of Faith and Harmony of Relig- 
 ions." I, in the name of God the Omnipresent, pray that the people may 
 consider my ideas on the unity of religion, especially between the sacred 
 books which we have mentioned and the nations by which they are revered. 
 Reconciliation between individuals is a virtue. How much greater will it 
 be between 600,000,000, and by this the reconciliation of the whole human 
 kind will be obtained. 
 
 Asking the members of the parliament, in the name of God, to study 
 with reverence this vital question on the harmony of religions, I hope the 
 time will come when these two great peoples. Christian and Mohammedan, 
 the greatest, the strongest, the brightest, and the richest among all the 
 nations of the earth, may unite in one faith, serving one God. 
 
 I beg all the members of the parliament to examine these thoughts and 
 notice the little book which I have prepared, and unite in the great cause 
 of reconciling man to man and man to God. 
 
 When the prince had finished, the archimandrite supple- 
 mented his written address with a brief speech, which he 
 delivered in the French tongue, and which was translated into 
 English for the audience by Herant M. Kiretchjian of Con- 
 stantinople. This is what he said: 
 
 Unfortunately, from the third century to this day, Christianity has not 
 comprehended the dogmas of the gospel properly. Only in the first cen- 
 turies were the gospels properly comprehended, then came a large number 
 of heresies. There are men of honesty, of good purpose and good inten- 
 tions in all the churches, and yet their combined efforts do not produce 
 union, because their understanding of the tendencies and the meaning of 
 the words of the gospel are not correct. I have been a Christian since my 
 infancy, and in the churches of my country I have been a preacher for thirty- 
 eight years. I have translated many theological books, and recently I have 
 translated the New Testament into the Arabic language. I have always 
 been a student in my own church, and I have loved it with my whole heart. 
 My professor, who was a most saintly man, was killed by Mohammedans; 
 my brother was killed by Mohammedans, and still I stand here and tell 
 you that the Koran is an inspired book. 
 
 I assure you also that by the Koran we can understand the gospel 
 better, and without the Koran it is impossible to understand it correctly. 
 It is for that I believe that God has preserved the Koran and also pre- 
 served Islam, because it has come to correct the doctrines and dogmas of 
 the Christians. There is no difference in the books themselves — the gospel 
 and the Koran. It is only in the understanding of people in their reading 
 of the Bible and the gospels and the Koran. 
 
 For seventeen years I have reflected upon this, and it is thus that I 
 venture to give this opinion. What I have printed in my books is only 
 about the twentieth part of what I should say on it. I have gathered 
 together from the gospels passages that were difficult to understand, and I 
 have explained them by the Koran perfectly. I have also taken all the 
 difficult passes of the Koran and explained them with the gospels, and now 
 I find a perfect account in the three books, the Old Testament, the gospels, 
 and the Koran.
 
 A VOICE FROM SYRIA. 701 
 
 In Sunday night's session Rev. George F. Pentecost of Lon- 
 don, speaking on " The Present Outlook of Religions," cast 
 reflections upon the chastity of the women who serve in the 
 temples of India. It is said that if he had followed his manu- 
 script he would not have made the most pointed of these state- 
 ments, but he digressed somewhat from what he had written. 
 As a result, Mr. Gandhi considered it necessary to reply to this 
 attack, as follows: 
 
 Before proceeding with my address, I wish to make a few observations. 
 This platform is not a place for mutual recrimination, and I am heartily 
 sorry that from time to time a most un-Christian spirit is allowed free 
 scope here, but I know how to take these recriminations at their proper 
 value. I am glad that no one has dared to attack the religion I represent. 
 It is well they should not. But every attack has been directed to the 
 abuses existing in our society. And I repeat now what I repeat every day, 
 that these abuses are not from religion, but in spite of religion, as in every 
 other country. 
 
 Some men in their ambition think that they are Pauls, and what they 
 think they believe. These new Pauls go to vent their platitudes upon 
 India. They go to India to convert the heathens in a mass, but when they 
 find their dreams melting away, as dreams always do, they return to pass a 
 whole life in abusing the Hindu. Abuses are not arguments against any 
 religion, nor self-adulation the proof of the truth of one's own. For such 
 I have the greatest pity. There are a few Hindu temples in Southern India 
 where women singers are employed to sing on certain occasions. Some of 
 them are of dubious character, and the Hindu society feels it and is trying 
 its best to remove the evil, but to call these "priestesses because they are 
 prostitutes" and "prostitutes because they are priestesses" is a statement 
 which differs as much from truth as darkness from light. These women 
 are never allowed to enter the main body of the temple, and, as for their 
 being priestesses, there is not one woman priestess from the Himalayas to 
 Comorin. 
 
 Tf the present abuses in India have been produced by the Hindu relig- 
 ion, the same religion had the strength of producing a society which 
 made the Greek historian say: "No Hindu was ever known to tell an 
 untruth, no Hindu woman ever known to be unchaste." And even in the 
 present day where is there more chaste woman or milder man than in India? 
 " The Oriental bubbles may need be pricked," but the very hysterical 
 shrieks sent forth from this platform from time to time show to the world 
 that sometimes bubbles may be heavier than the bloated balloons of vanity 
 and self-conceit. 
 
 I am very, very sorry for those who criticise the great ones of India, and 
 my only consolation is that all their information about them has come from 
 third-hand, fourth-hand sources, percolating through layers of superstition 
 and bigotry. Those who think, in the refusal of the Hindu to criticise the 
 character of Jesus, a tacit acceptation of the superiority of the fanatical 
 nil-admirari cult they represent, I am tempted to quote the old fable of 
 ^sop, and tell them: " Not to you I bend the knee, but to the image you are 
 carrying on your back," and point out to them one page from the life of the 
 great Emperor Akbar. 
 
 A certain ship full of Mohammedan pilgrims was going to Mecca. On 
 its way a Portuguese vessel captured it. Amongst the booty were some 
 coqies of the Koran. The Portuguese hanged these copies of the Koran
 
 702 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 around the necks of clogs, and paraded these dogs through the streets of 
 Ortnuz. It happened that this very Portuguese ship was captured by the 
 emperor's men, and in it were found copies of the Bible. The love of Akbar 
 for his mother is well known — and his mother was a zealous Mohammedan, 
 and it pained her very much to hear the treatment of the sacred book of 
 the Mohammedans in the hands of the Christians, and she wanted Akbar 
 to do the same with the Bible. But this great man replied: "Mother, these 
 ignorant men do not know the value of the Koran, and they treated it in a 
 manner which is the outcome of ignorance. But I know the glory of the 
 Koran and the Bible both, and I can not degenerate myself in the way they 
 did." 
 
 At the opening of the afternoon session Frederick Douglass 
 
 was called on for a speech, and, in responding, said: 
 
 I can not but feel gratified by the expression of a wish on the part of 
 this great audience to hear a word from me. I did not come here to speak, 
 however. I am somewhat in the condition of a man who attended a mis- 
 sionary meeting in London. "Give me a subject," he said, when called 
 upon for a speech, " and I will address you." Said his friends, sitting 
 behind him: "Pitch into the Roman Catholics." 
 
 I take it that it would be very dangerous in this meeting to pitch into 
 the Roman Catholics, for we are all Catholics, ready to strike hands with 
 all manner of men, from all the nations of the earth, not disposed to draw the 
 line anywhere absolutely. And it is one of the glories of this great con- 
 gress that it brings together men of all varieties of opinion, as well as all 
 complexion. I have only to say to all those who have the spirit of liberty 
 within them that I hold them as countrymen, clansmen, kinsmen, and 
 brothers beloved. 
 
 I even like the negro with all his faults, and I can bear with my white 
 brethren. 
 
 But it is a hard thing in this world i:> get justice and fairness for these 
 people after all. It is hard for an Englishman, for instance, to do justice 
 to an Irishman. It is hard, perhaps, for an Irishman to do justice to an 
 Englishman. It is very hard for a Christian to do justice to a Jew, and it 
 is hard for a Jew to do justice to a Christian. But we are reconciling them 
 all to-day. We are bringing them all into unity, and it is a delightful thing 
 to see brethren dwelling together in unity. If I had not been studying man 
 all my life rather than theology, I should be able to make a speech to you 
 to-day, but I have been studying the great question of human rights 
 instead of human religions. 
 
 People are asking me about the race problem — the negro problem. I 
 know of no race problem. The great problem that confronts the Ameri- 
 can people to-day is a national problem — whether this great nation of ours 
 is great enough to live up to its own convictions, carry out its own declara- 
 tion of independence, and execute the provisions of its own constitution. 
 That is the only problem, and I believe that you are the people that will 
 solve it. 
 
 " That word justice," said Dr. Noble, when Mr. Douglass 
 
 had finished, "is the word that this nation and all other 
 
 nations must utter until all men everywhere, whatever their 
 
 race, shall know that their rights are recognized "
 
 ANGLICAN CHURCH AND CHURCH OF FIRST AGES 703 
 
 RELATIONS BETWEEN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH 
 AND THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST AGES. 
 
 REV. THOMAS EICHEY OF NEW YORK. 
 
 When the Italian monk and missionary, Augustine, with thirty com- 
 panions, was sent forth by Gregory the Great to convert to the faith the 
 Angles of the Deira he found, on reaching the shores of Britain in hiding, 
 owing to the violence of its enemies, a regularly 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 of 
 England, constituting the three great estates of the realm, met together at 
 Runnymede, and there they passed the great act of Chartar, which 
 remains unto this day the bulwark of constitutional liberty in England, 
 the Magna Charta, the hrst article of which reads: "The Church of 
 England shall be free, and its rights and its privileges 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 1533, the Parliament of 
 England declared that the crown of England is imperial, and that England is 
 constituted a nation in itself to settle all questions, both temporal and 
 spiritual, and that it belongs to the spirituality, commonly called the 
 Church of England, to declare and determine all questions, without appeal- 
 ing to any foreign potentate, whatsoever may come before them. 
 
 The Church of England first of all claims to be a witness, the ages all 
 along, to that faith which the apostles left upon the earth, unto the tradi- 
 tion and the teachings of the early apostolic church. The Church of Eng- 
 land claims, in the second place, that she is, as a national church, and ever 
 has been, the defender of the great principle of civil and religious liberty. 
 The Church of England claims, in the third place, that she is called, in the 
 providence of God, to be the healer of the breach in the divisions of a 
 divided Christendom. 
 
 We find at the Council of Aries, in the year 314, five British ecclesiastics 
 present — the Bishop of Carleon, the Bishop of London, and the Bishop of 
 York, 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 British bishops to be present, when, through their own poverty, they 
 were not able to meet the obligation. The claim of the Church of England 
 is that, as she was thus represented in the councils of the church, as she 
 took part by the authority of the empire itself in the determining of the 
 questions which belonged to the settlement of the faith, she from that 
 day until now has been the representative of the apostolic faith, of the 
 apostolic traditions, and of the apostolic customs. 
 
 When, in the year 603, Augustine tirst came into personal contact with 
 the British church, he found that there were points of difference between 
 the church which he represented and the church as he found it in Britain, 
 in Ireland (then called Scotland), and in the Church of Columbanus, which 
 afterward accomplished the great work of the conversion of the Picts and 
 Scots. First of all the British church, with the Scoto-Celtic church, kept 
 Easter 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 British church administering the rite in one immersion, whereas, it 
 was the custom of the Roman Church to use three immersions. The British 
 church adopted one method of tonsvxre, and the Roman church adopted 
 another. Lastly there was found to be a difference in the method of con- 
 secration, the practice of the British church being, from the beginning, to 
 consecrate by means of one bishop, whereas, the Roman church, in accord- 
 ance with the Nicene canon, required three.
 
 704 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 When these points of difference came up before the Council of Whitby 
 the discussion became one that afterward ended in the division of the two 
 churches. The British church claimed its right according to its own mode 
 of intercalation, which it had practised for 250 years, to celebrate Easter at 
 its own time, and refuse the claim of another communion to impose upon 
 it a different obligation. The Scoto-Celtic church in Ireland, when the 
 question was presented before it, had set aside the demand made by a 
 foreign potentate and foreign church to dictate a difference of time in the 
 celebration of Easter offices, but still more, when the question took a wide 
 range, and Columbanus in the year 519 went out to Gaul, we find that it 
 came into contact with the church in Gaul, and that the differences in the 
 mode of celebrating the Easter office was made a ground of rejection of 
 the foreign missionary — that Columbanus called before the council and also 
 before Boniface IV., the reigning Pope of the time, defended the tradi- 
 tions of his fathers and refused to surrender his Christian liberty. When 
 asked who those persons were that had intruded themselves into the church 
 in Gaul, the answer vvas: "We are Irish from the ends of the earth; our 
 doctrine is that of the apostles and of the evangelists. The Catholic faith 
 we maintain as it has been perpetuated to us through the succession of the 
 apostles, and we know none other." When the council in Gaul would not 
 receive the explanation given by Columbanus, he was compelled to appeal 
 to Boniface IV. When he wrote to the Bishop of Rome, he claimed to be 
 allowed to do his work in his own way, and he claimed it under the second 
 canon of the Council of Constantinople, in 381, which, after declaring that 
 no one bishop shall intrude into the jurisdiction of another, entered a 
 decree that when, among barbarians, there was any difference connected 
 with the administration of the Christian rites, liberty should be allowed 
 and their claims should be acknowledged. 
 
 The claim which Columbanus made before Boniface IV. is the claim 
 which the English church to-day upholds in defense of its own Christian 
 liberty. It needs no doctrine but that which it has received from the 
 apostles and the evangelists. It holds the Catholic faith as it has been per- 
 petuated by succession from the first ages until now. But beyond that, in 
 things that are not in their own nature indifferent, it will submit to no dic- 
 tation, and it will resist every effort to destroy the rights which have been 
 given it by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. When He called His apostles 
 He left it to themselves, under the guidance and dictation of the Holy 
 Spirit, to adopt that line of polity they should find to be most necessary. 
 He prescribed no ritual, but He left it free to the men whom He had 
 chosen to adapt themselves to different times and different circumstances, 
 in order that there should be no obligation upon the council regarding 
 those fundamental things which are necessary to man's salvation. That 
 principle the Church of England has maintained, and ever shall maintain, 
 as necessary to the defense of Christian liberty in things which are belong- 
 ing to obligations upon the conscience. 
 
 Mr. Greene, in his " Making of England,'" has observed that it was a 
 happy circumstance that, at the Council of Whitby, in 664, the Church of 
 England did not throw in its light with the Scoto-Celtic Church with all 
 its ardent devotion and all its missionary enterprise, but made the choice, 
 now that the door was open, to ally itself with the outside world, and above 
 all with Rome, as the great fountain of ancient civilization. I believe, as 
 Mr. Greene believes, that it was more than an accident which led Gregory 
 the Great, a man whom all must honor, for his holiness of life and his 
 Christian and missionary devotion— it was more than an accident when he 
 saw the British boys in Rome, and his heart was touched with Christian 
 sympathy, that those fair British boys were sold for slaves in the Roman 
 market. He never rested until he sent for a band of his missionaries to 
 reclaim the Angles of the Deira and bring them into relations to the 
 Christian faith. 
 
 ^
 
 ANGLICAN CHURCH AND CHURCH OF FIRST AGES. 705 
 
 Theodore the Great, trained in the same school as St. Paul at Tarsus, 
 prevailed upon the British Church, the Scoto-Celtic Church and the Church 
 of Rome, represented by Augustine and his followers, to cast aside their 
 differences and to coalesce in one great church. It was his work which 
 brought about, as Mr. Greene says, again the union of the heptarchy into 
 one kingdom and one jjeople. It was the English Church which made the 
 English nation; it was not the English nation which made the English 
 Church. It was in England as it was before under Charlemagne, as before 
 it had been under Constantine. 
 
 Let men dream as they will, it is the power of religion that is the only 
 one unifying bond that can ever bind together the sum of the human fam- 
 ily. People can talk as they will regarding the union in the year 8UU, upon 
 Christmas day, between Charlemagne, as representative of the German 
 empire, and the See of Rome, as representative of spiritual energy and 
 power in the Western World, but that which moved Charlemagne is the 
 same thing which moved Constantine, or led to the enunciation of the prin- 
 ciple, which has ever been maintained, that the foundations of human 
 society do not rest upon the church only, nor upon the state only, but they 
 rest upon the ciiia'ch and the state allied one to another, bound together in 
 mutual sympathy -cr the accomx^lishment of the work that God has given 
 them to do. 
 
 But having given the kingdom of England into the hands of a foreign 
 power — I want to speak with all respect of the great representative of that 
 power at that time; there never was a nobler, a greater, a better meaning 
 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 
 founding of the feudal kingdom of Constantinople, so Innocent III. also 
 made the dreadful mistake, after John was forced to sign, of anathematiz- 
 ing the men who did the deed, and declaring that he had released the king 
 from the bonds of the oath which bound him to the obligation. But, w^hile 
 John obeyed the mandate of the Pope, and received in silence the suspen- 
 sion which for that act he imposed on him, still, when he returned, he him- 
 self signed with his own hand the Magna Charta, and from that day to this 
 England has maintained the position that not only the church but also the 
 nation shall be free from the sovereignty of any foreign power. 
 
 I think this Parliament of Religions represents one great principle, 
 whatsoever may be the objections to it upon other grounds. It is the prin- 
 ciple, which has been enunciated with eloquence and power here before, 
 that religion is natural to man as man, and makes the human 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 has the thirst that relig- 
 ion gives burning in his heart. It is not for Christianity to lay again the 
 foundation which God Himself has laid in the hearts of man. It is the 
 work of Christianity, claiming, as it must ever claim to be, the absolute 
 religion, to supplement, to restore, to correct whatsoever is amiss in that 
 first gift that God gave to man, and to labor to bring it to an absolute 
 perfection. 
 
 We have amongst us at this Parliament of Religions representatives ot 
 the two great historic religions of the past. It is our pleasure here to 
 acknowledge that it is to the Greek Church that we owe the formulating 
 of the faith, and that it was by no accident that the Dix ecumenical coun- 
 cils should be co-terminus with the Gra?co-Roman Empire before it passed 
 away in its Byzantine stage. It gives me also pleasure to acknowledge that 
 to the Roman Church in the middle age Almighty God gave the teaching 
 and discipline of barbaric nations when they needed a hand that knew how 
 to check and a power that knew how to bind. When Rome fell and was 
 trampled under the feet of the barbarian, she rose to life again, because 
 Rome will be eternal. It rose to life again in the holy Roman Empire, as
 
 706 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. * 
 
 connected with the German Empire and German civiUzation. It accom- 
 pUshed its task in the great work of educating the barbarian, making him 
 a man. But in the present time it is not to the Greek in the past or to the 
 Greek" Church; it is not to the Roman, nor is it to the Itahan people, that 
 God has given the leadership of the world in the great future; it is to the 
 Germanic races and to the Germanic people, who brought with them, when 
 they came, three great principles which underlie the foundation of modern 
 civilization, as contrasted with the past, the sense of personal liberty and 
 of moral obligation; and that other principle which is not less dear, rever- 
 ence for woman, and that v/hich belongs to the felicity of home; and what 
 is greater still, they brought with them that principle which they incorpo- 
 rated into EngUsh life and which is the basis of our American U:e now, the 
 principle of the jury, by virtue of which man is to be tried by his fellows, 
 and the principle of Parliamentary representation, by virtue of which you 
 have no right to tax a man without his own consent. Those three great 
 principles were brought by the Germans when they came into the Greek 
 and Roman world. 
 
 I say there are but three pillars upon which rest modern civilization 
 and which the Church of England is pledged to preserve. I will not 
 except— if you will pardon me— for one moment America. There is no 
 country on the earth where man is as free to day as he is in England, and 
 where his private rights are more respected. There is no country on earth 
 where the happiness of domestic peace rects as it rests upon the homes of 
 England. And it is the glory of the Christian priesthood there that they 
 have sanctified the home, not simply as prescribing the lesson in an abstract 
 way, but as a married priesthood they exercise an influence of good upon 
 society in England, which no priesthood in this world from the beginning 
 has ever equaled in its influence and its power. 
 
 America, God be thanked, speaks the English language. And its hope 
 in the future is that it is to be the representative of the great Germanic 
 people to whom Almighty God has given the conquest of the future world, 
 and the religion of America, I trust, shall be ever true to the principles 
 which I have enunciated to-day. It is the apostolic faith with apos- 
 tolic liberty that we want in the preaching of the everlasting gospel. It 
 is that freedom which secures to us civil, as well as religious liberty, with- 
 out any foreign dictation, or the interference of any foreign power. 
 
 Above all, it is the practical Christian religion which looks upon every 
 man as a responsible moral agent, sees in the family the germ of social life, 
 and recognizes in the church and in the state the two great powers which 
 must sustain the fabric, or the world must perish. 
 
 RELIGIOUS UNITY AND MISSIONS. 
 
 REV. GEOKGE T. CANDLIN. 
 
 Whoever takes a comprehensive survey of the state of religious thought 
 and sentiment during the 19th century, with a view to ascertain their pre- 
 vailing tendency, can not fail to be impressed with certain portentous 
 changes which, in obedience to some hidden law, are taking place. So far 
 as Protestant communities are concerned, at least, there has been an 
 enormous increase in missionary activity. In fact, Protestant missions on 
 any scale which, even in outlook, was at all commensurate with the 
 earth's area, luay be fairly said to have been born with the century. The 
 reformation was a civil war within the Christian church, and, as in political 
 matters, so in religion, eternal strife withdrew men's thoughts and energies 
 from " foreign affairs." It stood for purification and for intensification, not
 
 RELIOlOUa UNITY AND MISSIONS. 70T 
 
 for expansion. For at least a century and a half this was a prime charao- 
 teristic of the reformed churches. 
 
 But with the dawn of the century now nearing its close, there flamed 
 forth, as from an inner furnace of spiritual fervor, the splendid enthusiasm 
 which has given to the church such hero-names as Motfat, Livingstone, 
 Carey, Martyn, Bowen, Gordon, Morrison, Burns, and Hannington. The 
 movement has lost some of its early romance, not because the lire of its 
 zeal has abated, but because it is settling down to steadfast purpose and 
 practical, wisely calculated aim. It has yet to reach its culminating point. 
 
 The Roman Catholic section of Christendom presented the same phe- 
 nomena, but at an earlier date. The Reformation, which kept the reformers 
 busy at reconstruction, made the ancient church missionary. Perhaps it 
 would hardly be too much to say that the magnificent successes of the 
 propaganda during the IGth and 17th centuries did much to save the 
 papacy from extinction. Exploits like those of Xavier and Ricci have lent 
 a luster to Catholicism brighter and more lasting than all the august 
 grandeur of the popes and can not be dimmed by comparison with Protest- 
 ant annals. Nor can it be fairly said, though Protestant missions have 
 been to the front, that during the present century there has been any 
 abatement of missionary ardor on the part of the older community. 
 
 Side by side with this movement there has grown up a strong and gen- 
 eral aspiration for religious union. So far it can hardly be described as 
 more than aspiration, though in two or three instances it has reached, and 
 with the happiest result, the point of organic amalgamation. But the 
 force of the sentiment may be partially measured by the fact that all which 
 has been accomplished, either in the fuller toleration and more friendly 
 attitude of church to church or in such actual union as has been already 
 brought about, utterly fails to supply its keen demands. It is a growing 
 hunger of man's spiritual nature which will never rest, but will become 
 more ravenous until it is fed. 
 
 Historic generalization is always dangerous and often unconvincing, 
 because it can always be confronted with the adverse facts, the value of 
 which has only to be somewhat magnified to show the conclusion wrong. 
 Still one may venture the assertion that the title of tendency which has 
 been flowing since the Greek and Roman communions separated from each 
 other's fellowship, and which has issued in the myriad divisions of Chris- 
 tendom, has already spent its strength; that the set of the current is now 
 toward union, and that men no longer care to separate from each other's 
 communion to witness to some particular phase of truth, but are at least 
 earnestly longing to find the " more excellent way " which reconciles fellow- 
 ship of spirit to liberty of thought. This is not a down-grade but an up- 
 grade movement. 
 
 While the tendency is one it manifests itself in various ways. Its widest 
 exhibition is in the almost universal admission of the political right to free- 
 dom of conscience. It is not confined to Protestants, for though Rome, 
 boasting of her unchangeableness, maintains in theory the right to perse- 
 cute, and Protestants, for purposes of argument, affect to think that her 
 will, where she has the power, is as good as ever, there is no real ground to 
 doubt that the public sentiment of Romanists themselves would be out- 
 raged by the revival of such horrors as those of St. Bartholomew or the 
 Inquisition. In the various denominations of Protestantism men are already 
 feeling that their differences are rather matters to be apologized for than 
 to be proud of. 
 
 There is a growing disposition to substitute a spiritual test for the intel- 
 lectual one — conversion for orthodoxy. There is an increasing tendency to 
 recognize the commonwealth of Christian life. More and more stress is 
 being laid upon what the various churches have in common; less and less 
 emphasis is being given to their distinctive differences. Here and there
 
 708 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 one marks the signs of a capacity to learn from one another. There is a 
 widespread unity of sentiment, and of spiritual aim. There is an irrepress- 
 ible desire for organic union. 
 
 Without the ranks of professing Christians the same spirit is at work, 
 but in an apparently hostile direction. A strong sentiment of the value of 
 those spiritual and ethical impulses which make the very heart and life 
 of Christianity, accompanies a peremptory rejection of specific theological 
 doctrines. An undisguised contempt for and impatience with the divis- 
 ions and differences of Christians is coupled with a wide and sympa- 
 thetic study of the non-Christian religions of the world. By the new 
 pathway of comparative religion, men are finding their way to the belief in 
 the common possession of a spiritual nature on the part of all the members 
 of the human family. 
 
 Not less notable as a mark of change is the growth of the cosmopolitan 
 and humanitarian spirit, which asserts a right to a share of political 
 power on the part of the humblest member of the state; the socialistic 
 spirit, which is fast abolishing the merciless distinctions of class and caste, 
 and claiming for all a place in society and a share of the necessaries and 
 reasonable comforts of life. 
 
 Can we trace these various movements to a common cause? Different 
 and disconnected as they appear in external aspect can we ascribe them to 
 one originating force? We believe that wo can. They are the results of the 
 action of the essential spirit of Christianity in human life, upheavals of the 
 surface of society subject to the permeating influence of gospel leaven, 
 phases of the age-long but age- victorious process by which the kingdom of 
 heaven is being established on earth. 
 
 They indicate the gospel in peace — the fulfillment of the great command, 
 "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" — the 
 realization of the Saviors prayer that " they all may be one, as Thou, Father, 
 art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us " — the dawning con- 
 sciousness of the Savior's care for all the spiritual in all climes and ages, 
 " Other sheep have I which are not of this fold, them also 1 must bring " — 
 the application of that practical gospel taught by apostolic lips, "Whoso 
 b ath of this world's goods and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth 
 up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in 
 him?" 
 
 As the mission of Christianity is not merely to propagate a name, but 
 to foster a living spirit it should be glad to welcome its own children even 
 in disguise. They mark and define the epoch as one in which the best 
 ideals of our holy faith have held practical sway, in which Christians are 
 nobly striving to make Christ king everywhere and over the whole of life. 
 The Chicago Parliament of Religions will stand a red-letter event in the 
 calendar of religious history, the grandest visible embodiment yet reached 
 of these magnificent inspirations. 
 
 The cause of Christian missions and that of religious unity are so inti- 
 mately related to each other that they need to be considered together, as 
 each promotes the other, and whatever tends to advance either will benefit 
 both. One of the questions we often ask ourselves in the present day is, 
 " Why is missionary work, on the whole, attended with so little success? " 
 and undoubtedly a partial answer is supplied in the statement that it is 
 carried on with divided and sometimes rival forces, while the workers are 
 impeded by the demands of their official organization, reports, accounts, 
 and correspondence which might be consolidated with vast economy. 
 
 On the other hand, if we ask ourselves. What has been the secret of the 
 unhappy divisions which have rent Christendom into countless sects? 
 the answer is equally pertinent, because the energy, the aggressiveness, the 
 battle spirit whi 'h should have occupied themselves in combating sin and 
 darkness and subduing the powers of superstition and evil without the
 
 RELIGIOUS UNITY AND MISSIONS. 709 
 
 church have been pent up within her bosom. In a inost culpable degree 
 the church has forgotten the intimate relation which lay between the two 
 most solemn and binding charges of her divine Master, given to her under 
 the very shadow of the cross. "A new commandment give I unto you, that 
 ye love one another," and •' Ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusa- 
 lem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the 
 earth." It was to the united church that the grace of Pentecost was given; 
 it was to equip her for the conquest of the world that she was clothed with 
 its inspiration. 
 
 It is idle to bemoan the past, but it is the part of wisdom to learn its 
 lessons, and surely one of the lessons God is loudly teaching us to-day is, 
 that to have larger measures of missionary success, we must have increased 
 Christian union. 
 
 Consider only some of the advantages to the work of Christian missions 
 which may be expected to accrue as a spirit of union prevails among the 
 ditfereut sections of the church. The union of parent churches will mean 
 very substantial economy in chvirch expenditure, and set free very consid- 
 erable funds for the spread of the gospel abroad. Perhaps we could easily 
 imagine combinations of chui'ches already closely akin, which would result 
 in saving of tinances, by which they could easily double their contribu- 
 tions to mission work. Fancy the $2,000,000, the present cost of the Chris- 
 tian army in the greater crusade, being changed into $4,000,000. 
 
 Union would result in a much more systematic mapping out of missionary 
 fields and much more complete co-operation among individual mission- 
 aries than exists at present. The number of Protestant missionary socie- 
 ties in existence is probably about eighty. In India, in China, in Japan, 
 they overlap each other to a very considerable degree. They travel past 
 one another's stations to preach the gospel. In great heathen cities they 
 establish separate and what must be to some extent rival centers of evan- 
 gelization. 
 
 This consideration of waste of force bears with at least equal pressure 
 on the philanthropic and educational institutions established in connec- 
 tion with missions. Schools for Christian children, colleges for training 
 native agents, medical hospitals and dispensaries, might be far more 
 efficiently conducted, as they would command a far greater variety and 
 choice of talent if dividing lines were taken away and all missions in the 
 same town or district, of whatever society, worked in complete co-opera- 
 tion with each other. 
 
 The moral effect of a united front is more difficult to estimate, but 
 that its influence upon those to whom the gospel message is carried would 
 be immense no one can seriously deny. It is the more difficult to speak on 
 this topic, as the wildest nonsense has passed current on the subject 
 among the unsympathetic critics of missions. The picture of an unsophis- 
 ticated pagan, bewildered from the confusion of tongues arising from 
 jarring sects, tossed helplessly to and fro as he pursues his anxious 
 inquiries, from Episcopalian to Presbyterian, from Calvinist to Arminian, 
 from Churchman to Methodist, from Trinitarian to Unitarian, and finally 
 giving up the vain attempt to ascertain what Christianity is, and impar- 
 tially inviting them all to join his own catholic and tolerant communion — 
 "More better you come joss-pidjin side" — is too delicious for criticism. 
 
 Christianity, in the conception of her divine Founder and according to 
 her best traditions, is a religion for the whole world. To bring all man- 
 kind into fellowship with Christ is her chief mission. That was the grand, 
 master purpose which gave to the apostolic age its fervor, its inspiration, 
 its resistless sway over men's hearts. But, alas! through centuries dark- 
 ened by selfishness, by pride, by the love of power, by intolerant bigotry, 
 by intestine strife, she has gone far to forget her errand to the world. 
 
 Yet again in our own time this great thought of a love for all men—
 
 1 
 
 710 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OE HELtQiONS, 
 
 wide, tender, tolerant as that of Christ Himself— is being born in men's 
 hearts. For the first time in the history of the world the idea had been 
 conceived of bringing together face to face not only the representatives of 
 the many branches of Christendom but also leaders of the great historic 
 faiths of the world. Surely this in itself indicates that great movements 
 are preparing beneath the surface, full of hope and promise for the 
 future. 
 
 The splendid courage which has undertaken such a task will not be 
 lost. Everything is calling loudly for a radical change of attitude on the 
 part of Christian men. Our denominational distinctions have for the most 
 part become anachronisms. They rest on certain hopeless arguments, which 
 can never be settled one way or the other. Our divisions are strangling us. 
 The world's best literature and the world's best science are already within 
 our borders. The leaders of social reform look upon us with suspicion and 
 distrust. Our attitude toward the Christian world is haughty and uncon- 
 ciliatory in the extreme. 
 
 Meanwhile material changes and civilizing influences are flinging the 
 nations into each other's arms. The great world, which does not under- 
 stand the mystery of its sin and misery, is left without its Savior, and He 
 yet waits to possess the world He bought with His blood. The federation 
 of Christian men and prosecution, in a spirit of loving sympathy, of her 
 evangel throughout the world are the great ideals which in the past have 
 made the church illustrious, which in the future must be her salvation. 
 
 Is all this distant, far out of reach, and impracticable? Doubtless, like 
 the millennium — and we might almost say it will be the millennium — it is 
 by no means at our doors. These are only ideals, and men sneer at ideals. 
 Already sarcasm has been at work on the aims of this great congress. It 
 has been " weighed in the balance " of a present day prudence, and has 
 been " found wanting." Now, in the nature of things, what is to be 
 attempted by this assembly must be provisional, tentative, and not imme- 
 diately realizable. It must deal with the unmatured schemes and unripe 
 issues. Else how is a beginning to be made? Men of hard and unimag- 
 inative minds are sure to stigmatize its hopes as visionary. But we are 
 not afraid of a word, and, if we were, this is not a word to be afraid of. 
 
 The world is led by its ideals. It is the golden age to come that cheers 
 us through the dark and dreary winter of present experience. It is Canaan, 
 with its milk and honey, that'makes the wilderness of our wanderings endur- 
 able. Every great cause for which heroes have bled and brave souls have 
 toiled and sorrowed has been once an ideal, a dream, a hope, and, on coward 
 tongues, an impossibility. It has been the peculiar business of religion to 
 furnish the illuminating and inspiring ambitions which have been as songs 
 in the night of humanity's upward march. Speaking humanely, religion is 
 the strongest force, and it always will be, because it has always enlisted 
 imagination in its service. 
 
 Christianity aspires, in a deep, holy, lasting, blessed sense, to pacify— give 
 peace to all under heaven. Another peace than that of external order; the 
 peace which comes from rest of conscience, trust in the unseen, intimate 
 communion through a living Savior with a father God. Not a conven- 
 tional " under heaven," whose world is limited to Christendom, as China's 
 world is limited to China, but one that runs all round the equator and 
 stretches out to both poles. Its programme lies still before us, shame to 
 us that after these nineteen centuries it is unaccomplished; shame, deeper 
 shame still, if, like cravens, we count the cost or magnify the difficulty, or 
 blanch in the hour of danger; but deepest, most infamous, most undying 
 shame, if, in our littleness or narrowness, or love of forms and theologies 
 and ecclesiasticisms and rituals, the great ideal itself should be lost, which 
 angels sang that night when the starry spaces were glad, and did not know 
 how to hold their exultation, because they divined where the message came 
 from— "Peace on earth, good will toward men."
 
 THE REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM. 711 
 
 THE REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 PROF. PHILLIP SCHAFF OF NEW YORK. 
 
 The reunion of Christendom presupposes an original union which has 
 been marred and obstructed, but never entirely destroyed. The theocracy 
 of the Jewish dispensation continued during,' the division of the kinj^dom 
 and during the Babylonian exile. Even in the darkest time, when Elijah 
 thought that Israel was wholly given to idolatry, there were 7,000— 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 invisi- 
 ble church is the soul which animates the divided visible churches. All 
 true believers are members of the mystical body of Christ. 
 
 The saints in heaven and 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 underlie 
 all divisions. 
 
 Christians differ in dogmas and theology, but agree in the fundamental 
 articles of faith which are necessary to salvation; they believe in the same 
 Father in heaven, the same Lord and Savior, 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 acknowl- 
 edge and obey Christ as the Head of the church and Chief Shepherd of 
 our souls. 
 
 They differ widely in modes of worship, rites, and ceremonies, 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, Lutheran or Reformed, Calvinist 
 or Methodist, Episcopalian or Presbyterian, Paedo-Baptist or Baptist. Some 
 of the best hymn-writers — such as Toplady and Charles Wesley — were 
 antagonistic in theology, yet their hymns, "Rock of Ages" and "Jesus, 
 Lover of My Soul," are sung with equal fervor by Calvinists and Method- 
 ists. Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light" will remain a favorite hymn among 
 Protestants, although the author left the Church of England and became 
 a cardinal of the Church of Rome. " In the Cross of Christ I Glory " and 
 " Nearer, My God, to Thee " were written by devout Unitarians, yet have 
 an honored place in every Trinitarian 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 illustrated in the Anglo-American revision of the authorized ver- 
 sion 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 1884). 
 
 It was my privilege to attend almost every meeting of the American 
 revisers in the Bible House at New York, and several meetings of the Brit- 
 ish revisers in the Jerusalem chamber of Westminster Abbey, and I can 
 testify 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 the strongest bond of union among the
 
 712 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 different sections of English-speaking Christendom — a fact of incalculable 
 importance for private devotion and public worship. 
 
 Formerly, exegetical and historical studies were too much controlled by, 
 and made subservient to, apologetic and polemic ends; but now they are 
 more and more carried on without prejudice, and vv-ith 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 Savior as the purest and 
 most perfect model for universal imitation. 
 
 Before we discuss reunion we should acknowledge the hand of Provi- 
 dence 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 are 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. 
 
 We must remember that denominations are most numerous in the most 
 advanced and active nations of the world. A stagnant church is a sterile 
 mother. Dead orthodoxy is as bad as heresy, or even worse. 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 contro- 
 versy. There are divisions m the church which can not be justified, and 
 there are sects which have fulfilled their mission and ought to cease. But 
 the historic denominations are permanent forces, and represent various 
 aspects of the Christian religion which supplement each other. 
 
 As the life of our Savior could not be fully exhibited by one gospel, nor 
 His doctrine set forth by one apostle, much less could any one Chi'istian 
 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 practical 
 development of the Christian life; some are most successful among the 
 higher, others among the middle, and still others among the lower classes. 
 None of them could be spared without great detriment to the cause of 
 religion and morality, and without 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 Barnabas, in consequence of their "sharp 
 contention " concerning Mark, resulted in the enlargement of missionary 
 labor. If Luther had not burned the Pope's bull, or had recanted at 
 Worms, we would not have had a Lutheran Church, but be still u ader the 
 spiritual tyranny of the papacy. If Luther had accepted Zwingli's hand 
 of fellowship at Marburg, the Protestant cause would have been stronger 
 at the time, but the full development of the characteristic features of the 
 two principal churches of the Reformation would have been prevented or 
 obstructed.
 
 THE REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM. 713 
 
 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 had not seceded from the general 
 assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, in 1843, forsaking every comfort for the 
 sake of the whole headship of Christ, we would miss one of the grandest 
 chapters in modern church history. 
 
 All divisions of Christendom will, in the providence of God, be made 
 subservient to 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 distinction 
 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 wisdom and mercy to 
 mankind. He is the chief actor, and rules and overrules the thoughts and 
 deeds of His servants. We are told that our Heavenly Father has num- 
 bered the very hairs of our head, an:', that not a sparrow falleth to the 
 ground without His will. The labors of confessors and martyrs, of mission- 
 aries 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 no': be lost. They constitute a treasure 
 of inestimable value for all the future timo. 
 
 Variety in unity and unity in variety ic the law of God in nature, in his- 
 tory, and in His kingdom. Unity without variety is dead uniformity. 
 There is beauty in variety. There is no harmony without many sounds, 
 and a garden incloses 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 
 pecviliar gifts and graces. His power, His wisdom, and His goodness are 
 reflected in 10,000 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 m the church of the 
 future. There are good Christians who believe in the ultimate triumph of 
 their own creed, or form of government and worship, but they are all mis- 
 taken 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 include 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 dis- 
 tinctive peculiarity, and lay it on the altar of reunion, but it will cheer- 
 fully recognize the excellencies and merits of the other branches of God's 
 kingdom. No sect nas 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. 
 
 Protestants will cease to regard the Pope as the anti-Christ predicted 
 by St. Paul and St. John, and will acknowledge him as the legitimate head 
 of the Roman Church, while the Pope ought to recognize 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
 
 714 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 not to deny others the equal right of free prayer as the spirit moves them. 
 Even the silent worship of the Quakers has scripture authority, for there 
 was " a silence in heaven for the space of 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 arti- 
 cles 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 maintaining 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 medi- 
 eval schoolmen and Protestant reformers turn, after all, only on the mode 
 of Christ's presence, while all admit the essential fact that He is spiritually 
 and really present and partaken of by believers as the bread of life from 
 heaven. Even the two chief differences between Romanists and Protest- 
 ants 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 proved 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 church, Greek and Roman, with the 
 Protestant churches will require such a restatement of all the controverted 
 points by both parties as shall remove misrepresentations, neutralize the 
 anathemas pronounced vipon imaginary heresies, and show the way to 
 harmony in a broader, higher, and deeper consciousness in God's truth and 
 God's love. 
 
 In the heat of controversy, and in the struggle for supremacy, the con- 
 tending 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 papists as "idolators," 
 the Roman mass as an " accursed idolatry," and the Roman church as " the 
 synagogue of Satan "' and " the Babylonian harlot '' — all in perfect feonesty 
 on the ground of certain misunderstood passages of St. Paul and St. John, 
 and especially of the mysterious book of Revelation, whose references 
 to the persecutions of pagan Rome were directly or indirectly applied to 
 papal Rome. Rome answered by bloody persecutions; the Council of 
 Trent closed with a double anathema on all Protestant heretics, and the 
 Pope annually repeats the curse in the holy week, when all Christians 
 should humbly and penitently meet around the cross on which the Savior 
 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 devotion to the honor of 
 the great Head of the church, who is the divine concord of all human 
 discords.
 
 ~ THE REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM. 718 
 
 The whole system of traditional orthodoxy, Greek, Latin, and Protestant, 
 must progress or it will be left behind the age and lose its hold on think- 
 ing men. The chvirch must keep pace with civilization, adjust herself to 
 the modern conditions of religious and political freedom, and accept tiie 
 established results of biblical and historical criticism and natural science. 
 God speaks in history and science as well as in the Bible and the church, 
 and He can not 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 conse- 
 quence 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. We 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 did not appear till four centuries after his death; the fiction of Constau- 
 tine's donation; the apocryphal letters of pseudo-Ignatius, of pseudo-Clem- 
 ent, of pseudo-Isidorus, and other post-apostolic and medieval falsifications 
 of history, which was universally believed till the time of the Reformation, 
 and even down to the 18th 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, while 
 theories are of men. 
 
 Formerly church history was made a mere appendix to systematic the- 
 ology, or abused and perverted for polemic purposes. The older historians, 
 both Roman Catholic and Protestant, searched ancient and medieval his- 
 tory for weapons to defeat their opponents and to establish their own 
 exclusive claims. Flacius, the first learned Protestant historian, saw noth- 
 ing but anti-Christian darkness in the middle ages, with the exception of a 
 few scattered " testes veritatis," and described th'e Roman Church from the 
 5th to the 16th century as the great apostasy 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 civilization of the barbarians, as a necessary link 
 between ancient and modern Christianity, and as the cradle of the Refor- 
 mation. 
 
 On the other hand, the opposite type of historiography, represented by 
 Cardinal Baronius, traced the papacy to the beginning of the Christian 
 era, maintained its identity through all ages, and denounced 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 the reformers, and the bene- 
 ficial efforts of their labors upon their own church. 
 
 A great change of spirit has also taken place among the historians of 
 the different Protestant denominations. The early Lutheran abhorrence 
 of Zwinglianism and Calvinism has disappeared from the best Lutheran 
 manuals of church history. The bitterness between Prelatists and Puri- 
 tans, Calvinists and Arminians, Baptists and Psedo-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 who crucified the Savior; a Judas was among 
 the apostles; all sorts of sins among church members are rebuked in 
 the epistles of the New Testament; there were many "anti-Christs" in the 
 age of St. John, and there have been many since, even in the temple of 
 God. Nearly all churches have acted as persecutors when they had a
 
 716 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 chance if not by fire and sword, at least by misrepresentation, vituperation, 
 and abuse. For these and all other sins, they should repent in dust and 
 ashes. One only is pure and spotless—the great Head of the church, who 
 redeemed it with His precious blood. , , . 
 
 But the historian finds, on the other hand, m every age and in every 
 church, the footprints of Christ, the abundant manifestations of His 
 spirit, and a slow but sure process toward that ideal church which St. Paul 
 describes as " the fullness of Him who filleth all in all." 
 
 The study of church history, like travel in foreign lands, destroys preju- 
 dice, enlarges the horizon, liberalizes the mind, and deepens charity. Pales- 
 tine,' by its eloquent ruins, serves as a commentary on the life of Christ, 
 and has not inaptly been called "the fifth gospel." 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 mahce toward none , but with charity for 
 all"— will bring the denominations closer together in a humble recogni- 
 tion of their defects and a grateful praise for the good which the same spirit 
 has wrought in them and through them. 
 
 Important 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 Aris- 
 totle, 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 
 Divina Comedia of Dante, who regarded the great Stagirite as a fore- 
 runner 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 estimate. 
 
 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 nations under the 
 interdict for the disobedience of an individual. But no pope would pre- 
 sume 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 Christian 
 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 for ever and 
 ever prevailed for centuries under the authority of the great and holy 
 Augustine, bat has lost its hold even upon those divines who defend the 
 necessity of water baptism for salvation. Even high Anglicans and strict 
 Calvinists admit that all children dying in infancy are saved. 
 
 The equally un-Christian and fearful theory and practice of religious 
 compulsion and persecution by fire and sword, first mildly suggested by 
 the same Augustine and then formulated by the master theologian of the 
 middle ages (Thomas Aquinas), who deemed a heretic, or murderer of the 
 soul, more worthy of 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 physical 
 science. 
 
 Protestants and Catholics alike unanimously rejected the Coper nican 
 astronomy as a heresy fatal to the geocentric account of the creation in
 
 THE REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM. 717 
 
 Genesis, but after a century of opposition, which culminated in the con- 
 demnation 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 agreement 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 begin- 
 ning, and this can only be accounted for by an intinite intelligence and 
 creative will. God's power and wisdom are even more wonderful in the 
 gradual process of evolution. 
 
 Ttie theory of historical development, Vi^hich 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 infi- 
 delity, but is now adopted by every historian, and is indorsed by Christ 
 Himself in the twin parables of the mustard seed and 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 development no 1 .ss important which 
 may be called the law of creative headships. Every important intellectual 
 and religious movement begins with a towering personality which can not 
 be explained from antecedents, 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 between the Bible and 
 science, faith and reason, authority and freedom, the church and civili- 
 zation. 
 
 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 20th century has marvelous surprises in 
 store for the church and the world, which may surpass even those of the 
 19th. 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 inter- 
 national 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. We must 
 meet them on a common rather than on disputed grounds, 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 opinion. 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," can not 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 together 
 and promotes their mutual confidence and regard. Faith without works is 
 dead. Sentiment and talk about union are idle without actual manifestation 
 in works of charity and philanthropy. 
 
 Missionary societies should at once come to a definite agreement
 
 718 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 prohibiting all mutual interference in their efforts to spread the gospel at 
 home 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 mind of the heathen or 
 of 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 sectarian spirit and mistaken zeal 
 for peculiar views and customs very materially 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 mutual apprecia- 
 tion. The study of symbolic or comparative theology is one of the most 
 important branches of history in this respect, especially 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 septuagint, the gospels, and epistles; 
 hers are the early confessors and martyrs, the Christian fathers, bishops, 
 patriarchs, and emperors; hers the immortal writings of Origen, Eusebius, 
 Athanasius, and Chrysostom; hers the Ecumenical Council and the Nicene 
 creed, which can never die. 
 
 The Latin Church is a glorious church, for she carried the treasures of 
 Christian and classical literature over the gulf of the migration of nations, 
 and preserved order in the chaos of civil wars; she 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 systems of scholastic and mystic theology; she 
 stimulated and patronized the renaissance, the printing press, and the dis- 
 covery of a new world; she still stands, like an immovable rock, bearing 
 witness to the fundamental 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 spiritual 
 despotism, and secured us religious liberty, the most precious of all liber- 
 ties, and made the Bible in every language a book for all classes and condi- 
 tions 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 justification 
 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 valuable 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 fur- 
 nished 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 Fathers, who, by the fear of God, were raised above the fear of
 
 THE REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM. 719 
 
 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 gospel to the ends of the earth. 
 
 The Episcopal Church of England, the most cliurchly 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 people to a 
 level with the richest and most intelligent nations; she diffused the knowl- 
 edge 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 approved 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 service; and has laid 
 the foundation of New England, with its literary and theological institu- 
 tions 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 con- 
 science; 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 Englishmen, 
 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 pro- 
 duced the greatest religious revival since the day of Pentecost; 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 Protest- 
 ant 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 wonder and admiration 
 a venerable Moravian couple devoting their lives to the care of hopeless 
 lepers in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
 
 720 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 mission- 
 aries among the descendants of their persecutors. 
 
 The Anabaptists and Socinians, who were so cruelly treated in the 
 16th century by Protestants and Romanists alike, were the first to raise 
 their voice for religious liberty and the voluntary principle in rehgion. 
 
 Unitarianism is a serious departure from the Trinitarian faith of orthodox 
 Christendom, but it did good service as a protest against tritheism, and 
 against a stiff, narrow, and uncharitable orthodoxy. It brought into prom- 
 inence the human perfection of Christ's character, and illustrated the 
 effect of His example in the noble Uves and devotional 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. 
 
 Unii'ersalism may be condemned as a doctrine; but it has a right to pro- 
 test against a gross materialistic theory of hell with all its Dantesque 
 horrors, and against the once widely spread popular belief that the over- 
 whelming majority of the human race, including countless millions of 
 innocent infants, will forever perish. Nor should we forget that some of 
 the greatest divines, from Origen and Gregory, of Nyssa, down to Bengel 
 and Schleiermacher, believed in. or hoped for, the ultimate return of all 
 ational 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 Sal- 
 vation Army — we hail it, in spite of its strange and abnormal methods, as 
 the most effective revival agency since the days of Wesley 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 benedic- 
 tion 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. 
 
 INTERDENOMINATIONAL COMITY. 
 
 REV. D. L. WHITMAN OF COLBY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 A double process has marked our age. Analysis of method, motive, and 
 faith have given ever closer lines of diversion and minuter discrimination 
 between shades of difference. On the other hand, a very passion of organi- 
 zation has made combination natural and necessary. We can hardly speak 
 of disintegration and reintegration, because the two phases of the process 
 have been simultaneous rather than successive, and the result appears 
 oftener in ne\v wholes than in the old whole restored. At the same time 
 that bodies within a system have been breaking up into sections of varying 
 importance and varying degrees of interdependence, the system itself has 
 taken on new relations, built into some new and larger system. 
 _ In no sphere has this process been more active than in the relig- 
 ious. Inquiry has been made into men's faith with zeal that would have 
 fitted the middle ages. Phases of belief have been defended by apologetics
 
 INTERDENOMINATIONAL COMITY. 721 
 
 worthy of the fathers. Denominational lines have been strengthened. 
 Division within denominational lines, always with conviction of right, often 
 with kindest feeling, has been carried to an extreme nicety. At the same 
 time a large and generous fellowship has been growing. Bigotry is less and 
 less common. Emphasis of one phase of truth has ceased to be a reason 
 for fighting men who emphasize a different phase. The common element 
 of truth is seen to be precious. Allegiance to one lord hiis begotten com- 
 mon faith and mutual love. The relation of men as brethren is recognized 
 as never before. 
 
 It is the second phase of this process that concerns us most. So far, in 
 religious experience, its expression has been more formal than practical. 
 Various schemes of federation have been proposed. Results indicate that 
 as yet organic union is not possible. But while organic relation is not yet, 
 and may never be possible, tokens multiply that denominational principles 
 may be so regarded as to command the benefits of federation without the 
 ill adjustment of an organism manufactured, not developed. Effort to 
 realize this has already been made. It is the principle underlying that 
 effort we mean when we say inter -denominational comity. It will not be 
 amiss for us to consider some conditions favorable to such effort, the prin- 
 ciples on which it rests, and the attempt to bring such effort to practical 
 issue. The conditions favorable to interdenominational comity are pre- 
 eminently American. The comparatively homogeneous populations of 
 other countries make certain of them impossible in those countries. They 
 mainly concern Christians. Interdenominational comity presupposes 
 denominational life and denominational interests. Only indirectly can the 
 question concern those who are not Christians. 
 
 Noteworthy among these conditions are the following: 
 
 1. Recognition of change in the character of the work to be done.. 
 This is emphatically an American condition. History has been made so 
 
 rapidly here that historical text-books published yesterday are hopelessly 
 out of date to-day. States have sprung up in a night. The center of 
 population has shifted year by year. The character of the population has 
 changed as often. For forty years number and variety have increased with 
 every incoming steamer. Changes have been so rapid that it is only by 
 figure of speech that we can speak of an American type. No criticism is 
 intended even in thought, the fact is simply recorded as a fact. The most 
 important cities along the Atlantic seaboard are controlled by men of 
 foreign birth or at least of foreign extraction. Many central and Western 
 cities show the same record only with change of names. Whole sections 
 have been transformed. New England is no longer Puritan. Tested by 
 church membership, it is not even Protestant. 
 
 Heterogeneity, rapid growth, and shifting of elements of population have 
 made old methods insufficient. With characteristic hopefulness, we have 
 persuaded ourselves that, because the old was good for old conditions, it 
 was good for all conditions. Only little by little have we been undeceived. 
 What to do is not clear. That something must be done is beyond question. 
 
 2. Recognition of wasteful methods. 
 
 Edward Bellamy pictures state of society in which competition in 
 ordinary sense has been outgrown. The interests of society, as a whole, 
 have forced into insubordination the interest of classes, whether of trade or 
 position. An approximation to that ideal in religious work would be a good 
 thing. Denominational competition has at times been sharp. Denomina- 
 tional jealousy has not been wholly unknown. Men and money have been 
 expended by each body, irrespective of what others were doing. Towns 
 with a population of less than a thousand have three, four, or five churches. 
 This means several men where at most two are needed, and where one could 
 do the work. The result is meager support for all, small congregations, and 
 emphasis of peculiarities which have no salvation in them.
 
 722 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 In the newer portions of the country, points of strategic importance are 
 occupied to the extent of congestion. This makes inevitable neglect of 
 territory loss immediately promising. Naturally enough, the same method 
 is carried into the field of foreign missions, though there the work is so 
 wide that the effect is not so noticeable. Workers of different names are 
 stationed in comparative proximity, while great stretches are still unoc- 
 cupied. At home and abroad some ground is covered two or three times, 
 other ground not at all. When we think of this, we say instinctively: 
 " It is not well." 
 
 3. Conviction of inadequacy of resources at present available. 
 
 Five loaves and two tishes feed a multitude when God breaks them. 
 From the human point of view, however, we have to repeat Andrew's words: 
 " What are these among so many? '* One may chase a thousand, and two put 
 ten thousand to flight, when the Lord strengthens the arm of His servants. 
 Bat the fact remains that three-quarters of the world is as yet unevangel- 
 ized in any proper sense. Much has been done. More yet is now immedi- 
 ately possible. Men and means are more easily available than was formerly 
 the case. Intelligence, zeal, and ability are finding their right combination. 
 But the need is still comparatively infinite in comparison with the supply. 
 Even in the United States, ordained ministers average but little more than 
 one in a thousand of population. In many Christianized countries the 
 proportion is still smaller. 
 
 In lines of foreign evangelization the disproportion of workers to popu- 
 lation is startling. For Japan there are 175 ordained missionaries to 40,- 
 000,000 people. Adding lay missionaries, wives of missionaries, lay and 
 ordained, and all other woman workers, the proportion is less than 500 to 
 40,000,000. or one to 80,000. In China it is a total of 1,300 to a total of 
 400,000,000, or one to 300,000. Even assuming the best possible distribution 
 of workers, the disproportion is fearful. It is made still greater by methods 
 already suggested. 
 
 4. Better conception of the Christian mission. 
 
 The Christian spirit has been growing more Christlike. More brotherly 
 relations exist between representatives of different creeds. Men have scant 
 hope of peace together in heaven if they can not abide in peace together on 
 earth. The old enmities are impossible. Faiths are less than faith. Denom- 
 inations are the servants of the kingdom. Never again can we reach the 
 old sectarian creed, " The earth belongs to the Lord's people, and we are 
 the people." Interchange of courtesy has become common. Movements of 
 a co-operative character have been successfully conducted in evangelistic 
 work and social reform. 
 
 A new and larger thought is cherished. The Christian mission is to 
 preach the gospel. More than the local church is the universal church 
 — no ecclesiastical body, but those in every place who call upon the name. 
 Not as if the hand were everything, or the foot, or the eye, or the tongue, 
 but all as members of one body which can prosper and be in health only as 
 each member is found faithful, do we see our relation to Christ. And, first 
 as a glimmer, then a dawning, then fvill light, has come the conception 
 that over the ages the Master is saying now to His disciples: " Go ye into all 
 the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation." 
 
 These conditions in themselves amount to little. As conditions, how- 
 ever, they must arise before better things could come. They are of value 
 as making imperative that for which they have cleared the way. 
 
 The principles of interdenominational comity are, in the main, three: 
 1. Different interpretations of scripture give rise to different ecclesias- 
 tical organizations. 
 
 We are bound to assure a good conscience for every man. What each 
 does presumably he does in accordance with his conception of the will of 
 God. Without this assumption we inevitably fall into the error of supposing
 
 INTERDENOMINATIONAL COMITY, 723 
 
 that we alone possess the spirit of truth. In this assumption lies the 
 secret of denominational life. In many cases, no doubt, appeal is made in 
 the first instance to a denominational creed. In some cases it is painfully 
 evident that such creed is accepted as the be-all and end-all of denomina- 
 tional faith. 
 
 But the larger view alone is intelligent which regards creeds as provisional 
 statements for the sake of clearness, and definiteness of what the Word 
 of God teaches. It is worth while to emphasize this, for a short cut to 
 Christian union is supposed by many to lie through a total ignoring of 
 creeds. " Stop subscribing to creeds and bring faith at once to the test of 
 scripture," say the apostles of the new way. Very good. But creeds are 
 simply the interpretation and formulation of what the makers of creeds 
 understand scripture to teach, A creed is doomed as soon as it is shown 
 to be out of line with scripture. 
 
 Thus, when we have abolished creeds, instead of having done everyth ing, 
 we have done nothing. Forced back, as is right, to scripture as the ulti- 
 mate rule of doctrine and life, we face the fact that no two men understand 
 the message of scripture in precisely the same way. The truths that save 
 are plain beyond question. The Fatherhood of God, redemption through 
 Jesus Christ, sanctification by the Holy Spirit — no man need remain in 
 doubt concerning these. But the form of ecclesiastical organization, the 
 methods of Christian benevolence, the details of Christian experience are 
 not described. Principles are laid down, to some extent hints are given, 
 but that is all. It could not well be otherwise if the word was to have per- 
 manent significance. 
 
 Further, in all revelation the subjective element is large. Our Lord 
 could not declare His message all at once, even to His immediate followers. 
 Little by little, as they were able to bear it. He taught them. Revelation 
 is conditioned upon capacity to receive. And even where there is ability to 
 receive, the exact meaning will depend upon personal experience. Two 
 men may use the same words and in the main their understanding of these 
 words be the same, but they will attach to those words in their finer shades 
 precisely the meaning which their own experience gives them. The same 
 truth finds different expression in different lives. Interpretation of script- 
 ure is subject to this general comlition. 
 
 With the best intention in the world men will understand the details of 
 the gospel differently. Different men will emphasize different doctrines. 
 According as one or another doctrine is emphasized the spiritual life will 
 vary in expression. Expressions, whether in word, deed, or symbol, tend to 
 become fixed. So different types of religious organization are developed. 
 Denominational life finds its explanation in this. 
 
 A denomination is a body of Christians basing their faith on the Word 
 of God, but understanding the details of duty differently enough from other 
 bodies of Christians to warrant a different name. The true conception of 
 denominationalism sees behind it the Word of God, with liberty of con- 
 science and consequent possibility of honest difference of judgment. The 
 difference is at bottom difference of judgment; no more, no less. Back of 
 all denominational names is faith in Jesus Christ and Christian fellowship. 
 No one denomination is all. Each is part, according to its light serving all. 
 So the whole Christian world can say: "I believe in the Holy Catholic 
 Church. I believe in the communion of saints." But it is only on basal 
 truth that agreement has been reached. There are 140 denominations in 
 the United States alone. For the entire Christian body the number would 
 be considerably increased. And the great majority vindicate their exist- 
 ence by appeal to the Word of God. It follows easily and inevitably that 
 denominational organizations will continue until men agree upon the inter- 
 pretation of scripture. Thus, apart from all other considerations, we find 
 a working explanation of the existence of different religious bodies.
 
 724 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 2 Intelligent loyalty to denominational interests is a worthy sentiment. 
 
 Strictly speaking, there is no Catholic church as an ecclesiastical organi- 
 zation. It is a spiritual body alone, which shows the marks of catholicity 
 in the wide sense. Back of all local, provincial, or national bodies, embrac- 
 ing all it stands an ideal whose existence we acknowledge when we say, 
 " I believe in the Holy Catholic Church," whose realization is in part 
 secured by the bodies which bear its name, whose perfect realization is 
 sought when we pray: "Thy kingdom come." Our inspiration comes from 
 this'ideal. We are working toward a better conception of it. But as yet 
 our largest attainment toward its accomplishment has taken shape in 
 denominational life. 
 
 This is likely still to be the case in great measure. When we recall the 
 origin of denominational organization we do not wonder that the facts 
 should be as they are. When we consider what has been brought to pass 
 through the denominational agencies, we may doubt whether, under exist- 
 ing conditions, such results could have been secured otherwise. Much con- 
 demnation of denominational life is sheer nonsense. More yet is product of 
 misconception. Ignorance, wrong point of view, mistaken conviction of 
 monopoly of truth, any or all of these will account for unfavorable criticism. 
 As long as the right of private interpretation is allowed, that is, as long as 
 spiritual liberty is possible, every man is bound to obey God's Word accord- 
 ing to the largest light he can find for it. No doctrine of conscience that 
 can stand will permit less than this. 
 
 Judgment may err, but a man is bound to act according to his convic- 
 tion. The good and evil of denominationalism rest upon that. Sufficient 
 data, correct understanding, and right will mean strength. Opposite con- 
 ditions means weakness. In other words, that is true of practical spiritual 
 relations, which is true of all life. And at the same time that personal 
 conviction is leading along denominational lines, this advantage is added, 
 that interests comparatively localized and definite appeal to a man as 
 more general interests can not. 
 
 Narrowness, bigotry, jealousy, strife are not at all necessary even when 
 different lines of faith and action are followed. Nay, rather right con- 
 ception of opportunity begets generous emulation that each may excel in 
 the fruits by which worth is known. This is the better side of denomina- 
 tionalism. In recent decades it is also the larger side. The old bitter- 
 ness can never return. The old claim to exclusive possession of truth can 
 not return. Instead may be found conviction that knowledge at best is 
 but partial; that our formula is our statement of the truths which seem 
 supreme, and that our duty as a body of believers is to translate those 
 truths into life. Denominational loyalty at bottom means only this, and 
 this must be counted good. 
 
 3. Christian interests are larger than denominational interests. 
 
 All truths are true, but not all are of equal importance. There is such a 
 thing as a system of truth. In a system right subordination is indispensa- 
 ble. One of the fundamental principles of comity, whatever the sphere, 
 is that emphasis may be laid upon the supreme things without damage to 
 things relatively unimportant. The difficulty comes in getting the 
 emphasis rightly placed. A man responds to personal interests more 
 quickly than to the interest of a stranger. The near seems larger than the 
 distant. This life is more real than the life to come. So men deceive 
 themselves when they intend to be fair. The work of the local body is 
 magnified out of all proportion. The interests which appeal directly are 
 mistaken for the only interests. 
 
 There is safety only in a larger view. The practical effort comes out in 
 the local body. Where a man is, his work must be done. The centers of 
 activity are the bodies of men and women who in the sphere of daily life 
 are doing their duty for love of God. Denominational life is simply the 
 
 1
 
 INTERDENOMINATIONAL COMITY. 725 
 
 enlargement of this. But activity in the local body can be permanently 
 effective only as there is thought of larger things. God whom we serve 
 and worship is God of the whole earth. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the 
 world. Faith and hope and love are universal in their reach. 
 
 The kingdom of heaven has relation to all men. Man by man no doubt 
 the kingdom comes, but only in men taken together is its full realization 
 found. The redeemed life is not individual, but social. The individual 
 finds his full development only in society. So the individual life and the 
 larger combinations, whether family, community, or state, in which succes- 
 sively it finds itself, have reference to the gathering of all the redeemed 
 into one body, of which Christ is the head. It is this larger thought that 
 furnishes the permanent element in the progress of Christian endeavor. 
 
 It is this that interdenominational comity emphasizes. Here is a world 
 to be redeemed. The preaching of redemption is the mission of the fol- 
 lowers of Christ. Called out by the principle of election, which is appoint- 
 ment to pre-eminent service, those who have been taught of God are to 
 impart what they have received. Faith in a common Lord unites them. 
 A common purpose inspires them. The body thus formed is the church, 
 that portion of the world at anytime tilled with the spirit of Christ. Names 
 will differ, but essential belief will be the same. When we consider our 
 common work, a large experience of grace or a large view of the kingdom 
 compels wonder that Christians of various names have forgotten the inter- 
 ests of the kingdom as a whole in zeal for subordinate concerns. A new 
 and better thought insists that henceforth the error be not repeated. My 
 life if not the supreme thing, nor my church, nor my denomination. These 
 are but instruments for God's service. The true interests of all are secured 
 by bringing individual lives and denominational orders into subordination 
 to the main doctrine, which is to know God, and to the main work, which 
 is to save men. 
 
 A good beginning has already been made in practical effort in interde- 
 nominational comity toward giving expression to the principles outlined. 
 Sometimes the work has been local and temporary. Two, three, half a 
 dozen churches in a community have united in evangelistic or benevolent 
 undertaking. It is a common thing for different denominations to combine 
 for the canvass of a city for one purpose or another. In some cases organi- 
 zations have been formed of a permanent character. Certain forms of city 
 mission work illustrate this. In the same line is the action of neighboring 
 pastors in some country districts, who have combined for more effective 
 service. There is much promise of good in such combinations as soon as it 
 is understood that the salvation of men takes precedence of the question of 
 denominational tenets. The Evangelical Alliance has done much, as have 
 also interdenominational congresses, which find their legitimate outcome in 
 the World's Parliament of Beligions. 
 
 To get somewhat in detail the working of some one effort in the line of 
 comity, it is worth while to outline a movement which for three years has 
 been going on in the State of Maine. For a long time it has been custom- 
 ary there, as in many parts of the country, for the different denominations 
 to extend greetings at their annual meetings. Three years ago, when the 
 Congregationalist body was in session, the fraternal delegate of the East- 
 ern Maine Methodist Conference was unable to be present, and therefore 
 sent his greeting by letter. In that letter was expressed a desire for closer 
 denominational relations. The sentiment was as follows: 
 
 The kind expressions of regard annually exchanged are a great advance ovor 
 the relations existing a generation or two past. A more intimate acquaintance 
 with one another has increased respect for different denominations. Having 
 advanced thus far, would it not be well for us to consider something even more 
 practical in our mutual relations? It does not appear that any organic union of 
 Protestant denominations would be less than a calamity. But at present much 
 energy is wasted. "Would it not be well for churches to consider, through their
 
 726 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 representatives, some plan for co-operation where the work is mutual? The 
 uncliurolied masses can be reached only by piactical co-operation of different 
 churches. What we need is not a common creed, nor a common church polity; 
 not to supplant one another's opinions or methods; but sucn a working together 
 in certain lines as shall save the energy and money now wasted and bring the 
 power and life of the gospel to bear practical fruit in the community where we 
 exist. 
 
 This sensible suggestion met cordial response. Steps were at once 
 taken to bring together committees from the Baptist, Christian, Congrega- 
 tionalist, Free Baptist, and Methodist denominations. A meeting of these 
 committees was held December 15, 1890. Out of twenty delegates, sixteen 
 were present. The spirit of the meeting was that of fellowship for service. 
 A statement of principle was prepared and provision made for a similar 
 meeting to be held the following year. Such a meeting was held Novem- 
 ber 4, 1891. At this meeting progress in comity was evident from the man- 
 ner in which concrete cases as well as principles were discussed. The 
 desirability of a more permanent organization became apparent and the 
 following resolution was adopted: 
 
 We recommend to the State denominational bodies, at theirlannual meetings of 
 1892, the appointment of a permanent commission, to which practical and concrete 
 cases involving matters of international comity may be referred. 
 
 Favorable response was given by all bodies concerned except the Meth- 
 odist. This body, though many of its leading pastors heartily supported 
 the action of the conference, objected to certain of the resolutions adopted 
 by the interdenominational conference of the preceding year, and refused 
 to adopt the plan of comity proposed, but sent delegates to sit in confer- 
 ence. Notwithstanding this exception, an interdenominational commission 
 was organized, a constitution adopted, and a new statement of principles 
 formulated. Happily, the new statement proved satisfactory to the Meth- 
 odist body. During the present year they have formally indorsed the 
 movement, and the Methodists of Maine now stand with the other denom- 
 inations pledged to interdenominational comity. As far as an authorized 
 statement is desired, it may best be found in the constitution and platform 
 already mentioned. 
 
 Constitution of the interdenominational commission on church work in 
 the State of Maine: 
 
 Article 1. Object. The object of this commission shall be to promote co-op- 
 eration in the organization and maintenance of churches in Maine; to prevent 
 waste of resources and effort in the smaller towns, and to stimulate missionary 
 work in destitute regions. 
 
 Art. 2. Membership. The members of this commission shall consist of three 
 delegates each from the Baptist, Christian, Congregational, and Free Baptist 
 denominations, and of two members each from the Maine and East Maine con- 
 ferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected by their respective bodies. 
 One m'^mber from each of the Methodist Episcopal conferences snail be elected 
 annually for the period of two years. One member from each of the other bodies 
 shall be elected annually tor the period of three years- 
 
 Art. 3, Officers. The officers of this commission shall be a president, a vice- 
 pre=iident, and a secretary who shall be treasurer. The officers shall hold their 
 respective offices one year, or until others shall be chosen. 
 
 Art. 4. Executive Committee. There shall be an executive committee, con- 
 sisting of one member from each denomination, of which the presiden*' and sec- 
 retary shall be members, and in which they shall act in theirrespecti\e capacities. 
 It shall be the duty of the executive committee to consider questions of comity 
 which may be referred to them, and to make recommendations in behalf of the 
 commission. 
 
 Art. 5. Meetings, There shall be an annual meeting at such time and place, 
 and of such a character as the executive committee shall determine. Special 
 meetings of the commission may be called at any time by the president, or at the 
 request of three members. 
 
 Art. 6. Quorum. Seven members of the commission shall constitute a quorum 
 for the transaction of business. 
 
 Art. 7. Amendments. This constitution may be amended at any regular 
 meeting of the commission, by a vote of two-thirds of the members of the com- 
 mission. 
 
 Platform of the interdenominational commission on church work in the 
 State of Maine: 
 
 I
 
 INTERDENOMINATIONAL COMITY. 727 
 
 Becoernizinp: the evident desire of the evautrelical denominations of Maine to 
 do moio erticinai wur.v lor our common Lord, and 
 
 Believing liiat tue lioiy Spirit is moving Christians toward practical co-ope- 
 ration; 
 
 We rejoice in the iirogress already made in this direction, and desire to reaf- 
 firm our conviction as follows; 
 
 That church extinction into destitute communities should be conducted as 
 far as practical according to the following considerations, viz : 
 
 1. No community in which any denomination lias li'{,'itimate claims should bo 
 entered by any other denomination through its ollicial agencies without confer- 
 ence with the denomination or denominations having said claims. 
 
 2. A feeble church should be revived, if possible, rather than a new one estab- 
 lished to become its rival. 
 
 3. The preferences of a community should always Oe regarded by denomina- 
 tional committees, missionary agents, and individual workers. 
 
 4. Those denominations having churches nearest at hand, should, other things 
 being equal, be recognized as in the most advantageous position to encourage 
 and aid a new enterprise in their vicinity. 
 
 5. In case one denomination begins gospel work in a destitute community, it 
 should be left to develop that work without other denominational interference. 
 
 6. Temporary suspen-ion of church work by any denomination occupying a 
 field, should not be deemed sufficient warrant in itself for entrance into that field 
 by another denomination. Temporal y suspension should be deemed permanent 
 abandonment when a church has had no preaching and held no meetings for an 
 entire year or more. 
 
 7. All questions of interpretation of the foregoing statements, and all cases of 
 friction between denominations or churches of different denominations, should 
 be referred to the commission througli its executive committee. 
 
 Thus, with little machinery, an organization has been completed for 
 intelligent co-operation in Christian work. There is no thought of dicta- 
 tion in matters of purely denominational interest. The principles already 
 considered are kept in mind. The commission realizes that there are 
 honest differences of interpretation of God's Word. It recognizes and 
 commends intelligent denominational loyalty. It puts the emphasis upon 
 \h.e work of the kingdom, and insists that it is for that work denominations 
 exist. It seeks to compass Christian duty by the use of sanctified common 
 sense. 
 
 Difficulties have arisen, of course. The spirit of interdenominationalism 
 is easily called into question. Some imagine that the movement involves 
 criticism of our fathers, who opened the way for present denominational 
 strength by going in where the ground was already in some sense occupied 
 and where they were considered disturbers of the peace. Some object on the 
 strength of a conviction of denominational call to preach the gospel in a 
 given place, irrespective of what others are doing. To the former answer 
 may be given that it is a present, practical problem that calls for a solution, 
 the conditions of which vary widely from those of our fathers' day, for 
 which the old examples will not suffice. To the latter must be urged the 
 larger interests of the kingdom. 
 
 No one denomination is all. No one denomination can reasonably claim 
 monopoly of gospel message or gospel method. No vital principle need be 
 sacrificed. No truth is to be silenced. But cheerful subordination of the 
 relatively unimportant to the really important will call for some giving on 
 the part of each. Mutual concession in good sense is Christian. Nothing 
 that the world actually needs is thereby lost, and much that it needs is 
 gained. 
 
 On the whole, experiences of objection have been incidental. A spirit 
 of Christian courtesy has prevailed among those at any point embraced in 
 the commission. Cases have been investigated and, in the main, results 
 have been satisfactory. No time has been wasted in mere sentiment, but 
 better acquaintance has deepened the regard of denominations mutually 
 and united them more closely for common service. With continued good 
 faith on the part of bodies co-operating, the movement can not fail of 
 success. 
 
 This movement is outlmed simply as a practical expression of interde- 
 nominational comity. Method in general will have to vary as conditions
 
 728 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 vary. The element most to be sought is a right spirit. Granted right 
 spirit, methods will develop themselves. Happily the tendency of the age 
 is along the line of fellowship. Practical union accomplished puts beyond 
 question the fact that practical union is possible. What has been done is 
 a prophecy of better things to be. The logic of events is working out the 
 solution. The work may be delayed, but its ultimate accomplishment is 
 sure. 
 
 PERSISTENCE OF BIBLE ORTHODOXY. 
 
 REV. LUTHEE F. TOWN SEND OF BOSTON. 
 
 A moment's reflection is sufficient to show that our subject does not 
 deny that there may be an essential orthodoxy in any namable religion, 
 nor does it deny that each religious creed may decide what shall be its 
 standard of faith and practice. If one conforms to the standard of a given 
 creed, then one is orthodox so far as that particular creed is concerned; 
 while any departure from that standard is heterodoxy. What we mean by 
 Bible orthodoxy, in distinction from other orthodoxies, is a creed based on 
 the manifest teachings of the Bible and conformity in faith and practice to 
 that creed. 
 
 While not affirming as yet what, by a universal standard, is right or 
 wrong, in faith and practice, yet our subject, when put into the form of 
 a logical proposition, is this: Bible orthodoxy has inherently that which 
 has brought it on through the ages past, and will hand it on through the 
 ages to come, and by implication is therefore right, for truth alone is per- 
 manent. 
 
 If our proposition is correct, Bible orthodoxy, though assailed, will not 
 be endangered; other things may mature, decline, and pass away, but the 
 essentials of Bible orthodoxy, such as the special inspiration of the Bible, 
 the atonement through the sufferings and death of Christ, the endless 
 punishment of the finally impenitent sinner, and the endless glory of God's 
 true children, as well as the duty of obeying the Ten Commandments and of 
 bringing the daily life into conformity with the Sermon on the Mount, 
 shall be found standing firmly, though many times, apparently the most 
 permanent shall disappear. Evidence of this permanency and persistency 
 in Bible orthodoxy is what our subject first demands. 
 
 We are not unfamilar with the fact, however, that as has been the case 
 at different historic periods, so at present, and as is claimed in all religious 
 denominations, there are those who think, and with more or less confidence 
 maintain, that certain phases of Bible orthodoxy will have to be modified 
 in order to suit a progressive philosophy, and that even now the time fully 
 has come in which to restate at least some of the dogmas of Bible 
 orthodoxy. 
 
 There is as yet, it is true, no general agreement as to just how sweeping 
 these changes shall be. The opinion of one is that the doctrines of an 
 inspired Bible, of the resurrection of the dead, and of the vicarious atone- 
 ment should be modified. The opinion of another is that the doctrine of 
 future and endless punishment should not longer be held, and especially 
 should not be urged as a motive to lead men to a better life. There are 
 those, too, who think it possible that there may be a future probation for 
 those who have had no adequate probation for this life and possibly a future 
 probation or even an ultimate restoration of all. In point of fact, there 
 would not be much left except mere fragments of Bible orthodoxy, if all 
 these claimants for change and modification were allowed to expurgate 
 from it what they think proper. 
 
 We are willing, of course, to concede at the outset that the men proposing
 
 PERSISTENCE OF BIBLE ORTHODOXY. 729 
 
 these various changes are honest, and earnest, and intelligent, and what- 
 ever else there may be of excellence in Christian character belongs as well 
 to some of those who in their creeds are, as we say, stanchly orthodox. And 
 with broader scope we concede that there are Brahmans and Confucianists 
 and Mohammedans who are as devout as some of those, at least, who are in 
 good and regular standing in our most orthodox churches. 
 
 Now, then, in the interests of truth and as free as possible from any- 
 thing like a controversial spirit, with the kindest feelings toward all and 
 with malice toward none, may we not look calmly at a few historic facts 
 bearing on the religious problems now confronting us? 
 
 In doing this we note, first of all, that a plea for modification of Bible 
 orthodoxy, something like the plea that of late has been going around, is no 
 new thing under the sun. Long before any of our modern reformers were 
 born, the questions now raised were under discussion. It would be inter- 
 esting, did time permit, to trace Bible orthodoxy through its Jewish period. 
 We must, however, sum up the results in a single word or two. There was 
 continued controversy between the Jehovah prophets and the false prophets 
 who were clamoring for change, but the teachings of the Jehovah prophets, 
 in all their essentials, were handed on unimpaired and were brought to 
 their complete fulfillment in the life and mission of Christ. 
 
 Passing down to the Christian era we discover in some quarters the same 
 passion for a modification in Bible orthodoxy. As early as the 1st century 
 the members of the Corinthian Church greatly desired and clamored for 
 an easier state of the doctrine of affairs, and it required all the earnestness 
 and energy of the Apostle Paul to control that tendency to drift from 
 moorings that had already been established. One need not look beyond 
 that Church of Corinth to find a larger proportion of nominal Christians 
 who held to liberal constructions than now can be found in any evangelical 
 Church in Christendom, nor is there any modern Church where morality is 
 at such a deplorably low ebb as it was in the Corinthian community. That 
 Church of Corinth is a striking example of the coincidence often seen of 
 lax morality and liberalistic belief. 
 
 Passing from apostolic times we discover that during what is designated 
 as the second period in church history, there were several attempts to 
 reinstate Christianity; especially noteworthy were the efforts of Clement of 
 Alexander. This distinguished churchman had no small measure of 
 influence. In outward life he was a model man, and the ablest Christian 
 philosopher of that period. He was a theological professor in the Alexan- 
 drian Catechetical Theological Seminary. His gentlemanly bearing 
 and his thorough scholarship won the hearts of many and the respect of 
 all. His " progressive " views led him to make the teaching and example 
 of Christ of more importance than His death and sufferings, and it looked 
 for a time as if there would be a reconstruction of Bible orthodoxy. 
 
 Now bear in mind that Clement in some respects was a thinker superior 
 to many of our modern reformers. He was more logically exact in his 
 definitions; and, for the times in which he lived, his scholarship relatively 
 was no less accurate. But still in that age, when church members are 
 supposed to have been more easily influenced by their teachers than now, 
 Clement was not able in any perceptible degree to disturb the foundations 
 of apostolic Christianity; and the reason was that the human heart beat- 
 ing in the bosoms of the multitudes, who had been touched by the spirit 
 of God, did not respond to the new views presented. The teachings of 
 the Bible were too full and explicit on those subjects to allow any essential 
 departure from the views held by the more humble and devout followers of 
 thoir Lord and Master. 
 
 It was during this same period that other distinguished scholars 
 attempted various modifications. Origen, for instance, held certain very 
 radical and progressive views. He was in some respects the greatest man 
 
 L
 
 730 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 and the profoundest scholar among the fathers. Origen's scheme of an 
 endless probation died with him. At least, after his death his speculations 
 had no perceptible influence with the great body of Christian believers. 
 
 Likewise, during the next period, from 320 to 726, a. d., there were 
 occasional waverings in belief. Gregory may be taken as a representative 
 of one phase of the " progressive " orthodoxy of those times. Like Origen 
 and Clement, he was a distinguished churchman, noted for his generous 
 scholarship. He appears to have felt that he was raised up for the special 
 purpt)se of establishing the doctrine that good is ultimately to succeed all 
 evil. His voice and his pen were employed in the defense of that opinion. 
 But his efforts, like those of predecessors were unavailing. They failed 
 apparently because Christian people felt that such views are antagonistic 
 to the religious intuition, and that on the words of Christ and on those of 
 the apostle no such doctrine as the final dismissal of evil from the universe 
 and the ultimate bliss of all could possibly be established. 
 
 In the period extending through a half century, beginning with the 
 year 1700, there were seasons of general religious lapsing from Bible faith 
 and practice into unbelief and immorality. The fundamental doctrines of 
 the Bible were hardly thought of. 
 
 But the people were not satisfied to remain long in this condition. They 
 became tired of a drifting, creedless, corrupting church, and hungered for 
 something that would satisfy their spiritual nature. The two Wesleys, 
 Whitefield, Fletcher, and others were moved upon and began to preach the 
 primitive doctrines of the Bible. Men's hearts responded to the preach- 
 ing—penitents smote their breasts and asked what they should do to be 
 saved. The English church was born again. This, we should bear in mind, 
 was not in consequence of liberal views of any kind. It was not an 
 advanced orthodoxy or a progressive orthodoxy, but was the primitive, 
 historic, Bible orthodoxy, which stirred into religious life every community 
 in Great Britain. "The Bible is the word of God, and is inspired," "Man 
 is a sinner," " There is a judgment," and " After the judgment is a perdition 
 for the finally impenitent sinner," " Christ, through His death and suffer- 
 ings, is the savior from that endless grief," were the doctrines preached on 
 the threshold of that great and grand revival. 
 
 The movements and results were much the same in America. Certain 
 preachers felt that they must announce anew the neglected doctrines of 
 the Bible. Prominent among them was Jonathan Edwards, who, though 
 ridiculed and opposed by persons in the church as well as out of it, 
 preached a series of sermons on " Justification by Faith Alone," " Endless 
 Punishment," "God's Sovereignty," and "Man's Helplessness." These 
 sermons were hardly finished before there were signal displays of divine 
 power which surprised others no more than they did Edwards himi5elf. 
 And again there was a decided and pronounced return to the fundamental 
 doctrines of the Bible. 
 
 And men say what they please to the contrary, there never yet has been 
 in Christian lands a revival of religions or an improvement in morals, 
 except in connection with the preaching of the Bible orthodoxy as defended 
 by the church of Christ through the ages. 
 
 Dr. Ballou and certain other clergymen, who sympathized with him, 
 contended in 1795 that Christianity in America needed a restatement. 
 Universalism was the result, and its advocates confidently predicted the 
 speedy and final overthrow of the worn-out creeds of Christendom; but 
 those worn-out creeds continued to hold together, while the unscriptural 
 " Death and Glory Theory " of Dr. Ballou is now advocated by scarcely any 
 intelligent Universalist. 
 
 Dr. Channing and a few fellow-laborers, in 181-5, thought that another 
 restatement was needed. Those men caused a split in New England 
 Congregationalism, and clearly saw, as they thought, the speedy and final
 
 "^. 
 
 PERSISTENCE OF BIBLE ORTHODOXY. 731 
 
 burial of the moss-grown doctrines of Bible orthodoxy. But somehow 
 those doctrines survived, and we speak what is well known, and we speak 
 it in all kindness, that the " progressive " views of Dr. Channiug, like those 
 of Dr. Ballou, have utterly failed in acconiplishuig what was e.xpected and 
 intended. Unitarianism is far less influential in Boston to-day than it was 
 twenty-five or fifty years ago, and the most popular Unitarian minister in 
 New England seldom, if ever, preaches the dogmas of Unitarianism, and 
 never antagonizes the evangelical faith. What explanation can be given 
 other than this: Those views do not harmonize with the teachings of the 
 Bible. Therefore they are rejected. Nor is that all, for God has so builded 
 men that there is a place in his heart that nothing but the doctrines of 
 Bible orthodoxy can fill. They were made for and must fit each other. 
 
 In our own country there are a few suggestive facts of recent date. The 
 "Andover controversy " antedates by a few years the existing Presbyterian 
 controversy. But the excitement growing out of the Andover discussions 
 is rapidly waning in New England, and Andover now is almost silent in her 
 lecture-rooms on all unorthodox methods. 
 
 All that theologians or skeptics have accomplished, beginning in the 
 2d century or even in the time of Moses, has not shaken one single 
 truth of Bible orthodoxy as originally set forth by the Jehovah prophets 
 or by our Lord and His disciples. Many of these new views glared for 
 awhile, then glimmered, led some men's hearts away, but at length disap- 
 peared in the surrounding darkness. As factors in the world's redemption 
 they have had no marked influence, while Bible orthodoxy, notwithstand- 
 ing its occasional lapses, has continued to gather men to its bosom, inspir- 
 ing and comforting them with consolation that the world can not give. 
 
 But is it replied that there have been in this congress representatives 
 of existing religions that are older than Christianity, and are claimed to be 
 older than Judaism, the forerunner of Christianity? Or is it replied that 
 whatever can be argued in favor of the excellence of Bible orthodoxy, 
 from its continuance through the ages, can still more forcefully be argued 
 in support of these religions that are venerable and impressive by reason 
 of their antiquity. Whether Brahman orthodoxy or Confucian orthodoxy 
 is better or more enduring than Bible orthodoxy is to be settled on grounds 
 not traversed in this discussion, except incidentally. Before stepping on 
 to these new grounds we feel constrained to say that any man is an awful 
 infidel who would seek to overthrow the truth in any religion on earth. 
 
 The conclusion we think is inevitable that any form of religion that has 
 endured for centuries, and has had any considerable number of adherents, 
 is in some of its teachings essentially correct. 
 
 The science of comparative religions reaches the additional conclusion 
 that outcroppings of all, or nearly all, the fundamental doctrines of Bible 
 theology are to be found in eacn of the religions that have been represented 
 on this platform, and, therefore, according to the soundest principles of 
 philosophy one need not be surprised that these great religions have sur- 
 vived in the midst of error But is it not equally true, and as strictly 
 philosophical, that in fair and open fields all other religions, from the nature 
 of the case, will have to surrender when brought into competition with the 
 essential religion of humanity, whatever that religion may be. The half 
 truth or any part of the truth will overmaster error, but the whole truth 
 will overmaster the half truth or any part of the truth when the competi- 
 tion is open or fair. 
 
 The hypothesis we now place over against every other— and we do this 
 with the utmost Christian courtesy, and yet with confidence — is that Bible 
 orthodoxy is showing itself to be the essential religion of humanity, and if 
 this it is, it will outlive all other religions of whatever name. We also con- 
 fidently say that if Bible orthodoxy were to die, it would have died long 
 ago. It has had many good chances to die. Better chances than it is ever 
 likely to have again.
 
 732 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 It is true that eminent but somewhat eccentric men in the future, as in 
 the past, will talk of the worn-out creeds of Christendom, and of an evo- 
 lution in theology as in all things else. But these men seem strangely 
 unmindful of the great truth, now more and more recognized, that Bible 
 orthodoxy has had a defender more than human, and also that there are 
 certain immutable elements in it, as there are in art and nature, which 
 never will change or outgrow the passions and loves of the human soul. 
 Are the productions of Michael Angelo, Raphael, Mozart, and Beethoven 
 outgrown? Are the beauty of a sunset, the sublimity of a midnight 
 heaven, the dazzle of lightning playing across the sky, the repose and 
 beauty of a lily clad in raiment surpassing that of any past or future Solo- 
 mon in all his glory, outgrown, or will they be, though society should exist 
 in a state of constant progress for 10,000 years? 
 
 Thus, also, with Bible orthodoxy. The minds of men may, for a time, 
 be unsettled by certain attempted makeshifts, and the primitive evangel- 
 ical faith may pause a little during its sublime advance, but not because 
 the end of its journey is reached. This ancient faith stands not in the 
 breath of a given generation; it moves on independent of accidents, inci- 
 dents, or anything liistoric or fanciful. Judged historically, it will be oi:ie 
 of the last witnesses of the consummation of human history. What is 
 needed to-day is not a restatement of Bible orthodoxy, but churches and 
 men who live up to it as it was originally announced, without any restate- 
 ment or modification at all. Give us enougii of such churches and such 
 men, and the day of earth's redemption would not be far off. What homes 
 there would be in our land, and what a land ours would be, if Christianity, 
 as Christ gave it to the world, were enthroned in all hearts and in all 
 homes. 
 
 Are we not safe in saying, therefore, that a system of rehgion so thor- 
 oughly adapted to mankind as is Bible orthodoxy, a system which the 
 more it is studied and experienced is the more highly prized, a system 
 whose path is always the path of peace, knowledge, elevation, emancipa- 
 tion, and salvation; a system various in manner, flexible in its circum- 
 stances, while most inflexible in its essentials, full of strength for the weak, 
 of consolation for tlie sorrowful, of hope for the discouraged, of stimulus 
 for the sluggish, of defense for the defenseless, of terror for the bad, of 
 reward for the good, and of pardon for the penitent; a system that can 
 enter all dark places and leave them full of light by conquering despair; 
 a system that can convert dens of thieves into bethels of the Holy Ghost, 
 and which can cast out its legion of devils and say to wretches whose 
 " brains have been in a perpetual craze," and whose hearts have been 
 "filled with all sorts of villainies," "Peace, be still"; a system which can 
 stand by the bedside of the dying, quell every misgiving, wipe away the 
 death sweat and leave the brow calm and serene as heaven; a system 
 which can perfect the individual, bless the family, correct and purify society, 
 and civilize the world; a system, in fine, that can do everything it promises 
 to do and promises to do everything essential to human happiness here 
 and hereafter — that such a system has the unencumbered guarantee of all 
 ages? Its foundations are impregnable. Its fortified home is in the wants 
 and depths of human souls. And human nature in her better moments 
 and conditions will endow it with her last dollar and will defend it with her 
 last strength. 
 
 ETHICS AND HISTORY OF THE JAINS. 
 
 VIRCHAND A. GHANDI, 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : I wish that the duty of addressing you 
 on the history and tenets of the Jain faith world had fallen on an abler
 
 ETHICS AND HISTORY OF THE JAINS. 733 
 
 person than myself. The inclemency of the climate and the distant voyage 
 which one has to undertake before he can come hero have prevented abl^T 
 Jains than myself from attending this grand assembly and presenting their 
 religious convictions to you in person. You will, therefore, look upon me as 
 simply the mouthpiece of Muni Almarimji, the 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 Muni Almarimji is not among ua 
 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 into two parts: First, "The Phi- 
 losophy and Ethics of the Jains;"' seccmd, "The History of the Jains." 
 
 1. Jainism has two ways of looking at things — one called Dravyarthe- 
 karaya and the other Paryayartheka Noya. I shall illustrate them. The 
 production of a law is a pi-oduction of something not previously existing, if 
 we think of if from the latter point of view, i. e., as a Paryaya, or moditica- 
 tion; while it is not the production of something not previously existing if 
 we look at it from the former point of view, i. e., as a Dravya, or substance. 
 According to the Dravyarthekaraya view, the universe is without beginning 
 and end; but, according to the Paryayartheka view, we have creation 
 and destruction at every moment. 
 
 The Jain canon may be divided into tvv'o parts: First, Shrute Dharma, 
 i. e., philosophy; second, Chatra Dharma, i. e., ethics. 
 
 The Shrute Dharma inquiries into the natureof nine principles, six sub- 
 stances, six kinds of living beings, and four states of existence — Jiva (senti- 
 ent beings), Ajiva (non-sentient things), Punya (merit). Papa (demerit). Of 
 the nine principles, the tirst is Pua (soul). According to the Jain view, soul 
 is that element which knows, thinks, and feels. It is, in fact, the divine ele- 
 ment in the living being. The Jain thinks that the phenomena of knowl- 
 edge, feeling, thinking, and willing are conditioned on something, and that 
 that something must be as real as anything can be. This "soul " is in a 
 certain sense different from knowledge, and in another sense identical with 
 it. So far as one's knowledge is concerned, the soul is identical with it, but 
 so far as some one else's knowledge is concerned, it is different from it. The 
 true nature of soul is right knowledge, right faith, and right conduct. The 
 soul, so long as it is subject to transmigration, is undergoing evolution and 
 involution. 
 
 The second principle is non-soul. It is not simply what we understand 
 by matter, but it is more than that. Matter is a term contrary to soul, 
 but non-soul is its contradictory. Whatever is not soul is non-soul. 
 
 Tha rest of the nine principles are but the different states produced by 
 the combination and sepai-ation of soul and non-soul. The third principle 
 is Punya (merit). That, on account of which a being is happy, is Punya. 
 The fourth principle is Papa (demerit), that on account of which a being 
 suffers from misery. The fifth is Ashrana, the state which brings in merit 
 and demerit. The seventh is Nirjara, destruction of actions. The eighth 
 is Bardha, with bondageof soul, with Karwa, actions. The ninth is Moksha, 
 total and permanent freedom of soul from allKarwas. 
 
 Substance is divided into the sentient, or conscious, matter, stability, 
 space, and time. Six kinds of living beings are divided into six classes — 
 earth body beings, water body beings, fire body beings, wind body beings, 
 vegetables, and all of them having one organ of sense, that of touch. These 
 are again divided into four classes of beings having two organs of sense, 
 those of touch and of taste, such as tapeworms, leeches, etc.; beings having 
 three organs of sense, those of taste, touch, and smell, such as ants, lice, etc.; 
 beings having four organs of sense, those of touch, taste, smell, and sight, 
 such as bees, scorpions, etc.; beings having five organs of sense, those of 
 touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. There are human beings, animals, 
 birds, men and gods. All these living beings have four, five, or six of the
 
 734 fHE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 following capacities: Capacity of talking food, capacity of constructing 
 body, capacity of constructing organs, capacity of respiration, capacity of 
 speaking, and the capacity of thinking Beings having one organ of sense, 
 that is, of touch, have the first four capacities. Beings having two, three, 
 and four organs of sense, have the first five capacities, while those having 
 five organs have all the 'six capacities. 
 
 The Jain canonical book treats very elaborately of the minute divisions 
 of the living beings, and their prophets have, long before the discovery of 
 the microscope, been able to tell how many organs of sense the minutest 
 animalcule has. I would refer those who are desirous of studying Jain 
 biology, zoology, botany, anatomy, and physiology, to the many books pub- 
 lished by our society. 
 
 I shall now refer to the four states of existence. They are naraka, 
 tiryarch, manushyra, and deva. Naraka is the lowest state of existence, 
 that of being a denizen of hbll; tiryarch is the next, that of having an earth 
 body, water body, fire body, wind body, vegetable, of having two, three, or 
 four organs, animals, and birds. The third is manushyra, of being a man, 
 and the fourth is deva, that of being a denizen of the celestial world. The 
 highest state of existence is the Jain Moksha, the apotheosis in the sense 
 that the mortal being, by the destruction of all Karwan, attains the highest 
 spiritualism, and the soul, being severed from all connection with matter, 
 regains its purest state and becomes divine. 
 
 Having briefly stated the principal articles of Jain belief, I come to the 
 grand questions, the answers to which are the objects of all religious 
 inquiry and the substance of all creeds. 
 
 1. What is the origin of the universe? 
 
 This involves the question of God. Gautama, the Buddha, forbids 
 inquiry into the beginning of things. In the Brahmanical literature bear- 
 ing on the constitution of cosmos, frequent reference is made to the days 
 and nights of Brahma, the periods of Mannantara and the periods of Per- 
 oloya. But the Jains, leaving all symbolical expression aside, distinctly 
 reaffirm the new previously promulgated by the previous hierophants, that 
 matter and soul ai-e eternal and can not be created. You can affirm exist- 
 ence of a thing from one point of view, deny it from another, and affirm 
 both existence and non-existence with reference to it at different times. If 
 you should think of affirming both existence and non-existence at the same 
 time, from the same point of viev/, you must say thattthe thing can not be 
 spoken of; similarly under certain circumstances the affirmation of exist- 
 ence is not possible, of non-existence and also of both. 
 
 What is meant by these seven modes is that a thing should not be con- 
 sidered as existing everywhere, at all times, in all ways, and in the form of 
 everythiiig. It may exist in one place and not in another at one time. It 
 is not meant by these modes that there is no certainty, or that we have to 
 deal with probabilities only as some scholars have taught. Even the great 
 Bedantist Shoukarachaya has possibly erred when he says that the Jains 
 are agnostics. All that is implied in that every assertion which is true is 
 true only under certain conditions of substance, space, time. etc. 
 
 This is the great merit of the Jain philosophy, that while other philos- 
 ophies make absolute assertions, the Jain looks at things from all stand- 
 points, and adapts itself like a mighty ocean in which the sectarian rivers 
 merge themselves. What is God, then? God, in the sense of an extra 
 cosmic personal creator, has no place in the Jain philosophy. It distinctly 
 denies such creator as illogical and irrelevant in the general scheme of the 
 universe. But it lays down that there is a subtle essence underlying all 
 substances, conscious as well as unconscious, which becomes an eternal 
 cause of all modifications, and is termed God. But, then, the advocate of 
 theism, holding that even primordial matter had its first cause— the God — 
 argues that " everything that we know had a cause. How, then, can it be
 
 NARASIMA CHAIRA.
 
 ETHICS AND HISTORY OF THE JAINS. 735 
 
 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, huwever. when correctly expressed, turns out to bB 
 not that every thiuu which we know derives its .xistenee from tlie cause but only 
 every event or change. There is in nature a permanent element, jiiid tilso a 
 changeable; the changes are always the effects of previous chang.is- the ner 
 manent existences, so far as we know, iire not effects at all. It is true we are 
 accustomedi to say, not only of events but of objects, that tlnsy are nroduced'bv 
 causes, as water by the union of hydrogen and oxygen. But by this we onlv 
 mean that, when they began to exist, their beginning is tlie effect of a cause l!ut 
 their beginning to exist is not an object; it is an event. It it be objei-tcd 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 qua rel with the expression. But that which in an 
 object begins to exist' is that in it M-hioh belongs to the changeable elrnn'nt in 
 nature, the oulward form and the properties depending upon mechanical or 
 chemical combinations of its competent parts. There Is in every object another 
 and a permanent element viz.: the siiecifio elementary substance or sub-tances 
 of which it consists and their inherent properiies. These an; not known to us as 
 beginningto exist; within the range of human knowledge they have no be{>;inning 
 consequently no cause; though they themselves an; causes or c^n-cau es of 
 everything that takes place. Experience, therefore, affords no evidences not 
 even analogies, to justify our extending to the apparently immutable a general- 
 ization grounded only on our observation of the changeable. 
 
 As a fact of experience, then, causation can not legitimately bo extended 
 to the material universe itself, but only to its changeable phenomena; of 
 these, indeed, causes may be affirmed without any exception. But what 
 causes? The cause of every change is a prior change, and such it can not 
 but be, for if there were no new antecedent there would not be a new con- 
 sequent. If the state of facts which brings the phenomenon into existence 
 had existed always, or for an indefinite duration, the effect also would 
 have existed always or been produced an indefinite time ago. It is thus a 
 iiecessary 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 
 themselves caused. It would seem, therefore, that our experience, instead 
 of furnishing an argument for the first cause, is repugnant to it, and that 
 the very essential of causation as it exists within the limits of our knowl- 
 edge is incompatible with a first cause. 
 
 This doctrine of the transmigration of soul, or the reincarnation, is 
 another grand idea of the Jain philosophy. Once the whole civilized 
 world emljraced this doctrine. Many philosophers have upheld it. Scien- 
 tists like Flammarion, Figuir, and Brewster have advocated it. Theolo- 
 gians like Muller, Dorner, and Edward Beecher have maintained it. The 
 Bible and sacred literature of the East are full of it, and it is to-day 
 accepted by the majority of the world's inhabitants. 
 
 People are talking of design in nature. But what does the idea of 
 design lead to? Design means contrivance, adaptation of means to an end. 
 But the necessity of contrivance, the need of employing means, is a con- 
 sequence of the limitation of power. Who would have recourse to means 
 if to attain his 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 
 are born happy 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 immortal is doubted by very few. It is an old decla- 
 ration that whatever begins in time must end in time. You can not say 
 that soul is eternal on one side of its earthly period without being so in 
 the other. If the soul sprang into existence specially for this life, why 
 should it continue afterward? The ordinary idea of creation at birth 
 involves the correlative of annihilation at death. Moreover, it does not 
 stand to reason that from an infinite history the soul enters this world for
 
 736 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 it. 
 ultimate goal. But it is directed that we have no memory of past lives. 
 Can any one recall his childhood? Has anyone a memory of that wonder- 
 ful 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 corollaries of that most intricate law of 
 Karmon. It solves the problem of the inequaUty and apparent injustice of 
 
 The Karmon 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 bewilderment. The other four 
 are again divided into other classes, soi minutely that a student of Jain Kar- 
 mon philosophy can trace any effect to a particular Karma. No other 
 Indian philosophy reads so Ijeautifully and so clearly the doctrine of 
 Karmas. Persons who, by right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct 
 destroy all Karmon, and thus fully develop the nature of their soul, reach 
 the highest perfection, become divine and are called Jinias. Those Jinias 
 who, in every age, preach the law and establish the order, are called 
 
 I now come to the Jain ethics. Different philosophers have given differ- 
 ent bases for the guidance of comfort. The Jain ethics direct conduct to 
 be BO adapted as to insure the fullest development of the soul— the highest 
 happiness, that is the goal of human conduct, which is the ultimate end 
 of human action. Jainism teaches to look upon all living beings as upon 
 himself. What, then, is the mode of attaining the highest happiness? The 
 sacred books of the Brahmans prescribe Upasona (devotion and Karma). 
 The Vedanta indicates the path of knowledge as the means to the highest. 
 But Jainism goes a step farther, and says that the highest happiness is to 
 be obtained by knowledge and religious observances. The five Maharatas 
 for Jain ascetics are: 
 
 Not to kill.i. e.. to protect all life. 
 
 Not to lie. 
 
 Not to take that which is not given. 
 
 To abstain from sexual intercourse. 
 
 To renounce all interest in worldly things, especially to call nothing one's own. 
 
 FREE BAPTIST CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 PROF. J. A. HOWE. 
 
 The first Baptist Church recognized in English history was of the gen- 
 eral or Free Baptist order, and antedated the first particular Baptist 
 Church by a score of years. For a long ])eriod the general Baptists consti- 
 tuted the larger and more influential part of the English Baptists, and, 
 therefore, we should expect that among the earliest Baptist churches in 
 America no small number would be of this persuasion, as, in fact, they 
 were, the church planted by Roger Williams being properly reckoned as 
 the first. With numerous churches centrally placed, they gave early 
 promise of a large development in our country, a promise that only 
 needed fulfillment to have taken away any occasion for the rise of the free 
 Baptists as a separate people. But this golden opportunity was not 
 improved. The general Baptists aimed to be a spiritual people; aimed at 
 
 I
 
 FREE BAPTIST CHURCH HISTORY. 737 
 
 simplicity and meekness; clung to crude forms of worship; neglected to 
 educate and support the ministry, and so far fell behind the progressive 
 age that, at the end of 150 years of existence here, though their churches 
 were not few, they were yet too little associated to be easily recognized as 
 a distinct people. In ignorance of these Baptists, therefore, and innocent 
 of any sectarian design, Benjamin Randall in 1780 organized at New Dun- 
 ham, N. H., a church that, by the grace of God, proved to be the hrst of 
 the Free Baptist denomination. 
 
 The ministers associated with Randall and those who immediately suc- 
 ceeded him, like many other Baptist preachers of the day, and like the 
 apostles and preachers of the 1st century, had received little theological 
 training, and in general intelligence often did not much excel the better 
 part of their congregations, but they possessed enough strength of natural 
 and religious character both to gain for them leadership in the church and 
 to stamp upon her character some marked features, in contrast with the 
 clergymen of the State churches, they gave special prominence to the neces- 
 sity of believers having a personal, subjective verification of Christian 
 truth. To them conversion meant a sense of sin, guilt, condemnaticm, of 
 cries to God, of struggles and victory, followed by a profound sense of 
 peace, communion with God, love for Christians, and a lively joy in Chi-ist 
 and Christian duties. 
 
 Religion without emotion seemed to them something paradoxical. 
 Christian truths, if apprehended, were sure to stir the soul. Especially 
 ought the Christian minister not only to know the grace of God in Christ, 
 but to be deeply affected thereby, and to be burdened in spirit over the lost 
 condition of man. He was expected to know both that his sins were for- 
 given and just when and where this great transaction took place; and 
 because he had thus proved for himself the promise of God, to be able to 
 preach them with power. The Christian life was judged to be life at the 
 center of moral being, always deep, and active, and strong, answering to 
 the most fervid descriptions of it found on the sacred page. Tins the Free 
 Baptist ministry and church called "experimental religion." 
 
 Following still further apostolic precedent, these spiritual preachers 
 refused to be bound to any one parish. "They went everywhere preaching 
 the word." In summer or winter they were ready to leave their households 
 and go to any remote spot where Christ was not proclaimed or where men 
 were not turning to Him. Flying evangelists, they had here no continuing 
 city, but traveled from town to town, and State to State, invading the 
 slumbering dioceses of the State clergy, holding conventicles in the open air, 
 in groves, barns, kitchens, schoolhouses, and such meeting-houses as might 
 be opened to them, compelling men to near the gospel of God's free grace, 
 and " in demonstration of the spirit and of power " persuading them tc 
 yield to its terms of salvation. The number of miles that, in the course ol 
 a single year, many of these tireless workers traveled on horseback or on 
 foot seems, even now, when distances are almost annihilated, somewhat 
 extraordinary. 
 
 Nor were their journeys of ease or profit. The difficulties encountered, 
 the hardships endured from exposure, poverty, weariness, and sickness, 
 from the opposition of wicked men and of sincere but blinded Christians, 
 besides the mental- anxiety of knowing of the fight, but not of the issue of 
 the fight, that their families at home were making to keep the wolf from 
 their door, converted their itinerant ministry into martyrdom. John 
 Colby, in his twenty-fourth year, traveled eight months on horseback, from 
 New Hampshire to Ohio, preaching almost every day. He baptized more 
 than one hundred converts a year during six years of his ministry. Stinch- 
 field of Maine in four years preached more than one thousand six hundred 
 times, baptized six hundred and seventy-three, and traveled each year 
 between two thousand and three thousand miles. David Marks in ten 
 years traveled 42,350 miles and held 3,189 meetings.
 
 738 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 It was a peculiarity of these untutored evangelists to rely in preaching 
 on the immediate aid of the Holy Spirit. Following in the exegetical steps 
 of the Puritans. Friends, and Baptists of the 17th century, they interpreted 
 the passage: " And when they lead you to judgment, and deliver you up, 
 be not anxious beforehand what ye shall speak; but whatsoever shall be 
 given you in that hour, that speak ye, for it is not ye that speak, but the 
 Holy Ghost," to mean that illumination and quickening from on high were 
 here pledged to all whom Christ sent to preach His truth. Thus made con- 
 fident that through their lips God would give His message to the people, 
 they often became indifferent to exact preparation for the pulpit; some- 
 times became intolerant of the ordinary symbols of such preparation in the 
 hands of other ministers. Study of the scriptures, prayer, meditation, and 
 almost any unwritten arrangement of the truth to be presented seemed to 
 them to keep within the bounds of the Lord's prohibition, and at the same 
 time to leave the mind open to catch the suggestions and to respond to the 
 inspiration coming from above. The preacher needed only to be en rap- 
 port with the Holy Spirit to preach with power. Learning was not indis- 
 pensable to an apostle, the Holy Spirit was. These notions had their 
 
 brief day. . , • , , 
 
 It was another peculiarity of these preachers to aim at reaching the 
 conscience through the feelings. They denied the value of a dry, intel- 
 lectual light in efforts to change the depraved will. However scholarly or 
 truthful a sermon might be, if it did not melt preacher and congregation 
 alike it was only a pleasant sound. To awaken life the sermon must have 
 behind it a living heart. Hence these natural, untrained orators studied to 
 be moved by their truth, and to cultivate a style, spirit, tone of voice, and 
 a mien that would appeal to the feelings of their audiences. Like Paul, 
 they spoke " with weeping," and warned men " day and night with tears." 
 By conforming thus to the well-known rhetorical rule for moving the 
 sensibilities, they were accustomed to have their congregations so affected 
 that a dry eye could not be found among them. 
 
 Many of these preachers fell into the way of intoning their prayers and 
 sermons. Though long continued by some of their successors, this practice 
 has now ceased altogether. Taken up with the interests of pathos, it 
 unconsciously paralleled the practice of ancient oratory, on the one hand, 
 and of modern ritualism on the other. It is singular to find, spontaneously 
 rising in modern times, a style of address going back to the days of the 
 public recital of metrical compositions, and to find that style viewed as 
 artificial. 
 
 John Colby, standing before an audience and looking at them in silence, 
 would sometimes carry conviction to sinners and move the whole congre- 
 gation to fear. He could not simulate the possession of feelings not in his 
 heart, nor resort to stage tricks to express what he felt. It was because 
 his face was transparent, and through it his earnest soul was seen, that he 
 wore such looks of seriousness, pity, and yearning love whenever he gazed 
 upon a great congregation destined to eternal life or death. Once, as he 
 entered a crowded church, he began to sing as he went to the pulpit, and 
 when he ceased the entire assembly was melted to tears. 
 
 In the memoirs of David Marks, one of the early Free Baptist preachers, 
 the reader frequently comes upon sentences like these: "Many were in 
 tears;" "Many wept aloud;" "Much of the time many wept;" "Soon the 
 weeping increased exceedingly in every part of the congregation;" "At the 
 end of the sermon I wept aloud." From Randall's diary many similar 
 expressions might be taken: "This was a very tender, melting season;" 
 "Great solemnity rested on the people, and almost the whole assembly 
 appeared to be melted to tears;" "At the communion, the church had a 
 very melting season;" "It was a blessed, tender season." 
 
 Emotion was a solvent for hardness of heart, and a test of the preacher's
 
 L 
 
 FREE BAPTIST CHURCH HISTORY. 739 
 
 sincerity and power. Aware of this, not infrequently hearers went to 
 their meetings with breasts stoutly buttoned against this fervor and pathos, 
 but generally in vain. The earnestness, solemnity, and sincere feeling of 
 these preachers could not be withstood. 
 
 Another of their peculiarities was so to speak that their hearers would 
 be immediately converted. Their sermons took effect. During the service 
 men yielded to the aroused conscience, cried to God for forgiveness of sins, 
 and found it on the spot. Believing in the ability of any prodigal at any 
 time to say, "I will arise and go unto my Father," these direct and practi- 
 cal preachers declared that "to-day" and "now" men ought to repent, 
 believe in Christ, and become children of the living God. Of a sermon by 
 Elder Enoch Place, a hearer gives this account: 
 
 But when he began to describe the "swelling of Jordan" his soul was led into 
 the sanctuary of God. He saw the end of the wicked- The place became awtul 
 and the scene surpassed description. Every eye was fixed on the si)eakcr! 
 Unnumbered faces were bathed in tears and many frames convulsed, while 
 touching groans burst from sinners' hearts, and all around seemed hUe the judg- 
 ment. My feelings were so powerfully affected that I queried whether I should 
 lose my breath or live through the scene.— Me7noirs of David Marks, p. 216. 
 
 Stewart describes some of these services thus: "Zechariah Leach 
 preached three times, and maiiy were awakened." The sermon of Colby 
 was from Rev. xiv., 6. "Thirty persons dated their experience from that 
 sermon." Stinchfield preached (in the open air before a baptism) from Act. 
 ii., 41. " Before that sermon was ended many fell under the power of God, 
 and lay on the grass at the beach crying for mercy." Out of a boat-load 
 of twelve persons who came in high glee to witness the ceremony, eleven 
 were there convicted of sin and were soon converted. 
 
 In the "Life of Randall" it is told of one service where as many as fifty 
 persons were deeply affected; not a few vocally crying for mercy, while 
 others were praising God for redeeming love. On one Sabbath evening at 
 Brunswick, Me., while Randall preached to a crowded assembly in a private 
 house, " the power of God so fell on the congregation that they were all 
 either crying for mercy or praising God with loud voices." The parish 
 minister at the meeting-house in the morning had opposed Randall's meth- 
 ods and had refused to let him preach or invite him to the desk; but now 
 he was himself deeply moved and cried out among the rest. Even a deaf 
 and dumb man present was apparently convicted and converted, showing 
 by very plain signs his distress for sin, and then the joy of conscious for- 
 giveness. 
 
 They determined to reach their hearers, adjusted their homiletical 
 methods to this end, and exerted themselves when preaching to bring sin- 
 ners at once to repentance. Charges of fanaticism they could not escape. 
 Enthusiasm characterized all their ministrations, and sometimes in excess. 
 But their seriousness was awful, and if at any time their zeal seemed to be 
 carrying them into hurtful extravagance it was soon held in check. Earn- 
 est men they were, but of good common sense. Between fervcn- and fanati- 
 cism, the leaders were compelled to distinguish and promptly check all 
 tendencies to enthusiastic disorder that threatened the overtlucjw or harm 
 of the rising church. 
 
 Picture a cavalcade of ministers and laymen, a hundred strong, serious 
 as one of Cromwell's troops, riding into a country town to an appointed 
 place of worship, where a large congregation awaited them, filling the air 
 as they draw near with the sound of solemn and jjlaintive hymns, thrilling 
 the assembled people and imparting to them a contagion of religious enthu- 
 siasm. What the character of the worshipers will be it is easy to see. 
 Conceive of a scene when, in the progress of the meeting, "the power of 
 God so filled the house that there was no room to enter upon business for 
 the space of two hours and upward, " and consider the effect of such a 
 spectacle on the staid, methodical, unimpassioned parish clergymen.
 
 740' THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 At a meeting held in New Dunham in the open air, June, 1798, attended 
 by 2.000 people, a young man publicly confessed his sinfulness, asked the 
 forgiveness of his parents, and acquaintances, declared that God had for- 
 given him, and then, with electrical effect, appealed to his companions to 
 repent. Many wept, fell on their knees, and began to cry aloud to God, the 
 cries in different parts of the assembly increasing to such a pitch that it 
 was difficult, at a distance, to distinguish the voices. The ministers went 
 from one to the other, exhorting, counseling, praying; other Christians let 
 responses be heard. The earnestness and enthusiasm became irresistible. 
 Spectators who held aloof from these services and were on their guard lest 
 they should be overtaken by the influences of the hour, were sometimes 
 suddenly impressed. Three young men in this temper of mind stood on 
 the outskirts of the congregation, and seeing their minister come to talk 
 to them, they turned and fled, but after running a few rods they all fell to 
 the ground and began to cry aloud to God, nor did they arise until they 
 could say that God had been merciful to them, and had pardoned their 
 sins. In four days 1,000 were converted. The meetings broke up, only to 
 spread revivals in every direction among the churches represented there. 
 A chronicler says: " Some formal professors called this all confusion, but 
 to me it was most excellent melody." 
 
 For twenty years Randall and his associates properly regarded them- 
 selves as members of the Baptist denomination. But the formation of the 
 New Hampshire Association of Baptists gradually consolidated churches 
 of the Calvinistic faith, and left those opposed by themselves. The Free 
 Baptists were thus forced into closer relations with each other, and as the 
 churches multiplied, we -e compelled to adopt some system of church policy. 
 
 At hrst the group of converts in various places were too modest to take 
 the name of churches, and because they met once in a month for fellow- 
 ship with each other, called monthly meetings, and considered theaaselves 
 to be branches of the New Dunham Church, and herein was reproduced a 
 feature of some of the apostolic churches. 
 
 It took but a few years for this early simplicity to give way before a full 
 recognition of the monthly meeting as complete churches. Then, as thair 
 members increased, the quarterly meeting, composed of churches in a 
 restricted locality, and next the yearly meetings, embracing the quarterly 
 meetings in a State, or large section of a State, then, after fifty years, the 
 general conference, at first an annual, then biennial, and now a triennial 
 body, composed of all the yearly meetings and annual associations in the 
 denomination — an organization of remarkable flexibility and completeness. 
 A similar relation existed between the Brentwood Baptist Church, in New 
 Hampshire, and its numerous branches. At one time, as a consequence, 
 this church contained 1,000 members. 
 
 The general conference is one peculiar feature of the Free Baptist 
 Church government. Congregational in character, it has for its object to 
 speak for the entire church on all matters of faith, polity, order, and 
 within the limits of church independency to make the denomination homo- 
 geneous. It also publishes brief encyclicals on all the great moral ques- 
 tions before the country, as well as on all religious quest'^ns affecting the 
 character of the ministry or the teachings of the pulpit. 
 
 Looking at 4,000,000 of human beings toiling through life without the 
 right to own property or to own wife or children, or even themselves, the 
 conference, without waiting for other churches, pronounced American slav- 
 ery to be unchristian and refused fellowship with those guilty of it. Letting . 
 their vision take a wider sweep they saw in every civilized land man's God- 
 like reason attacked, liable to be and accustomed to be temporarily 
 dethroned and at the same time to have every evil passion set on fire by the 
 power of alcoholic drink; and thess sensible men without hesitation 
 declared temperance to be the duty of every man, and total abstinence to
 
 FREE BAPTIST CHURCH HISTORY. 711 
 
 be the only practical rule of temperance, and to this principle unanimously 
 committed their ministry and laity. The early preachers found in New 
 England church and state bound together in unholy alliance, both rec^uir- 
 ing of the minister a classical education and making little account of his 
 need of a new heart and a spiritual life. But these consccra?ted men, neg- 
 lecting the Hebrew vowels and slighting the Greek diphthong, intent only 
 on saving souls, called for preachers who knew the love of Christ that 
 passeth knowledge — and were able out of that knowledge to call sinners to 
 repentance. 
 
 But the general conference took the matter in hand and corrected this 
 mistake, saying: "This ought ye to have done, and not leave the other 
 undone," and encouraged the buildingof academies and seminaries, colleges 
 and divinity schools throughout the church, thus changing the current 
 from indifference to enthusiasm for Christian education. On the pages of 
 their well-studied Bibles they read: "Go ye into all the world and preach 
 the gospel to every creature." Impelled by this command, they had gone 
 everywhere bearing the good news of salvation. In 1830 they received a 
 call to come to the help of the millions of India, and heartily responded, 
 sending brilliant and scholarly minds to reduce heathen languages to writ- 
 ing, to print Bibles, plant schools, and other institutions required for effect- 
 ive missionary work. 
 
 All that public opinion has done for the emancipation of woman from 
 traditional false sentiment, and to give her the free exercise of her powers, 
 was to some extent anticipated by this people who from the first maintained 
 her right in the church to pray, prophesy, preach, and hold office. They 
 led the way, also in New England, in offering to her a collegiate course, 
 Bates being the first that dared take this position. On all these and other 
 kindred subjects, the voice of this people, uttered by general conference, 
 has been entitled to the respect of American society. Great wrongs in our 
 land would have been righted, great evils averted, great good wrought, and 
 the record of all American churches of the 19th century been as consist- 
 ently Christian. 
 
 Accepting the scriptures as the only rule of faith and practice, the 
 denomination at first said that all other creeds are needless. But when 
 the rising church found herself charged with holding destructive heresies 
 she was compelled, in self-defense, to publish a confession of faith. As 
 this ia her present creed, and is orthodox at every point, it will not be 
 necessary for me to speak of the tenets held by her in common with other 
 evangelical churches, except so far as these views may appear in answering 
 the question how her creed differs from that of other Baptist Churches. 
 
 It goes without saying that she holds to believers' baptism — one immer- 
 sion in water in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — and to the 
 necessity of a regenerate church. But from one Baptist body she is 
 differentiate.! by accepting the Nicene symbol in respect to the Divinity 
 of Christ; from another Baptist body in regarding saving faith as fiduciary 
 rather than historic; as antedating rather than being simultaneous with 
 the act of baptism, and as securing forgiveness independently of baptism, 
 which is regarded as but a sign, symbol, and public profession of grace 
 received; from a third Baptist body, in finding but two ordinances in the 
 gospel enjoined on the churches, and in viewing the original government of 
 the church as democratic. 
 
 But it is her separation from the regular Baptists that deserves particu- 
 lar mention. From this body the Free Baptist Church differs on three 
 points : In preferring the early Greek theology to the Augustinian, or the 
 Arminian theology to the Calvinistic ; in recognizing the churches of 
 Pedo-Baptists as Christian churches; in holding to Christian rather than a 
 sectarian communion at the Lord's table. The peculiar contention of Free 
 Baptists has been in behalf of the first and last of these petitions.
 
 742 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 In respect to the teachings of Calvin, they have challenged the truth of 
 every one of his five points. They have believed the decree of salvation to 
 be founded on the sovereign will of God, but, therefore, on the divine nature, 
 and, therefore, on infinite goodness that could not be goodness and refuse 
 to rescue as many as possible of our race from the awful consequences of 
 sin. By God's will, all men are equal before the moral law. By the same 
 will Free Baptists assert that all men are equal before the eternal princi- 
 ples of grace; that God's election, like His salvation, rests on condition of 
 faith in Christ, though it is not given by reason of that faith, that faith is 
 not the touchstone of an anterior election, but the terms of its reception; 
 that when Christ tasted death for every man. He gave the extreme proof of 
 His impartial effort to obtain every man's salvation. 
 
 It seems to the Free Baptists also utterly unscientific to hold that one 
 sin of the first man shattered and broke down the moral faculties of a soul, 
 and of the soul of all his descendants, when innumerable subsequent sins 
 have no such destructive effects; and hence that it is reasonable to believe 
 that every sinner has the natural ability to obey God, and can now repeat 
 the resolve and the penitent return of the prodigal son. 
 
 Moreover, they look on the Holy Spirit as omnipresent, imminent and 
 ever acting in making the infinite benevolence of God at once to surround 
 and beat upon all living hearts, and throvigh the truth to inflvience every 
 man to repent, believe, and be saved; and that, simultaneously with the sin- 
 ner's first choice of Christ, the Holy Spirit enters his heart to cleanse, renew, 
 that the Spirit enters his heart, it is by the loss of faith that He departs, 
 and sanctify, and to fill it with the love of God. Then, since it is by faith 
 and one who was made partaker of the Holy Ghost and had tasted the good 
 word of God does, in fact, fall away past hope of recovery. 
 
 In a word, then. Free Baptists have been unable to construe man's self- 
 determining activity in deciding the supreme questions of his probation as 
 an infringement on the prerogative of divine sovereignty; nor to deem it 
 other than an axiom in ethics to declare that the strength of man's free 
 will corresponds to the degree of his accountability. Hence, "free will," 
 "free grace," "free salvation," have ever been watchwords of Free Bap- 
 tists, though thereby separated from the largest Baptist body. 
 
 It is in accord with the spirit of this theology that Free Baptists should 
 be tolerant of opposing views. They have conceded to other Christians 
 what tliey have asked from other Christians — the right of private judg- 
 ment — and from this as a premise have not found it necessary to draw an 
 inference against the validity of the title of Pedo-Baptist Churches. 
 
 Different views of baptism, no more than different views of grace, can 
 undermine the ecclesia of any group of Christ's pieople. Christians who do 
 not receive immersion, if they are yet Christians, read Christ's law of bap- 
 tism, and, as they understand it, obey it — not, indeed, according to the let- 
 ter, as we read the law, but yet in spirit and as unto the Lord, and their 
 organizations, therefore, become to Free Baptists true churches of Jesus 
 Christ, and as such often visibly owned and blessed of Him. This attiiude 
 only a few of the regular Baptists openly indorse, nor all of the Free Bap- 
 tists, but enough to give it the stamp of a denominational peculiarity. 
 
 It is universal with Free Baptists to welcome to the Lord's table all the 
 disciples of Christ. They think that when the New Testament gives no 
 explicit law in respect to a church practice the spirit of the gospel becomes 
 more binding and safe, more life-giving and Christian than any letter of 
 man's sectarian inferences. And that the tenor of inspired teaching and 
 the spirit of Christ enjoin brotherly love and Christian fellowship among 
 all who bow to Christ as their Lord and Savior, seems to this people as 
 claar as the law of baptism. Hence, seeing, and rejoicing to see, that 
 Christians of divers opinions about church government and the plan of 
 grace, and ritual observances, may, and often do, alike possess "righteous-
 
 SPIRITUAL IDEAS OF THE BRAHMO-SOMAJ. 743 
 
 ness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," and, serving Christ herein, are svoU 
 pleasing to God and approved of men. Free Baptists can not suppress the 
 impulse to greet these brethren in the name of Christ, and. because they 
 belong to Him, to welcome them in His table and give them the sacred 
 emblems of our Lord's death. Although this liberality has kept them ajjart 
 from the regular Baptists, it has given them a pleasant consciousness of 
 union with all the Christian brotherhood, and has allowed them to add to 
 their illiterative signal cries, "free will," "free grace," "free salvation," 
 another like note, "free communicm." 
 
 Regarded in itself, the Free JBaptist system of faith stands out complete, 
 logical, compact, and so loyal to apostolic truth that it seems to them but 
 a transcript from the pages of the New Testament. Above all, she jjlaces 
 evangelical truths in the forefront of the creed. To it, therefore, the pulpit 
 accords a cordial reception as a body of divinity that can be fully and fear- 
 lessly preached. Nor has it been found less adapted to be taught from 
 house to house, in the workshop, in the marts of trade, in the hospitals of 
 the sick and dying, to the masses of men at home or abroad; not wanting in 
 power, when taught, to touch the conscience, sway the judgment, melt the 
 heart, and draw faith in Him " who loved us and gave Himself for us." 
 
 A spirit of change has hovered over the Christian world from the time 
 when the seven churches of Asia, in the very presence of the apostles, began 
 to move away from Christian standards of Christian faith and conduct 
 down through the ages until our day. The church reflects the character 
 of the age;for flexible,though stable, are Christian princiijles, adapting them- 
 selves without loss of essential truth, to the divers conditions of life. Too 
 often, however, adjustment to conditions has meant laxity; too often, 
 reform has meant intolerance. 
 
 Within a century the aspect of the churches in our land has undergone 
 partial transformation; forbidding features have been softened; reserve 
 been changed to brotherly love; distrust to confidence; jealousy over 
 another's success to rejoicing, and the light of grace has caused the face of 
 God's people to wear closer resemblance to the face of our blessed Lord. 
 But the work of the spirit in the churches is not completed, and still goes 
 on. " Back to Christ," the call is heard. To a better condition, to a more 
 perfect character. Providence is leading the churches. In response to the 
 influence that He has set in motion, the Free Baptist denomination has, in 
 many things, amended her exterior life and removed the clinging defects of 
 an earlier day. None of the tenets of her faith, however, has she seen rea- 
 son to modify. Nor is the present trend of Christian thought in evangel- 
 ical circles away from her catholicity of spirit and truth. Rather the 
 currents of practical relief, if not of speculative theology, set strongly toward 
 her stable and yet liberal orthodoxy. It is possibly in store for her that 
 she shall yet not be the "least among the princes of Judah," even possible 
 that she has been chosen to resent that reasonable and attractive center of 
 truth for the coming church, where the Lord's scattered sheep shall be 
 gathered in one field, under one shepherd, that 
 
 Far off, divine event 
 
 To which the whole " creation moves." 
 
 SPIRITUAL IDEAS OF THE BRAHMO-SOMAJ. 
 
 B. B. NAGAKKAR OF BOMBAY. 
 
 During the last few days various faiths have been pressing their claims 
 upon your attention. And it must be a great puzzle and ])i'rpiexity for you 
 to accept any of these or all of these. But during all these tliscussions and
 
 Ui THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 debates I would earnestly ask you all to keep in mind one prominent fact 
 —that the essence of all these faiths is one and the same. The truth that 
 lies at the root of them all is unchanged and unchanging. But 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 disagree, a man should see truth reflected in 
 his own spirit. 
 
 This truth can not 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 detrimental to spiritual cult- 
 ure and spiritual development. Self-annihilation 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 even- 
 ing moon can not be 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 can not 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 God, but to us of 
 the Brahmo-Somaj that belief is a stern reality; it is not a logical idea, it 
 is nothing arrived at after an intellectual process. It must be our aim to 
 feel God, to realize God in our daily spiritual communion with Him. We 
 must be able, as it were, to feel His touch — to feel as we were shaking 
 hands with Him. This deep, vivid, real, and lasting perception of the 
 Supreme Being is the first and foremost ideal of the theistic faith. 
 
 You, in the Western countries, are too 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 civili- 
 zation are all calculated to make you forgetful of the personal 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 life-giving faith. It is said 
 that the way to an Englishman's heart is through his stomach; that is, if 
 you wish to reach his heart you must do so through the medium of that 
 wonderful organ called the stomach. The stomach, therefore, is the life of 
 an Englishman, and all his life rests in his stomach. 
 
 Wherein does the heart of a Hindu lie? It lies in his sight. He is not 
 satisfied unless and until he has seen God. The highest dream of his spir- 
 itual 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 Moham- 
 medan truth. 
 
 Truth is the body of God. In His own providence He sends it through 
 the instrumentality of a nation or people, but that is no reason why that 
 nation or that people should pride themselves for having been the medium 
 of that truth. Thus, we must always be ready to receive the gospel truth 
 from whatever country and from whatever people it may come to us. We 
 all believe in the principle of free trade or unrestricted exchange of goods.
 
 SPIRITUAL IDEAS OF THE BRAHMO-SOMAJ. 745 
 
 And we eagerly hope and long for the golden day when people of every 
 nation and of every clime will proclaim the principle of free trade in spirit- 
 ual matters as ardently and as zealously as they are doing in secular a&airs 
 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 dilfercnt 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 sjjiritual truths of the entire humanity and of 
 earnestly striving after assimilating them with our spiritual being. The 
 religion of the Brahmo-Somaj is inclusive and not exclusive. 
 
 The third spiritual ideal of the Brahmo-Somaj is the harmony of 
 prophets. We believe that the prophets of the world — spiritual teachers 
 such as Vyas and Buddha, Moses and Mohammed, Jesus and Zoroaster, all 
 form a homogeneous whole. Each has to teach mankind his own message. 
 Every prophet was sent from above with a distinct message, and it is the 
 duty of us who live in these advanced times to put these messages together, 
 and thereby harmonize and unify the distinctive teachingsiof the prophets 
 of the world. It would not do to accept the one and reject all the others, 
 or to accept some and reject even a single one. The general truths taught 
 by these different prophets are nearly the same in their essence; but, in the 
 midst of all these universal truths that they taught, each has a distinctive 
 truth to teach, and it should be our earnest purpose to find out and under- 
 stand this particular truth. To me Vyas teaches how to understand and 
 apprehend the attributes of divinity. The Jewish prophets of the Old Tes- 
 tament teach the idea of the sovereignty of God ; they speak of God as a 
 king, a monarch, a sovereign who rules over the affairs of mankind as 
 nearly and as closely as an ordinary human king. Mohammed, on the 
 other hand, most emphatically teaches the idea of the unity of God. He 
 rebelled against the trinitarian doctrine imported into the religion of 
 Christ through Greek and Roman influences. The monotheism of Moham- 
 med 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 most sublime 
 strains the doctrine of Nirvana, or self-denial and self-eflfacement. This 
 principle of extreme self-abnegation means nothing more than the subju- 
 gation and conquest of our carnal self. For you know that man is a com- 
 posite 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 conclusion, deduced from the 
 idea of the Fatherhood of God. Jesus taught this truth in the most 
 emphatic language, and, therefore, that is the special message that He has 
 brought to fallen humanity. In this way, by means of an honest and 
 earnest study of the lives and teachings of different prophets of the world, 
 we can find out the central truth of each faith. Having done this, it should 
 be our highest aim to harmonize all these and to build up our spiritual 
 nature on them. 
 
 The religious history of the present century has most clearly ghown the 
 need and necessity of the recognition of some universal truths in religion.
 
 748 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 For the last several years there has been a ceaseless yearning, a deep 
 longing after such a universal religion. The present Parliament of Relig- 
 ions, which we have been for tlie 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 aUve in him must feel that this spiritual fellowship that we 
 have enjoyed for the last several days within the precincts of this noble 
 hall can not but be productive of much that leads tov/ard the establish- 
 ment of universal peace and good will among men and nations of the 
 world. 
 
 To us of the Brahmo-Somaj this happy consummation, however partial* 
 and imperfect it may be for the time being, is nothing short of a sure fore- 
 taste of the realization of the principle of the harmony of prophets. In 
 politics and in national government it is now an established fact that in 
 future countries and continents on the surface of the earth will be governed, 
 not by mighty monarchies or aristocratic autocracies, but by the system of 
 universal federation. The history of political progress in your own country 
 stands in noble evidence of my statement; and I am one of those who 
 strongly believe that at some future time every country will be governed 
 by itself as an independent unit, though insomei-espects 'nay be dependent 
 on some brother power or sister kingdom. What is true in politics will also 
 be true in religion; and nations will recognize and realize 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 message of unity and harmony; of uni- 
 versal amity and unification, proclaimed from above. We do not believe in 
 the revelation of books and men, of histories and historical records. We 
 believe in the infallible revelation of the spirit — in the message that comes 
 to man, but 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 can not. Even to-day Go. 1 communicates His 
 will to mankind as truly and as really as He did in the days of Chjist or 
 Moses, Mohammed or Buddha. 
 
 The dispensations of the world are not isolated units of truth, but 
 viewed at as a whole, and followed out from the earliest to the latest in 
 their historical sequence, they form a continuous chain, and each dispensa- 
 tion is only a link in this chain. It is our bounden duty to read the mes- 
 sage of each dispensation in the light that comes from above, and not 
 according to the dead letter that might have been recorded in the past. 
 The interpretation of letters and words, of books and chapters, is a drag 
 behind on the workings of the spirit. Truly hath it been said that the let- 
 ter killeth. Therefore, brethren, let us seek the guidance of the spirit and 
 interpret the message of the Supreme Spirit by the help of His Holy Spirit. 
 
 Thus the Brahmo-Somaj seeks to Hinduize Hinduism, Mohammedan- 
 ize Mohammedanism, and Christianize Christianity. And whatever the 
 champions of old Christian orthodoxy may say to the contrary, mere doc- 
 trine, mere dogma can never give life to any country or community. We 
 are ready and most willing to receive the truths of the religion of Christ as 
 truly as the truths of the religions of other prophets, but we shall receive 
 these from the life and teachings of Christ Himself, and not through the 
 medium of any church, or the so-called missionary of Christ. If Christian 
 missionaries have in them the meekness 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 evangelists and 
 revivalists of the type of Dr. Pentecost, who go to our country to sing to
 
 A WHITE Life for two. 747 
 
 the same tune, only add to the chaos and confusion presented to the natives 
 of India by the dry and cold lives of hundreds and thousands of his 
 Christian brethren. They come to India on n brief sojourn, pass 
 through the country like birds of passage, moving at a whirlwind 
 speed, surrounded by Christian fanatics and dogmatists, and to us it 
 is no matter of wonder that they do not see any good, or, having seen 
 it do not recognize it, in any of the ancient or modern religious systems of 
 India. Mere rhetoric is no reason, nor is abuse an argument, unless it be 
 the argument of a want of common sense. And we are not disjjosed to 
 quarrel with any people if they are inclined to indulge in these two instru- 
 ments generally used by those who have no truth on their side. For these 
 our only feehng is a feeling of pity — unqualified, unmocUfied, earnest pity, 
 and we are ready to ask God to forgive them, for they know not what 
 they say. 
 
 The tirst ideal of the Brahmo-Somaj is the ideal of the motherhood of .^ 
 God. I do not possess the powers nor have I the time to dwell at length 
 on this most sublime ideal of the church of Indian theism. The world has 
 heard of God as the Almighty Creator of the universe, as the Omnipotent 
 Sovereign that rules the entire creation, as the Protector, the Savior, and the 
 Judge of the human race; as the Supreme Being, vivifying and enlivening 
 the whole of the sentient and insentient nature. 
 
 We humbly believe that the world has yet to understand and realize, 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 monosyllabic word 
 ma, which in my language is indicative of the English word mother. 
 Words can not describe, hearts can not conceive of the tender and self-sacri- 
 ficing love of a human mother. Of all human relations the relation of 
 mother to her children is the most sacred and elevating relation. And yet 
 our frail and fickle human mother is nothing in comparison with the divine 
 Mother of the entire humanity, who is the primal source of all love, of all 
 mercy, and all purity. 
 
 Let us, therefore, realize that God is our Mother, the Mother of man- 
 kind, irrespective of the country or the chme in which men and women 
 may be born. The deeper the realization of the Motherhood of God, the 
 greater will be the strength and intensity of our ideas of the brotherhood 
 of man and the sisterhood of woman. Once we see and feel that God is 
 our Mother, all the intricate problems of theology, all the puzzling quib- 
 bles of church government, all the quarrels and wranglings of the so-called 
 religious world will be solved and settled. We of the Brahmo-Somaj family 
 hold that a vivid realization of the Motherhood of God is the only solution 
 of the intricate problems and differences in the religious world. 
 
 May the Universal Mother grant us all Her blessings to understand and 
 appreciate Her sweet relationship to the vast family of mankind. Let us 
 approach Her footstool in the spirit of Her humble and obedient children. 
 
 A WHITE LIFE FOR TWO. 
 
 FRANCES E. WILLAKD (rEAD BY PROXY). 
 
 I dare afcm that the reciprocal attraction of two natures, out of a 
 thousand million for each other, is the strongest, though one of the most 
 unnoted, proofs of a beneficent Creator. It is the fairest, sweetest rose of 
 time, whose petals and whose perfume expand so far that we are inclosed 
 and sheltered in their tenderness and beauty. For, folded in its heart, we 
 find the germ of every home ; of those beatitudes, fatherhood and mother- 
 hood; the brotherly and sisterly affection, the passion of the patriot, the
 
 748 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 cdlm and steadfast love of the philanthropist. For the faithfulness of two, 
 each to the other, alone makes possible the true home, the pure church, 
 the righteous nation, the great, kind brotherhood of man. These are the 
 days when creeds are discounted, but here is a creed to which we all sub- 
 scribe : 
 
 Comfort our souls with love, 
 
 LovH of all human kind. 
 Love special, close, in which, like sheltered dove, 
 
 Each heart its own safe nest may find; 
 And love that turns above adoringly, contented to resign 
 AH loves, if need be, for the love divine. 
 
 Marriage is not, as some surface thinkers have endeavored to make out, 
 an episode in man's life and an event in woman's. Any who hold this view 
 should sup their fill of horrors on the daily records of suicides by young 
 men who are lovers, of sweethearts shot, and murdered wifes. Marriage is 
 ' no unequal covenant; it is the sum of earthly weal or woe to him or her 
 who shares its mystic sacrament. Doubtless there are in modern lands 
 and in this age of transition almost as many noble men unmated because 
 they had to be as there are women. Because of a memory cherished, an 
 estrangement unexplained, an ideal unrealized, a duty bravely met, many 
 of the best men living go their way through life alone. Sometimes I think 
 that of the two it is man who loves home best; for while woman is hedged 
 into it by a thousand considerations of expediency and prejudice, he "with 
 all the world before him where to choose," still chooses home freely and 
 royally for her sake, who is to him the world's supreme attraction. 
 
 The past has bequeathed us no records more sublime than the heart 
 histories of Dante, of Petrarch, of Michael Angelo, and, in our own time, 
 of Washington Irving and Henry Martyn and others whom we dare not 
 name. It was a chief among our own poets who said: 
 
 I look upon the stormy wild, 
 
 I have no wife, 1 have no child: 
 
 For mo there gleams no household hearth, 
 
 I've none to love me on the earth. 
 
 We know that " he who wrote home's sweetest song ne'er had one of his 
 own," and our household poet, Will Carleton, sang concerning John Howard 
 Payne- 
 Sure, when thy gentle spirit fled, 
 To lands beyond the azure dome, 
 With arms outstretched, God's angel said: 
 "Welcome to heaven's home, sweet home." 
 
 There are men and women — some of them famous, some unknown — the 
 explanation of whose uncompanioned lives may be found in the principle 
 that underlies those memorable words applied to Washington: "Heaven 
 left him childless that a nation might call him father."' In such consider- 
 ations as I have here urged, and in this noblest side of human nature, a 
 constant factor always to be counted on, I found my faith in the response 
 of the people to the worth of promoting social purity. "Sweet bells jangled, 
 out of tune," now fill the air with minor cadences, often, alas, with discords 
 that are heartbreaks, but all the same they are "sweet bells" and shall 
 chime the gladdest music heaven has heard, "some sweet day, by and by." 
 This gentle age into which we have happily been born is attuning the 
 twain whom God hath made for such great destiny to higher harmonies 
 than any other age has known by a reform in the denaturalizing methods 
 of a civilization largely based on force by which the boy and girl have 
 hitherto been sedulously trained apart. They are now being set side by 
 side in school, in church, in government, even as God sets male and female 
 everywhere side by side throughout his realm of law and has declared them 
 one throughout his realm. of grace. 
 
 Meanwhile the conquest, through invention, of matter by mind lifts
 
 A WHITE LIFE FOR TWO. 1i^ 
 
 iroman from the unnatural subjugation of the age of force. In the presence 
 «f a steam engine, which she could guide as well as he, but which is an 
 equal mystery to both, the man and woman learn that they are fast equal- 
 izing on the plane of matter, as a prediction of their confessed equalization 
 upon the planes of luind and of morality. 
 
 We are then beginning to train those with each other who were formed 
 for each other, and the English-speaking home, with its Christian method 
 of a two-fold headship, based on laws natural and divine, is steadily root- 
 ing out all that remains of the medieval, continental, and harem philoso- 
 phies concerning this greatest problem of all time. The true relations of 
 that complex being whom God created by uttering the mystic thought 
 that had in it the potency of paradise, " In our own image let us make 
 man and let him have dominion over all the earth," will ere long be ascer- 
 tained by means of the new correlation and attuning each to other, of a 
 more complete humanity upon the Christlike basis that " there shall be no 
 more curse." The temperance reform is this correlation's necessary and 
 true forerunner, for while the race brain is bewildered it can not be thought 
 out. The labor reform is another jjart, for only under co-operation can 
 material conditions be adjusted to a noncombatant state of society, and 
 every yoke lifted from the laboring man lifts one still heavier from the 
 woman at his side. The equal suffrage movement is another part, for a 
 government organized and conducted by one-half of the human unit, a 
 government of the minority, by the minority, for the minority, must always 
 bear unequally upon the whole. The social purity movement could only 
 come after its heralds, the other three reforms I have mentioned were well 
 under way, because alcoholized brains would not tolerate its expression; 
 women who had not learned to work would lack the individualitj and intre- 
 pidity required to organize it, and women perpetually to be disfranchised 
 could not hope to see its final purposes wrought out in law. But back of all 
 were the father and mother of all reform — Christianity and education — to 
 blaze the way for all these later comers. 
 
 The Women's Christian Temperance Union is doing no work more 
 important than that of reconstructing the ideal of womanhood. The 
 sculptor, Hart, told me, when I visited his studio in Florence many years 
 ago, that he was investing his life in the attempt to work into marble a new 
 feminine type which should " express, unblamed, the 20th century's 
 womanhood." The Venus de Medici, with its small head and buttonhole 
 eyelids, matched the Greek conception of women well, he thought, but 
 America was slowly evolving another and a loftier type. A statue, named 
 by him " Woman Triumphant," and purchased by patriotic ladies of his 
 native State, Kentucky, adorns the city hall at Lexington and shows 
 
 A perfect woman, nobly planned. 
 To warn, to comfort, and command; 
 A creature not too bright or good 
 For human nature's daily food. 
 And yet a spirit, pure and bright. 
 With something of an angel's light. 
 
 She is the embodiment of what shall be. In an age of force, woman's 
 greatest grace was to cling; in this age of peace, she doesn't cling much, but 
 is every bit as tender and as sweet as if she did. She has strength and 
 individuality, a gentle seriousness; there is moreof a sister, less of the siren; 
 more of the duchess, and less of the doll. Woman is becoming what God 
 meant her to be, and Christ's gospel necessitates her being the companion 
 and counselor, not the encumbrance and toy, of men. 
 
 To meet this new creation, how grandly men themselves are growing; 
 how considerate and brotherly, how pure in word and deed. The world has 
 never yet known half the aptitude of character and life to which men will 
 attain when they and women live in the same world. It doth not yet appear
 
 750 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 what they shall be, or we either, for that matter, but in many a home pre- 
 sided over by a temperance voter and a white-ribbon worker I have thought 
 the heavenly vision was really coming down to terra flrma. With all my 
 heart I believe, as do the best men of the nation, that woman will bless and 
 brighten every place she enters, and that she will enter every place. Its 
 welcome of her presence and her power will be the final test of any institu- 
 tion's fitness to survive. 
 
 Happily for us, every other genuine reform helps to push forward the 
 white car of social purity. The great peace movement, seeking as its final 
 outcome a court of international arbitration as a substitute for war, prom- 
 ises more momentum to our home cause than to almost any other. For, as 
 the chief corner-stone of the peaceful state is the hearth-stone, so the chief 
 pulverizer of that corner-stone is war. 
 
 The personal habits of men and women must reach the same high level. 
 On a low plane, and for selfish ends, primeval and medieval man wrought 
 out, with fiercest cruelty, virtue as the only tolerated estate of one-half the 
 human race. On a high plane, Christianity, working through modern 
 womanhood, shall yet make virtue the only tolerated estate of the other 
 half of the human race, and may heaven speed that day! To-day a woman 
 knows that she must walk the straight line of a white life or men will look 
 upon her with disdain. A man needs, for his own best good, to find that in 
 the eyes of woman, just the same is true of him — and evermore be it remem- 
 bered, this earnest effort to bring in the day of "sweeter manners, purer 
 laws," is as much in man's interest as our own. 
 
 Why are the laws so shamelessly unequal now? Why do they bear so 
 heavily upon the weaker, making the punishment for stealing away a 
 woman's honor no greater than that for stealing a silk gown; purloining 
 her character at a smaller penalty than the picking of a pocket would 
 incur? Why is the age of protection or consent but ten years in twenty 
 States of America, and in one only seven years? Who would have supposed, 
 when man's great physical strength is considered, that he would have fixed 
 upon an age so tender and declared that after a child had reached it she 
 could be held equally accountable with her doughty assailant for a crime 
 in which he was the aggressor? And who would not suppose that the 
 man who had been false to one woman would be socially ostracized by all 
 the rest of womankind? What will explain the cruelty of man and the 
 heartlessness of woman in this overmastering issue of womanhood's pro- 
 tection and manhood's loyalty? 
 
 The answer is not far to seek. Woman became, in barbarous ages, the 
 subjects of the stronger. Besides, what suits one age becomes a hindrance 
 to the next, and as Christianity went on individualizing woman, lifting her 
 to higher levels of education and hence, of power, the very laws which good 
 men in the past had meant for her protection became to her a snare and 
 danger. But while all this heritage of a less-developed past has wrought 
 such anguish and injustice upon woman as she is to-day, it has been even 
 more harmful to man, for it is always worse for character to be sinning 
 than to be sinned against. Our laws and social customs make it too easy 
 for men to do wrong. They are not sufficiently protected by the strong 
 hand of penalty from themselves from the sins that do most easily beset 
 them, and from the mad temptations that clutch at them on every side. 
 ■ Suppose the tramplers of wives and outragers of women, whose unutter- 
 able abominations crowd the criminal columns of our newspapers each day, 
 knew that life-long imprisonment might be the penalty that they must pay, 
 would not the list of their victims rapidly diminish? The World's Chris- 
 tian Temperance Union has taken up this sacred cause of protection of the 
 home, and we shall never cease our efforts until women have all the help 
 that law can furnish them throughout the world We ask for heavier pen- 
 alties, and that the age of consent be raised to eighteen years; we ask for the
 
 A WHITE LIFE FOR TWO. 751 
 
 total prohibition of the Uquor traffic, which is leagued with every crime that 
 is perpetrated against the physically weaker sex, and ask for the ballot that 
 law and lawmaker may be directly intiuenced by our instincts of aolf -pro- 
 tection and home protection. 
 
 We hear much of physical culture for boys, but it is girls that need this 
 most. We hear much of manual training schools to furnish every boy at 
 school with a bread-winning weapon, but, in the interest of boys and 
 girls alike, girls need this most. Hence it is in our plans to work for these. 
 But, as I have said, we are not working for ourselves alone in this great 
 cause of social purity. As an impartial friend to, the whole human race in 
 both its fractions, man and woman, I, for one, am not more in earnest for 
 this great advance because of the good it brings to the gentler than 
 because* of the blessing that it prophesies for the stronger sex. I have long 
 believed that when that greatest of all questions, the question of a life com- 
 panionship, shall be decided on its merits, pure and simple, and not 
 complicated with the other questions: "Did she get a 'good home?" "Is 
 he a generous provider?" "Will she have plenty of money?" then will 
 come the first fair chance ever enjoyed by young manhood for the building 
 up of genuine character and conduct. For it is an immense temptation to 
 the " sowing of wild oats," when the average youth knows that the smile 
 he covets most will be his all the same, no matter whether he smokes, 
 swears, drinks beer, and leads an impure life, or not. The knowledge on 
 his part that the girls of his village or " set " have no way out of depend- 
 ence, reproach, or oddity, except to say "yes" when he chooses to 
 "propose"; that they dare not frown on his lower mode of life; that the 
 world is, indeed, all before him where to choose; that not one girl in one 
 hundred is endowed with the talent and pluck that make her independent 
 of him and his ilk. All this gives him a sense of freedom to do wrong, 
 which, added to inherited appetite and outward temptation, is impelling to 
 ruin the youth of our day with force strong as gravitation and relentless 
 as fate. 
 
 Besides all this, the utterly false sense of his own value and importance 
 which " Young England " or " Young America " acquires by seeing the sweet- 
 est and most attractive beings on the face of the earth thus virtually subject 
 to him often develops a lordliness of manner which is ridiculous to con- 
 template in boys who otherwise would be modest, sensible, and brotherly 
 young fellows, such as we are, most of all, likely to find in co-educational 
 schools, where girls take their full share of prizes, and where many young 
 women have in mind a world trip with some girl friend, or, mayhap, a 
 " career." 
 
 Multiplied forces of law and gospel are to-day conspiring for the deliv- 
 erance of our young men from the snares of their present artificial environ- 
 ment and exaggerated estimate of their own value; but the elevation of 
 their sisters to the plane of perfect financial and legal independence, from 
 which the girls can dictate equitable terms: " You must be as pure and 
 true as you require me to be, ere I give you my hand," is the brightest hope 
 that gleams in the sky of modern civilization for our brothers; and the 
 greater freedom of women to make of marriage an affair of the heart, and 
 not of the purse, is the supreme result of Christianity up to this hour. 
 
 There is no man whom women honor so deeply and sincerely as the man of 
 chaste life — the man who breasts the buffetings of temptation's swelling 
 waves, like some strong swimmer in his agony, and makes the port of per- 
 fect self-control. Women have a thousand guarantees and safeguards for 
 their purity of life. "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here," is written in 
 letters of flame for them above the haunt of infamy, while men may come and 
 go, and are yet similarly received in the most attractive homes. And yet, 
 thank God, in spite of this accursed latitude, how many men are pure and 
 true I
 
 752 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 It is said that when darkness settles on the Adriatic Sea, and fishermen 
 are far from land, their wiv^s and daughters, just before putting out the 
 lights of thoir humble cottages, go down by the shore, and in their clear, 
 sweet voices sing the first lines of the " Ave Maria." Then they listen 
 eagerly, and across the sea are borne to them the deep tones of those they 
 love, singing the strains that follow, "Oro Pro Nobis," and thus each knows 
 that with the other all is well. I often think that from the home-life of the 
 nation, from its mothers and sisters, daughters and sweethearts, there 
 sound through the darkness of this transition age the tender notes of a 
 dearer song, whose burden is being taken up and echoed back to us from 
 those far out amid the billows of temptation, and its sacred words are 
 "Home, Sweet Home." God grant that deeper and stronger may grow that 
 heavenly chorus from men's and women's lips and lives, for, with all its 
 faults, and they are many, I beUeve the present marriage system to be the 
 greatest triumph of Christianity, and that it has created and conserves 
 more happy homes than the world has ever before known. 
 
 Any law that renders less binding the mutual, life-long loyalty of one man 
 and woman to each other, which is the central idea of every home, is an 
 unmitigated curse to that home and to humaniiy. Around this union, which 
 alone renders possible a pure society and a permanent state, the law should 
 build its utmost safeguards, and upon this union the gospel should pro- 
 nounce its most sacred benedictions. But while I hold these truths to be 
 self-evident, I believe that a constant evolution is going forward in the 
 home, as in every other place, and that we may have but dimly dreamed 
 the good in store for those whom God for holiest love hath made. In the 
 nature of the case the most that even Christianity itself could do at first, 
 though it is the strongest force ever let loose upon the planet, was to 
 separate one man and one woman from the common herd into each home, 
 telling the woman to work there in grateful quietness, while the man stood 
 at the door to defend its sacred shrine with fist and spear, to insist upon 
 its rights of property, and later on to represent it in the state. 
 
 Thus, under the conditions of civilization, crude and material, grew up 
 that well-worn maxim of the common law, " Husband and wife are one, 
 and that one is the husband." But such supreme power as this brought 
 to the man supreme temptation. By the laws of mind he legislated first 
 for himself and afterward for the physically weaker one within "his" 
 home. The femme couverte is not a character appropriate to our peaceful, 
 home-like communities, although she may have been, and doubtless was, a 
 necessary figure in the days when women were safe only as they were shut 
 up in castles and when they were the booty chiefly sought in war. To-day 
 a woman may circumnavigate the world alone and yet be unmolested. Our 
 marriage laws and customs are changing to meet these new conditions. 
 
 It will not do to give the husband of the modern woman power to whip 
 his wife, "provided the stick he uses is not larger than his finger;" to make 
 all the laws under which she is to live; adjudicate all her penalties, try her 
 before juries of men, conduct her to prison under the care of men, cast the 
 ballot for her, and, in general, hold her in the estate of a perpetual minor. 
 It will not do to let the modern man determine the age of "consent," settle 
 the penalties that men shall suffer whose indignities and outrages upon 
 women are worse toithem than death, and by his exclusive power to make 
 all laws and choose all officers, legislative, judicial, and executive, thus leav- 
 ing his case wholly in his own hands. To continue this method is to make 
 it as hard as possible for men to do right, and as easy as possible for them 
 to do \\Tong; the magnificent possibilities of manly character are best 
 prophesied from the fact that under such a system so many men are good 
 and gracious. My theory of marriage in its relation to society would give 
 this postulate: Husband and wife are one, and that one is husband and 
 wife. I believe they will never come to the heights of purity, of power, and
 
 WORSHIP OF GOD IN MAN. 753 
 
 peace for whiuh they were designed in heaven until this better law pre 
 vails. One undivided half of the world for wife and husband equally; 
 co-education to mate them on the plane of mind; equal property rights to 
 make God's own free woman, not coerced into marriage for the sake of sup- 
 port, nor a bond slave after she is married, who asks her master for the price 
 of a paper of pins, and gives him back the change. 
 
 I believe in uniform national marriage laws; in divorce for one cause 
 only; in legal separation on account of drunkenness and other abomina- 
 tions; bi^t I would guard, for the childrens' sake, the marriage tie by 
 every guarantee that could make it at the top of society, the most coveted 
 estate of the largest natured and most endowed, rather than at the 
 bottom, the necessary refuge of the smallest-natured and most dependent 
 women. Besides all this, in the interest of men, in order that their 
 incentives to the b st life might be raised to the highest power, I would 
 make women so independent of marriage that men who, by bad habits 
 and niggardly estate, whether physical, mental, or moral, were least 
 adapted to help build a race of human angels should find the facility with 
 which they now enter its hallowed precincts reduced to the lowest 
 minimum. 
 
 Until God's laws are better understood and more reverently obeyed, 
 marriage can not reach its best. The present abnormal style of dress 
 among women heavily mortgages the future of their homes and more 
 heavily discounts that of their children. Add to this the utter recklessness 
 of immoral consequences that characterizes the mutual conduct of so 
 many married pairs, and only the everlasting tendencies toward good that 
 render certain the existence and supremacy of a goodness that is infinite, 
 can explain so much health and happiness as our reeling old world persists 
 in holding while it rolls onward toward some far-off perfection, bathed in 
 the sunshine of God's omnipotent love^ Our Boston woman poet. Mrs. 
 Julia Ward Howe, has given us the noblest motto for social purity: 
 
 In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea; 
 With the glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; 
 As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
 "While God is marching on. 
 
 WORSHIP OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 ELIZABETH STANTON's PAPER. 
 
 As we have not yet reached the ultimatum of religions faith it may be 
 legitimate to ask: What will the next step be? As we are all alike inter- 
 ested in the trend of religious thought, no one should feel aggrieved in 
 hearing his creed fairly analyzed or in listening to si^eculations as to some- 
 thing better in the near future. As I read the signs of the times. I think 
 the next form of religion will be the " religion of humanity," in which men 
 and women will worship what they see of the divine in each other; the vir- 
 tues, the beatitudes, the possibilities ascribed to Deity, reflected in mortal 
 beings. 
 
 To stimulate our reverence for the great spirit of life that set all things 
 in motion and holds them forever in their places, our religious teachers 
 point us to the grandeur of nature in all her works. We tremble at the 
 earthquake, the hurricane, the rolling thunder and vivid lightning, the 
 raging tempests by sea and land; we are filled with awe and admiration by 
 the splendor of the starry heavens, the boundless oceans and vast conti- 
 nents, the majestic forests, lakes and rivers, and snow-capped mountains 
 that in their yearnings seem to touch the heivens. Prom all these grand
 
 754 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 and impressive forces in nature we turn with relief to the gentle rain and 
 dew, the genial sunshine, the singing birds, and fragrant flowers— to the 
 love'and tenderness we tind in every form of life; we see order and beauty, 
 too, in the changing seasons, the planetary world, in the rising sun, moon, 
 and stars, in day with its glorious dawn and night with its holy mysteries, 
 which all together thrill with emotion every chord of the human soul. 
 
 By all the wonders and mysteries that surround us we are led to ques- 
 tion the source of what we see, and to judge the powers and possibilities 
 of the Creator by the grandeur and beauty of His works. Measuring 
 man by the same standard, we find that all the forces and qualities the 
 most exalted mind ascribes to his ideal God are reproduced in a less degree 
 in the noble men and women who have glorified the race. Judging man 
 by his works, what shall we say to the seven wonders of the world, of the 
 Colossus of Rhodes, Diana's Temple at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Hali- 
 carnassus. the Pyramids of Egypt, the Pharos at Alexandria, the Hanging 
 Gardens at Babylon, and the Olympian Zeus? True, these are all crumb- 
 ling to dust, but change is law, too, in all nature's works. 
 
 The manifestation of man's power is more varied and wonderful as the 
 ages roll on. Who can sta^d in St. Peter's, at Rome, and listen to the deep- 
 toned organ reverberating from arch to arch with a chorus of human 
 voices alike pathetic and triumphant in their hymns of praise, without 
 feeling the divine harmony in architecture, poetry, and song? And yet 
 man, so small in stature, conceived and perfected that vast cathedral, with 
 its magnificent dome, strung every key in that grand organ to answer to 
 a master's touch, and trained every voice in that great choir to melody 
 to perfect time and tune — a combination in grandeur surpassing far the 
 seven wonders of the world. 
 
 And what shall we say of the discoveries and inventions of the past 
 fifty years, by w"hich the labors of the world have been lifted from the 
 shoulders of men, to be done henceforth by the tireless machines ? Behold 
 the magnitude of the works accomplished by man in our day and genera- 
 tion! He has leveled mountains and bridged chasms; with his railroads he 
 has linked the Atlantic and Pacific, the Rocky and the Allegheny Mount- 
 ains together; with steam and the ocean cable he has anchored continents 
 side by side and rdelted the nations of the earth in one. With electricity 
 man has opened such vistas of wonder and mystery that scientists and 
 philosophers stand amazed at their own possibilities, and in the wake of all 
 these triumphs we are startled with new mysteries revealed by physical 
 researches into what has hitherto been the unseen universe. 
 
 Man has manifested wisdom, too, as well as power. In fact, what cardi- 
 nal virtue has He not shown, through all the shifting scenes of the passing 
 centuries? The page of history glows with the great deeds of noble men 
 and women. What courage and heroism, what self-sacrifice and sublime 
 faith in principle have they not shown in persecution and death, 'mid the 
 horrors of war, the sorrows of exile, and the weary years of prison life? 
 What could sustain mortal man in this awful " solitude of self " but the 
 fact that the great moral forces of the universe are bound up in his organi- 
 zation? What are danger, death, exile, and dungeon walls to the great 
 spirit of life incarnate in him? 
 
 The old idea of mankind as " totally depraved, " his morality " but filthy 
 rags," his heart " deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," his 
 aspirations "but idle dreams of luxury and selfishness " are so many reflec- 
 tions on the Creator, who is said to be perfect and to have made man in 
 his own image. The new religion will teach the dignity of human nature 
 and its infinite possibilities for development. Its believers will not remain 
 forever in the valley of humiliation, confessing themselves in the church 
 service on each returning Sabbath day to be " miserable sinners," imploring 
 the good Lord to deliver them from the consequences of violated law, but
 
 WORSHIP OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 755 
 
 the new religion will inspire its worshipers with self-respect, with noble 
 aspirations to cittain diviner hei^'hts from day to day than they yet have 
 reached. It will teach individiud honesty and honor'in word and deed, in 
 all relations of life. It will teach the solidarity of the race that all must 
 rise or fall as one. Its creed will be justice, liberty, equality for all the 
 children of earth. It will teach our practical duties to man in this life 
 rather then sentimental duties to God in fitting ourselves for the ne.\t life! 
 A loving human fellowship is the real divine communion. The spiritual 
 life is not a mystical contemplation of divine attributes, but the associated 
 development of all that is good in human character. 
 
 The Old and New Testaments, which Christians accept as their rule of 
 life, are full of these lessons of universal benevolence. "If you love not 
 man whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen? " 
 Jesus said to His disciples: "Whatsoever you have done unto these, My 
 brethren, ye have done unto Me." " When I was hungry ye gave Me meat, 
 when naked ye clothed Me, when in prison ye ministered unto Me." When 
 the young man asked what he should do to be saved, Jesus did not tell him 
 he must believe certain dogmas and creeds, but to go and sell all that he 
 had and give to the poor. 
 
 The prophets and apostles alike taught a religion of deeds rather than 
 forms and ceremonies. "Away with your new moons, your Sabbaths and 
 your appointed feasts; the worship God asks is that you do justice and 
 love mercy." "God is no respecter of persons." " He has made of one blood 
 all the nations of the earth." When the pulpits in our lands shall preach 
 from these texts and enforce these lessons, the religious conscience of the 
 people will take new form of expression, and those who in very truth 
 accept the teachings of Jesus will make it their fu'st duty to look after the 
 lowest stratum of humanity. 
 
 To build a substantial house, we begin with the cellar and lay the 
 foundations strong and deep, for on it depends the safety of the whole 
 superstructure. So in race building, for noble specimens of humanity, 
 for peace and prosperity in their conditions, we must begin with the lowest 
 stratum of society and see that the masses are well fed, clothed, sheltered, 
 educated, elevated, and enfranchised. Social morality, clean, pleasant 
 environments, must precede a spiritual religion that enables man to under- 
 stand the mysteries binding him to the seen and unseen universe. 
 
 This radical work can not be done by what is called charity, but by 
 teaching sound principles of domestic economy to our educated classes, 
 showing that by law, custom, and false theories of natural rights they are 
 responsible for the poverty, ignorance, and vice of the masses. Those who 
 train the religious conscience of the people must teach the lesson that all 
 these artificial distinctions in society must be obliterated by securing 
 equal conditions and opportunities for all; this can not be done in a day; 
 but this is the goal for which we must strive. The first step to this end is 
 to educate the people into the idea that such a moral revolution is possible. 
 
 It is folly to talk of just government and a pure religion where the state 
 and the church alike sustain an aristocracy of wealth and ease, while those 
 who do the hard work of the world have no share in the blessings and riches 
 that their continued labors have made possible for others to enjoy. Is it 
 just that the many should ever suffer that the few may shine? 
 
 To reconcile men to things as they are we have sermons from the texts, 
 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;" 
 "The poor ye have always with you;" "Servants, obey your masters;" 
 "Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands;" "Kender unto Cajsarthe 
 things that are Cajsar's"— as if poverty, servility, and authority were 
 decrees of heaven. 
 
 Such decrees will not not do for our day and generation. The school- 
 master is abroad. Webster's spelling-book is a classic. The laboring classes
 
 756 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 have tasted the tree of knowledge, and, like the gods, they begin to know 
 good from evil. With new liberties and education they demand correspond- 
 ing improvements in their environments. As they reach new vantage-ground 
 from time to time and survey broader fields of usefulness, they learn their 
 rights and duties, their relations to one another, and their true place in the 
 march of civilization. 
 
 " Equal rights for all " is the lesson this hour. " That can not be," says 
 some faithless conservative; "if you should distribute all things equally 
 to-day, they would be in the hands of the few to-morrow." Not if the 
 religious conscience of the people were educated to believe that the way to 
 salvation was not in creed and greed, but in domg justice to their fellow- 
 men. Not if altruism, instead of egoism, were the law of social morals. 
 Not if co-operation, instead of competition, were the rule in the world of 
 work. Not if legislation were ever in the interest of the many, rather 
 than the few. Educate the rising generation into these broader principles 
 of government, religion, and social life, and then ignorance, poverty, and 
 vice will disappear. 
 
 The reconciliation of man to his brother is a more practical religion 
 than that of man to his father, and the progress is more easily understood. 
 The word religion means to bind again, to unite those who have been sepa- 
 rated, to harmonize those who have been in antagonism. Thus far the 
 attitude of man to man has been hostile— ever in competition, trying to 
 overreach and enslave each other. With hope we behold the dawn of the 
 new day in the general awakening to the needs of the laboring masses. 
 We hail the work of the Salvation Army, the King's Daughters, the kinder- 
 garten, and ragged schools for children of the poor, the university settle- 
 ments, etc. All these added to our innumerable charities show that the 
 trend of thought is setting in the right direction for the health, happiness, 
 and education of the lowest classes of humanity. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS SEEN BY A VOYAGER AROUND 
 THE WORLD. 
 
 REV. FEANCIS E. CLAKK OF BOSTON. 
 
 One very interesting fact is implied by the very title of our address, and 
 that is, that Christianity is seen by a voyager in all parts of this round 
 globe. A century ago such a title as this would have been meaningless. 
 The voyager would have found Christianity limited practically to Europe 
 and America. Now he sees a vigorous and virile type of Christian piety in 
 every great division of the earth's surface. 
 
 In no one of the five continents is Christianity utterly a stranger. If he 
 takes the wings of the morning and flies to the uttermost parts of the 
 earth, even there he finds that the religion of Christ has gone before him. 
 A hundred years ago Christianity was unknown in the vast continent of 
 Australia, except as remembered by an occasional shipwrecked sailor, or by 
 the ticket-of-leave men who, with all their faults, did not leave the religion 
 of their boyhood in the Old World. 
 
 In Japan he would have found the gates of that marvelous land barred 
 and locked with a triple padlock against the religion of Christ. He would 
 have found the memories of the massacre of Pappenburg still compara- 
 tively fresh, and the edict against the religion of the West by no means a 
 dead letter. 
 
 He would have found China equally unresponsive to the healing touch 
 of Christ, while India was completely in the grasp of a monopoly whose
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS SEEN BY A VOYAGER. lol 
 
 ensign would more properly flaunt the device of a puncheon of rum and an 
 opium pipe than the cross of Christ. 
 
 An impression which was very strongly made on the mind of this 
 voyager was, that Christianity is an exceedingly real, substantial, and 
 vital thing in every part of the world. In spite of the insinuations of prej- 
 udiced "'globe trotters," who will not allow that Christianity has made 
 even a ripple on the stagnant pool of heathenism, he came very soon to 
 know that the religion of Christ is the power of God unto salvation among 
 the yellow-skinned, almond-eyed people of the East as well as among the 
 Caucasians of the West. 
 
 These persistent and utterly untrue slanders of certain travelers from 
 Christian lands, which are often blazoned forth in our papers with startling 
 head-lines, as though a wonderful discovery had been made, deserve little 
 attention. These rumors are often to the effect that Christianity is a dis- 
 mal failure, except in Europe and America; that the missionaries are pam- 
 pered sons of fortune, who live in elegant houses and feed on the fat of the 
 land, while their converts grovel in the dust at their feet; that no real 
 impression is made upon the superstitions or vices of heathenism; that all 
 the converts are " rice Christians," professing allegiance to the new faith 
 for what they can get out of it, and that even were a nation or tribe as 
 nominally Christianized, it is but a surface varnish, or at the most a veneer 
 of Christianity which kills off the unfortunate tribes, which are coated 
 with it, by inducing them to adopt civilized clothes and civilized ways, to 
 which their climate and life are unsuit ible. 
 
 Doubtless my hearers have heard the changes wrung upon these minor 
 keys of present failure and dismal prophecy, and it becomes every voyager 
 around the world who knows whereof he is speaking to deny flatly and 
 decidedly these misrepresentations of unsympathetic and prejudiced 
 travelers. 
 
 What good report would such a traveler take away from a church 
 prayer-meeting, however stimulating and spiritual it might be; from a Sun- 
 day school where hundreds of children are taught the way of life; from a 
 Christian Endeavor meeting, all aglow with the warmth and glow of conse- 
 crated warm hearts? Doubtless his lip would curl and a sneer would fall 
 from his tongue if called upon to speak or write concerning any such mani- 
 festations of the religious life in most favored lands. What, then, can be 
 expected of him when, amid the distractions of travel and the dissipation of 
 foreign life, he enters a treaty port, catches up the flrst rumor which floats 
 to his ears concerning the missionaries and missionary work of the vicinity, 
 and, without investigating sympathetically, or looking, perhaps, even with 
 a prejudiced eye upon the actual work that is being done, hastens home to 
 poison the public mind and fill the secular press with his wonderful discov- 
 eries concerning the absolute failure of Christianity in the far lands across 
 the sea. 
 
 It would be well if such a traveler could visit some cannibal heathen 
 island, "before and after" the missionary began to make himself felt. If 
 he lived to visit the islands the second time, and was not in the course of 
 his first visit served up as a delicious tidbit for the gormand chiefs of the 
 island, we believe that after his second visit he would have more respect 
 for the men whom he now decries and the faith that he now belittles. 
 
 What makes this difference? There can be but one answer, and that is 
 the religion of Christ. It is the only factor that causes Samoa to differ 
 from New Guinea. Surely the difference is not caused by the advent of 
 the merchant and trader. Firearms and gunpowder, rum and tobacco, 
 never transformed a man-eating tribe into a gentle, polite, and generous 
 nation. 
 
 Another impression which is very distinctly made upon the mind of a 
 voyager around the world is that Christianity is entirely and absolutely
 
 758 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 different in its motive power, its purifying influence, and its uplifting inspira- 
 tion from any and all other religions with which it comes in competition. 
 The dirty, greasy bull of Madura and Tanjore has nothing in common 
 with the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. The hope- 
 less, nonchalant, indifferent tomtom beating of the priests of Canton has 
 no point of contact with the worship of Him who must be worshiped in 
 spirit and in truth. Even the wild fanaticism of the Buddhist of Japan, 
 which has more life and reality in it than the religions of many other non- 
 Christian lands; even the devotion which leqds women to sacrifice their 
 tresses that they may be woven into cables with which to haul the beams 
 for the temples of their gods, bear little resemblance to the intelligent 
 faith and hope and charity which constitute the strength of Christian 
 manhood and the grace of Christian womanhood. 
 
 I
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SIXTEENTH DAY, SEPTEMBER 26th. 
 
 Julia Ward Howe was a prominent figure on the platform at 
 the morning session Rev. James S. Dennis of the Presby- 
 terian Board of Foreign Missions recited the universal prayer 
 "We have with us this morning," then said Dr. Barrows, " one 
 who has made a special study of the religions of the world, one 
 who is distinguished as an author, and a poet, and a teacher. 
 He is to speak to us on ' The Attitude of Christianity to Other 
 Religions.' I take pleasure in introducing Prof. W. C. Wil- 
 kinson of the Chicago University." 
 
 ATTITUDE OF CHRISTIANITY TO OTHER 
 RELIGIONS. 
 
 PROF. W. C. WILKINSON. 
 
 My subject is narrow and strictly bounded. I do not discuss in gjeneral 
 the relations between Christianity and the ethnic religions — relations of 
 priority, of derivation, of reciprocal influence, of similarity, of intrinsic 
 value, of present prevalence, of probable future spread. These topics have, 
 all of them, their interest and their importance. But they are all of them 
 aside from my present i)urpose. I discuss simply and solely the question 
 of the attitude that Christianity assumes and maintains toward competing 
 religions. In passing, I may say, that toward the adherents of non-Chris- 
 tian religions, the attitude of Christianity is an attitude of sympathy, of 
 help, of desire and endeavor to save. Toward the non-Christian religions 
 themselves, the attitude of Christianity may be found to be very ditferent. 
 
 But what is Christianity? As its name imports, it is the religion of 
 Christ. Where shall we look to find the religion of Christ authoritatively 
 described? If there is any authoritative description of Christianity exist- 
 ing, that description must be found in the collection of writings called the 
 Bible. To the Bible, then, let us go with our question. What is the atti- 
 tude of Christianity toward other religions? 
 
 I say to the Bil)le, but of course I must mean, in the first instance, to 
 that part of the Bible which is called the New Testament. The New 
 Testament purports to give an account of what Christ and Christ's accred- 
 ited representatives taught. This, evidently, is Christianity. 
 
 Let it be remembered that there is no question here of the nature, the 
 extent, or the application of the " salvation " of which Jesus speaks. It is 
 
 759
 
 760 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGION^. 
 
 not in the least a question to how many, or to whom, the salvation spoken 
 of flows. It is simply and solely a question whence it issues; from what 
 source. The destination of the salvation may be very wide, may be as 
 wide as the world. It may even, so far as our immediate purpose is con- 
 cerned, include every individual soul of the whole human race. But the 
 origin, the fountain head of the salvation, is narrow, it is single. It is, 
 according to Jesus, from the Jews alone. 
 
 Very noteworthy is it that, in connection with an utterance suited to 
 elicit such praise from such a source, Jesus should have added the chal- 
 lenging clause of claim and exclusion which we are considering, "Salva- 
 tion is from the Jews." No doubt in using those words, Jesus had refer- 
 ence to Himself as born a Jew, and as being Himself the exclusive personal 
 bringer of the salvation spoken of. The system of Judaism is contained 
 in the Old Testament scriptures. To those documents, then, we may go 
 with the same confidence as to the New Testament itself, in order to learn 
 what the attitude is of Christianity toward alien religions. Of all religions 
 whatsoever, it may be said comprehensively that their ostensible oljject, 
 their principal pretension, is one and the same, namely, to be a means of 
 salvation to men. As to all religions except Judaism, Jesus teaches that 
 the pretensions is false; he declares that human salvation is of (from) the 
 Jews, and the force of the language is such as to carry the rigorous infer- 
 ence that he meant from the Jews alone. This attitude of His is, of course, 
 an attitude of frank and uncompromising hostility to every other religion 
 other than his own. 
 
 The ethical truth implied in the precept against lying, namely, the truth 
 that lying is wrong, is in Buddhism related to the falsehood that successful 
 lying is not lying in such a way that the precept with its accompaniment 
 becomes rather a challenge to skill in the liar's art than a deterrent from 
 the liar's sin, unless some one can explain Hardy's translation of Buddhism 
 differently than I can understand it. 
 
 If there were time for purpose it would be easy to show that the 
 
 further capital precept in Buddhist ethics which forbids the taking of life 
 is similarly made void; nay, absolutely, vitally vicious and mischievous, by 
 casuistic explanations and conditions accompanying in the sacred text 
 where it occurs. 
 
 Buddhism is, by general consent, high, perhaps even highest, in ethical 
 reach among all the religions that might be supposed to compete with 
 Christianity. There is a current disposition in the Christian world to give 
 this religious faith quite its full due of appreciation and respect. From 
 such a measure of regard it would be contrary to the spirit of Christianity 
 to detract anything or to begrudge anything. But truth is a more sacred 
 interest still than is mere complaisance. I simply ask of those who know 
 Christianity: What must be the attitude of Christianity toward a religious 
 system which teaches what it seems to be clear that Buddhism teaches on 
 the subject of lying. 
 
 Can that attitude be other than one of uncompromising hostility? The 
 question is not of the attitude of Christianity toward this particular thing 
 or that particular thing, which may be good and truem a given religious 
 system, but of the attitude of Christianity toward the system as a whole. 
 And that religious system is by Christianity condemned as a whole, which, 
 on a fundamental pivotal point like that of truth telling, teaches, by 
 inevitably suggested reference, that you may lie if you only will take suc- 
 cessful care not to get found out by the person you lied to. 
 
 I was shut up to the present line of argument as to Buddhism, for the 
 obvious reason that Christianity, whether in its Old Testament or its New 
 Testament form, never came into any historic contact with that ancient 
 Indian faith. If the best of the ethnic religions thus fails at a crucial 
 ethnical point to meet the commendation of Christianity, much more might 
 be expected to fail religions confessedly inferior.
 
 ATTITUDE OF CHRISTIANITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS. 7G1 
 
 But Christianity, iu its Old Testament form, came into close contact 
 with a considerable number of the various dominant religious of the ancient 
 world. To say that its attitude toward all these was implacably hostile is 
 to understate the fact. The fact is, that the one unifying principle that 
 reduces to order and evolution the history recorded in the Okl Testament is 
 the principle that it was a history divinely directed to the elfacement in 
 the Jewish mind of every vestige of faith in any religion save the Jewish ; 
 that is, substantially, essentially, the Christian religion. The religions of 
 the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Syrians, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, 
 the Persians, were one and all equally and inexorably faced by Judaism — 
 that is, by Christianity in its ancient form— faced and condemned— no hesi- 
 tation, no reservation, no qualification, no exception, no complaisance, no 
 quarter shown of any kind. 
 
 The question thus raised is not a question of what the new spirit of this 
 closing 19th Christian century demands; it is strictly a question of what is 
 demanded by a just interpretation of certain unchangeable documents 
 descended to us from near about the beginning of the era called Christian. 
 What does the New Testament, fairly understood, teach us as to the atti- 
 tude of Christ and His apostles toward the non-Christian faith? That, now, 
 is a narrower question. 
 
 We have already found the necessary implication bearing on our sub- 
 ject, contained in those famous words of Christ'to the woman of Samaria, 
 to be an exclusive claim for Christianity as the trustworthy author of sal- 
 vation to mankind. With His pregnant choice of words, Jesus, that weary 
 Syrian noon, touched, in His easy, simple, infallible way, upon a thing that 
 is fundamental, central in religion, any religion, all religion; namely, its 
 undertaking to save. However much truth a given religion may incident- 
 ally involve, if its essential offer is a fallacious offer, then, by this rule, it is 
 false as a whole. The only religion that can be accounted true is the relig- 
 ion that can trustworthily offer to save. That religion is, according to 
 Jesus, the religion that springs out from among the Jews, which religion, 
 whether or not it be also Judaism, is, of course, at any rate, Christianity. 
 
 It seems desirable to pay this attention to the words of Jesus, spoken at 
 Jacob's well, for the two-fold reason that, first, here is a cause, perhaps 
 unique, of expressed contrast drawn by Him between His own and a par- 
 ticular competing religion, and, secondly, those words of His assumed the 
 true, the essential Judaism, Judaism independent of form, of ritual, to be 
 identical with Christianity. But we are far, very far, from being limited to 
 that one instance of the teachings of Jesus when we seek to know His mind 
 on the important subject which we are considering. The hostile attitude 
 of Jesus toward any and every offer other than His own to save is to be 
 recognized in many supremely self-asserting, universally exclusive sayings 
 of His — sayings so many, indeed, that it would half absorb my allotment 
 of space merely to quote them all. 
 
 No man cometh unto the Father (that is, no man oau be saved) but by Me. 
 
 I am the blood of life. 
 
 If any man thirst. let him come unto Me and drink, 
 
 I am the light of the world, 
 
 I am the door of the sheep. 
 
 All that oume before Me are thieves and robbers. 
 
 I am the door; by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. 
 
 Such are a few specimens of the expressions from Jesus' own lips of 
 sole, of exclusive claim to be Himself alone the Savior of inan. 
 
 It may be answered, " But Jesus also said, ' I, if I be lifted up, will draw 
 all men unto me,' " and we are thence warranted in believing, of many souls 
 involved in alien religions, that, drawn consciously or unconsciously to 
 Jesus, they are saved, notwithstanding the misfortune of their religious 
 environment.
 
 762 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 To this, of course, I agree. I am grateful that such seems, indeed, to be 
 the teaching of Chi-istianity. I simply ask to have it borne steadily in 
 mind that it is .not at all the extension of the benefits flowing from the 
 exclusive power of Jesus to save that we are at present discussing, but 
 strictly this question: "Does Christianity recognize any share of saving 
 efficacy as inherent in the non-Christian religions? " In other words, is it 
 anywhere in scripture represented that Jesus chooses to exert His saving 
 power, in some degree, greater or less, through religions not His own? If 
 there is any hint, any shadow of hint, in the Bible, Old Testament or New, 
 looking in the direction of the answer yes to that question, why, I confess 
 I never have found it. Hints, however, far from shadowy I have found, 
 and in abundance, to the contrary. 
 
 I feel the need of begging you to observe that what I say in this paper 
 is not to be misunderstood as undertaking on behalf of Christianity to der- 
 ogate anythuig whatever from the merit of individual men among the 
 nations, who have risen to great ethical heights without aid from historic 
 Christianity in either its New Testament or its Old Testament form. I 
 should like to name among these the sweet and gentle tradition of that 
 Indian prince whom we Westerns best know by his title of Buddha, the 
 comparatively pure, aspiring spirit of Persian Zoroaster, the strict, practical 
 moralist Confucius of the Chinese, the classic Athenian Socrates, the 
 Roman Marcus Aurelius, far less justly renowned as emperor of the world 
 than as author of that non-Christian, unconscious, Imitatio Christi, his 
 noble reflections or maxims. I off'er only a suggestive, not an exhaustive 
 list. But it is not of persons, either the mass or the exce^jtions, that I task 
 myself here to speak. I am leading you to consider only the attitude 
 assumed by Christianity toward the non-Christian religions. 
 
 Let us advance from weighing the immediate utterances of Jesus to 
 take some account of the utterances of those upon whom, as His repre- 
 sentatives, Jesus, according to the New Testament, conferred the right to 
 speak with an authority equal to His own. 
 
 Olympianism presented the principal historic contrast for Christianity, 
 with alien religious faiths. What attitude did Christianity assume toward 
 Olympianism. 
 
 On Mars Hill, in Athens, the Apostle Paul delivered a discourse, which 
 is sometimes regarded as answering the question, and answering it in the 
 sense more or less favorable to polytheism. This view of that memorable 
 discourse seems to me not tenable. Indeed, the 'resort to that utterance of 
 Paul's is not, as I think, projjer to be made in quest of his sentiments on 
 the subject now under discussion. What he said on Mars Hill should be 
 studied as an illustration of his method of approaching men involved in 
 error, rather than a revelation of his inmost thought and feeling in regard 
 to that particular error in which he found his Athenian auditors involved. 
 Paul disclosed himself truly as far as he went, but he did not disclose him- 
 self fully that day. He sought a hearing, and he partly succeeded in finding 
 it. It is probable that he would wholly have failed had he spoken out to 
 the Areopagites in the manner in which he spoke out to Christian disciples. 
 It is to his outspoken declarations of opinion and feeling that we should 
 go to learn his true attitude toward Olymjjianism. 
 
 Speaking of the adherents generally of the Gentile religions, he uses this 
 language: 
 
 Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools, and changed the 
 incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of 
 birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. 
 
 Man, bird, beast, reptile — these four specifications in their ladder of 
 descent seem to indicate every different form of Gentile religion with which 
 Christianity, ancient or modern, came into historic contact. The conse- 
 quences penally visited by the offended jealous God of Hebrew and of
 
 ATTITUDE OF CHRISTIANITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS. 7a3 
 
 Christian, for such degradation of the innate worshiping instinct, such 
 profanation of the idea, once pure in human hearts, of (Jod the incorrupt- 
 ible, are described by Paul in words whose mordant, Magrant, caustic, 
 branding power has made them famous and familiar. 
 
 Wherefore God gave them up to the lusts of their hearts, unto unclean- 
 liness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; for that 
 they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the 
 creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. 
 
 I arrest the quotation unfinished. The remainder of the passage 
 descends into particulars of blame, well known and well known to be truly 
 charged against the ancient pagan world. No hint of exception here in 
 favor of points defectively good, or at least not so bad, in the religions con- 
 demned; no qualitication, no mitigation of sentence suggested. Everything 
 heavy-shottetl, point-blank denunciation. No idea submitted of there 
 being in some cases true and acceptable worship hidden away, disguised 
 and unconscious, under false forms. No possibility glanced at of there 
 being a silent distinction made by some idolaters, if made only by a very 
 few discerning among them, between the idol server and the one incorrupt- 
 ible, jealous God as meant by such exceptional idolators to be merely sym- 
 bolized in the idol ostensibly worshiped by them. Reserve none on behalf of 
 certain initiated, illuminated souls seeking and finding purer religion in 
 esoteric " mysteries'" that were shut out from the profane vulgar. Chris- 
 tianity leaves no loophole of escape for the judged and reprobate anti-Chris- 
 tian religions with which it comes in contact. It shows instead only 
 indiscriminate damnation leaping out like forked lightning from the 
 presence of the Lord and from the glory of Kis power upon those incorrigibly 
 guilty of the sin referred to, the sin of worship paid to gods other than God. 
 
 There is no pleasing alleviation anywhere introduced in the way of 
 assurance, or even of possible hope, that a benign God will graciously 
 receive into His ear the ascriptions formally given to another as virtually, 
 though misconceivingly, intended for Himself. That idea, whether just or 
 not, is not scriptural. It is, indeed, anti-scriptural, therefore anti-Christian. 
 Christianity does not deserve the praise of any such liberality. As con- 
 cerns the sole, the exclusive, the incommunicable prerogatives of God, 
 Christianity is, let it be frankly admitted, a narrow, a strict, a severe, a 
 jealous religion. Socrates dying may have been forgiven his proposal of a 
 cock to be offered in sacrifice to yEsculapius, but Christianity, the Chris- 
 tianity of the Bible, gives us no shadow of reason for supposing that such 
 idolatrous act on his part was translated by God into worship acceptable 
 to Himself. 
 
 It is much if a religion such as the Bible thus teaches Christianity to 
 be leaves us any chance at all for entertaining hope concerning those 
 remaining to the last involved in the prevalence of false religion surround- 
 ing them. But chance there seems indeed to be of hope justified by 
 Christianity, for some among these unfortunate men. Peter, the straight- 
 ened Peter, the one apostle perhaps most inclined to be unalterably Jew- 
 ish, he it was who, having been hitherto specially instructed, said: 
 
 Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation 
 he thatfeareth Him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him. 
 
 To fear God first, and then also to work righteousness, these are the 
 traits characterizing ever and everywhere the man acceptable to God. But 
 evidently to fear God is not, in the idea of Christianity, to worship another 
 than He. It will accordingly be in degree as a man escapes the ethnic 
 religion dominant about him, and rises it — not by means of it, but in spite 
 of it — into the transcending element of the true divine worship, that the 
 man will be acceptable to God. 
 
 Of any ethnic religion, therefore, can it be said that it is a true religion, 
 only not perfect ? Christianity says no. Christianity speaks words of
 
 764 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 undefined, unlimited hope concerning those, some of those, who shall never 
 have heard of Christ. These words Christians, of course, will hold and 
 cherish according to their inestimable value. But let us not mistake them 
 as intended to bear any relation whatever to the erring religions of man- 
 kind. Those religions the Bible nowhere represents as pathetic and partly 
 successful gropings after God. They are one and all represented as grop- 
 ing downward, not groping upward. According to Christianity they hinder, 
 they do not help. Their adherents' hold on them is like the blind grasping 
 of drowning men on roots or rocks, that only tend to keep them to the bot- 
 tom of the river. The truth that is in the false religion may help, but it 
 will be the truth, not the false religion. 
 
 According to Christianity, the false religion exerts all its force to choke 
 and kill the truth that is in it. Hence the historic degeneration repre- 
 sented in the first chapter of Romans as effecting false religion in general. 
 If they were upward reaching they would grow better and better. If, as 
 Paul teaches, they in fact grow worse and worse, it must be because they 
 are downward reachings. The indestructible instinct to worship, that is in 
 itself a saving power. Carefullyguarded, carefully cultivated, it may even 
 save. But the worshiping instinct, misused or disused, that is, depraved 
 to idolatry or extinguished in atheism — " held down," as Paul graphic- 
 ally expresses it — is in swift process of becoming an irresistible destroying 
 power. The light that is in the soul turns swiftly into darkness. The 
 instinct to worship lifts Godward. The issue of that instinct, its abuse in 
 idolatry, its disuse in atheism, is evil, only evil, and that continually. 
 
 The attitude, therefore, of Christianity toward religions other than itself 
 is an attitude of universal, absolute, eternal, unappeasable hostility, while 
 toward all men everywhere, the adherents of false religion by no means 
 excepted, its attitude is an attitude of grace, mercy, peace for whosoever 
 will. How many may be found that will, is a problem which Christianity 
 leaves unsolved. Most welcome hints and suggestions, however, it affords, 
 encouragingChristiansjoyfully and gratefully to entertain, on behalf of the 
 erring, that relieved and sympathetic sentiment which the poet has taught 
 to call " the larger hope." 
 
 POSSIBLE RESULTS OF THE PARLIAMENT. 
 
 MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE. 
 
 " As we have attended the sessions of this glorious parlia- 
 ment," said Rev. George Dana Boardman of Philadelphia, who 
 assumed the chair during the temporary absence of Dr. 
 Barrows, " we would fain have sung that effusion of the Ameri- 
 can poetess: 'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of 
 the Lord.' It will be our pleasure now to listen for ten 
 minutes to Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, author of the ' Battle 
 Hymn of Freedom.' " 
 
 Mrs. Howe, who was received with loud applause and the 
 
 Chatauqua salute, spoke as follows: 
 
 I only hope you may be able, not only to listen but also to hear me. 
 Your charity must multiply my small voice, and do gome such miracle as
 
 POSSIBLE RESULTS OF THE PARLIAMENT. 705 
 
 was done when the loaves and fishes fed the multitude in the ancient time 
 which has just been spoken of. I have been listoninf? to what our much 
 honored friend, Professor Wilkinson, has said, and yet, before I say any- 
 thing on my own account, I want to take the word Christianity back Uy 
 Christ Himself, back to that mighty heart whose pulse seems to throl) 
 through the world to-day, that endless fountain of charity, out of whicii I 
 believe has come all true progress and al! civilization that deserves the 
 name. As a woman, I do not wish to dwell upon any trait of exclusiveness 
 in the letter which belonged to a time when such exclusiveness perhaps 
 could not be helped, and which may have been put in where it was not 
 expressed. I go back to that great spirit which contemplated a sacrifice for 
 the whole of humanity. That sacrifice is not one of exclusi.)n, but of an 
 infinite and endless and joyous inclusion. And I thank God for it. 
 
 I have turned my back to-day upon the great show in Jackson Park in 
 order to see agreater spectacle here. The daring voyage of Columbus across 
 an unkaown sea we all remember with deep gratitude. All that we have 
 done and all that we are now doing is not too much to do honor to tlie 
 loyalty and courage of that one inspired man. But the voyages of so many 
 valorous souls into the unknown infinite of thought, into the deep ques- 
 tions of the soul between man and God — oh, what a voyage is that! Oh, 
 what a sea to sail! And I thought, coming to this Parliament of Religions, 
 we shall have found a port at last; after many wanderings we rhall have 
 come to the one great harbor where all the fleets can ride, where all the 
 banners can be displayed, and on eachbanner will be written, so bright that 
 it will efface the herald's blazon, these words that Paul uttered in Athens, 
 "to the unknown God;" to the God who is not unknown because we 
 doubt Him, not unknown because we do not feel that He is the life of our 
 life, the soul of our soul, the light of the world in which we live and move, 
 but because He, being infinite, transcends our powers, and all humanity, 
 speaking from every standpoint, saying all it can, and all that it knows, 
 can not say that it knows Him. 
 
 I hoped and still hope that from this parliament something very posi- 
 tive in the way of agreement and of practical action will come 
 forth. It has certainly been very edifying. My limited strength has not 
 allowed me to attend here very much, but I know and we all know the 
 drift of what has been going on here. It has been extremely edifying to 
 hear of the good theories of duty and morality and piety which the various 
 religions advocate. I will put them all on one basis, Christian and Jewish 
 and ethnic, which they all promulgate to mankind. But what I think we 
 want now to do is to inquire why the practice of all nations, our own as 
 well as any other, is so much at variance with these noble precepts? 
 These great founders of religion have made the true sacrifice. They have 
 taken a noble human life, full of every human longing and passion antl power 
 and aspiration, and they have taken it all to try and find out something about 
 this question of what God meant man to be and does mean him to be. 
 But while they have made this great sacrifice, how is it with the multitude 
 of us? Are we making any sacrifice at all? We think it was very well that 
 those heroic spirits should study, should agonize and bleed for us. But 
 what do we do? 
 
 Now, it seems to me very important that from this parliament should 
 go forth a fundamental agreement as to what is religion and as to what is 
 not religion. I need not stand here to repeat any definition of what relig- 
 ion is. I think you will all say that it is aspiration, the pursuit of the 
 divine in the human; the sacrifice of everything to duty for the sake of 
 God and of humanity and of our own individual dignity. What is it that 
 passes for religion? In some countries magic passes for religion, and that 
 is one thing I wish, in view particularly of the ethnic faiths, could be made 
 very prominent— that religion is not magic. I am very sure that in many
 
 766 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 countries it is supposed to be so. You do something that will bring you 
 good luck. It is for the interests of the priesthood to cherish that idea. 
 Of course, the idea of advantage iu this life and in another life is very 
 strong, and rightly very strong in human breasts. Therefore, it is for the 
 advantage of the priesthoods to make it to be suijposed that they have in 
 their possession certain tricks, certain charms, which will give you either 
 some particular prosperity in this world, or possibly the privilege of 
 immortal happiness. Now, this is not religion. This is most mischievous 
 irreligion, and I think this parliament should say, once for all, that the name 
 of God and th3 names of His saints are not things to conjure with. 
 
 Europe to-day is afflicted with a terrible scourge— Europe and, I think, 
 other continents. This scourge is generated by a pilgrimage which pious 
 Mohammedans — there may be some present — are led to suppose is for the 
 benefit of their souls. They go to a spot which they consider sacred; they 
 die; they perish by thousands; their animals perish; a terrible atmosphere 
 is generated which flies all over the globe, and we do not know how soon 
 this pestilence will reach us. It seems to me, that we, at this Parliament 
 of Religions, can ask any who represent that religion here to say that this 
 pilgrimage is not religion; a pilgrimage which poisons whole continents and 
 sweeps away men, women, and children by thousands has nothing to do 
 with religion at all. It would be for the benefit of the whole world if we 
 could take that^tand. 
 
 Then I may say another thing. I think nothing is religion which puts 
 one individual absolutely above others, and surely nothing is religion which 
 puts one sex above another. Religion is primarily our relation to the 
 Supreme — to God Himself. It is for Him to judge; it is for Him to say 
 where we belong — ^who is highest and who is not; of that we know 
 nothing. And any religion which will sacrifice a certain set of human 
 beings for the enjoyment or aggrandizement or advantage of another is no 
 religion. It is a thing which may be allowed, but it is against true religion. 
 Any religion which sacrifices women to the brutality of men is no religion. 
 
 From this parliament let some valorous, new, strong, and courageous 
 influence go forth, and let us have here an agreement of all faiths for one 
 good end, for one good thing — really for the glory of God, really for the sal- 
 vation of humanity from all that is low and animal and unworthy and 
 undivine. 
 
 MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY TO OTHER 
 RELIGIONS. 
 
 REV. JAMES S. DEVINE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Christianity must speak in the name of God. To Him it owes its exist- 
 ence, and the deep secret of its dignity and power is that it reveals Him. 
 It would be efl'rontery for it to speak simply upon its own responsibility, or 
 even in the name of reason. It has no philosophy of evolution to pro- 
 pound. It has a message from God to deliver. It is not itself a philosophy ; 
 it is a religion. It is not earth-born; it is God- wrought. It comes not 
 from man, but from God, and is intensely alive with His power, alert with 
 His love, benign with His goodness, radiant with His light, charged with 
 His truth, sent with His message, inspired with His energy, regnant 
 with His wisdom, instinct with the gift of spiritual healing, and mighty 
 with supreme authority. 
 
 It has a mission among men, whenever or wherever it finds them, which 
 is as sublime as creation, as marvelous as spiritual existence, and as full of 
 mysterious meaning as eternity. It finds its focus, and as well its radiating 
 center, in the personality of its great Revealer and Teacher, to whom, 
 
 I
 
 MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS. 767 
 
 before His advent, all the fingers of light pointed, and from whom, since 
 His incarnation, all the brightness of the day has shown. It has a lurtlier 
 and supplemented historic basis in the Holy Scriptures, which Uoti has 
 been pleased to give through inspired writers, chosen and commissioned by 
 Him. 
 
 Its message is much more than Judaism; it is infinitely more than the 
 revelation of nature. It has wrought in love, with the touch of regenera- 
 tion, with the inspiration of prophetic vision, in the mastery of spirit con- 
 trol, and by the transforming power of the divine indwelling, 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 accom- 
 plish its mission. It is addressed 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 God has planted in man. It is not to be judged, 
 therefore, by what it has achieved in the world, except as the world has 
 voluntarily received it. Where it is now known, and where it has been 
 ignored and rejected, it withholds the evidence of its power, but where it 
 has been accepted, it does not shrink from the test, but rather triumphs in 
 its achievements. Its attitude toward mankind is marked by gracious 
 urgency, not compulsion; by gentle condescension, not pride; by kindly 
 ministry, not harshness; by faithful warning, not taunting reproaches; by 
 plain instruction, not argument; 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 of 
 God. It records the great spiritual facts of human history; it announces 
 the perils and needs of men; it reveals the mighty resources of redemp- 
 tion; it solves the problems and blesses the discipline of life; it teaches 
 the whole secret of regeneration and hope and moral triumph; it brings to 
 the world the co-operation of divine wisdom in the great struggle with the 
 r^ark mysteries of misery and suffering. Its message to the world is so full 
 of quickening inspiration, so resplendent with light, so charged with 
 power, so effective in its ministry that its mission can be characterized 
 only by the use of the most majestic symbolism of the natural universe. It 
 is indeed the " sun of righteousness arising with healing in his wings." 
 
 We are asked now to consider the message of Christianity to other 
 religions. If it has a message to a sinful world, it must also have a mes- 
 sage to other religions which are seeking to minister to the same fallen 
 race and to accomplish in their own way and by diverse methods the very 
 mission God has designed should be Christianity's privilege and high 
 function to discharge. 
 
 Let us seek now to catch the spirit of that message and to indicate in 
 brief outline its purport. We must be content simply to give the message; 
 the limits of this paper forbid any attempt to vindicate it, or to demon- 
 strate its historic integrity, its heavenly wisdom, audits excellent glory .^ 
 
 Its spirit is full of simple sincerity, exalted dignity and sweet unselfish- 
 ness. It aims to impart a blessing, rather than to challenge a comparison. 
 It is not so anxious to vindicate itself as to confer its benefits. It is not so 
 solicitous to secure supreme honor for itself as to win its way to the heart. 
 It does not seek to taunt, to disparage, or humiliate its rival, biit rather to 
 subdue by love, attract by its own excellence, and supplant by virtues of its 
 own incomparable superiority. It is itself incapable of a spirit of rivalry, 
 because of its own indisputable 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 argument, it is incapable of trickery or deceit, and it repudiates 
 cant. It relies ever upon its own intrinsic merit and bases all its claims on 
 its right to be heard and honored. 
 
 Its miraculous' evidence is rather an exception than a rule. It was a
 
 768 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 sign to help weak faith. It was a concession made in the spirit of conde- 
 scension. Miracles suggest mercy quite as much as they announce 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 impressiveness, 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, to 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 meantime we can not but rec- 
 ognize 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." Centuries 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 charac- 
 terized by singular reserve, and its progress has been marked by an unos- 
 tentatious 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-facedness, with 
 no anxiety for alliance with worldly power or social eclat, caring more for 
 a place of influencekin 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 transformation of character, in order that its own spirit 
 and principles may sway the spiritual life of men. 
 
 It speaks, then, to other religions with unqualified frankness and plain- 
 ness, based upon its own incontrovertible claim to a hearing. It has nothing 
 to conceal, but rather invites to inquiry and investigation. It recognizes 
 promptly and cordially whatever is worthy of respect in other religious 
 systems; it acknowledges the undoubted 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 ignorance;" it warns, and 
 persuades, and commands, as is its right; it speaks as Paul did in the presence 
 of cultured heathenism on Mars Hill, 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. 
 
 All this it does with a superb and unwavering tone of quiet insistence. 
 It often presses its claim with argument, appeal, and tender urgency, yet 
 in it all and through it all would be recognized a clear, resonant, predominant 
 tone of uncompromising insistence, revealing that supreme personal will 
 which originated Christianity, and in whose name it ever speaks. It 
 delivers its message with an air of untroubled confidence and quiet mastery. 
 There is no anxiety about precedence, no undue care for externals, no possi- 
 bility of being patronized, no undignified spirit of competition. It speaks, 
 rather, with the consciousness of that simple, natural, incomparable, meas- 
 ureless supremacy which quickly disarms rivalry, and in the end challenges 
 the admiration and compels the submission of hearts free from malice and 
 guile. 
 
 This being the spirit of the message, let us inquire as to its purport. 
 There is one immensely preponderating element here "which pervades the 
 
 I
 
 MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS. 7C9 
 
 whole content of the message — it is love for man. Christianity is full of 
 it. This is its supreme meaning to the world— not that love eclipses or 
 shadows every other attribute in God's character, but that it glorifies and 
 more perfectly reveals and interprets the nature of God and the history of 
 his dealings with men. The object of this love mui^t be carefully noted — 
 it is matikind — the race considered as indiviJuals or as a wliole. 
 
 Christianity vmfolds a message to other religions which emphasizes this 
 heavenly principle. It reveals therein the secret of its power and the 
 unique wonder of its whole redemptive system. "Never spake man like 
 this man," was said of Christ. Never religion spake like this religion, may 
 be said of Christianity. The Christian system is conceived in love; it 
 brings the provision of love to fallen man; it administers its marvelous 
 functions in love; it introduces men into an atmosphere of love; it gives him 
 the inspiration, the joy, the fruition of love; it leads at last into the reahu 
 of eternal love. While accomplishing this end, at the same time it convicts 
 of sin, it melts into humility. We who love and revere Christianity believe 
 that it declares the whole counsel of God, and we are content to rest our 
 case on the simple statement of its historic facts, its spiritual teachings, 
 and its unrivaled mystery to the world, Christianity is its own best evi- 
 dence. 
 
 I have sought to give the essential outline of this immortal message of 
 Christianity by grouping its leading characteristics in a series of code 
 words, 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 w^e place in this signal code of Christianity, is 
 fatherhood. This may have a strange sound to some ears, but to the Chris- 
 tian it is full of sweetness and dignity. It simply means that the creative 
 act of God, so far as our human family is concerned, was done in the spirit of 
 fatherly love and goodness. He created us in His likeness, and to express 
 this idea of spiritual resemblance and tender relationship, the symbolical 
 term of fatherhood is used. When Christ taught us to pray " Our Father," 
 He gave us a lesson which transcends human philosophy, and has in it so 
 much of the height and depth of divine feeling that hutnan reason lias 
 hardly dared to receive, much less to originate, the conception. 
 
 A second word which is representative in the Christian message is 
 brotherhood. This exists in two senses — there is the universal brotherhood 
 of man to man, as children of one father in whose likeness the whole fam- 
 ily 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 repudiated in some quarters even in the name of religion, and 
 it seems clear that it will never be fully recognized and exemplified except 
 as the spirit of Christ assumes its sway over the hearts of men. 
 
 The next code word of Christianity is redemption. We use it here in 
 the sense of a purpose on God's part to deliver man from sin, and to nuike 
 a universal provision for that end, which, if rightly used, insures the result. 
 I need not remind you that this purpose is conceived in love. God. as 
 Redeemer, has taken a gracious attitude toward man from the beginning of 
 history, and He is " not far from every one " in the immanence and omni- 
 presence of His love. Redemption is a world embracing term; it is not 
 limited to any age or class. Its potentiality is world-wide; its etliciency is 
 unrestrained, except as man limits it; its application is determined by the 
 sovereign wisdom of God, its author, who deals with each individual as a 
 possible canaidate for redemption, and decides his destiny in accordance 
 with his spiritual attitude toward Christ. 
 
 Where Christ is unknown, God still exercises his sovereignty, although
 
 770 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 he has been pleased to maintain a significant reserve as to the possibility, 
 extent, and spiritual tests of redemption where trust is based on God's 
 mercy in general, rather than upon His mercy as specially revealed in 
 Christ. We know from His word that Christ's sacrifice is infinite. God 
 can apply its saving benefits to one who intelligently accepts it in faith, or 
 to an infant who receives its benefits as a sovereign 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 mankind. 
 This He did in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a mighty mystery, 
 and Christianity would never dare assert it except as God has taught its 
 truth. Granted the purpose of God to reveal Himself in visible form to 
 man, and He must be free to choose His own method. He did not consult 
 human reason. He did not ask the advice of philosophy. He did not seek 
 the permission of ordinary law. He came in His spiritual chariot in the 
 glory of the supernatural, but He entered the realm of human life through 
 the humble gateway of nature. He came not only to reveal God, but to 
 bring Him into contact with human life. He came to assume permanent 
 relations to the race. His brief li-fe 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 teach- 
 ing^the mysterious doctrine of atonement. Sin is a fact which is indis- 
 putable. 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 degrada- 
 tion, and its hopeless ruin, can not coalesce in any system of moral govern- 
 ment. God can not tolerate sin, or temporize with it, or make a place for it 
 in His preeence. He can not parley with it; He must punish it. He can 
 not treat with it; He must try it at the bar. He can not overlook it; He 
 must overcome it. He can not give it a moral status; He must visit it 
 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 voluntary self-assump- 
 tion in the spirit of sacrifice, of its penalty. This He does in the person of 
 Jesus Christ, who came, as God incarnate, upon this sublime mission. The 
 facts of Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection take their place in the 
 realm of veritable history, and the moral value and propitiatory efficacy of 
 His perfect obedience and sacrificial death, in a representative capacity, 
 become a mysterious element of limitless worth in the process of readjust- 
 ing 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 Redeemer, his intercessor, his savior, and simply believes in Him, trusting 
 in His assurances and promises, based, as they are, upon His atoning inter- 
 vention, 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 justification of the sinner. Here again we have the 
 mystery of love in its most intense form and the mystery of wisdom in its 
 most august exemplification. 
 
 This is the heart of the gospel. It throbs with mysterious love; it pul- 
 sates 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 scru- 
 tiny of human reason; but it sends the life-blood coursing through history,
 
 MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS 771 
 
 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 tinal. 
 
 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 
 problem of moral government solved, the next matter which presents 
 itsolf is the personality of the individual man. It must be purified, trans- 
 formed into the spiritual likeness of Christ, trained for immortality. It 
 must be brought into harmony with the ethical standards of Christ. This 
 Christianity insists upon, and for the accomphshment of this end it is 
 gifted with an influence and impulse, a potency and winsomeness, an 
 inspiration and helpfulness, which are full of spiritual mastery over the soul. 
 Christianity uplifts, transforms, and eventually transflgures 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 accom- 
 plishes its purpose by exacting obedience, by teaching submission, by help- 
 ing to self-control, by insisting upon practical righteousness as a rule of 
 life, and by introducing the Golden Rule as the law of contact and duty 
 between man and man. 
 
 In vital connection with character is a word of magnetic impulse and 
 unique glory which gives to Christianity a sublime practical power in 
 history. It is service. There is a forceful meaning in the double influence 
 of Christianity over the inner life and the outward 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 v.-orld, can it 
 vindicate its origin. Christianity recognizes no worship which is altogether 
 divorced from work for the w'eal of others, it indorses no religious profes- 
 sions which are unmindful of the obligations of service; it allows itself to 
 be tested not simply by the purity of its motives but by the measure of its 
 sacrifices. The crown and goal of its followers are: " 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 sug- 
 gests that it is to be passed with God. It illumines and transfigures 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 aspira- 
 tions, 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 His people, and 
 His people with each other. An invisible society of regenerate souls, which 
 we call the kingdom of God among men, is the result. This has its visible 
 product in the organized society of the Christian church, which is the 
 chosen and honored instrument of God for the conservation and propaga- 
 tion of Christianity among men. 
 
 This, then, is the message w'hich Christianity signals to other religions 
 as it greets them to-day: Fatherhood, l^rcjtherhood, redemption, incarna- 
 tion, atonement, character, service, fellowship.
 
 772 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN FRANCE. 
 
 PROF. G. BONET-MAUEY OF PARIS. 
 
 I am very thankful that Dr. Barrows has given nae the opportunity of 
 widening the topic of my announced paper on French Liberal Protestant- 
 ism, and of presenting to you some general views on the religious state of 
 my country. Indeed, I was most anxious about the voice of France being 
 missed in this great symphony of all the nations of the earth. You might 
 have inferred from its silence that the French Republic had become quite 
 indifferent to religious matters, and that all Frenchmen were positivists or 
 atheists. Not at all ; the French nation is always Christian, although 
 Christianity had to fight there the struggle of life. But the French people 
 hold in abhorrence intolerance and hypocrisy, so that they could never 
 endure the spirit of Pharisees and Jesuits. 
 
 There are in my country three leading powers which are shaping the 
 future religion of France: Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 I will say very little of the first one, not only because I am a Protestant, 
 but also because this power is weakening, little by little, in the theological 
 and religious field. The greater part of the Roman Catholic people is nom- 
 inally Catholic, by chance of birth only. They don't believe in the dogmas 
 of the old church nor use its sacraments except in extreme cases. Most of 
 the bishops care little for preaching, overloaded as they are by the manage- 
 ment of things temporal. 
 
 This capital office of the pulpit is generally performed by members of 
 various monastic orders; Jesuits who are exerting great social influence by 
 the confessional and by educational institutions; Capuchins, or disciples of 
 St. Franciscus, whose oratory is more popular, and Dominicans, among 
 whom were found some of our most enlightened scholars, viz., the late 
 Lacordaire and Father Didon, who is still living and is principal of the 
 important college of Albert le Grand, near Paris. 
 
 However, among French Roman Catholics the leading power belongs 
 now to some godly and highly gifted laymen, viz., M. Chesnelong, 
 president of the Roman Catholic congresses; Comte Albert de Muu, 
 formerly an officer in the army and now lay preacher, who originated the 
 clubs for working people and is helping in many charities; Comte 
 Melchior de Vogue, one of our most brilliant writers, who was just now 
 elected as a deputy to the house of representatives. He is a leading con- 
 noisseur in Russian literature and is most beloved by the students of our 
 Paris University. He was one of the prime movers of our neo-Christian 
 revival. Happily this revival provoked strong oi)position from some of our 
 free-thinkers. Mr. Aulard, professor at the Sortjonne, raised up a contra- 
 league of the republican youth, and this opposition checked the Catholic 
 movement. 
 
 I am sorry to say that Father Hyacinthe has failed in his purpose for 
 want of support from his adherents; he was obliged to give up his Galilean 
 chapel in Paris to the old Catholic church of Holland. Therefore, the 
 influence of Roman Catholicism in France is mostly confined to charities, 
 to education, to social and political works. 
 
 Of French Protestantism I will say but few words, not because we are 
 a small minority in our country. Indeed, the value of a church is not to 
 be measured by the number of its faithful, but by the fervor, morality, and 
 the truthfulness of their ideals; since there were religions on earth, there 
 were minorities which have led the religious world No! I should have 
 too much to say of the works of Protestantism in my country. But go to 
 the Manufactures Building at the World's Fair, in the Liberal Arts section 
 of economical science, ask for the golden book of French Protestantism, find
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN FRANCE. 773 
 
 j'ou will find therein full information on the charities, associations for 
 mutual help and spiritual work of our people. Thus I hope you will ascer- 
 tain that French Protestants have not degenerated from their glorious fore- 
 fathers, the Huguenots. 
 
 Concerning the liberal, or non-confessionalist party, I would quote only 
 three facts: 
 
 First, the strong impulse given to the study of theology by the "Revue 
 de Strasbourg " (1850-1869) and continued since by our faculty of Protest- 
 ant theology at Paris, under the direction of Dean F. Litchenberger. 
 Among the results of this theological progress the most remarkable is tiie 
 entire discomposure of old Calvinism and the starting of a middle party, 
 originating with Alexander Vinet, culminating in Prof. 'Aug. Sabatier, and 
 which has got rid of the capital doctrines of the La Rochelle creed. 
 
 Second, the concentration of our capital by the side of our Protestant 
 faculty of the foremost leaders of the undenominational party. When 
 people saw Albert Reville and J. Fouque lecturing at the College de 
 France, A. Viguie and Waddington Jalabert and Planchon teaching in our 
 Paris university, Rabier, the philosopher, acting as general director of our 
 secondary public education, F. Buisson, F. Pecant, and J.,8teeg organiz- 
 ing our primary schools and training colleges (mostly according to the 
 American plan of education), they understood that there was in liberal 
 Protestantism a pregnant seed of scientiiic improvement, of ethical and 
 educational progress; they ascertained this truth — that there is a logical 
 connection between non-confessionalist Protestantism and self-government. 
 
 Third, however, the fact which, perhaps, has had the largest share in 
 the magic spell exercised by modern Protestantism on public opinions is 
 the unconcealed sympathy shown for us by many of our celebrated writers. 
 It will be sufiicient to quote the names of Michelet and Quinet, Charles de 
 Remusat, and Prevost Pardol, Henri Martin, and Eugene Pelletan, Ernest 
 Renan, and Henri Taine. Those leaders of French history, philosoi)hy, and 
 critics not only bestowed the greatest encomiums on Protestantism, and 
 vindicated, in some cases of intolerance, the rights of our church, but some 
 married Protestant ladies got for their children the benefit of biblical 
 instruction. Even the late Prevost Pardol, in his preface to the new e(U- 
 tion of Samuel Vincent's " Views on Protestantism" (18.59), prophesied the 
 final victory of Calvinistic Christianity over Roman Catholicism. 
 
 Whatever else may be, it is certain that Christianity will have to take 
 into account philosophy, viz., the f reeireligious thought. There are in France 
 four or five great schools of philosophy— the positivist school, t)riginated 
 by August Comte and Littre, which has gained ground among the med- 
 ical men, the scientists and working classes, with Pierre Lattitte for its 
 leader; the empiric school, of which T. H. Ribaut is the representative 
 man; the spiritualist school, originated by Victor Cousin, and now repre- 
 sented by G. Simon, P. Janet, Lachelier; the criticist school, originated 
 by Charles Renouvier, and represented by Pillon, editor of the Critique 
 Philosophique, and the idealistic school, independent of official creed, and 
 of which Ernest Renan and .J. Darmestetter are representative men. 
 
 Of these different schools, the first two care nothing for religion. The 
 two following only give marks of respect and sympathy to Christianity; 
 but the last took the deepest interest in and exercised the greatest influence 
 on religious thought in France. Therefore. I would like to give you some 
 more detail on the last school, and especially on its late leader, Ernest 
 Renan. I would not stand for every word of Renan's books. I am of 
 opinion that he has failed in interpreting Christ's ethical character, and that 
 he has published in late years too many things which were rather the off- 
 spring of his fancy or of familar chats than tlie results of mature reflection. 
 However, on the whole, he was a most learned and respectable man, loving 
 and tender brother, good husband, excellent father.
 
 774 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 He was a religious thinker, and procured a Christian teaching for all his 
 children. He was a faithful friend, and benevolent to every suffering soul, 
 but he could not agree to any Christian creed. He had sacrificed his liveli- 
 hood, and even a brilliant career in the Roman Catholic hierarchy, for rea- 
 sons 'of sincerity, and, having rejected the Pope's authority, he was not 
 willing to submit to any other. Then he had shaped for himself his own 
 fate, and from a few quotations of his work I shall show you that he was 
 not at all an atheist and an enemy to Christianity. On the contrary, the 
 elements of his religion were drawn from anti-Nicene Christianity, accord- 
 ing to the rule suggested by Bunson, and just now recovered by Prof. 
 Max MuUer, in his remarkable letter to the chairman of this parliament. 
 Weil, here are the prominent features of Kenan's religious thought: 
 
 Those men know me very little who are of opinioa that I mean to diminish 
 the amount of reliyion which is still remaining in the world, but 1 trust that, 
 once the sympathy of the truly religious souls shall come back to me, they 
 will perceive that the reason of my absolute frankness, which does not admit 
 that truth is wanting even in the lies of politicians, was in reality a feeling of deep 
 respect to religion. I have behaved in all relations which are at the bottom of 
 man's heart; never the one prevented me from hearing the others. I always 
 have thought that their contradictions were but apparent, and that the rule of 
 enforcing tlie silence of criticism for the sake of the moral and religious instincts 
 was not at all a mark of respect to divinity. Science is not an enemy to religion, 
 conceived as such. and. the latter ought not to mistrust science. The scientific 
 spirit is an integral part of religion, and without it nobody can become a true 
 worshiper, 
 
 God does not reveal Himself through wonders; He reveals Himself 
 through the heart. Therefore, in Kenan's eyes, the groundwork of religion 
 is the ethical sense. Hear Kenan again: 
 
 Philosophy in science will unceasingly seek for the solution of the cosmolog- 
 ical problem, but there is unquestionab y, as man will find to the end of his life, a 
 fulcrum for his flights; good is good, bad is bad. We want no system to be able 
 to love the Orst and to hate the other. In that way hate and love, although appar- 
 ent without link with reason, are the main fou'.dations of moral ceititude; they 
 are the only means man has for understanding whence he came and whither he 
 is going. 
 
 F'or this ethical basis Kenan was indebted to his Christian mother and 
 sister, and the religious training of his childhood at the Roman Catholic 
 seminaries of Treguier and Sulpice. If the first part of Kenan's faith was 
 positive, the second was a negative. He did not admit the supernatural 
 belief in wonders. His reason was that such belief is incompatible with 
 the general laws of the material world so far as they are known to modern 
 science. He did not reject the supernatural in se, but he said that none of 
 the so-called miracles were proved by satisfactory testimonies. However, 
 he affirmed that religion did not depend on the supernatural. "Religion," 
 says he, " is eternal. On the day when it would disappear the very heart 
 of mankind would be destroyed. Religion is as eternal as poetry, as love; 
 it will outlive the destruction of all illusions, even the death of the beloved 
 one. * * * Therefore, to sever the forever victorious cause of religion 
 from the last cause of miracles, is to do service to religion." 
 
 The real wonders, in Renan's opinion, were the works of Christian 
 iaith and love, but the wonder of wonders was the belief in immortality, 
 the unbroken belief that the soul is of divine essence and can not die. 
 Here are the significant words he wrote soon after he had recovered from 
 a dangerous attack of fever during his journey to Syria (1861): "I have 
 faced death, and I have brought back from the threshold of the infinite a 
 more than ever living faith in the reality of the ideal world. It is that 
 world which exists and the physical one which seems to exist. Leaning on 
 this conviction, I expect the future with quietness. The consciousness of 
 doing right is enough for my tranquility."' 
 
 Now, as to Renan's opinion about the person of Jesus Christ and the 
 outlook of Christianity, here are his words in the last chapter of his " Life 
 of Christ": " The perfect idealism of Christ is the highest rule of the 
 
 I
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN FRANCE. 775 
 
 unselfish and virtuous life. He has created the heavenly homo of all piiro 
 souls." "We ought thus to place Jesus at the highest top of hunuiii 
 greatness." "The Sublime Person we may call divine, not in the 
 sense that He has absorbed every divine hfe, but that He brought man- 
 kind the nearest to the divine ideal. * * * in Him was con- 
 densed every good and noble element of our nature. Nobody has over, 
 as much as He did, sacrificed the meanness of self-love to the good of 
 mankind. Unreservedly devoted to His faith. He has trampled on all j<jys 
 of the home, on all worldly cares, and by His heroic will Jesus has con- 
 quered for us heaven." 
 
 At last here is Renan's opinion of the outlook of Christianity: "There 
 are in Christianity, as it results from the preaching and the ethical type of 
 its Founder, the seeds of every improvement of mankind. Excejjt the 
 scientific spirit, which Jesus could not have, nothing is lacking for His relig- 
 ion to be the pure kingdom of God. He can not be surpassed. His worship 
 will unceasingly grow young again. His life will bring into the most beau- 
 tiful eyes tears which will never dry up; His sufferings will move the best 
 hearts; all centuries will proclaim that among the sons of men none was 
 born greater than Jesus." Such was Renan's testimony to Christ and to 
 Christianity. Well, that is the man who has been treated as an atheist, 
 as a destroyer of all religion, and as an enemy of Christ. 
 
 Let us see what are the outlooks of religion in France. I do not boast 
 of being a prophet, but, so far as I am acquainted with the inmost aspira- 
 tions of my country, I dare assert these three points: 
 
 France will remain a Christian nation, the land of St. Louis and Jeanne 
 d'Arc, of Calvin and St. Vincent de Paul. Thus the 20th century will 
 not, as was frequently foretold, see the decay of the religion of Christ; on 
 the contrary, it will see the end of every temporal religion, of every church 
 founded on social or political authority and wanting an ethical basis or 
 freedom of conscience. 
 
 The next century will see the full expansion of the religion of Jesus, 
 shaped in new form, better accommodated to the needs of our age. This 
 new Christianity «will combine the aesthetic and social characters of Roman 
 Catholicism with the ethical and individualistic elements of Calvinism. 
 
 But no doubt it will preserve some features of Renan's faith, viz., his 
 spontaneity and sincerity, his toleration and respect for every sincere belief, 
 his sympathy for the conquered and oppressed, his untiring benevolence for 
 every doubtful and inquiring soul, but, above all, his unbroken faith in the 
 improvement of mankind and the eternal life in God. 
 
 Here are, so far as I can see, the characteristic features of future relig- 
 ion in France, and perhaps they will be the same in the United States, for 
 there are between the two nations many common links. Both hold in 
 abhorrence intolerance and hypocrisy; both are fond of the ideal, and of 
 freedom, and of social progress. The first Parliament of Religious reminds 
 me of the splendid manifestation of self-denial, of freedom and of frater- 
 nity which took place a century ago at the beginning of our French revo- 
 lution. It is also, as it were, a pentecost of humanity, a pouring out of 
 the holy ghost of justice, of toleration, and of human brotherhood. May 
 God, the Almighty Father, let, it bring the most practical results; may it 
 instance always the brotherhood of Christian unity spread over the whole 
 world. 1 hail this first Parliament of Religions as the star of good hope 
 for all religious people seeking for peace and harmony in the Old as in the 
 New World.
 
 776 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 RESULTS OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS 
 IN TURKEY. 
 
 KEV. MAEDIROS IGNADOS. 
 (Read by Herant M. Kiretchjian.) 
 
 Turkey was the former cradle of humanity and the great nations and 
 governments of earlier days. It has also been the cradle of Judaism, Chris- 
 tianity, and Mohammedanism. In that land are now to be found millions 
 of followers of these religions, each having there a source of strength; the 
 Jews, for example, their Jerusalem, the Mohammedans their Khaliff, and 
 the Christians the churches established in the beginning by the Christian 
 apostles. Together with these religious institutions, Turkey has such a 
 geographical position that gives it a peculiar fitness to be the arena of 
 great political events. Those who appreciate these characteristics of 
 Turkey will consider with deep interest the results which Protestant Chris- 
 tianity has produced and may yet produce in. 'Great Asia. 
 
 Protestant Christianity was established in Turkey principally through 
 the Protestant Bible societies and missions. These societies published the 
 Holy Scriptures by revisions or new translations, and offered them to the 
 people at prices within the reach of all. To these were added the labors of 
 the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, which about 
 thirty year", ago were divided into the Congregationalist and Presbyterian 
 branches, the Congregationalist branch occupying Northern Turkey and 
 the Presbyterian the Southern field. The former have' labored until now 
 principally among the Armenians, Bulgarians, and Greeks, the latter among 
 the Syrians and Nestorians and Kopts. The Church of England and the 
 Scotch Presbyterian Church also have missions in Turkey "for the Jews. 
 Missionaries of the former labor also among the Kopts in Egypt. During 
 the past twenty-five years missions were established in Turkey by the 
 American Baptist Churches, the Disciples of Christ, and other denomi- 
 nations. All these societies have labored more or less among theiTurks and 
 Hebrews, giving them the Bible in their own languages, but I will not 
 enlarge upon that branch of the work, confining my remarks to the Chris- 
 tian peoples, since among them can be seen more definitely the results of 
 the labors of Protestant societies and native preachers. 
 
 Protestantism has had great and palpable results among the Armenian 
 Christians, who are considered leaders among the Asiatics, and who, at the 
 beginning of the Christian era, accepted Christianity both individually and 
 also as a nation, and they have to this day kept Christianity in the national 
 or Gregorian church. Among the 40,000 Protestants of Turkey, 30,000 are 
 Armenians, as well as three-fourths of the Evangelical Protestant churches. 
 
 Protestantism is an incentive to mental development and ideas of 
 liberty. Therefore, its results are generally seen first upon mental educa- 
 tion. It is so among the people in Turkey. The Christians in Turkey, and 
 especially the Armeniai s, began to think and speak freely and boldly upon 
 relierious subjects. They knew that to do this properly they must have 
 learning about all important subjects. Therefore, those who are working 
 among them paid great attention to the work of satisfying their minds. 
 This was done by the Protestant ministers and mir^sionaries in Turkey 
 from the beginning and is carried on to this day. The result is apparent 
 in the common schools, in the education of girls, and colleges and theo- 
 logical seminaries, which are to be found in Turkey. Many of these began 
 with Protestantism, and were developed with that movement in a way that 
 no one can deny. 
 
 Three-quarters of a century ago there were only a few places even in the
 
 RESULTS OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS. T7 
 
 larger cities of Turkey which could be called schools. Half a tenturj' ago 
 such schools were established even in the smallest cities. Since a quarter 
 of a century, schools were opened even in villages, where the children of 
 Protestants are proportionately more numerous. Moreover, in many vil- 
 lages and other places it is the Protestants who establish such schools. On 
 the banks of the Euphrates, in my native city, the Protestant schools became 
 an example for emulation, so that other schools were developed. There the 
 Protestants opened the first school for girls and others followed their exam- 
 ples. Adult women and even old people began there to study reading, desir- 
 ing to read the Bible. 
 
 It was the result of these schools that adults in general began to read 
 and the young to go to school. I know this has been the case in many 
 other cities, not only among the Armenians, but also among other nationali- 
 ties, by the influence of the Protestants among them. As a result of this 
 movement are introduced new text books, new systems of education, and 
 new methods of administration. For example, Protestant missionaries in 
 Smyrna introduced kindergarten schools, which were adopted by other 
 Armenian and Greek schools. Night schools, classes for adults, and 
 especially Sunday schools, were also begun and are carried on by Protestants 
 in these as well as other communities. 
 
 Protestant missions have rendered great services for higher education. 
 About sixty years ago there was need for a large number of Protestant 
 preachers. So, under :he care of Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, a high school was 
 opened for young men, A-here lessons were given on scientific and religious 
 subjects. This institution excited the emulation of Roman Catholic mis- 
 sionaries and other Christian communities, who also established high 
 schools in the larger cities. The government also became conscious of the 
 necessity of such a higher education, and established institutions for 
 young men where languages, science, and arts are taught. In this way, 
 every city now has its high school, and even college; the Protestant insti- 
 tutions, almo>t everywhere, being the first and most important. 
 
 The missionaries begin to work for the people. They learned their 
 modern languages, and translated the Bible into languages used by them 
 or easily understood, and offered it to the people. As a result of this, mod- 
 ern Armenian began to be used in our religious services, whereas, in the 
 national church, ancient Armenian is used. The Protestant people began 
 to use in family worship and public prayers the modern language, while 
 other Christians are accustomed to repeat written prayers which they have 
 committed to memory. Preachers began to write in the colloquial language 
 letters to the people, while the ancient languages are used by ministers of 
 other churches. The missionaries started a periodical publication called 
 Treasury of Useful Information, which, by its excellent modern Armenian, 
 became an example for other Protestant publications, so modern xVrmeuian 
 became a literary language, was developed and enriched rapidly, so that 
 even those of the nation who love the ancient language were compelled tc 
 use the modern in all things except the services of the church. 
 
 Thus, the common people found many useful publications which they 
 could understand, and therefore began to acquire the habit of reading. 
 Children also, having learned to stvidy in school, continued their studies 
 when they left school. In order to satisfy this demand, and also as a source 
 of profit, many engaged in the work of writing and translating novels and 
 other books. All this awakened among the people the love of reading, 
 which is the first step in the development of ideas and initiating reforma- 
 tion. It became the duty of the missionaries to give food to these i)eople 
 who wanted to read by offering them religious and moral truths through 
 their publications. So books were published on scientific, historical, and 
 popular subjects. The educated people began to study the scriptures with 
 reverence, and found it published by the Bible societies in the twenty
 
 778 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 languages used in Turkey. The American Bible Society has begun to do a 
 work which merits specially the gratitude of the Armenian people, namely, 
 publication of the Bible in the ancient Armenian language, which is used 
 in the national church. 
 
 The people of Turkey are generally conservative. Old things do not 
 change there very easily, especially ecclesiastical and religious matters. 
 But Protestantism proved mightier than ritualism, especially among the 
 Armenian Christians. Among them ceremonies and rites that were con- 
 sidered sacred were either abandoned or kept with a new meaning. 
 For example, the Lenten fast was abandoned and other fasts moderated. 
 They do not now go on pilgrimages to obtain salvation. They do not wor- 
 ship the pictures of saints and sacred things, but they use them as things of 
 excellent values. They do not believe that light descends upon the tomb 
 of Christ on Easter day miraculously, but they have it descend as a symbol 
 of a higher fact. Such reformations are preparations for greater internal 
 reformation. A pious people, when not satisfied with outward rites and 
 ceremonies, naturally seeks the internal and spiritual, and it has, in fact, 
 been thus in Turkey, especially among those who have apprehended the 
 truths of the Holy Book. 
 
 The morality of the Christian communities has been elevated. Until 
 the beginning of this century, even, great evils were prevalent in spite of 
 great pressure. In the capital it is forbidden to frequent coffee shops and 
 even to smoke, but even under such laws coffee shops gradually developed 
 into wine shops, and smokers became addicted to drink. Now there is 
 liberty for all things that are not contrary to morality, and unprincipled 
 men of low character have a free field to carry on secretly whatever their 
 greed may dictate. But in the presence of these corrupting influences even 
 the youth are well-behaved and modest, more than the men of a few 
 generations ago. Through the gospel and the labors of those who advo- 
 cate abstinence and simplicity, many young men voluntarily abandon the 
 use of intoxicating drinks and even smoking. Our young women, too, do 
 not favor following the fashions as much as they would naturally under 
 the circumstances. Truthfulness, honesty, and faithfulness in business 
 are more respected, especially among Christians, than they were a century 
 ago. The spirit of charity also has taken root in the hearts of the Christian 
 people. They give ten times more than those who preceded them, not only 
 for churches and schools, but also to establish institutions for the poor or 
 orphanages, hospitals, and help those stricken by famine, or poverty, or 
 suffering from disasters. 
 
 The last great and direct fruit of Protestantism has been reformation in 
 the heart or the salvation of the soul. By the leadership of Protestant 
 missionaries and the efforts of native ministers, in half a century there have 
 been established in Turkey more than one hundred and fifty evangelical 
 Protestant churches, v/ith more than fifteen thousand living members, and 
 we have the sure hope that God will raise from among these, evangelists full 
 of spirit, and fearless reformers. By their efforts, with the preparations so 
 far made, there will come such religious reformation among the Armenians, 
 Greeks, Bulgarians, and Kopt churches as has been in the past in Germany 
 and in England. Then the Oriental Church will be strengthened with a 
 new life and youthful spirit, and will join hands with her Western sister 
 church. Thus will shine with a glorious light the one universal Catholic 
 Church, to which will come also the non- Christian nation to form one fold 
 and one shepherd, and the one great head of the church of God. 
 
 This Parliament of Religions is called to glorify God by having its 
 blessed influence upon the evangelistic work of the missions in Turkey. 
 There is much to be accomplished there yet, of which I desire to point out 
 three directions, namely: 
 
 1. An institution of refuge for boys and girls who are homeless in the
 
 WHAT BUDDHISM HAS DOSE FOR JAPAN. T79 
 
 city of Smyrna, where they may be cared for, as tbey woukl hud they 
 homes, and receive Christian education. 
 
 2. The i)ublicatiou of a family i)aper which may be a }?uide to the 
 women of our people in all matters pertainin<,' to their life. 
 
 3. A most important matter is to send evangelists to Turkey wht) may 
 preach the gospel without interfering with ecclesiastic or denumiaational 
 questions. 
 
 These three enterprises are wants in the country, and are in tlie sjjirit 
 of this parliament. These would be new avenues through whieh the 
 abundant blessings of the gospel would How throughout Turkey, together 
 with which all Christian hearts would rejoice. 
 
 WHAT BUDDHISM HAS DONE FOR JAPAN. 
 
 HORIN TOKI. 
 
 I have had the pleasure of speaking something about Buddhism, and I 
 now again take the liberty of speaking something further about Bud- 
 dhism, so that you may understand that religion, as well as its relation to 
 our sunrise land of Japan, much better. In "chidown," which means, 
 translated into English, " degrees of wisdom,'' it is said that all Buddhas 
 teach in two ways. One is to teach the truth of doctrine; the other is to 
 guide the goodness and righteousness of mankind. The former teaches us 
 that our body and spirit are always in constant connection with the out- 
 side world and regulated by the absolute truth, which, having no beginning 
 or no end, fills the universe and yet performs the endless action of cause 
 and effect as in a circle. For instance, God in Christianity, the absolute 
 extremity in Confucianism, Ameno Minaka nushi no mikoto in Shintoism, 
 Borankamma in Brahmism, are established in order to show the truth of 
 the universe. 
 
 The latter — that is to guide the goodness and righteousness of mankind 
 — inspires us with purity and righteousness in our body 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, 
 should 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 
 vise double tongue, not to be greedy, neither be stingy, not to be cruel. 
 Such commandments guide us into morality and goodness kindly and 
 minutely, by regulating our every-day personal action. Such command- 
 ments, by pacifying, purifying, and enlightening our passions, as well as our 
 wisdom, shall in the run of its course make the present society, which is 
 full of vice, hatred, and struggles of race, just like hungry dogs or wolves, 
 a holy paradise of purity, peace, and love. The regulating power of such 
 commandments shall turn this troublesome world into the spiritual king- 
 dom of fraternity and humanity. 
 
 This is only one illustration of Buddhist preaching. Therefore, you see 
 tnat Buddhism does not quarrel with other religions about the truth. If 
 there were a religion which teaches the truth in the same way, Buddhism 
 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 mankind. It never asks 
 who discovered it. Ifonly appreciates the goodness and righteousness. It 
 helps the others in the purification of mankind. Buddha himself called 
 Buddhism "a round, circulating religion," which means the truth common 
 to every religion, regardless of the outside garment. The absolute truth
 
 780 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 must not be regarded as the monopolization of one religion of other. 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 jjhase 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 will be forever. 
 Consequently the Japanese people, who have been constantly guided by 
 this beautiful star of truth of Buddhas, are very hospitable for other relig- 
 ious and countries, and are entirely different from some other obstinate 
 nations. I say this without the least boast. Nay, I say this from sim- 
 plicity 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 unequaled in the way of picking up what is good and right, even 
 done by others. We never say who invented this? which country brought 
 that? The things of good nature have been most heartily 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 conclude that we are only blinded in imitating 
 others. We have our own nationality; let me assure you 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 firmly reserve our own 
 nationality as to manner, customs, arts, literature, benevolence, architect- 
 ure, and language. We have a charming and lovely nationality, which 
 characterizes all customs and relation between the sexes, between old and 
 young, and so on with peace and gentleness. You may think me too boast- 
 ful, but allow me to warrant you that in traveling into the interior of 
 Japan you will never be received with the salutation of " Hello, John." 
 You will never be received with the salutation, " Hello, Jack." Nay, our 
 people are not so impolite — none of them. Everywhere you go you will 
 receive hearty welcome and kind hospitality. 
 
 Not only this, you are well aware of the fact that Japan has her own 
 originality in fine arts, sculpture, painting, architectui'e, etc. Should you 
 doubt me, please trouble yourself to come over to Japan, where the beauti- 
 ful 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 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 with- 
 out shetlding tears. You must think 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 world-wide reputation in Japan? Allow 
 me to assure you that it was Buddhism. I have no time to count, one 
 by one, what Buddhism has wrought in Japan during the past 1,100 
 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 try- 
 ing to introduce some false religion into our country. As I said before, we 
 Buddhists welcome any who are earnest seekers after the truth, but can 
 we keep silent to see the falsehood disturbing the peace and nationality of
 
 RELIGIOUS UNION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 781 
 
 our country? The hateful rumor of the collision taking place between the 
 two parties is sometimes spread abroad. We, from the standpoint of love 
 to our country, can not overlook this falseliood 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 like, and call that stranger fcx)lisli, tiarbarous, 
 ignorant, and obstinate, on account of the latter denying tiio 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? I 
 should say that such a one as that is against i)eace, love, and oriler, fra- 
 ternity and humanity. I should say that such a one as tliat is against tlie 
 truth. He who is against the truth had better die. Justice does concpicr 
 injustice, and we are glad to see that the cloud of falsehood is gradually 
 tlisappearing before the light of truth. Also, you ladies and gentlemen 
 who are assembled now here are the friends of tin th. Nay,you are amidst 
 the truth. You breathe the truth as you do the air. And you surely 
 indorse my opinion, because it is nothing but the truth. 
 
 RELIGIOUS UNION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 
 
 KEY. JOHN GMEINER OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 A deep thinker, Lord Bacon, truly said: "A little philosophy inclineth 
 man's mind to atheism, but much philosophy bringcth men's minds about 
 to religion." Just as naturally as the needle of a compass tends to point 
 toward the magnetic pole the human mind tends toward its supreme 
 source and ultimate end — God. Hence another great thinker, St. Augustine, 
 observed: "Thou, O God, hast made us for Thee, and our heart is umjuiet 
 until it will rest in Thee." The consciousness of our relation to God, includ- 
 ing the corresponding duties toward Him, ourselves, and our fellow men, is 
 what we call religion. Religion is the most sublime gift of human nature, 
 the crowning perfection of man's rational faculties. It is, next to God Him- 
 self, the most fundamental, the most important, and the most interesting 
 matter M'hich can engage the attention of a serious mind. It is the ever 
 new and ever live question of questions of reflecting mankind, on the solu- 
 tion of which the solutions of all other great questions in science, philoso- 
 phy, private morality, and public policy ultimately depend. It is religion 
 which gives the most characteristic coloring and the most decided direction 
 to human life in all its phases— private, social, and public. 
 
 It is not rivers or seas, mountains or deserts, language or race, that 
 cause the deepest and widest separations between man and man, but relig- 
 ion. Differences of religion constitute the most marked dividing lino 
 between people of even the same language, same race, and same country; 
 but wherever people may meet, no matter what different language they 
 may speak, to what dilferent races they may belong, or what tint of color 
 their features may exhibit, as soon as they know they are one in religion, 
 a profoundly felt bond of sympathy unites them as members of one great 
 family, as children of one great supreme power. Hence there is no greater 
 means to promote it among all men than sincere fraternity, equality, peace, 
 and happiness, and no greater blessing on earth that could be conferred on 
 human society than religious union founded on truth. To promote the 
 same as far as our limited ability may permit, we have assembled from all 
 parts of the surface of the earth, here in the center of the great continent 
 of human liV)erty, happiness, and progress. 
 
 We have met here from various countries, various climes, various nations, 
 to reconsider seriously what St. Paul declared centuries ago at Athens, 
 when he said: 
 
 God who made tlie world and all things that are in it hath made of one all 
 Boankind. to dwell upon the whole face of the eai-th, determining appoiuleU
 
 782 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 times and the limits of their habitation that they should seek God, if haply 
 thoy may feel after Him or find Him, although He is not far from everyone of 
 us. For in Him we live and we move and we are, as some also of your own 
 poets said: " For we are also His offspring." 
 
 These, then, are the great truths which are to engage our attention at 
 present: First, God has made of one all mankind. As there was originally 
 but one human family, so there was also but one primitive religion. Sec- 
 ondly, as mankind separated into various tribes and nations "to dwell 
 upon the whole face of the earth," men became naturally estranged, and the 
 primitive religious union was broken up in a great number of different 
 religious forms. Thirdly, as mankind under the guidance of Providence is 
 nowadays becoming daily more united again, socially and intellectually, we 
 may hopefully look to the comparatively near future when this union of 
 mankind will be fitly crowned by religious unity, and the first and greatest 
 law will reign supreme all over the earth, " Love God above all and every 
 fellow-man as thyself." 
 
 When did man first receive this religion? At the very instant when the 
 Creator breathed into him the immortal soul the germ of religion was 
 implanted in his inmost nature. It is a great error to consider religion as 
 something merely imparted to man by some external agency, like the 
 knowledge of the alphabet, or of the statute laws of a land. Religion is 
 fundamentally inborn in every human soul. Hence St. Paul said that the 
 Gentiles, who have not the Mosaic law, do by nature those things that are of 
 the law; they are a law to themselves; they show the work of the law writ- 
 ten in their hearts, or man's consciousness of his relations to his Creator, 
 and of his consequent duties, is fundamentally inborn in the very nature of 
 man, filling him with high, noble, and indelible aspirations, or for infinite 
 truth, goodness, and immortality. 
 
 Centuries ago the wise men of Greece and Rome were forcibly struck 
 by this potent and sublime fact. Thus Seneca observed: "In all men a 
 belief concerning God is implanted." And Plutarch declared: 
 
 When you visit countries you may find communities without walls, letters, 
 laws, houses, wealth, or money, ignorant of gymnasiums and theatres, but a city 
 without temples and gods, without the use of prayers, the oath, the oracle, with- 
 out sacrifices to obtain favors or to avert evil, nobody has ever seen. 
 
 If we turn our attention to the more recent or now living tribes of men, 
 even those whom we may consider as little advanced in what we vaguely 
 call civilization, we find the same to be true. Take for illustration the 
 aborigines of our own country. There is one who has for years extensively 
 traveled and carefully observed among them. George Catlin says: 
 
 I fearlessly assert to the world, and I defy contradiction, that the North 
 American Indian is everywhere in his na'ive state a highly moral and religious 
 being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of some great author 
 of his being and tlie universe, in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives, 
 with the apprehension before him of a future state, where he expects to be 
 rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained or forfeited in 
 this world. I have made this a subject of unceasing inquiry during all my 
 travels, and from every individual Indian with whom I conversed on the sub- 
 ject, from the highest to the lowest and most pitiably ignorant, I have received 
 evidence enough, as well as from their numerous and humble modes of worship, 
 to convince the mind of any man. 
 
 Such words may, indeed, be a revelation to many. Yet what is true of 
 our aborigines is true of all tribes of men thus far discovered. Atheism 
 may occasionally be met with, or rather professed, by individuals or limited 
 schools, as De Quaterfage observes, in an erratic condition, especially in 
 Prance, and, above all, in the so-called higher classes of society in Paris. 
 Yet, even here, we have again the testimony of Abbe Mullois, formerly 
 chaplain to Emperor Napoleon III., that also in these cases the words of 
 the Psalmist are true: "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God," 
 but he does not believe so. 
 
 As Lord Bacon observed, " Atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart 
 of msin." " The man," Abbe Mullois remarks, " who in all eincerity Eiays, ' I
 
 RELIGIOUS UNION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 783 
 
 don't believe,' often deceives himself. There is in the depth of Ids heart a 
 root of faith which never dies." Hence many centuries a^o TertuUian 
 truly declared that the human soul is by nature Christian. How di'lif,dit- 
 fully pure must this li^ht have illumined the souls of tiie first men, as they 
 had proceeded, as yet uudetiled by uninheritcd depravity, from the hands 
 of the Creatorl Yet here I may answer briefly an obj<'ction that mi^dit be 
 raised by some admirers of the theory of evolution, who claim thai man 
 has acquired all his faculties by slow forms of life, consequently also the 
 so-called religious sentiment. Without entering deeply into the question 
 of evolution at present I shall briefly state: 
 
 There are two leading views on the evolution of the visible universe. 
 According to one all existing beings have, by some continuous, regular, and 
 uniform progress, from the less perfect to the more perfect, from the jjrimi- 
 tive cosmic nebula to man, been evolved from the potency of matter in 
 accordance with certain tixed laws. The origin of these laws, as also of 
 matter, is " unknowable." This view is justly rejected, for reason of both 
 science and sound philosophy, by others, who also maintain the theory of 
 evolution as far as it accords with the principles of sound reason and the 
 establishment of facts of science. According to the second view, the Crea- 
 tor has indeed brought His visible work of creation to its present perfection 
 in accordance with the grand plan of evolution, yet not a monotonously 
 uniform, but rather rhythmically diversified, plan of evolution, in the prog- 
 ress of which various, we may say, critical periods or stages appear. 
 
 We know, for instance, that certain gases may, by a process of gradual 
 development or cooling, be changed into water or ice. Is this done with 
 monotonous uniformity or evolution? No! The gases may cool a long time 
 and yet remain gases. Suddenly, when they, having become united, reach 
 a certain degree of temperature, they change into hot vapor. This hot 
 vapor may cool again a long while. All of a sudden, on reaching a certain 
 point of temperature, it changes into ordinary water. This water may 
 again cool a long while till, reaching a certain point of the thermometer, it 
 turns into ice. 
 
 Also the visible universe, as a whole, came to its present perfection, not by 
 a monotonous uniform evolution, but in accordance with a rhythmically 
 ordered plan. At first there was only what we call the chemical elements. 
 Next appeared something inexplicably new, growing organisms or plants. 
 Next appeared again something perfectly new and perfectly inexplicable, 
 growing organism endowed with the feelings of pleasure, of pain, of appe- 
 tite — animals. And after these had gone through a long cycle of evolution 
 there suddenly appeared something again perfectly new, not merely an 
 animal endowed with sensitive faculties, but an animal organism, indeed, 
 yet one endowed with something perfectly new — with reason, with the 
 faculty of apprehending the true, the good, the beautiful, the eternal— and 
 this something new w'as man, the crown of the visible universe. 
 
 In vain have theorists, holding to the view of a monotonous uniformity 
 of evolution, been looking for years for the missing link between rational 
 man and merely sensuous, irrational animals. In vain have they, to cover 
 the weak spot in their view, been claiming an immense antiquity for the 
 human race. After carefully sifting the mere assertions, opinions, or sup- 
 positions of certain scientists from the established facts of science, we find, 
 too, that neither history, nor archaeology, nor geology has thus far advanced 
 any reasonably reliable proof that man has appeared more than, let us say, 
 10,000 years ago. And as we may infer from the generally rhythmical plan 
 of evolution, this happened suddenly at the appointed critical period. 
 
 Hence we reject the unfounded assumption that the religious faculty of 
 man has been gradually evolved from some animal faculties, but maintain 
 that, like reason itself, of which it is the complement, it was a primitive 
 gift of his Creator. Besides, we have reasons to believe, not only on the
 
 784 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 authority of the inspired books but also from reliable historical data, that 
 the primitive human family were not only endowed with the religious 
 faculty, but that they had also received particular revelations from their 
 Creator, the acquisition of which transcended the abilities of their merely 
 natural faculties. 
 
 IIow was this knowledge and worship of the true God gradually lost ? 
 In the first place, the conception of God became gradually obscured or 
 diminished by the gradually chnnging general mental conceptions of the 
 various tribes. Even a child will form for itself a conception of God differ- 
 ent from that entertained by its more intelligent parent. It has been said 
 with much truth, " An honest man is the noblest work of God." Secondly, 
 to the same God often different names were given, and gradually the differ- 
 ent names were considered to denote different gods. Thirdly, God was 
 often honored under different symbols. Thus, the sun, moon, and stars 
 were, as light or fire, at first considered assymbolsof the Deity; but gradu- 
 ally the different symbols were construed to denote different gods. Fourthly, 
 at first the one God was worshiped by different manifestations of His 
 power and goodness in nature, but gradually these different manifestations 
 were taken for the works of different gods. 
 
 In such and similar ways the primitive belief in the one true God was 
 gradually obscured and lost among the great part of mankind; and with 
 this fundamental belief also other religious beliefs, for instance, concerning 
 prayer, sacrifice, or the state of immortality, were gradually changed and 
 vitiated. Yet, in the midst of the chaos of polytheism and idolatry, pre- 
 cious germs of religion — the belief in the existence of invisible superior 
 things, their active interest in the affairs of men, the voice of conscience 
 admonishing to do right and to shun wrong, and the conviction of immor- 
 tality — still remained indestructible in every human soul. 
 
 While we profoundly respect the God-given sentiments in every human 
 heart, we, as children of one Heavenly Father, can not but deeply deplore 
 the lamentable religious disunion in the human family. Can it be the will 
 of the one good common Father of us all that this chaotic disharmony of 
 His children should be a permanent state? Certainly not. He whose 
 guiding hand has led order and harmony out of the discordant conflicting 
 elements of the universe, who has made a cosmos out of chaos, will, 
 undovibtedly also lead His children on earth again to religious unity, so 
 that they will live together again as members of one family, with but one 
 heart and one soul, as you read of the first Christians. 
 
 Judging the future by the past, we can not but look upon the religion 
 of Christ as the one evidently predestined from the very dawn of human 
 history to become under the guiding hand of Providence the religion 
 which will ultimately reunite the entire human family in the bonds of 
 truth, love, and happiness. 
 
 Thanks to the Eternal Father of us all, the time has come, as this ever 
 memorable Congress of Religions proves, when mankind will gradually 
 cease to be divided into mutually hostile camps by mere ignorance and 
 blind bigotry. A feeling of mutual respect and mutual fraternal charity is 
 beginning to pervade not only Christendom but the entire human family. 
 With the gradual .disappearance of the mists and clouds of prejudices, 
 ignorances, and antipathies, there will be always more clearly seen the 
 heavenly majestic outlines of that house of God, prepared on the top of the 
 mountains for all to see, and countless many on entering will be surprised 
 how it was possible that they had no sooner recognized this true home for 
 all under God, in which they so often professed to believe when they rever- 
 ently called it by its providentially given and preserved name, known all 
 over the world — "' ths Holy Catholic Church."
 
 I THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 785 
 
 THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 
 
 PROF. MINAZ TCHERAZ. 
 
 The first monarch who bowed the knee Ijcfore the cross of Golgothii 
 was an Armenian king. Thaildcuis founded the first Christian cliurch, 
 and intrusted its direction to Atteus, whom he consecrated bishop; thence 
 is the cradle of the Armenian Church, which became the first national 
 church in the history of Christendom. It was the same apostle who 
 handed down the gospel precepts enshrined in the Armenian religious 
 books, and especially in the (Janonakirk (book of the canons). Besides 
 Thaddeus, the apostle Bartholomew went and preached in Armenia, whic-h 
 was visited likewise by the apostle Xumas. The Armenian Church has 
 thus a perfect right to regard itself as apostolic, primitive, and independent, 
 and as the most ancient of the historic churches. 
 
 The number of Christians was so great that in the reign of Adrian more 
 tlian ten thousand were crucified on Mount Ararat. The final conversion 
 of Armenia took place in 302, ten years before Constantino the (Jreat beheld 
 the sliining cross. St. Gregory the Illuminator preached the Cliristian 
 faith for sixty-six days at Vaghardiabad, the capital of Tridates, who 
 embraced it with his household and helped the saint to found Etchmiadzin, 
 .seat of the supreme patriarchate of the Armenian church, to extirpate 
 idolatry and to convert the inhabitants. After the Nicene Council, com- 
 menced that long series of bloody wars which the kings of Persia waged 
 against Armenia in order to substitute the law of Zoroaster for the faith of 
 Christ. The Persians had hardly retired from the canton of Daron when 
 the Arabs made their appearance. Electrified by their victories in tlie 
 other parts of Western Asia, they ravaged Armenia with fire and sword for 
 almost a century, after which the Catholic John the Philosopher obtained 
 from the Caliph Omar a short respite for his flocks. 
 
 After him, the Arabs, the Persians, the Tartars, the Egyptians the Tur- 
 comans, Turks, and the other followers of Islamism, recommenced, with 
 incredible cruelty, their work of destruction in Armenia and Cilicia, where 
 the fourth and last Armenian dynasty held sway. It was during this 
 dynasty that the Crusades took place. 
 
 The Armenians, fllled with enthusiasm at seeing Christians, who came 
 from the extremity of Eurojje to tight the enemies of the cross, from the 
 first moment made common cause with them. Many Europeans have writ- 
 ten the history of the Crusades, but who has ever a ked what became of 
 the Christians of Asia who fraternized with the Crusaders? Left alone in 
 the presence of Saracens, who overran Europe after two centuries of Hom- 
 eric struggles, the Armenians endured their formidable onset, and after a 
 heroic resistance, Cilicia, the victim of Christian solidarity, was deluged in 
 the blood of her children. It was thus that the last bulwark of Chris- 
 tianity in Asia succumbed. 
 
 The persecutions directed against the Armenian Church have servetl 
 to strengthen the character of the faithful who have survived them. At 
 Constantinople I have seen many Christians from Poland and Himgary 
 embrace Islamism without difficulty in order to obtain emiiloyment in the 
 Turkish army or administration, but vei-y few Armenians succumb to this 
 temptation and if an Armenian turns Mohammedan he. raises the murmur 
 of the whole commvinity against him, who never pardon this apostasy. 
 
 The Christian religion has rendered inestimable services in its turn — 
 has organized charity and spread instruction. It has maintained the 
 Armenian nationality. The spirit of charity which forms the very basis of 
 the Christian religion has penetrated the heart of the people. Innumera- 
 ble houses of piety and benevolence have heen erected in all parts of the 
 country. The revolution brought about by Christianity in the ideas ot
 
 786 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the American people has pushed them forward in the way of instl\LCtiClI 
 The Armenians formed their own alphabet, and from the Greek text of 
 the Septuagint and Syriac version called Peshito, they translated the Bible. 
 They have produced, in the silence of a number of flourishing cloisters, an 
 immense literature. 
 
 Christianity, when it became a national church, maintained the Arme- 
 nian nationality. Without it the Armenians would have been absorbed in 
 Zoroastrianism, and at a later period in Islamism, for, in that nest of relig- 
 ions which goes by the name of the East, religion makes nationality, and 
 the peoples are nothing but religious communities. That is why the Arme- 
 nians, especially after the loss of their political independence, look askance 
 at every attempt to detach the faithful from their church. Surrounded at 
 the present day by orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism, each of which 
 aims at bringing this martyrized church into its course, they believe it is 
 their duty to maintain the status quo, because they would not be able to 
 satisfy the three churches all at once, and because their church is the last 
 refuge of their nationality. They possess a national church just as they 
 possess a national language and literature, with a national alphabet, a 
 national era, and a national history, a national music, and a national archi- 
 tecture, and they do not wish to sacrifice them to the national characteris- 
 tics of the more numerous nations. 
 
 Blessed be the church which should undertake to propagate among 
 the Christians of Armenia, not such and such a form of Christianity, but an 
 instruction and an education which render a people capable of reconciling 
 respect for the past with the exigencies of the modern spirit. From this 
 point of view the American college at Constantinople renders greater 
 services than those who waste their time in inculcating Puritan simpUcity 
 in the brilliant imagination of an Eastern people. 
 
 Tiie Armenian Church belongs to the Eastern church, and its rites do 
 not differ much from those of the Greek Church, but it is completely 
 autonomous, and is ruled by its deacons, priests, and bishops, whose ecclesi- 
 astical vestments recall those of the Greeks and Latins. It admits the 
 seven sacraments, only administers extreme unction to the ecclesiastics, 
 does not recognize either expiatory or indulgences, and celebrates the com- 
 munion with unleavened bread and wine without water. It holds Easter 
 at the date assigned by Christians before the Nicene Council, and the 
 Nativity and Epiphany on the 6th of January. It prescribes fastings on 
 Wednesday and Friday, and has a period of fasting and an order of saints 
 which are peculiar to it. It believes that the Holy Spirit proceeds from 
 the li'ather. 
 
 Toleration is one of the glories of the Armenian Church. Its adherents 
 have given manifold proof of it to the Christians of all denominations, and 
 if you happen to visit Etchmiadzin, you will see the tomb of Sir John Mac- 
 Donald, who was British envoy in Persia, quite close to the entrance of the 
 cathedral, among the tombs of the greatest patriarchs of modern Armenia. 
 The church founded by the Illuminator prays daily "'for all holy and ortho- 
 dox bishops," and "for the peace of the whole world and the stability of the 
 holy church " and beseeches the mercy of God " by the prayers and inter- 
 cessions of those who invoke the name of the Lord of sanctity, in any coun- 
 try, from the rising to the setting sun." 
 
 Another glory of the Armenian Church is its democratic spirit. No 
 obstacle is put in the way of its adherents to read and study the Bible. 
 In the mass it practices the ceremony of cordial salutation, which the faith- 
 ful render to one another with the holy kiss. Its deacons and priests, who 
 are married, live on the voluntary offerings of their flocks, and it is the 
 high clergy only, who are bound to celibacy, who receive a very moderate 
 stipend. No annual payment is required, as in certain civilized countries, 
 to have a pew in the church; every Christian is received gratuitously, and
 
 WORLD'S RELIGIOUS DEBT TO AMERICA. 787 
 
 rich and poor alike bow the head side by side before the Eterndl. The 
 clergy, from the humblest deacon to'tho supreme patriarch, are elected by 
 the free will of the ecclesiastics and the laity. In the very midst of tht; 
 consecration of a candidate, the bishop stops! to ask the couyrejjatioii if he 
 is worthy of receiving orders. If one single individual calls out that he is 
 not worthy of them, the consecration is suspended, and if this individual 
 proves his assertion to the bishop, the candidate is immediately discarded. 
 It may well be said that the Armenian clergy are the servants and not the 
 masters of the church. 
 
 Such is the Armenian Church, venerable by reason of its antiquity, 
 proud of its orthodoxy, and glorious in the purple mantle of its martyrdom. 
 Every stone of its sanctuary is cemented with the tears and the blood of 
 its persecuted children. It is for this reason that the seat of the Illumi- 
 nator is so tu-mly established, and with so much vigor raises aloft its five 
 domes — symbols of the live Armenian patriarchates of Etchmiadzin, Sis, 
 Aghtamar, Gonstantinople, and Jerusalem. Sentinel of civilization and 
 advance-guard of Christianity, the Armenian Church has bravely done its 
 duty on the confines of the Eastern world. It has sur^. 3d the attacks of 
 Zoroastrianism and of Islamism, as it has survived the attacks of Christians 
 who did not understand liberty of conscience, and in the midst of the pain- 
 ful crisis which it is going through at the present time, it sends a fraternal 
 salutation to all the pious souls who are gathered together at this truly 
 ecumenical council, and it blesses the first steps of the Parliament of Relig- 
 ions in the path of universal tolerance and charity, and the noble efforts of 
 the great American people to spread the marvelous rainbow of human 
 brotherhood over the deluge of long-standing hatreds. 
 
 WORLD'S RELIGIOUS DEBT TO AMERICA. 
 
 MRS. CELIA PAllKEE WOOLLEY OF CHICAGO. 
 
 America at once suffers and is proud when any comparison is made 
 between herself and older countries in mental productivity, for the mental 
 life with her has manifested itself thus far more in a higher average of gen- 
 eral intelligence and culture than in any great creative work or genius. When 
 we try to measure her contribution to the religious life by the side of that 
 of Asia or Europe, we note at once those inevitable and marked differences 
 which must reveal themselves between a country so young as ours and such 
 older forms of civilization as are represented in the names of Zoroaster, 
 Buddha, Confucius, Moses, or those types of culture of less ancient date 
 which the names of Homer and Socrates, Seneca and Petrarch have made 
 illustrious. 
 
 The religious growth of these older climes runs back into the dim begin- 
 ning of time. We trace it through volumes of myth, legend, and song, 
 which the adoration of ages has elevated 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, embody- 
 ing these, is ours, here in latter-day America, as historical bequest rather 
 than indigenous growth and possession. 
 
 America did not spring fully equipped from the brain of omnipotent 
 might and wisdom, as Minerva did, but she was, nevertheless, grown uj) 
 when she began. We are in the same line of general inheritance as that 
 England from which we separated ourselves 100 years ago, but spiritually, 
 this line of inheritance runs much farther back, to far-off Aryan sources,
 
 788 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 with special nourishment of another sort in the Hebrew Bible in which we 
 have been trained, so that, rehgiously, we are Semitic as well as Aryan, and 
 may claim cousinship with the representatives of the most distant faiths 
 on this platform. 
 
 The world, it must be admitted at the outset, owes but little to America 
 for that wealth of tradition that lies at the roots of its religious life, as it 
 owes almost as little for that mass of doctrinal literature which marks a 
 later stage of development. In deep^poetic perception of the great truths 
 relating to God and the soul of man, the seer's trust and knowledge in all, 
 or nearly all, that belongs to the worship side of religion, we are more 
 indebted to Asia and tofthat dreamy, mystic, all-surveying mind she pro- 
 duces than to any other single source. 
 
 " One of the great lessons which India teaches is introspection," said Mr. 
 Mozoomdar, the other day, " by which man beholds the spirit of God in his 
 own heart." And again: "Asiatic philosophy is the philosophy of the 
 spirit, the philosophy of the supreme substance, not of phenomena alone. 
 With us Oriental worship is not a mere duty; it is an instinct, a longing, 
 a passion." 
 
 Coming farther West we have to acknowledge a debt as vast and more 
 tangible. In Europe religious thought grew less diffused,' subtle, and pro- 
 found, but more active. Celtic and Teutonic brains secreted blood and 
 nerve currents of a livelier order than Egypt or Persia could supply; a 
 harsher climate demanded constant exercise of body and mind, compelling 
 thought to more practical issues. Looked at from one point of view, 
 Christianity appears but one long theological warfare, a record of innu- 
 merable 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, purefand strong as the native 
 made of her sturdy Northern tribes, which, unlike the lotus blossom of the 
 East, had no power to soothe or enervate, but rather stimulated to wild 
 excess. Back among the worship of Thor and Odin we find those ideas of 
 personal independence and integrity which have made our Western civili- 
 zation what it is; man, 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 East, man had dreamed of an ideal of perfect wisdom and good- 
 ness until all other desires merged into one, to unite himself with that ideal, 
 to realize and possess God, Nirvana, reabsorption into the infinite. Heaven 
 v/as 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 religious 
 life. The merits of a life study and contemplation still remained, as the 
 various monastical institutions of Europe testified. Nearly all were derived 
 "rom non -Christian origin; but the genius of the new time found incom- 
 Diete expression in the cloister and cell, and 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 loager enough for the soul to live in contemplation 
 of itself; to religious being must be added that other idea derived from the 
 new gospel, religious doing. 
 
 Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve! 
 
 In a sense, religion hardened and narrowed during this period. It was
 
 WORLD'S RE LI G TO US DEBT TO AMERICA. 789 
 
 the age of the theologians and the creed-makers, but it was also the age of 
 the religious missionaries. Man had never felt his responsibility 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 Asia, then, the sentiment of religion; to Europe, its conviction or 
 dogma. It is to the civilization of Galileo, Dante, Calvin, Rousseau, Vol- 
 taire, Bacon, Newton, Darwin, and Huxley that v>'e are chielly indebted for 
 the thought life of religion. All was action on the material and mental 
 planes, until one continent no longer afforded sufficient outlet for the seeth- 
 ing heart and brain of man, the new imjjulses and ideas taking shajie 
 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 imaginatiim of one 
 continent nor the busy intellect of another should supply. With power to 
 think must go room to think. Man had gained some theoretical knowl- 
 edge 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 uncharted sea. 
 
 The world's religious debt to America is defined in one word, oppor- 
 tunity. The liberty men had known only as a distant ideal now reached 
 the stage of practical experiment. It is true, if we try to estimate this 
 debt in less abstract terms, we shall find we have made a special contribu- 
 tion of no mean degree in both men and ideas. We have had our theo- 
 logians of national and world-wide fame, men of the highest learning their 
 age afforded, of consecrated lives and broad understanding. 
 
 There were the Mathers, Edwards, and Higginsons of the earlier days, 
 one of whom plainly declared that New England was "a plantation of 
 religion, not of trade." These and others like them were men, as one 
 writer 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 assembly 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 the Nortons 
 and Dr. Channing. We have had our clear, bold teachers of the word, of 
 golden-mouthed fame, like Chrysostomof old, ourWhitefields, Lyman Beech- 
 ers. Father Taylors, Theodore Parkers, and Dwight L. Moodys, each of 
 whom stands for some new "great awakening" of the spiritual life. But 
 each of these stands for a fresh and stronger utterance, for a principle or 
 method of thought already well understood, rather than for any original 
 discovery. 
 
 The discovery of America did not so much mark the era of higher discov- 
 eries in th€^ realm of ideas as it provided a chance for the application 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 upon man. Professor John Fiske, in his " Discovery of America, " 
 shows how, after repeated experiments — failures each leading to the final 
 triumph, no one standing for that triumph alone— this discovery was, in 
 his words, "not a single event, but gradual process." Still more are the 
 moral achievements of mankind " gradual processes, " not single eventa
 
 790 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The instinct of freedom is part of nature's savage and beast-like prog- 
 eny, a C'aliban of the cave and wilderness. Could we read the pages of 
 man's prehistoric progress as readily as the others— and we are learning to 
 read them— we should hnd the record of as many struggles in behalf of men- 
 tal 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 or the host; we know 
 where a Moses, aSocrates,a Jesus, a Washington, a Lincoln belong, but the 
 principle for which each of these worked and died is older than the oldest, 
 older than 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 in 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 dogmat- 
 ically Protestant at times, felt itself oblige to dispense with the large body 
 of stored and 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 picturesque side of life. They had seen the selfishness and cor- 
 ruption of the court of Charles II. upheld in the name of grace and good 
 manners, had seen honest opinion scorned and publicly murdered in defense 
 of order and resij-ectability, had seen religion and the Bible made the 
 excuse for war, lust, and tyranny, until sham and oppression in all their 
 forms had grown hateful to them and a passion for reality filled their 
 hearts. 
 
 It has been well said that the Puritan ideal was allied to the Israelitish; 
 in both we find the same stern insistence on practical righteousness as a 
 fundamental requirement of the religious life. It was a fundamental over- 
 laid with a mass of hard and dreary doctrine, of weary speculation on 
 themes impossible for the human intellect 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 dishtmest or 
 impure man. He might, in the cause of God, burn witches or whip Quak- 
 ers, but he mvist pay his debts, send his children to school, be a good neigh- 
 bor and citizen; his sins were of an abstract order, springing from mistaken 
 notions of God's government on earth and his share in it as God's vice- 
 regent; 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 nation 
 must continue to observe if it would prosper, which it will prove its sure 
 loss and destruction to ignore. 
 
 We hear a great deal in the present day about "ethical religion," an 
 " ethical basis in religion," the "ethical element in religion," phrases that 
 well define the main modern tendency in the evolution of a new religious 
 ideal. But this ethical element in religion, like the principle of mental 
 freedom to which it is allied, is less an absolute and new discovery of our 
 own age and country than a restatement of a truth long understood. We 
 find struggling witness of one or the other far back in the earliest period 
 of human history, and at every one of those historic points at which we 
 note a fresh affirmation of the principle of freedom we find new and stronger 
 emphasis laid upon the moral import of things. Hand in hand those two 
 ideals of heavenly birth, freedom 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 projectingly over every part of it, can so fitting a place for the
 
 WORLD'S RELIGIOUS DEBT TO AMERICA. 791 
 
 practical demonstration 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, 
 except under republican rule, can the experiment so well be tried of a i)er- 
 sonal religion, based on no authority but that of the truth, tiuding its 
 sanction 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 democracy, once 
 accepted, runs in all directions. Religion is fast becoming democratized 
 in these days. If America is to present the world with a new tyjje of faith, 
 it must be as exclusive as those principles of human brotherhood on which 
 her political institutions rest and embody a great deal of Yankee common 
 sense. Its sources of supply will be as various 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 religious debt to America lies in this thought of opjwr- 
 tunity 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 unhin- 
 dered action of the mind in the search of the 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 to-day, 
 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 deeper into the past, not 
 in timorous enslavement, but for true nourishment, 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 nearts together here to-day 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 these halls! How strong and beauti- 
 ful 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 vi'orld to know that everywhere the 
 sky is blue," said Goethe. We need not be Buddhists, Parsees, Moham- 
 medans, 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 demonstrate Himself to the 
 hearts of His children. Knowledge gaining slow upon ignorance, truth 
 upon error, goodness steadily gaining new power to heal the world's wicked- 
 ness and misery, man overcoming himself, growing daily in the divine like- 
 ness, 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 Mediterranean or in the valley of the Mississippi, whether it prays 
 in the name of Jesus or of Cyrus, wears black or yellow vestments. 
 
 "The W^orld's Religious Debt to America! " Measure liis large in 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 to-day and can never discharge, and that is America's 
 religious debt to the world.
 
 792 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 CONTACT OF CHF^ISTIAN AND HINDU THOUGHT: 
 POINTS OF LIKENESS AND CONTRAST 
 
 KEY. R. A. HUME OF NEW HAVEN. 
 
 When Christian and Hindu thought first came into contact in India, 
 neither understood the other. This was for two reasons, one outward, the 
 other inward. The outward reason w^as this: The Christian saw Hindu- 
 ism at its worst. Polytheism, idolatry, a mythology explained by the 
 Hindus themselves as teaching puerilities and sensualities in its many 
 deities, caste rampant, ignorance widespread and profound — 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 Hindu, at first contact with Christianity, 
 failed to understand it was this: Speaking generally, every child of Hindu 
 I)arents is of course a Hindu in religion, whatever his inmost thoughts or 
 conduct. The Hindu had never conceived of such an anomaly as an 
 un-Hindu child of Hindu parents. Much Jess had they conceived of an un- 
 christian 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 sup- 
 posed was the Christian 'religion. They did not know that in truth it was 
 the lack of Christianity which they were despising. Even in truly Chris- 
 tian men they saw things which seemed to them unlovely. 
 
 Moreover, Christianity was to the Hindu the religion of the conquerors 
 of his country. For this outward reason, at the first contact of Christianity 
 and Hindu thought, neither 'understood the other. 
 
 But there was an additional, an inward reason, why neither understood 
 the other. It was the very diverse natures of the Hindu and the Western 
 mind. The Hindu mind is supremely introspective. It is an ever-active 
 mind which has thought about most things in " the three worlds." heaven, 
 earth, and the nether world. But it has seen them through the eye turned 
 inwardly. The faculties of imagination and of abstract thought, the fac- 
 ulties which depend least on external tests of validity, are the strongest of 
 the mental powers of the Hindu. 
 
 The Hindu mind has well been likened to the game of chess, where there 
 is the combination of an active mind and a passive body. A man nuiy be 
 strong at chess while not strong in meeting the problems 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 
 comprehensiveness. " Ekam eva advitiya," i. e.," There is but one and no 
 second," is the most cardinal doctrine of philosophical Hinduism. So con- 
 trolling 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, i. e., by at*^empts to unify irreconcilable matters. 
 
 In marked contrast, the Western mind is practical and logical. First 
 and foremost, it cares for external and historical facts. It needs to culti- 
 vate the imagination. It naturally dwells on individuality and differences 
 which it knows. It has to work for comprehension and unity. Above al), 
 it recognizes that it should act as it thinks and believes. This extreme 
 unlikeness between the Hindu and the Western mind was the inward 
 reason why, at the first contact of Christian and Hindu thought, neither 
 understood the other.
 
 CONTACT OF CHRISTIAN AND HINDU THOUGHT. 793 
 
 But, in the providence of God, the Father of both Christian and Hindu, 
 
 these two diverse minds came intd contact. Let us briefly trace tiie result. 
 
 Apart from the disgust at tlit' un-Christian conduct of some men from 
 
 Christendom, when the Hindu thinker first looked at Christian thought he 
 
 viewed with lofty contempt its p.etensious and jjroposals. 
 
 Similarly, in its first contact with Hinduism, the Western mind saw only 
 that which awakened contempt and pity. The Christian naturally sup- 
 posed the popular Hinduism which he saw to be the whole of Hinduism, a 
 system of many gods, of idols, of puerile and sometimes immoral mytholo- 
 gies, of mechanical and endless rites, of thoroughgoing caste anil often 
 cruel caste. The Christian reported what he saw, and many Christians felt 
 pity. In accordance with the genius of the Western mind to act as it 
 thinks, and under the inspiration of Christian motive. Christians began 
 efforts to give Christian thought and life to India. 
 
 Longer and_ fuller contact between Christian and Hindu thought has 
 caused a modification of first impressions. 
 
 Both Christian and Hindu thought recognize an infinite being with 
 whom is bound up man's rational and spiritual life. Both magnify the. 
 indwelling of this infinite being in every part of the universe. Both teach 
 that this great being is ever revealing itself; that the universe is a unit, 
 and that all things come under the universal laws of the infinite. 
 
 To Christianity God is the Heavenly Father, always and infinitely good; 
 God is love. 
 
 To philosophical Hinduism man is an emanation from the infinite, 
 which, in the present stage of existence, is the exact result of this emana- 
 tion in previous stages of existence. His moral sense is an illusion, for he 
 can not sin. 
 
 To popular Hinduism, man is partially what he is to philosophical Hin- 
 duism, determined by fate ; partially he is thought of as a created being, 
 more or less sinful, dependent on God for favor or disfavor. 
 
 To Christianity, man is the child of his Heavenly Father, sinful and 
 often erring, yet longed for and sought after by the Father. 
 
 To Christianity, caste, which teaches that a pure and learned man of 
 humble origin is lower than an ignorant, proud man of higher origin, and 
 that the shadow of the former could defile the latter, and that eating the 
 same food together is a sin, is a disobedience to God. 
 
 To popular Hinduism caste is' ordained of God, and is the chief thing in 
 religion. Says Sir Monier Williams: "The distinction of caste and the 
 inherent superiority of one class over the three others were thought to l)e 
 as much a law of nature and a matter of divine appointment as the creation 
 of separate classes of animals, with insurmountable differences of physical 
 constitution, such as elephants, lions, horses, and dogs." 
 
 Pre-eminently does the contrast between Clu'istian and Hindu thought 
 appear in God's relation to sin and the sinner. 
 
 According to philosophical Hinduism, there is no sin or sinner or savior. 
 According to popular Hinduism, sin is mainly a matter of fate. 
 According to Christianity, sin is the only evil in the universe. But it is 
 so evil that God grieves over it; suffers to put it away, and will suffer 
 until 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 igno- 
 rance and illusion of conscious existence through inconsciousness into the 
 infinite. 
 
 To popular Hinduism, salvation is getting out of trouble into some safe 
 place through merit somehow acquired. 
 
 To Christianity, salvation is present deliverance from sin and moral 
 union with God, begun here and to go on forever.
 
 794 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 FUTURE OF RELIGION IN JAPAN. 
 
 NOBUTA KISHIMOTO OF JAPAN. 
 
 Japan at present is the battlefield between religion and no religion, and 
 also between Christianity and other systems of religion. To answer the 
 question, What will be the future of religion in Japan? it is best to 
 understand the nature of this two-fold warfare. Let us study this a little. 
 
 The prevailing attitude of our educated classes toward any system of 
 religion is one of co-indifference if not strong antagonism. Among them 
 the agnosticism of Spencer, the materialism of Comte, and the pessimism 
 of Schoppenhauer and Hartmann, are the most influential. To them God is 
 either the product of our own imagination or, at most, is unknowable. To 
 them religion is nothing but superstition; to them the universe is a chance 
 work, and has no end or meaning. Again, to them men are nothing but 
 lower animals in disguise, without the image of God in them, and without 
 a bright future before them. 
 
 The religions of Japan, whatever they may be, have to contend with 
 these no-god and no-religion doctrines. Atheism, pessimism, and agnosticism 
 are the common enemies of all the religions now existing in Japan. If 
 Christianity has to face these enemies, Shintoism and Buddhism also have 
 to face the same enemy. This is the battleground of religion against no 
 religion in Japan. 
 
 What is the prospect of this battle ? Can we, the people of Japan, be 
 satisfied with these no-god and no-religious doctrines ? Surely not. Athe- 
 ism, pessimism, and agnosticism are essentially negative and destructive, 
 and as such can never satisfy the deepest cravings of the human heart. 
 Man is naturally optimistic, and feels the impulse of the possibility of 
 infinite development. He must have something positive to make him grow, 
 and he can not be satisfied by anything short of the infinite. As long as 
 man remains man, he can not but have the consciousness of self; and as 
 long as nature, which surrounds him, remains nature, he can not but have 
 the consciousness of not-self. As long as man has the consciousness of not- 
 self he is capable of being conscious of the third principle, which makes 
 possible the reconciliation of consciousness of the self with the conscious- 
 ness of the not-self. Man knows that he is finite, and this knowledge 
 makes him dependent upon the infinite. 
 
 At times this God consciousness, or human dependence on the infinite, 
 is disturbed by doubts and disappointments. But, as a matter of fact, dis- 
 turbance is not a normal state of things. The human mind is like a com- 
 pass needle —it may often be disturbed, but when the full force of the 
 disturbance is spent it will swing back to its normal and original position 
 and point toward its own Creator, the infinite God. 
 
 Thus, there is not much doubt as to the ultimate triumph of religion 
 over no religion in Japan, as well as anywhere else. It is the law of strug- 
 gle for existence that the fittest shall survive^ and the fittest in this case is 
 religion. 
 
 Suppose Japan wants some religion. What will be this religion? There 
 comes the warfare, the warfare between Christianity and old religions of 
 Japan. If Japan is a battlefield between religion and no religion, it is also 
 a battlefield between Christian religion and non-Christian systems of relig- 
 ion. Shintoism, the oldest religion of Japan, represents three things in 
 one — totem worship, nature worship, and ancestor worship. It is an eth- 
 nological religion, and as such has no originator, no system of creeds and 
 no code of morals. It teaches that men are the descendants of the gods; 
 that is, the divinity. Again, it teaches that, as the universe came from the 
 gods, it is full of the divine essence. 
 
 Confucianism is the next oldest system in Japan. It came from China.
 
 FUTURE OF RELIGION IN JAPAN. 795 
 
 .In its native country Confucianism developed to a great pystom. But in 
 Japan the case is different. Here it lias never developed into a religious 
 system. It was simply accepted as a system of social and family morals. 
 As we understand it, obedience to parents and loyalty to one's lord 
 are the fundamental teachings of Confucianism. As our society was feu- 
 daiistic in its organization, the teachings of Confucius, who lived and 
 taught in the warlike period of Chinese feudalism, found congenial soil in 
 Japan. Thus, Confucianism had, and still has, a strong hold among the 
 higher and well-educated classes. 
 
 Buddhism is the third religion in Japan. It came from India through 
 China and Corea, and now is the most popular religion in Japan. At pres- 
 ent there are at least ten different sects which all go by the name of Bud- 
 dhism, but which are often quite different from one another. 
 
 Some sects are atheistic and others are almost theistic. Some are 
 strict and others are liberal. Some are scholarly and others are popular. 
 Some are pessimistic in their principles and teach annihilation to be the ulti- 
 mate end of human existence. Others are optimistic and teach a happy 
 life in a future existence, if not in the present world. But all unite, at 
 least, in the one thing, viz., the law of cause and effect. "One reaps what 
 he sows," is the universal teaching of Japanese Buddhism, although the 
 application of the law may be different in different sects. 
 
 The last and newest religion in Japan is Christianity, We have three 
 forms of Christianity — Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Protestant, 
 the whole Christian population being about one hundred thousand. Of 
 these the Roman CathoUc Church is the strongest in membership; then 
 comes the Protestant, and finally the Greek Catholic. The Protestant 
 Christianity is already represented by thirty-one different sects and denom- 
 inations. I need not stop here to tell you what these different forms and 
 sects of Christianity teach in Japan. The point to be considered is this: 
 In the struggle for existence between these old religions in Japan and 
 Christianity, which will be more likely to survive — Christianity, or these 
 other religions? 
 
 Before answering this question, I must call your attention to the fact 
 that in Japan these three different systems of religion and morality are 
 not only living togetlier on friendly terms with one another, but, in fact, 
 they are blended together in the minds of the people who draw necessary 
 nourishments from all of these sources. One and the same Japanese is 
 both a Shintoist, a Confucianist, and a Buddhist. He plays a triple part, 
 so to speak. This must be strange to you, but it is a fact. Our religion 
 may be likened to a triangle, which is made up of three angles. One angle 
 is Shintoism, another is Confucianism, and a third angle is Buddhism, all 
 of which make up the religion of ordinary Japanese. Shintoism furnishes 
 the object of objects, Confucianism offers the rviles of life, while Buddhism 
 supplies the way of salvation; so you see we Japanese are eclectic in every- 
 thing, even in religion. 
 
 Thus our old religions not only live together in peace but are mutually 
 helping one another. Now Christianity comes to the Japanese and claims 
 their exclusive faith in it. The God of Christianity is the jealous (Jod. 
 Here begins the battle between the newcomer and the old religions of 
 Japan. The former is the common enemy of the latter, and so it has to 
 face their united fi-ont. 
 
 Which will survive in this struggle for existence? Here comes the 
 necessity and the importance of the thorough study and careful com- 
 parison of these religious systems of the world. I do not intend or pretend 
 to enter into* this discussion, but I will simply express my own thought 
 concerning the probable result of this struggle for existence among dif- 
 ferent religions. 
 
 There are two ways of comparing the value of different religions,
 
 796 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 namely, practical and theoretical. In either of these ways one can pick up 
 the defects and ehoi-tcomiugs of different religions and make them the 
 standard of their comparison. But this seems to be a very poor and 
 improper method. The better and more proper way of comparing them is 
 by placing side by side the best and most worthy teachings of different 
 systems, and then decide which is better or which is the best. 
 
 In my mind there is no doubt that Christianity will survive in this 
 struggle for existence, and become the future religion of the land of the 
 rising sun. My reasons for this are numerous, but I must be brief. In the 
 first place, Christianity claims to be and is the universal religion. It 
 teaches one God, who is the Father of all mankind, but is so pliable that it 
 can adapt itself to any environment, and then it can transform and assimi- 
 late the environment to itself. This is amply pi-oved by its history. 
 
 In the second place, Christianity is inchisive. It is a living organism, a 
 seed or germ which is capable of growth and development, and which will 
 leaven all the nations of the world. In growing it draws, and can draw its 
 nutritious elements from any source. It survives the struggle for exist- 
 ence and feeds and grows on the flesh of the fallen. 
 
 In the third place, Christianity teaches that man was created in the 
 image of God. The human is divine and the divine is human. Here lies 
 the merit of Christianity, in uplifting man, all human beings — young and 
 old, men and women, the governing and the governed — to their proper 
 position. 
 
 In the fourth place, Christianity teaches love to God and love to men as 
 its fundamental teaching. The golden rule is the glory of Christianity, 
 not because it was originated by Christ — this rule was also taught by 
 Buddha and Laotse many centuries before — but because He properly 
 emphasized it by His words and by His life. 
 
 In the fifth place, Christianity requires every man to be perfect, as the 
 Father in heaven is perfect. Here lies the basis for the hope of man's 
 infinite development in science, in art, and in character — in one word, in 
 perfection. 
 
 In brief, these are some of the reasons which make me think that sooner 
 or later Christianity will, as it ought to, become the future religion of 
 Japan. 
 
 If Christianity will triumph and become the religion of Japan, which 
 form of Christianity, or Christianity of which denomination, will become 
 the religion of Japan? Catholic Christianity or Protestant Christianity? 
 \ye do not want Catholic Christianity, nor do we want Protestant Chris- 
 tianity. We want the Christianity of the Bible, nay, the Christianity of 
 Christianity. We do not want the Christianity of England nor the Chris- 
 tianity of America; we want the Christianity of Japan. On the whole, it 
 is better to have different sects and denominations than to have lifeless 
 monotony. The Christian church should observe the famous saying of St. 
 Vincent: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, 
 charity." 
 
 We Japanese want the Christianity of the Christ. We want the truth 
 of Christianity, nay, we want the truth pure and simple. We want the 
 spirit of the Bible and not its letter. We hope for the union of all Chris- 
 tians, at least in spirit if not possible form. But we Japanese Christians 
 are hoping more; we are ambitious to present to the world one new and 
 unique interpretation of Christianity as it is presented in our Bible, which 
 knows no sectarian controversy and which knows no heresy hunting. 
 Indeed, the time is coming, and ought to come, when God shall be wor- 
 shiped, not by rites and ceremonies, but He shall be worshiped in spirit 
 and in truth.
 
 ARBITRATION INSTEAD OF WAR. 797 
 
 ARBITRATION INSTEAD OF WAR. 
 
 SHAKU SOYEN OF JAPAN. 
 
 What a glorious evening this is for Buddhists to see! The whole plat- 
 form is occupied by us Buddhists only from the Orient. What a hapi)y 
 time this is that we see such a big gathering of well-educated ladies and 
 gentlemen who are assembled here with the praiseworthy object of listening 
 to the voice of truth! I have always regarded it a high honor in my life 
 that I had the honor of seeing you from this pulpit the last time as one of 
 the foreign delegates to this successful Parliament of Ueligious Congresses. 
 But the liappiness and honor I have this evening in having another oppor- 
 tunity of addressing you are much greater. 
 
 My subject is "Arbitration Instead of War." lam a Buddhist, but 
 please do not be so narrow-minded as to refuse my opinion on account of 
 its expression on the tongue of one who belongs to a different nation, differ- 
 ent creed, and different civilization. Why? Because the truth is only one. 
 There must be no distinction, and all must be equal before the light of 
 truth. 
 
 First, let me thank you for the success which is crowning this parlia- 
 ment. But allow me to assure you that this parliament is only the begin- 
 ning of universal brotherhood and fraternity, though if the object be 
 dropped now it will surely be fruitless, meritless, and come to naught. Let 
 us hope that you and I — nay, all-the people on the earth — will combine in 
 harmony in promoting the grand project patiently and steadily. And what 
 do you think I really mean by the grand project? It is the formation of a 
 common family in universal brotherhood. I assvu'e you that this project is 
 not like a castle in the air at all, but quite hopeful. 
 
 Our Buddha, w ho taught that all people entering into Buddhism are 
 entirely equal in the same way, as all rivers flowing into the sea become 
 alike, preached this plan in the wide kingdom of India just 3,000 years ago. 
 Not only Buddha alone, but Jesus Christ, as well as Confucius, taught 
 about universal love and fraternity. We also acknowledge the glory of 
 universal brotherhood. Then let us, the true followers of Buddha, the true 
 followers of Jesus Christ, the true followers of Confucius, and the followers 
 of truth, unite ourselves for the sake of helping the helpless, and living 
 glorious lives of brotherhood, under the control of truth. Let us hope that 
 we shall succeed in discountenancing those obstinate people who dared to 
 compare this parliament with Niagara Falls, saying, " Broad, but fruit- 
 less." We, the lovers of truth and martyrs of love, must not rest till suc- 
 cess smiles upon the home of truth. 
 
 Now let me speak a few words about international law, which is the 
 outburst of universal brotherhood in itself. Why does war take place? Is 
 there no alternative but to appeal to swords? What excuse can there be? 
 Why should men fight and kill each other over things that do not concern 
 them? The nature of war is not acceptable at all. And why? Because it 
 is only the ambition of a few men disturbing the social peace, the social 
 order, against the course of truth. How great a story of dreadful wars and 
 battles that have been fought in the world does history tell us? The 
 perusal of those barbarous records is enough to make the blood of those 
 who love truth, peace, and fraternity tingle and shut the book with a cry- 
 ing sigh! 
 
 And now we have international law which has been very successful in 
 protecting the nations from each other and has done a great deal toward 
 arbitration instead of war. But can we hope that this system shall he 
 carried out on a more and more enlarged scale, so that the world will be 
 blessed with the everlasting, glorious, bright sunshine of peace and love 
 instead of the gloomy, cloudy weather of bloodshed, battles, and wars?
 
 798 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 And what is gained by war? Nothing; it only means the oppression of 
 the weak by the strong; it simply means the fighting among brothers and 
 the shedding of human blood. The stronger gains nothing while the 
 weaker loses everything. We very often say that we are brothers, but what 
 a troublesome brotherhood it is where one has to be armed well against the 
 other. Look at the present state of European powers? What is the 
 purpose of the triple alliance? Is it for the promotion of peace and love? 
 I hope it is, because when each nation is busily engaged in defending itself 
 against the other, at the highest expense in its power, there will be no time 
 to think for the promotion of true peace and love. 
 
 We are not born to fight one against another. We are born to enlighten 
 our wisdom and cultivate our virtues according to the guidance of truth. 
 And, happily, we see the movement toward the abolition of war and the 
 establishment of a peace-making society. But how will our hope be real- 
 ized? Simply by the help of the religion of truth. The religion of truth 
 is the fountain of benevolence and mercy. It is the duty of religion and 
 of truth to attain this beautiful project of brotherhood, and is it not our 
 duty to become the nucleus and motive power of this great plan? It is, 
 and we must be that nucleus and power. 
 
 We must not make any distinction between race and race, between civ- 
 ilization and civilization, between creed and creed, and between faith and 
 faith. You must not say "go away" because we are not Christians. You 
 must not say "go away" because we are yellow people. All beings on the 
 universe are in the bosom of truth. We are all sisters and brothers; we 
 are sons and daughters of truth, and let us understand one another much 
 better and be true sons and daughters of truth. Truth be praised! 
 
 SYNTHETIC RELIGION. 
 
 KINZA BIUGE M. HIRAI OF JAPAN. 
 
 The primitive age of humanity was like the hypothetical epoch of 
 nebula. No particular star of wisdom illuminated the mental universe of 
 dim, cloudy expansion, and no special beam of love kept warm the shivering 
 heart. But right in the heavens above those spots, where the hazy human 
 mind's indissoluble mist crystallized into a condensed form, the brilliant 
 suns of religion appeared shining with resplendent luster. One sparkles 
 still over the blue vault in the Persian forest, while the two brightest, flash- 
 ing from the sky of India and throwing their glittering light over the 
 oriental wilderness, tinge with crimson hue the white face of the snow on 
 the purple Himalayas. One or more isolated luminaries glance toward the 
 Western seas from among the clouds hovering over the fan-shaped Fujino- 
 yama pendent from the empyrean of sunland. Several in the eclestial 
 expanse of the fiowery kingdom and in the horizons of the Arabian desert, 
 with many others here and there, vie with one another in their splendor 
 in the vast cosmic sphere. One "The Star of the East" — flashing first 
 with unwonted splendor over the Mount of Olives, gradually traveled 
 toward the European firmament and on to the skies of the new world of 
 America. 
 
 In historical ages each one of these suns, by its rapidity of revolution, 
 or by chaotic concussion, crumbled into small fragments of sects, many of 
 which since have discharged their heat and lost their effulgence on account 
 of their diminutive size, and thus have produced many constellations of 
 religion with their dependent stars, satellites, and asteroids, as we see in 
 the present age. In such times of violent shocks innumerable souls perish 
 by the sparks and flashes caused by the incandescent heat of impetuous 
 excitement.
 
 SYNTHETIC RELIGION. 799 
 
 The age of concussion, however, has ah-eady passed, and all faiths are 
 now desiring to face one another in order to blend their special rays, but 
 unfortunately there are some obstacles against this ideal hope of friend- 
 ship. The Occident and the Orient are attired in their own apparel and 
 are speaking in their own tongues which differ entirely from each other, 
 and, in so far as the costumes of them are not stripped otf and their lan- 
 guages are not translated, they will ever remain as strangers There is 
 still another impediment which is not of an external and physical nature 
 but is of the most dencate quality, deeply set at the bottom of each mind 
 —the true heart of different religions— and until this central point comes 
 to be well comprehended, one will persistently repel the other and not the 
 slightest halo can be interchanged. Unless this essential nature is ilis- 
 tinctly revealed and each comes to a better understanding of the other, 
 there will never be the time of a grand union of the world's religions. 
 
 Look over the mighty universe sprinkled over with luminous bodies. 
 Some emit a dazzling luster and revolve from one point to another with tlie 
 greatest momentum, while others shine so far away and so insignificantly 
 that their quivering lights are scarcely visible. But. if by any means they 
 could be approached, jjrobably some fixed stars would be found among them. 
 Heretofore we have had scholars who have investigated and compared the 
 different religions, yet very few have discerned the true kernel or fixed star, 
 but most of them have only discovered the outside discolored envelope of 
 these teachings, just like the astronomers, who, through a telescope, have 
 descried the black spots on the face of the sun and certain unusual phases of 
 the planets, but who never could prove their real substances, or, sometimes, 
 a fragmentary piece of scripture supplies the topic of criticism or discus- 
 sion, like a small meteoric stone which is carefully analyzed and considered 
 to be the essential part of the moon, the composition of which can hardly 
 be determined by a single meteorite. Having the honor to be here with 
 tbis great Coneress of Religions, I consider it my duty to endeavor to dis- 
 cuss some few important points which are apparently contradictory in dif- 
 ferent beliefs, so that they can be synthesized and fraternized. 
 
 The first question is: How can religions be synthesized? There are no 
 two things exactly alike, and as long as we dwell upon dissimilarity noth- 
 ing can be generalized. A certain attribute equally possessed by different 
 things must be found in order to arrange them in one group 
 under its head. The innumerable different living beings are thus 
 classified into the animal kingdom, or the larger class of organism, 
 and also all organic or inorganic bodies are brought under a still wider 
 category of material substance. This very " apprehension of the one in 
 many" is the only method by the application of which all beliefs, of what- 
 ever source or phase they may be, are to be reconciled. In other words, 
 as I hinted before, if the central truth common to all religions be dis- 
 closed, we can accomplish our aim. 
 
 What common traits are there contained in the various religions? To 
 answer this question, let me examine for a httle while the nature of religion 
 and set down its definition for your consideration. It is an idle conception 
 to think that prayer and worship, with their more or less formal ceremonies, 
 are the important characteristics of religion, for they are the mere outside 
 paraphernalia and not the true substance which they envelope. According 
 to my notion, religion has two forms and three stages, viz., in the first, or 
 embryonic stage, it is nonceremonious; in the second, or middle stage, it is 
 ceremonious, and in the last stage it is nonceremonious again. That of 
 the second stage js easily recognized as religion from its being ceremonious, 
 but at the first and last stages no visible mark of it is observed, and hence, 
 by some, the existence of religion is totally denied in these two periods. But 
 I regard the minds of the rudest barbarians and the lower animals, who are 
 generally said to have no religion, as belonging to the first stage, and those
 
 800 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of a certain class of civilized people, who are considered unbelievers of relig- 
 ion, or wiio call themselves non-religionists, to the third stage. These two 
 resemble each other on the outside, for both have the non-ceremonious 
 feature, but the hrst is not yet clearly defined, while the last is fully 
 developed. The above statement will be found to be correct if the follow- 
 ing definition of religion be admitted as correct. 
 
 Religion is a priori belief in an unknown entity, and no human being or 
 lower animal can evade or resist this belief. Some one may argue that he 
 does not believe anything unknown, but relies upon knowledge and intel- 
 lect. But what is knowledge other than the result known by intellect? 
 To know by intellect means nothing else than to know by reasoning, which 
 is the process of deriving conclusions from the two premises. But by what 
 means are they known, and why are they relied upon as the unmistakable 
 basis of the argument? They must be the results of the previous deduc- 
 tions or instructions which also were drawn from their own premises. 
 
 Thu3, if we trace back in the same way and try to reach the true source 
 of these premises, in every step of our task we confront more incompre- 
 hensible assumptions, and the farther we proceed the more we are 
 enshrouded by the mystic cloud. Perhaps rather turning from the very 
 verge of the present question, we will attempt to explain it by plunging 
 into psychological queries, and will say that the foremost premises were 
 imparted to us by the mental processes of pure logical activity. Still, we 
 are far from the point of understanding, for the ultimate impulse which 
 caused the mental processes awaits in the background to be satisfactorily 
 defined. Then we will bound into physical, chemical, physiological, and 
 next into dynamic, and finally into atomic theories, which have the most 
 distant relations with the original question; but entering into a de jper and 
 wider and more generalized region, we are left entirely vague, acquiring 
 not a single clew by which to escape entanglement. We can grasp nothing 
 during infinite duration in this realm where any logical structure is shat- 
 tered to pieces. 
 
 Shall we then reject these premises because they are inexplainable? 
 No. We can not syllogize with them. We can not think, will, and act 
 without them. We must retain and rely upon them. We are forced to 
 believe them as true without reasoning. If it is not by reasoning, then what 
 compels us to believe them as true? We do not know why and what, for it 
 is entirely beyond our reason. It is not the place where we say " we know," 
 but we say only we believe something which we do not know. This is what 
 I call a priori belief in an vmknown entity. 
 
 This abstract definition does not cover all those faiths which are ordi- 
 narily understood as religions, for each of them has the central object or 
 entity, be it the reason or truth expounded in Buddhism and other so-called 
 atheistic doctrines, or be it the one God taught in Chi'istianity, or the 
 material image, or even the animal of idol and animal worship, none of 
 which is conceivable, at least to its believers. 
 
 Let us examine the natuie of the above-mentioned entities. First, 
 What is the reason or truth? It is cause and eiiect. If we go on to 
 strive to reach the comprehension of them, we shall enter into exactly 
 the same condition of desperate uncertainty as when we attempted to 
 know in vain the premises of our Jirgument, and we must be satisfied 
 to conclude that truth is an entity utterly incomprehensible. Some 
 will argue that truth is the creation of God, but, unfortunately, this 
 y)ropo8ition is self-inconsistent on its face, for it is truth that God must 
 have ever existed before He created anything. Who created this 
 truth before the creation, and what is the difference between this first 
 truth and the second truth created by God? And again, to create truth is 
 itself a truth. Therefore if there was no truth before how could any truth 
 be created without using a truth which must have been existent?
 
 SYNTHETIC RELIGION. 801 
 
 It may be admitted that there was no truth before its creation by God. 
 Still there is another contradiction, for no existence of truth or non-truth 
 is already a truth, and who created this m^j/ative truth before the creation ':* 
 It may be protested that as God is an absolute, Hnite, unlimited, uncondi- 
 tional, and omnipotent power,He can create by the method wliich is entirely 
 beyond our human intellect; but these attributes are incompatible with 
 one another and nullify the very existence of God. 
 
 First. Creation implies relativity in comparison with non-creation, and 
 if God is creator He loses the attribute of absolute, which must not be 
 relative. Also, He is relative with the things created, or, in other words, 
 He is the relative cause in regard to the effect. Next, though the universe 
 is unlimitedly wide and infinitely vast, yet the suns, m(jons, and stars are 
 conditionally created with certain form, heat, light, etc.; human beings are 
 conditioned into a limited space of body, with their linite power of intellect, 
 the limited length of nose, the relatively located eyes, ears, and limljs; the 
 lower animals are under still more limited mental capacity, with certain 
 conditioned physical power and construction, destined to live in a con- 
 ditional habitat, and all inorganic substances are still more finite, relatively 
 limited, and conditioned than the organic beings. 
 
 If we observe the other phenomena around us we shall see that the 
 moon transforms its phase into many conditions within limited times; 
 the sun gives its heat and light to vis in different degrees according to the 
 different conditions; the rain falls within finite locality, and the sea rolls in 
 great storms and sleeps in pacitic calmness under certain c(mditions; the 
 earthquake and volcanic eruptions occur under certain conditions in a 
 limited place, by which and many other agencies operated from time immem- 
 orial, the present condition of the earth was conditioned, as seen in the strata 
 of the geological ages. If we are convinced that the creative mind must 
 be conditioned, because if no condition is considered nothing can be 
 designed, and also that the created universe is thus in the finite complexity 
 of limited condition, we can not think otherwise than that God Is also 
 limited, finite, and conditional, and can not be infinite, absolute, and 
 omnipotent. 
 
 Here is another contradiction, not on the part of God, but on our side. 
 If our human mind is unlimited and omnipotent, the question is at once 
 settled, but so long as no one can deny that we are limited in our intelli- 
 gence, we can not prove the divine intiniteness. For, to ascertain the 
 dimensions of a certain object, we need a standard measure, and the 
 number of times of its adjustment determines the extent. In the same 
 way, to value the unlimited intellect of God with our limited standard, we 
 must continue to compute to the end of the unlimited; but as there is no 
 end to the unlimited, we could not slop at any point, for when we cease in 
 the middle we have not yet ascertained the uulimitedness. It is ridicu- 
 lous when a person says a piece of lumber, say 100 feet, is unlimited, 
 stojjping his measurement in the point of ten or twelve feet distance 
 from the end. Therefore, the iinlimitedness of God is contradictory con- 
 clusion, for our limited intellect does not go so far and stojjs at a certain 
 place, and beyond that point we are not yet certain whether limited or 
 unlimited. 
 
 Finally, as God is undei'stood to have the above attributes, then the 
 existence of such a God is itself an irreconcilable conception. Thus, no 
 one can prove logically the existence and attributes of God, and every effort 
 toward satisfactory evidence turns a stumbling block. Here the definition 
 of religion, which was set down before, well adjusts this question — a priori 
 belief of an unknown entity. 
 
 Let us go a step farther, and decide whether the belief in the gods of 
 pantheism, or idol worship, will be in another predicament. If God has a 
 personal or animal form, or is a material idol, this notion does not prevent
 
 802 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the faith in Him being compromised with the two preceding beliefs— truth 
 and God— for He is presumed to have a wonderful power unknown to the 
 believers. Thus, the features of the above three faiths are very dissimilar 
 on their exterior, yet, internally, all of their followers believe in the 
 unknown entity. And if no one can verify its substantial nature by any 
 testimonial evidence, where is the difference among them, each of which 
 being invariably unknown? Here will be established a perfect union 
 between atheism and theism, for I cannot consider from the previous argu- 
 ment that truth was created by God, or God is a different thing from truth, 
 and can see but one entity — truth — the connecting link of cause and effect, 
 the essence of phenomena. 
 
 If this is the same Ihing with God, the terms atheism and theism mean 
 the same thing, or both are misnomers at the same time, for both believe 
 in one unknown entity, a fountain from which our complex and mental 
 phenomena and their consequent physical actions flow out, a base upon 
 which the fabrics of science and philosophy are erected. This is not only 
 the foundation of the intellect of human beings, but also of the lower 
 animals, because, though their mental faculties can not be compared with 
 ours, so far as they have even rudimentary mind, they must have this 
 unconscious belief. Much more the human infants and wildest savages are 
 not to be excepted from this natural conviction. In the last three cases 
 they do not realize the existence of an unknown entity and a belief in it, 
 but they can not live without these, as a newly born child does not recog- 
 nize the existence of its parents. 
 
 If the above inference is correct, we can conclude that whether a man 
 is a religionist, or a so-called non-religionist, whether he is a theist or atheist, 
 whether a monotheist or pantheist, whether a scientist, philosopher, spirit- 
 ualist, or materialist, a statesman or a lawyer, v/hether infant or adult, 
 whether barbarian or beast, all beings of the human and animal kingdom 
 have, consciously or unconsciously, a priori belief of an unknown one. That 
 is, they are all believers of religion. And also we can conclude that all the 
 religions in the world have one and the same center and are synthesized into 
 one synthesized religion, or, if I may use the term, "entitism," which has 
 been the inherent spirit of Japan, and is called satori, or hotoke, in Japan- 
 ese. The apparent contradictions among them are only the different 
 descriptions of the same thing, seen from different situations and different 
 views, to be observed in the way to the termination. 
 
 The relation of Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Shintoiem, and 
 all the other religions of the world and their believers is like that of many 
 lines of different railroads and their passengers. Each starts from a differ- 
 ent point and direction, passing through different country scenes, but the 
 final destiny is the one and the same World's Fair, which will also be differ- 
 ently viewed by the mental situation of the visitors. Do not dispute about 
 the distinctions of the different lines of railroad. The World's Fair is not in 
 the trains and cars, but it is in Chicago, right before you. You are in the 
 fair. Stop your debate about the difference of religion. Kill Gautama — 
 he is only a conductor of the train; burn his scripture— truth is not in it. 
 but right before you. You are in truth. Do not mind Christ— He is only 
 a brakeman. Tear up the Bible — God is not in it, but right before you. 
 You are in God. 
 
 This synthesis of all faiths is no more a vain hope. If it were ever 
 so thought, it is now known that this apparent dream was not Utopian but 
 a mirage refracted from a remote reality. Could I but have for a few 
 moments the clairvoyant vision of the seer, and peer into the deep and 
 subtle minds of the great men and women who are here assembled, I 
 should discover one aim and one object common to them all — the desire in 
 love to help and teach the others, but I should also find a mental concep- 
 tion and hope in regard to this parliament as different in each mind as the 
 faces of these members vary from one another.
 
 BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 803 
 
 It is the dream of the Christian representatives that in assemblinfj 
 together these great men from China, from India, from Europe, from Soutli 
 America, from Japan and the islands of the sea, tliey will, for the first time, 
 behold with understanding the bloody cross of Christ and will enroll, 
 under the banner of the humble Nazarene, and the Christian rejiresent- 
 ative is right; but there is something more. 
 
 It was the dream of the Buddhist that the clear and pure enlighten- 
 ment of Gautama might be explained and comprehended by the student 
 of the West, and the Buddhist representative is right; but there is some- 
 thing more. 
 
 It was the dream of the representative from the land of the star and 
 crescent and all those Moslems who pray to Allah with their faces toward 
 Mecca, that some recognition should be held out to them as a powerful 
 and aggressive faith which has earned its right of place among the accepted 
 religions of the world, and the representative of Mohammed is right; but 
 there is something more. 
 
 The clean Parsee, purified by fire, standing almost alone to-day under 
 the luitarnished flag of Zoi-oaster, still hopes and dreams of a revival of 
 his faith by the influence of this Parliament of Religions, and he is right, 
 but there is something more. 
 
 Members of this great auxiliary assembly, there is a surprise awaiting 
 you. The lamb and the liou shah lie down together. Looking more 
 intently, some of us behold a strange thing — the paradox, the anomaly the 
 Christian a Buddhist, and the Buddhist a Christian; the Moslem a Parsee, 
 and the Parsee a Moslem. The grand, far-reaching result to grow out 
 of this parliament is not what you conceive, but, as I said before, a 
 surprise awaits you. Out of it shall come a pvire being — unfettered, 
 naked, white, with eyes like Christ and dignity like Buddha , bearing the 
 rewards of Zoroaster and the flaming sword of Moslem. To her the Jew 
 bows his head, the Christian kneels, the Brahman prays; before her the 
 habiliments of sects and creeds fall off, for she is pure and naked — she is the 
 one truth resurrected from the mingled heart and interchanged mind of 
 the world's great Parliament of Religions. 
 
 BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 H. DHAKMAPALA. 
 
 Max Muller says: "When a religion has ceased to produce champions, 
 prophets, and martyrs, it had ceased to live in the true sense of the word, 
 and the decisive battle for the dominion of the world would have to be 
 fought out among the three missionary religions which are alive — Bud- 
 dhism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity." Sir William W. Hunter, in his 
 '■ Indian Empire " (1893), says: " The secret of Buddha's success was that 
 he brought spiritual deliverance to the people. He preached that salvation 
 was equally open to all men, and that it must be earned, not by projjitiat- 
 ing imaginary deities, but by our own conduct. His doctrines thus cut 
 away the religious basis of caste and had the efficiency of the sacrificial 
 ritual, and assailed the supremacy of the Brahmans (priests) as the medi- 
 ators between God and man." Buddha taught that sin, sorrow, and 
 deliverance, the state of man in this life, in all previous, and in all future 
 lives, are the inevitable results of his own acts (Karma). He thus applied 
 the inexorable law of cause and effect to the soul. What a man sows he 
 must reap. 
 
 As no evil remains without punishment, and no good deed without 
 reward, it follows that neither priest nor God can prevent each act bearing
 
 604 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 its own consequences. Misery or happiness in this life is the unavoidable 
 result of our conduct in a past life^ and our actions here will determine 
 our happiness or misery in the life to come. When any creature dies he is 
 born again, in some higher or lower state of existence, according to his 
 merit or demerit. His merit or demerit, that is, his character, consists of 
 the sum total of his actions in all previous lives. 
 
 By this great law of Karma, Buddha explained the inequalities and 
 apparent injustice of men's estate in this world as the consequence of acts 
 in the past, while Christianity compensates those inequalities by rewards 
 in the future. A system in which our whole well-being, past, present, and 
 to come, depends on ourselves, theoretically, leaves little room for the inter- 
 ference, or even existence, of a personal God. But the atheism of Buddha 
 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 selfishness 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 teachingwas 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 prescribed a 
 code of practical morality as the means of salvation. The four essential 
 features of that code were: Reverence to spiritual teachers 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. Buddhism will 
 stand forth as the embodiment of the eternal verity, that as a man sows he 
 will reap, associated with the duties of mastery over self, and kindness to 
 all men, and quickened into a popular religion by the 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 sayings and doeth them, he is 
 like a man which built a house and laid the foundation on a rock. 
 
 Why call ye Me Lord and do not the things which I say? 
 
 Judge not, condemn not. forgive. 
 
 Love your enemies and do good, hoping for nothing again, and your reward 
 shall be great. 
 
 Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. 
 . Be ready, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not. 
 
 Sell all that ye have and give it to the poor. 
 
 Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, 
 drink, and be merry. But God said unto him: Thou fool, this niuht thy soul 
 shall be reauired of thee; then whose shall these things be which thou hast pro- 
 vided? 
 
 The life is more than meat and the body more than raiment. Whosoever he 
 be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath ho can not be My dif-ciple. 
 
 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. 
 
 For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. 
 
 There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or 
 i-hildren for the kingdom of God's sake who shall not receive manifold more 
 in this present time. 
 
 Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with 
 surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life. Watch ye, therefore, and 
 pray always. 
 
 Here are some Buddtiist teachings for comparison : 
 
 Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time. Hatred ceases by love. This is 
 an ancient law. Let us live happily, not hating those who hate us. Among men 
 who hate us, let us live free from hatred. Let one overcome anger by love. Let 
 him overcome evil by good. Let him overcome the greedy by liberality; let the 
 liar be overcome by trutli. 
 
 As the bee. injuring not the flower, its color, or scent, flies away, taking the 
 nectar, so let the wise man dwell upon the earth.
 
 ^n 
 
 IB 
 
 HERANT m. KIRETCHJIAN, 
 
 AriaeDiaQ Orator, Constantinople.
 
 I 
 
 BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 805 
 
 Like a beautiful flower, full of color and full of scent, the fine words of him 
 who acts accordingly arc full of fruit. 
 
 Let him speak the truth, let him not yield to anger, let him give when asked, 
 even from tho little ho has. By these things ho will enter heaven. 
 
 The man who has transgressed one law, and speaks lies, and denies a future 
 world, there is no sin he could not do. 
 
 The real treasure is that laid up through charity and piety, temperance, and 
 self-control; the treasure thus hid is secured, and passes not away. 
 
 He who controls his tongue speaks wisely and is not puffed up, he who holds 
 up the torch to enlighten the world, his word is sweet- 
 Let his livelihood be kindness, his conduct righteousness. Then in the fullness 
 of gladness he will make an end of grief. 
 
 He who is tranquil and has completed his course, who stses truth as it really 
 is, but is not partial when there are persons of dilTerent faitb to be dealt with, 
 who with Arm mind overcomes ill will and covetousness, ho is a true disciple. 
 
 As a mother, even at the risk of h(>r own life, proti'cts her son, her only son. 
 so let each one cultivate j;ood will without measure among all beings. 
 
 Nirvana is a state to be realized here on this eartli. He who lia.s reached 
 the fourth stage of lioliness consciously enjoys the bliss of Nirvana. But 
 it is beyond the reach of him who is selfish, skeptical, realistic, sensual, full 
 of hatred, full of desire, proud, self-righteous, and ignorant. When by 
 supreme and unceasing effort he destroys all selfishness and realizes tho 
 oneness of all beings, is free from all prejudices and dualism, when he, 
 by patient investigation, discovers truth, the stage of holiness is reached. 
 
 Among Buddhist ideals are self-sacrifice for the sake of others, com- 
 passion based on wisdom, joy in the hope that there is final bliss for the 
 pure-minded, altruistic individual. Tho student of Buddha's religion takes 
 the burden of life with sweet contentment; uprightness is his delight; he 
 encompasses himself with holiness in word and deed; he sustains ins life 
 by means that are quite pure; good is his conduct, guarded the door of his 
 senses, mindful and self-possessed, he is altrgether happy. 
 
 H.T.Buckie, the author of the "History of Civilization," says: "A 
 knowledge of Buddhism is necessary to the right understanding of Chris- 
 tianity. Buddhism is, besides, a most philosophical creed. Theologians 
 should study it." 
 
 In his inaugural address delivered at the Congress of Orientals last 
 year, Max Muller remarked: " As to the religion of Buddha being uiHuenccd 
 by foreign thought, no true scholar now dreams of that. The religion of 
 Buddha is the daughter of the old Brahman religion, and a daughter in 
 many respects more beautiful than the mother. On the contrary, it was 
 through Buddhism that India, for the first time, stepped forth from its 
 isolated position and became an actor in the historical drama of the 
 world." 
 
 Dr. Hoey, in his preface to Dr. Oldberg's excellent work on Buddha, 
 says: "To thoughtful men who evince an interest in the comparative 
 study of religious beliefs, Buddhism, as the highest effort of i)ure intellect 
 to solve the problem of Vieing, is attractive. It is not less so to the meta- 
 physician and the sociologist who study the philosophy of the modern 
 German pessimistic school and observe its social tendencies.'' 
 
 Dr. Rhys David says that Buddhism is a field of inquiry in which the 
 only fruit to be gathered is knowledge. 
 
 R. C. Dutt says: "The moral teachings and precepts of Buddhism have 
 so much in common with those of Christianity that some connection 
 between the two systems of religion has long been suspected. Candid 
 inquirers who have paid attention to the history of India and of the (J reek 
 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 in believing that 
 Buddhist ideas and precepts penetrated into the (Jreek world before the 
 birth of Christ. The discovery of the Asoka inscriptit)n of Hirnar, which 
 tells us that that enlightened emperor of India made peace with five (Jreek 
 kings and sent Buddhist missionaries to preach his religion in Syria,
 
 806 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 explains to us the process by which the ideas were communicated. 
 Researches into doctrines of the Therapeuts in Egypt and of the Essenes in 
 Palestine leave no doubt, even in the minds of such devout Christian 
 thinkers as Dean Mansel, that the movement which those sects embodied 
 was due to Buddhist missionaries who 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 Buddhism." 
 
 A VOICE FROM THE YOUNG MEN OF THE ORIENT. 
 
 HERANT M. KIKETCHJIAN OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 Brethren from the SiinRising of All Lands: 1 stand here to repre- 
 sent the young men of the Orient, in particular, from the land of the pyra- 
 mids, to the icehelds of Siberia, and in general, from the shores of the 
 Mgean to the waters of Japan. But on this wonderful platform of the 
 Parliament of Religions, where I find myself with the sons of the Orient 
 facing the American public, my first thought is to tell you that you have 
 unwittingly called together a council of your creditors. We have not 
 come to wind up your affairs, but to unwind your hearts. Turn to_ your 
 books and see if our claim is not right. We have given y«u science, 
 philosophy, theology, music, and poetry, and have luade history for you at 
 tremendous expense. And, moreover, out of the light that shone upon our 
 lands from heaven there have gone forth those who shall forever be your 
 cloud of witnesses and your inspiration — saints, apostles, prophets, mar- 
 tyrs. And with that rich capital you have amassed a stupendous fortune, 
 so that your assets hide away from your eyes your liabilities. We do not 
 want to share your wealth, but it is right that we should have our dividend, 
 and as usual, it is a young man presents the vouchers. 
 
 You can not pay this dividend with money. Your gold you want your- 
 self. Your silver has fallen from grace. We want you to give us a rich 
 dividend in the full sympathy of your hearts. And, like the artisan, who, 
 jvKlging by their weight, throws into his crucible nuggets of different 
 shape and color, and, after fire and flux have done their work, povirs it 
 out, and, behold, it flows pure gold, so, having called together the children 
 of men from the ends of the earth, and having them here before you in 
 the crucible of earnest thought and honest search after truth, you find 
 when this parliament is over that out of prejudice of race and dogma, and 
 out of the variety of custom and worship, there flows out before your eyes 
 nothing but the pure gold of hvimanity, and henceforth you think of us, 
 not as strangers in foreign lands, but as yovir brothers in China, and Japan, 
 and India, your sisters in the isles of Greece, and the hills and valleys of 
 Armenia; you shall have paid us such a dividend out of your hearts and 
 received yourself withal such a blessing that this will be a Beulah Land of 
 prophecy for future times, and send forth the echo of that sweet song that 
 once was heard in our land of " Peace on Earth and Good Will to Man." 
 
 There has been so much spoken to you here, by men of wisdom and 
 experience, of the religious life of the great East, that you would not expect 
 me to add anything thereto. Nor would I have stood here presuming to 
 give you any more information abovit the religions of the world. But there 
 is a new race of men that have risen up out of all the great past, whose 
 influence will undoubtedly be a most important factor in the work of 
 humanity in the coming century. They are the result of all the past, com- 
 ing in contact with the new life of the present — I mean the young men of 
 the Orient: they who are preparing to take possession of the earth with
 
 VOICE FROM THhl YOUNG MEN OF THE ORIENT. HOT 
 
 their brothers of the groat West. ConstantinopU^ stands to-day as the typ- 
 ical city of the East, as influenced by the civilization of the West. In view of 
 this fact it seems to nie that uo voice coming to this Parliament of Relig- 
 ions with its plea lor an impartial hearing cimld be any more worthy of your 
 most indulgent hearing and mipartial consideration than that of the voice 
 of the young men of the Orient coming tlnx)Ugh the city of Constantinojiie, 
 the most religious city of the world. Saturatetl with the religions of tlie 
 ages, overwhelmed by the philosophy of modern days, the miiul and heart 
 of the young men of the Orient has hatl a development that is not only 
 characteristic of the Orient, but is having its seijuel in all t\w West. 
 
 I bring you a philosophy from the shores of the Bosphorus anil a religion 
 from the city of Constantine. All my Arm ctmvictions and deductions that 
 have grown up within me for years past have, under the influences of this 
 parliament, been shaken to their roots. But I find to-day tliose roots yet 
 deeper in my heart and the branches reaching higher into the skies. I 
 can not presume to bring you anything new, but if all the deductions ap])ear 
 to you to be logical from premises which human intelligence can a(;cept, 
 then I feel contident that you will give us credit of honest purpose and 
 allow us the right as intelligent beings to hold fast to that which I present 
 before you. 
 
 When the young men of to-day were young children they heard and saw 
 every day of their lives nothing but enmity and absohite separation between 
 men of different religions and nationalities. I neetl not sto}) to tell you of 
 the influence of such a life upon the lives of young men who found them- 
 selves separated and in camps pitched for battle against their brother-men 
 with whom they had to come in contact in the daily avocations of life. 
 And, as the light of education and ideas of liberty began to spread over the 
 whole Orient with the latter part of this century, this yoke hecame more 
 galling upon the necks of the young men of the Orient, and the burden too 
 heavy to bear. It would be too long to lead yon through the various stages 
 of development of that which I may call the new religion of the young men 
 of Constantinople and of the whole Orient. 
 
 Young men of all the nationalities 1 have mentioned, who. for the past 
 thirty years, have received their education in the universities of Paris, 
 Heidelberg, Berlin, and other cities of Europe, as well as the Imperial 
 Lyceum of Constantinople, have been, consciously or unconsciously, pas- 
 sively or aggressively, weaving the fabric of their religion, so that to the 
 thousand young men, for whom their voice is an oracle, it has come like a 
 boon and enlisted their heart and mind. 
 
 They find their brothers in large numbers in all the cities of the Orient 
 where European civilization has found tlie least entrance, and there is 
 scarcely any city that will not have felt their influence before the end of 
 the century. Their religion is the newest of all religions, and I should not 
 have brought it upon this platform were it not for the fact that it is one of 
 the most pctent influences acting in the Orient and with which we religious 
 young men of the East have to cope efficiently if we are to have the least 
 influence with the peoples of our respective lands. 
 
 For, remember, these are men of intelligence, men of excellent parts, 
 men, who, with all the young men of the Orient, have proved that in all arts 
 and science, in the marts of the civilized world, in the armies of tlie nations, 
 and at the right hand of kings they are the equal of any race of men. from 
 the rising of the sun to the setting thereof. They are men, moreover, for 
 the most part, of the best intentions and the most sincere convictions, and, 
 when you hear their opinion of religion and think of the position they 
 hold, you can not, I am sure, as members of the Religious I'arlianient. feel 
 anything but the greatest concern for them and the lauds in which they 
 dwell. 
 
 I represent, personally, the religious young men of the Orient, but let
 
 808 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 me, by proxy, for the young men of the newest religion, speak before you 
 to the apostle of any religion: " You come to us in the name of religion to 
 bring to us what wo already have. We believe that man is sufficient unto 
 himself, if, as you say, a perfect God has created him. If you will let him 
 alone he will be all that he should be. Educate him, train him, don't bind 
 him hand and foot, and he will be a jjerfect man, worthy to be the brother 
 of any other man. Nature has sufficiently endowed man, and you should 
 use all that is given you in your intelligence before you trouble God to 
 give you more. Moreover, no one has found God. We have all the inspi- 
 ration we want in sweet poetry and enchanting music, in the companion- 
 ship of refined and cultured men and women. If we are to listen to it, we- 
 would like Handel to tell us of the Messiah, and if the heavens resound it 
 is enough to have Beethoven's interpretation. 
 
 " We have nothing against you, but really, as to all religions, we must 
 say that you have done the greatest possible harm to humanity by raising 
 men against men, and nation against nation. And now to make a bad 
 thing worse in this day of superlative common sense, you come to fill the 
 minds of men with impossible things, and burden their brains with endless 
 discussions of a thousand sects. For there are many I heard before you, 
 and I know how many could follow. We consider you the one, of all men 
 to be avoided, for your philosophy and your doctrines are breeding pessi- 
 mism over the land." 
 
 Then, with a religious instinct and innate respect that all Orientals have, 
 I have to say suddenly: " But, see here, we are not infidels or atheists or 
 skeptics. We simply have no time for such things. We are full of the 
 inspiration for the highest life, and desire freedom for all young men of 
 the world. We have a religion that unites all men of all lands, and fills the 
 earth with gladness. It supplies every human need, and, therefore, we 
 know that it is the true rehgion, especially because it produces peace and 
 the greatest harmony. So, we do not want any of your ' isms,' nor any 
 other system or doctrine. We are not materialists, socialists, rationalists, 
 or pessimists, and we are not idealists. Our religion is the first that was, 
 and it is also the newest of the new — we are gentlemen. In the name of 
 peace and humanity, can you not let us alone? If you invite us again in 
 the name of religion, we shall have a previous engagement, and if you call 
 again to preach, we are not at home." 
 
 This is the Oriental young man, like the green bay tree. And where 
 one passes away, so that you do not find him in his place, there are 
 twenty to fill the gap. Believe me, I have not exaggerated, for, word for 
 word, and ten times more than this, I have heard from intelligent men of 
 the army and navy, men in commerce and men of the bars of justice, in 
 earnest conversation and deep argument, in the streets of Constantinople, 
 in the boats of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, in Roumania and 
 Bulgaria, as well as in Paris and New York, and the Auditorium of Chi- 
 cago, from Turk and Armenian, from Greek and Hebrew, as well as Bul- 
 garian and Servian, and I can tell you that this newest substitute of 
 religion, keeping the gates of commerce and literature, science and law, 
 through Europe and the Orient, is a most potent force in shaping the des- 
 tinies of the nations of the East, and has to be accounted for intelligently 
 in thinking of the future of religion, and has to be met with an armament 
 as jjowerful in the eyes of the young men of the Orient as that which 
 science and literature have put in the hands of these men of the great army 
 of the new gentlemen class. 
 
 There is another class of young men in the Orient who call themselves 
 the religious young men and who hold to the ancient faith of their fathers. 
 Allow me to claim for these young men, also, honesty of purpose, intel- 
 ligence of mind, as well as a firm persuasion. For them, also, 1 come to speak 
 to you, and in speaking for them, I speak also for myself. You will naturally
 
 VOICE FROM THE YOUNG MEN OF THE ORIENT. 8C19 
 
 see that we have to be from earliest claya in contact with the new reUKioii; 
 so let me call it for convenience. We have to be in colleges aiul uuiverBi- 
 ties with those same young men. We have to go hand in hand with them 
 in all science and history, literature, music, and poetry, and naturally with 
 them we sliare in the tirm belief in all scientitic deduction and hold last to 
 every principle of human lib6rty. 
 
 First, all the young men of the Orient, who have the deepest religious 
 convictions, stand for the dignity of man. I regret that I should have to 
 commence here; but, out of the combined voices and arguments of philos- 
 ophies and theologies, there comes before us such an unavoidable inference 
 of an imperfect humanity that we have to come out befoie we can speak 
 on any religion for ourselves and say: "We believe that we are men." 
 For us it is a libel on humanity, and an impeachment of the Ciod who 
 created man, to say that man is not sufficient within himself, and that he 
 needs religion to come and make him perfect. It is libeling humanity to 
 look upon this or that family of man and to say that they show conceptions 
 of goodness and truth and high ideas, and a life above simple animal desires, 
 because they have had religious teaching by this or that man, or a revela- 
 tion from heaven. We believe that if man is man he has it all in himself, 
 just as he has all his bodily capacities. Will you tell me that a caulillower 
 that I plant in the fields grows up in perfection and beauty of its convolu- 
 tions, and that my brain, which the same God has created a hundred 
 thousand times more delicate and perfect, can not develop its convolutions, 
 and do the work that God intended I should do and have the highest con- 
 ceptions that He intended I should have; that a helpless i^ollywog will 
 develop and become a frog with perfect, elastic limbs, and a heaving chest, 
 and that frogs will keep together in contentment and croak in unity, and 
 that men need religion and help from outside in order that I may develop 
 into the perfection of a man in body and soul, and recognize the brother- 
 hood of man and live upon God's earth in peace? I say it is an impeach- 
 ment of God, who created man, to jjromulgate and acquiesce in any such 
 doctrine. 
 
 Nor do we accept the unwarranted conclusions of science. We have 
 nothing to do with the monkeys. If they want to speak to us they will 
 have to come up to us. There is a W^3stern spirit of creating difficulties 
 which we can not understand. One of my first experiences in the United 
 States was taking part in a meeting of young ladies and gentlemen in the 
 city of Philadelphia, for a quiet evening, of which there are quite a num- 
 ber there. The subject of the evening was whether animals had souls, and 
 the cat came out prominently. Very serious and erudite papers were read. 
 But the conclusion was that, not knowii'g just what a cat is and what a 
 soul is, they could not decide the matter, but still it was a serious matter 
 bearing upon religion. Now, suppose an Armenian girl should ask her 
 mother if cats had souls. She would settle the question in parentheses, 
 and say, for example: "My sweet one, you must go down and see if the 
 water is boiling (What put the question into your head? Of course, 
 cats have souls. Cats have cats' souls and men have men's souls). 
 Now go down." And the child would go down, rejoicing in her humanity. 
 And if my Armenian lady should one day be confronted with the missing 
 link of which we hear so much, still lier equanimity woiild remain unper- 
 turbed, and she would still glory In her humanity by informi"g you that 
 the missing link had the soul of a missing link and man had the soul of a 
 man. 
 
 So far we come with the young men of the gentlemen class, hand to 
 hand, upon the common of humanity. But here is a corner where we part 
 and take widely diverging paths. Wo cry, "Let us alone and we will 
 expand and rise up to the height of our destiny; " and behold, wo lind an 
 invisible power that will not let us alone. We tind that we can do almost
 
 810 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 everything in the ways of science and art. But when it comes to following 
 our conception of that which is high and noble, that which is right and 
 necessary for our development, then we are wanting in strength and power 
 to advance toward it. I put this in the simplest form, for I can not enlarge 
 upon it here. But the fact for us is as real as that of the dignity of man. 
 That there is a power which diverts men and women from the path of 
 rectitude and honor, in which they know they must walk. You can not 
 say it is inherent in man, for we feel that it does not belong to us. And if 
 it did belong to us, and it was the right conception of man to go down into 
 degradation and misery, rapacity, and the desire of crushing down his 
 fellowman, we would say. '-Let him alone, and let him do that which God 
 meant that he should do." 
 
 So, briefly, I say to anyone here who is preparing to boil down his creed, 
 put this in it before you reach the boiling point: "And I believe in the 
 devil, the arch-enemy of God, the accuser of God to man." One devil for 
 the whole universe? We care not. A legion of demons besieging each 
 soul? It matters not to us. We know this — that tliere is a power outside 
 of man which draws him aside mightily. And there is no power on earth 
 that can resist it. 
 
 And so, here comes our religion. If you have a religion to bring to the 
 young men of the Orient, it mast come with a power that will balance, yea, 
 counterbalance the power of evil in the world. Then will man be free to 
 grow up and be that which God intended he should be. We want God. 
 We want the spirit of God. And the religion that comes to vis in any name 
 or form must bring that, or else, for us, it is no religion. And we believe in 
 God — not the God of protoplasms, that hides between molecules of matter, 
 but God whose children we are. 
 
 So we place as the third item of our philosophy and protest, the dignity 
 of God. Is chivalry dead ? Has all conception of a high and noble life, of 
 sterling integrity, departed from the hearts of men, that we can not aspire 
 to knighthood and princeship in the courts of our God ? We know we are 
 His children, for we are doing His works and thinking His thoughts. What 
 we want to do is to be like Him. Oh, is it true that I can cross land and 
 sea and reach the heart of my mother, and feel her arms clasping me, but 
 that I, a child of God, standing helpless in the univei'se. against a power 
 that I can not overcome, can not lift up my hands to Him. and cry to 
 Him, that I may have His spirit in my soul and feel His everlasting arms 
 supporting me in my weakness. 
 
 And here comes the preacher from ancient days, and the modern 
 church, and tells us of One who did overcome the world. And that He came 
 down from above. We need not to be told that He came from above, for 
 no man born of woman did any such thing. But we are persuaded that 
 by the means of grace and the path whicli He shows us to walk in, the 
 Spirit of God does come into the hearts of men, and that I can feel it in 
 my heart fighting with me against sin, and strengthening my heart to hold 
 resolutely to that which I know to be right by the divine in me. We do 
 not know whether the Spirit of God proceedeth from the Father or from 
 the Son, but we know that it proceedeth into the heart of man and that 
 sufficeth unto us. 
 
 And so, with a trembling hand but firm conviction, with much sadness, 
 with humanity, but joy of eternal triumph. I come with you all to the 
 golden gates of the 20th century, where the elders of the coming com- 
 monwealth of humanity are sitting to pass judgment upon the religion 
 that shall enter those gates to the support of the human heart I place 
 there by the side of ancient Oriental Confucianism and modern theosophy, 
 ancient Oriental Buddhism and modern spiritualism, and every faith of 
 ancient days and modern materialism, rationalism, and idealism — there I 
 place ancient Oriental Christianity with its Christ, the power of God and 
 the wisdom of God, and its cross, still radiant in the love of God, 
 Towering o'er the wrecks of time.
 
 CHAPTEK XVII. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH DAYy SEPTEMBER 27th. 
 
 There was an excellent programme on September 27tli, the 
 closing day of the parliament. Not a seat was vacant in the 
 large hall. After the universal prayer had been said by Dr. 
 MfGilvary, missionary in Siam, Dr. Barrows said: 
 
 The morning of the Beventeenth day of this historic assembly has come, 
 and I wish to express the feeUng of thankfulness which I have in my heart 
 to Almighty God for His goodness that has been shown to us so continu- 
 ously. And I wish to express my appreciation of the fidelity of the 
 friends who have co-operated in making this parliament what it has been. 
 
 I learned this morning from Prof. Menaz Tcheras, that grand Armenian 
 Christian, that, although he had been in our city over twenty days, 
 he has been so constantly in attendance on this parliament that he has 
 seen the White City only once in the daytime and once in the evening. 
 I have noticed the same faces here, day after day, of thoughtful ministers, 
 laymen, and women, who have been here drinking in the truth that has been 
 given to us, and enjoying what has made this series of meetings so remark- 
 able and ennobling. 
 
 And now, that the last day has dawned, I wish in these few words, to 
 express my gratitude to the friends, who have worked with me, for their 
 patience; and to the newspaper press, who have done so much to spread 
 abroad the proceedings of this parliament. This evidence of enterprise on 
 the part of the press, this evidence of their appreciation of the significance 
 of this parliament, is so noteworthy that it has been frequently spoken of 
 by many of those who have come to us from other lands. 
 
 THE WORLD'S PARLIAMENT. 
 
 MES. L. OEMISTON CHANT. 
 
 The following poem, written by Mrs. L. Ormiston Chant, 
 
 was read by Dr. Barrows: 
 
 THE WOELD'S PAELIAMENT. 
 
 " He hath made of one all nations of the earth," 
 
 The New World's call h:ith summoned men to prayer. 
 
 And swift across tliu oi-i-an's path of foam. 
 Along the mountain tracks, or desert's elare. 
 Or down the Old World valleys they have come, 
 O golden, olden East; 
 Eight welcome to the feast. 
 The New World welcomes you 
 In the most holy name of God, 
 The New World welcomes you. 
 
 811
 
 ^ 
 
 812 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Tho New JVorM's call hath stimmont-d men to prayer; 
 
 Ail <jhri*stoudom hath felt her great heart beat, 
 And Europe's messengers from every where 
 Still wake the ectioes with their eoming feet. 
 O Mussulman and Greek! 
 The glad New World doth seek, 
 With Christian and wiih Jew, 
 In the most holy name of God, 
 To love and welcome you. 
 
 The New World's call hath summoned men to prayer. 
 
 And Africa hath heard the call and cry 
 To her most noble sons to haste and share 
 The brotherhood of worship side by side. 
 O heirs of liberty, 
 Dearnegro brothers ye. 
 At last at one with you. 
 In the most holy name of God, 
 The New World welcomes you. 
 
 For all the creeds of men have come to praise. 
 
 And kneel and worship at the great white throne 
 Of God. the Father of us all, and raise 
 Tlie all- world's prayer to Him, the great alone. 
 O creeds whate'er ye be, 
 The truth shall make you free. 
 And, be ye old or new. 
 In the most holy name of God, 
 The New World welcomes you. 
 
 Let Moses still be reverenced, and the name 
 
 Of Buddha till his worshipers with awe; 
 Still let Mohammed from Ifls people claim 
 
 A sober life and conduct as before. 
 Yet nought of outlook shall be sacrificed 
 
 By which man doth his soul's horizon scan. 
 For over all the creeds the face of Christ 
 
 Glows with white glory on the face of man. 
 And all the symbols human tears have stained. 
 
 And e-very path of prayer man's feet have trod. 
 Have nearer knowledge of the Father gjiined. 
 
 For back of soul and symbol standeth God. 
 
 In fullness of the time. 
 
 From every creed and clime, 
 
 The New World and the Old 
 
 Pray in the age of gold. 
 
 In one vast host on bended knee. 
 
 The old and new in unity 
 
 Of truth's eternal good. 
 
 To East and West forever given, 
 
 Proclaim in sight of heaven. 
 
 In the most holy name of God, 
 
 Immortal brotherhood. 
 
 THE GOOD IN ALL FAITHS. 
 
 DR. F. W. M. HUGENHOLTZ OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 I am thankful that the opportunity has been given to me of bringing to 
 this congress the hearty greetings of those whose representative I am — 
 the members of the Confederation of Netherland Protestants, who are in 
 the most pei-fect sympathy with this enterprise. It is gratifying indeed 
 to remember thhc. while we are gathered together here in Chicago, every- 
 where in the world hosts of sympathetic men and women are joining us in 
 spirit and praying for our success. Looking for the results of our parlia- 
 ment, we must not forget that it is already a result in itself, a glorious 
 result of the advanced conception of religion as a common good of man- 
 kind. Truth and untruth do not come together for a peaceful meeting.
 
 RELIGION AND MUSIC. 813 
 
 Divine revelation and diabolical inflation do not seek each other for mutual 
 edification. That, therefore, the ditferent religions of the world actually 
 did come together is itself a truth of the advanced religious thought of 
 our age. 
 
 Now admit those who have i)rei)areil the way for tliis i)arlianient. I 
 may point with pride at this Holland Confedi'ration of Protoetants, whose 
 single aim, acconling to its constitution, is, and already has boi-n for more 
 than twenty years, to promote the free development "of the religious life 
 within the churches and beyond," without any other dogmatic or denomi- 
 national addition. This, our Protestant bond, therefore, must hail with 
 enthusiasm this fullness of the times. Their delegate must feel at homo 
 amid these thousands, all of the members of the same confederation, 
 though not Dutchmen all'of them, nearly all of them promoters of the free 
 development of the religious life. 
 
 And now, how shall this aim be reached? What will, what must be the 
 result of the parliament? I trust it will put a stop to the mutual rivalry 
 of the various religions, in order to show that one religion, if not the only 
 good and true one, still must be considered as the best of all. Religion is 
 in such a way influenced by climate, race, and tradition that what is the 
 best for one can not at the same degree satisfy the wants of another. 
 
 No, there is a better rivalry, promising greater and surer success. Let 
 all of us move to see which of us can best and soonest live up to the high- 
 est demands of his religion, which of us flrst can overcome the sad ditt'er- 
 ences between creed and deed, between his professed and his ajjplied 
 religion. 
 
 And whenever we discover, as in these days we could many times, when- 
 ever we discover in each other's religion something that is lacking or less 
 developed in ours, let us try to also aim that such precious good shall 
 enrich our own religion with the spiritual pleasures found elsewhere. 
 
 This, indeed, will be to promote the free, the unprejudiced development 
 of the religious life by which, if all of us are thus advancing along our 
 different lines, at the end we will meet each other on tlie heights, when tlie 
 consciousness of being near to God will fill all His children with everlasting 
 joy. 
 
 RELIGION AND MUSIC. 
 
 W. L. TOMLINS OF CHICAGO. 
 
 I accepted Dr. Barrows' generous invitation with much misgiving, for I 
 am not a public speaker. Howe\er, I shall try to put these misgivings 
 from me, for I know I am with friends. The fear remains, however, that I 
 may not improve this opportunity to show the relation of musical art in its 
 sincerity on a plane which parallels the thought which brings you here — 
 the religious thought of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of 
 man. 
 
 In my professional experience I have had to examine thousands of 
 adult voices, and I have been struck with the large ])roportion that were 
 spoiled, in some cases ruined, by habits which could have been corrected in 
 childhood. So I started children's classes in order that I, at least, migiit 
 help the coming generation, and for twelve or fourteen years I have had 
 from two to ten classes every year in the city, of 200 or more boys and girls 
 in a class. I started out simply to liarmonize the action of the mouth and 
 the throat and the lungs, to get a harmonious physical action of the vocal 
 machinery, but I was soon carried past first intentions. 
 
 I found that directly the machinery was well ordered, the highest emo- 
 tions, on© by one, would come down and govern that machinery, and I was
 
 814 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 led by the force of my own teaching up into the realms of emotional sing- 
 ing I found as I harmonized the various emotions and made them into a 
 brotherhood, as previously I had harmonized the vocal machinery vpith the 
 brotherhood of emotions, there came the development of the spiritual 
 nature, which before had refused to govern or control either the emotions 
 or the machinery when they were out of order. Now, I can not give you 
 the details of my work; you could not see the connection between the 
 means which I employed and the results which I wished to attain. I may, 
 however, give one or two familiar illustrations which will only take a few 
 moments of your time. ^ - , , 
 
 Here in my hand I hold a little piece of paper, four or hve inches long. 
 It would represent the scale of miles on a geographical map. It would 
 stand, perhaps, for two or three hundred or two or three thousand miles, 
 but whether miles or inches, it is finite, it is a measurable quantity. I 
 may treble it in shape, still it is only so long. I may make it still more round, 
 and bring it so that it represents nine-tenths of the circle, still it is finite. 
 If you go along it and reach the ends you -will have to come back, but once 
 connect the ends, and it is a circle infinite in its suggestion. It represents 
 the infinite. Not only does it represent that, but it may also stand for indi- 
 viduality, and in that sense I wish to use the illustration. 
 
 Again, you will imagine I have a bell; it is easy to imagine that. If I 
 strike that bell, the vibrations pass entirely round, and it gives out its tone. 
 It says to you in sound: "lam a bell." I take up another round thing, 
 and on striking that it says: " I am a gong." It speaks out for itself. If, 
 however, I shorten the vibrations, hoiding the bell with my hand, so that 
 the vibration is not a complete circle, it does not say, "I am a bell " nor 
 " I am a gong," but it gives a little dull chink like a piece of dead scrap- 
 iron. It is a dead tone. 
 
 It is just so with a child. When the child has made a complete circle 
 of the machinery of the voice, and the attributes of the child nature, the 
 individuality comes out. Not only does it say, " I am a child," but "I am 
 a child of God, and there is none other made like me in the universe." It 
 is when you develop that in the child, when the voice is in complete har- 
 mony with this, you have real singing. Music is not to know about s.^ales 
 and flats and sharps and clefs. Singing is not the fireworks agility of the 
 voice, to be able to run up and down, to sing long and short, and slow and 
 soft, and loud and quick. Singing is the utterance of the soul through 
 the machinery of the voice. 
 
 So far as the bell is concerned, it always is the same. It may be a sad- 
 toned bell or a bright-toned bell; it may give out a different sound as I 
 strike it harder or softer, but it always says the same. The boy, however, 
 has a capacity to change, and in that capacity is the power of his develop- 
 ment and growth. The boy can change so that he may be sorrowful, or 
 sad, or commanding, entreating, or rejoicing. There are lots of things the 
 boy can change to; when the boy is completed into the circle, that is the 
 completion of his manhood. Previous to that he has thought, perhajjs, 
 simply of mending himself. 
 
 Let me go back for a moment. Suppose that bell is broken; the 
 broken bell is self-conscious in its disposition to mend itself. The boy who 
 is incomplete in his circle is simply concerned about himself. It is so when 
 he is sick; he has pain, that is all he thinks of; but let him come to health 
 and completeness, and then there is an absence of self-consciousness, and 
 after that, which is health, which is harmony, which is virtue, there coiiies 
 the sense of manhood and completeness, and after that manhood in its higher 
 development comes this marvelous thing which I can not talk to you about 
 except I tell it to you — brotherhood. 
 
 The boy, when he is complete with his voice, wants to go out and sing 
 and tell you all about it, and when he is complete in that way there comes a
 
 RELIGION AND MUSIC. 815 
 
 governing center, and that center is an emotional one, and with that emo- 
 tion coming to the center he feels vitalized; he takes a breath to complete 
 that vitalization, and the voice goes right up from the poy to his brethren. 
 The boy joys in liis heart. Then the machinery expresses that, and joy 
 goes forth; the boy sorrows, commands, entreats, all these things in 
 turn. Then there is a change. At first he joys selfishly. The little 
 fellows in my class think everything is sunshine, and they sing like the 
 lark in sunshine, they sing simply from companionshii), not for love of 
 their brothers. But soon another change comes. Instead of commanding 
 for the love of commanding, the boy commands me out of love for me, for 
 my good. Instead of entreating because he is helpless, he entreats me 
 with a kingly courtesy; instead of joying in his own success selfishly, with 
 that joy is a sympathy with those who have not had the same advantages 
 as himself; and instead of sorrowing with an utter sorrow, he has a hope- 
 fulness that will come in the morrow. 
 
 So that you see there are in these emotional centers several things that 
 may combine, joy and sorrow, commanti and entreaty, and these are on 
 a spiritual plane, because, directly you put the brotherhood into an orderly 
 development, from the highest plane come down spiritual influences to 
 govern it. 
 
 Some two years ago 1 took a thousand children from the public schools. 
 I Felected the voices tiiat seemed most musical, but I always chose those 
 from poor families, other things being equal. Those children have been 
 working with me for about two years, preparing to sing, as they have been 
 resently singing, in the World's Fair. These children came not from the 
 avenues, but from the alleys. They were disorderly; they were a little 
 rough; they did not know what was wanted of them. They came to get 
 something for nothing, and determined to have more than their companions, 
 if possible. They went through the music as I have attempted to describe 
 it to you, and soon, through the influence of this, better results came. 
 There was no longer an abuse of the imagination, but its use in the lino of 
 practical things. Soon there came little atoms, if I may say, no larger than 
 a mustard seed, of action toward each other, of better sentiments toward 
 brothers and sisters or teachers and parents. 
 
 Now, the trouble is with us musicians that, in the excess of our senti- 
 ment when we go into action, we are looking for some big mountain to 
 move, and probably the only action that w'ill be thrust in our path will be 
 something not larger than a mustard seed. Those little children sang and 
 almost filled the city with songs of gladness as individuals. We were told 
 to watch them and notice the development of their characters. The little 
 boy had some little thing to do, perhaps to find something for his sister, 
 open the door or something of that kind, and so on to bigger things. Some 
 of those children afterward went to the hospitals and sang. Some started 
 little classes for their companions. One boy has started an "Old Ck)thes 
 Club," to which boys and girls bring old shoesand garments that are after- 
 ward distributed to old people. Another started a little philanthropic 
 newspaper. Those things are being done without suggestions from the 
 teachers, and show that the boys are carrying their singing into action. 
 To-day most of them are occupied in some such manner. 
 
 I want, in conclusion, to give you one little thought. If T had gone to 
 those children and asked them to help themselves; if I had said, " Boy, 
 take care of No. 1," my work as an educational teacher, aside from 
 music, would have been a failure; but I was led to work in this direction: 
 " Bov, in your helpless condition, coming fnnn the alleys, and having asso- 
 ciations in which there seem to be no advantages in the world, my boy, 
 help some one else." 
 
 And in that spirit of helping another canre the blessing to those chil- 
 dren. We say it is more blessed to give than to receive. The society which
 
 816 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 will sing for you to-night — the Apollo Club — four years ago started some 
 workingmeirs concerts. The club has a large, fashionable svibscription in 
 this city, and an iiicomo and surplus. We went into the factories and work- 
 shops, and said: "You are our brothers; pay us 10 cents to save your own 
 self-respect and hear vis sing." We spent thousands of dollars last year on 
 the concerts we gave. At first the poor people looked on them as charity, 
 and were inclined to repudiate them. Very soon, however, they saw the 
 projects were based on love and brotherhood, and there were 22,000 applica- 
 tions for seats at the first concert this year, and in four years we have sung 
 to 70,000 of those people. But still we had the best of it — they received, 
 we gave, and the blessing was ours. 
 
 Now, I shall take the blessing to thom. I will tell you what I am going 
 to do, and please absolve me from anything like boastfulness in this matter. 
 I have gone to a lot of those men and women and said: "God has given you 
 voices and taught you to develop them; why not sing and help your com- 
 panions and neighbors?" So they are going to give to others, and then 
 they will have the best of it, and thus in that line of work of helping others 
 to still further help themselves. That is a religious thought as well as a 
 musical one. It is my desire to show you that in art, as in religion, the 
 lines all lead upward. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 
 
 DR. EMIL G. HIRSGH OF CHICAGO. 
 
 "The leading thought of to-day," remarked Dr. Barrows, 
 " is ultimate and universal religion, and, surely, if anyone has 
 a right to speak of that, it is a representative of the Hebrew 
 race, Dr. Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago, who calls himself, and he 
 is, a thorough American. He represents a people whose con- 
 tributions to the religion of the world are certainly greater than 
 those of any other nation, and I have great pleasure in intro- 
 ducing Dr. Hirsch to this parliament." Dr. Hirsch spoke as 
 follows ; 
 
 The domain of religion is co-extensive with the confines of humanity. 
 For man is by nature not only, as Aristotle puts the case, the political— he 
 is as clearly the religious creature. Religion is one of the natural func- 
 tions of the human soul; it is one of the natural conditions of human, as 
 distinct from mere animal, life. To this proposition ethnology and sociol- 
 ogy 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, relig- 
 ion never 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 decis- 
 ive influences rounding out individual life, and lifting it into significance 
 for and under the swifter and stronger current of the social relations. Cli- 
 matic 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.
 
 ELEMENTS OF UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 817 
 
 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 supe- 
 riority? As well might those bereft of the sense of hearing insist that, 
 because to them the reception of sound is denied, the universe arouniltliein 
 is a vast ocean of unbroken silence. A society without religion has 
 nowhere yet been discovered. Religion may then, in ver> truth, be said to 
 be the universal distinction of man. 
 
 Still the universal religion has as yet not been evolved in the procession 
 of the suns. It is one of the blessings yet to come. There are now oven 
 known to men and revered by them great religious systems which pretend 
 to universality. And who would deny that Buddhism, Christianity, and 
 the faith of Islam present many of the characteristic elements of tiie uni- 
 versal faith? In its ideas and ideals the religion of the prophets, notal>ly 
 as enlarged by those of the Babylonian exile, also deserves to be num- 
 bered among the proclamations of a wider outlook and a higher uplook. 
 These systems are no longer ethnic. They thus, the three in full practice 
 and the last mentioned in spirited intention, 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 lead- 
 ing to the ideal goal; and modern man, in his quest for the elements of the 
 still broader universal 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 can not circum- 
 scribe the fellowship of the larger communion of the faithful, a com- 
 munion destined to embrace in one covenant all the children of man. 
 
 Race is accidental, not essential, in manhood. Color is indeed only skin 
 deep No caste or tribe, even were we to concede the alisolute purity of 
 the blood flowing in the arteries, an assumption which could in no case be 
 verified by the actual facts of the case, can lay claim to su])erior sanctity. 
 None is nearer the heart of God than another. He certainly who takes his 
 survey of humanity from the outlook of religion, and from this point of view 
 remembers the serious possibilities and the sacred obligations of human 
 life, can not 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 element is merely the animal substratvim 
 of our being. Brain and blood may be crutches which the mind nnist 
 use. But mind is always more than the brain with which it works, and 
 the sovil's equation can not be solved in terms of the blood corpuscl(>s, 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 dependent 
 on Abrahamitic pedigree, and, therefore, on the superior sanctity which by 
 very birth the seed of the patriarch enjoys as Zea Kodesh, does not voi(;e 
 the broader and truer views of those that would prophesy 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 rabl)is of 
 modern Judaism, have abandoned the narrow prejudice of the Scribe. ( Jod 
 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 speaks 
 to all mankind. He is not the God of Israel alone, not that of Moal). of 
 Egypt. Greece, or America. He is not domiciled in Palestine. The Jordan 
 and the Ganges, the Tiber and the Euphrates hold water wherewith the
 
 SiE THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 devout may be baptized unto His service and redemption. " Whither shall 
 I go from Thy spirit? Whither flee from Thy presence? " exclaims the old 
 Hebrew bard. And before his wandering gaze unrolled itself the awful 
 certainty that the heavenly divisions of morning and night were obliterated 
 in the all-embracing sweep of divine law and love. If the wide expanses of 
 the skies and the abysses of the deep can not shut out from the divine pres- 
 ence, 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 Hebrew 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 gif t 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 essen- 
 tial 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 recognized to be indeed cruel barbed- 
 wire fences, wounding those who 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 feehng 
 himself to be the son of God. He will not change 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, producing 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 out- 
 come of his own career, he may well find reflected also in the inter-related 
 life nature. But, for all this, man will learn a new modesty now woefully 
 lacking to so many who honestly deem themselves religioTis. His God will 
 not be a figment, cold and distant, of metaphysics, nor a distorted caricature 
 of embittered theology. "Can man by searching find out God? " asks the 
 old Hebrew poet. And tlie ages so flooded with religious strife are vocal 
 with the stinging rebuke to all creed-builders that man can not. Man bows 
 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 the full light, and that there can be none other might which 
 reports truth as does his. 
 
 Says Maimonides. greatest thinker of the many Jewish philosophers of 
 the middle ages: " Of God we may merely assert that He is; what He is 
 in Himself we can not know. ' My thoughts are not your thoughts and My 
 ways are not your ways.' " This prophetic caution will resound in clear 
 notes in the ears of all who will worship in the days to come at the uni- 
 versal shrine. They will cease their futile efforts to give a definition of 
 Him who can not be defined in human symbols. They will certainly be 
 astonished at our persistence — in their eyes very blasphemy — to describe 
 by article of faith God. as though He were a fugitive from justice, and a 
 Pinkerton detective should be enabled to capture Him by the identification 
 laid down in the catalogue of His attributes. The religion universal will 
 not presume to regulate God's government of this world by 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 religion will once m,ore make the God idea a vital principle of
 
 ELEMENTS OF UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 819 
 
 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 tire 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, i. e., a goodly life. Not he that 
 mumbles his credo, but he who lives it, is accepted. Were those marked 
 for glory by the great Teacher of Nazareth who wore the largest phylac- 
 teries? Is the Sermon on the Mount a creed? Was the Decalogue a creed? 
 Character and conduct, not creed, will be the keynote of the gospel in the 
 Church of Humanity Universal. 
 
 But what then about sin? Sin, as a theological imputation, will, per- 
 haps, drop out of the vocabulary of this larger communion of the righteous. 
 But as a weakness to be overcome, an imperfection to be laid asiile, man 
 will be as potently remindedof his natural shortcomings as he is now of that 
 of his first progenitor, over whose conduct he certainly had no control and for 
 whose misdeed he should not be held accountable. Religion will then, as 
 now, lift man above his weaknesses by reminding him of his responsibili- 
 ties. The goal before is Paradise. Eden is to rise. It has not yet been. 
 And the life of the great and good and saintly who went about doing good 
 in their generations, and who died that others might live, will for very 
 truth be pointed out as the spring from which have flown the waters of 
 salvation, by whose magic eihcacy all men may be washed clean, if bap- 
 tized in the spirit which was living within these God-appointed redeemers 
 of their infirmities. 
 
 This religion will indeed be for man to lead him to God. Its sacra- 
 mental word will be duty. Labor is not the curse but the blessing of 
 human life. For as man was made in the image of the Creator, it is his to 
 create. Earth was given him for his habitation. He changetl it from 
 Tohu into his home. A theology and a monotheism, which will iiot leave 
 room in this world for man's free activity and dooms hhn to passive inac- 
 tivity, will not harmonize with the truer recognition that man and God 
 are the co-relates of a working plan of life. Sympathy and resignation 
 are indeed beautiful fiowers grown in the garden of many a tender and 
 noble human heart. But it is active love and energy which alone can 
 push on the chariot of human progress, and progress is the gradual reali- 
 zation of the divine spirit which is incarnate in every human being. This 
 principle will assign to religion once more the place of honor among the 
 redeeming agencies of society from the bondage of selfishness. On this 
 basis every man is every other man's brother, not merely in misery but in 
 active work. "As you have done to the least of these you have done unto Me, 
 will be the guiding principle of human conduct in all the relations into 
 which human life enters. No more than Cain's enormous excuse, a scath- 
 ing accusation of himself, "Am I my brother's keeper? " no longer will be 
 tolerated or condoned the double standard of morality, one for Sunday ami 
 the church and another diametrically opposed for week-days and the count- 
 ing-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 "i'\ny 
 hands to be bought at the lowest possible price, in accordance with a deiheil 
 law of supply and demand, which can not stop to consider such sentimen- 
 talities as the fact that these hands stand for souls and hearts. 
 
 An invidious distinction obtains now between secular and sacred. 
 It will he wiped away. Every thought and every deed of man must be 
 holy, or it is unworthy of men. Did Jesus merely regard the temple as 
 holy"^ Did 3uddha merely have religion on one or two hours of the feaD-
 
 820 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 bath? Did not an earlier prophet deride and condemn all ritual religion? 
 " Wash ye, make ye clean." Was this not the burden of Isaiah's religion? 
 The religion universal will be true to these, its forerunners. 
 
 But what about death and hereafter? This religion will not dim the 
 hope which has been man's since the first day of his stay on earth. But it 
 will be most emphatic in winning men to the conviction that a life worthily 
 spent here on earth is the best, is the only preparation for heaven. Said 
 the old rabbis: " One hour spent here in truly good works and in the true 
 intimacy with God is more precious than all life to be." The egotism which 
 now mars so often the aspirations of our souls, the scramble for glory which 
 comes while we forget duty, will be replaced by a serene trust in the eternal 
 justice of Him, " in whom we live, and move, and have our being." To 
 have done religiously, will be a reward sweeter than which none can be 
 offered. Yea, the religion of the future will be impatient of men who claim 
 that they have the right to be saved, while they are perfectly content that 
 others shall not be saved, and while not stirring a foot, or lifting a hand, to 
 redeem brother men from hunger and wretchedness, in the cool assurance 
 that this life is destined or doomed to be a free race of haggling, snarling 
 competitors, in which, by some mysterious will of Providence, the devil 
 takes the hindmost. 
 
 Will there be prayer in the universal religion? Man will worship, but 
 in the beauty of holiness his prayer will be the prelude to his prayerful 
 action. Silence is more reverential and worshipful than a wild torrent of 
 words breathing forth, not adoration but greedy requests for favors to self. 
 Can an unforgiving heart pray "forgive as we forgive?" Can one ask for 
 daily bread when he refuses to break his bread with the hungry? Did not 
 the prayer of the great M ister of Nazareth thus teach all men and all ages 
 that prayer must be the stirring to love? 
 
 Had not that little waif caught the inspiration of our universal prayer, 
 who, when first taught its sublime phrases, persisted in changing the open- 
 mg words to " Your Father which is in heaven? " Rebuked time and again 
 by the teacher, he finally broke out: " Well, if it is Our Father, why, I am 
 your brother." Yea, the gates of prayer in the church to rise will lead to 
 the recognition of the universal brotherhood of men. 
 
 Will this new faith have its Bible? It will. It retains the old bibles of 
 mankind, but gives them a new luster by remembering that " the letter 
 killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Religion is not a question of literature 
 but of life. God's revelation is continuous, not contained in tablets of 
 stone or sacred parchment. He speaks to-day yet to those that would 
 hear Him. A book is inspired when it inspires. Religion made the Bible, 
 not the book religion. 
 
 And what will be the name of this church? It will be known not by its 
 founders but by its fruits. God replies to him who insists upon knowing 
 His name. " I am He who I am." The church will be. If any name it will 
 have, it will be "the Church of God," because it will be the church of man. 
 
 When Jacob, so runs an old rabbinical legend, weary and footsore, the 
 first night of his sojourn away from home, would lay him down to sleep 
 under the canopy of the star-set skies, all the stones of the field 
 exclaimed: "Take me for thy pillow." And because all were ready to serve 
 him all were miraculously turned into one stone. This became Beth El, 
 the gate of heaven. So will all religions, because eager to become the 
 pillow of man, dreaming of God and beholding the ladder joining earth to 
 heaven, be transformed into one great rock which the ages can not move, a 
 foundation stone for the all-embracing temple of humanity, united to do 
 God's will with one accord.
 
 SWEDENBORG AND THE HARMONY OF RELIGIONS. 821 
 
 SWEDENBORG AND THE HARMONY OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 EEV. L. P. MERCER OF CHICAGO. 
 
 Before the closing of this grand historic assembly, with its witness to 
 the worth of every form of faith by which men worship God and seek com- 
 munion with Him, one word more needs to be sjjoken, one more testimony 
 defined, one more hope recorded. 
 
 Every voice has witnessetl to the recognition of a new age. An age of 
 inquiry, expectation, and experiment has dawned. New inventions are 
 stirring men's hearts, new ideals inspire their arts, new physical achieve- 
 ments beckon them on to one marvelous mastery after another of tlie uni- 
 verse. 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 move- 
 ments of the present and the forecasts of tlie future. 
 
 One religious teacher, who expHcitly iieralded the new age, before yet 
 men had dreamed of its possibility, and referred its causes to great move- 
 ments in the centers of influx in the spiritual world, and described it as 
 incidental to great purposes in the providence of God, needs to be named 
 from this platform — one who ranks with prophets and seers rather than 
 with inquirers and speculators; a revelator rather than a preacher and 
 interpreter; one whose exalted personal character and transcendent learn- 
 ing are eclipsed in the fruits of his mission as a herald of a new dispensa- 
 tion in religion, as the revealer of heavenly arcana, and "restorer of the 
 foundations of many generations"; who. ignored by his own generation 
 and assaulted by its successor, is honored and respected in the present, and 
 awaits the thoughtful study which the expansion and culmination of the 
 truth and the organic course of events will bring with to-morrow; "the 
 permeating and formative influence" of whoso teachings in tlie religious 
 belief and life of to-day, in Christendom, is commonly admitted; who sub- 
 scribed with his name on the last of his Latin quartos— Emanuel Sweden- 
 borg, " servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 That Swedenborg was the son ot 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 remark- 
 able life, devoted to the pursuit of natural learning and independent inves- 
 tigations in science and philosophy, illustrate the type of man in which 
 one age believes is generally conceded. Learned, standing Tar ahead of his 
 generation; exact, trained in mathematical accuracy and schooled to obser- 
 vation ; practical, seeing at once some useful application of every new dis- 
 covery; 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 fin I philosophy of causes; inductive, taking 
 nothing for granted but facts of experiment, and seeking to ascend there- 
 from 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 mani- 
 fested Himself to me in person and opened my sight to a view of the spirit- 
 ual world and granted me the privilege of conversing with the spirits and 
 angels. From that day forth," he says, "I gave up all worldly learning 
 and labored only 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 tlius 
 able to note the course of events in both worlds and locate the stupendous 
 transactions in the spiritual world in earthly time, ho witnessed a last 
 judgment in the world of spirits in 1757, fulfilling in every respect the
 
 822 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 predictions in the gospel and in the apocalypse; that he beheld the Lord 
 open in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself, 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 
 kmdred, and tongue, and co-ordinating it with the ancient and most ancient 
 heavei:^ for the inauguration of a new dispensation 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 comjjlete all past and partial revelations, to 
 consummate and crown the dispensations and churches which have been 
 upon the earth. 
 
 The Christian world is incredulovis of such an event, and, for the most 
 part, heedless of its announcement. But that does not much signify, 
 except as it makes one with the whole course of history as to the 
 reception of divine announcements. What pi'ophet was ever wel- 
 comed until the event had pi'oved his message? The question 
 is not whether it meets the expectation of men, not whether it is what 
 human prudence would forecast, but whether it reveals and meets the 
 needs and necessities of the nations of the earth. "My thoughts are not 
 your thoughts," saith the Lord, "neither are your ways My ways." The 
 great movements of divine Providence are never what men anticipate, but 
 they always provide what men need. And the appeal to the Parliament of 
 Religions in behalf of the revelation announced from heaven is in its 
 ability to ijrove its divinity by outreaching abundantly all human fore- 
 cast whatsoever. Does it throw its light over the jjast, and into the pres- 
 ent, and project its jn'omise into the fviture? Does it illuminate and unify 
 history, elucidate the conflicting movements of to-day, and explain the 
 hopes and yearnings of the heart in every age and clime? 
 
 There is not time at this hour for exposition and illustration, only to 
 indicate the catholicity of Swedenborg's teachings in 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 corresponding to 
 infancy, childhood, youth, and manhood in the individual. As the one God 
 is the Father of all He has witnessed Himself in every age according to its 
 state and necessities. The divine case 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 of 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 in this world Sweden borgian, the liberal sentiment of good will and 
 the enthusiasm of hope, but tlie discovery of divine fact and the rational 
 insight of spiritual understandiog. He has shown That the sacred scriptures 
 are written according to the correspondence of national with spiritual things, 
 and that they contain an internal spiritual sense, treating of thejjrovidence 
 of God in the dispensations of the church and of the regeneration and 
 spiritual life of the soul. Before Abraham there was the church of Noah- 
 and before the word of Moses there was an ancient word, written in allegory
 
 SWEDENBORG AND THE HARMONY OF RELIGION'S. 823 
 
 and correspondences, which the ancients understood and lovetl, but in 
 process of time turned into magic and idolatry. The ancient churcli scat- 
 tered into Egypt and Asia, carried frat,'ments of that ancient word and 
 preserved something of its representatives aud allegories, in scriptures and 
 mythologies, from which have come the truljjs and fables of the Oriental 
 religions, modified according to nations aud jjooples, and revived from time 
 to time in the teachings of leaders and prophets. * 
 
 From the same ancient word Moses derived, under divine direction, the 
 early chapters of Genesi.j, and to this, in the order of Providenci', was ac'lded 
 the law and the prophets. The history of the incarnation and tlu- proithecy 
 of ;. 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 corre- 
 sponds with the body, and is distinct aud 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 sciences of correspondences is the key which unlocks the scriptures 
 and discloses their internal contents. The same key opens the scrijjtures 
 of the Orient and traces them back to their source in primitive revelation. 
 
 If it shows that their myths and representatives have been misunder- 
 stood, 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 scripLures and worship. 
 
 If Swedenborg reveals errors and superstitions in the religious out of 
 Christendom, so does he also show that the current Christian faith aud 
 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 primi- 
 tive 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 est, and gathers their strains into its 
 sublime symphony of revelation. 
 
 So much as the indication what Swedenborg does for catholic enlight- 
 enment in spiritual wisdom. x\s 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 , princijjle of religion, he receives 
 eternal life in his soul, and after death instruction and perfection accord- 
 ing to the sincerity of his life. 
 
 No teaching could be more catholic than this, showing that " whomso- 
 ever in any nation feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of 
 Him." If he sets forth Jesus Christ as the only wise God, in whom, in 
 the fullness of the God-head, it is Christ glorified and realizing ttjthe mind, 
 the infinite and eternal lover, and thinker. and doer, a real and personal 
 God, our Father aud Savior. If He summons 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 whosi' work 
 they have wrought out. If He brings all good si)iritsin the other life to the 
 acknowledgement of the glorified Christ as the only (iod, it is l)ecause they 
 have ia heart an essential faith, believe in Him, and live for Him, in living
 
 824 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 according to precepts of their religion. He calls himself a Christian who 
 lives as a Christian; and ho 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 reincarna- 
 tion, so also does he deny sleep in the grave and the resurrection of the 
 material body. 
 
 If he teaches the necessity of regeneration and union with God, so also 
 does he showthat the subjugation and quiescence of self is the true "Nir- 
 vana,'" opening consciousness to the divine life, and conferring the peace of 
 harmony with God. 
 
 If he teaches that man needs the Spirit of God for the subjugation of 
 self, he teaches that the Spirit is freely imjjarted to whosoever will look to 
 the law and shun selfishness as sin. If he teaches, thus, that faith is nec- 
 essary to salvation, he teaches that faith alone is not sufficient, but faith 
 which worketh by love. 
 
 If he believes that salvation is of favor, or immediate mercy, and 
 affirms that it is vital and the effect of righteousness, he also teaclies that 
 the divine righteousness is imparted vitally t<i 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 because man enters 
 a spiritual world, after death, in a spiritual body and personality, and in an 
 environment in which his ruling love is developed, his ignorance enlight- 
 ened, his imperfections removed, his good beginnings jjerfected, vmtil 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 miglit go on. 
 
 My purpose is accomplished if I have won your respect and interest 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 understood 
 that his mission was not his own but the concern of Him who builds 
 through the ages, Swedenborg wrote and i)ublished. The result is a 
 liberty that calmly awaits the truth-seekers. If the religions of the world 
 become disciples there, it will not be proselytism that will take them 
 there, but the organic course of events in that 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 Parlia- 
 ment of Religions is itself a testimony to unseen spiritual causes, and 
 should at least incline to belief in Swedenborg'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. 
 
 THE WORLD'S SALVATION. 
 
 REV. JOHN DUKE M'fADDEN OF NEBRASKA. 
 
 The world's salvation is the object of the Brethren Church. John, 
 whom Jesus loved, said the world, through Him, might be saved. The 
 world was lost to purity, happiness, and heaven. But through Christ it is 
 being brought back to salvation. In working for the world's salvation we 
 are to work for the conversion of the English-speaking race. Her ships 
 enter every port, her cars enter every depot, her men of finance enter every 
 business center. She stands and watches the gate of every nation, and her 
 influence is felt for good or bad. How often is it for bad?
 
 THE WORLD'S SALVATION, 825 
 
 England, throufrh the opium traffic, is destroying the Chinese nation, 
 and America, through the Geary law, is telling the world they are not 
 worth saving. We condemn snake worship in India, and yet wo feed a 
 snake and placate a serpent that is more dangerous than tlie snake of 
 India — the rum constrictor — and, strange to say, the responsibility is at the 
 very door of American churches. The thousands of preachers and mill- 
 ions of church members could slay this venomous rum snake if they woukl 
 rise in their might and make the effort. Let England and America be con- 
 verted and united, and the world will be elevated and nearer complete sal- 
 vation. 
 
 In working for the world's salvation we are to work for the overthrow 
 of " creedism." The religious world is divided because of creeds and not 
 because of God. Theories and opinions are made substitutes for truth. 
 The substitutes are relied on and the truth is left in the background. The 
 prophet's staff could not put new life in the dead boy; tiie man of (Jod 
 must touch and breathe in him. And human creeds can not give life to 
 the dying race of men; God Hmiself must touch and heal and save. Clirist 
 was the greatest of men, the only man God ever publicly acknowledged as 
 His son. As He came from the baptismal waters the Divine Being said: 
 " This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." This man who came 
 to save the lost did not preach creedism but the word. This was why the 
 common people heard Him gladly. The word of truth satisfied their spirit 
 and enabled them to taste and see. 
 
 God is good. The church I represent takes the Word of God for its guide 
 in religious faith and practice. Where it is silent we can not comnumd; 
 where it speaks we must echo. By that word we are to be judged, and 
 by it we are to shape our action until we reach the jutlgment. In working 
 for the world's salvation we are to work for the union of all God's forces. 
 Ezekiel says: "Make a chain, for the land is tilled with bloody crimes and 
 the city is filled with violence." The pulpits and churches and organiza- 
 tions must be linked together for the work of saving from crime ami vio- 
 lence. The same writer, in his vision, saw united a figure having the face 
 of a man, of a lion, of an eagle, and of an ox — united for God's work. He 
 teaches the union of different forces for a great object. I believe that God 
 wants the union of America, and Europe, and Asia, and Africa. Union for 
 salvation, for the lifting up of humanity. For this purpose God made all 
 nations of one blood, and for this purpose the Master prayed, and that 
 prayer God will answer through all who do His will. 
 
 In working for this wonderful object, let us keep in view the fact that 
 there will be held another Parliament of Religions in that great city, the new 
 Jerusalem, with its jasper walls and gates of pearl, its streets of gold and 
 rainbow-gilded throne, its tree of life and river clear as crystal, its sea of 
 glass mingled with fire and wonders untold. The angelic and redeemed 
 hosts of heaven, with those who come from the North and the South, and 
 the East and the West, shall form a parliament where the union shall be 
 eternal, for there is the fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. Between 
 that parliament and this there is a gateway. On the arch are the letters 
 D — E — A— T — H. Through that gateway we must pass, and if we develop 
 character until we reach the arch we may interpret the letters. D stantla 
 for disciple, E enter, A and, T travel, H heavenward. Death to the Chris- 
 tian means disciple enter and travel heavenward.
 
 826 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 THE ONLY POSSIBLE METHOD OF RELIGIOUS 
 UNIFICATION. 
 
 KEY. DR. WILLIAM E. ALGER OF NEW YORK. 
 
 In considering the subject that now asks your attention, " The Only 
 Possible Method of Rehgious Unification," we must work our way to the 
 solution of the problem by defining our terms and distinguishing the steps. 
 What is unity? The most authoritative speculative thinker that ever 
 lived has given the only possible definition of unity that ever has or ever 
 can be given: " Unity is the measure of genus 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 individuals is God. God is the measure of all per- 
 sonalities. God is Himself an absolute, self-determined, and free self-con- 
 sciousness—that is, the measure of genus and the head of the innumerable 
 number of its representatives. Unification is the taking up of many into 
 an already existing unity, and the pervasion of the many by the one. All 
 unities are derived from God, the absolute unity. 
 
 Fourteen hundred million human beings represent a generic unity of 
 mankind. IHow can they be unified? Never by any mere struggles of 
 their own, but just in proportion as they face their egoistic wills and 
 replace them with the divine will they become unified. The ideal unity 
 of the human i-ace 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 rea- 
 son why is, this cosmic spirit, of which Professor Huxley has so recently 
 spoken, the insurrectionary spirit of the i^arts, is the rebellion of the parts 
 against the whole. This insurrectionary spirit is a personification, a col- 
 lectivity in a person, an act of sin-guilt. It is evil, but not guilt. Guilt 
 comes in with the voluntary rebellion of the individual free spirit. Lib- 
 erals have rebelled, but they simply blink at 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 potentiality by voluntary co-oper- 
 ation with divine grace. 
 
 The first form of partial unification of the human race is the assthetic 
 unification. The second step is the scientific unification, the third is the 
 essential, the fourth is the political unification by the establishment of an 
 international code for the settlement of all disputes by reason. The fifth 
 will be the commercial and social, the free circulation of all the component 
 items of humanity through the whole of humanity. Our commerce, steam- 
 ships, telegraphs and telephone, and so forth, the ever-increasing travel is 
 rapidly bringing that about, but the commercial spirit, as such, is cosmic, 
 is selfish. They seek to make money out of others by the principle of profit, 
 getting more than they should. The next partial form of unification is the 
 economic. The economic unification of the human race will be what? The 
 transfer of civilization from its pecuniary basis to the basis of labor. The 
 whole effort of the human race must not be to purchase goods and sell 
 them in order to make money. It must be to produce goods and distribute 
 them on the principles of justice for the supply of human wants, without 
 any profit. The yjursuit of money is cosmic and hostile. 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 but 
 wholes. The knowledge I have all may have, without division. And when 
 we work in co-operation, instead of antagonism, in producing and distrib- 
 uting the goods of this life, the interests of all men will be one— namely, to
 
 RELIGIOUS UNIFICATION. 827 
 
 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 with hostility. 
 
 There are 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 are the three. We have the 
 philosophical unification and the theological unification, 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 reUgion, in which 
 all can agree. 
 
 The first great obstacle to overcome is our environment — our social 
 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 when, just as fast as 
 we utter these precepts, they are neutralized by the atmospheric environ- 
 ments in which they pass. The great anti-Christ of the Avorld is the 
 un-Christian character and conduct of Christendom. All through Chris- 
 tendom we preach and profess one set of precepts and practice the opiaosite. 
 We say: "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and righteousness, and all 
 else shall be added unto us." We put the kingdom of heaven and its 
 righteousness in the background, and work like so many incarnate devils 
 for every form of self -gratification. 
 
 The great obstacle to the religious unification of the human race is the 
 irreligious, always associated and often identified with the religious. There 
 are three great specifications of that. First, hatred is a made religion. 
 Did not the Brahmans and the Mohammedans slaughter each other in the 
 streets of Bombay a few days ago, hating each other more than they loved 
 the generic humanity of God? Did not the Catholics and Protestants strug- 
 gle 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 another is irreligion injected into the very core of religion. That 
 is fatal. 
 
 Rites and ceremonies are not religion. A man may repeat the soundest 
 creed verbally a hundred times a day for twenty years. He may cross him- 
 self 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 struggle with God efface egoism 
 and receive the divine spirit. That is religion, and so on through other 
 manifestations. We must arrive at pure, rational, universal interpretations 
 of all the dogmas of theology. We must interpret every dogma in svich 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 preponderating 
 emphasis, without any division, on the ethical asjjects of religion instead of 
 on the speculative. Formerly 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. But 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 common- 
 places, and yet the liberals stay right there and don't move a step. 
 
 Liberalism thus far has been ethical and shallow, evangelicanism has 
 been dogmatic, tyrannical and cruel, to some extent irrational, but it has 
 always been profound. It has battled with the real ijroblems which the 
 liberalists have simply blinked at, and settled these problems in universal
 
 828 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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, man was created all right, but he 
 fell. It was an amazingly original, subtle, and profound stroke to settle a 
 real problem. The liberal came up and, saying it was not the true solution, 
 they blinked at the problem and denied that it existed. Now the real 
 solution, it seems to me, is not that the evils in the universe have come 
 a fall. 
 
 The fall of an archdemoniac spirit in heaven does not settle the prob- 
 lem; 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 through their free- 
 dom and the discipline of struggle with evil they might become the per- 
 fected and redeemed images of Uod. That settles 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 we must consider 
 that Christ is not merely the individual. He is the completed genus incar- 
 nate. He is the absolute generic unity of the human race in manifesta- 
 tion. Therefore, He is not the follower of other men, but their divine 
 exemplar. We must not limit our worship of Christ to the mere historic 
 person, but must see in the individual person the perfected genus of the 
 divhie humanity, which is God Himself, and realize that that is to be mul- 
 tiplied. It can not be divided, but it may be multiplied commensurately 
 with the dimensions of the whole human race. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION. 
 
 PROF. HENEY DEUMMOND OF GLASGOW. 
 (Read by Dr. Frank M. Bristol.) 
 
 No more fitting theme could be chosen for discussion at this congress 
 than the relation of Christianity to evolution. By evolution I do not mean 
 Darwinism, which is not yet proved, nor Hpencerism, which is incomplete, 
 nor Weisemannism, which is in the hottest fires of criticism, but evolution 
 as a great category of thovight, as the supreme word of the 19th 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 surrounding circle of thought. No truth can remain 
 now unafi'ected by evolution. We see truth as a profound ocean still, but 
 with a slow and ever-rising tide. Theology must reckon with this tide. We 
 can stir this truth in our vessels for the formulation of doctrine, but the 
 formulation of doctrine must never stop, and the vessels with their mouths 
 open must remain in the ocean. If we take them out the tide can not rise 
 in them, and we shall only have stagnant doctrines. 
 
 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 
 doubt. What it contains for Christianity or against it he knows not. 
 What it will do or undo he can not 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 next development. And yet this atti- 
 tude 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
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION. 820 
 
 science is almost a new thing. Religion and science began the centuries 
 hand in hand. And after a long separation we now ask what contributions 
 has science to bestow? What God-given ti-uths is science bringing now to 
 lay at the feet of our Christ? True, science is as much the friend of true 
 religion as any branch of truth, and in all the struggles between them in 
 the past they have both come out of the struggles enriched, jiurihed, and 
 enlarged. The first fact to be restored, evolution, has swept over the doc- 
 trine 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 word one by one, was melting away before his eyes. One of the 
 last books on Darwinism, that of Alfred Wallace, says in its opening chap- 
 ter 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 like 
 species by the ordinary processes of natural birth. 
 
 Theology, after a period of hesitation, accepts this version. The hesita- 
 tion was not due to prejudice but for the arrival of the proof. The doc- 
 trioe of evolution, no one will assert, is yet proved. It will be time for 
 theology to be unanimous when science is unanimous. If science is satisfied 
 in a general way with its theory of evolution as a method of creation, assent 
 is a cold word with which those whose business 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 Genesis it may be that theology and science have 
 been brought into perfect harmony, but the era of the reconcilers is to be 
 looked upon as past. That was a necessary era. 
 
 Genesis was not a scientific but a religious book, and, there being no 
 science there, theologians put it there, and their attempt to reconcile 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 purpose in view, and its 
 original audience. Its object was purely religious, the point being not how 
 certain things were made, which is a question for science, but that God 
 made them. The book was not dedicated to science but to the soul. The 
 misfortune is that there is no one to announce in the name of theology that 
 the controversy between science and religion is at an end. Evolution has 
 swept over the religious conception of origin and left it untouched except 
 for the better. The method of creation, the question of origin, is another. 
 There is only one theory of creation in the field, and that is evolution. 
 Evolution has discovered nothing new and professes to know nothing new. 
 Evolution, instead of being opposed to creation, assumes creation. Law is 
 not the cause of the order of the world but the expression of it. Evolution 
 only professes to give an account of the development of the world; it does 
 not offer to account for it. This is what Professor Tyndall said: 
 
 When I stand in the springtime and look upon the bright foliage, the lilies in 
 the field, and share the general joy of openmg life I have often asked myself 
 whether there is any power, any being, or thing in the universe whose knov.-ledge 
 of that of which I am so ignorantisgreatertban 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 some- 
 times so lightly charged, would, in my case, be an impossible answer to this ques- 
 tion. 
 
 And more pathetically later, in connection 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
 
 830 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 that this doctrine 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 mystery in which we dwell and of wnioh we form a part. 
 
 Some of the protests of science against theism are directed, not against 
 true theism but against its superstitious and irrational forms, which it is 
 the business of science to question. What Tyndall calls a fierce and dis- 
 torted theism is as much the enemy of Christianity as of science; and if 
 science can help Christianity to destroy it it does well. What we have 
 really to fight against is both unfounded belief and unfounded unbelief, and 
 there is perhaps just as much of the one as of the other floating in current 
 literature. As Mr. Ruskin says: "You have to guard against the dark- 
 ness of the two opposite prides— 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 passing the authorized statement of a well-known Fellow of 
 the Royal Society of London, which, I need not remind you, is the repre- 
 sentative party of British men of science. Its presidents are invariably 
 men of the first rank. This gentleman said: 
 
 I have known the British 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 character, while, judging by the same test, I find only four 
 who disbelieve in any divine revelation. Of the remaining seventeen some have 
 possibly been religious men and others may have ht-en opponents, but it is fair to 
 suppose that the greater number have given no very serious thought to the sub- 
 ject. The figures indicate that religious faith rather than unbelief has charac- 
 terized the leading men of the association. 
 
 Instead of robbing the world of God, science has done more than all the 
 philosophies and natural theologies to sustain the theistic conception. It 
 has made it impossible for the world to worship any other god. The sun 
 and the moon and the stars have been found out; science has shown us 
 exactly what they are. No man can worship them any more. 
 
 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 con- 
 ceivable and rational object of worship in a scientific age. If by searching 
 it has not found God, it has found a place for God. As never before from 
 the purely physical side of 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 pervades the whole. Under the old 
 view, God was a non-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 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 in those Sunday schools. 
 
 One can not fail to prophesy, in view of the latest contributions of 
 science, that before another half-century has passed there will be a theolog- 
 ical advance of moment. Under the new view the whole question of the 
 incarnation is beginning to assume a fresh development. Instead of stand- 
 ing alone an isolated phenomenon, its profound relations to the whole 
 scheme of nature are opening up. The question of revelation is undergo- 
 ing a similar expansion. The whole order and scheme of nature are seen 
 to be only part of the manifold revelation of God.
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION. 831 
 
 As to the specific revelations, the Old and New Testaments, evolution 
 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 languajE^e of heaven, yet it is written in a 
 familiar tongue. This bible is not a book which has been made; it has 
 grown. Hence it is no longer a mere word book, nor a compendium of doc- 
 trines, but a nursery of growing truths. 
 
 Like nature, it has successive strata, and valley, and hilltop, and atmos- 
 phere, and rivers are flowing still, and here and there a place which is a 
 desert, and fossils, whose true forms are the stepping-stones to higher 
 things. It is a record of inspired deed as well as of inspired words, a series 
 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 sense 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 
 transformation by method whose main warrant is that the book lent itself 
 to it. 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 have ever been suggested. 
 
 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 caste, the undestroyed residuum of the animal, and the subject 
 ranked, at least, as an hypothesis, with proper safeguards, may one day yield 
 some glimmering 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 would be of much greater and speculative 
 interest, or if science can help us in any way 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 indi- 
 vidual 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 covetousness 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 for- 
 tunes. 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 Chris- 
 tian 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 Christianity 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, what evolution has been doing since time began. 
 Christianity is the further 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 scientific fact, it can not stop there. It must go on to 
 include the whole man, and all the work, and thought, and light, and 
 aspiration of man. The great moral facts, the moral forces, so far as they
 
 832 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 are proved to exist, the Christian consciousness, so far as it is real, must 
 come within its scope. Human history is as much a part of it as natural 
 history. . 
 
 When all this is included, it will be seen that evolution, organic evolu- 
 tion, is but the earlier chapter of Christianity, and that Christianity is but 
 the later evolution. There can be but one verdict, then, as to the import 
 of evolution, as to its bearings on the individual life and 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, development, and progress are not 
 only on her programme; these are her programme. For all things are ris- 
 ing—all worlds, all planets, all stars, all suns. An ascending energy is the 
 universe, and the whole moves on with one mighty ideal and anticipation. 
 The aspiration of the human mind and heart is but the evolutionary ten- 
 dency of the universe. 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 East. 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 endless plane, a prison fixed 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 revolu- 
 tion 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 marvelous light has fallen upon the earth. Evolu- 
 tion 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 present, discovering through all the denseness around us the paths 
 to progress, and flashing its rays upon the coining goal. 
 
 Men Ibegan to see an undivided ethical purpose in this material world, a 
 tide that from eternity has never turned, making to perfectness, 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, fsfom imper- 
 fection 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 plan have they been proclaimed by voices so com- 
 manding or enforced by sanctions so great and rational. 
 
 THE BAPTISTS IN HISTORY. 
 
 REV. GEORGE C. LORIMER OF BOSTON. 
 
 Greatness is not to be determined by bulk or by numbers, but rather 
 by aim, ambition, and achievement. The Persian Empire was larger than 
 Athens, and the walls of Cathay marked a vaster territorial domain than 
 the dykes of Holland. But judged by what they have wrought and by 
 what they have contributed of art, letters, and liberty to the progress of 
 society, the smaller states excel in value their mammoth and colossal 
 neighbors. 
 
 The ark of bulrushes was a tiny thing, and quite insignificant by the 
 side of the pyramids, but the living babe Moses, sheltered by its fragile 
 walls, was a grander blessing to humanity than all the dead Pharaohs in 
 their massive and magnificent mausoleums. A manger in the modest town 
 of Bethlehem was but an inconsiderable dot in comparison with the mag- 
 nitude of the Pantheon in imperial and haughty Rome, and yet that stable
 
 THE BAPTISTS IN HISTORY. 8^\ 
 
 bed surpasses ia spiritual splendor all the iutempled deities of high Olym- 
 pus. The Santa Maria and the Maytlower, though as mitlgets when asso- 
 ciated in thought with the Great Eastern, yet mean more and stand for 
 more in the history of mankind than an entire lieet of modern vessels, how- 
 ever gorgeous and gigantic. 
 
 A diamond of even meager dimensions is worth more than a common 
 mountain, for it inspheres and eradiates light; and an inch of canvas by 
 Meissonier is costlier far than an acre by an inferior hand; and who is there 
 that does not esteem a thinking soul of more transcendent import than an 
 entire universe of unconscious matter ? 
 
 It is not, therefore, likely that the merit and meaning, or the place and 
 power of a religious body in the world can be adequately determined by its 
 size and girth. During these memorable gatherings several denominations 
 have been heard whose deserved renown can not be accounted for by num- 
 bers. And certainly the Baptists can not advance a claim to recognition 
 in this parliament grounded in the immensity of their fraternity. Their 
 hosts are neither huge nor overwhelming. 
 
 At the most, their regular enrolled army, the wide world over, is only 
 something more than 4,000,000 strong, with a possible 7,000,000 to 10,000,000 
 of sympathetic followers. If, then, they have not justihed their existence 
 by things attempted and attained, and if what they represent is not intrin- 
 sically precious to the race, they have no sufficient reason for being here 
 to-day, nor, indeed, for being anywhere. They must, therefore, be judged, 
 if judged at all, by the richness and fertility of their possessions, and not by 
 the extent of their borders. 
 
 That the Baptists are among the oldest of the nonliturgical and non- 
 prelatical branches of Christ's church, and, more than likely, are in reality 
 the oldest, is generally conceded and grows more certain with the progress 
 of scholarly investigation. It is, however, to be admitted that their origin 
 is obscure. Mosheim says " it is buried in the depths of antiquity;" and 
 unquestionably it antedates the appearance of Huss and of Luther. 
 
 The beginning of some of the past-Reformation denominauons are easily 
 determined, and are marked by national upheavals and crises; but this is 
 not the case with the Baptists, and seems to indicate that they belong to 
 the pre-Reformation period, and are identical with the anti-ecclesiastical 
 thought, feeling, and aspiration which steadily flowed through the middle 
 ages, as the gulf stream penetrates and courses through the Atlantic. 
 
 The Baptists, from the beginning and through all the centuries, have 
 stood for individuality in the religious life; for the enlargement and ercan- 
 cipation of the individual, for the rights and responsibilities of the indi- 
 vidual, and for the autonomy and authority of the individual. Rev. Thomas 
 Armitage has well said, in the A'^oi-^/i American Review, that their "pri- 
 mary idea is not to bnild up an ecclesiastical system, but to create high and 
 manly Christian character. In other words, it is to create in each individ- 
 ual soul and life a legitimate independency of all men in matters of faith 
 and practice Godward." To them there are two great factors in religion, 
 the Creator and the creature; the former comprehending all that is super- 
 natural, the latter including all that is natural; the first being absolutely 
 sovereign and supreme over the second, but the second in its individuality 
 being supreme over self as far as every other fellow-creature is concerned. 
 
 They believe that Christianity, like the Sabbath, was made for man, 
 not man for Christianity; made not, of course, for him to ignore, pervert, or 
 destroy, but for him to respect, preserve, and honor; and not made to efface 
 his personality, enslave his reason, circumscribe his intelligence, and sub- 
 vert bis conscience, but for the development of all the. faculties and 
 resources of his being, and for the deliverance of his soul from spiritual 
 slavery of every kind. 
 
 The Baptists believe that man's supreme allegiance, so far as earthly
 
 834 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 powers are concerned, is not to the church, but to himself, to his own rea- 
 son and conscience, to his own dignity and destiny. As all societies, 
 whether secular or spiritual, are but aggregations of beings like himself, 
 how can the aggregates taken together he more important or more sacred 
 than the units of which they are composed? 
 
 The Baptists admit that there is a place for churches in the Christian 
 economy; but they insist that they are not for the suppression of the indi- 
 vidual, but for the unfolding and perfection. Organized and visible 
 churches are means to an end; they are not themselves the end. They are 
 temporal, but man is eternal; hence they shall at last decay and disappear, 
 whether gorgeous ecclesiastical monarchies or modest democracies — but 
 man is immortal. 
 
 How delusive, then, yea, how poor and paltry, the scheme to build up a 
 majestic structure with its vast possessions, with its lordly ambitions, with 
 its lust of world-wide power, when in the fullness of time it shall crumble 
 and perish from the earth! And, in comparison, how divine the movement 
 that makes the welfare of the particular soul its direct end and aim, and 
 that treats as trivial the homage of state and the favor of princes, if it can 
 only succeed in clothing the individual with personal salvation and crown- 
 ing him with all the glories of regnant manhood! 
 
 This is the Baptist idea and he is persuaded that it is the idea of the 
 New Testament. God was incarnate, not in humanity at large, but 
 exclusively in the man, Jesus, to teach that in coming to dwell in His chil- 
 dren by the Holy Ghost He does not abide in them as a whole without 
 taking up His abode in each separate child. "Ye are the temples of the 
 Holy Ghost " was affirmed of every Christian as well as of a numerous com- 
 munion. And it is written that " Christ is the head of every man " as well 
 as being " the head of His body, the church." So, likewise, " every man 
 must render an account of himself to God," and to emphasize more fully 
 the place of individuality in religion, it is written that Jesus " tasted death 
 for every creature." 
 
 It was belief in these scripture representations that led the Anabaptists 
 to teach in the 16th century that every Christian has in himself a divine 
 guide whom he must follow at any cost; even as Hans Denck, described 
 by Keller as their apostle, declared: "This I know in myself certainly to 
 be the truth; therefore, I will if God will listen to what it shall say to me; 
 him that would take it from me, I will not permit." This faith in the 
 "inner light" has survived the swift flight of nearly four hundred years, 
 and is cherished to-day, not only among the Baptists, but among others who 
 have no direct connection with them. I do not say that this doctrine has 
 not been modified, refined of crudities, and freed from excesses in its trans- 
 mission from the past, but I do maintain that in all of its essential meaning 
 it has been transmitted to the present. And what is more, this conception, 
 once the almost exclusive possession of lowly, humble men, has found some- 
 thing like recognition in the transcendentalism of Emerson and in the 
 poetry of Robert Browning. In Paracelsvis the poet writes: 
 
 There is an inmost center in us all. 
 Where truth abides in fullness; and around. 
 Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in. 
 This perfect, clear perception, which is truth; 
 A baffling and perverting carnal mesh 
 Blinds it, and makes all error; and "to know" 
 Rather consists in opening out a way 
 Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape 
 Than in effecting entry for a light 
 Supposed to be without. 
 
 But a greater than Browning has said: 
 
 Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come. He will guide you into all truth; 
 lor He will not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak; 
 and He will sbow you things to come.
 
 THE BAPTISTS IN HISTORY. 835 
 
 I would not be understood as intimating that the poet's thought runs 
 parallel with that of the Master, or that philosophy and religion are at one 
 in their interpretation of that indwelling mystery which allies man to God. 
 But they both, at least, agree in this: that He is the center of the divinest 
 thing in the world, call it truth or even by a higher name. And surely it 
 is beautiful, touchingly beautiful, to see these Anabajjtistsof four centuries 
 gone, many of whom were unlettered and unrefined, ascribing to human 
 nature a dignity which the richest culture and profoundest thought of 
 these latter times have recognized and glorified, while others, socially higher 
 than themselves, were busy building cathedral and basilica — beautiful for- 
 evermore their faith in the divine jiossibilities of manhood. 
 
 Pursued continually by the thought of Christ: " Behold a greater than 
 the temple is here," and never having heard of the weary East and of the 
 despairing Buddha, who, according to Arnold, regarded " life as woe,' ' 
 finally to be engulfed in the infinite, as "the dewdrop sinks into the shin- 
 ing sea," these sturdy men were more than satisfied to sacrifice and suff"er 
 for the sake of the "greater" — for man — that the individual, instead of 
 becoming unconscious in God, might become fully conscious of the perfec- 
 tion of God in the individual. 
 
 This is very apparent in their loyalty to the Holy Scriptures as the 
 supreme authority in personal faith and moral conduct. They are people 
 of one book, one that is " qviite sulRciently called," as Heine has it, " The 
 Book." Nature, they concede, has manifold disclosures of the infinite, 
 and they are far from indifferent to its teachings, whether embodied in 
 science or in the unvarying and harmonious operation of its laws. They 
 recognize reason also as related to belief and practice, not, however, as in 
 itself, an original revelation, but as the subject and interpreter of all reve- 
 lations, whether they proceed from without or are due to the illuminating 
 ministrations of the comforter within. 
 
 But for all the important purposes of religious thought and life, the 
 Bible is their ultimate guide, as, in addition to its own messages, it fur- 
 nishes a criterion by which the message from other sources may be judged. 
 The Baptists have never formally acknowledged the binding obligation of 
 creeds. Their confessions, from that of 1527 to the one of the most recent 
 date, that called of New Hampshire, including Smyth's, 1611, and the Lon- 
 don confession, 1016, were not promulgated to secure uniformity of belief 
 nor as standards to which subscription is imperative; but rather as defenses 
 and apologies forced from them by the abuse and calumnies of enemies, or 
 as succinct and convenient expositions of their opinions. 
 
 These symbols all have their value as religious literature, but they are 
 not, necessarily, final statements of truth, nor are they endued with any 
 coercive power. No documents of this kind are permitted by the Baptists 
 to rival in authority the sacred writings, nor to fix, by arbitrary rule, what 
 they are designed to communicate to each soul. The Bible is divine 
 thought given to every man, and every man ought to give human thought 
 to the Bible, and ecclesiastical bodies do their entire duty when they bring 
 these two thoughts into immediate communion and commerce with each 
 other. 
 
 From this representation it can easily be seen how large a part indi- 
 viduality plays in our simple ecclesiastical system. Infants are not bap- 
 tized, because that ordinance would mislead them as to their standing 
 before God, would tend to diminish their sense of personal responsibility, 
 and would finally establish an unconverted church in a corrupt world. If 
 the kingdom of Christ is really not i-adically different from the kingdom of 
 Satan, and is only visibly separate and distinct by a few ceremonies, pro- 
 fessions, and the solemn invocation of holy names, of what particular use 
 is it to society, and how can it ever hope to subdue its rival? To guard 
 against this deplorable confusion, this deadly fellowship between light and
 
 636 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 darkness, the Baptists have adhered to their Bible, that requires a heart 
 difference between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not, 
 with the appropriate outward expression of the change. 
 
 Here, then, we have the ground, both in scripture and reason, for the 
 baptism of believers only, and a baptism that sinners reverence for the 
 divine will in form and purpose as immersion manifestly does. But con- 
 scious individuality is necessary to all this, and is emphasized by it. 
 Before a human being has come to realize selfhood with all that it implies, 
 he can not act of his own volition in these high matters, but when he is 
 competent to do so there will be developed capabilities for further duties. 
 These will find their sphere of action in the church; for its government 
 being such as I have described, it opens a field for the exercise of every per- 
 sonal talent, attainment, and grace. 
 
 That the significance of the Baptists in history lies mainly in the direc- 
 tion I have indicated is demonstrated beyond a doubt by their persistent 
 advocacy of soul freedom, and by hearty and practical sympathy with 
 almost every movement on behalf of civil liberty. The first amendment to 
 the constitution of the United States was inspired by them, and in no other 
 country can such a jjrovision be found. It reads as follows: "Congress 
 shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting 
 the free exercise thereof." 
 
 This tender solicitude for the emancipation and enthronement of con- 
 science is a noble tribute to the moral grandeur of the individual. It 
 implies that the preservation of a man's own integrity is worth more than 
 the unbroken integrity of an ecclesiastical system. His own inner har- 
 mony, that which springs from sincerity in his religious life, is of more 
 importance than uniformity of belief and ritual throughout Christendom. 
 Were there as many churches as there are men, if they were all honest 
 and faithful, it would be better for the world than for there to be only one 
 church if, to the members thereof, multitudes had to forswear their con- 
 victions and crucify their sense of duty. 
 
 One man centered in truth and breathing truth will achieve more for 
 society than a thousand held together by conventionalism and by a creed 
 which has become incredible to intelligence. I am not pleading for 
 divisions. Far from it. I would do everything in my power to abate 
 differences and unify Christianity. But this seeming to be, this fiction of 
 oneness, which gentle enthusiasts are deluded by, is humiliating in the 
 extreme. It assvimes what is not a fact or it implies that professedly 
 upright men have deliberately stultified themselves by pretending to 
 what is not true. 
 
 The real issue is this: Is it permissible or justifiable to subordinate the 
 individual, his conscious self-respect, and his sincerity to the interests of 
 an organization, even a church? Some teachers insinuate, if they do not 
 affirm, that it is. I insist that it is not. For this sacrifice on his part 
 means moral reins to himself, and disqualifies him to be associated on any 
 terms with honorable people. 
 
 The Baptists of former times evidently perceived the disastrous effect 
 of enforced formalism. They were not opposed to communities of Chris- 
 tians, but they realized that their efficiency depended on the voluntary 
 nature of the fellowship. In proportion as they became mere aggregations 
 of human particles, having little in common, and held together by eternal 
 pressure, they necessarily impaired their own power and wrecked the 
 society to whose well-being their compulsory membership was deemed 
 indispensable. 
 
 Independence is inseparable from the highest type of individuality, 
 and the individuality of the highest type is necessary to vital and vigorous 
 organization. Here, then, we have the explanation of the long struggle for 
 religious liberty. Apart from the divine word, to whose teachings the entire
 
 THE BAPTISTS IN HISTORY. 837 
 
 movement is primarily due, it must be ascribed to that recognition of each 
 man's personal dignity and worth as a creative made in the image of God 
 which has been so distinguishing a note of Baptist history. 
 
 The practical profitableness of the root principle out of which the his- 
 torical significance of the Baptists has grown very frequently has been 
 challenged, and is even now admitted in some circles only with evident 
 reluctance. Unquestionably it has been abused, and, like other precious 
 things, may be made a source of incalculable mischief. 
 
 But it is not, as some of its adversaries assert, unmitigated selfishness, 
 or lawless insubordination, or narrow-minded egotism. Individuality does 
 not consist in living for self, but in living oneself freely from others; not 
 in the avoidance of obligation and suffering, but in the performance of 
 duty, however painful, from the high sense of responsible stewardship, and 
 not from the cringing servility inspired by superstition or slavery. It is the 
 doing voluntarily what may be done through compulsion, only it changes 
 entirely the character of the doing. 
 
 Out of the agony and anguish of life it makes ennobling self-sacrifices; 
 out of the solidarity and interdependence of life it fashions holy and endear- 
 ing brotherhoods, and out of the misfortunes and temptations of life frames 
 heroic ministries of philanthropy and piety. While it is opposed to 
 mechanical and coercive socialism, as it has been to feudal ecclesiasticism, 
 it is in no wise inimical to fraternity of spirit or to any form of mutual 
 helpfulness that does not tend to obliterate manhood in attempting to 
 succor the man. 
 
 We may, I believe, without hesitancy, appeal to our own denomination 
 for proofs of its expediency and excellency. These are furnished in the 
 contributions made by its leaders and churches toward the evolution of 
 modern society, with its liberty and progress, its inventions and discoveries, 
 its reforms and charities. Much has already been suggested on this point, 
 and yet somethiug more remains to be added. 
 
 The Baptists have been conspicuous for their devotion to education, and 
 to-day they have more money invested in property and endowments for 
 educational interests than any other religious body in the land. They have 
 consecrated in America to the cause of human enlightenment over $32,000,- 
 000, and have in the main given it unhampered by sectarian conditions. 
 Manifestly, in this instance, individualism in religion has wrought no ill to 
 the community, but only good. 
 
 The Baptists have been equally prominent in founding modern missions 
 to the heathen, and are everywhere acknowledged as the heroic leaders in 
 an enterprise which means the salvation and unification of races in Christ, 
 and without which this Parliament of Religions would never have been 
 dreamt of, much less so wonderfully realized. 
 
 But in addition, in the domain of letters, they have given to the world 
 a Bunyan and a Milton, a Foster and a William R. Williams; to the domain 
 of heroism a long line, including Arnold of Brescia, a Havelock, a Carey, 
 and Judson; to that of theology a Gill, a Haldane, and many others; and 
 to that of philanthropy a John Harvard, who was a member of Samuel 
 Stennett's congregation in London, and an Abraham Lincoln, who, though 
 not himself a Baptist, was born of Baptist parents, and attributed all that 
 he was to his Baptist mother. 
 
 Nor should we forget the influence they have exerted on the devotional 
 life of the people at large. They have taught us to sing " Blest Be the Tie 
 That Binds," "Did Christ O'er Sinners Weep?" "Majestic Sweetness Sits 
 Enthroned Upon the Savior's Brow," "How Firm a Foundation, Ye Saints 
 of the Lord," " 'Mid Scenes of Confusion and Creature Complaints," "They 
 Are Gathering Homeward from Every Land," "All Hail the Power of 
 Jesus' Name," "Savior, Thy Dying Love," "I Need Thee Every Hour." 
 "Lo, the Day of God Is Breaking," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and they
 
 838 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 have given us many other hymns by which faith has been strengthened, 
 sorrow comforted, duty glorified, patriotism stimulated, and our Lord 
 Jesus Christ rendered more precious and endeared to the souls of men. 
 
 They who have thus sung; they who have thus thought; yea, they who 
 have thus wrought— for holy ideas are kindred to holy deeds— are in them- 
 selves the best witnesses to the wholesome influence of a doctrine that 
 seeks to make out of every human creature a man, out of every man a 
 saint, and out of every saint a special and individual confessor for Christ. 
 
 THE ULTIMATE RELIGION. 
 
 BISHOP JOHN J. KEANE OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 At the close of our Parliament of Religions it is our duty to look back 
 and see what it has taught us, to look forward and see to what it points. 
 
 These days will always be to us a memory of sweetness. Sweet, indeed, 
 it has been for God's long-separated children to meet at last, for those 
 whom the haps and mishaps of human life have put so far apart, and whom 
 the foolishness of the human heart has so often arrayed in hostility, here to 
 clasp hands in friendship and in brotherhood, in the presence of the blessed 
 and loving Father of us all; sweet to see and feel that it is an awful wrong 
 for religion, which is of the Lord of love, to inspire hatred, which is of the 
 evil one; sweet to tie again the bonds of affection broken since the days of 
 Babel, and to taste " how good and how sweet a thing it is for brethren to 
 live in unity." 
 
 In the first place, while listening to utterances which we could not but 
 approve and applaud, though coming from sources so diverse, we have had 
 practical experimental evidence of the old saying, that there is truth in all 
 religions. And the reason is manifest. It is because the human family 
 started from unity, from one divided treasury of primitive truth, and when 
 the separations and wanderings came they carried with them what they 
 could of the treasure. No wonder that we all recognize the common pos- 
 session of the olden truth when we come together at last. And as it is 
 with the long-divided children of the family of Noah so also it is with the 
 too long separated children of the Church of Christ. 
 
 Then we have heard repeated and multifarious, yet concordant, defini- 
 tions of what religion really is. Viewed in all its aspects, we have seen how 
 true is the old definition that religion means the union of man with God. 
 This, we have seen, is the great goal toward which all aim, whether walking 
 in the fullness of the light or groping in the dimness of the twilight. 
 
 And therefore we have seen how true it is that religion is a reality back 
 of all religions. Religions are orderly or disorderly systems for the attain- 
 ment of that great end — the union of man with God. Any system not 
 having that for its aim may be a philosophy, but can not be a religion. 
 
 And, therefore, again we have clearly recognized that religion, in itself 
 and in the system for its attainment, necessarily implies two sides, two con- 
 stitutive 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 crav- 
 ing, the need, the aspiration, is, as here testified, universal among men. 
 And this is a demonstration that the author of our nature is not wanting 
 as to His side ; that the essential religiousness of man is not a meaningless 
 trick of nature; that the craving is not a Tantalus in man's heart meant 
 only for his delusion and torture. This parliament has thus been a weighty 
 blow to atheism, to deism, to antagonism, to naturalism, to mere human- 
 ism. While the utterances of these various philosophies have been listened 
 to with courage and charity, yet its whole meaning and moral have been to
 
 THE ULTIMATE RELIGION. 839 
 
 the contrary; the whole drift of its practical concluBion has been that man 
 and the world never could, and in the nature of things never can, do with- 
 out 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 
 end as the alpha and omega of its thinking; that there can be no philosophy 
 of things without God. 
 
 Here we have heard the cry of the human heart, all the world over, that, 
 without God, life would not be worth living. 
 
 Here we heard the verdict of human society in all its ranks and condi- 
 tions, the verdict of those who have most intelligently and most disinter- 
 estedly studied the problem of the im^jrovement of human conditions, that 
 only the wisdom and power of religion can solve the mighty social problems 
 of the future, and that, in proportion as the world advances toward the 
 perfection of self-government, the need of religion, as a balance-power in 
 every human life, and in the relations of man with man, and of nation with 
 nation, becomes more and more imperative. 
 
 Next we must ask, shall the future tendency of religion be to greater 
 unity, or to greater diversity? 
 
 This parliament has brought out in clear light the old familiar truth 
 that religion has a two-fold aim, the improvement of the individual, and, 
 through that, the improvement of society and of race; that it must, there- 
 fore, have in its system of organization and its methods of action a two- 
 fold tendency and plan on the one side to what might be called religious 
 individualism. On the other side what may be termed religious socialism 
 or solidarity; on the one side, adequate provision for the dealings of God 
 with the individual soul; on the other, jjrovision f or 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 individualism, 
 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 process of syn- 
 thesis ? Is it to be by laying aside all disjjuted elements, no matter how 
 manifestly true, and beautiful, and useful, so as to reach at last the simplest 
 form of religious assertion, the protoijlasm of the religious organism? Or, 
 on the contrary, is it to be by the acceptance of all that is manifestly true, 
 and good, and useful of all that is manifestly from the heart of God as well 
 as from the heart of humanity, so as to attain to the developed and per- 
 fected organism of religion ? To answer this momentous question wisely 
 let us glance at analogies. 
 
 First, in regard to human knowledge, we are, and must be, willing to go 
 down to the level of uninformed or imperfectly informed minds, not, how- 
 ever, to make that the intellectual level of all, but in order that from that 
 low level we may lead up to the higher and higher levels which knowledge 
 has reached. In like manner as to civilization, we are willing to meet the 
 barbarian or the savage on his own low level, not in order to assimilate our 
 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
 
 840 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 cell, but only in order that we may trace the process of differentiation, of 
 accretion, of development, by which higher and higher forms of organi- 
 zation 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 its forms is 
 only a rude degeneration. It has proved that pantheism in all its modifica- 
 tions, obliterating as it does the personality both of God and of man, is no 
 religion at all, and therefore inadmissible as such, that it can not even be 
 admitted as a philosophy, since its very first postulates are metaphysical 
 contradictions. Hence the basis of all religion is the belief in the one 
 living God. 
 
 Next, this parliament has shown that humanity repudiates the gods of 
 the Epicureans, who were so taken up with their own enjoyment 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. It has shown that the god 
 of agnosticism is only the god of the Epicureans dressed up in modern garb, 
 and that he cares nothing for humanity, but leaves it in the dark; human- 
 ity cares nothing for him and is willing to leave him to his unknowable- 
 ness. As the first step in the solid ascent of the true religion is belief in 
 the one living God, so the second must be the belief that the great Father 
 has taught His children 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 cleansing and uplifting 
 and restoration in his redemption. The world's craving for union with the 
 divine finds its archetypal glorious realization 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 life of love. 
 
 Therefore, does 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 
 Jesus." As long as God is God, and man is man, Jesus Christ is the center 
 of religion forever. 
 
 But, still further, we have seen that Jesus Christ is not a myth, not a 
 symbol, but a personal reality. He is not a vague, shadowy personality, 
 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 " proclaimed, as it 
 had never been proclaimed before, the value and the rights of each indi- 
 vidual soul — the sublimest individualism the world has ever heard of. And 
 then, with the heavenly balance and equilibrium which bring all individ- 
 ualities into order, and harmony, and unity. He calls all to be sheep and of 
 one fold, branches of one vine, members of one body, in which all, while 
 members of one head, are also " members one of another," in which is the 
 fulfillment of Hie own sublime prayer and prophecy: " That all may be one,
 
 CHRIST THE UNIFIER OF MANKIND. 841 
 
 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 ciivice; 
 on its human side, the most pei'fect mvdtiphcity, in unity, and unity in 
 multiphcity, the most perfect sociahsm and sohdarity that tlie world could 
 ever know; on its divine side, the instrumentality devised by the Savior of 
 the world for imparting, maintainin}>:, and operating the action of the divine 
 life in each soul; in its entirety, the body, the vine, both divine and human, 
 a living organism, imparting the life of Goil 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 ami unmis- 
 takable as Himself. It is no mere aggregation, no mere co-operation 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 sanctifieation of the world. 
 Will anyone venture to devise a substitute for it? Will anyone, 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 aggrega- 
 tion 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, 
 there will always be, as there always has been, room for improvement; 
 room for the elimination of human evil, since our Lord has given no prom- 
 ise 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 wel- 
 fare; room not only for individual beings but ^or 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 inust ever 
 maintain its individual 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. 
 
 CHRIST THE UNIFIER OF MANKIND. 
 
 EEV. DE. GEOKGE DANA BOAKDMAN OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary in the Kingdom 
 of God. Men andWomen : The hour for the closing of this most extraordinary 
 convention has come. Most extraordinai'y, I say, for this congress is 
 unparalleled in its purpose — not to array sect against sect, or to exalt one 
 form of religion at the cost of all other forms, but to unite all religion 
 against all irreligion. Unparalleled in its composition save on the day of 
 Pentecost, and it is pentecostal day again, for here are gathered together 
 devout men from every nation under heaven — Persians and Medes, and 
 Elimites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus 
 and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia,in Egyptand the partsof Lybia about 
 Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 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,
 
 842 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 AH honor to Chicago, whose beautiful White City symbolizes the 
 architectural unity of the one city of our one God. All 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 man- 
 aged this most august of human parliaments, this crowning 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 oi mankind. Jesus Christ unifies mankind by His incar- 
 nation, for when He 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 man," it is not " a son of men," it is not "the son of men," but it 
 is "The Son of Man." That is to say, Jesus of Nazareth is the universal 
 homo, the essential Vir, the son of human nature, blending in Himself all 
 races, ages, sexes, capacities, temperaments. Jesus is the archetypal man, 
 the ideal hero, the consummate incarnation, the symbol of perfected 
 human nature, the sum total unfolded, fulfilled humanity, the sou of 
 mankind. 
 
 All other religions, comparatively speaking, are more or less topographical. 
 For example, there was the institute religion of Palestine, the priest religion 
 of Egypt, the hero religion of Greece, the empire religion of Rome, the Gue- 
 ber religion of Persia, the ancestor religion of China, the Vedic religion of 
 India, the Buddha religion of Burmah, the Shinto religion of Japan, the Val- 
 halla religion of Scandinavia, the Moslem religion of Turkey, the spii'it 
 religion of our American aborigines. But Christianity is the religion of 
 mankind. Zoroaster was a Persian; Mohammed was an Arabian. But 
 Jesus is the son of man. And, therefore, His religion is equally at home 
 among black and white, red and tawny, mountaineers and lowlanders, 
 landsmen and seamen, philosophers and journeymen, men and women, 
 patriarchs and children. 
 
 Jesus Christ is unifying mankind by His own teaching. Take, in way of 
 illustration, His doctrine of love as set forth in His own mountain sermon. 
 For instance. His beatitudes, His precepts of reconciliation, nonresistance, 
 love of enemies, His bidding each of us use, although in solitary closet 
 prayer, the plural, " Our, we, us." Or take, particularly, Christ's summary 
 of His mountain teaching as set forth in His own golden rule. It is Jesus 
 Christ's positive contribution to sociology, or the philosophy of society. 
 
 Without loitering amid minute classification, it is enough to say that 
 the various theories of society may, substantially speaking, 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, or organic union, or inter- 
 functional connection. Pushing to the extreme the idea of individualism, 
 its tendency is egotistic, disjunctive, chaotic. 
 
 The second theory, to borrow again from chemistry, is the molecular. 
 It proceeds on the assumption that there is such an actuality as mankind, 
 and this mankind is, so to speak, one colossal person, each individual mem- 
 ber thereof forming a vital component, a functional factor in the one great 
 organism, so that membership in society is universal, mutual co-member- 
 ship. Recognizing each individual of mankind as a constituent member of 
 the one great human corpus, its tendency is altruistic, co-operative, 
 constructive. Its motto is: " We are members one of another." It is the 
 theory of Jesus Christ and those who are His. 
 
 I say, then, that it is Jesus Christ Himself who has given us the key to 
 the greatest of modern problems— the problem of sociology. Do you not
 
 CHRIST THE UNIFIER OF MANKIND. 843 
 
 see, then, that when every human being throufjhout the world obeys our 
 Master's golden rule, all mankind will, indeed, become one glorious unity? 
 Or take Christ's doctrine of neighborhood, as set lorth in His parable of 
 the Good Samaritan. According to this parable, neighborhood does not con- 
 sist in local nearness; it is not a matter of ward, city, state, nation, conti- 
 nent; it is a matter of glad readiness to relieve distress 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 more than kin and less than kind. 
 
 Or take Christ's doctrine of mankind as set forth in His own missionary 
 commission. After 2,000 years of an exclusively Jewish religion, the risen 
 Lord bids His covintrymen go forth into all the world and preach the gos- 
 pel of reconciliation to every creature, discipling to Himself every nation 
 under heaven. How majestically the son of Abraham dilated into the Son 
 of Man. How heroically His great apostle to the Gentiles, St. Paul, sought 
 to carry out his Master's missionary commission. In fact, the mission of 
 Paul was a reversal of the mission of Abraham. Great was Abraham's 
 call; but it was a call to become the founder of a single nationality and an 
 isolated religion. Greater was Paul's call, for it was the call to become 
 the founder, under the Son of Man, of a universal brotherhood of a cosmo- 
 politan religion. He himself was the first conspicuous human illustration 
 of his Master's parable of the Good Samaritan. 
 
 And so he sent forth into all the world of the vast Roman empire, 
 announcing, it might almost be said in literal truth, to every creature 
 under 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 fii'st 
 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 commission, all man- 
 kind 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 magnificent catho- 
 licity of which we miss, because our commentators and theologians, in their 
 anxiety for standards, insist on applying it only to the good and the bad 
 living in Christian lands, whereas it is a parable of all nations in all times. 
 
 What 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 .1 truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but that in every 
 nation he that feareth liim, and workuth righteousness, is acceptable to Him. 
 
 Do you see, then, that when every human being recognizes in every min- 
 istering service to others a personal ministry to Jesus Christ Himself, all 
 mankind will indeed become one blessed unity? 
 
 Once more, and in a general summary of Christ's teaching, take His own 
 epitome of the law as set forth in His answer to the lawyer's question: 
 "Master, which is the greatest of the commandments? " And ihe Master's 
 answer was this: 
 
 Thou Shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
 and with all thy mind, and with all thy stnnigrli; this is tho lirst andgreatcom- 
 mandment. And a second like uuto it is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
 thyself. On these two commandments iiangeth the whole law and the prophets.
 
 844 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Not that these two commandments are really two; they are simply a 
 two-fold 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 morality, for Christianity is morality looking Godward; morality is 
 Christianity looking manward. Christianity is morality celestialized. 
 Thus on this two-fold commandment of love to God and love to man hangs, 
 as a mighty portal hangs on its two massive hinges, not only the whole 
 Bible from Genesis to Apocalypse, but also all true morality, natural as 
 well as revealed, or, to express myself in language suggested by the undula- 
 te )ry theory: Love is the ethereal medium pervading God's moral universe, 
 by means of which are propagated the motions of His impulses, the heat 
 of His grace, the light of His truth, the electricity of His activities, the 
 magnetism of His natiire, the affinities of His character, the gravitation of 
 His will. In brief, love is the very definition of Deity Himself: " God is 
 love, and he that abicleth in love abideth in God and God in him." 
 
 I'm apt to think the man 
 That could surround the sum of things, and spy 
 The heart of God, and secrets of His emiiire. 
 Would speak but love. Witli him the bright result 
 Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, 
 And make one thing of all theology. 
 
 Do you not, then, see that when every human being loves the Lord, his 
 God, with all his heart and his neighbor as his own self all mankind will 
 indeed become one blessed unity? 
 
 Jesus Christ is unifying mankind by His own death. Tasting, by the 
 grace of God, death for every man, He became by that death the propi- 
 . tiation, not only for the sins of the Jews, but also for the sins of the whole 
 world. And in thus taking away the sin of the whole world by reconciling 
 in Himself God to man and man to God, He is also reconciling man to man. 
 What though His reconciliation has been slow, ages have elapsed since He 
 laid down His own life for the life of the world, and the world, still rife 
 with wars and rumors of wars, underrates not the reconciling, fusing power 
 of our Mediator's blood. 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 nothing at all, nor do ye take account that it is expedient for you, 
 that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not. 
 
 Bvit the Holy Ghost was upon the sacrilegious pontiff, though he knew 
 it not, and so he builded larger than he knew. Meaning a narrow Jewish 
 policy, he pronounced a magnificently Catholic prediction: 
 
 Mow this he saidnot of himself ; but being high priest that year, he prophesied 
 that Jesus sliould die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but that He 
 might also gather together (synagogue) into one the children of God that are scat- 
 tered abroad. 
 
 Accordingly, the moment that the Son of Man bowed His head and 
 gave back His spirit to His Father, the veil of the temple 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 Peter; to Greek Athanasius as well as to 
 Hebrew John; to Indian Khrishnu Pal as well as to Hebrew Paul. For, in 
 Christ Jesus, Gentiles, who were once far off, are made nigh; for He is the 
 world's peace, making both Jews and non-Jews one body, breaking down 
 the middle wall of partition between them, having abolished on His own 
 cross the enmity, that He might create in Himself of the twain, Jews and 
 non-Jews, one new man, even mankind Christianized into one unity, so 
 making peace. Thus the cross declares the brotherhood of man, under 
 the Fatherhood of God, in the Sonhood of Christ. Aye, Jesus Christ is the 
 unifier of mankind.
 
 CHRIST THE UNIFIER OF MANKIND. 845 
 
 Jesus Christ is vmifying mankind by His own immortality. For we 
 Cliristians do not worship a dead, embalmed deity. The Son of Man has 
 burst the bars of death and is alive for evermore, holding in His own grasp 
 the keys of hades. The followers of Buddha, if I mistake not, claim that 
 Nirvana, that state of existence so nebulous that we can not tell whether 
 it means simple unconsciousness or total extinction, is the supremest goal 
 of aspiration, and that even Buddha himself is no longer a self-conscious 
 person, but has himself attained Buddhahood, or Nirvana. On the other 
 hand, the followers of Jesus claim that He is still alive, sitting at the right 
 hand of the Majesty in the heavens, from henceforth expecting, till He make 
 His foes His footstool. Holding personal communion with Him, His dis- 
 ciples feel the inspiration of His vitalizing touch and, therefore, are ever 
 waking to broader thoughts and diviner catholicities. 
 
 As He Himself promised. He is with His followers to the end of the a?on, 
 imbuing them with His own gracious spirit; inspiring them to send forth 
 His evangel to all nations; to soften the barbarism of the world's legisla- 
 tions; to abolish 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 valleys of .poverty; to cast 
 down the mountains of opulence; to straighten the twists of wrongs; to 
 smooth the roughness of environment; in brief, to uprear out of the debris 
 of human chaos the one august temple of the new mankind in Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Thus the Son of Man, by His own incarnation, by His own teachings, 
 by His own death, by His own immortality, is most surely unifying man- 
 kind. 
 
 And the Son of Man is the sole unifier of mankind. Buddha was in many 
 respects very noble, but he and his religion are Asiatic. What has Buddha 
 done for the unity of mankind? Mohammed taught some very noble truths, 
 but Mohammedanism is fragmental and antithetic. Why have not his'fol- 
 lowers invited us to meet at Mecca? Jesus Christ is the one uni>gersal man, 
 and therefore it is that the first Parliament of Religions is meeting in a 
 Christian land, under Christian auspices. Jesus Christ is the sole bond 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 personality is bridg- 
 ing the rivers of languages, tunneling the mountains of caste, dismantling 
 the fortresses of nations, spanning the seas of races, incorporating all human 
 varieties into one majestic temple-body of mankind. For Jesus Christ is 
 the true center of gravity, and it is only as the forces of mankind are pivoted 
 on Him that they are in balance. And the oscillations of mankind are 
 perceptibly 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 the ancient and the infant of days— calmly abiding the cent- 
 uries, mending the bruised reed, fanning the dying wick, sending forth 
 righteousness unto victory; there He sits, evermore drawing mankind nearer 
 and nearer Himself; and as they approach I see them dropping the spear, 
 waving the olive branch, arranging themselves in symmetric, shining, rap- 
 turous groups around the divine Son of Man, He Himself being their ever- 
 lasting mount of beatitudes. 
 
 Down the dark future, through long generations. 
 The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease; 
 
 And like a bell, witli solemn, swoet vibrations, 
 I hear once more the voice of Christ say " Peace." 
 
 Peace, and no longer from its brazen portals 
 The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies; 
 
 But, beautiful as songs of the immortals. 
 The holy melodies of love arise.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 
 
 The closing scenes, on the evening of September 27th, were 
 very impressive. On the platform were leading representatives 
 of many nationalities and creeds. 
 
 The exercises began with " Lift Up Your Heads, Oh, Ye 
 Gates " by the Apollo Club, under the leadership of Professor 
 Tomlins. Then, at the request of Mr. Bonney, the assembly 
 arose and silently invoked the divine blessing. Cardinal 
 Newman's hymn, " Lead, Kindly Light," was sung by the 
 chorus. 
 
 " The^demands of the occasion," said Mr. Bonney, " require 
 the utmost possible economy of our time. We shall endeavor 
 to present during the evening a large number of brief speeches 
 rather than a few long ones. Dr. Barrows will now present some 
 of the distinguished guests whom we have entertained during 
 the past three weeks, and who have taken such an active part 
 in the World's Parliament of Religions." 
 
 "You are to hear to-night," said Dr. Barrows, stepping to 
 the reading desk, " more than twenty brief speeches and, of 
 course, all words of introduction must be few. The first 
 speaker whom I have the honor to introduce is Dr. Alfred W. 
 Momerie of London, whom w^e all know as a brilliant man, and 
 whom we all have discovered is a very lovable man, and he has 
 come to love the White City, Chicago, and the Parliament of 
 Religions. When he goes back to his native land and stands 
 on London bridge again and thinks of our World's Fair he 
 will no doubt say: ' Though lost to sight, to Momerie dear.' " 
 
 846
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 847 
 
 DK. ALFRED W. MOMERIE OF LONDON. 
 
 Dr. Momerie spoke as follows: 
 
 Before we part, I wish to say three things. First of all, I want to tender 
 my warmest congratulations to Dr. Barrows. I do not believe there is 
 another man living who could have carried this congress through and made 
 it such a gigantic success. It needed a head, a heart, an energy, a common 
 sense, and a pluck such as I have never known to be united before in a 
 single individual. 
 
 During my stay in Chicago, it has been my singular good fortune to be 
 received as a guest by the kindest of hosts and the most charming of host- 
 esses, and among the many pleasures of their brilliant and delightful 
 tables one of the greatest has been that I have sat day by day by Dr. Bar- 
 rows, and day by day I have learned to admire and love him more. In the 
 successes that lie before him in the future I shall always take the keenest 
 interest; but he has already achieved something that will eclipse all. As 
 chairman of this first Parliament of Religions he has won immortal glory 
 which nothing in the future can diminish, which I fancy nothing in the 
 future can very much augment. 
 
 Secondly, I should like to offer my congratulations to the American 
 people. This Parliament of Religions has been held in the New World. I 
 confess I wish it had been held in the Old World, in my own country, and 
 that it had had its origin in my own church. It is the greatest event so 
 far in the history of the world, and it has been held on American soil. I 
 congratulate the people of America. Their example will be followed in 
 time to come in other countries and by other peoples, but there is one honor 
 which will always be America's — the honor of having led the way. And, 
 certainly, I should like to offer my congratulations to you, the citizens of 
 Chicago. 
 
 While our minds are full of the parliament. I can not forget the Fair. 
 I have seen all the expositions of Eui'ope during the last ten or twelve 
 years, and I am sure I do not exaggerate whon I say that your exposition 
 is greater than all the rest put together. But your Parliament of Religions 
 is far greater than your exposition. There havo been plenty of expositions 
 before. Yours is the best, but it is a comparatively common thing. The 
 Parliament of Religions is a new thing in the world. Most people, even 
 those who regarded the idea with pleasure, thought that it was an impossi- 
 bility. But it has been achieved. Here, in this Hall of Columbus, vast 
 audiences have assembled day after day, the members of which came from 
 all churches and from all sects, and sometimes from no church at all. Here 
 they sat side by side during long, I had almost said weary, hours — the 
 hours would have been weary but for their enthusiasm — here they sat 
 side by side during the long hours of the day, listening to doctrines 
 which they had been taught to regard with contempt, listening wilh 
 respect, with sympathy, with an earnest desire to learn something which 
 could improve their own doctrines. 
 
 And here on the platform have sat, as brethren, the representatives of 
 churches and sects which, during bygone centuries, hated and cursed one 
 another, and scarcely a word has fallen from any of us which could possi- 
 bly give offense. If occasionally the old Adam did show itself, if occasion- 
 ally something was said which had been better left unsaid, no harm was 
 done. It only served to kindle into a flame of general and universal 
 enthusiasm your brotherly love. It seemed an impossibility, but here in 
 Chicago the impossible has been realized. You have shown that you do 
 not believe in impossibilities. It could not have been realized but for you. 
 It could not have been realized without your sympathy and your 
 enthusiasm.
 
 848 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Citizens of Chicago, I congratulate you. If you show yourselves in 
 other things as great as you have shown yourselves in regard to this Parlia- 
 ment of Religions most assuredly the time will come when Chicago will be 
 the first city in America, the first city in the world. 
 
 EEV. P. C. MOZOOMDAR, 
 
 Rev. P. C. Mozoomdar of the Brahmo-Somaj delivered the 
 following address: 
 
 Brethren of Different Faiths: This Parliament of Religions, this con- 
 course (jf spirits, is to break up before to-morrow's sun. What lessons have 
 we learned from our incessant labors? Firstly, the charge of materialism 
 laid against the age in general, and against America in particular, is 
 refuted forever. Could these myriads have spent their time, their energy, 
 neglected their business, their pleasures, to be present with us if their 
 spirit had not risen above their material needs or carnal desires? The 
 spirit dominates still over matter and over mankind. 
 
 Secondly, the unity of purpose and feeling unmistakably shown in the 
 harmonious proceedings of these seventeen days teaches that men with 
 opposite views, denominations with contradictory principles and histories, 
 can form one congregation, one household, one body, for however short a 
 time, when animated by one spirit. Who is or what is that spirit? It is 
 the Spirit of God Himself. This unity of man with man is the unity of 
 man with God, and the unity of man with man in God is the kingdom of 
 heaven. When I came here by the invitation of you, Mr. President, I came 
 with the hope of seeing the object of my lifelong faith and labors, viz., the 
 harmony of religions effected. The last public utterance of my leader, 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, made in 1883, in his lecture called "Asia's Message 
 to Europe," was this: 
 
 Here will meet the world's representatives, the foremost spirits, the most 
 living hearts, the leading thinkers and devotees of each church, and offer united 
 homage.to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. This central union 
 church IS no Utopian fancy but a veritable reality, whose beginning we see 
 already among the nations of the earth. Already the right wing of each church 
 Is pressing forward, and the advanced liberals are drawing near each other 
 under the central banner of the new dispensation. 
 
 Believe me, the time is coming when the more liberal of the Catholic and 
 Protestant branches of Christ's Church will advance and meet upon a common 
 platform, and form ii broad Christian community in which all shall be identi- 
 fied, in spite of all diversities and differences in non-essential matters of faith. 
 So shall the Baptists and Methodists, Trinitarian and Unitarian, the Ritualists 
 arid the Evangelical, all unite in a broad and universal church organization, 
 loving, honoring, serving the common body while retaining the peculiarities of 
 each sect. Only the broad of ea^ih sect shall for the present come forward, will 
 others shall follow in time. 
 
 The base remains where it is; the vast masses at the foot of each church and 
 yet remain, perhaps for centuries, where they now are. But as you look to the 
 lofty heights above you will see all the bolder spirits and broad souls of each- 
 church pressing forward, onward, heavenward. Come, then, my friends, ye 
 broad-hearted of all the churches, advance, and shake hands with each other, and 
 promote that spiritual fellowship, that kingdom of heaven which Christ predicted. 
 
 These words were said in 1883, and in 1893 every letter of the prophecy 
 has been fulfilled. _ The kingdom of heaven is to my mind a vast concen- 
 tric circle with various circumferences of doctrines, authorities, and organi- 
 zations from outer to inner, from inner to inner still, until heaven and 
 earth become one. The outermost circle is belief in God, and the love of 
 man. In the tolerance, kindness, good-will, patience, and wisdom, which 
 have distinguished the work of this parliament, that outermost circle of the 
 kingdom of heaven has been described. We have influenced vast numbers 
 of men and women of all opinions, and the influence will spread and 
 spread. So many human unities drawn within the magnetic circle of
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 849 
 
 spiritual sympathy can not but influence and widen the various denomina- 
 tions 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. 
 
 I conclude with acknowledging the singular cordiality and appreciation 
 extended to us Orientals. Where everyone has done so well, we did not 
 deserve special honor, but undeserved as the honor may be, it shows the 
 greatness of your leaders, and especially of your chairman, Dr. Barrows. 
 Dr. Barrows, humanly speaking, has been the soul of this noble movement. 
 The profoundest blessings of the present and future generations shall fol- 
 low him. 
 
 And now, farewell. For once in history all religions have made their 
 peace, all nations have called each other brothers, and their representatives 
 have for seventeen days stood up morning after morning to pray Our 
 Father, the universal Father of all, in heaven. His will has been done so 
 far, and in the great coming future may that blessed will be done further 
 and further, forever and ever. 
 
 "We have heard a voice from India," said Dr. Barrows. 
 
 " Let us now hear a well-beloved voice from Russia." Prince 
 
 Serge Wolkonsky then came forward and said : 
 
 I hardly realize that it is for the last time in my life I have the honor, 
 the pleasure, the fortune to speak to you. On this occasion, I should like 
 to tell you so many things that I am afraid that if I give free course to 
 my sentiments I will feel the delicate but imperative touch of Mr. Presi- 
 dent's hand on my shoulder long before I reach the end of my speech. 
 Therefore, I will say thanks to all of you, ladies and gentlemen, in the short- 
 est possible words — thanks for your kind attention, for your kind applause, 
 your kind laughter, for your hearty hand shakes. You will believe how 
 deeply I am obliged to you when I tell you that this is the first time in 
 my life that I ever took an active part in a congress, and I wish any enter- 
 prise I might undertake later on might leave me such happy remembrances 
 as this first experience. 
 
 Before bidding you farewell, 1 want to express a wish; may the good 
 feelings you have shown me so many times, may they, through my 
 unworthy personality, spread to the people of my country, whom you know 
 so little and whom I love so much. If I ask you that, it is because I know 
 the prejudices which prevail among the people of your country. A com- 
 patriot said the other day that Russians thought all Americans were 
 angels, and that Americans thought all Russians were brutes. Now, once 
 in awhile, these angels and these brutes come together, and both are 
 deceived in their expectations. We see that you are certainly not angels, 
 and you see we are not quite as much brute as you thought we were. 
 
 Now, why this disappointment ? Why this surprise ? Why this aston- 
 ishment ? Because we won't remember that we are men, and nothing else 
 and nothing more. We can not be anything more, for to be a man is the 
 highest thing we can pretend to be on this earth. I do not know whether 
 many have learned in the sessions of this parliament what resjx'ct of God 
 is. but I know that no one will leave the congress without having learned 
 what respect of man is. And should the Parliament of Religions of 1893 
 have no other result but this, it is enough to make the names of Dr. Bar- 
 rows and those who have helped him imperishable in the history of 
 humanity. 
 
 Should this congress have no other result than to teach us to judge our 
 fellowman by his individual 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 our brothers who are my countrymen but in
 
 850 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the name of those our brothers whom we so often revile because the politi- 
 cal traditions of their country refuse the recognition of home rule; in the 
 name of those 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 governments ot their country send rapacious armies on the 
 western, southern, and eastern coasts of Africa. I will express my gratitude 
 to the congress in the name of those my brothers whom we so often judge 
 so wrongly, because of the cruel treatment their government inflicts upon 
 the Chinese. 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 sessions have realized that it is a crime to be astonished 
 when we see that another human being is a man like ourselves. 
 
 Now, Dr. Bonney, one word to you personally. All I have said in 
 thanking these ladies and gentlemen, I beg you to accept for yourself; for 
 all I owe to them is due to your kindness. I pray you to accept my per- 
 sonal gratitude, and the assurance that whenever I may be of any use to 
 you, although on the other side of the earth, St. Petersburg will be near 
 enough to Chicago. No continents, no oceans, no distances will ever prevent 
 me from reaching a friendly hand to President Bonney, nor to any of the 
 distinguished gentlemen and ladies I am so happy to have met and known. 
 
 " We have a splendid delegation from the sunrise kingdom 
 of Japan," remarked Dr. Barrows, " and I'm going to ask our 
 friends, the Buddhist representatives of Japan, to rise as their 
 names are called, and then our eloquent friend, Mr. Hirai, will 
 speak for them." 
 
 The four Buddhist priests, attired in the full vestments of 
 their order, arose and saluted the audience. " Mr. Hirai," con- 
 tinued Dr. Barrows, " has lived for several years in our country. 
 His voice was one of the first to thrill us through and through 
 as he told us of the wrongs so-called Christian civilization had 
 committed in Japan. I now have the pleasure of introducing 
 him." 
 
 MR. HIRAI. 
 
 We can not but admire the tolerant forbearance and compassion of the 
 people of the civilized West. You are the pioneers in human history. You 
 have achieved an assembly of the world's religions, and we believe your 
 next step will be toward the ideal goal of this parliament, the realization of 
 international justice. We, ourselves, desire to witness its fulfillment in our 
 lifetime, and to greet you again with our deepest admiration. By your kind 
 hospitality we have forgotten that we are strangers, and we are very much ' 
 attached to this city. To leave here makes us feel as if we were leaving our 
 native country. To part with you makes us feel as we were parting from 
 our own sisters and brothers. When we think of our homeward journey we 
 can not help shedding tears. Farewell. The cold winter is coming, and 
 we earnestly wish that you may be in good health. Farewell. 
 
 " The oldest and greatest empire," said Dr. Barrows, " is
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 851 
 
 China. The honorable Pung Quang Yu, special commissioner 
 to this congress, will now address you." Instead of reading 
 his own speech, Mr. Pung Quang Yu simply arose and saluted 
 the assembly and handed his manuscript to Dr. Barrows, who 
 read it as follows: 
 
 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 Secre- 
 tary of State are well able to deal with every question arising between the 
 two countries in a manner satisfactory and honorable to both. As I am a 
 delegate to the religious congresses, I can not but feel that all religious peojjle 
 are my friends. I have a favor to ask of all the religious people of Amer- 
 ica, and that is that they will treat, hereafter, all my countrymen just as 
 they have treated me. I shall be a hundred times more grateful to them 
 for the kind treatment of my countrymen than of myself. I am sure that 
 the Americans in China receive just such considerate treatment from the 
 cultured people of China as I have received from you. The majority of my 
 countrymen in this 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 relig- 
 ious people will not think this request too extravagant. 
 
 It is my sincere hope that no national differences will ever interrupt the 
 friendly relations between the two governments, and that the two peoples 
 will equally enjoy the protection and blessings of heaven. I intend to leave 
 this country shortly. I shall take great pleasure in reporting to my 
 government the proceedings of this parliament upon my return. With this 
 I desire to bid all my friends farewell. 
 
 EIGHT REV. MR. SHABITA OF JAPAN. 
 
 Mr. Barrows then introduced Eight Kev. Mr. Sliabita, high 
 priest of the Shinto religion of Japan. The Japanese delegate 
 arose and bowed profoundly. Dr. Barrows read his address: 
 
 I am here in the pulpit again to express my thanks for the kindness, 
 hearty welcome, and applause I have been enjoying at your hands ever 
 since I came here to Chicago. You have shown great sympathy with my 
 humble opinion, and your newspaper men have talked of me in high terms. 
 I am happy that I have had the honor of listening to so many famous 
 scholars and preachers forwarding the same opinion of the necessity of 
 universal brotherhood and humanity. I am deeply impressed with the 
 peace, politeness, and education which characterize your audiences. But 
 is it not too sad that such pleasures are always short-lived? I, who made 
 acquaintance with you only yesterday, have to part with you to-day, 
 though reluctantly. This Parliament of Religions is the most remarkable 
 event in history, and it is the first honor in my life to have the privilege of 
 appearing before you to pour out my humble idea, which was so well 
 accepted by you all. You like me, but I think it is not the mortal Shabita 
 that you like, bvit you like the immortal idea of universal brotherhood. 
 
 What I wish to do is to assist you in carrying out the plan of forming 
 the universal brotherhood under the one roof of truth. You know unity 
 is power. I, who can speak no 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 only represent my own Shinto sect. But who
 
 85^ THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 dares to destroy universal fraternity? So long as the sun and moon con- 
 tinue to shine all friends of truth must be willing to tight courageously for 
 this great principle. I do not know as I shall ever see you again in this 
 life, but our souls have been so pleasantly united here that I hope they may 
 be again united in the life hereafter. 
 
 Now I pray that 8,000,000 deities protecting the beautiful cherry-tree 
 country of Japan may protect you and your Government forever, and with 
 this I bid you good-by. 
 
 H. DHARMAPALA OF CEYLON. 
 
 Peace, Blessinga, and Salutations, Brethren : This Congress of Religions 
 has achieved a stupendous work in bringing before you the representatives 
 of the religions and philosophies of the East. The committee on religious 
 congresses has realized the Utopian idea of the poet and the visionary. By 
 the wonderful genius of two men — Mr. Bonney and Dr. Barrows — a beacon 
 light has been erected on the platform of the Chicago Parliament of Relig- 
 ions 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 you and 
 to Dr. John Henry Barrows, a man of noble tolerance, of sweet disposition, 
 whose equal I could hardly find. And you, my brothers and sisters, born 
 in this land of freedom, you have learned from your brothers of the far 
 East their presentation of the respective religious systems they follow. 
 You have listened with commendable 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 relig- 
 ious prejudices, and preaching a doctrine which has made Asia mild. By 
 the patient and laborious researches of the men of science, you are given to 
 enjoy the fruits of material civilization, but this civilization by itself 
 finds no praise at the hands of the great naturalists of the day. 
 
 Learn to think without prejudice, love all beings for love's sake, express 
 your convictions fearlessly, lead a life of purity and the sunlight of truth 
 will illuminate you. If theology and dogma stand in your way in the 
 search of truth put them aside. Be earnest and work out your own salva- 
 tion with diligence, and the fruits of holiness will be yours. 
 
 Rev. Dr. George T. Candlin of China was next introduced 
 
 and said: 
 
 It is with deepest joy that I take my part in the congratulations of this 
 closing day. The parliament has more than justified ray most sanguine 
 expectations. As a missionary I anticipate that it will make a new era of 
 missionary enterprise and missionary hope. If it does not, it will not be 
 your fault; and let those take the blame who make it otherwise. Very 
 sure I am that at least one missionary, who counts himself the humblest 
 member of this noble assembly, will carry through every day of work, 
 through every hour of effort, on till the sun of life sets on the completion 
 of his task, the strengthening memory and uplifting inspiration of this 
 pentecost. 
 
 By this parliament the city of Chicago has placed herself far away 
 above all the cities of the earth. In this school you have learned what no 
 other town or city in the world yet knows. The conventional idea of relig- 
 ion which obtains among Christians the world over is that Christianity is 
 true, all other religions false; that Christianity is of God, while other 
 religions are of the devil; or else, with a little spice of moderation, that 
 Christianity is a revelation from heaven, while other religions are manu- 
 factures of nien. You know better, and with clear light and strong assur- 
 ance can testify that there may be friendship instead of antagonism between
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 853 
 
 religion and religion, that so surely as God is our common Father, oui 
 hearts alike have yearnod for Him, and our souls in devoutest moods have 
 caught \vhisi)ers of grace dropped from His throne. 
 
 Then this is Pentecost, and behind is the conversion of the world. 
 
 SWAMI VIVE KANANDA. 
 
 Swami Vive Kauauda made his farewell as follows : 
 
 The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, 
 and the merciful Father has helped those who labored to bring it into 
 existence and crowned with success their most unselfish labor. My thanks 
 to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this 
 wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to tlie shower of 
 liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this 
 enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their 
 appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth tlie friction of religions. 
 A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. 'My 
 special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made the 
 general harmony the sweeter. 
 
 Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am 
 not going just now to venture my own theory. But if anyone here hopes 
 that this unity will 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 Hmdu? 
 God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Chris- 
 tian? God forbid. 
 
 The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed 
 around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. 
 It becomes a plant; it develops after the law of its own growth, assim- 
 ilates 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: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity, and charity are not 
 the exclusive possessions of any 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 and Peace and Not 
 Dissension." 
 
 VICHAND GANDHI. 
 
 Are we not all sorry that wo are parting so soon? Do we not wish that 
 this parliament would last seventeen times seventeen days? Have we not 
 heard with pleasure and interest the speeches of tlie learned representa- 
 tives on this platform? Do we not see that the sublime dream of the 
 organizers of this unique parliament has been more than realized? If 
 you will only permit a heathen to deliver his message of peace and love I 
 shall only ask you to look at the multifarious ideiS presented to you in a 
 liberal spirit, and not with superstition and bigotry, as the seven bliud men 
 did in the elephant story.
 
 854 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Once upon a time in a great city an elephant was brought with a circus. 
 The people had never seen an elephant before. There were seven blind 
 men in the city who longed to know what kind of an animal it was, so they 
 went together to the place where the elephant was kept. One of them 
 placed his hands on the ears, another on the legs, a third on the tail of the 
 elephant, and so on. When they were asked by the people what kind of an 
 animal the elephant was, one of the blind men said: "Oh, to be sure, the 
 elephant is like a big winnowing fan." Another blind man said: "No, my 
 dear sir, you are wrong. The elephant is more like a big, round post." The 
 third: " You are quite mistaken; it is like a tapering stick." The rest of 
 them gave also their different opinions. The proprietor of the circus 
 stepped forward and said: " My friends, you are all mistaken. You have not 
 examined the elephant from all sides. Had you done so you would not 
 have taken one-sided views." 
 
 Brothers and sisters, I entreat you to hear the moral of this story, and 
 learn to examine the various religious systems from all standpoints. 
 
 I now thank you from the bottom of my heart for the kindness with 
 which you have received us, and for the liberal spirit and patience with 
 which you have heard us. And to you, Rev. Dr. Barrows and President 
 Bonney, we owe the deepest gratitude for the hospitality which you have 
 extended to us. 
 
 PRINCE MOMOLU MASAQUOI OF AFRICA. 
 
 Permit me to express my hearty thanks to the chairman of this con- 
 gress for the honor conferred upon me personally by the privilege of repre- 
 senting Africa in this World's Parliament of Religions. There is an 
 important relationship which Africa sustains to this particular gathering. 
 Nearly 1,900 years ago, the great dawn of Christian morning, we saw 
 benighted Africa open her doors to the infant Savior Jesus Christ, after- 
 ward the Pounder 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, I said to myself, 
 " What shall the harvest be." 
 
 The very atmosphere seems pregnant with an indefinable, inexpressible 
 something — something too solemn for human utterance — something I dare 
 not express. Previous to this gathering the greatest enmity existed among 
 the world's religions. To-night — I dare not speak as one seeing visions or 
 dreaming dreams— but this night it seems that the world's religions, instead 
 of striking one against another, have come together on amicable delibera- 
 tion and have created a lasting and congenial spirit among themselves. 
 May the coming together of these wise men result in the full realization of 
 the general parliament of God, the brotherhood of man, and the consecra- 
 tion of souls to the service of God. 
 
 President Bonney then announced that, having listened to 
 
 the representatives of the far-away countries, tlie audience 
 
 would be addressed by speakers from America in two-minute 
 
 addresses. The first speaker was Rev. Dr. George Dana 
 
 Boardman of Philadelphia, who simply said: 
 
 Fathers of the contemplative East; sons of the executive West — behold 
 how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. 
 The New Jerusalem, the city of God, is descending, heaven and earth 
 chanting the eternal hallelujah chorus.
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 855 
 
 DR. EMIL HIRSCH. 
 
 Dr. Emil Hirsch added, his word of farewell as follows: 
 
 The privilege of being with you on the morning when, in glory under 
 God's blessing, this parliament was opened was denied me. At the very 
 hour when here the tirst words of consecration were spoken, I and all other 
 rabbis were attending worship in our own little temples, and could thus 
 only in spirit be with you, who were come together in this much grander 
 temple. But we all felt, when the trumpet in our ritual announced the 
 birth of a new religiovis year, that here blazoned forth at that very moment 
 the clearer blast heralding for all humanity the dawn of a new era. 
 
 None could appreciate the deeper significance of this parliament more 
 fully than we, the heirs of a past spanning the millennia, and the motive 
 of whose achievements and fortitude was and is the confident hope of the 
 ultimate break of the millennium. Millions of my co-religionists hoped 
 that this convocation of this modern great synagogue would sound the 
 death-knell of hatred and prejudice under which they have pined and are 
 still suffering; and their hope has not been disappointed. Of old, Pales- 
 tine's hills were every month aglow with firebrands announcing the rise of 
 a new month. 
 
 So here were kindled the cheering fires, telling the whole world that a 
 new period of time had been consecrated. We Jews came hither to give 
 and to receive. For what little we could bring we have been richly 
 rewarded in the precious things we received in turn. 
 
 According to an old rabbinical practice, friends among us never part 
 without first discussing some'problem of religious life. Our whole parlia- 
 ment has been devoted to such discussion, and we take hence, in parting, 
 with us tha richest treasures of religious instruction ever laid before man. 
 Thus the old Talmudic promise will be verified in us that when even three 
 come together to study God's law his shekinah abides with them. 
 
 Then let me bid you godspeed in the old Jewish salutation of peace. 
 When one is carried to his resting place we Jews will bid him go in peace, 
 but when one who is still in the land of the living turns from us to go to 
 his daily task we greet him with the phrase, "Go thou toward peace." 
 Let me then speed you on your way toward peace. For the parliament is not 
 the gateway to death. It is a new portal to a new life; for all of us a life of 
 greater love for and greater trust in one another. Peace will not yet come but 
 is to come. It will come when the seed here planted shall sprout up to blos- 
 som and fruitage; when no longer we see through a blurred glass, but, 
 like Moses of old, through a translucent mirror. May God, then, bless you. 
 Brother Chairman, whose loyalty and zeal have led us safely through the 
 night of doubt to this bright hour of a happy and glorious consummation. 
 
 REV. DR. FRANK M. BRISTOL. 
 
 " There are 5,000,000 of Methodists in the United States," 
 said Mr. Bonney, " and Rev. Dr. Frank M. Bristol will tell us 
 what the Methodists think of the Parliament of Religions." 
 
 Dr. Bristol said: 
 
 Then let us pray tliat come it may. 
 
 As come it will, for a' that, 
 That man to man, the warl' o'er. 
 
 Shall brithers be for a' that. 
 
 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
 
 866 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 them represent civilization that was old when Romulus was founding 
 Rome, whose philosophies and songs were ripe in wisdom and rich in rhythm 
 before Homer sang his Iliads to the Greeks, and they have enlarged our 
 ideas of our common humanity. They hav6 brought to us fragrant flowers 
 from the gardens of Eastern faiths, rich gems from the old mines of great 
 philosophies, and we are richer to-night from their contributions of thought, 
 and particularly from our contact with them in spirit. 
 
 Never was there such a bright and hopeful day forour common human- 
 ity 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 conscious- 
 ness of having contributed to the mighty movement which holds in itself 
 the promise of one faith, one lord, one father, one brotherhood. A distin- 
 guished writer has said, it is always morn somewhere in the world. The 
 time hastens when a greater thing will be said— 'tis always morn every- 
 where in the world. The darkness has passed, the day is at hand, and 
 with it will come the greater humanity, the universal brotherhood. 
 
 The blessings of our God and our Father be with you, brethren from the 
 East; the blessings of our Savior, onr elder Brother, the teacher of the 
 brotherhod of man, be with you and your peoples forever. 
 
 REV. JENKIN LLOYD JONES. 
 
 I had rather be a doorkeeper in the open house of the Lord than to 
 dwell in the tents of bigotry. I am sufficiently happy in the knowledge 
 that 1 have been enabled to be, to a certain extent, the feet of this great 
 triumph. I stand before you to-night with my brain badly addled, with 
 my voice a good deal demoralized, with my heel somewhat blistered, but 
 with my heart warm and loving and happy. 
 
 I bid to you, the parting gviests, the godspeed that comes out of a soul 
 that is glad to recognize its kinship with all lands and with all religions; 
 and when you go, you go not only leaving behind you in our hearts more 
 hospitable thoughts for the faiths you represent but also warm and loving 
 ties that bind you into the union that will be our joy and our life forever- 
 more. 
 
 But I will not stand between you and your further pleasures except to 
 venture, in the presence of this vast and happy audience, a motion which 
 I propose to repeat in the next hall, and, if both audiences approve, who 
 dare say that the motion may not be realized? It has been often said, and 
 I have been among those who have been saying it, that we have been wit- 
 nessing 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 accu- 
 mulative spirit I have felt my doubts give way, and already I see 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 there 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 farther, 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 sacred banks of the Ganges, in the ancient, new 
 city of Benares, where we can visit these brethren at their noblest head- 
 quarters. 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 are applicable in all lands. 
 
 Now, when shall that great parliament meet? It used to take a long
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 857 
 
 time to get around the world, but I believe that we are ready here to-night 
 to move that we shall usher in the 20th century with a great Parliament 
 of Religions in Benares, and we shall make John Henry Barrows president 
 of it, too. 
 
 MRS. CHARLES HENROTIN. 
 
 Mrs. Henrotin, Vice-President of the Woman's Branch of the 
 World's Congress Auxiliary, said: 
 
 The place which woman has taken in the Parliament of Religions and 
 in the denominational congresses is one of such great importance that it is 
 entitled tot your careful attention. 
 
 As day l)y day the jjaniamenthas presented the result of the preliminary 
 work of two years, it may have appeared to you an easy thing to put into 
 motion the forces of which this evening is the crowning achievement, but to 
 bring about this result hundreds of men and women have labored. There 
 are sixteen committees of women in the various departments represented 
 in the Parliament of Religions and denominational congresses, with a total 
 membership of 228. In many cases the men's and the women's committees 
 have elected to work as one, and in others the women have held separate 
 congresses. Sixteen women have spoken in the Parliament of Religions 
 and that more did not appear is due to the fact that the denominational 
 committee had secured the most prominent women for their presentation. 
 
 Dr. Barrows treated the woman's branch with that courtesy and consid- 
 eration, and, I may add, justice, which he has extended to the representa- 
 tive of every creed. 
 
 In the denominational congresses, the first in order was that of the Jew- 
 ish women, and here is the keynote to woman's position in the modern 
 religious world. It is that of the worker, for it is not in the Parliament of 
 Religions, as able as have been the women representing her in the parlia- 
 ment, that you can judge of the tremendous power which she wields. It 
 is in the denominational congress that her work is best illustrated. 
 
 In the Roman Catholic congress, the work of the women for their church 
 was most ably presented. His eminence Cardinal Gibbons, in his paper, 
 " The Needs of Humanity Supplied by the Catholic Religion," demons! ratetl 
 that the needs of humanity were ministered unto by women, laity as well 
 as sisters, in the Catholic Church. His paper could fitly have been named: 
 " What Woman Has Accomplished for the Catholic Church." 
 
 The congress of the Jewish women was a memorable occasion, as it was 
 the first time in the world's history that the Jewish women met together 
 as a religious power. Eighty-five delegates from the different Jewish com- 
 munities from all parts of the United States were present, and before this 
 congress adjourned an international association of Jewish women was 
 formed, which, if it brings into the religious world the same zeal which has 
 animated that historic race, it is easy to conceive what a tremendous force 
 has here been put into motion. 
 
 The committee of Congregational women held an interesting session, 
 treating of practical questions connected with church work. 
 
 The women of the Lutheran church succeeded in uniting the Lutheran 
 women all over the United States in one congress, and held four sessions in 
 which Lutheran women spoke on the work of women in their church. 
 Before this congress closed an international league of Lutheran women 
 was formed. 
 
 The King's Daughters presented their work on Monday, October 2d. 
 In all the other denominational congresses women have presented their 
 work in the general congress. Two hundred and twelve women have taken 
 part in the denominational and mission congresses.
 
 858 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Now the question presents itself: Along what line of thought have most 
 of these women presented papers? And I may truly answer that they have 
 treated of practical efforts for the bettering of social conditions. 
 
 It is too soon to prognosticate 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 rightful posi- 
 tion in the active government of the church, and to the question, if men will 
 accord that position to her, my experience and that of the chairman of the 
 women's committees warrants us in answering an emphatic yes. Her 
 future in the Western churches is in her own hands, and the men of the 
 Eastern churches will be emboldened by the example of the Western to 
 return to their country and bid our sisters of those distant lands to go and 
 do likewise. 
 
 Woman has taken very literally Christ's command to feed the hungry, 
 clothe the naked, heal the sick, and to minister unto those who are in need 
 of such ministrations. As her influence and power increase, so also will her 
 zeal of good works. That the experiment of an equal presentation of men 
 and women in a parliament of religions has not been a failure I think can 
 be proved by the part taken by the women who have had the honor of 
 being called to participate in this great gathering. 
 
 I must now bear witness to the devotion, the unselfishness, and the zeal 
 of the chairman of every committee which has assisted in arranging these 
 programmes. I would that I had the time to name them one by one. 
 Their generous co-operation and unselfish endeavor are of those good 
 things, the memory of which is in this life a foreshadowing of how divine 
 is the principle of loyal co-operation in working for righteousness. 
 
 REV. AUGUSTA CHAPIN. 
 
 The past seventeen days have seemed to many of us the fulfillment of a 
 dream; nay, tbe fulfillment of a long-cherished prophecy. The seers of 
 olden time foretold a day whc n there should be concord, something like 
 what we have seen among el "nents before time discordant. 
 
 We have heard of the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and 
 the solidarity of the human race, until these great words and truths have 
 penetrated our minds and sunken into our hearts as never before. They 
 will henceforth have larger meaning. No one of us all but has been intel- 
 lectually strengthened and spiritually uplifted. We have been sitting 
 together upon the mountam of the Lord. We shall never descend to the 
 lower places where our feet have sometimes trodden in times past. I have 
 tried, as I have listened to these masterly addresses, to imagine what effect 
 this comparative study of religions would have upon the religious world 
 and upon individual souls that come directly under the sweep of its influ- 
 ence. It is not too much to hope that a great impulse has been given to 
 the cause of religious unity and to pure and undefiled religion in all lands. 
 
 We who welcomed now speed the parting guests. We are glad you 
 came, O wise men of the East. With your wise words, your large tolera- 
 tion, 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. 
 
 And we are glad, now that you are going to your far-away homes, to 
 tell the story of all that has been said and done here in this great parlia- 
 ment, and that you will thus bring the Orient into nearer relations with 
 the Occident, and make plain the sympathy which exists among all relig- 
 ions. We are glad for the words that have been spoken by the wise men 
 and women of the West, who have come and have given us their grains of 
 gold after the washing. What I said in the beginning I will repeat now at
 
 MRS= CHARLES HENROTIN. 
 Vice-President Woman's Braocb of the Auxiliary.
 
 SWAMl VIVEKANANDA
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 859 
 
 the ending of this parliament. It has been the greatest gathering ever 
 
 in the name of religion held on the face of this earth. 
 
 JULIA WARD HOWE. 
 
 Julia Ward Howe was introduced amid cheers and waving 
 of handkerchiefs. She said: 
 
 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 thankful- 
 ness 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 to-night. 
 
 BISHOP ARNETT. 
 
 It is an old saying, and true, that there is no road, however long, but by 
 continued marches you will find its end. We have come to the end of our 
 deliberations and are about to close one of the most historic meetings that 
 have ever occurred among the children of men. It was my pleasure and 
 privilege, at the meeting of the parliament, to welcome the delegates from 
 the different parts of the world to this historic city. We have met daily 
 and have formed friendships, and I trust they will be as strong as steel, as 
 pure as gold, and as lasting as eternity. I have never seen so large a body 
 of men meet together and discuss questions so vital with as little friction 
 as I have seen during this parliament. The watchword has been " tolera- 
 tion and fraternity," and shows what may or can be done when men assem- 
 ble in the proper spirit. 
 
 As was said 2,000 years ago, we have met together in one place and with 
 one accord, each seeking for the truth, each presenting his view of the 
 truth as he understands it. Each came with his own fund of information, 
 and now we separate, having gained information from each other on the 
 subject of God, mankind, and the future life. There is one thing that we 
 have all agreed upon — that is, that the source of the true, beautiful, and 
 the good is spirit, love, and light of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness. 
 
 Thus the unity of the spirituality of God is one thing that we have all 
 agreed upon. We have differed fis to how to approach Him and how to 
 receive His favor and blessing'. If the parliament has done nothing more, 
 it has furnished comparative theology with such material that in the future 
 there will be no question about the nature and attributes of God. The 
 great battle of the future will not be the Fatherhood of God nor that we 
 need a redeemer, mediator, or a model man between God and man. 
 
 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 Kev. 
 J. H. Barrows, for there is no one who has attended these meetings but 
 really believes that Christianity has lost nothing in the discussion, but 
 stands to-day 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 are just as pure as before our meeting, and every man and 
 woman has been confirmed in the faith once delivered to the saints. 
 
 Another good of this convention: It has taught us a lesson that while 
 we have truth on our side we have not had all the truth; while we have had
 
 860 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 theory we have not had all the practice, and the strongest criticism we 
 have received was not as to our doctrines or methods but as to our 
 practice not being in harmony with our own teachings and with our own 
 doctrines. 
 
 I believe that it will do good, not only to the dommant race but to the 
 race that I represent; it is a godsend, and from this meeting we believe 
 will go forth a sentiment that will right a great many of our wrongs and 
 lighten up the dark places and assist in giving us that which we are now 
 denied— the common privileges of humanity— for we find that in this con- 
 greso the majority of the people represented are of the darker races, which 
 will teach the American people that color is not the standard of excellency 
 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. 
 
 And now, to my brothers and friends of foreign lands, as I bade you 
 welcome, I now bid you good-by, and I assure you that your coming and 
 your staying have been a benediction to us. And I trust that you will feel 
 that your long travel has been fully repaid by the hospitality of the Amer- 
 ican people and what you have witnessed of the progress of our Christian 
 civilization. As you return to your homes be assured that loving hearts 
 will follow you with their prayers, that you may enjoy the blessings that 
 belong to mankind; and should we never meet again (which we never will 
 any more) may each of us so live and so conduct ourselves that our last 
 end may be one of peace and joy. I bid you, in the name of those I repre- 
 sent, a long and affectionate farewell. 
 
 ET. REV. DR. J. J. KEANE OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 Friends and Brethren : When, in the midst of the wise men who were 
 intrusted with the organizing of the Columbus celebration, Mr. Bonney 
 rose up and said that man meant more than things and proclaimed the 
 motto, " Not things but men, " people said. " Why, that is only a com- 
 monplace. Any man could think that." 
 
 " Yes," said Columbus, " any man could do that," when he put the egg 
 upon its end. Mr. Bonney proclaimed that motto. May it make him 
 immortal. 
 
 When in the midst of the men who, under the inspiration of that motto, 
 were organizing the congresses of the world. Dr. Barrows arose and pro- 
 claimed the grand idea that all the religions of the world should be brought 
 here together, men said: " It is impossible." He has done it, and may it 
 make his name immortal. 
 
 When the invitation to this parliament was sent to the old Catholic 
 Church and she was asked if she would come here, people said: "Will she 
 come?" And the old Catholic Church said: " Who has as good a right to 
 come to a parliament of all the religions of the world as the old Catholic 
 Universal Church? " 
 
 Then people said: " But if the old Catholic Church comes here, will she 
 find anybody else here?" And the old church said: "Even if she has to 
 stand alone on that platform, she will stand on it." 
 
 And the old church has come here, and she is rejoiced to meet her fellow- 
 men, her fellow -believers, her fellow-lovers of every shade of humanity and 
 every shade of creed. She is rejoiced to meet here the representatives of 
 the old religions of the world, and she says to them: 
 
 We leave here. We will go to our homes. We 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 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
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 861 
 
 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 hstened to to-night, 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." 
 
 REV. DR. JOHN HENRY BARROWS. 
 
 " In the midst of all these representatives of various faiths 
 and churches," said Mr. Bonney, "sits a Presbyterian minister 
 who has performed one of the greatest offices ever committed 
 to the hand of man — the unification of the world in the things 
 of religion. That man now comes to say his closing words to 
 this world's ParUament of Religions, and I have the honor to 
 present Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, chairman of the general 
 
 committee." He spoke as follows: 
 
 The closing hour of this parliament is one of congratulation, of tender 
 sorrow, of triumphant hopefulness. God has been better to us by far than 
 our fears, and no one has more occasion for gratitude than your chairman, 
 that he has been upheld and comforted by your cordial co-operation, by the 
 prayers of a great host of God's noblest men and women, and by the con- 
 sciousness of divine favor. 
 
 Our hopes have been more than realized. The sentiment which has 
 inspired this parliament has held us together. The principles in accord 
 with which this historic convention has proceeded have been put to the 
 test, and even strained at times, but they have not been inadequate. Toler- 
 ation, brotherly kindness, trust in each other's sincerity, a candid and 
 earnest seeking after the unities of religion, the honest purpose of each to 
 set forth his own faith without compromise and without unfriendly criti- 
 cism — these principles, thanks to your loyalty and courage, have not been 
 found wanting. 
 
 Men of Asia and Europe, we have been made glad by your coming and 
 have been made wiser. I am happy that you have enjoyed our hospital- 
 ities. 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 are in Chicago," and Dr. Momerie, with a char- 
 acteristic 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 w4iom 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. 
 
 Seventeen days ago there dawned in many hearts a new v/orld-con- 
 sciousness, a sense of universal brotherhood, and to this fact, in part, I 
 attribute it that this parliament of all the faiths has been marked by 
 less acrimonious discussion — although we have been separated by immense 
 doctrinal distances— than is often found in a single meeting of Christians 
 bearing the same doctrinal name. 
 
 Now that the parliament is over we almost wonder why it was not called 
 earlier in human history. When the general committee discovered that a 
 wondrous response followed their first appeals, that they struck a chord of 
 universal sympathy, they were firm in their determination to go forward, in 
 spite of ten thousand obstacles, and do what so many feared was 
 impracticable.
 
 862 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 1 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-gener- 
 ous appreciation and for the constant help which you have furnished in the 
 midst of my multiplied duties. Christian America sends her greetings 
 through you to all mankind. We cherish a broadened 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 universities of Europe, and in the 
 isles of all the seas, it is my prayer that non-Christian readers may, in some 
 measure, discover what has been the source and strength of that faith in 
 divine Fatherhood and human brotherhood which, embodied in an Asiatic 
 peasant who was the Son of God and made divinely potent through Him, is 
 clasping the globe with bands of heavenly light. 
 
 Most that is in my heart of love and gratitude and happy memory must 
 go unsaid. If any honor is due for this magnificent achievement, let it be 
 given to the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of love in the hearts of 
 those of many lands and faiths who have toiled for the high ends of this 
 great meeting. May the blessing of Him who rules the storm and holds 
 the ocean waves in His right hand, follow you, with the prayers of all God's 
 people, to your distant homes. And as Sir Joshua Reynolds closed his 
 lectures on " The Art of Painting " with the name of Michael Angelo, so, 
 with a deeper reverence, I desire that the last words which I speak to this 
 parliament shall be the name of Him to whom I owe life and truth and 
 hope and all things, who reconciles all contradictions, pacifies all antag- 
 onisms, and who, from the throne of His heavenly kingdom, directs the 
 serene and unwearied omnipotence of redeeming love — Jesus Christ, the 
 Savior of the world. 
 
 PRESIDENT BONNEY'S FAREWELL. 
 
 The closing speech of the evening was by Mr. Bonney: 
 
 Worshipers of God and Lovers of Man : The closing words of this 
 great event must now be spoken. With inexpressible 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 relig- 
 ious systems of the world in my youth, and have enjoyed an intimate asso- 
 ciation 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 occa- 
 sion arose it was gladly welcomed and the effort more than willingly made. 
 
 What men deemed impossible, God has finally wrought. The religions 
 of the world have actually met in a great and imposing assembly; they 
 have conferred together on the vital questions of life and immortality in a 
 frank and friendly spirit, and now they part in peace with many warm 
 expressions of mutual affection and respect. 
 
 The laws of the congress, forbidding controversy or attack, have, on the 
 whole, been wonderfully observed. The exceptions are so few that they may 
 well be expunged from the record and from the memory. They even served 
 the useful purpose of timely warnings against the tendency to indulge in 
 intellectual conflict. If an unkind hand threw a fire-brand into the assem- 
 bly, let us be thankful that a kinder hand plunged it in the waters of for- 
 giveness and quenched its flame. 
 
 If some Western warrior, forgetting for the moment that this was a 
 friendly conference and not a battlefield, uttered his warcry, let us rejoice, 
 our Orient friends, that a kinder spirit answered: " Father, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they say."
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF THE PARLIAMENT. 863 
 
 No Bystem ot faith or worship has been compromised by this friendly 
 conference; no apostle of any religion has been placed in a false position 
 by any act of this congress. The knowledge hero acquired will be carried, 
 by those who have gained it, as precious treasure to their respective coun- 
 tries, and will there, in freedom and according to reason, be considered, 
 judged, and applied as they shall deem right. 
 
 The influence which this Congress of the Religions of the World will 
 exert on the peace and the prosperity of the world is beyond the power of 
 human language to describe. For this influence, borne by those who have 
 attended the sessions of the Parliament of Religions to all parts of the 
 world, will affect in some important degree all races of men, all forms of 
 religion, and even all governments and social institutions. 
 
 And now, farewell. A thousand congratulations and thanks for the 
 co-operation 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 throvighout the world who worship God and love their 
 fellowmen join in the anthem of the angels: 
 
 Glory to God In the highest ! 
 
 Peace on earth, good will among men ! 
 
 At the close of President Bonney's speech Rabbi Hirsch led 
 the great audience in the universal prayer. Bishop Keane 
 then said a prayer of benediction, and the vast audience slowly 
 dispersed, ending probably the most remarkable convocation in 
 the world's history.
 
 JOHN W. POSTGATE, 
 
 In Charge Chicago Herald Report.
 
 PART III. 
 
 DENOMINATIONAL CONGRESSES. 
 
 While the main interest of the religious world was centered 
 about the great Parliament of Religions, there were other 
 meetings at the Art Institute which demanded more than pass- 
 ing attention. The aim of the organizers was to have a pres- 
 entation of the faith and creeds of every denomination in 
 Christendom as well as expositions of the beliefs of peoples 
 and sects outside its pale. Arrangements were made therefore 
 to hold denominational congresses which should precede and 
 follow, as well as run parallel with, the Parliament of Religions. 
 Begianing on Sunday, August 27th, forty-one separate con- 
 gresses were held up to the close of the series on Sunday, 
 October 15th, Almost every conceivable form of worship and 
 faith was represented by these gatherings, which were attended, 
 not only by their own followers, but by a large number of 
 seekers after truth. 
 
 Before the Parliament of Religions was called to order on 
 September 11th, there were held the Jewish Church Congress, 
 the Lutheran Greneral Council, the Congress of Wales, the 
 Evangelical Lutheran Congress, the Columbian Catholic Con- 
 gress, the Congress of Colored Catholics, the Congress of 
 Jewish Women, the German Catholic Young Men's Guilds, 
 the Societies of St. Vincent de Paul, the Catholic Benevolent 
 Legion, the Catholic Young Men's National Union, the Cath- 
 olic Press, the Reunion of the Students of the American Col- 
 lege of Louvain, the German Catholic Young Men's Guild, 
 and the Catholic Young Men's Societies. All of these
 
 see THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 congresses were largely attended and the proceedings of each 
 were characterized by great zeal and earnestness. In many 
 instances the subjects discussed were afterward presented to the 
 Parliament of Keligions in the form of special essays and 
 addresses. Indeed, as already set forth, the great parliament 
 covered almost every form of religious thought and expression 
 current in the world. In this way interest was kept alive, and 
 the labors of the denominational congresses amply supple- 
 mented. 
 
 During the progress of the Parliament of Religions itself, 
 contemporaneous conventions were held by the following 
 bodies: The Congregational Church, the Lutheran General 
 Synod, the Universalist Church, the Catholic Church, the Dis- 
 ciples of Christ, the New Jerusalem Church, the United Breth- 
 ren Church, the Advent Christian Church, the Reformed Epis- 
 copal Church, the Lutheran Women, the Theosophists, the 
 Seventh Day Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the 
 Sunday-School Union, the Friends' Societies, the Unitarian 
 Church, the Evangelical Association, the Free Religious Asso- 
 ciation, the Christian Scientists, the Reformed Church of the 
 United States, the Reformed (Dutch) Church, the Friends' 
 Orthodox Church, the King's Daughters and Sons, and Inter- 
 national Board of Women's Christian Associations, the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor Society, the African Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, the German Evangelical Synod of North America, 
 the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant, the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the 
 Evolutionists, and the International Board of Women's Chris- 
 tian Associations. 
 
 On Thursday, September 28tli, the day after the close of the 
 Parliament of Religions, the Sunday-Rest Congress began, 
 and following came the Congress of Missions, the Ethical Con- 
 gress, the Congress of Woman's Missions, the Young Women's 
 Christian Association, and for eight days the Evangelical 
 Alliance was in session, closing this vast series of World's 
 Religious Congresses on Sunday evening, October 15th.
 
 GEO, R. DAVIS, 
 
 Director-General World's Columbian Exposition.
 
 JEWISH CHURCH CONGRESS. 8«7 
 
 It is not our purpose in this review to set forth the proceed- 
 ings of these various congresses in detail. We shall content 
 ourselves with a brief resume of their leading features, giving 
 wherever possible the presentation of faith of each as submitted 
 from the respective platforms. No such series of religious 
 meetings was ever before held in the world, and their effect on 
 religious thought and life can not be over-estimated. The best 
 and most earnest men and women of each denomination attended 
 the various sessions, and the papers offered for consideration 
 contained valuable information and suggestions regarding the 
 Qiodes of worship and belief under review. Indeed these 
 congresses were scarcely second in importance to the great 
 Parliament of Religions itself. As heretofore explained, many 
 of the topics formed the subject of learned deliberation in the 
 parliament, and will be found fully elucidated in the report of 
 the proceedings of that eminent body. 
 
 JEWISH CHURCH CONGRESS. 
 
 The Congress of the Jewish Church occupied four days. It 
 opened in the Hall of Columbus on Sunday, August 27th, with 
 a large number of Jews present from all parts of the United 
 States, Canada, and Europe. Among those assembled on the 
 platform were Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago, Rabbi I. L.' 
 Leucht of New Orleans, Rabbi Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati, 
 Rabbi G. Gottheil and Rabbi K. Kohler of New York. C. C. 
 Bonney, President of the World's Congress Auxiliary, delivered 
 a pleasing address of welcome, to which Dr. Hirsch replied in 
 the name of the Jews of Chicago. Rabbi Wise and Rabbi 
 Gottheil also made brief responses. Then the Congress settled 
 down to a consideration of topics of especial interest to the 
 church and its congregations. Rabbi Kohler delivered an elo- 
 . quent address on "The Synagogue and the Church, and Their 
 Mutual Relations with Reference to Their Ethical Teachings." 
 Throughout his address Dr. Kohler paid beautiful tributes to 
 Jesus as a man, but combated the claim of His being the
 
 868 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Savior of mankind. He said that 1600 years of persecution 
 had not been able to destroy Judaism, which remained a living 
 vital force in the world, because it was founded on an inde- 
 structible system. 
 
 At the evening session of the first day, Rabbi Wise spoke on 
 the fundamental doctrine of Judaism, and Rabbi Joseph Silver- 
 man of New York addressed the Congress on popular errors 
 about the Jews. He pointed out that dense ignorance exists 
 regarding the social and domestic life of the Jews, as well as 
 their history, their literature, their achievements and disap- 
 pointments, their religion, their ideals and hopes. He regretted 
 this ignorance, and said that none is more desirous of fraternity 
 than the Jew, but he will not gain it at the loss of his man- 
 hood. He will not accept fraternity as a patronage, but would 
 rather claim it as a simple matter of equality. That, said the 
 Rabbi, is a point which our critics and detractors do not under- 
 stand. He held, further, that the Jew is tolerant by nature, as 
 well as by virtue of his religious teaching. The Jew believes 
 in allowing every man what he claims for himself — the right 
 to work out his own salvation and make his own peace with God. 
 
 On the second day other subjects of deep interest to the 
 Jewish Church and people were discussed. Rabbi Moses of 
 Chicago presided over the morning session, which was held 
 in one of the small halls. Rabbi Charles Levy of Cincinnati 
 sent an address on " Ethics of the Talmud," which was read 
 by Prof. M. Millziner of the Union Hebrew Club. The paper 
 was a scholarly review of the Talmud, and showed that there is 
 quite a marked similarity between the ethical teachings of that 
 rabbinical compilation and those of the Bible. He also 
 defended the Talmudic literature against the accusations some- 
 times made by Christian teachers, that it is illiberal in its 
 teachings. He claimed that it teaches the duties of man to 
 man without distinction of creeds or races, and in some 
 instances it reminds us that the duties of justice and charity 
 are to be fulfilled to all the heathens as well as the Israelites. 
 The liberal spirit of the Talmudic ethies is evidenced in one
 
 JEWISH CHURCH CONGRESS. 869 
 
 sentence; " The pious and virtuous of all nations participate in 
 the eternal bliss." 
 
 Rabbi S. Sale of St. Louis, read an interesting paper on 
 " Contributions of the Jews to the Preservation of the Sciences 
 of the Middle Ages," in which he showed how, in that dark 
 period of the world's history, the Jews held aloft the torch of 
 learning and carried along into later modern life the traditional 
 sciences of Greece and Rome and of the Arabs. At the after- 
 noon session the subject for discussion was "What Organized 
 Forces Can Do for Judaism," and the addresses were: "A 
 Jewish Department of the Chautauqua," by Rabbi H. Berko- 
 witz, Philadelphia; "A Union of Young Israel," by S. C. 
 Eldridge, Jefferson, Texas; "A Jewish Publication Society," 
 by Miss Henrietta Szold, Philadelphia. At the evening meet- 
 ing the exercises included an interesting address on " Rever- 
 ence and Rationalism," by Dr. M. H. Harris of New York; a 
 paper on " The Position of Women Among the Jews," by 
 Rabbi Sale of St. Louis, and a valuable contribution on Bible 
 criticism by Dr. Hirscli. 
 
 Three sessions were held on the following day. Rabbi Joseph 
 Stolz of Chicago presiding. Rabbi Gr. Deutsch of Cincinnati 
 gave an interesting review of the history of the Jews as it 
 relates to the culture of the various ages of nations. " The 
 Attitude of Judaism to the Sciences of Comparative Religions " 
 was discussed by Rabbi L. Grossman of Detroit, and Rabbi C. 
 H. Levy of Lancaster considered " Universal Ethics According 
 to Prof. Stienthal." 
 
 During the afternoon session Dr. A. Moses of Louisville, 
 Ky.j gave an interesting definition of Heathenism; Rabbi 
 Hecht of Milwaukee urged the advisability of a Sabbath 
 School Union, and Rabbi Felsenthal spoke on " The Study 
 of Past Biblical History." The evening session was devoted to 
 the consideration of the question, " What Organized Forces 
 Can Do for the Jewish Poor and Jewish Emigrants." 
 
 The concluding sessions of the congress on August 30th, 
 were equally interesting. Rabbi Schwab of St. Joseph, Mo.,
 
 870 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 reviewed the Messianic idea of the Jews from the earliest times 
 to the rise of Christianity, and another interesting paper on 
 the "Genius of the Talmud" was presented by one of the 
 learned rabbis. Taken altogether, the Congress of the Jewish 
 Church was an interesting and inspiring event. It seemed 
 meet that the oldest faith, the forerunner of Christianity, 
 should usher in a series of world's religious congresses 
 designed to promote the spiritual welfare of mankind. 
 
 CONGRESS OF JEWISH WOMEN. 
 
 Representative Jewish women from all parts of the United 
 States and a number of their sisters of the Christian faith met 
 in the large statuary-room of ihe Art Institute on Monday 
 morning, September 5th. Mrs. Henry Solomon presided, and 
 after the usual opening exercises Mrs. Charles Henrotin of 
 Chicago delivered an appropriate address of welcome. Mrs. 
 Solomon, in her opening remai-ks, said it was a new departure 
 for the Jewish woman to occupy herself with matters of the 
 kind represented by this congress, but she felt that in the 
 great parliament of all creeds the Jewish woman should have 
 a place. 
 
 The first feature of the programme was a poem entitled 
 "White Day of Peace," written by Mrs. Miriam del Banco. 
 The leading sentiment of the poem was the gratitude of the 
 Jewish people for the haven of rest they had found in the 
 New World, and their pure devotion to the principles of liberty 
 on which the American Republic is found. Mrs. Louise Man- 
 he Imer of Cincinnati contributed a paper portraying the 
 Jewish woman of biblical and medieval days. This was fol- 
 lowed by an address on modern Jewish women, prepared by 
 Mrs. Helen Kahn Weil of Kansas City. These papers led to a 
 brief discussion by Mrs. Henry Frank of Chicago, Rev. Dr. 
 Kohler of New York, and Di. Hirsch of Chicago. An inter- 
 esting incident of the session was an address by Mrs. Isabella 
 Beecher Hooker, who, after expressing her deep admiration for
 
 CONGRESS OF JEWISH WOMEN, 871 
 
 the people of the Jewish race, concluded with the following 
 remarks, which were received with many tokens of approval: 
 
 I believe you are, through these great financiers of yours, yet to return 
 to Jerusalem and hold i^; as the golden city. I have always wished that I 
 had a drop of this Jewish blood in my veins, and if this wish has been with 
 me all these years, you may imagine how greatly it is emphasized when I 
 hear these words and see these women. I will have to be content to envy. 
 
 One of the most interesting papers presented was on the 
 
 " Influence of the Discovery of America on the Jews," by 
 
 Mrs. Pauline H. Kosenburg. She set forth that at the time of 
 
 the discovery of America the Jews were suffering under the 
 
 yoke of oppression in the countries of the Old World. They 
 
 hailed America as a haven of peace, but even in America the 
 
 problem of religious freedom had to be worked out. Religious 
 
 intolerance was for a long time prevalent among all people on 
 
 the shores of the New World, and the dangerous experiment of 
 
 forcing conviction was often tried. But in time these clouds 
 
 were dispelled, and America became the opportunity of all the 
 
 oppressed. In conclusion, Mrs. Rosenburg said: 
 
 Nowhere to-day can we find as happy a working class and as comfort- 
 able a middle class as in this country, and that which is the generality of 
 the nation is true of her Jews. It has been said that "each country has 
 the Jews it deserves." The American Jews to-day, except refugees that 
 have fled to America in recent years to escape Russian oppression, hold 
 positions of responsibility and influence, and are persons of culture. They 
 mingle freely with the general population, and, except in the matter of 
 religious belief, are fully grafted in that population. And although we occa- 
 sionally hear of a wave of anti-semiticism in a civilized country, such a 
 movement can never become general nor endure for any length of time. 
 The future of the Jews in America, judging from the achievements of the 
 past, is bright with promise. 
 
 This congress continued four days, and the proceedings were 
 marked with great fervor. Among those who took a leading 
 part in the exercises were Miss Esther Witkowsky of Chicago, 
 Miss Julia Richman of New York, Miss Sadie Leopold of 
 Chicago, Miss Rebecca Lesem of Quincy, Miss Julia Cohen 
 of Philadelphia, Miss Julia Felsenthal, Miss Cora Wilburn of 
 Marshfield, Mass.; Mrs. Eva Storm of New York, Mrs. Carl 
 Stevenson Benjamin, Miss Bamber of Boston, Mrs. Blighton 
 Safed of Constantinople. It was regarded as significant that 
 the proceedings were watched with the deepest concern by men 
 and women not of the house of Israel. Archbishop Ireland
 
 872 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 was warmly commended for the liberal spirit he displayed in 
 attending one of the evening meetings and leading the discus- 
 sion on the subject of Jewish persecution. Before the con- 
 gress adjourned a permanent organization was formed, under 
 the title of " The National Council of Jewish Women." Mrs. 
 H. Solomon was elected president; Mrs. E. Mandel, vice- 
 president; Mrs. America, corresponding secretary; Miss L. 
 Wolf, recording secretary, and Mrs. H. Selz, treasurer. 
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH CONGRESSES. 
 
 The Lutheran Church had accorded it the liberty of at least 
 four distinct congresses during the month of September. The 
 General Council, together with the Norwegian United Synod, 
 held theirs on the 2d; the Missouri Synod on the 3d; the Gen- 
 eral Synod on the 11th and 12th, and the Lutheran Women on 
 the 14th and 15th. Some of these gatherings were very large, 
 notably those on the evening of thellth, the 14th, and especially 
 that of Sunday the 3d, when at least 6,000 persons filled both 
 Columbus and Washington Halls. The singing on some occa- 
 sions was by choirs of hundreds, well drilled in choruses and 
 Luther's great " Battle Hymn," " A Mighty Fortress Is Our 
 God." One of the most impressive events was the response from 
 representative women from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Den- 
 mark, Iceland, India, and Finland. The addresses of cordial 
 welcome were made by the Hon. C. C. Bonney and Mrs. Chas. 
 Henrotin. 
 
 The kinship of the Lutheran Church with the reformation 
 of the 16th century influenced it in the belief that there 
 is a peculiar propriety in holding such a congress by the 
 Church of the Reformation on soil discovered by Christopher 
 Columbus. Columbus and Luther were cotemporaries, and 
 Providential co-workers, only differing in this, that, whilst the 
 one discovered a new continent, the other provided for it the 
 elements of its glorious liberty. When Columbus was making 
 his famous voyages to America, which were destined to revolu-
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH CONGRESSES. 873 
 
 tionize the sciences of geography, commerce, and civil govern, 
 ment, Martin Luther, at Eisenach, Magdeberg, and Erfurt, was 
 storing his mind with that liberal education and those prin- 
 ciples of individual liberty of judgment which disenthralled 
 Europe and eventually gave the land of Columbus its unpar- 
 alleled liberty and the greatest republic the world ever saw. 
 
 The movement inaugurated by the Reformer stood out in 
 bold contrast with other events then and since. Within one 
 week of 'when Mohammed's rule overthrew the freedom of the 
 Mameluke power in Egypt, Luther nailed upon the castle 
 church of Wittenberg those " Theses," the echo of whose 
 hammer sound struck the long silent chord of freedom in all 
 Europe, and at the time when such men as Francis I., Henry 
 VIII., and Charles V. lield the scepter of the great nations of 
 the age, and on the very day when Cortez conquered Monte- 
 zuma and placed Mexico under Spanish Roman rule, there was 
 enacted at Worms a scene which forever checked arrogant 
 supremacy over human liberty, and which, as Carlyle says, 
 '' Was the great point from which the whole subsequent history 
 of civilization takes its rise." These events laid the founda- 
 tion of our civil liberty, and Lutherans, therefore, took a special 
 pride in this Columbian anniversary. 
 
 Prof. E. J. Wolf, D. D., of Gettysburg, Pa., who addressed 
 one of the meetings upon " The Place of the Lutheran Church 
 in History," maintained that " with this church, as the first 
 army that waged successful battle with Rome, modern history 
 has its birth." There never was an earthly power so nearly 
 absolute, so nearly omnipotent. It was the supreme temporal 
 and spiritual authority, it held in subjection men's bodies and 
 their souls, it was sovereign over reason and conscience, it held 
 in subjection the most powerful monarch as well as the 
 most abject slave. At last its power is shaken and shattered 
 from one end of Europe to the other, its dominion is torn to 
 pieces, its rule is repudiated, its fulminations are answered 
 with defiance and its yoke falls from the neck of millions. 
 This i"esult was achieved by a company of earnest believers
 
 874 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 who had experienced that salvation is a free gift, that Christ 
 atoned for all actual sins of men, and that the sinner is justi- 
 fied by faith alone. Thus darkness vanished before the rising 
 sun. It was a revolution that contained the germ and pledge 
 of every advance that society has made in four hundred 
 years. 
 
 The men who were God's instruments in achieving this 
 result, were styled " Lutherans," and the church constituted 
 by their administration of word and sacrament was Called in 
 derision the " Lutheran Church." This church gave birth to 
 other communions. She is the mother of Protestantism. Dr. 
 Schaff says, her confession " struck the key-note to the other 
 evangelical confessions." The Lutheran Church is the great 
 mediating power between ancient and modern Christianity. 
 She set forth again the primitive doctrines of the cross, and 
 did not unnecessarily destroy the heritage of liturgy, song, and 
 service. The Lutherans have been censured for their failure 
 to attack and overthrow monarchy and subvert despotism in 
 the state when overthrowing it in the church. Luther and 
 his co-laborers fearlessly announced principles which shook 
 absolutism to its inmost center. Instead of resorting to brute 
 force and invoking the slaughter of rulers for the triumph of 
 principles, they showed their transcendent faith in the power 
 of ideas, and having emancipated the eternal truths which 
 underlie all civil liberty, tliey were content to leave their 
 development to their own inherent energy. 
 
 The Lutheran Church took the lead in missions among the 
 heathen. Though the principal Lutheran countries were not 
 given to maritime pursuits and had no colonies, yet through 
 the intervention of the Danish government two Lutheran mis- 
 sionaries, Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau, proceeded to India in 
 the year 1704, antedating by one hundred years the missionary 
 movements of other Protestant communions excepting only the 
 Moravians, She was the first, through the Swedes, to colonize 
 this country in the interests of missions. When there is added 
 to these things the fact that the spiritual and ethical power of
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH CONGRESSES. STJ 
 
 the principles and doctrines of the Lutheran Church are of the 
 highest order of fruits, and that it is the church of culture and 
 schools, we may have a conception of the leading place this 
 communion has in civil, social, and religious history. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. H. W. Roth of Chicago, gave also an account 
 of the immigrations of several centuries ago and later on, and 
 pictured the scenes of endurance, development in character, and 
 the growth of churches until now. The denomination numbers 
 in population in America eight or ten millions. 
 
 Prof. R. F. Weidner, D. D., of Chicago, spoke on the 
 "Essential Qualifications of Luther for His Work as Reformer." 
 He said the immortal Luther is not ^.-ead and not understood by 
 those who know only of the "Table Talk" and some of his 
 letters and some sayings falsely ascribed to him. He was a 
 profound student, wrote commentaries of the most profound 
 character, translated the Bible into the language of the people, 
 itself a work for a score of men, and produced various literary 
 and theological works of the first order, and had the fullest 
 experience of the power of truth in the heart and life. He 
 was said to be gentle and never overbearing in private life and 
 among his friends. The severe language of the times he used 
 in disputations when his assailants challenged and evoked it. 
 His language in the Bible translation has made the language 
 of the nation, and is unsurpassed by poet, historian, or philos- 
 opher. 
 
 Prof. S. F. Breckenridge, D. D., Springfield, Ohio, read a 
 paper on the " Relation of the Church to Higher Criticism." 
 The Lutheran Church, he said, holds unmistakably, in its con- 
 fessional standards, that the " Scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testament are the word of God, and constitute the only infal- 
 lible rule of faith and practice." All creeds and opinions must 
 be judged by the word which was given through the instru- 
 mentality of men who wrote as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost. Though rationalism had swept over Germany once, it 
 may be doubtful whether any professor who taught it could be 
 called Lutheran, and it is also true that through this church
 
 87G THE PARLIAMENT OF EfELIGIONS. 
 
 the myth-theories have been annihilated. The method of dis- 
 pelling the dark clouds of heresy has not been to " try men 
 for heresy," but to place by the side of error the bright light 
 of ti-uth. 
 
 Confining the study now to the Pentateuch, it is to be said, 
 the higher critics deny the " traditional view " that these five 
 books were written by Moses, the inspired law-giver and 
 prophet of God. Including the book of Joshua with the 
 Pentateuch, the "critics" hold that these as a whole are a 
 compilation of four documents, none of which was extant until 
 many centuries after the death of Moses. The theories and 
 discussions are almost entirely based on internal circumstances 
 in differences of words and phrases, style, legislation, concep- 
 tions of Grod and His providences, all of which differences it is 
 presumed are proof against the unity of authorship. It is not 
 known that any professor or teacher in the Lutheran colleges 
 and seminaries of this country have ever held or taught any- 
 thing: but the traditional view that the authors of these books 
 were they to whom the books themselves ascribe the authorship. 
 
 When once the ever-varying differences of the critics are 
 settled, when their theories agree, when they can fix their 
 hitherto fluctuating dates, and the like, then there will be time 
 to have any serious fears about the soundness of the old 
 and Scriptural view. It is said " and Moses wrote this law," 
 and like expressions are not to be set aside as having been 
 fraudulent for thousands of years, and now only discovered in 
 this late day. A few additions were certainly made, such as 
 the record of the death of Moses, but the books as a whole are 
 regarded by the Lutheran Church, in harmony with the views 
 of the universal Christian and Jewish church as far back as 
 history can be ti'aced, as historic narratives. 
 
 The great doctrine of a "standing or falling church," justi- 
 fication by faith, was treated 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
 
 ^^. 
 
 -••^ig* .i^?* 
 
 REV. L. M. HEILMAN, D. D., 
 Chairman Committee of Lutheran Coni?Tess.
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH CONGRESSES. 7 
 
 men through the means of grace, to-wit, the gospel and the 
 sacraments, the only means on our part of obtaining forgive- 
 ness of sins and salvation is that faith which accepts of the 
 promise of God. All works and worthiness of our own are 
 entirely excluded as a means of obtaining remission of sins or 
 justification. The assertion that conversion and salvation 
 depends not only upon the grace of God, but to some extent 
 also on the conduct of man, overthrows the article of justifi- 
 cation, destroys the essential character of the Christian 
 religion, and places it on equal footing with the heathen 
 religions. Hence, there is no co-operation on the part of man 
 toward conversion, but man is only the object that is to be 
 converted." The natural man is dead in sin, in enmity against 
 God, and can not be obedient or subject to the holy law of God. 
 The Lutheran doctrine upon divine predestination is not 
 Arminian, but a middle ground between Arminianism and 
 Calvinism. It holds to the doctrine of eternal election, but 
 rejects that of a limited atonement and of the preterition or 
 predestination to death. 
 
 The address of Dr. C. Jensen of Brecklum, Germany, set 
 forth the nature and duty of the Christian ministry. Men are 
 needed who have thoroughly grounded convictions of truth, 
 and who have themselves deeply experienced the power of sav- 
 ing truth. The polity of the Lutheran Church government is 
 in principle congregational. The people elect their own officers 
 at stated times, and choose also their own pastors. The min- 
 istry as an office is held to be divine, but the church calls and 
 ordains the ministers. There is among the ministry a parity 
 of office — no one having a higher call than another. The real 
 and only ecclesiastical authority or power is the word of God. 
 The idea of priesthood is utterly rejected. The doctrine of 
 ordination is that it is not a divine ordinance. The sacraments 
 are not held out as a priestly sacrifice. There is in these the 
 presence and communication of divine grace, but no gross 
 conception of the presence of Christ's body and blood, and the 
 changing of the elements of bread and wine in any sense from
 
 878 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 bread and wine. Here is no sacrifice or worship by the ele- 
 ments and conducted as by priests. The administering of 
 baptism is not a certainty of salvation to the baptized. 
 
 On the deaconess' work in the church, Dr. G. U. Wenner of 
 New York City gave a statement of the modern origin of 
 deaconesses' houses to be from Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, 1836, 
 under the Lutheran pastor, Fliedner. Luther had recom- 
 mended women as teachers of the young, comforters of the 
 afflicted, and wished that for general pastoral work he had 
 deaconesses as Chrysomtom had in Constantinople, and as Paul 
 even had. In the church the office had fallen into disuse long 
 before Luther's day, through the system of nunneries. The 
 sisters connected with the General Conference of Kaiserswerth 
 in 1861 were 1,197 in 27 houses and 2 fields of labor. In 
 1891 there were 8,478 sisters in 63 houses and 2,774 stations. 
 A few of these are in this country, a few in each of the 
 countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and England, but 
 the greatest number are in Germany, and are mostly Lutheran. 
 Their work is among the sick in hospitals and in homes, 
 the insane, the poor, the houseless and fallen, and in the gen- 
 eral work of leading souls to Christ. The office is regarded 
 not as a mere temporal one, but a divine ministry. No vows 
 are taken, so that those who enter this service can retire from 
 it at any time. The General Synod in this country is sending 
 young ladies for training in the work to Kaiserswerth. 
 
 The questions of education were considered by Prof. E. F. 
 Bartholomew of Rock Island, who maintained the necessity of 
 taking up larger enterprises in the way of colleges. Prof. H. 
 Sauer, Fort Wayne, Ind., said: " We love this our country, and 
 therefore love our parochial schools." He advocates that the 
 fuller and truer manhood is educated when the young have 
 religious training along with their secular and classic. It may 
 be said that probably 300,000 English speaking Lutheran 
 communicants in America have no parochial schools. 
 
 "The Church Should Be Entirely Free from State and 
 State from Church Control," was the title of the address of
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH CONGRESSES. 879 
 
 Prof. A. Crull of Fort Wayne, lud. " The Rite of Confirmation 
 and the Work of Oatechisation," was discussed by Bev. J. N, 
 Kildahl, The teaching of the catechism, he said, is meant to 
 be but an enforcement of the teachings of scripture, the heart 
 is to be reached, the young are taught the necessity of a con- 
 verted life, and to bear fruits of regeneration, and by this 
 course of instruction are to be made intelligent as to the 
 duties of a church life. The results of this mode of receiving 
 the young into church membership are fully as successful as, 
 if not more so than, many other methods. Confirmation itself 
 is only a human ordinance, is not material, excepting that it is 
 a mode of publicly avowing the doctrines and duties of the 
 Christian religion. 
 
 " The Press in the Lutheran Church " was the theme of 
 Rev. Dr. V. L; Conrad, editor of the Lutheran Observer, 
 Philadelphia. There are in this country fifty-three English 
 Lutheran periodicals, fifty German, sixteen Norwegian, sixteen 
 Swedish, four Danish, one Icelandic, three Finnish, and one 
 French. 
 
 Dr. Stoecker, former court preacher at Berlin, speaking in 
 German, gave an account of the relation between " The People 
 of the Reformation on This Side and That Side of the Sea." He 
 thinks Germany is " seeking now too many new things." The 
 old gospel and its old methods should be adhered to steadily. 
 
 Speaking for the " Fifty Years of Sound Lutheranism " in 
 the Missouri Synod, Prof. A. Graebner of St. Louis set forth 
 the merit of his own synod since its organization in 1846. 
 They believe in a Lutheran pulpit for Lutheran ministers only, 
 and a Lutheran altar for Lutheran communicants only; yet 
 they do hold that there are also God's children in other 
 churches whom they esteem. They educate and catechise their 
 young, discuss doctrines in their synods and conferences, and 
 so train the laity to be able to vote on the fitness of men for 
 ordination. 
 
 On the " Sights, Scenes, and Life Among the Scandinavian 
 Peoples " Rev. Dr. M. W. Hamma of Baltimore gave, not only
 
 880 TBE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 pictures of the charming country, but of the noble people in 
 all ages and stages of life, and showed how the hardy race 
 there had superior character in honesty and industry, and in 
 their life as Lutheran church people they displayed a degree of 
 piety and fidelity that puts beyond all doubt that no mission- 
 aries need be sent there. These people themselves send mis- 
 sionaries to foreign fields. In Iceland, where all are Lutherans, 
 of the whole population of 75,000 there is not a fallen woman. 
 The young are taught, before confirmation, to be able to con- 
 duct family worship. 
 
 The mission fields, both home and foreign, were represented 
 in the Women's Congress. Dr. Anna Kugler of Guntoor, 
 India, gave some wholesome words which disproved the claims 
 made by Brahman and Buddhist priests and Mohammedans for 
 morality and benevolence. "The Mission of the Lutheran 
 Church in America " was discussed by the Rev. Dr. E. K. 
 Belle of Cincinnati. He said the Saxons have come to stay. 
 They are coming here with their virtues of industry and their 
 manuals of devotion. They of old conquered Rome and 
 England. They are crowding our land and are noble citizens. 
 The few loud-talking Anarchists in our cities do not represent 
 the people. The Lutheran Church has wealth, and within her 
 hand the greatest field and prospects of any and all com- 
 munions in the land. There is liberty and happy faith in the 
 church ; it has not been unf elt in the issues of temperance in 
 the West; it is the church of the people, in fact as well as in 
 polity. It needs but self-denial and loyalty in its members, 
 and the work and mission assigned it by Providence will be 
 successfully achieved. 
 
 Rev. Dr. S. B. Barnitz, Secretary of the Board of Home 
 Missions, told of the numerous calls for more missionaries. 
 The statistics of " Lutheranism in All Lands," were given by 
 Rev. J. N. Lenker, Secretary of the Board of Church Exten- 
 sion. 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 charches,
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH CONGRESSES. 881 
 
 2,030,000 baptized members, 3,100 parochial schools, and 171 
 deaconesses; in Norway, 869 ministers, 960 churches, 2,010,000 
 baptized members; in Sweden, 2,541 ministers, 2,51-4 churches, 
 4,764,000 baptized members. Total in Europe, including 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 ministers, 109 churches, and 114,350 members, 756 
 parochial schools, and 42 deaconesses; in Africa, 328 ministers, 
 256 churches, 100,863 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 members, 90 schools; in Greenland, United 
 States and Canada, and West Indies, 5,120 ministers, 9,135 
 churches, 7,012,500 members, 2,513 schools, and 65 deacon- 
 esses. The grand total in the world shows 30,346 ministers, 
 42,877 churches, 52,850,660 baptized members, 94,017 paro- 
 chial schools, and 7,853 deaconesses. 
 
 The Columbiad written by Rev. Dr. M. Sheeliegh, Fort 
 Washington, Pa., closes thus: 
 
 What glory yet for thee awaits 
 
 When blends thy polyglottic host, 
 
 As faith the more to life translates, 
 
 And farther shine thy temple gates 
 
 For God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 
 Rev. Lee M. Heilman of Chicago thus summarizes the pres- 
 entation of the Lutheran Congresses: 
 
 1. The Lutheran Church has been in America for more 
 than two and a half centuries, and has had its hand eminently 
 in achieving our noble liberties. 
 
 2. This church has fostered popular and higher education. 
 
 3. This church is misunderstood by many to be much like 
 the Romish. 
 
 Though it has in many places considerable of a liturgical 
 service, it is the farthest possible removed from any doctrines 
 or practices of priestly power, and is really "low church " in 
 its polity, since the laity elect their officers, and call, and, in
 
 882 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 principle, ordain the ministry — the only authority in the 
 church being the divine word. 
 
 It is not true that it holds the Romish view of Baptismal 
 Regeneration, but rather teaches that, through baptism, grace is 
 offered, and that children presented to God thereby are received 
 into His favor? 
 
 As to the Lord's Supper, the oft-repeated assertion by men 
 and in books that the Lutheran Church holds the doctrine of 
 Consubstantiation or nearly Tran substantiation is also utterly 
 untrue. The elements of bread and wine are not regarded as 
 changed at all. Even the strictest adherents to all the confes- 
 sional standards deny, and all Lutheran theologians have always 
 denied, any belief in the physical or local presence of Christ, 
 in the Lord's Supper, as circumscribed by space. The receiv- 
 ing of the body and blood of Christ is entirely separated from 
 every idea of a gross or carnal presence or physical eating, but 
 is held to be of a supernatural, spiritual, and incomprehensible 
 presence of the glorious Lord. 
 
 Catechisation may be abused as other good methods are, but 
 it is the means of thorough systematic Bible instruction, and 
 the Word has been blessed by the Spirit to the upbuilding of 
 young Christians in faith and character, has led the unbeliev- 
 ing to the truth, and made intelligent Christians of the church 
 membership. 
 
 Confirmation is only a human rite and a solemn mode of unit- 
 ing outwardly with the church. Of the doctrine of the Sabbath, 
 Luther clearly adhered, and the confessions, understood in the 
 light of the circumstances, and most eminent theologians and 
 synods, adhere to the divine and perpetual obligation of the 
 Lord's day. 
 
 So in this Columbian anniversary it may be repeated that 
 the confession of the Lutheran Church, while other confessions 
 have hung in the balance, has continued to hold its place in 
 Protestantism, and stands to-day, strong as Gibraltar, heralding 
 the old life-giving and liberating doctrines. The perpetuity of 
 these principles is also promised us through the million and a
 
 THE CONGRESS OF WALES. 883 
 
 naif of Lutheran conmuaiicants and their seven millions, at 
 least, of a populatiDU in America, wlio, by their one-third 
 worshiping in the English tongue, and tlu; remainder in near a 
 dozen other languages, and by their customs of education. 
 Christian nurture, and culture in the virtues of industry and 
 morality, occupy no second place of influence in conserving 
 the old and promoting ever new results under their liberty- 
 awakening faith. Ten years ago the world-wide 400th anni- 
 versary of the birth of the immortal Luther was but a Titanic 
 stepping-stone of the ever-advancing truth which the more 
 than fifty millions of Lutherans in the world live to advocate, 
 enjoy, and further as a blessing to mankind. 
 
 THE CONGRESS OF WALES. 
 
 The people of Wales are generally faithful to what is known 
 as the evangelical type of creed. The Episcopal Church of 
 England is the state church of the principality, but the great 
 majority of the people are of other denominations and opposed 
 to the union of church and state. There is in Wales at the 
 present time a strong movement in favor of disestablishment 
 and disendowment, which seems to some people to be within 
 measurable distance of complete success. 
 
 The Welsh convened for the first session of their congress 
 in the Memorial Art Palace at 11 A. M., September 3, 1893. 
 
 The Rev. R. Trogwy Evans, Chicago, presided, and the plat- 
 form was occupied by a large number of representative minis- 
 ters from the various religious denominations of Wales. At 
 the conclusion of the devotional exercises, which were con- 
 ducted by the Rev. R. I. Lewis (Callesto), S. Job, Esq., of 
 Pullman, 111., representing the Hon. C. C. Bonney, opened the 
 congress with a very appropriate address, and extended to all 
 a cordial welcome. The programme included a paper by the 
 Rev. D. Parker Morgan, D. D., of New York, on " The Early 
 British Church." This important and interesting topic receives 
 very able and scholarly treatment from Dr. Morgan, who has 
 evidently approached his subject with deep sympathy.
 
 ^ 
 
 884 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The chief address was delivered by the Rev. R. Williams of 
 North Wales, on " The Mysteries of the Faith." 
 
 The afternoon session was presided over by the Rev. Ellis 
 Roberts, Chicago, and the following took part in the proceed- 
 ings: Rev. H. O. Rowlands, Chicago; Rev. J. W. Jones, Rev. 
 W. W. Jones, Bellevue, Neb.; Rev. D. Harries, D. D., 
 Chicago; Rev. D. J. Philipps, Rev. R. Williams, (Hwfa Mon) 
 Nebraska; Prof. I. P. Jones, Chicago, and Rev. O. F. Pugh, 
 Chicago. The paper of the Rev. John Evans (Eglwysbach), 
 Cardiff, South Wales, was not received in time to be read at 
 this session. The subject of Mr. Evans' paper is " The Refor- 
 mation and the Welsh." He has made a most interesting con- 
 tribution to the literature of an important subject which seems 
 to have been surprisingly neglected. 
 
 The Rev. D. Harries, D. D., Chicago, presided at the evening 
 session, which was opened with prayer and reading of the 
 scriptures by the Rev. E. Hughes, Grinnell, and the Rev. R. T, 
 Lewis, D. D., of St. Louis. Addresses were delivered by the 
 Rev. W. Fawcett, D. D., Chicago; Miss Rosina Davies of 
 South Wales, and the Rev. R. Williams of Llangollen. 
 
 The last paper was by the Rev. H. O. Rowlands, D. D., of 
 Chicago, on " The Religious Characteristics of the Welsh." 
 
 The congress was closely connected with, and owed much of 
 the splendid attendance it commanded to, the International 
 Eisteddfod of the Welsh people, which was held for four days in 
 the week succeeding the congress. Professor Apmadoc, its able 
 and indefatigable secretary, did more than anyone else toward 
 making each meeting a grand success. The Eisteddfod is a 
 national literary and musical contest. The subject of the chief 
 competition in poetry this year was " Jesus of Nazareth." 
 This institution embodies in itself so many of the characteristics 
 of the Welsh people that the church is bound to strive at regu- 
 lating it and elevating it to the utmost. Dating its origin in a 
 very early period, it has survived all the vicissitudes of the 
 nation and seems destined to continue its ever-youthful vitality 
 as long as the nation lasts. Never before was there such a
 
 The congress of wales. 885 
 
 large gathering of Welsh people in any city of the United 
 States as there was in Chicago at the time of the congress and 
 Eisteddfod. The public press declared at the time that the 
 first session of the Welsh Congress was the first of all the 
 congresses to command a first-rate attendance, and it increased 
 day after day until at the last session of the Eisteddfod, held, 
 at Festival Hall, it amounted to 8,000 people. 
 
 It is the hope and ambition of the church that the day shall 
 never dawn on Wales when religion is divorced there from 
 music, literature, and art. 
 
 One of the notable papers prepared for the congress, but 
 received too late for presentation, was on " The Effect of the 
 Protestant Reformation in Wales," by Rev. John Evans of 
 Cardiff, Wales. It will be read with interest by Welshmen 
 all over the world: 
 
 Wales is a small country but a large subject. Its early religious history 
 is an extremely difficult one. The effect of the Protestant Reformation on 
 this little country is a topic that involves special difficulties. It bristles 
 with critical points, and must be considered with care and impartiality. In 
 order to arrive at anything like clear conclusions repecting it. the terms of 
 the subject must be defined. What is really meant by the Protestant 
 Reformation? If the term simply denotes the emancipation of the 
 churches from the ecclesiastical yoke of papal Rome, then we affirm that 
 the effect of the Protestant Reformation was immediate and general. The 
 union of Wales with England had been completed in 1535, just about the 
 time Henry VIII. broke off with Rome, so that any change of this kind 
 effected in England would apply also to Wales. 
 
 But if by the phrase, " The Protestant Reformation," we mean anything 
 deeper and more spiritual than this, any real change in the creed and the 
 religious proclivities of the Welsh people, then it is very doubtful whether 
 it had any real effect on the Principality of Wales for 1CH3 years. 
 
 The history of the Reformation in Wales differs considerably in several 
 important respects from that on the continent of Europe, and even in England 
 itself. It really forms a chapter by itself in the history of Protestantism, and 
 a chapter, unfortunately, that has not yet been adequately recorded. And 
 it is questionable whether it ever can be accurately and fully written. So 
 many of the necessary documents are either lost or inaccessible. Important 
 ascertained facts have been transmitted thi-ough the dark ages without 
 their historical environments, detached from one another like broken 
 chains, and so far the missing links are not to be found. The religious 
 history of Wales begins so far back; the tribal quarrels and the civil wars 
 of the middle ages have been so destructive to life and property; the edi- 
 fices, the manuscripts, and other fossils of history that belonged to the 
 ante-Protestant centuries are so few that it is almost impossible to trace, 
 with any certainty, the religious condition of the country in the 15th cent- 
 ury; and without this who can tell the effect of the Reformation on it 
 during the century following. And, moreover, so many political factions, 
 and religious controversies, and ecclesiastical issues are bound up with the 
 historical events of this period, that historians have found it most difficult
 
 886 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 to rise above their prejudices in the fragments of history that are given us. 
 Historians too often bear marks of their specific schools and marshal their 
 forces under colored banners to fight gallantly in the interest of their own 
 side and sect. Recent researches have resulted in increasing raw material, 
 but so far hardly anything has been done toward critical analysis and clear 
 conclusions respecting the history of Wales in the 15th and 16th centuries. 
 The Protestant and the Roman Catholic, the conservative churchman and 
 the radical nonconformist, reads and writes the history of this dark period 
 in his own way. and it is extremely difficult to decide positively and clearly 
 how far Wales was affected by the Protestant Reformation at the time. 
 
 One thing is morally certain, namely, that the Welsh people, and prob- 
 ably 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 reference 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 missionary 
 and when the Anglo-Saxons were converted under his ministry, they simply 
 accepted the popish, corrupt form of the Christian religion. This was the 
 only form of it that was first taught them, and they heard nothing else 
 concerning Christianity for 600 years, when Wycliffe, the morning star of the 
 Reformation, appeared. 
 
 But such was not the case with the Welsh. Pure Christianity had been 
 preached to them from an early period, probably as early as the 2d 
 century, and possibly as far back as the time of the apostles. It is not 
 conclusively proved that the Apostle Paul himself visited Britain, but it is 
 highly probable that Bran, the father of Caradog, and Gurgain, his own 
 daughter, heard Paul preach at Rome during the time they were retained 
 there by Claudius C^sar as hostages for Caradog's good behavior, when he 
 was allowed to return home as tributary ruler of South Wales. Bran and 
 Gurgain remained at Rome for seven years, and old Welsh documents tell 
 us that the prince was converted to Christianity while there, and that after 
 his return to Wales he converted his countrymen. However, it is gener- 
 ally admitted that there was in the principality a British church previous 
 to the visit of Augustine, and therefore that the Welsh people had received 
 their Christianity from some other source than papal Rome. When King 
 Ethelbert convened the churches in Wales in 603, to meet Augustine, it is 
 stated on good authority that all the efforts of the monk to win them over 
 to accept the Romish tenets and supremacy were absolutely fruitless. It 
 was late i" the 7th century before the people of Wales could be persuaded 
 to submit to the supremacy of the Pope. And thus for several centuries 
 Wales had its own Christian church, with its Christian teaching and 
 church order, its own Christian services and institutions, and probably its 
 own written copies of the scriptures, translated, in part, into the vernacular 
 —copies that were lost or destroyed during the ravages of the middle ages. 
 This was not the case in England. To the English the introduction of 
 Protestantism was a reformation, while to the Welsh the Reformation 
 itself was only a revival. This important fact must be kept before us in 
 considering the effect of the Protestant Reformation on Wales. 
 
 Another fact that naturally follows and clearly differentiates the Ref- 
 ormation in Wales is this: that it was not the result of a gradual develop- 
 ment in the minds of the people, but a sudden change imposed upon them 
 by a superior objective power. In Germany the blow that Luther gave to 
 the papacy was only the culminating point of a long and ever-increasing 
 Protestant process that had been at work in the religious thought of Ger- 
 many and other parts of the continent for many years. There had been
 
 THE CONGRESS OF WALES. 887 
 
 " Reformere," as Ullman proves, " before the Reformation." Such was the 
 case, also, in England. Henry's quarrel with the Pope became the excit- 
 ing cause of the Protestant Reformation, but its true antecedents and real 
 cause must be traced to the mental and religious upheaval of the people 
 ever since the days of Wycliffe and the Lollards. 
 
 The effect of Wycliffe's awakening was partly felt in Wales also, espe- 
 cially on the borders of England. John of Kentchurch became a Lollard; 
 Sir John Oldcastle, afterward Lord Cobham, and Walter BrutO partook of 
 the same spirit. These men and a few less illustrious comrades were 
 excellent Christians, and preached against the pretensions of Rome, 
 denouncing the dogma of transubstantiation, opposing indulgences and 
 every other priestly craft that endangered the salvation 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 Reforma- 
 tion was heard in England, about the year 1540. In fact, there was no 
 preparation leading up toward an outbreak in the Welsh mind. The Ref- 
 ormation, so called, was only an outward change thrust suddenly upon the 
 people by thefitful will of the reigning monarch. 
 
 Henry VIlI. was on the throne at the time. He descended in a 
 direct line from Owen Tudor of Penymynydd, Mon — the Welsh hero. At 
 that time and for many years afterward Wales was extremely loyal. 
 Creed and practice had to go whenever the Tudor king desired a change. 
 The union had just been completed through the efforts of Sir John Price. 
 Certain privileges had recently been conferred on the new subjects. The 
 country had been divided into counties; members were appointed to repre- 
 sent these divisions in Parliament, and Wales for the first time had a voice 
 and a vote in the legislatvire of the kingdom. All these privileges recently 
 received at the hands of the gracious monarch greatly intensified the loyalty 
 of the people, so that if Henry had become a Protestant even in name, 
 Wales professedly hastened to acknowledge the change. 
 
 They knew also that Henry had an iron will as well as a stone heart. 
 His whispered desires came to them with the thundering force of a direct 
 command. They knew how the monasteries had been quickly visited by 
 his officials — the small ones at first and afterward the larger institutions — 
 and how all their endowments beyond a certain sum had been claimed for 
 the king's treasury. Henry was in earnest. He meant a reformation. 
 Wales understood this and professedly submitted to the change. But their 
 Protestantism was not deep and natural. It was a twist rather than a 
 change. A political reform rather than a religious reformation. It had 
 not originated within. There was no thought, no heart in it on the part 
 of the people. It was a human creation, wrought for a selfish purpose by 
 one of the most wanton kings that ever occupied the English throne. No 
 wonder that King Henry's reformation in Wales provided only three 
 martyrs — and all these three were Englishmen — throughout the entire 
 principality who were sufficiently possessed of the Reformation spirit to 
 die for their faith with the 300 Protestant heroes that perished in the 
 flames during the Marian persecution. 
 
 Another distinguishing feature of the Protestant Reformation in Wales 
 is the patent fact that laymen were more forward in its favor than the 
 clergy. On the continent, clergymen like Erasmus and Melanchthon, Calvin 
 and Zunglius, rallied around Luther, the monk that shook the world, as 
 the principal promoters of the Reformation; and in England, Wycliffe, Lat- 
 imer, Ridley, Cranmer, and other prominent church dignitaries were the 
 leaders, and afterward became the martyrs, of the Protestant campaign. 
 It was emphatically a clerical movement, stoutly opposed at first by several
 
 888 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 influential laymen, and even when others of them accepted its principles 
 and furthered its extension, they did it as followers of the clergy and not 
 as leaders. 
 
 But in Wales it was quite the reverse. The laymen took the lead. 
 Under the influence of the Protestant awakening produced by Wycliffe and 
 the English Lollards, Sir John Oldcastle, and Walter Brute — both laymen — 
 were the first and almost the only Welshmen to catch its inspiration. Sir 
 John Price in North Wales, and Dr. Ellis Price in the southern part of the 
 country, were the first great iconoclasts under the reign of Henry VIII. to 
 purge the churches from idols and relics and to cast out popish superstitions 
 from the land. Morris Kyflin, the layman, translated Bishop Jewel's 
 apology into Welsh; William Middleton (Gwilym Canoldref), another 
 learned layman, rendered the whole Book of Psalms direct from the 
 Hebrew into Welsh — arranged according to the rules of the twenty-four 
 metres, and William Salesbury, a layman still, brought the New Testa- 
 ment out of the press in the language of the people. It is true that 
 William Morgan, who translated the whole Bible into the vernacular in 
 1588, was a clergyman, and he and the few other clergymen who partook 
 of the same spirit rendered, in their way, to the Reformation valuable 
 service; but it must not be forgotten that they came to its aid as learned 
 followers rather than as active leaders. 
 
 And, after all, this strange fact is not difficult to understand when 
 we remember the nature and the circumstances of the introduction of 
 the Reformation into Wales. Being forced upon the people by the 
 will of the monarch, as we have seen was the case, and, therefore, 
 amounting to a political movement, it was only natural that the laymen, 
 especially those of them who sustained official relationship to the throne, 
 should take the first and foremost part in the promotion of the Reformation 
 in Wales. Some of them were officially appointed to reform the services of 
 the churches as well as to alter the creed and the religious practices of the 
 people. Such a course of procedure was regarded by the clergy with 
 doubt and suspicion and made many of them very reluctant to take any 
 prominent part in aid of the movement. The drastic measures adopted by 
 the king with reference to monastic endowments and church livings 
 tended still further in the same direction. It embittc -ed the minds of the 
 monks and the priests toward the new departure. And further, it must be 
 admitted that, owing either to ignorance or chronic inactivity, or both, the 
 spiritual condition of the Welsh clergy at that time was at a low ebb. 
 How could such men be but conspicuously backward in taking their proper 
 place as the spiritual leaders of the people in connection with this mighty 
 movement. But God raised up several competent and demoted laymen, who 
 were placed in high positions of power and who nobly bore the brunt of 
 the battle with the papacy, so that Wales was not left altogether 
 untouched by the blessed effect of the Protestant Reformation from the 
 beginning. 
 
 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 when it did, the effect was 
 superficial and broken. It was a long time 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 disavow their adherence to Rome. 
 Even during the reign of Elizabeth this was the case. At farmhouses out 
 of the way, and in mountainous hamlets followers of the Pope were in
 
 THE CONGRESS OF WALES. 889 
 
 hiding, paying for their maintenance by teaching the children and prepar- 
 ing the boys for the universities. Tradition says that William Morgan of 
 Ewybrnant, afterward the translator of tho Bible, was prepared in this 
 way by a secreted monk, And probably this case is not unique. These 
 disguised teachers had a golden opportunity. They indoctrinated their 
 young scholars in their own creed, and thereby exerted considerable influ- 
 ence over the wealthier families in these secluded regions. William Mor- 
 gan met with it in the parish of Llawhaiddr, near the close of the IGth 
 century. When it became known that he was engaged in the great work of 
 translating the Bible into Welsh, some of his popish parishioners preferred 
 charges against him, which necessitated his appearing tirst before his 
 bishop, and afterward before the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Most of the poets of this period were Roman Catholics, notwithstand- 
 ing their occasional satirical attacks upon the perfunctory priest. Many 
 of the prose writers were also leaning strongly in the same direction. In 
 fact, from the rise of the Reformation in England to the end of the 
 century, Wales passed through a dreary period of dark and degraded days. 
 It is depressing to read the descriptions given of the state of Wales during 
 this period, immediately before and for a long time after the rise of the 
 Protestant Reformation in England. Barlow, the bishop of St. David, 
 in a letter to Thomas Cromwell, the Prime Minister of England, dated 
 1535, says: "As to the deplorable corruptions, the exacting taxation, the 
 immoral practices, the heathenish idolatry, that are most shamefully 
 encouraged under the dominion of the church people, I do not think that 
 any diocese is more corrupt than this." Strype, in his " Ecclesiastical Memo- 
 rials," writes: "Anno 1550. As to the success of the Reformation, it went 
 on but slowly in the parts farther distant from London. In Wales the 
 people ordinarily carried their beads about with them to church and used 
 them in prayer. And even at the church at Carmarthen, while the bishop 
 was at the communion table bareheaded doing his devotions, the people 
 kneeled there and knocked their breasts at the sight of the communion, 
 using the same superstitious ceremonies as they had used in times past 
 before the mass. They brought corpses to be buried with songs and 
 candles lighted about them. * * * Also this country was very infamous 
 for concubinacy, adultery, and incest. Many of these sinners wei-e priests." 
 
 Myrick, the bishop of Bangor, gives a similar description of the country 
 in 1560. He complained that he had only two preachers in the whole of 
 his diocese. The other Welsh dioceses were in a similar deplorable condi- 
 tion. The morality of the ciergy was seriously bad. John Penry says: 
 "This I dare affirm and stand to, that if a view of all the registries in 
 Wales be taken the name of that shire, that town, that parish, can not 
 be found where for the space of six years together, within these twenty- 
 nine years, a godly, learned minister hath executed the duty of a faithful 
 teacher. And what, then, should you tell me about abbey-lubbers, who 
 take no pains, though they be able? Miserable days! Into what times we 
 are fallen that thieves and murderers of souls, the very patterns and 
 patrons of all covetousness, proud and more than popelike tyrants, the 
 very defeaters of God's truth, unlearned dolts, blind guides, unseasoned 
 and unsavory salt, drunkards, adulterers, foxes and wolves, mire and 
 puddle." This was written of Wales under the reign of Elizabeth, about 
 half a century after the rise of the Reformation in England. 
 
 For nearly a hundred years after the Reformation, excepting in churches 
 and chapels, there were no Bibles in Wales. Preachers in the establish- 
 paent were few and ineffective for many years. The people were left in 
 ignorance and sin until the beginning of the 17th century, when the 
 People's Bible was published and circulated, probably by Vicar Pritchard. 
 This was not the only service he rendered to the Reformation in Wales. 
 Perceiving that the people were fond of poetry, he turned the substance of
 
 890 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 his sermons into verse, and his book, called " Canwyll n Cymry," did more 
 to influence and evangelize the people than any other book ever published 
 in Wales, save the Bible. The Rev. Griffith Jones of Danddowfor rendered 
 incalculable service by instituting circulating schools to teach the people 
 to road. All this prepared the way for the work of nonconformity, and 
 both found their climax in the Methodist revival. 
 
 So that, while the Protestant Reformation was an outside change forced 
 upon the people by the king at first and taken up by official laymen, while 
 it only touched the outskirts of the principality by its spiritual in fluence, 
 and that only for a time, and left the country generally almost for a cent- 
 ury in dangers and sin, yet it was a great blessing 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 nonconformity and culminated in the outbreak of the Methodist 
 revival. The Protestant Reformation gave Wales an open Bible and a relig- 
 ious liberty that we had not possessed before. The effect of the Reforma- 
 tion 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 con- 
 tained the seeds of subsequent harvests, and became the reluctant herald 
 of a coming millennium. 
 
 COLUMBIAN CATHOLIC CONGRESS. 
 
 In point of attendance and interest aroused, perhaps the 
 Columbian Catholic Congress, which began on Monday, 
 September 4tli, and continued for a week, was *the most 
 important. It was held in Columbus Hall, which was crowded 
 to its utmost capacity every session. Cardinal Gibbons, 
 Archbishop Corrigan of New York, Archbishop Feehan of 
 Chicago, Archbishop Ryan of Philadelphia, Archbishop Ire- 
 land of St. Paul, Archbishop Hennessey of Dubuque, Arch- 
 bishop Jansens of New Orleans, Bishop Redwood of New Zea- 
 land, Bishop Watterson of Columbus, Ohio, Bishop Foley of 
 Detroit, Bishop Chatard, Bishop Moore, Bishop Heslin, Bishop 
 Maes, and a number of other dignitaries of the Catholic 
 Church were present at most of the sessions. Morgan J. 
 O'Brien of New York was the chairman. Much of the success 
 of this congress was due to the exertions of W. J. Onahan of 
 Chicago, Secretary of the Committee on Organization. 
 
 Pope Leo XIII. signified his approval of the congress by 
 
 sending the following benediction : 
 
 Leo XIII., Pope. To Our Beloved Son, James Gibbons, by the Title of 
 Sancta Maria in Transtevere. Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church, 
 Archbishop of Baltimore. Beloved Son: Health and apostolic benediction.
 
 ARCHBISHOP 5RELAND.
 
 COLUMBIAN CATHOLIC CONGRESS. 891 
 
 It haB 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 an auspicious 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 con- 
 gress aforesaid, and to the clergy and faithful committed to your care, we 
 lovingly in the Lord impart our apostolic benediction. 
 
 Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the 7th day of August, in the year of our 
 Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-three, and of our pontificate the six- 
 teenth. 
 
 Leo XIIL, Pope. 
 
 In this brief review, it is impossible to refer to all the topics 
 considered by the Columbian Catholic Congress. The pro- 
 ceedings were reported at great length in one of the Chicago 
 newspapers, and attracted world-wide attention. 
 
 The papers read at the various sessions included the following: 
 
 "Isabella the Catholic," by Miss Mary J. Onahan, Chicago. 
 
 "Christopher Columbus; His Mission and Character," by Richard H. 
 Clarke. 
 
 " The Independence of the Holy See; Its Origin, and the Necessity for 
 Its Continuance in the Cause of Civilization," by Martin P. Morris, Wash- 
 ington, D C. 
 
 "Civil Government and the Catholic Citizen," by George Smith. 
 
 "The Relations of the Catholic Church to the Social, Civil, and Political 
 Institutions of the United States," by Edgar H. Gans. 
 
 " Consequeoces and Results to Religion of the Discovery of the New 
 World," by George Parsons Lathrop. 
 
 "Pauperism; the Evil and the Remedy," by Thomas D wight. 
 
 "The Progress of the Church on the American Soil and the Love We 
 Should Bear America for the Opportunities that It Presents for Progress," 
 by Bishop Foley, Detroit. 
 
 "The Negro Race; Its Condition, Present and Future," by John R. 
 Slattery, St. Joseph Seminary, Baltimore. 
 
 " Young Men's Society," by Warren E. Mosher. 
 
 " The Rights of Labor," by Edward Osgood Brown. 
 
 " Pope Leo XIII. on the Condition of Labor," by H. C. Semple. 
 
 " Catholic Societies and Societies for Young Men," by Rev. F. J. Maguire, 
 Albany, N. Y. 
 
 " Public and Private Charities," by Dr. Charles A. Wingate, Wheeling, 
 W. Va.; Richard R. Elliott, Detroit; Thomas P. Ring, Boston. 
 
 " Duties of Capital," by Rev. Dr. William Barry, Dorchester, England. 
 
 " The Missionary Outlook in the United States," by Walter Elliott, New 
 York. 
 
 "The Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII.," by Rt. Rev. John A. Watterson, 
 Columbus. 
 
 "Women's Work in Religious Communities," by F. M. Edselas. 
 
 "Women of the Middle Ages," by Anna T. Sadlier, New York.
 
 892 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 " The Catholic Summer School and the Reading Circles," by Katherine 
 E. Conway, Boston. 
 
 "Immigration and Colonization," by Dr. Augustus Kaiser, Detroit; Rev. 
 Michael Callaghan. 
 
 "Our Twenty Millions Loss," by M. T. Elder, New Orleans. 
 
 "Life Insurance and Pension Funds for Wage Workers," by E. M. 
 Sharon, Davenport. 
 
 " Their Insurance Feature Preferable to Pension Funds," by J. P. Lauth, 
 Chicago. 
 
 " Reasons for Establishment of an Organization by Columbian Catholic 
 Congress," by Frank J. Sheridan. 
 
 "Trade Combinations and Strikes," by Robt. M. Douglass. 
 
 " Italian Immigration and Colonization," by Rev. Joseph L. Andreis, 
 Baltimore. 
 
 " Temperance Question; Its Evils and Remedies," by Rev. Jas. M. Cleary. 
 
 " Woman's Work in Art," by Miss Eliza Allen Starr. 
 
 " Importance of a Catholic Chaplain in the Army," by Ed. J. Vattmann, 
 U. S. A. 
 
 " Woman and Mammon," by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop. 
 
 " Woman's Work in Literature," by Eleanor C. Donnelly. 
 
 "Society of St. Vincent de Paul," by Joseph A. Kernan, New York. 
 
 " The Condition and Future of the Negro Race in the United States," 
 by Charles H. Butler, Washington, D. C. 
 
 " Prayer for America," by Rev. F. G. Lentz. 
 
 " Catholic Truth Societies' Work," by Wm. F. Markoe. 
 
 " Present and Future Prospects of the Indians of the United States," 
 by Bishop Jas. W. McGolrick, Duluth. 
 
 "Catholic Education," by Bishop Keane. 
 
 " The Needs of Catholic Colleges," by Dr. Maurice Francis Egan, Notre 
 Dame, Ind. 
 
 " Establishing Free Catholic Schools," by Rev. Jas. T. Murphy, Pitts- 
 burg. 
 
 " Alumnae Associations in Convent Schools," Buffalo, N. Y. 
 
 "Lessons of the Catholic Educational Exhibit," by Brother Ambrose. 
 
 " Catholic Societies," by H. J. Sparmhorst of St. Louis. 
 
 "Bursaries for Ecclesiastical Seminaries," by Rev. Dr'. McGinness of 
 Scotland. 
 
 The utmost enthusiasm was aroused on Tuesday, September 
 
 5th, when Mgr. Satolli, the Pope's delegate to the United 
 
 States, addressed the congress. Attired in the full robes of his 
 
 office, and his whole nature attuned to the significance of the 
 
 occasion, the delegate made a thrilling speech in his native 
 
 tongue, which was translated by Archbishop Ireland as follows : 
 
 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 Colum- 
 bian Catholic Congress. He begs leave to offer you the salutation of the 
 great pontiff, Leo XIII. In the name of Leo he salutes the spiritual chil- 
 dren of the church on the American continent; in the name of Leo he 
 salutes the great American people. He says it is a magnificent spectacle to 
 see laymen, priests, and bishops assembled here together to discus? the 
 vital social problems which the modern conditions of humanity bring 
 up before us. The advocates of error have their congresses, why should
 
 COLUMBIAN CATHOLIC CONGRESS. 893 
 
 not the friends and advocates of truth have their congresses? This con- 
 gress assembled here to-day will, no doubt, be productive of rich and mag- 
 nificent results. You have met to show that the church, while opening to 
 men the treasures of heaven, offers also felicity on earth. As St. Paul 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, concentrations 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 social forces are thought, will, and action. In a congress you 
 bring before you these three great forces. Thought finds its food in truths; 
 so in all that you do, in all the practical conclusions that you formulate, you 
 must bear in mind that they must all rest upon 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 acquisition 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. Order is the system of the different relations of the 
 different elements, one to the other, and these relations to which men are 
 subject are summarized in three words — God, man, and nature. 
 
 Man has first of all his great duties to God, which never must be for- 
 gotten. He then has his duties to himself and to his fellowmen; and, 
 finally, he has relations with the great world of nature, over which his 
 action is exercised. Prom the several considerations of these different 
 relations spring up the great problems which at all times have vexed man's 
 mind — the great problems which to-day are before us in view of the differ- 
 ent evolutions, social and otherwise, which mark our modern needs. Your 
 social congress has convened to-day. Bear in mind that there was a great 
 social congress, which is to be the model of yours, which gave out 
 the principles which must underlie your deliberations. That great social 
 congress, the ideal and model of all others, was held when Christ, sur- 
 rounded by the thousands of the children of Israel, delivered His great dis- 
 course on the mountain. 
 
 There the solutii. \ was given to human problems; there were laid down 
 the vital principles. " Seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice, and 
 all other things shall be added unto you," says the good book. " Seek first 
 the Kingdom of God." Look up the divinity without which man is abso- 
 lutely at sea. Fill out first your duties to God, without the observance of 
 which other duties are but a name. Seek God's justice in your relations 
 one with another. Be guided by the eternal law of the Most High, and then 
 all things shall be added unto you. Know God's truth and live by God's 
 justice, and the peace and the felicity of earth shall be j'ours. The same 
 great voice said: " Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are they who thirst 
 after justice; blessed are the merciful." 
 
 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 merci- 
 ful." Blessed are they who know and feel that they do not live for them- 
 selves, whose hearts go out in sweetest mercy to all their fellows. History 
 has proved that human reason alone does not solve the great social prob- 
 lems. These problems were spoken of in pre-Christian times, and Aristotle 
 and Plato discussed .;hem. But pre-Christian times gave us a world of slav- 
 ery, when the multitude lived only for the benefit of the few. 
 
 There is authority throughout the story of man of a divine, providential
 
 S94 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 design. Blind is he who sees it not, and he who studies it not courts 
 disaster. It was when Christ brought down upon earth the great truths 
 from the bosom of His Father that humanity was lifted up and entered 
 upon a new road to happiness and felicity. Christ brought to nature the 
 additional gift of the supernatural. Both are needed, and he who would have 
 one without the other fails. The supernatural comes not to destroy or elim- 
 inate the natural, but to purify it, to elevate it, to build it up, and hence, 
 since the coming of Christ, science, art, philosophy, social economy, all 
 studies partake of the natural as well as the supernatural — the natural 
 coming from man's own thoughts and man's own actions, and the super- 
 natural pouring down upon those thoughts and actions direction, richness, 
 and grace. 
 
 To-day it is the duty of Catholics to bring into the world the fullness of 
 supernatural truth and supernatural life. This is especially the duty of a 
 Catholic congress. There are nations who are never separated from the 
 church, but which have neglected often to apply in full degree the lessons 
 of the gospel. There are nations who have gone out from the church, 
 bringing with them many of her treasures, and because of what they have 
 brought yet show virgin light; but, cut off from the source, unless that 
 source is brought into close contact with them, there is danger for them. 
 Bring them in contact with those divine forces by your action and your 
 teachings. Bring your fellow-countrymen back; bring your country into 
 immediate connection with the great source of truth and light and the 
 blessed influence of Christ and Christ's Church. And in this manner shall 
 it come to pass that the words of the psalmist shall be fulfilled: " Mercy 
 and justice have you one with another; justice and peace prevail." 
 
 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 your own congress. Now, all these great principles have 
 been marked out in most luminous lines in the encyclicals of the great 
 pontiff, Leo XIII. We must then study these encyclicals; hold fast to 
 them as the safest anchorage. The social questions are being studied the 
 world over. It is well they should be studied in America, for here do we 
 have more than elsewhere the key to the future. Here in America you 
 have a country blessed specially by Providence in the fertility of its fields 
 and the liberty of its institutions. Here you have a country which will 
 pay back all efforts, not merely ten-fold but a hundred-fold; and this no one 
 understands better than the immortal Leo, and 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 
 fully loyal to your great mission and to the duties which your circumstances 
 impose upon you. Here are golden words spoken by the delegate in concluding 
 his discourse: " Go forward, in one hand bearing the book of Christian truth, 
 and in the other the Constitution of the United States. Christian truth 
 and American liberty will make you free, happy, and prosperous. They 
 will put you on the road to progress. May your steps ever persevere on 
 that road. Again he 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 XIII. 
 
 At the closing session on Saturday, September 9th, the con- 
 gress unanimously adopted the following report of the commit- 
 tee on resolutions, which was presented by Judge Moran of 
 Chicago : 
 
 The Columbian Catholic Coi3gress of the United States, assembled in 
 Chicago, in the year of grace, one thousand eight hundred and ninety- •
 
 COLOMBIAN CAfHOLIC CONGRESS. 8&5 
 
 three, with feelings of profound gratitude to Almighty God for the mani- 
 fold blessings which have been vouchsafed to the church in the United 
 States and to the whole American people, and which blessings in the 
 material order have found their compendious expression in the marvelous 
 exposition of the World's Fair, held to celebrate the four-hundredth anni- 
 versary of the discovery of this continent by the great Catholic navigator, 
 Christopher Columbus, conforming to the custom of such occasions, adopt 
 the following resolutions : 
 
 1. We reaffirm the resolutions of the Catholic Congress, held in Balti- 
 more, November 11 and 12, A. D. 1889. 
 
 2. We declare our devoted loyalty and unaltered attachment to our 
 Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII., and we thank him for sending us a special rep- 
 resentative, and we enthusiastically hail his apostolic delegate as the host- 
 age of his love for America and a pledge of his paternal solicitude for our 
 country and its institutions. It is the sense of this congress that the vicar 
 of Christ must enjoy absolute independence and autonomy in the exercise 
 of that subhme mission to which, in the providence of God, he has been 
 called as the head of the church for the welfare of religion and humanity. 
 
 3. We congratulate our hierarchy on the wondrous growth and develop- 
 ment of the church throughout the United States, the results, under God, 
 of the united wisdom and unselfish devotion of those true shepherds of the 
 Christian flock, and we pledge to our bishops and priests our unfaltering 
 devotion and fidelity. 
 
 4. While the signs of the times are hopeful and encouraging, and 
 material prosperity is more widely diffused than in any previous age, we 
 should be willfully blind did we fail to recognize the existence of dangers to 
 the church and to society requiring a most earnest consideration. Among 
 the most obvious of these dangers is the growing discontent among those 
 who earn their living by manual labor. A spirit of antagonism has been 
 steadily growing between the employer and the employed that has led in many 
 instances to deplorable results. The remedies suggested vary from the 
 extreme of anarchical revolution to different types of state socialism. These 
 remedies, by whatever names they may be called, with whatever zeal and 
 sincerity they are urged, must fail wherever they clash with the principles 
 of truth and justice. We accept as the sense of this congress, and urge upon 
 the consideration of all men, whatever be their religious views or worldly 
 occupations, the encyclical of our Holy Father, Leo XIII., on the condition 
 of labor, dated May 15, A. D. 1891. In the spirit of his luminous exposi- 
 tion of this subject, we declare that no remedies can meet with our approval 
 save those which recognize the right of private ownership of property and 
 human liberty. Capital can not do without labor, nor labor without cap- 
 ital. Through the recognition of this inter-dependence and under the Chris- 
 tian law of love and by mutual forbearance and agreement must come the 
 relief for which all good men should earnestly strive. 
 
 5. We strongly indorse the principles of conciliation and arbitration as 
 an appropriate remedy for the settlement of disagreements between 
 employer and employed, to the end that strikes and lockouts may be 
 avoided; and we recommend the appointment by this congress of a com- 
 mittee to consider and devise some suitable method of carrying into opera- 
 tion a system of arbitration. 
 
 6. We suggest to our clergy and laity, as a means of applying the true 
 principles of Christian morality to the social problems that have now 
 attained such importance, the formation of societies, or the use of already 
 existing societies, of Catholic men, for the diffusion of sound literature and 
 the education of their minds on economic subjects, thus counteracting the 
 pernicious effects of erroneous teachings; and we especially recommend 
 the letters of our Holy Father, particularly those on " Political Power," 
 " Human Liberty," and " The Christian Constitution of the State." The
 
 896 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 condition of great numbers of our Catholic working girls and women in 
 large towns and cities is such as to expose them to serious temptations and 
 dangers, and we urge as a meritorious work of charity, as well as of 
 justice, the formation of Catholic societies for their assistance, encourage- 
 ment, and protection. We advocate also the continued extension of Cath- 
 olic life insurance, beneficial, and fraternal societies. The work that such 
 associations have already accomplished warrants the belief that they are 
 founded upon true principles. 
 
 7. One of the great causes of misery and immorality is the indiscrim- 
 inate massing of people in cities and large towns, and their consequent 
 crowding into tenement houses, where the children are, from their infancy, 
 exposed to every bad example and corrupting influence. This evil has drawn 
 the attention of legislators in foreign countries. We believe it wise charity 
 to help the poor to help themselves, and therefore advise the adoption of 
 appropriate measures to encourage and assist families to settle in agricult- 
 ural districts. As indicated by the Holy Father, the true policy is to induce 
 as many as possible to become owners of the land. 
 
 8. In discharging the great duty of Christian charity, the Catholic 
 laity can and should do much by personal service to supplement the admi- 
 rable work of the religious orders devoted to charity, and we urge them to 
 join or otherwise encourage the conferences of St. Vincent de Paul and 
 kindred organizations for rendering systematic aid to the needy. And we 
 would recall to the minds of all people the time-honored Catholic practice 
 of setting apart from their incomes a proportionate sum for charity. 
 
 9. An obvious evil, to which may be traced a very large proportion of 
 the sorrows that afflict the people, is the vice of intemperance. While we 
 believe that the individual should be guided in this matter by the dictates 
 of right conscience, we can not too strongly commend every legitimate 
 effort to impress upon our fellowmen the dangers arising, not only from 
 the abuse but too often from the use of intoxicating drink. To this end 
 we approve and most heartily commend the temperance and total absti- 
 nence societies already formed in many parishes, and we advise their multi- 
 plication and extension. We favor the enactment of appropriate legislation 
 to restrict and regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors, and, emphasizing 
 the admonition of the last Plenary Council of Baltimore, we urge Catholics 
 everywhere to get out and keep out of the saloon business. 
 
 10. To the members of our secular clergy, religious orders, and laity 
 who are devoting their lives to the noble work of educating the Indian and 
 negro races, we extend our hearty sympathy and offer our co-operation. 
 We congratulate them on the consoling success thus far attending their 
 labors and wish them godspeed. 
 
 11. As the preservation of our national existence, the Constitution under 
 which we live, and all our rights and liberties as citizens, depend upon the 
 intelligence, virtue, and morality of our people, we must continue to use 
 our best efforts to increase and strengthen our parochial schools and Catho- 
 lic colleges, and to bring all our educational institutions to the highest 
 standard of excellence. It is the sense of this congress, therefore, that 
 Catholic education should be steadfastly upheld according to the decrees 
 of the Council of Baltimore and the decisions of the Holy See thereon. In 
 the elevating and directing influence of Christian higher education in par- 
 ticular we recognize the most potent agency for the wise solution of the 
 great social problems now facing mankind. We recognize the signal wis- 
 dom of our Holy Father, Leo XIII., and of the American hierarchy in found- 
 ing an institution of highest Christian learning in our national capital. And 
 with confidence in their wisdom so to direct it that it shall be fully ade- 
 quate to the needs of our age and of our country, we cordially pledge to 
 them our active co-operative in making it one of the chief glories of the 
 Catholic Church and of the American RepubUc. We appeal to our fellow-
 
 COLUMBIAN CATHOLIC CONGRESS. 897 
 
 citizens of all religious denominations to teach the rising generation to 
 love, honor, and fear our common Creator and to instill into their hearts 
 sound principles of morality, without which our glorious political liberty 
 can not continue. Profoundly appreciating the love for education shown 
 by the sovereign pontiff and our bishops, we rejjeat what has been said in 
 congress, that "It is only the school bell and the church bell which can 
 prolong the echo of the liberty bell." 
 
 12. We desire to encourage the Catholic Summer School of America, 
 recently established on Lake Champlain, as a means of promoting educa- 
 tion on university extension lines, and we also commend the forming of 
 Catholic reading circles as an aid to the summer school and an adjunct to 
 higher education in general. 
 
 13. We recognize in the Catholic Truth Society of America one of the 
 results of the first American Catholic Congress of Baltimore and, believing 
 it to be admirably adapted to the heeds of the times, we earnestly recom- 
 mend it to the Catholic laity as offering them an excellent means of 
 co-operating with holy church in her glorious work of disseminating 
 Catholic truth. 
 
 14. As immoral literature is one of the chief agencies in this country 
 and in Europe for the ruin of faith and morality, we recommend a union 
 of Catholics and non-Catholics for the suppression of this evil, whether in 
 the^ form of bad books, sensational newspapers, or obscene pictorial repre- 
 sentations. 
 
 15. We have no sympathy with any effort made to secularize the Sun- 
 day. We urge upon our fellow-citizens to join in every effort to preserve 
 that day as sacred, in accordance with the precepts and traditions of the 
 church. 
 
 16. We heartily approve of the principle of arbitration in the settlement 
 of international disputes. We rejoice in the happy results that have already 
 attended the application of this ancient ])rinciple of our holy mother, the 
 church, and we earnestly hope that it may be extended and that thereby 
 the evils of war between nations may be gradually lessened and finally 
 prevented. 
 
 Finally, as true and loyal citizens, we declare our love and veneration 
 for our glorious Republic, and we emphatically deny that any antagonism 
 can exist between our duty to our church and our duty to the state. In the 
 language of the apostolic delegate, let our watchword be: " Forward! in one 
 hand the gospel of Christ and in the other the Constitution of the United 
 States." Let us keep on in the path of virtue and religion, that the ble.ss- 
 ings of our national liberties, born of the stern energy and morality of our 
 forefathers, may be preserved for all time as a sacred heritage. 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons closed the congress with an eloquent 
 
 address, in which he said his fondest anticipations had been 
 
 more than realized. The voice that had gone forth from 
 
 Columbus Hall uttered no uncertain sound. There had been 
 
 no confusion, no conflict, no dissension; but there had been 
 
 peace and concord and unanimity from beginning to end. The 
 
 congress had removed many prejudices and misunderstandings. 
 
 It had helped to tear off the mask that the enemies of the 
 
 Catholic Church would put upon her fair visage, it had torn 
 
 those repulsive garments with which her enemies would clothe 
 
 her, and it presented her to the world in all her heavenly
 
 898 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 beauty, bright as the sun, fair as the moon, with the beauty of 
 heaven shining upon her countenance. It had shown that the 
 Catholic Church, properly understood, is the light of the world, 
 and the refuge of suffering humanity. These sentiments were 
 received with ringing cheers. 
 
 OTHER CATHOLIC CONGRESSES. 
 
 Runnins: along: with the Columbian Catholic Congress were 
 a number of minor meetings connected with Catholic societies. 
 The colored Catholics held an intererting congress, extending 
 over several days. Before the adjournment a permanent organ- 
 ization, to be known as the St. Peter Claver Catholic Union, 
 was formed. This union will hold biennial conventions, each 
 society entitled to representation being allowed one delegate for 
 every fifty members. The affairs of the organization are to be 
 conducted by an executive committee with headquarters at 
 Washington. 
 
 The Catholic Young Men's Union held several meetings and 
 passed resolutions tendering to Pope Leo the assurances of 
 their love and devotion, urging each society to make a special 
 effort to lend itself to literary work, commending the work of 
 the Bishops' Memorial Hall, conducted by Professor Edwards of 
 Notre Dame University, and of the American Catholic Historian 
 Society of Philadelphia, and congratulating the young ladies 
 of many sections of the country upon the successful establish- 
 ment of reading circles. The election of officers resulted in 
 the choice of the following: 
 
 President, Rev. Francis Maguire, Albany, N. Y.; First 
 Vice-Preside lit. Rev. James Jennings, Chicago; Second Vice- 
 President, Terrence F. Dorris, Newark, N. J.; Secretary and 
 Treasurer, Charles A. Waebber, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Interesting meetings were held by the Society of St. Vincent 
 de Paul, at which topics relating to its work were considered by 
 a number of leading prelates, priests, and laymen. 
 
 Another interesting congress during this week was that of
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH CONGRESS. 899 
 
 tiie Catholic Press of the World. Before its adjournment it 
 adopted the following resolutions: 
 
 Whereas, Tlie holy father has on various occasions expressed his deep 
 interest in the prosperity and progress of the American Catholic j)ress, and 
 
 Whereas, His accredited delegate. Archbishop Satolli, has re-echoed in 
 eloquent words the same sentiment; therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That the American Catholic editors, in convention assembled, 
 pledge their heart-whole loyalty to the great pontiff and their unswerving 
 devotion to the person and mission of the apostolic delegate, and also to the 
 prelates and clergy of the church. 
 
 Whereas, Much confusion in the past has existed in the American 
 mind regarding the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward the 
 Catholic schools, be it 
 
 Resolved, That this convention expresses its great pleasure at the lucid 
 explanation of the subject as given by His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII., and 
 his accredited delegate. Archbishop Satolli. 
 
 Whereas, The entire Catholic world has been scandalized by a series 
 of anonymous attacks upon exalted persons, which appeared in certain 
 secular papers, and 
 
 Whereas, The Catholic people of the United States have also been 
 scandalized by similar attacks, which have from time to time appeared in 
 papers under professedly Catholic control; therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That this convention of Catholic editors condemns the action 
 of those papers which have allowed the publication of said anonymous 
 attacks; and be it further 
 
 Resolved, That it is the sense of this convention of Catholic editors that 
 no communication of an anonymous character or nature which, in a deroga- 
 tory manner, touches the personality of any individual should be admitted 
 into the columns of any Catholic paper in this country. 
 
 Officers for the year were elected as follows: 
 
 President, Dr. W. D. Lofton, Washington, D. C. 
 ■ Vice-President, A. J. Bell, Louisville, Ky. 
 Secretary, Frederick L. McGhee, St. Paul, Minn. 
 Treasurer, James A. Spencer, Charleston, S. C. 
 
 Directors, C. H. Butler, Washington, D. C; L. C. Valle, Chicago; D. A. 
 Rudd, Cincinnati; William E. Easton, Galveston, Texas 
 
 In addition to the above named, there were meetings of the 
 German Catholic Young Men's Guilds, Catholic Benevolent 
 Legion, and the Young Men's Societies, all of which were 
 largely attended. Most of the matters discussed at these sub- 
 meetings were treated at some length in the Columbian Catholic 
 Congress. Mass meetings were held every night during the 
 week, at which leading orators of the church delivered addresses 
 on popular topics. 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH CONGRESS. 
 
 Occurring on the day before the formal opening of the Par- 
 liament of Religions the Congregational Church Congress
 
 900 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 aroused deep interest. The first sessions were held in the Hall 
 of Columbus, and the Congress continued for four days. Dr. 
 Willard Scott presided, and there were with him on the plat- 
 form Eev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., Eev. W. E. Hale, Kev. Wm. 
 F. Poole, LL.D., Mrs. Frances B. Little, Mrs. W. B. Wilcox, 
 Rev. J. G. Johnson, D.D., E. W. Blatchford, Mrs. Geo. Sher- 
 wood, Mrs. R. B. Prenszner, Rev. Geo, Boynton, D. D. As 
 usual C. C. Bonney welcomed the delegates in fitting words. 
 He remarked that it was appropriate for the descendants of .the 
 Pilgrim Fathers to anticipate this meeting of the world's first 
 Parliament of Religions, and hail it with words of cheer. 
 Next to October 22, 1492, on the scroll of the world's glories 
 December 21, 1620, should be inscribed, for since the Santa 
 Maria brought Christopher Columbus to the New World no 
 more important voyage has been made by any ship than that on 
 which the Mayflower bore the Pilgrim Fathers to the landing- 
 place of Plymouth Rock. Wherever throughout the great 
 Republic the children of the Pilgrim and the Puritan have 
 gone, flowers of the highest culture have sprung up in their 
 footsteps. Wherever they have made their homes, cultivated 
 farms, or builded farms, the highest domestic Adrtues have been 
 conspicuous, piety, peace, and good order have flourished, and 
 education both for the people and in its higher forms has been 
 a dominant power. The Congregational Church, Mr. Bonney 
 said in conclusion, occupies a peculiarly exalted and influential 
 place in American history. It stands on Plymouth Rock a 
 monument of civil and religious liberty, more glorious than 
 the granite shaft which on Bunker Hill greets the sun on his 
 coming. Holding fast to liberty for itself, it can not do other- 
 wise than insist upon the same freedom for every other relig- 
 ious body to worship God according to the dictates of con- 
 science. 
 
 Dr. Scott responded to the address of welcome, and showed 
 how successive stages of religious thought had resulted in the 
 establishment of Congregationalism. He pointed out that the 
 first revelation of God's will to man came to the Oriental mind.
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH CONGRESS. 901 
 
 The Oriental mind was a good listener, but not such a good 
 thinker It was, therefore, left to the European to discover 
 man's nature as God made him. He began by looking inward 
 rather than outward, and this state of the constitution of man 
 resulted in the system of ethics or religious philosophy. The 
 next step was the translating of this philosophy into the lan- 
 guage of the people. And in America there is yet another 
 step in the religious movement peculiar to our country and 
 institutions. What we want now is to engraft this system of 
 religious philosophy into human behavior, and live the things 
 we have heard as they are formally stated. The Puritan and 
 Pilgrim of to-day is he who is living for the social emaucipation 
 of the world. 
 
 Following this address came a regular programme of papers, 
 embracing a wide range of subjects. Miss Mary A. Jordan of 
 Smith College, North Hampton, Mass., delivered an address on 
 " The Congregational Idea," which she characterized as Chris- 
 tian democracy. She said the Congregational idea calls for all 
 the intellectual vigor and enterprise of the Puritans without 
 their narrow-minded insistence; it calls for a patience of inves- 
 tigation and ministry beside which theirs was indeed faulty. 
 Churcli fellowship requires the constant willingness of each to 
 put the best he has at the disposal of all for counsel, admoni- 
 tion, and reproof, for good report and for evil report; not in 
 self-seeking, but fcr the advantage of the great congregation. 
 And these are the ideals of a Christian democracy. 
 
 Prof. Williston Walker gave a scholarly and interesting 
 address on " First Things in Congregationalism." He held 
 that Congregationalism is the logical outcome of the reforma- 
 tion, traced the development of the principle in Europe, and 
 reviewed the events which led up to the settlement of New 
 England by bothi Puritans and Separatists. After reciting the 
 early history of the church, Professor Walker said the past of 
 Congregationalism, worthy as it is, is not its best. Much as it 
 did in the colonial days, for which we all have reason to be 
 thankful, it failed fully to realize its own ideal. Its short-
 
 902 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 comings were the fault of departure from its own best concep- 
 tions, not of the system itself. It needed two centuries of dis- 
 cipline for Congregationalism to outgrow its dependence on the 
 state, its intolerance, and its adoption of half-way covenant 
 membership. But with all the limitations of this period of 
 growth it stood distinctly for the conception of the church as a 
 body of believers united to Christ, and one to another by a 
 voluntary covenant, a body choosing its own ministry and 
 ordering its own affairs, and owning no ultimate authority but 
 the Word of God. It held positively to the equally important 
 truth that these churches have duties of fellowship, one to 
 another, and are bound by ties of fraternal responsibility. It 
 is because the Congregationalism of the 17th and 18th cent- 
 uries held fast to these great principles, in spite of any minor 
 departures from the truths which it should have illustrated, 
 that its growth in our own century has been possible, and that 
 it has profoundly modified other denominations with which it 
 has been brought in contact, so that it deserves to be called the 
 formative polity of America. 
 
 Henry A. Stimson of New York City submitted a paper on 
 "Congregationalism of To-day." He held that Congregational- 
 ism is not an organization but an organism. Its record is not 
 to be read in creeds that it has put forth but in councils that 
 it has convened. Nothing was more remote from the minds of 
 the fathers than the creation of a new ecclesiastical machine, or 
 even the readjustment of an old one. Their breacts were filled 
 with the thought of a present Christ. Their thought was upon 
 the life that was in them. That was a gift from God and was 
 life. It possessed all essential elements. It could re<;reate, it 
 could grow, it could satisfy. That is the central fact, a distin- 
 guished feature of Congregationalism. A second distinct part 
 of Congregationalism is that it has always found its center out- 
 side itself. The life it possesses is the life of an indwelling 
 Christ. It has never made the mistake of thinking that life 
 centered in itself. For himself, the Congregationalist feels the 
 need of effort and study and growth. The duty of opening
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH CONGRESS. 903 
 
 the way for all men to come to Christ is fundamental to the 
 Congregationalist. The Pilgrim Fathei's offered themselves as a 
 stepping-stone unto others. They have been much maligned 
 for their exclusiveness ; but whatever the narrowness of their 
 possessions or the scantiness of their foothold in the edge of 
 the great wilderness, there was no narrowness in their concep- 
 tion of their calling. Their one desire was to extend the 
 kingdom of Christ. A third important fact in the develop- 
 ment of Congregationalism has been its denominational disin- 
 terestedness. It has founded colleges and academies for all 
 the land without a thought of self-aggrandizement. These 
 institutions extend across the continent from Bowdoin in Maine 
 to Pomona in California. They are open to all, and are never 
 Congregational in a restricted or sectarian sense, but Congre- 
 gational in parentage and dependence for their daily support. 
 In conclusion Mr. Stimson said: "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 denomi- 
 nation we 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." 
 
 The above excerpts give a fair idea of the spirit in which 
 Congregationalism was discussed at the several sessions of 
 this congress. Among those who took a leading part in the 
 exercises were, in addition to those already named: Rev. 
 Hugh Pedley, Winnipeg, Manitoba; Rev. Alexander McKenzie, 
 D. D., Cambridge, Mass.; Rev. A. F. Sherrill, D. D., Atlanta, 
 Ga.; Rev. Judson Smith, D. D., Boston, Mass.; Mrs. E. W. 
 Blatchford, Chicago; Mrs. Chas. Henrotin; Rev. Augusta 
 Chapin; Mrs. L. P. Rowland, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Rev. Mrs. 
 Annis F. Eastman, West Bloomfield, N. Y.;Mrs. A. E. Arnold, 
 Piano. III.; Mrs. Jane Gibson Johnson, Chicago; Mrs. Moses 
 Smith, Glencoe, 111.; Miss Helen Buckley, Chicago; Mrs. Jane 
 G. Austin, Roxbury, Mass.; Rev. Miss Juanita Brecken- 
 ridge, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mrs. Ethan Curtis, Syracuse, N. Y.;
 
 904 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Mrs. Elvira B. Cobleigh, Walla Walla, Wash.; Miss Emily Gil- 
 more Alden, Godfrey, 111.; Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, San Fran- 
 Cisco, Cal. ; Kev. Miss Louise S. Baker, Nantucket, Mass. ; Mrs. 
 Elizabeth Emerson Humphrey, Oak Park, 111.; Mrs. Ella 
 Beecher Gittings, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Mrs. W. E. Brooks, 
 Mrs. E. H. Merrill, Kipon, Wis.; Mrs. Joseph Ward, Yankton, 
 S. D.; Miss Jane Addams, Hull House, Chicago; Kev. Miss 
 Mary L. Moreland, Wyanet, 111. ; Mrs. George H. Ide, Milwau- 
 kee, Wis.; Mrs. Julia Holmes Boynton, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. 
 Louise J. Bevan, Melbourne, Australia; Miss Harriet A. 
 Farrand; Mrs. Roxana Beecher Preuszner, Chicago; Mrs. M. 
 Porter Cole, Detroit, Mich. ; Mrs. Gertrude H. Wiley, Summer- 
 dale, 111.; Miss Mary C. Collins, Fort Yates, N. D.; Miss 
 Alice W. Bacon, Hampton, Va. ; Miss Ella Gilbert Ives, Dor- 
 chester, Mass. ; Mrs. Rebecca H. Cheetham, Canning Town, 
 East London, England; Miss Millie A. Hand, Elkhorn, Wis.; 
 Miss Harriett N. Haskell, Godfrey, 111.; Rev. Miss Jeannette 
 Olmstead, Gustavus, Ohio; Mrs. G. W. Moore, Nashville, 
 Tenn; Mrs. Kate Upson Clark, New York City; Mrs. C. H. 
 Taintor, Chicago; Mrs. Ella S. Armitage, Bradford, England; 
 Mrs. M. B. Norton, Shoreham, Vt.; Mrs. A. A. F. Johnson, 
 Oberlin, Ohio; Mrs. Sarah S. C. Angell, Ann Arbor, Mich.; 
 Mrs. Martha J. Bi-adley, Jacksonville, 111. 
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH PRESENTATION. 
 
 Three sessions were held by the Catholics in Washington 
 Hall on Tuesday, September 12th. Bishop Keane of Washing- 
 ton was the chairman, and the attendance was large. Rev. W. 
 Byrne of Boston presented the Catholic idea of dogmatic 
 truth, and answered some of the Protestant objections thereto. 
 He declared that dogmas in the Catholic religion are truths 
 revealed by scripture, and given official sanction by the church. 
 A truth taught by the clergy must be indorsed by the church 
 to become a dogma, consequently the church could take up 
 doctrines and create new dogmas. A knowledge of certain
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH PRESENTATION. 905 
 
 dogmas Wcas aosolutely necessary in the Catholic religion, while 
 others regarded, as valuable were not compulsory. The teach- 
 ing of dogma was required to preserve the unity of Catholic 
 religion, so that truth should be maintained in pure language, 
 and errors discountenanced. Dr. Byrne claimed infallibility 
 for the church, which authenticates the scriptures and thus 
 avoids false teachings by those disposed to maintain individual 
 opinion contrary to accepted articles of faith. 
 
 Rev. Dr. O'Gorman of the Catholic University of America 
 presented an essay on the " Catholic Idea of Worship and 
 Grace." He said grace is God's outgoing to man, and worship 
 is man's part in forming a union with Divinity which is a 
 necessity for religious truth. 
 
 Bishop Keane addressed the congress on " Jesus Christ the 
 Foundation of Truth, Grace, and Holiness." The bishop 
 declared that religion is essentially a quality, bringing into 
 relation the Creator and the creature. The Catholic Church 
 teaches that man is to receive the divine through the incarna- 
 tion. Men and women as teachers of the young interceded 
 between humanity and Christ, the ouly mediator between man- 
 kind and God. That was the teaching of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Bishop Watterson of Columbus, Ohio, followed up this 
 theme, indicating the means by which the church is the organ 
 of the Savior in the dispensation of truth, grace, and holiness. 
 
 Rev. Thos. E. Sherman of St. Louis delivered an eloquent 
 address on " The Catholic Idea of Holiness and Perfection," 
 which is given herewith: 
 
 Since all human action is but a means to an end. and man's end is his 
 Maker's glory, no action is. strictly speaking, worthy of praise that is not 
 in some way directed to the glory of God. Thus, the primary canon of 
 right conduct and the sum of Christian perfection agree. The traveler is 
 only acting reasonably when he can say to himself that he is making for 
 his goal; the soldier's march is effective then only when each day brings 
 him nearer to final victory. Human conduct is truly reasonable and manly 
 when it squares with the end of all conduct, the aim of our Maker in creat- 
 ing us. That aim could have been none other than His own glory. To be 
 known and loved by a creature capable of knowing and loving Him is the 
 only sufficient motive for God's bringing into existence such a being. This 
 we attirm as His end in creating us, not because we can pretend to fathom 
 the divine plans, but because we can sufticiently sound the depths of our 
 own nature to know with certainty that while there is no other assignable
 
 906 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 reason for our being what we are, this reason is amply worthy both of Him and 
 of us. It is because we know ourselves that we know God's plan for our 
 race. He gave us being and life that He might draw us back to the home 
 of all spiritual existence, even His own bosom, for creation was and is an 
 act of love. Love seeks union, and finds its cuntent only in union. There- 
 fore is the human heart restless with infinite restlessness till it begins to 
 seek its home in the heart of God. 
 
 A human act is good, therefore, when its aim is the divine glory. But 
 just as a father need not with every breath sigh for his family that his love 
 may be the inspiring motive of his activity, and yet must be able to say, 
 when asked why he toils so hard, " I am working for those I>love," to be 
 worthy the name of father, so in order that an intelligent being may be 
 worthy of his nature, may preserve his dependent relation to his Maker, 
 there must be, if not an actual wish, at least an undercurrent of thought 
 and desire referring all his actions to God's good pleasure, in order that 
 his conduct may be up to the mark of human endeavor, worthy of us and 
 of Him. Thus the first word of an enlightened conscience and the last 
 word of Christian asceticism agree: "Whether you eat or drink, or what- 
 ever you do, do all for the glory of God." The highest perfection of man is 
 but obedience to this dictate of common sense. 
 
 Here the Catholic religion, echoing and explaining the moral axioms of 
 Christ, is the light on the path, cheering and encouraging us with the sub- 
 lime doctrine of intention. The aim or intention, though not the only 
 element of sanctity, is the eye of the human act. The bent of the will, after 
 all, is the great moral element of conduct. Now that bent is proper only 
 when the good deliberately sought by us is consistent with universal good, 
 the end sought by our Maker. Our plans are to be adopted, our desires 
 acted on, just so far as conscience sees them to agree with right order. 
 Right order is found where all inferior ends are made to bend to the will 
 of God. Our will is good, then, our intention is right, when our aim is one 
 with His; the arrow shoots true when it tends to reach the archer's mark. 
 The target at which the will is morally at liberty to aim is not any good 
 proposed by fancy, appetite, or caprice, but some rational benefit, some- 
 thing noble and up to a human standard when regarded in itself, still more 
 so when conceived by reason as directed to a higher ultimate good. To 
 that ultimate good, which is our last end and final destiny, an object capable 
 of rendering us completely happy, right reason is ever directing the will. 
 That object is God Himself. The precept, " Son, give Me thy heart," is 
 not merely the first of commands; it is promise of present bliss. The Infi- 
 nite is the only object at once worthy of highest human endeavor, and 
 capable of entirely satisfying the sovxl's desire. 
 
 Nothing less than God completely satiates the rational appetite, and 
 till satiated, the will is but a feverish thirst to torment us. Vanity of van- 
 ities! cry all who seek their rest in things created. But the man who 
 strives to love God, a personal God, friend, father, guide, comrade, law- 
 giver, judge, reward, finds his being ever expanding with marvelous sweet- 
 ness; he enjoys a love that is firm, coustant, and true; a love buoyant, 
 elastic, pliant to his best interests; a love tender, devoted, prudent, watch- 
 ful; a love that multiplies benefits of body and spirit till he is in ecstasy with 
 the perpetual feast spread for his heart, his head, his whole nature. He finds 
 all other affections and sentiments ranging themselves in order and expand- 
 ing his powers in many ways, since all lesser loves are purified and elevated 
 by the sacred fire of this most vital affection; he is conscious that the 
 Beloved can not die, or fail, or be taken from him; that his love can and 
 should go on ever expanding and intensifying, and that there is no ending 
 to his bliss in time or in eternity. 
 
 Such is the first obvious effect of a pure intent of doing our Maker's will. 
 Uniting us in mind and heart to Him who is our bliss, it makes us happy.
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH PRESENTATION. 907 
 
 At the same time it gives immense honor to God. His glory is in our hap- 
 piness, our happiness is His true honor. The human aim being to please 
 Him by doing the divine will as best we may, the human act, however trivial 
 its immediate object, however feeble the outward performance becomes a 
 noble thing, from the motive with which it is performed. The cry of the 
 crusading force, '• God wills it," is no more exalted than the simple, " Thy 
 will be done,'* which accompanies each Christian eflfort. Whether a man 
 blow bubbles to amuse children, or command a superb fleet, is a trival 
 matter in the sight of God's angels, compared to the reason why he does 
 the one or the other. Weighed in the scales of the sanctuary it may well be 
 that he who is but amusing children stands higher, and is meriting vastly 
 greater rewards than your doughty admiral. On the other hand, whoever 
 fails to seek out and perform God's will is an infinite failure, even though 
 he fill the world with the praise of splendid achievement. 
 
 Such is the plain teaching of Christ. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, with all thy mind and with 
 all thy strength.'' " Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice." 
 
 God is your destiny. You seek happiness because you can not helj) yearn- 
 ing for it. Seek God and you will find happiness. To be happy, you must be 
 ever turned toward Him. Each act, if a worthy human act, is also in some 
 sense an act of worship. Religion is not merely the crown of virtues, it is the 
 foundation, formative element, and sum of virtues. Without religion there 
 is no true virtue. 
 
 This simple statement meets the common objection against the Chris- 
 tian system of ethics, that its Author's teaching is mainly negative. What 
 is more positive than a command involving every act, a law leading to the 
 surrender of one's whole being, a precept making life a continual holocaust, 
 by converting the will into a torch burning with divine fire? 
 
 More specious is the objection which makes man's perfection consist 
 entirely in the faithful observance of his relations to his fellowmen. Virtue 
 is virtue, we are told, whatever the motive. To be kind, gentle, prudent, 
 just, these are the chief points of human perfection. Cardinal points they 
 are, no doubt, but do points inclose a space? Will straight lines give us 
 solid volume? Is a city perfect because it has streets laid out at right 
 angles? Is not something omitted in this division? Virtues are good 
 habits inclining us to act in ways becoming man. He who seeks a false 
 end, or neglects to fulfill his true destiny, distorts his whole field of action 
 by failing to direct his life to its one true aim. As Midas turns all to gold 
 by his touch, so the miser taints his every thought by avarice. Love trans^ 
 forms us into the object loved; seeking only metal, the miser's heart 
 becomes debased to like condition. As he who has embarked for a port in 
 the tropics is laughed at for his pains, however bravely be breasts the 
 Northern seas in steering toward the pole, so the star of our destiny mocks 
 at us, save when we sail toward God, who is our home, aiming to find our 
 happiness in love of Him and in His fatherly approval of our conduct. 
 Aside from the initial defect of failing to supply adequate motives to com- 
 bat selfishness and crush passion, the humanitarian doctrine that kindness 
 and justice are the main elements of human perfection ignores the question 
 of questions, that of man's ultimate destiny; holds him excused from the 
 first and most important of all duties, that of worshiping and serving his 
 Maker; dethrones Almighty God; destroys His absolute supremacy over the 
 creature of His hand, and ultimately makes moral science a mere question 
 of the expedient or the agreeable. 
 
 On the other hand, to recognize the obvious truth that our Maker's 
 glory is our happiness, the fulfillment of His will the canon of perfection, 
 conformity to His decrees the measure of virtue, and union with Him in 
 loving service our contentment here and pledge of heaven hereafter, is 
 to place man, as son of God, at the head of the visible universe, and
 
 908 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 invest human conduct with a divine and eternal significance, thus making 
 life a continual march of partial victory, sweeping on to triumphant eternal 
 peace. 
 
 The Catholic religion teaches man to act as son of God, comrade of 
 Jesus Christ, spouse of the Holy Spirit, mirror _ of the Trinity, passing 
 through a probation intended to make perfect in hmi the divine image 
 through imitation of and communion with the God-Man. Anything less 
 than this is nothing in the eye of the Catholic. Given a man, whose great 
 natural talents have been re-enforced by careful training, let him be polished 
 "ad unguem," suppose him to possess a heart expansive, tender, sym- 
 pathetic, add all that you choose by way of natural attraction; if such a 
 man have no thought of the Author of all good, no love for the unseen, no 
 reaching after things divine, no fear of an Infinite Judge, in the sight of the 
 angels he is merely a painted creature, a mockery of what man should be. 
 The brutes are capable of kindness and gentleness in a way; they have 
 shadows of our virtues; we hear much in our day of their " moral " nature, 
 but this does not make them human, neither has that man true virtue who 
 is v/ithout God in the world. He is a soul without life, an abortion, a 
 shadow; the shell without the meat, the bark without pith or filler. His 
 actions are dead. Give him religion, all his virtues are animated, all tipped 
 with gold. Now the arrows are winged indeed. Just as stone, mortar, and 
 rafters do not make a house, so virtuous habits do not make a holy life, 
 without the composing, combining, ordering force of religion. It is the 
 inner link between the soul and its Maker which makes a man worthy of 
 his nature. A harp is vocal only under a musician's touch. Our soul 
 yields but discordant notes till touched by the hand divine, which contrived 
 this cunning instrument to sing its eternal praises. One alone can extract 
 from it the sweet music of perpetual, loving sacrifice; One alone can make 
 it vibrate and quiver in perfect harmony with the myriad hearts it is 
 intended to sympathize with, drawing ever forth the notes it best may 
 render, waking fresh bursts of rapture every instant in angelic minds at 
 sight of the hidden powers of common clay. 
 
 The Divine Musician, murmuring through the quiet depths of conscience, 
 whispers to us: "Live with yovir end always in view, and act up to the 
 measure of your being." The soul answers: " Thou alone art my end; for 
 Thee alone must I act. Thou couldst have made me for nothing less than 
 Thyself, since nothing else could move Thee, infinite that Thou art, to call 
 me into being." 
 
 Conscious that he exists to praise and serve his Maker, that God alone 
 is His true destiny, and that all creatures are but means to assist him in 
 getting to God, man asks himslf: "What is God's will in my regard 
 with reference to all the beings that surround me? How must I act so 
 as to fulfill His will and attain my d "*iny? " This question is answered by 
 explaining the second equally es3entic. element of moi"al goodness, derived 
 from the immediate object of the human act. As an act is intrinsically 
 good or evil, in so far as it is in conformity or not with right order, so it is 
 pleasing or displeasing to the Author of the universe in the same proportion 
 as it conforms to this rational form of goodness. To say that the intention 
 alone renders an act praiseworthy or the opposite is to hold that the end 
 justifies the means, a notion abhorrent alike to Christian doctrine and to 
 common sense. 
 
 John Brown's raid and Abraham Lincoln's proclamation had the same 
 motive — the freedom of the negro race. Brown died a criminal's death 
 because his acts were disorderly; Lincoln's proclamation, as a war measure, 
 is held by the world to have been " in order," and therefore right. The 
 difference between crime and virtue is found primarily in their relation to 
 order; and secondarily to law, the expression of the will of a superior, 
 commanding the preservation of order. To break a law is wrong both
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH PRESENTATION. 909 
 
 because the law is the expression of right reason, and also because the 
 infraction is an offense against the law-maker. In the case of moral evil, 
 or sin, these two elements can not be separated. The order which He has 
 constituted, God wishes to maintain, and He can not but be offended at 
 any breach of the essential relations arising out of the very nature; of the 
 beings He has created. Given the creative act, and the moral order 
 becomes necessary, absolute, and immutable, and moral evil the most 
 awful abomination conceivable; for to say that an act is intrinsically evil 
 when not in conformity with reason implies n(jt only that such an act 
 can never, under any circumstances, be right but also that it must be 
 obnoxious to the divine ordainer of all things, a personal offense to Him; 
 in other words, whatever is deliberately irrational is necessarily immoral, 
 and whatever is immoral is sinful. There is no sin against reason that is 
 not sin against God. The whole code of Christian ethics, the entire system 
 of national asceticism, rests upon and springs from the recognition of the 
 double element of evil in immoral actions and the corresponding elements 
 of good in right conduct. It is the !:ing's peace that is broken by the 
 highwayman on the "king's highway." The robber can not violate the 
 law without transgressing the^command of the law-maker, and his knowl- 
 edge of the malice of his action implies a setting up of his will against 
 the majesty of the ruler. If in a fit of anger I slay my enemy, the warrant 
 for my arrest is issued by the State's authority, and my offense is against 
 the State of Illinois. In vain would I pleati at the bar of justice my 
 ignorance of the fact that I was standing within the limits of this State. 
 There are some things we are hound to know, and first of all the extent of 
 our own accountability and the dreadful eternal consequences of our 
 deliberate choice of good or evil. Heaven and hell are the only realities, 
 the rest is a passing pageant, a world's fair, a mimic scene, a lesson, a 
 dream, a preparation, a journey. Are we reading the lesson aright? are we 
 walking in the path of rectitude? These are the questions wisdom asks 
 every hour. What are we doing and why? At the dreadful bar of eternal 
 justice no man will be able to plead that he did not know the existence of 
 the law or its nature, for that law is written within us, sounds in our con- 
 science, is promulgated in the mind, and even if there were no eternal 
 priesthood to guide our steps, no church to voice the words of Christ, con- 
 science would both warn us here and confirm our judgment hereafter. 
 Man is his own judge; the law which governs him is eternal and immut- 
 able — the law of nature. Conscience is the mind pronouncing judgment on 
 our acts. Christian asceticism is largely concerned in framing rules for 
 the enlightenment and direction of conscience. Of these the chief are that 
 we are bound to follow a sure conscience, that it is never permitted to act 
 with a practical doubt unsolved, and that in case of doubt certainty can 
 nearly always be obtained by recurrence to the principle that a doubtful 
 law does not bind. The study of these laws rescues us from the subtle 
 dangers of subjectivism. 
 
 It is in and through conscience, using the term in the broader sense of 
 the moral faculty or power of perceiving right and wrong, that God rules 
 the universe. Here the soul touches most intimately the unseen object of 
 her worship. Since this, like other powers, is capable of culture and 
 development, we increase His influence over us, we establish His reign more 
 pei'fectly, and secure our own happiness more effectually by frequent 
 examination of conscience, and by a familiar knowledge of the asceticism 
 of the casviist. 
 
 Knowing that there is a God, I know that He must will the existence of 
 order. Free to create. He is not free to create beings in His own image, 
 destined to union with Himself, and then remain indifferent to their 
 actions. He can not help willing with infinite desire that they should prove 
 themselves worthy of their origin by conducting themselves as kings of
 
 910 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 creation. At the same time He so respects His own gift of free will that 
 He does not rudely prevent its abuse, but uses moral suasion to intiuence 
 a moral being. Thus, He shows us a divine model, whispers quiet warnings, 
 clothes the soul with grace, spreads a network of subtle attractions and 
 holy influences to draw us sweetly upward to heavenly things. But if we 
 prefer what is lower and, therefore, unworthy of our divine sonship, 
 He does not rudely wrench the*will from its lower loves and force it to its 
 true destiny. The spirit of God wooes, but does not assault; it attracts, but 
 does not fascinate; it wins, but does not conquer by force. 
 
 The Catholic system of ascetics, then, teaches the identity of the sure 
 dictates of conscience with what is right in itself and in conformity with 
 the will of God. While insisting on the supreme authority of conscience 
 as the court of last resort in all cases of doubt, the church claims the 
 right to direct and guide conscience by proposing for its acceptance the 
 perfect law as given by Christ. The Catholic obeys the church as he 
 accepts Christ, because, with regard to both, conscience says: "A divine 
 messenger speaks to you; hear and heed; refuse at your peril." There is 
 no more contradiction in asserting that conscience is supreme, though 
 guided by an infallible church, than in saying the Constitution of the 
 United States is the highest law, but I must admit the interpretation of 
 the Supreme Court, though a fallible interpretation. In both cases I obey 
 the law as made known to me by the best accredited and most competent 
 voice of the law. The difficulties in either instance are the same. Ulti- 
 mately it is the law as proposed to me by conscience which I obey, and, 
 therefore, Newman is quite right in putting conscience first and the Pope 
 second. Just a" I obey any constituted authority, so I obey the Pope, 
 because conscience commands that obedience. "You must obey Christ's 
 Vicar." In .:ubmitting to the dictates of conscience we obey a divinely 
 constituted interpreter of the law of nature. The law of nature is simply 
 right reason commanding us to act according to the divine plan. It is the 
 copy in man of God's will for man's welfare. It is, therefore, one with the 
 eternal law by which God, in decreeing creation, also decreed that all 
 beings should act according to their essential relations to one another and 
 to Himself. He necessarily willed that we should praise, adore, and serve 
 Him; should treat one another as brothers; should eagerly search for His 
 revelations, and having found them should make His communications our 
 light and guide. He further fully decreed that after our race had gone 
 astray His Son should come in the flesh to redeem us; to be model and 
 friend, food and drink to us: so that, having in Him all our desires realized, 
 and being through Him lifted up and restored to our original divine herit- 
 age, we should first of all learn from Him the perfection of the divine law; 
 then see in His absolute obedience to that law the true image of virtue; 
 be led to imitate Him at every step; to offer all our prayers and acts of 
 adoration in union with Him; to be incorporated into Christ through the 
 mystical union of the Holy Eucharist, and, in fine, be transformed into 
 other Christs by yielding our minds and hearts to the continued guidance 
 of His Holy Spirit. 
 
 The incarnation plays so important a part in Christian asceticism that 
 no essay on conduct would be complete which did not at least touch on 
 some of the obvious additions to rational ethics made by the supernatural 
 influence of Christ. As He lifted the race from idolatry and paganism to a 
 knowledge of the one true God, so He lifts the individual soul by the 
 powerful force of example and heavenly doctrine above the control of the 
 passions and appetites, restoring man to the full dignity of a nature 
 governed by reason. 
 
 The first step in our Savior's work for the soul is called conversion. 
 Matthew, looking up for a moment from his money bags, sees the Divine 
 Man gazing down into his eyes. What eager yearning is depicted on that
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH PRESENTATION. 911 
 
 sweet face; what commanding power is seated on His noble brow. The 
 publican feels a soft breath on his cheek, the breath that called the world 
 into being. Two words are whispered in his startled ear: " Follow Me." 
 It is an invitation from the Prince of Peace, sweet, strong, and transform- 
 ing. The money-changer heeds; his old life ceases, and a new one begins. 
 He has had a brief glimpse of heaven, and earth has faded to a mere 
 phantom. Whoever listens and heeds as Matthew did may be transformed 
 in like manner; whoever has his conscience open to the divine call will 
 be certain at some time to hear the voice of Christ. The eye that is 
 simple can not fail to see the light that enlightens every man that cometh 
 into this world. Whether the Master find each of us, as He did Matthew, 
 amid the commonplace avocations of life, or steeped in evil, like Mag- 
 dalene, borne into the valley of doubt and discouragement, or struggling 
 bravely upward with the saints, that w^ondrous face of His, on which 
 gleam divine pity, forbearance, purity, and strength, seems to be ever 
 haunting the fancy of our race, and inviting man to turn to things 
 divine. Whether we hear it in song or story, in sermon or prayer, or in 
 the simple word of the gospel, the voice which once woke sweet echoes 
 amid the hills of Galilee still sounds with celestial force in the depths of 
 the human soul. His touch, light as a mother's, cools the passionate throb 
 of the fevered brow, and His Spirit whispers: "I am the way, the truth, 
 and the life; I am the light of the world. Taste and see how sweet the 
 Lord is." By bringing God close to man the incarnation has drawn man 
 by the cords of Adam back to God. To gaze on that winning face where 
 gleams the express image of all perfections, human and divine, is to be 
 weaned from excessive love for creatures and turned toward our Creator. 
 That thirst for truth and beauty, which nature has planted deep in the 
 human soul, has ever led the pure of heart to find in the contemplation of 
 the divine countenance the nearest thing to heaven they hope to know on 
 earth. 
 
 The soul, once thoroughly converted, must undergo transformation; a 
 fresh existence, a new life of grace is to be begun and continued. To effect 
 this transformation, Christ invented a system of sacraments or outward 
 signs of grace, nicely adjusted to meet the manifold wants of the soul, and 
 brought within easy reach of all by the priesthood. As physician of the 
 mind. He provided the tribunal of penance, to cleanse the soul from stains 
 of sin, to afford her solace and advice, to pour oil upon her wounds, and to 
 preserve His inward empire even over the realm of thought and desire, 
 whence action springs. Without some such method of assuring us of God's 
 direct pardon and of our friendly relations to Him, our Savior's work as 
 redeemer would have been incomplete. Certain that my sins are forgiven 
 by the power of Christ — ■" Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven " 
 —I go forward with firm step and cheery heart, for naught is between my 
 soul and her destiny, and heaven's gate is ever open. 
 
 But since the soul needs food as well as pardon, by a supreme invention 
 of love, our amiable Lord has contrived so to stretch omnipotence as to 
 give us Himself in communion. "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of 
 Man and drink His blood you shall not have life in you." " He that eateth 
 My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in Him." "My flesh 
 is meat indeed and my blood is ih-ink indeed." (Jno. vi., 53, 56.) 
 
 It is evident that the proper use of two such powerful means of sancti- 
 fication is at once the highest privilege, the. most effectual armor, and the 
 most, stringent duty of a Christian. Hence, among Catholics, confession 
 and communion are spoken of as "our duties" par excellence, and a man's 
 fervor is gauged by his frequentation of these sacraments. We regard 
 them as an arsenal whence we can draw at will powerful helps to ward off 
 manifold evil; as fountains to quench the soul's thirst; as the path lead- 
 ing to a sunlit eminence of peace; as a pledge that, weak as we are, ulti- 
 mate spiritual victory is within the reach of all.
 
 912 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 These sacraments entitle the soul to many gifts and graces. They lead 
 sweetly to close friendship and easy intercourse with Christ, familiarity 
 with divine things, a love of prayer and meditation, burning zeal for the 
 salvation of souls, supreme reverence for Holy Writ as God's Word, enthu- 
 siastic loyalty to the Vicar of Christ, admiration for the saints and a study 
 of their lives, contempt for transitory things in comparison with eternity, 
 love of the poor, sympathy with distress and sorrow, active work for our 
 neighbor, and many more virtues which are but the natural fruit of com- 
 munion with the all-loving heart of our God. 
 
 Walking with Christ, seeing Christ, putting on Christ, these are but 
 fine phrases unless you can supply the soul with such life-giving streams 
 of grace and so transform the heart of man that no love will be accexjtable 
 which is not orderly and agreeable to God; no affection sweet unless 
 wholesome; no conduct worthy of admiration which is not in imitation of 
 the model shown us on the mount. The Catholic religion gives us Christ 
 Himself, a real, living, present God and Savior to be our food and comfort; 
 therefore, it can in all directness and simj licity bid us to put on Christ. 
 No distant hero, no far-off ideal, no beautiful vision serves to still the 
 waves of passion, feed the starving soul, expel the demon throng; but an 
 ever-present divine Friend can and does continue among us to-day the work 
 He began in Palestine nineteen centuries ago. 
 
 To make Him better known, more warmly loved, and to serve Him 
 faithfully, cheerfully, with enthusiastic energy, and life-long perseverance, 
 is the only thing on earth worth living for. 
 
 Transformed by the grace of God from the natural to the supernatural, 
 man's life becomes one longstrviggle to conform his actions, thoughts, and 
 desires to those of his divine model. This secret conformation of the soul 
 is the work of the third person of the Blessed Trinity, who is ever building 
 up a spiritual edifice in each Christian breast. "Follow Me," says the 
 Master, in meekness and lowliness, in obedience and self-denial, in constant 
 prayer, even in virginity and poverty, if you feel the strength to do so, 
 " Follow Me." Putting God first in every action, looking ever to His glory, 
 subduing all pride and passion, bearing patiently all manner of adversity, 
 " Follow Me." Literal acceptance of this invitation, an exalted view of the 
 supernatural, systematic effort to scale the heights of Calvary, are noted 
 marks of Catholic ascetical doctrine. The great theologian, Suarez, tells 
 us that he values one "Hail, Mary!" pronounced in the state of grace, 
 beyond the natural learning contained in twenty folios, which had cost him 
 the work of a lifetime. A child's prayer we are taught to esteem as a 
 nobler thing than the city of Chicago. The prayer is a gem in a crown 
 eternal; the metropolis is transitory like yonder Venice by the lake, which, 
 lovely though it seems, is but the pride of a day. As in valuing things 
 divine, so in mortifying the human spirit, the Catholic system excels. To 
 die daily to self is the ideal. To be able to say: "I live no longer I but 
 Christ lives in me," this is the high perfection we are urged to aspire to. 
 What abnegation in the Trappist, the Carmelite, the poor Clare, who are 
 willing to make a perpetual holocaust even of the gift of speech, reserving 
 it only for divine praise, and rebuking by their total abstinence our 
 thoughtless abuse of so excellent an endowment. The Carmelite sits like 
 Mary at our Savior's feet, doing what He said was best, binding the earth 
 in chains of prayer about the feet of God, while lolling on his downy 
 couch the worldling whiffs away this noblest ideal of sanctity with his, 
 "I don't see the use of so much prayer." Prayer is union with God. 
 Union with God is the end of our existence. Who does not secretly envy 
 ihe peace purchased by so holy an existence? 
 
 Who fails to see the reflex of heaven written on the countenance of the 
 perfect contemplative? 
 
 The Carmelite is practicing the art of arts, cultivating the highest of
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH PRESENTATIOS. 913 
 
 sciences, and our inability to appreciate her place on the mountain top is 
 simply a proof that we do not understand the spirit of Jesus Christ, who 
 spent nine-tenths of an infinitely valuable life in quiet contemplation. 
 
 The well-known active orders of the church, such as the Sisters of 
 Charity, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Good Shepherd, and the teach- 
 ing congregations, all practice contemplation as far as it is consistent with 
 their other duties. All are taught that prayer is the most imijortant work of 
 life, that from it they are to derive their strength and solace, that it is our 
 shield in temptation, a living link with heaven, a key to open the heart of 
 God, and a sure road to sanctity. In both lives, the active and contempla- 
 tive, that moderation in which true virtue consists is secured by the law of 
 obedience, which converts the soul into an altar whereon the will of man is 
 offered as a continual victim in union with the will of Christ. Total self- 
 surrender into the hands of those who, being properly appointed, are God's 
 own representatives, at once secures permanent peace of soul in the assur- 
 ance of carrying out His wishes in our regard, and leads to self-abnegation 
 and humility, the most graceful and most difficult of virtues. Virginity, so 
 conspicuous a perfection in Christ, in His mother, and in His chosen dis- 
 ciple, is guarded with the utmost delicacy and held in loftiest esteen), being 
 preferred even to the noble state of marriage. The vows of poverty, 
 chastity, and obedience pronounced by all religious orders strike at the very 
 root of the great evils of the human soul, avarice, sensuality, and pride, 
 marking the Catholic Church forever as the true spouse of Christ, indif- 
 ferent as she is to all creatures, and wrapped forever in the joyous contem- 
 plation of her God. 
 
 To reform that which was deformed by sin; converting fallen man to 
 the worship of the one true God and the diligent search for heaven; to 
 transform the reformed by His powerful sacraments, by the force of His 
 example, and by the watchful care of His church; to conform the trans- 
 formed to His own likeness by leading them from virtue to virtue, such is 
 in brief the work of the God-man. Freely to correspond with this divine 
 plan, to study His actions, meditate His life and character, master His 
 doctrines, follow even at a distance in His sacred footsteps, this is the 
 perfection at which all Christians aim. The means to acquire that per- 
 fection are found in their integrity only in the arsenal where Christ Him- 
 self has stored them, and, therefore, only the church of Christ can show 
 forth models of sanctity worthy of the veneration of mankind. She says 
 to the world: You can make soldiers, lawyers, artists; you can form poets, 
 orators, statesmen; you can train heroic sailors, nurses, guardians of the 
 public weal; all this is natural and within your sphere. But you can not 
 make man or woman love God above all things; you can not give the 
 strength to resist grave temptations; you can not supply adequate motives 
 for abnegation and humility; you can not enable weak flesh to live for the 
 unseen and the spiritual; you can not point to a host of weak men and 
 women, boys and girls of every age and nation, practicing the virtues of 
 faith, hope, and charity in an heroic degree. " By their fruits you shall 
 know them." 
 
 It is in her clear grasp of the supernatural system of divine grace, her 
 insistence on its superlative excellence, her ample supply of effectual 
 means to make real and delightful a spiritual existence, her close contact 
 with her chief and our model, her successful union of the subjective and 
 objective elements of conduct, her claim of infallibility, her amjjle arsenal 
 of varied spiritual appliances, her intimate knowledge of human weakness 
 and cheery assurance of her strength to work with weakest instruments; 
 her adaptability, versatility, ingenious search for all that is good even in 
 fallen nature; her forbearance, patience, long-suffering, kindliness, com- 
 bined with rigid guard over the sanctity of the altar and the confessional; 
 the influence she has wielded on the legislation of the aations in all matters
 
 914 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 that conce-n man's sacred rights of liberty, property, marriage, educa- 
 tion; her ample charity for rich and poor alike; the fact that opposite 
 objections are urged against her at the same time; her power to saturate 
 the individual soul with a thousand divine influences; her close study of 
 the heart of God, the literal .acceptance of His teachings and commands; 
 her power to weave round th - restless heart of man a thousand golden 
 cords of divine love, her regard for little children, and exaltation of the 
 weaker sex; her success in failure and her triumphant attitude in defeat; 
 in a word her reproduction of the perfections of Christ, that we recognize 
 in the Catholic Church the true guide to holiness of Ufe. It is because we 
 find in her a heaven on earth that we believe her to be the vestibule of our 
 heavenly home; because she gives us the Son, that we feel assured she will 
 enable us to see the Father also. 
 
 Union with God through Christ is our supernatural destiny. To 
 see in all created objects the handiwork of a loving Father, in our fellow- 
 men brothers in Christ, in the church the spouse of the spirit of God, this 
 is to begin " to put on Christ." To unite mind and will with the mind and 
 will of the God-Man in seeking constantly the kingdom of God, this is the 
 beginning of " the imitation of Christ; " to find in His face the ideal type of 
 beauty and in His heart the focus of all moral perfection, the supreme 
 object of delightful contemplation, this is to " see Christ." The patient 
 endeavor to fathom the depths of that beautiful nature and to copy in a faint 
 way some of the virtues of that heart, as manifested in the life, words, and 
 acts of our Lord, is the main duty of the Christian life. To stand at dawn 
 upon the shores'of Galilee, watching for His footfall, to rest at noon beside 
 the well of Jacob, to linger at evening on the porch of Lazarus, to drag the 
 net by night with Peter, to moan over our infirmities under the arches of 
 Bethesda, waiting for the moving of the waters, from every recorded word of 
 His to draw the honey of personal intercourse with our dearest friend, this 
 is to taste something of heaven's sweetness here below. Going still deeper 
 into the mystery of His life, lingering in the cave of Bethlehem, journeying 
 into the depths of Egypt, toiling across the desert sands, obeying Joseph 
 in the commonplace pursuits of the carpenter-shop, finally standing at the 
 foot of the cross. If we have not the courage to be crucified we begin to 
 realize in ourselves the fruit of entire self-abnegation and self-immolation 
 in imitation of that of our chieftain and our God. This heroic self-sacrifice 
 which, stripping man of all things created, nails him with Christ upon the 
 cross, clad only in a robe of loving humility, deaf to the strife of passions 
 in the crowd below, constitutes the creature's true crown of glory, the sum 
 of holiness, and the acme of perfection. 
 
 Other addresses on kindred subjects were delivered by 
 Most Rev. P. L. Chapelle, Archbishop of Santa Fe, Most Rev. 
 John Ireland, Archbishop of St. Paul, and Archbishop Red- 
 wood of New Zealand. 
 
 After the adjournment an inquiry room was established by 
 the Catholics, where Bishop Keane, Mgr. Seton, and other 
 prominent priests answered questions in regard to doctrine and 
 faith as held by the Catholic Church.
 
 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 915 
 
 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 
 
 •x'he Congress of the Universalists began on Monday, Sep- 
 tember 11th, and continued until Friday, September 15th. 
 Dr. A. J. Can field was the presiding officer, and the initiatory 
 exercises included an eloquent address by Rev. Dr. Augusta 
 Chapin, and responses from prominent people in connection 
 with this denomination. The deepest interest was tal>en iu the 
 sessions. On the second day Rev. Di-. John Coleman Adams 
 of Brooklyn, N. Y., spoke on " Universal Holiness and Happi- 
 ness, the Final Result of God's Government." He held that 
 the doctrine of the Universalist Church is that the victory of 
 the good must mean nothing less than the complete destruction 
 of the evil and sin that exhibit themselves in character. The 
 divine fatherhood demands a doctrine of human destiny which 
 sees a human race developing toward peace and harmony, and 
 looking toward a great day of reconciliation unclouded by the 
 rebellion of a single human being. To state and defend this 
 doctrine is the mission of the Universalist Church. 
 
 Another interesting paper submitted during the congress 
 was by Rev. Chas. H. Eaton of New York City on " Christ 
 and the Nature of Salvation." Mr. Eaton held that the 
 modern conception of salvation does not emphasize locality but 
 character; that hell is a spiritual and personal fact, but it has 
 no objective existence. According to his doctrine, heaven is a 
 state rather than a locality; soul is organized for truth and 
 love, and this is one of the characteristics of salvation. One of 
 the best days for humanity, said he, was when Eve plucked 
 and ate the apple from the tree of knowledge, for that act 
 marked the beginning of virtue, and virtue was certainly better 
 than innocence. In a very true sense the fall of Adam was a 
 fall upward. It was a birthday of civilization. The Uni- 
 versalist emphatically denies the total depravity of the soul. 
 Humanity may be in ruins, but the ruins are noble and still 
 retain the lines of strength and beauty, and the possibility of 
 reconstruction. The humblest and most exalted have dis- 
 covered that in Christ they find the necessary guidance for
 
 916 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 inspiration. For all sorts and conditions of men, the Son of 
 God and the Son of Man has undoubted sympathy. Now, as 
 in ancient times, he is moved by an irresistible impulse to 
 teach the gospel of the kingdom to the poor, to heal the broken- 
 hearted, to bring deliverance to the captive and recovery of 
 sight to the blind. This love of Christ floods the soul. It is 
 confined to no favored people. It seeks the worshiper at the 
 altar of Buddha, as well as the one who bows before the throne 
 of Jehovah. It expresses itself in the lofty hymn of the 
 Vedas. It wings with love the maxims of Confucius. It burns 
 in the high places of Schiraz and Mecca, and adds fire to the 
 moralities of Solomon and Aurelius. Salvation in the Uni- 
 versalist view is character based upon the eternal principles of 
 right. Penitence is its perfection, its goal. It can be alone 
 realized when it is universal. In the far-off but coming time 
 the divine love will touch into light and love every created 
 being. . 
 
 Other addresses dealing with almost every form of Christian 
 ethics, from the problem of natural evil and sin to the attitude 
 of science toward religion, as well as the presentation of uni- 
 versalism as a doctrine of the scriptures and its contribution to 
 the faith of the world, were delivered at the various sessions. 
 The leading speakers were: Rev. Dr. Everett Levi Rexford, 
 Boston, Mass.; Pres. Elmer H. Capen, D. D., Massachusetts; 
 Rev. Dr. J. Smith Dodge, Stamford, Conn.; Rev. Dr. Edwin C. 
 Sweetser, Philadelphia, Pa.; Rev. Edgar Leavitt, Santa Cruz, 
 Cal. ; Rev. Dr. George H. Emerson, Boston, Mass. ; Rev. Mas- 
 sena Goodrich, Pawtucket, R. I.; Rev. Dr. Charles Fluhrer, 
 Grand Rapids, Mich.; Pres. Isaac M. Atwood, D. D., Canton, 
 N. Y. ; Rev. Dr. Henry Blanchford, Portland, Maine; Rev. 
 Olympia Brown Willis, Racine, Wis.; Rev. A. N. Alcott, 
 Elgin, 111.; Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Sawyer, College Hill, Mass.; 
 Rev. N. White, Ph. D., Galesburg, 111. ; Rev. Dr. George L. 
 Perin, Tokio, Japan; Mrs. M. R. M. Wallace, Chicago, 111.; 
 Mrs. Cordelia A. Quinby, Augusta, Maine; Lee E. Joslyn, Bay 
 City, Mich.; Rev. Dr. Alonzo Ames Miner, LL.D., Boston,
 
 CONGRESS OF DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 917 
 
 Mass.; Rev. Dr. John Wesley Hanson, Chicago; Rev. Dr. 
 Stephen Crane, Earlville, 111.; Rev. Dr. Edward C. Bolles, New 
 York City; Rev. Dr. C. Ellwood Nash, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rev. 
 Di-. James M. Pullman, Lynn, Mass. 
 
 CONGRESS OF DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 
 
 An interesting congress of this denomination began on 
 Wednesday, September 13th, and continued until Thursday eve- 
 ning. The presiding officer was T. P. Haley of Kansas City. 
 Some excitement was caused by an address of Regent H. W. 
 Everest of Carbondale, 111., on "The Church of Christ in the 
 First Century." Mr. Everest remarked that the 1st Christian 
 century was the culmination of all that had gone before in the 
 history of redemption. The miraculous presence and power of 
 the Holy Spirit were peculiar to the apostolic age, and it is 
 beyond controversy that no miraculous endowments are now in 
 possession of the church. He claimed that episcopacy and 
 papacy are unsupported pretensions, and that councils, whether 
 ecumenical or otherwise, and assemblies, whether general or 
 provincial, are without legislative authority. " Every man," said 
 he, "has free access to the word of God and every man must 
 interpret the word for himself. Every institution of the 
 church has been changed and marred by unholy hands. All 
 the streams of religious teachings have been polluted by theo- 
 logical speculations and priestly abuses. All the officers and 
 organizations of the church have been prostituted to worldly 
 gain. Could we but reproduce the church of the 1st century 
 in its spirit and power with our millions of money and millions 
 of men, and with our peaceable access to all tril)es and nations 
 of the earth, all the kingdoms of tnis world would soon 
 oecome the one kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 
 
 S. B. Power of Washington spoke on " Christian L^nion," 
 and the " Church of the Future" was described by Rev. W. T. 
 Moore as being undoubtedly Episcopalian because it would be 
 governed by bishops or overseers, Presbyterian because it
 
 918 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 would be governed by presbyters or elders, and Congregational 
 because the whole assembly would be the final source of appeal 
 with respect to all matters of governmental authority. 
 
 During the rest of the congresses the presiding officers were: 
 W. F. Black, Pastor of the Central Church of Christ, Chicago; 
 lion. T. W. Phillips of Pennsylvania; J. C. Keith, President 
 of Irvington College, California, and W. B. Craig of Den- 
 ver, Colo. Prepared papers were read as follows: "The 
 Higher Criticism," by A. Proctor of Independence, Mo.; 
 " Biblical Anthropology," by J. H. Garrison, St. Louis, Mo,; 
 " Christianity the Only Solution of the Problems of the Age," 
 by B. J. Eadford, LL.D., Cincinnati, Ohio; " The Creed That 
 Needs no Revision," by E. V. Zollars, President Hiram College, 
 Ohio; " The Promise of Christian Union in the Signs of the 
 Times," by B. B. Tyler of New York City. 
 
 An interesting paper was read by Hon, W. D. Owen of 
 Washington, D. C, It sets forth that religion is a necessity of 
 the times. " One of the charges made against Socrates," 
 said Mr, Owen, " was that he corrupted the Athenian youth 
 by teaching them disrespect for the gods." Continuing, Mr. 
 Owen said: 
 
 But he did not teach them a disrespect for virtue or truth or religion, 
 and he was the greatest blessing 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 infidelity but from too much religion. Sujjerstition is 
 religion gone mad, and Paul believed Christianity could give to this throne 
 of the intellectual world a philosophy and a faith, and hence a salvation it 
 had never apprehended. Athens was the best that was ever left over from 
 the era of the wise men. He continued: 
 
 Man does not appear to be satisfied in an associated community these 
 days without a dispenser of religious rights. " Even Hume, the infidel, said: 
 "Look out for a people entirely void of religion, and if you find them at all 
 be assured they are but a few degrees removed from the brutes." Many 
 people crowd to hear Ingei'soll read ribald, blasphemous jests, but he 
 vittered the pain in his heart and the real sentiments of the masses, when a 
 friend, jjointing to his infidel library, asked him what it cost, and he said: 
 "The governorship of Illinois." No well-known mfidel can be elected Pres- 
 ident of the United States. The foundation upon which humanity stands 
 is revealed in every nation by the relations between church and state. 
 Even in America, where there is no legislative union of church and state, 
 the weakness of the state is sustained by an unwritten alliance with the 
 church. What made New England great and enabled her to dominate for 
 100 J ears the literature, politics, and policies of America was not wealth, 
 uor soil, nor seaboard, lor had not Virginia and Carolina those in a surpris 
 ing legree?
 
 T. W. PALMER, 
 President World's Columbian Commission.
 
 NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH CONGRESS. 919 
 
 It was because the church influenced the character of tne people, pre- 
 served their virtue, modified their laws, elevated their literature, and gave 
 direction to the current of their thought. And while we sometimes flout 
 at Plymouth Rock and Puritanical ideas, the Puritanism of Now England is 
 the seed from which the Republic sprang, and is the glory of the nation. 
 The primary influence of the Bible is its fund of historical fact. It holds a 
 scepter over all other books, because of the breadth of its information. 
 Across the waste of forgotten centuries it comes to us bearing the burden 
 of a great history, with all its pages signed by the hand of God. This book 
 begins in the darkness of the world's morning before the day has beguu to 
 dawn and moves with the ever-widening stream of human existence for 
 forty centuries down to the cross. 
 
 NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH CONGRESS. 
 
 This congress began on Wednesday, September 13th, and 
 continued until Saturday, September 16th. The subjects dis- 
 cussed covered a wide range, including a review of the position 
 and prospects of the church in various parts of the United 
 States, Europe, Africa, Australasia, and India. The speakers 
 were: Rev. Frank Sewell, A. M., Washington; Rev. G. N. 
 Smith, Michigan; Rev. James Reed, Massachusetts; Rev. L. H. 
 Tafel, A. M., Ohio; Rev. Thomas A. King, Illinois; Rev. John 
 Goddard, Ohio; Rev. John Presland, London, England; Rev. 
 S. S. Seward, New York; Rev. John Worcester, Massachusetts; 
 Rev. Adolph Roeder, New Jersey; Rev. 0. J. N. Manby, Got- 
 tenburg, Sweden; James Speirs, England; Rev. Fedor Gor- 
 witz, Switzerland; Rev. W. H. Hinkley, Massachusetts- Rev. 
 J. J. Thornton; Rev. G. L. Allbatt, Canada; Rev. A. F. Frost, 
 Michigan; Rev. J. K. Smith, Massachusetts; Rev. J. C. Ager, 
 New York; Rev. Thomas Child, England; Rev. S. 0. Eby, 
 Illinois; Rev. P. B. Cabell, Delaware; Rev. T. F. Wright, 
 Ph. D., Massachusetts; Signor Loreto Scocia, Italy; Rev. C. 
 H. Mann, New York; Miss Angeline Brooks, New York; Mrs. 
 J. R. Hibbard, Philadelphia; Miss Rowe, London, England; 
 Miss Mary L. Barton, Washington, D. C; Mrs. S. S. Seward, 
 New York; Mrs. A. H. Putnam; Mrs. T. F. Houts, Indiana; 
 Miss Selma Paine, Maine; Miss Edna C. Silver, Massachusetts; 
 Miss Mary A. Lathbury, New York; Rev. J. K. Smyth, 
 Massachusetts.
 
 920 THE Parliament of religions. 
 
 Rev. L. P. Mercer, who was the chairman of the initial 
 meeting, replied to an address of welcome by C. C. Bonney, 
 and set forth the attitude of this church as follows: "There 
 are abundant reasons why the New Church should enter cor- 
 dially and actively into preparations for a world's congress of 
 religions. The youngest of the historic faiths, it reaches back 
 to embrace the oldest and to complete and crown them all with 
 the final revelation which restored their pristine wisdom and 
 divine sanctions. The Lord always makes use of men as His 
 instruments on earth for the revelation of His truth to man- 
 kind. The whole course of His providence in this respect has 
 been to reveal, through suitable men, the truth needed for the 
 institution of a new era of the jhurch. And we believe that, 
 even as Christ promised to come again to men. He has accom- 
 plished His second advent in the opening of the spiritual sense 
 and divine meaning of the written word through the human 
 instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg. The New Church, 
 therefore, stands for a new revelation from the Lord, not in the 
 new sacred scripture, but in the opening of the spiritual sense 
 and genuine meaning of the word given in the Old and New 
 Testaments. The New Church is as wide as human need and 
 as universal and impartial as divine love. It transcends sect 
 and nation, and extends by invisible chains of influx from 
 society to society, binding all who love the Lord and work 
 righteousness into one grand man, of which the divine man is 
 the transforming soul." 
 
 Rev. J. K. Smyth of Roxbury, Mass., spoke ably on "The 
 Mission of the New Church to the Christian World." This 
 mission, he said, was to bear unanimous and unfaltering witness 
 to the divine character of the written word and of Jesus Christ, 
 in whom its revelations are forever embodied and verified. 
 
 Speaking on " The New Church Doctrine of Salvation as a 
 Basis of Universal Faith," Rev. S. S. Seward of New York 
 explained the position of the church as follows: "Redemption 
 is one thing, salvation is another. Redemption is the divine 
 work wrought in the world by the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby
 
 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST CONGRESS. 921 
 
 He delivered men from the infestation and dominion of hell and 
 made them free to choose good or evil, a freedom which is 
 essential to salvation. This was done without man's knowledge 
 or consent. Salvation is a divine work operated in the 
 soul by the Lord with the co-operation of man. It is an 
 actual, and not merely a legal, salvation. It is the deliverance 
 of man, not merely from the penalty of sin but from the sin 
 itself and from its power. It is a present, and not merely a 
 future, salvation. It will not so change man's being as to 
 render him incapable of thinking or committing sin, but it 
 endows him with power under God to resist it and gradually by 
 orderly processes to rise above and overcome them. Its effect 
 is not only to save men from the outer and grosser manifesta- 
 tions of evil but from the secret and impure lusts and desires 
 from which they spring. The way of salvation is to look to the 
 Lord and shun evil as sin." 
 
 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST CONGRESS. 
 
 The Seventh-Day Baptist Congress was held the IGth and 
 17th of September. Their radical views upon the day of the 
 Sabbath attracted unusual attention, for they are so nearly in 
 unison with the Baptist denomination on all other points that 
 there could be no excuse for their remaining a separate people, 
 save only that they hold to the original Sabbath, the seventh or 
 last day of the week, instead of Sunday, the first day. This 
 view is set forth by Dr. A. H. Lewis, editor of Evangel and 
 Sahhath Outlook, as follows: 
 
 We are Seventh-Day Baptists: Because we believe that the Bible 
 is the only rule of faith and practice for Christians. Because we believe 
 that the laws contained in the Decalogue are universal as to applica- 
 tion, and eternal as to obligation, although, like all the Bible, they wore 
 given to the world through the Hebrew nation. We believe that Christ 
 "fulfilled," enlarged, and pruned these laws, thus Christianizing them. His 
 precepts and example did this for the Sabbath and the Fourth Command- 
 ment. He took them out of their Jewish setting, fitted them for the new 
 dispensation, and declared that the Sabbath, thus enlarged and Christian- 
 ized, " was made for man."' We do not believe that any man has the power 
 or liberty to abrogate or disregard what Christ thus established; and we 
 know that Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, held this view when he 
 r.aid: " Do we, then, make the law of none effect through faith? God for- 
 bid! nay, we establish the law." (Rom. iii., 31.) We believe as Christ and 
 Paul both teach, that there can be no sin where there is no law, and hence
 
 922 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 that the gospel of salvation from sin through Christ is a mockery, unless 
 the Decalogue remains in force for all times and for all people. Our faith 
 is made doubly " evangelical " by such a conception of the universal reg- 
 nancy of law, and we escape the ruin which " No Lawism " always brings, 
 however its advocates may attempt to patch up its incompleteness by 
 compromises. 
 
 We 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 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 resurrection was made known to 
 His disciples. The Bible does not state that Christ rose from the grave on 
 Sunday. It never connects the observance of any day with His resurrec- 
 tion. It never draws any comparison between the " work of creation and 
 the work of redemption" nor attempts the impossible task of saying which 
 of two infinite works is " the greater." All these assumptions have been 
 made by men, to support a practice w^hich has no foundation in the New 
 Testament nor in the example of Christ. With these and many similar 
 facts before us, as " Bible Christians " we are compelled to reject the claims 
 of Sunday. 
 
 The earliest period of the history of Seventh-Day Baptists is contempo- 
 raneous with Christianity. No well-informed man denies that Christ, His 
 apostles, and the earliest Christians kept the Sabbath. There is no definite 
 trace of regard for Sunday, on the part of Chi'istians, in post New Testa- 
 ment times, earlier than the middle of the 2d century, when it came in 
 as a part of the paganizing influence of that and subsequent centuries. 
 Historians all agree that the Sabbath continued and was observed after 
 the Sunday began to be regarded, down to the 4th or 5th century. 
 
 After Christianity was made the religion of the Roman Empire, in the 
 4th century, and Sunday legislation began under Constantine, Sabbath- 
 keeping and all else, doctrinal and practical, which was not in accord with 
 the prevailing Greek philosophies and the Roman state-church theories, 
 rapidly disappeared. The antecedent influences which culminated in the 
 organization of the Seventh-Day Baptists began at that time. Many Chi'is- 
 tians then dissented from the popular errors which gave birth to the papal 
 power. For several centuries these dissenters were numerous and active 
 in the mountains between Italy and Prance, and, broken as their history 
 is, and bloody with persecution, we know that many of them were Sabbath- 
 keeping Baptists. When the light of the Reformation began to dawn, 
 scattered Seventh-Day Baptists appeared on the continent of Europe, 
 especially in Bohemia and Transylvania. When the wave of reformation 
 reached England. English-speaking Seventh-Day Baptists became a promi- 
 nent and influential factor in the entire field of reform. The " Puritan 
 Sabbath " theory of the change of the day, and the transfer of the Fourth 
 Commandment to Sunday, was a compromise between the views of the 
 Seventh-Day Baptists and the " ecclesiastical theory " held by the Roman- 
 ists and the Church of England. It was the attempt of the Puritans 
 (Nicholas Bound, 1595 A. D.) to raise a flag of truce between the Bible and 
 the pagan state-church theories. 
 
 The Seventh-Day Baptists were organized in America (Newport, R. I., 
 Philadelphia, Pa.), from 1671 A. D., forward. Their mission has been to 
 preserve and exalt the doctrine of complete obedience to the Bible, as 
 against the semi-biblical and semi-traditional theories which Protestants 
 inherited from the Romish Church, and which have remained peculiarly 
 strong, so far as Sunday observance is concerned. The rapid and ruinous 
 reaction toward Sabbathlessness in the United States and in Europe, and 
 the collapse of the "civil Sunday" theories, indicate that th e " hearing,"
 
 SEVENTH-DAir BAPTIST CONGRESS. 923 
 
 which the Seventh-Day Baptists have so long demanded for God's Word 
 and His Sabbath is near at hand, and that the real seventh day, "Satur- 
 day," will play a prominent part in the near future of the Sabbath 
 question. 
 
 The opening address was by the Chairman, Prof. William A. 
 Rogers, Ph. D., LL.D. of Waterville, Maine, whose topic was 
 "The Limitations of Christian Fellowship." He said in part: 
 
 Diversity of opinion is so common in the world it must be the result in 
 part of the natural organization of the human mind. It is natural for 
 those who think alike in religiovis matters to organize into 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 thjse of different yet pos- 
 itive convictions. The proper aim of a religious organization is the appli- 
 cation of the fundamental principles of the gospel to our daily life. 
 Seventh-Day Baptists can do more good in the world by rem;fining a 
 separate organization than if they were submerged in the regular Baptist 
 denomination. We believe there are excellent Christians in all evangelical 
 denominations. We ought not to make the mistake of believing tliat a 
 strict adherence to a single commandment regardless of moral conduct will 
 make us any the more accejjted of God or respected of men. 
 
 Rev. O. U. Whitford, D. D., General Secretary of the 
 Seventh-Day Baptist Missionary Society, presented a "Review 
 of Onr Mission Work" at their missionary session, showing that 
 mission work has engaged the attention of the denomination 
 through all their history. At the present time they are prose- 
 cuting the home-work in about twenty-five 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 years 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, tract distribution, etc, the 
 second includes both day schools and boarding schools for boys 
 and for girls; the third includes private practice and extensive 
 dispensary and hospital departments. The "missionary ses- 
 sion," as a whole, especially the various details given in Secre- 
 tary 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
 
 924 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 and now are among the foremost in the work of evangelical 
 missions. 
 
 Rev. L. E. Livermore, editor of the Sahhath Recorder, 
 Alfred Centre, N. Y., presented a " Review of our Tract Work," 
 in which he gave a history of the publishing interests of the 
 Seventh-Day Baptists. This showed that special publications 
 upon the Sabbath question were issued by them during the 
 latter half of the last century, and that definite steps toward 
 permanent publishing interests were taken as early as 1819. 
 Their publishing house, under the management of the Ameri- 
 can Sabbath Tract Society, is located at Alfred Centre, N. Y., 
 from which various periodicals and numerous "tracts" are 
 issued. These deal with all the phases of denominational work, 
 with the " Sabbath question " in its various phases, and with 
 evangelical Christianity, Mr. Livermore made special mention 
 of the Sabbath Outlook, formerly a quarterly and monthly, 
 now a weekly — Evangel and Sahhath Outlooli — which has pur- 
 sued the work of original investigation concerning the history 
 of Saturday and Sunday over a wide field. Many readers of tliis 
 book will recognize this paper, which has reached the clergy- 
 meri of the United States and Canada most of the time for ten 
 years past. Many who have not accepted all of the conclusions of 
 the Seventh -Day Baptists bear testimony to the able and liberal 
 manner in which these conclusions have been set forth. 
 
 The presentation session of the Seventh -Day Baptists was 
 held in the Hall of Washington on Sunday morning, September 
 17th. A paper by W. C. Whitford, D. D., president of Milton 
 College, on "The Growth of Our Churches in America," showed 
 that the denomination now has 100 churches, 110 active min- 
 isters, and about 10,000 church members, and that it has had a 
 history of 222 years in this country. He said: 
 
 Our churches do not lose heart in the prolonged and unequal struggle 
 of Sabbath reform. We are persuaded that it is not alone our cause, but 
 belongs to our Master, and the final acceptance of His revealed truth by 
 His followers and the gainsaying world. We believe that as nature in any 
 of its operations seems to care less for the quantities than the intensity of 
 the forces brought into requisition, so God in the prosecution of this Sab- 
 bath 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,
 
 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST CONGRESS. 925 
 
 and intelligent service of those who gain admission into His presence and 
 desire to be obedient to His will. 
 
 Edwin H. Lewis, Ph. D., of the University of Chicago, on 
 
 " Our Work for Education," said: 
 
 There arethi-ee colleges controlled by Seventh-Day Baptists— Alfred Uni- 
 versity, at Alfred Centre, Allegany Co., N. Y.; Milton College, at Milton, 
 Rock Co., Wis., and Salem College, at Salem, Harrison Co., W, Va. Those 
 institutions are notable, (a) fur the enthusiasm with which they arc regarded 
 by students of other denominations. This is ijartly due to the tolerance of 
 Seventh-Day Baptists, who have not made the Puritan mistake of insisting 
 on their own rights of religious libertj' while calmly disregarding those of 
 others, (b) These institutions are further notable for the number of their 
 alumni who are teachers. 'J hese are to be found in colleges of the rank of 
 Harvard, Yale, the Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Colby, the Universities of 
 Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, and the State of New York (Secretary of the 
 Regents). These schools have produced their ratio of able ijublic men, who 
 have held places in the Presidents Cabinet and on the supreme bench 
 of various States. These colleges have placed character before intellect; 
 have kept " men thinliing " from degenerating into pedants; have been hot- 
 beds of generous emotion and noble action; have inspired lasting love for 
 the intellectual life and enthusiasm for mental labor; have taken early part 
 in every important moral reform; have always admitted women on equal 
 terms with men. The influence of such men as Kenyon, Allen, and Whit- 
 ford upon the students of these colleges has been widespread, lasting, and 
 in the highest sense potent for good. 
 
 The last paper was by the Eev. A. H. Lewds, D. D., of 
 Plainfield, N. J., upon "Our Attitude on the Sabbath Ques- 
 tion." He said: 
 
 The closing decade of this century marks an important epoch of transi- 
 tion touching the Sabbath question. Two prominent streams of influence 
 have aided in hastening the epoch: One, the widesjjread 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 Chriot'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 fli-st Sunday law, 321 A. D., had 
 not the slightest 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 " Vener- 
 able Day of the Sun." It was in all respects at one with the prevailing 
 legislation concerning other pagan festivals. 
 
 If it be granted, for sake of illustration, that Sunday is sacred under 
 the Fourth Commandment and ought to be kept in place of the Sabbath, 
 the reasons for rejecting Sunday laws are much iutensifled. The history 
 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 Sunday engenderedby 
 Puritan and Roman Catholic compromise. We mourn over the growing 
 Sabbathlessness in the church and in the world. We deplore the errors 
 which have produced it and the evils which attend it. But we can not shut 
 our eyes to the fact that, in attempting to avoid the claims of the Sabbath, 
 Christian men have created the influences which have so nearly destroyed 
 Sunday. When the church compromises with the law of God until it is
 
 926 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 rendered nugatory, and appeals to the civil law to support its errors, such 
 results as are at hand can not 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 Caesar's. 
 
 ' CONGRESS OF THEOSOPHISTS. 
 
 A very large congregation assembled in Hall 7, September 
 14:th, to assist in the Congress of the Theosophists. The' 
 audience included Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Con- 
 gregationalists, Methodists, and members of other denomina- 
 tions. George E. Wright of Chicago was the presiding 
 officer. 
 
 Prof. G. U. Gyanendra H. Chakravarti of Allahabad, India, 
 delivered a learned address on the " Theosophical Doctrine 
 of Unity." In the course of his exposition, he said: 
 
 Theosophy in its highest aspects is transcendental in the extreme. It 
 is, in fact, unrepresentable and ineffable. These higher aspects are to be 
 attained only by long series of discipline and contemplation according to 
 the scriptures of the East. Since it was useless to attempt any exposition 
 of that which could not be spoken, the attempt of modern Theosophy is 
 to bring some part of the truth to the plane of intellectual demonstration, 
 so that it may be appreciated by the mass of the people. If it does noth- 
 ing better than to teach the divine truth of brotherhood, it will be the 
 grandest of religions and entitled to the reverence of the whole world. Its 
 doctrine of brotherhood is based upon scientific demonstration, and is the 
 only essential doctrine imposed upon those who accept the system. Aside 
 from this, Theosophy aims to give some method of tearing aside the deep 
 veil of mystery which has ever surrounded the eternal light of Deity. In 
 addition, it shows the fundamental truth of all the religion of the world. 
 It shows also, in defense of its doctrine of universal brotherhood, that all 
 creatures sprung from the same source and are destined to undergo the 
 same processes of evolution and ultimately to return to the same sources 
 from which they came. It involves everything from the lowest protoplasm 
 to the highest organism. It regards all animals as waiting their time to 
 reach man's estate, and it represents each as a candidate for those higher 
 and diviner states of existence toward which man is tending, but which he 
 does not now dream of. God pervades the whole universe, and dwells in all 
 things, and all things are one with God. 
 
 H. Dharmapala of Ceylon spoke of Theosophy as the under- 
 lying truth of all the world's scriptures, and Mrs. Annie Besant 
 of London discussed Theosophy as the system of truths dis- 
 coverable and easily verified by perfected man. These truths, 
 she held, are preserved in their purity by the great brotherhood 
 of initiates and the masters of wisdom, who promulgate them 
 more and more fully as the evolution of man permits. She
 
 CONGRESS OF THEOSOPHISTS. 927 
 
 contended that Mabatmas are a reasonable product in the 
 course of evolution, but intimated that those who do not wish to 
 believe in their existences might, under the rules of the society, 
 freely reject the theory. 
 
 Miss F. Henrietta Muller of Loudon read a paper on Theos- 
 ophy as found in the Hebrew books and in the New Testament. 
 She maintained that all scriptures are true at the bottom, and 
 that all the saviors of the world were Christs, though known 
 by different names. 
 
 At one of the meetings William Q. Judge of New York 
 offered an apology for not opening the exercises with prayer. 
 He said Theosophists believed in Christ's direction to pray in 
 secret, and consequently did not address the throne of grace in 
 market-places or in the streets, as their Christian brothers did 
 and as the ancient Pharisees used to do. 
 
 Claude F. Wright, in speaking of the organization, auton- 
 omy, and methods of the Theosophical Society, condemned 
 England for endeavoring to force the English established 
 religion upon India. Owing to this effort on the part of Great 
 Britain, the Theosophists of India have espoused the cause of 
 the Buddhists and succeeded in establishing more than sixty 
 Buddhist schools in Ceylon. 
 
 Dr. Jerome A. Andereon of San Francisco spoke of the 
 incarnation of the law of nature, holding that there is no prob- 
 lem which does not yield before the doctrine of reincarnation 
 and the law of Karma. 
 
 " Theosophy and Modern Social Problems " was ably dis- 
 cussed by Mrs. Annie Besant of London, at one of the sessions, 
 in her usual clear-cut and forceful style. In the course of her 
 remarks, she said: 
 
 We have laws enough, a mass of enactment, which, carried out, would 
 make the frightful poverty of to-day impossible, and our i)resent misery 
 only a nightmare of the past. This mass of law is the outcome of the 
 thought of a few enlightened men, which originated in the minds of a 
 thoughtful few, and, passing thi-ough the astral light, became embodied in 
 our statutes and in our laws. As to the law on sweating, there are enougli 
 enactments to make it impossible if they were carried out, but the law i>! 
 evaded, and sweatius goes on as if there were no law. Those who ary 
 oppressed by it are themselves Accomplices to the evasion. Every man who 
 is willing to take more than he gives, and who grasps more than ho
 
 928 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 deserves, who lives on his neighbor without making any compensation, who 
 preys with his strength upon the weakness of others, who wears clothing 
 which he knows has cost the life-blood of thousands of poor innocent 
 women, is a sweater at heart, and sets up causes which effectually prevent 
 the operation of the law. Sushis the effect of thought upon our social 
 condition. It is valueless to denounce the sweater when a man in his heart 
 desires the continuation of sweating. We should give up selfish competi- 
 tion in the schools. We should abolish competition for prizes merely for 
 the sake of gaining the advantage of another. Such competitions distort 
 the dwelling of the soul, which education is designed to expand. It makes 
 a child rejoice in those things which causes another to stumble, and warps 
 and distorts the whole spiritual nature of the child. The faculties of mind 
 are given to us for help and not for domination. 
 
 All the sessions of this congress, which continued three days, 
 were equally interesting. Every phase of Theosophy was dis- 
 cussed and the position combated that theosophy is hostile to 
 science. Among the leading persons who aided in the delib- 
 erations were Nasarvanji Billmoria, P. T. S. ; Dr. J. D. Buck, 
 Mrs. Marcie M. Thirde of Chicago, and Mrs. Isabel Cooper- 
 Oakley of London. 
 
 UNITARIAN CHURCH CONGRESS. 
 
 Every phase of the Unitarian Church movement was con- 
 sidered at a congress which began September 16th and con- 
 tinued to September 23d. Each session drew together a large 
 and responsive audience, and the various addresses were 
 received with earnest attention. At the initial session, Rev. 
 Theo. Williams of New York discussed the representative men 
 of the Unitarian movement. The Rev. M. St. C. Wright of New 
 York read an interesting paper on the "Theological Method of 
 the Movement " and Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer of Providence, 
 R. I., grew eloquent upon " The Church of the Spirit." Other 
 essayists were Rev. Augustus M. Lord, Rev. F. G. Peabody of 
 Cambridge, Mass., and Rev. Horatio Stebbins of San Francisco. 
 S. R. Calthrop of Syracuse, N. Y., spoke on "Problems of Evil.'' 
 
 Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant of England was called upon 
 
 for an address and spoke in her customary entertaining and 
 
 catholic spirit. She said: 
 
 There are three steps to religion. The first is soap and water, the 
 second is plenty to eat and good cooking, and the third stage is good clothes. 
 One of the greatest helps toward religion is smiles and laughter. Let all
 
 REV. DR. W. F. BLACK, LL. D. 
 Chairman Foreign Committee.
 
 UNITARIAN CHURCH CONGRESS. 929 
 
 the sunshine come into our lives as much as possible. The world was a 
 very pleasant place to live in in the olden days, and is very pleasant even 
 now, if we keep in the sunshine as much as possible and takt; the rain jj;<)od- 
 naturedly. We should not sigh for the days that are gone by. There is no 
 returning over the path of life. The dark bridge that spans the stream of 
 time falls down with every step, and we look back into chaotic darkness 
 and at our feet lies a gulf whose bottom we can not see, so deep is it. There 
 is no turning back — we must push forward, and it behooves us to i)ush for- 
 ward bravely and merrily, and not sit by the roadside sulking and longing 
 for opportunities while opportunities are slipping by. We miss a great 
 deal of the happiness of to-day by dreaming of the happiness that is gone. 
 
 Speaking of the Parliament of Religions, Mrs. Chant said 
 that it has marked a milestone on the road to progress, and that 
 in the years that are to come the people of the next generation 
 will look back upon this time with wonder, and it shall be 
 remembered as the settlement of all the differences existing 
 between the kindred religions. 
 
 At a subsequent session a paper was read by Rev. T. R. 
 Slicer of Buffalo giving the history of Unitarianism, " From 
 the Sermon on the Mount to the Nicine Creed." The reverend 
 gentleman contended that the thought of the trinity in God 
 was unknown until near the beginning of the 3d century. He 
 said: 
 
 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 subordination of Christ to 
 God, or claimed Him to be otherwise than a representative of the Father. 
 The rank growth of dogma began in the 3d century. The Holy Ghost was 
 not given a place as the Third Person of God until the 8th century. The 
 true, original Unitarians were the Jews of the 1st century, but those now 
 known as early Unitarians were those who sought to revive the simple 
 primitive faith in the unity of God of the earh^ Christians. 
 
 The history of the Liberal Movement in France was briefly 
 sketched by Professor Bonet-Maury of Paris. He called the 
 roll of the Frenchmen whose inborn love of liberty in thought 
 had added to history and letters much of value. 
 
 Rev. F. W. N. Hugenholtz reported for Unitarianism in the 
 Netherlands. He said there is by name no such thing as a 
 Unitarian Church in the Netherlands, but there exists a strong, 
 healthy movement toward the breadth of modern thought, for 
 which the Unitarian Church has come to stand, as against 
 dogmatic, creed-bound methods. He paid a grateful tribute to 
 Keremen and other teachers, who have shown how much nearer
 
 930 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 to faith is honest doubt than the most elaborate confession of 
 faith. 
 
 At the evening session Prof. Carl von Bergen of Stockholm 
 spoke of the work in Scandinavia, and papers were read cover- 
 ing the history of American Unitarianism before and during 
 the transcendental period, written respectively by Kevs. J. H. 
 Allen and George H. Batchelor. Kev. John C. Learned of St. 
 Louis discussed the " Post-Transcendental Period of Unitari- 
 anism." He began by asserting that there was no such penod 
 in Unitarianism history. Continuing, Mr. Learned said: 
 
 The impulse given by Paulsen and Emerson 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 heightened, 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 abolition of slavery brought limitless possibilities of material 
 and spiritual advancement. The Unitarian denomination shared in the 
 new hopes, invoked the spirit of organization, and the growth in breadth 
 and depth goes on steadily and rapidly. 
 
 Among other addresses, the following were notable. " On 
 the Theological Emancipation of Women," by Miss Mary 
 Cohen of Philadelphia; Miss Jane Patterson of Boston; Miss 
 Marion Murdock of Cleveland, and Miss Edna D. Cheney of 
 Boston. 
 
 The congress was brought to a close with addresses by 
 Rabbi Hirsch of Chicago, Rev. Dr. Canfield, and Nagarkar of 
 India, all of whom were in full sympathy with the work under 
 review 
 
 ADVENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Members and friends of this church met in congress on Sep- 
 tember 14th, in one of the small halls. Three sessions were held. 
 Eev. D. R. Mansfield delivered an eloquent introductory address, 
 and papers were read by the following: " On the Basis of Faith," 
 by Rev. W. Hobbs of Minneapolis; "The Kingdom of God," 
 by Rev. J. W. Davis, Bridgeport, Conn.; "Immortality Condi- 
 tional," by Rev. Miles Grant of Boston; "The Resurrection,'' 
 by A. W. Sibley of Haverhill, Mass.; "The Extinction of
 
 UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH. 931 
 
 Evil," by Eev. William Sheldon of Broadliead, Wis.; "Resti- 
 tution," by Mrs. E. S.Mansfield of Chicago, and " Proximity," 
 by Rev. A. J. Wheeler, editor Cliristian Recorder., Concord, 
 N. H. A feature of this congress was the excellent musical exer- 
 cises conducted by Rev. H. Pollard, editor of Our Hope, Men- 
 dota, 111., Prof, A. A. Stoddard officiating at the organ 
 
 UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH. 
 
 This congress completed its labors in one session, September 
 14th. J. Weaver, D. D., Senior Bishop of the Church, pre- 
 sided, and it was decided to present the following subject to the 
 Parliament of Religions: "The origin of the United Breth- 
 ren Church," by Prof. A. W. Drury; " Its Polity; " by Prof. 
 J. S. Mills, D. D., Ph. D.; "Its Doctrine," by Rev. J. W. 
 Etter, D. D.; "Its Educational Work," by Pres. f. J. 
 Sanders, Ph. D. ; " Its Missionary Work," by Rev. Wm. McKee ; 
 "Its Sabbath-School Work," by Pres. J. A. Weller, D. D.; 
 " Its Attitude Toward Questions of Moral Reform," by Rev. 
 I L. Kephart, D. D. 
 
 REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 On September 14th there was a large attendance in Wash- 
 ington Hall to listen to the presentation of the Reformed Epis- 
 copal Church. Rt. Rev. Charles Edward Cheney presided, and 
 papers were presented as follows: " The Historical Position of 
 the Reformed Episcopal Church," by Mr. Charles D. Kellogg 
 of New York; " The Distinctive Principles of the Reformed 
 Episcopal Church," by Rev. Benjamin T. Noakes, D. D., Cleve- 
 land, Ohio; " Minor Problems of the Reformed Episcopal 
 Church," by Mrs. Lucie Brotherson Tyng of Peoria, 111.; 
 "The Outlook and Opportunities of the Reformed Episcopal 
 Church," by Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows, D. D.
 
 032 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 A presentation of this church took place on Sunday, Sep- 
 tember 17th. Three sessions were held in the Hall of Washing- 
 ton, each meeting being largely attended. Eev. Dr. Withrow 
 of Chicago presided. In his opening remarks he said: 
 
 Presbyterians do not have to sign any creed, as the church is not partic- 
 ular about putting its members through queries about a creed. A minister 
 of the faith might even go out of the way so far as to indicate that he 
 would not find his way back before the dogs would be sent after him. But 
 if the church took action in such a case the action would be positive and 
 emphatic. 
 
 Professor Zenus of McCormick's Theological Seminary 
 spoke on "Presbyterian History." He said: 
 
 In its conception and in its growth Presbyterianism has shown great 
 vigor. It has required but two conditions for its successful propagation. 
 These are the careful study of the scriptures and liberty for its adherents 
 to organize under its provisions and set it working. It has flourished even 
 in spite of the absence of these conditions. It was from the first a plant of 
 vigorous life, evincing its vigor and at the same time increasing it by the 
 very effort to overcome the power of unfavorable conditions. In Switzer- 
 land its career has been one of uninterrupted success. In France its course 
 has been characterized by true heroic endurance and resistance, which, if 
 not crowned with success, have been the source and occasion of stimulated 
 spiritual life elsewhere. In Holland its no less heroic struggle was better 
 rewarded, and the reformed church of that country, having learned from 
 their own sufferings to sympathize with those who struggled against 
 oppression, offered their land as an asylum of refuge to the brethren of our 
 countries. After briefly reviewing the early history of Presbyterianism in 
 England, Ireland, and Scotland during the 10th and 17th centuries, 
 Professor Zenus told of its transplantation into this country in the 
 colonial days. Its local centers were New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
 and the Carolinas. The young church was for years afliliated with the 
 mother church in Holland, Germany, France, Scotland, and England. He 
 claimed that the Presbyterian church is especially adapted to American 
 soil, and that its main principles are the same as those of the American 
 constitution. Professor Zenus was followed by Prof. Timothy Darling 
 of Auburn Theological Seminary, New York, who rehearsed some of the 
 distinctive doctrines of Presbyterianism. 
 
 Kev. W. Shaff, Jacksonville, 111., spoke on " Presbyterianism 
 and Education." 
 
 In the early church the alliance between education and religion was 
 illustrated by St. Paul. In the middle ages the monastery was the center 
 of education. Presbyterianism has magnified the sermon as an instructive 
 discourse and a minister is a teacher. Presbyterianism has insisted upon 
 the activity of the laity in the administration of the church, hence the 
 necessity for popular education. It has further emphasized the importance 
 of personal acquaintance with the scriptures. The authority of the Bible 
 is lodged in itself, by which the individual must decide his eternal destiny 
 for himself. John Calvin appointed in Geneva teachers of national science 
 and the languages, as well as the doctrines. Knox established in Scotland 
 schools in every parish. For seventy years, from 1560, education was 
 entirely in the hands of the church. In America the free-school system,
 
 FRIENDS CONGRESS. 933 
 
 which had its origin in 1662 in Massachusetts Colony, was declared by 
 Bancroft to have Calvin for its founder. Presbyterianism has always 
 favored education by the state. Education should not bo eoctarian, but 
 respectful to religion. Even the readinff of the scriptures should bo aban- 
 doned when it is necessary to the interests of peace amonj^ citizens of 
 common rights. The church must intiuence teachers and the young 
 through personal contact and mission work. 
 
 FRIENDS CONGRESS. 
 
 This congress was held ir the Hall of Washington, September 
 19th, and continued three days. Three sessions were held and a 
 great deal of interest was taken in the proceedings. Jonathan 
 W. Plummer of Chicago presided, and an eloquent "State- 
 ment of the Faith of Friends" was given by Howard M. 
 Jenkins of Philadelphia. Papers were submitted as follows: 
 "Mission Work in Behalf of Arbitration," by Joseph J. Janney, 
 Baltimore; "Position of Women and the Society of Friends," 
 by Elizabeth Powell Bond of Swarthmore, Pa.; "Our Institu- 
 tions of Learning," by Edward H. Magill of Swarthmore, Pa.; 
 "Our Thought as to Co-operation of Distinct Faiths in Labor 
 against jointly Recognized Evils," by Robert S. Habiland, 
 Chappaqua, N. Y. ; " The Duty of the Society in Guiding Young 
 Members to a Conception of Their Responsibilities in Mature 
 Years" was discussed by Edgar M. Zavitz, Coldstream, Ontario, 
 and Isaac Roberts of Conshohocken, Pa.; Anna A. M. Star, 
 Richmond, Ind., and William M. Jackson of New York dwelt 
 with the relation of spiritual culture and devotion to moral 
 progress. 
 
 Inquiry meetings were held after each session and the con- 
 gress closed with a meeting of "spiritual seeking and consecra- 
 tion in the hope that many hearts can feel the inflow of the 
 divine wisdom and power and the outflow of divine love toward 
 the brotherhood of man." 
 
 FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Two interesting sessions were held by the Free Religious 
 Association of America on Wednesday, September 20th.
 
 934 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Among those who took part in the proceedings were Col. 
 Thomas Wentworth Higginson, first vice-president of the asso- 
 ciation; President William J. Potter; Francis Ellingwood 
 Abbot; Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer; Jenkin Lloyd Jones; Minot 
 J. Savage, and Kabbi Hirsch. President Potter gave an 
 account of the rise and progress of the association, and the 
 other topics discussed were: "The Scientific Method in the 
 Study of Keligion," " The Free Keligious Association as the 
 Expounder of the Natural History of Religion," and " Unity 
 in Religion." 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS. 
 
 On the same day the Christian Scientists held a congress, 
 
 presided over by Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy of Boston, who opened 
 
 the proceedings with an address reviewing the work and aims 
 
 of the National Christian Scientistr>' Association. Dr. Eddy 
 
 said 
 
 The ages have had their prophets who foresaw and foretold. The world 
 has had its revelators and discoverers. These gleams of light have extended 
 and broadened and entered the dark places of eartli. Hope that has been 
 trembling and well-nigh overcome by long-deferred expectations has been 
 strengthened. The heart that has become cold with feeble beating has 
 been warmed into new life and activity. Ignorance so dense as to be felt 
 has yielded to intelligence, and the downcast, the down -trodden, and the 
 oppressed have been bidden to arise and go forth from the thralldoni of 
 man, country, priest, or king, and to the liberty of the sons of God. 
 
 Dr. Eddy went on to say that this 400th anniversary of the 
 discovery of America showed wonderful progress, and, after 
 recounting some of the characteristics of this progress, claimed 
 that one of the most important movements of the time is 
 Christian Science, affirming that it represents in actual practice 
 the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of 
 Man. 
 
 Rev. B. A. Eastman of Boston spoke on "The Resurrection." 
 He expounded at length the meaning of the resurrection as 
 believed by the Christian Scientists. It was not the mere 
 raising of a physical body from a material grave. Other 
 instances of physical resurrection were given in the Bible, but
 
 AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 935 
 
 not one of these was to be compared with the resurrection of 
 Jesus. The meaning of the resurrection doctrine lay at the 
 very foundation of the Christian religion. Mr. Eastman cited 
 the effect of the resurrection upon some of the apostles, 
 notably upon Peter and John, who became changed men in 
 their lives after they came to realize the full significance of 
 this event. The conclusion reached by the speaker was that, 
 if Christian science was generally accepted, death would be 
 greatly minimized and bodily sickness would be almost entirely 
 abolished. 
 
 The other speakers were: Rev. Augusta E. Stetson, New 
 York, on "The Trinity"; Mrs. Ruth B. Ewiug, Chicago, on' 
 "Spirit and Matter"; Gen. Erastus M. Bates, Cleveland, on 
 " God Incorporeal "; Mrs. A. H. Knott, Detroit, on " Immortals 
 and Mortals"; Rev. J. F. Linscott, Chicago, on "Scientific 
 Theology"; Edward P. Bates, Syracuse, N. Y., on "Prophetic 
 Scriptures"; Rev. E. M. Buswell, Beatrice, Neb., on "Healing 
 the Sick"; Rev. Isabella M. Stewart, Toronto, Canada, on " The 
 Scientific Universe"; Alfred Farlow, Kansas City, on "The 
 Brotherhood of Man," and J. S. Hanna, editor of the Christian 
 Science Journal., on " Mind, Not Matter." 
 
 AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 A congress of this body began on Friday, September 22d, 
 and continued for several days. The meetings were attended 
 by representative colored people from various parts of the 
 country. An excellent programme had been provided and 
 among the eminent people present were the venerable orator 
 Frederick Douglas, Bishop Payne of Ohio, Bishop James A. 
 Handy of Kansas City, Bishop H. M. Turner of Detroit, 
 Bishop W. J. Gaines of Washington, D. C, Bishop B. T. 
 Tanna, Bishop A. W. Wayman, Bishop Daniel A. Payne, 
 Bishop B. F. Lee, and Bishop Arnett. Among the papers read 
 were: "Christian Co-operation Essential to Race Elevation," 
 by Prof. H. T. Kealing, president of Paul Quinn University,
 
 936 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Waco, Texas; "The Genesis of the Work of Christian Educa- 
 tion by the African M. E. Church," by Eev. Dr. D. Johnson; 
 "The Pioneer Builders," by Bishop Grant; "The Normal 
 School; its Relation to the Future Teacher," by W. H. Council, 
 principal of the State Normal and Industrial School of Ala- 
 bama; " Our Country's Defenders in Camp, at Sea, in the 
 School, and in Prison; What Can We Do for Them?" by Rev. 
 W. H. Yeocum, D. D,; " The Necessity for Organizing a School 
 for Young Women in Liberia," by Rev. W. Mott of Africa; 
 "The Theological Seminary; Its Place in the Education of 
 the Negro," by Rev. J. G. Mitchell of Payne Theological 
 Seminary. 
 
 A Missionary Congress, at which addresses were made by 
 prominent members of the church, preceded the regular 
 congress. 
 
 FRIENDS CHURCH CONGRESS (ORTHODOX). 
 
 This body held one session on Friday, September 22d, at 
 which the following subjects were discussed: " Our Church and 
 Its Mission," by James Wood, Mt. Kisco, N. Y.; " Our Origin 
 and History," by Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, London, England; 
 " Church Organization," by Calvin W. Pritchard, Kokomo, 
 Ind. ; "The Position of Woman Among Friends," by Anna B. 
 Thomas, Baltimore, Md. ; "Missions, Home and Foreign," by 
 Josephine M. Parker, Carthage, Ind.; "The Philosophy of 
 Quakerism," by Thomas Newlin, Newberg, Ore. 
 
 KING'S DAUGHTERS AND SONS. 
 
 In the evening occurred the presentation of the King's 
 Daughters and Sons. Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickinson made the 
 principal address, andMrs. Howard Ingham spoke of the work 
 of the " International Board of Women's Christian Associa- 
 tions." Mrs. Isabella C. Davis read an interesting paper on 
 "The Religious Mission of the Order of King's Daugliters and 
 Sons," and Miss Clarence Beebe spoke on the " Bible -Class 
 Work of Women's Christian Associations."
 
 GERMAN EVANOELICAL SYNOD OF NORTH AMERICA. 937 
 
 GERMAN EVANGELICAL SYNOD OF NORTH 
 AMERICA. 
 
 This body held two sessions on Sunday, September 2-4th. 
 Among those who made the presentation of faith and delivered 
 addresses were Rev. J. K. Zimmerman, Rev. J. Lueder, Rev. 
 D, Irion, Rev. Paul L. Menzel, Rev. E. Otto, Rev. H. Wolf, 
 Rev. J. Pister, Rev. F. Holke. At another session on the 
 following day, Rev. J. K. Zimmerman of Louisville delivered 
 an address on " The Faith and Distinguishing Characteris- 
 tics of the Evangelical Synod of North America." Rev. J, G. 
 Kircher of Chicago told " What the Evangelical Church Has 
 Done for Mankind." Rev. Julius Lohr of Bisrampur, India, 
 addressed the body on " Our Mission in India." 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 During the week beginning September 25th a congress was 
 held by the Methodist Episcopal Church. Two and three 
 sessions were held daily, and every phase of Methodist work 
 was discussed by the various speakers. Among those who par- 
 ticipated were Bishop Merrill, Rev. Dr. Ferdinand C. Iglehart, 
 S. L. Baldwin, Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller, Mrs. R. H. 
 Rust, J. B. Young of St. Louis; W. F. Whitlock of Delaware; 
 Charles Parthurst of Boston; D. P. Raymond of Middletown, 
 Conn.; Rev. Frank Crane of Omaha; W. I. Haven of Boston. 
 
 Miss Francis E. Willard was on the programme for a paper, 
 but her illness prevented her coming to this country. She 
 sent the following letter to Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller, 
 which was listened to with deep interest : 
 
 Among the many invitations that have come to me within the past year 
 in connection witli the congresses at tlie Columbian Exposition, 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 bear my testimony in the gen- 
 eral class-meeting of our world-wide sisterhood, but the "disciple" (of 
 physical fatigue) has been so construed as to rule me out of your blessed 
 general conference, although you had me chosen a delegate in due form. 
 This will, however, I hope, prove to me to be a means of grace, and I shall sing 
 inspirit with many another loyal-hearted Methodist woman, who, for similar 
 reasons, is debarred from giving in her experience on tliat occasion, " Come 
 on, my partners in distress." and close my musical soliloquy with our favor- 
 ite, " Oh, that will be joyful when we meet to part no more."
 
 938 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 By way of compensation for my disappointment in mingling heart and 
 voice with you in the happy assembly of Methodist disciples, I was privi- 
 leged to enjoy a most tender and beautiful reception at the City Koad 
 Chapel, London, some mouths 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 t.,i- my soul through the generous 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 St. Susannah, mother of the Wesleys, were pre- 
 sented 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 a quarter of a century ago, in the Lincoln Col- 
 lege in Oxford, the room in which the " holy club " was organized. A pul- 
 pit 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 fash- 
 ion to a small audience, consisting of Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith and her 
 son, to the effect that within twenty-five years Methodist women would 
 find that every separating wall has fallen fiat between them and the full 
 privileges and powers of the church they loved and which they have helped 
 to make what it is — the greatest denomination in the greatest of republics. 
 
 Artificial barriers are everywhere becoming undermined ; soul is assert- 
 ing itself above sex, and mental and spiritual power is being made the only 
 final criterion of value. Let everybody do that for which he or she feels 
 called, if that calling is to do good. This is rapidly becoming the dictum 
 of old as well as New England, the keynote of which was struck, as I am 
 proud and grateful to remember, 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 she is a foreign mission- 
 ary woman, a home missionary woman, a white-ribbon woman, or that 
 greater and better being which combines all three, and may the annoint- 
 ing power come upon ea(;h and all in pentecostal measure, is the fervent 
 wish and prayer of your loyal and affectionate sister, 
 
 Frances E. Willakd. 
 
 It was shown, during the progress of the Congress, that the 
 
 Methodist Church is the largest Protestant denomination in 
 
 America. One out of every twelve of the population of the 
 
 United States is a member of the Methodist Church, and, as 
 
 contended by Rev, Dr. Iglehart, one out of every three prefers 
 
 it to any other church. 
 
 REFORMED CHURCH OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 This church held a congress on Thursday, September 21st, 
 which was quite largely attended. Rev. Ambrose M. Schmidt 
 of Pittsburg was the chairman. The first speaker was Rev. Dr. 
 Rupp of Pittsburg, whose subject was "The Reform Church 
 and Her Creed." Mr, Rupp said every church is bound to
 
 SWEDISH EVANGELICAL MISSION COVENANT. 939 
 
 establish a theology for the needs of its denomination. " We 
 may," he said, "characterize our theology as educational. Its 
 general type is reform. Wo have been accused of want of 
 denominational spirit, but while we recognize that it is this 
 spirit that keeps religion alive and active, yet it is fitting that 
 this spirit should be sunk in the great law of religious unity. 
 The Holy Catholic Church is greater than any denomination. 
 Our church has ever stood upon this principle." 
 
 The other speakers were Eev. Joseph H. Dubbs of the Frank- 
 lin and Marshall University, who spoke on "The Progress of 
 the Century;" Rev. Dr. J. Ruetenik, president of Calvin College, 
 on "The Progress of Theology," and Rev. Dr. Edward R. 
 Edenbach of Frederick, Md., on "Practical and Benevolent 
 Operation of the Reform Church." 
 
 SWEDISH EVANGELICAL MISSION COVENANT. 
 
 Several hundred persons assembled in the Hall of Washing- 
 ton on Monday, September 25th, to listen to the presentation 
 of the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant, or, as the bculy is 
 better known, " The Swedish Mission Friends." Rev. C. A. 
 Bjork, president of the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant, 
 presided. The first paper was read by Rev. N. Frykman, vice- 
 president of the Mission Covenant, on " The History of the Free 
 Evancrelical Mission Movement in Sweden and America." Other 
 papers were read by Prof. D. Nyvall. president of the 
 Swedish Evangelical Mission College and Seminary; Rev. 
 Otto Hogfelvt, secretary of the Mission Church, and Rev. E. 
 Skogsbergh of Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 CHICAGO TRACT SOCIETY. 
 
 The annual meeting of the Chicago Tract Society took the 
 form of a presentation in Hall G of the xirt Institute, September 
 24th. Hon. Homer N. Hibbard presided. After brief devo- 
 tional exercises, the secretary, Rev. Dr. E. M. Wherry, read a 
 paper on " The Origin and Present Condition of the Chicago
 
 940 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Tract Society." This was followed by a paper giving a histor- 
 ical sketch of the American Tract Society, by Rev. N. J. Branch 
 of Rochester, N. Y. Dr. William C. Rice, missionary secre- 
 tary of the society, read a paper on the " Place of the Tract 
 Society in the World's Evangelization." Rev. George A. 
 Ford, missionary to Syria, followed with a brief address. 
 
 CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 The Cumberland Presbyterian Church held a presentation 
 session on September 27th. Rev. D. W. Ferguson, moderator 
 of the General Assembly, presided, and the following addresses 
 were delivered: "The Origin and Progress of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church," by Hon. John Frizell, LL.D., Nash- 
 ville, Tenn.; "The Genius and Doctrines of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church," by Rev. Alfred Barnett Miller, D. D., 
 president Waynesburg College, Pennsylvania; "The Educa- 
 tional Institutions of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church," by 
 Rev. Vfilliam Henry Black, D. D., president Missouri Valley 
 College, Missouri; "The Mission of the Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian Church," by Rev. James Madison Hubbert, D. D., 
 Lebanon, Tenn. 
 
 CONGRESS OF EVOLUTIONISTS. 
 
 This congress, which began on September 28th and closed 
 on the evening of the 29th, attracted wide attention. The 
 opening address was delivered by Benjamin F. Underwood 
 of Illinois. Its title was " The Progress of Evolutionary 
 Thought." 
 
 An interesting communication was presented from Herbert 
 Spencer. The theme of the great philosopher was " Social 
 Evolution and Social Duty," which he discussed as follows: 
 
 At a congress which has for its chief purpose to advance ethics and 
 politics by diffusing evolutionary ideas, it seems especially needful to dissi- 
 pate 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 
 .^arge amount of knowledge with a good deal of thought— but vet with
 
 CONGRESS OF EVOLUTIONISTS. 941 
 
 thought not commensurate with the knowledge. 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," involves the 
 belief that from beginning to end it goes on irresistibly and unconsciously. 
 Tlie concentration of nebuke into stars and the formation of solar systems 
 are determined entirely by certain properties of the matter previously dif- 
 fused. Planets which were once gaseous, then liquid, and finally c(")vered 
 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 tit them- 
 selves to their respective lives, and, along certain lines, to reach higher 
 lives, purely by the involved play of forces of which they are unconscious, 
 lihe conception of evolution at large, thus far correct, 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 assertion that "evolution erected into the para- 
 mount 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 con- 
 cerned — 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 evolu- 
 tion would continue if the instincts and appetites of individuals 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 activities, bodily and mental, of the component individuals — 
 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 con- 
 sciovxsness that they are achieving it. The entire industrial organization, 
 in all its marvelous complexity, has arisen from the pursuit by each person 
 of his own interests, subject to certain restraints imposed by the incorpo- 
 rated society; and by this same spontaneous action have arisen also the 
 multitudinous appliances of industry, science, and art, from flint knives up 
 to automatic printing machines, from sledges up to locomotives — a fact 
 which might teach politicians that there are at work far more potent social 
 agencies t?han those which they control. 
 
 But now observe that just as these astonishing results of social evolu- 
 tion, under one of its aspects, could never have arisen if men's egoistic 
 activities had been absent, so in the absence of their altruistic activities 
 there could never have arisen and can not further arise certain higher 
 resulte of social evolution. Just as the egoistic feelings are the needful 
 factors in the one case so the altruistic feelings are the needful factors in 
 the oth^er, and whoever suj^poses the theory of evolution to imply tliat 
 advanced forms of social life will be reached, even if the symj)athetic 
 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 subserve the pareata,!
 
 942 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 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 furthering the process by marrying. What 
 should we think of his logic— what should we think of his expectation that 
 the effect would be produced 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 with- 
 out 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 to see that the citizen has to regard him- 
 self at once subjectively and objectively— subjectively as possessing sympa- 
 thetic sentiments (which are themselves the products of evolution); object- 
 ively as one among many social units having like sentiments, by the 
 combined operation of which certain social effects are produced. He has 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 workout improvements in 
 social life. 'So far, then, is the theory of evolution from implying a " para- 
 lyzing and immor'al fatalism," it implies that, for genesis of the highest 
 social type and production of the greatest general happiness, altruistic 
 activities are essential as well as egoistic activities, and that a due share 
 in them is obligatory upon each citizen. 
 
 Dr. James A. Skilton of New York delivered an interesting 
 
 address on the "Future Civilization." He eulogized Herbert 
 
 Spencer, speaking of him as the Columbus of a new epoch, 
 
 who was to "show men the way of obedience to cosmic law, 
 
 whereby our race and its civilization can be saved." The doctor 
 
 continued: 
 
 Other men, some of them high in the councils of evolutionary science 
 and sociology, have shown their lack of faith in the cosmic process. Mr. 
 Spencer, however, shows his faith and his courage by founding his system 
 thereon and declaring that that process may be so controlled and directed 
 by intelligent human agency— one of its products — as to assure the upward 
 progress of the race, and with it that of all the associated life and activities 
 of the entire world. The principle of such control and direction to which 
 he calls our attention, ignoring or notwithstanding the seeming paradox, ie 
 the modification of dominant egoistic action by an intelligent altruistic 
 action. 
 
 His message is: A too eager egoism destroys; an intelligent altruism 
 saves. This message comes to us at the moment when, the supply of new 
 lands having been exhausted, we are driven back upon the old but new and 
 unexplored continent of cosmic supply to be found in the lands already 
 occupied for ages, by the intelligent management and improvement of 
 what we have heretofore recklessly sought to exhaust and destroy, according 
 to the cosmic plan established from the beginning of things. 
 
 Hereafter, if we are to find the solution of our problems, we must com- 
 pletely change the method of treating the whole of nature, but particularly 
 land, so as to conform to evolutionary cosmic law and its processes, recog- 
 nizing that the further evolution and survival of man and society are indis- 
 solubly bound up therewith. 
 
 According to our accepted doctrines early society grew out of status, 
 later society out of contract. Contract society having now, according to
 
 i 
 
 CONGRESS OF EVOLUTIONISTS. 913 
 
 the evidences cited, reached the end of its tether, must either find a stronger 
 soil in which to grow, or it must inevitably retrograde. Between contract 
 society and the society of cosmic status a deep and wide gulf seems to be 
 fixed that no bridge has ever yet spanned. Nor can it be said that any liv- 
 ing engineer will ever build that bridge and see men cross over by it. But 
 it can be honestly said that whoever does build it must use the material 
 and the principles provided to his hand by the philosophy of evolution. 
 
 We need not mourn, however, as do those without hope. If it be the 
 fault of religion and the teachers of religion, that the world is still in bo 
 backward a condition, what may we not hope from the new epoch opened 
 by the Parliament of Religions just closed, that has for the first time in 
 the history of the world brought together, and at times almost united the 
 rehgious teachers of all races and all faiths on the very spot of ground 
 occupied by this building, a temple of God, man, and nature, that, it is to 
 be hoped, will hereafter be recognized as having played a part of greater 
 usefulness than any other the world has ever seen. 
 
 Mary Proctor of St. Joseph, Mo., gave an interesting sketch 
 of the life-work of her father, the distinguished astronomer, 
 Richard A. Proctor. 
 
 Another woman who contributed vastly to the interest of 
 the congress was Gail Hamilton. She was not present in 
 person, but sent a paper on the "Beastliness of Civilization — 
 Evolution the Only Remedy," which was read by Miss Ida 
 Lovejoy, a daughter of the old-time abolitionist and member of 
 Congress from Illinois, Owen Lovejoy. Among other things 
 Miss Hamilton wrote: 
 
 Evolution agrees exactly with Augustine and Jonathan Edwards as to 
 the wickedness of the world. The difference 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 Augustine imagination to an absurdity, has expressed the sweet 
 juices of truth from the Hebrew drama, and has organized the Greek 
 imagination into a demonstrable probability. Evolution is not proved, 
 may never be proved, but it fits the facts as no other theory has ever done, 
 and is infinite in encouragement for the human race. 
 
 The fall of man in the evolution hypothesis and in the Hebrew 
 Scriptures is the rise of man from a state of imperative innocence to the 
 higher atmosphere of possible sin. The lion, the tiger, the hyena are inno- 
 cent. They lick from their chops the blood of the lamb or the man they 
 have slain andlie down to sleep without a qualm of conscience. We rise 
 and slay them without the slightest moral resentment, without the least 
 expectation of producing in them a change of heart and purpose- simply to 
 prevent them from doing further harm. That man falls into sin is an individ- 
 ual incident. That he is capable of sin is a race elevation above the beasts. 
 This earth is the battle-ground of a half-developed moral nature struggling 
 to rise into its destined angel nature, but constantly held down by the 
 beast nature from which it has not whf)lly, perhaps not half, emerged. 
 
 The shame of England is not in the fighting of lords and commons in 
 the House of Parliament. The hope of England lies in that bitter brawl.
 
 944 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The shame of England is in the silence of Woking. The disgrace of Eng- 
 land is, that with all her boasts of constitutional government and free 
 institutions she can and does, in defiance of law and justice, use the 
 machinery of law and justice to hold an innocent woman in a thralldom as 
 profound and terrible as ever held an Egyptian slave. This is not merely 
 beastliness, but wild beastliness ! It is not the stupid, undiscerning beast- 
 liness of the domestic pen, but the fierce and watchful beastliness of the 
 jungle! 
 
 Other papers were read as follows: "Constructive Power of 
 Evolution," by Franklin H. Head; "The Evolution of the 
 Muscular Fiber," by Dr. Martin L. Holbrook; "The Weiss- 
 man's Theory Reviewed," by Edwin Montgomery; " The Marvel 
 of Heredity and Its Meaning," by Rev. John C. Kimball of 
 Hartford, Conn.; "The Relativity of Knowledge — Spencer's 
 Unknowable," by Benjamin F. Underwood; "Relations of the 
 Feelings," by Dr. Herman Gasser; " Constructive Forms of 
 Intuition," by Dr. John E. Purdon of Dublin, Ireland; " Psy- 
 chology in Its Relation to Ethics," by Harvey C. Alvord of 
 South Dakota; "The Evolution of the Modern Family," by 
 Mrs. Florence G. Buckstaff of Wisconsin; " Evolution as 
 Applied to Disease in the Progress of Social Development," 
 by Bayard Holmes, M. D., of Illinois. Rev. A. N. Summers 
 of Indiana also read a paper. 
 
 Dr, Skilton had sent a circular letter to a number of eminent 
 scientists asking them to reply to the following questions: 
 
 1. Does the doctrine of evolution in its sociological aspects, in your 
 opinion, offer wise suggestion for the solution of the great social and eco- 
 nomic probleins of our time? 
 
 2. What, in your judgment, in accordance with such suggestion, should 
 be the next step taken in our own country, looking toward the solution of 
 these problems? 
 
 Over one hundred answers were received, of which the fol- 
 lowing are a fair sample: 
 
 William Lawson, Aspatria, England — 1. Yes. 2. Abolish the custom- 
 house. 
 
 R.W.Shufeldt, Washington, D.C — 1. Yes. 2. The complete expulsion 
 of the negro race from among us. The absolute prevention of the immigra- 
 tion of objectionable classes and the encouragement of the coming of the 
 most advanced peoples from all parts of the world. Complete and radical 
 changes in the laws of sanitation in their broadest sense, to the full extent 
 of the prevention of the bringing forth of unhealthy children, either under 
 the cloak of marriage or otherwise. The taking out of the hands of the 
 church the entire matter of marriage and relegating it to the state, with a 
 complete reform of the entire institution made at the time of the transac- 
 tion, based upon our present knowledge of physiology and social require- 
 ments.
 
 ETHICAL CONGRESS. 945 
 
 Prof. John Piske of Cambridge— 1. Yes. It teaches us, however, 
 not to expect to achieve any sudden amelioration in the affairs of men. 
 The material we have to work with, human nature, is both silly and base, 
 and can be reformed but slowly. 2. Begin by correcting the errors of past 
 legislation. Amend the federal constitution so as to deprive Congress of 
 the alleged power to issue inconvertible notes and make them legal tender; 
 demonetize silver once and forever; lower the tariff", and get complete free 
 trade as soon as possible; abolish all navigation laws infringing upon abso- 
 lute freedom of buying, building, or handling ships; repeal the Crawford 
 act of 1820 and make tenure of office secure and permanent thi'oughout the 
 civil service. 
 
 li. R. Klemm, Washington, D. C— 1. Yes. 2. To secure a better edu- 
 cation for the masses, especially in the natural sciences. 
 
 C. C Hitchcock, Ware, Mass. — 1, Yes, undoubtedly. 2. The adoption 
 by the employer of some equitable system of profit-sharing with employes 
 would in my opinion be one desirable step in the line of evolutionary prog- 
 ress in the industrial world. 
 
 ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 The Ethical Congress was held in the Hall of Washington on 
 September 29tli. Frank Tobey, chairman of the Committee 
 of Organization, presided, and introduced President Bonney, 
 of the World's Congress Auxiliary, in a few felicitous words. 
 Mr. Bonney welcomed the delegates in his usual graceful style. 
 He referred to the peculiarly happy coincidence attending the 
 session, that it should follow the great Parliament of Religions. 
 He said it was a peculiar providence of ethical science to select 
 from all religions that which is true and good. However men 
 may differ in opinion, however their creeds may disagree, how- 
 ever doctrines may diverge, there is a common standard of 
 conduct which is everywhere recognized, and for the highest 
 maintenance of that standard this Ethical Congress stood. Not 
 only to religion, but to the political and social life of the nation 
 did this science come with healing on its wings. 
 
 Prof. Felix Adler, founder of the Ethical Movement, read a 
 letter from his eminent co-laborer. Professor Foerster of Berlin, 
 which contained a hopeful report of the work in that country 
 and outlined a programme for the organization of an interna- 
 tional body — a society which should recognize no national lines 
 indeed, but of which each individual society was to be simply 
 a branch. Professor Foerster also told of the effort that was 
 being made to introduce into the universities a department of 
 ethical science.
 
 916 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Dr. Stanton Coit, of the West End Ethical Society of Lon- 
 don, gave an interesting report of the work as carried on in 
 that metropolis. As conducted in England, the Ethical Society 
 was a much more democratic institution than the American. 
 One of the difficulties in the way of the spread of ethical 
 science in Great Britain was the spirit of compromise which 
 obtained, and which led agnostics and democrats to recognize 
 in the church a sufficient source of spiritual supply for man's 
 needs. Professor Weston of Philadelphia followed with a brief 
 address upon the general work of ethical societies. 
 
 S. Burns Weston of Philadelphia read a report of the 
 School of Applied Ethics. Prof. Paul Shorey of the Univer- 
 sity of Chicago read a paper on " Helps to Moral Life from 
 Greek and Roman Literature." Stanton Coit of London, spoke 
 on "The Practical Work of the Neighborhood Guild," and 
 George C. Rosenblatt of New York spoke on the work done by 
 the Workingman's School of that city. Joseph W. Earrnt 
 of Chicago was the last speaker, his remarks being mainly 
 directed toward the practical work of the bureau of justice. 
 
 EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION CONGRESS. 
 
 The Evangelical Association is a communion of Christians 
 which although two-thirds German is entirely of American 
 origin. It was founded in the beginning of this century in 
 Eastern Pennsylvania by Jacob Albright, who had been reared 
 in the Lutheran Church, but remained up to advanced manhood 
 a stranger to experimental religion. The loss of several chil- 
 dren, and the pious admonitions of a minister of the Reformed 
 Church at the funeral of one of them, led him to consider his 
 ways and turn to God. Through study of the Word and faith 
 in Christ, he made the blessed experience of the forgiveness of 
 his sins and the testimony of God's spirit bearing witness with 
 his that he was a child of God. 
 
 Finding the most congenial company in his new experience 
 among the Methodists, he united with that church and was in
 
 EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION CONGRESS. 947 
 
 due time licensed as an exhorter. Feeling called of God to 
 preach the gospel to the multitudes of spiritually neglected 
 German-Americans, but receiving no encouragement from his 
 church, he began timidly without human authorization to make 
 known among them the way of life as he had learned it from 
 the Bible and his own experience. His preaching proved 
 acceptable to many who were led by him to the same Savior 
 whom he had found so precious. But the Methodist Church still 
 failed to recognize an open field for work in this country in 
 any other language than the English, wherefore, without com- 
 plaint, schism, or division of any kind, Mr. Albright proceeded 
 at his own charges as he had begun, to preach the gospel of 
 salvation from sin to the German-speaking people, without 
 intending to found a new denomination, until his followers 
 demanded it as the only way to secure permanency for the 
 hopeful results achieved. These chose and ordained Mr. 
 Albright as their chief minister, and he in turn ordained several 
 of his ablest assistants before his death, which occurred in 
 1808. He had been requested to compile a book of discipline 
 for the government of the societies, but his early death left the 
 work to be carried out by his successors. The fact that he had 
 been a Methodist and well satisfied in the main with the 
 doctrines and polity of that church will account for the similarity 
 of this book of discipline, which was executed in the spirit of 
 the founder by his associates, with the discipline of the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church. 
 
 The form of government is a modified Episcopacy, the bishops 
 being elected only from one general conference to another, 
 which convenes every four years. They are, however, eligible to 
 re-election. Conferences are held annually, whose territory is 
 divided into districts, presided over by elders elected by their 
 respective conferences. The pastoral terms are limited to 
 three years, when a change is made on the itinerant plan. 
 
 This denomination confined itself for more than thirty years 
 almost exclusively to the German-speaking population of East- 
 em Pennsylvania and Western Maryland. Albright felt called
 
 948 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 to do for his German-speaking fellow-countrymen what the 
 Wesleyan movement w^s doing for the English-speaking people. 
 With the impetus of the Westward movement, and the increase 
 of immigration, the work later extended its bounds, and as the 
 younger portion of the membership began to prefer the English 
 language for worship, the way was gradually opened also in 
 this respect, although thousands left for and helped to build 
 up other evangelical folds because their mother-church did not 
 always find it possible to provide English preaching as fast as 
 it was desired. Perhaps one-third of her members now use the 
 English language in worship. But the pioneer work of the 
 church has mostly been done in German, and no church has 
 achieved more in bringing German immigrants to become the 
 best of Americanized evangelical Christians. It now has 
 twenty-five conferences extending from New York and Canada, 
 to Texas and the Pacific, with two conferences in Europe and 
 one in Japan. It has seven institutions of learning, the lead- 
 ing one being Northwestern College, Naperville, 111., and a 
 flourishing publishing house at Cleveland, Ohio. In the field 
 of periodical literature this branch of the church has been very 
 successful. The Christliche £otschafter, its German weekly 
 organ, is the oldest and most widely circulated German Protest- 
 ant weekly in America, and its companion, the Evangelical 
 Messenger, has a circulation of 10,000. 
 
 In doctrine the Evangelical Association may be classed as 
 adhering to the Arminian system of theology, but it has 
 always paid more attention to practical religion than to dogma. 
 Its book of doctrines is the Bible and a catechism of biblical 
 instruction. It is in sympathy with evangelical Christians of 
 whatever name. It takes advanced position on the great moral 
 questions of the day, such as temperance. Sabbath, and the 
 purity of the family and church life. It has been a pioneer 
 in the Sunday-school work among the Germans of America, 
 and is active in missionary work at home and abroad and in 
 young people's societies.
 
 E\r ANGELICAL ASSOCIATION CONGRESS. 949 
 
 The points indicated above, and many others, were brought 
 out in an emphatic manner at the largely attended, successful, 
 and enthusiastic congress held by this denomination Sep- 
 tember 19-21, 1893. Hon. C. C. Bonney, president of the 
 World's Fair Auxiliary, opened the session of the presentation 
 meeting and called upon Rev. H. J. Bowman of Des Moines, 
 Iowa, to make the opening prayer. Thereupon Mr. Bonney 
 made an eloquent opening address, and then presented to the 
 large audience Rev. G. C. Knobel, pastor of the Centennial 
 Evangelical Church, Chicago, as the chairman of the meeting, 
 who made a felicitous address of response and welcome. Rev. 
 S. P. Spreng, editor of the Evangelical llessenger, Cleveland, 
 Ohio, read an able paper on the history of the denomination; 
 Bishop J. J. Esher of Chicago read a profound treatise on her 
 doctrine, constituting a complete epitome of systematic theol- 
 ogy, and Bishop S. C. Breyfogel of Reading, Pa., read a 
 succinct and ringing paper on the polity of the Evangelical 
 Association. 
 
 In the Denominational Congress which followed, the bishops 
 present presided by turn, and addresses and papers were pre- 
 sented on the following themes: " The Relation of the Evan- 
 gelical Association to the Cause of Education," Pres. H. J. Kiek- 
 hoefer. Northwestern College, Naperville, 111.; "The Need of 
 an Educated Ministry," Prof. S. L. Umbach, Union Biblical 
 Institute, Naperville, 111.; " Our Home Mission Work," Bishop 
 W. Horn, Cleveland, Ohio; " Our Mission Work in Europe,"' 
 Rev. N. Gaehr, Cleveland, Ohio; "Our Mission Work in 
 Japan," Bishop J. J. Esher, Chicago; " 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 the 
 Church," Mrs. H. C. Smith, Naperville, 111.; "Missionary and 
 Temperance Work for the Women of Our Church," Mrs. E. M. 
 Spreng, Akron, Ohio; " The Evangelical Association and Moral 
 Reform," Rev. J. C. Hornberger, editor Zivmg Ei)istle and 
 Sunday-school literature, Cleveland, Ohio; "The Young
 
 950 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 People's Alliance of the Evangelical Association," Kev. J. A. 
 Thomas, editor of the Evangelical Magazine and Sunday-school 
 literature, Cleveland, Ohio, president of the Alliance; "Twen 
 tieth-Century Responsibilities: How to Meet Them," Eev. J. B. 
 Kanaga, Marion, Ohio; " Our Young People and the Institu- 
 tions of Our Church," Rev. G. C. Knobel, Chicago; "Denomi- 
 national Young People's Societies," Revs. W. H. Messerschmidt, 
 Naperville, 111., and Greorge Husser, Chicago; "The Spiritual 
 Element in the Young People's Alliance," Rev. M. L. Wing, 
 Berlin, Ontario; "The Young Men of Our Country: Their 
 Perils and Possibilities," Rev. S. J. Gammertsfelder, assistant 
 editor Evangelical Messenger, Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 CONGRESS OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Missionaries from every quarter of the globe assembled in 
 Columbus Hall, September 28th, to inaugurate the Congress 
 of Missions, which lasted eight days. All the sessions were 
 well attended, and great interest shown in the proceedings. 
 In his address of welcome President Bonney said: 
 
 The work of the missions has not been adequately comprehended by the 
 majority of inhabitants of this present, busy, bustling, work-a-day world. 
 We think of the missionaries only in a vague, indistinct manner. We do 
 not study them; we do not look into their hard, toilsome, and self-sacrific- 
 ing lives. All the hardships, all the troubles, all the perils and dangers 
 which they undergo we know not nor do we care. Our churches send these 
 little bands of hardy men and brave women into the jungles and impene- 
 trable forests of a barbarous and uncivilized country. The church issues 
 the call, and how nobly do these men and women respond! They are vol- 
 unteers, not conscripts. For the love of humanity they go forth bravely, 
 and some, indeed, never return; and on the deserts of Africa, and in the 
 valleys of India, and in the rice fields of China, there are graves, lonely and 
 forlorn, with no stone to mark the last resting-place of these loyal Chris- 
 tians who are worthy to be numbered among the little band of martyrs. 
 
 Rev. Walter Manning Barrows, the presiding officer of the 
 
 Congress, also delivered an address of welcome, in which 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 exception was that great and glorious missionary whom we all 
 reverence and admire, David Livingstone, who penetrated the jungles of
 
 CONGRESS OF MISSIONS. ft51 
 
 darkest Africa. Livingstone was a great and noble man, of ■wonderful 
 attainments 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. Wo gather here to discuss 
 the best ways to spread the gospel. Each of us can gain many points 
 from our brothers' experience. But the world will never be Christianized 
 by a church divided into a hundred sects and creeds, torn into fragments 
 by internal dissensions, exhausted 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. 
 
 Bev. Alexander McKay Smith, D. D., of Washington, fol- 
 lowed with a paper on the subject of "The City of To-day; Its 
 Place, Perils, and Possibilities." He described the city of 
 to-day as a closely laced net-work of a system of slavery. 
 Within its boundaries the free, yet enslaved, men and women 
 toil on day after day, night after night, in the one ceaseless 
 grind and turmoil to eke out a precarious existence. Compar- 
 ing the European cities with those of America, he said it was 
 strange that the former should be so much better governed and 
 better managed than those of America. The reason for this, 
 he thought, was that the better class of citizens of this country 
 paid but little heed to their municipal government, and allowed 
 the balance of power to fall into the hands of irresponsible 
 foreigners who came to the United States merely to secure fat 
 political jobs. 
 
 George D. Candlin, the well-known Chinese missionary, 
 
 talked about missionary work in the celestial empire: 
 
 There are many learned men in China, but there is no advancement. 
 There is no future for the celestial empire. China to-day lives solely 
 in the past. They read nothing but books which have been handed 
 down for hundreds of years. They study only the past, and look not mto 
 the to-morrow. There is no future for the Chinese Empire unless, by 
 the aid of the missionaries, they embrace the doctrines of Jesus Christ. 
 Without these doctrines China is doomed to sink beneath the dark waters 
 of oblivion, where they will be hidden forever from the sight of humanity. 
 They can only be saved by the Light of the World. We missionaries try to 
 teach them to turn out of the path that winds through the valleys of yester- 
 day, to arouse them from their lethargic sleep to make good use of their 
 latent possibilities, and we are happy for a future glorious with crimson 
 and gold.
 
 952 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Kev. John McNeill, the celebrated English evangelist, deliv- 
 ered a stirring address on "City Missions," a subject which was 
 also treated by Eev. Dr. Frank M. Bristol of Chicago, at a subse- 
 quent session. Dr. Bristol upbraided those so zealous for con- 
 verts among strange people with forgetting the crying needs 
 for evangelization at home. He urged that the churches should 
 concentrate their efforts upon the most needy districts of large 
 cities. He said: 
 
 It is useless for us to talk about saving the heathen abroad unless we 
 can save the heathen at home. If you can not save Chicago, you can not 
 save Calcutta; unless you can save San Francisco, you can not save 
 Shanghai; unless you can save Boston, you can not save Bombay. We plant 
 our altars among the silks and satins, and not amidst the rags of Chicago. 
 We plant them among homes whose table:: groan with every luxury, and 
 we do not plant them in the midst of homos that are empty, where little 
 children are pinched with want and hunger. 
 
 Go over to Halsted 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 below dry -goods boxes. These boys are growing up to be 
 voters and, in a few years, they will be settling political questions, 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 
 40,000 Bohemians — more than are in the City of Prague; we have 17,000 
 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 them out by our superior intelligence, we owe them at least the 
 gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Eev. Dr. Elliot Griffis of Boston contributed a valuable paper 
 
 on "The Citizen Writes of Missionaries." Dr. Griffis said: 
 
 When a missionary's life or property is endangered, the Government is as 
 fully bound to protect him as in the case of the merchant or traveler, and, 
 in the case of loss or destruction of property, to seek to obtain redress. As 
 the Government knows not nor inquires into the religion of its citizens, so 
 it knows not nor inquires into his opinions regarding Christianity. The 
 Government knows only citizens, not traders or missionaries. If American 
 missionaries are imprisoned and their property confiscated, and little or no 
 notice taken of it at Washington, when a whole squadron was sent to 
 Naples to collect money for Baltimore insurance companies, then some- 
 thing is wrong, and the policy of the United States Government has fallen 
 away from a high standard. If a war be begun with Corea and 400 natives 
 are slaughtered by Dahlgren howitzers and Bridgeport rifles, because cer- 
 tain American marauders in the schooner " General Sherman " have been 
 attacked, while the Turks are allowed to burn mission premises and assault 
 American women, then we can not help thmking there is either inconsist- 
 ency or weakness at Washington. Does the Government say it can make 
 absolutely no discrimination between its citizens abroad? Then let us have 
 interpretations and manifestations showing that it makes no discrimina- 
 tions between the great countries like Spain and the Ottoman Empire and 
 little ones like Naples and Corea, and that its pleasure is equal, whether in 
 acting as the dun or as the protector.
 
 CONGRESS OF MISSIONS. 953 
 
 Thomas Kane of Chicago presented a paper, in which he 
 worked out a plan whereby every person could give to missions 
 a yearly sum proportionate to his income; also a table for pro- 
 portionate giving by the church to the various home and 
 foreign missions. In the course of his address, Mr. Kane said: 
 
 It is a scientific principle that all missionary work should be carried on 
 on the same basis adopted by other undertakings where there is a division 
 of labor, and where much of the work has to be done by proxy. Thus the 
 man who devotes himself to earning money, and conscientiously gives a cer- 
 tain proportion of it for mission work, is just as much a missionary as the 
 man who gives his life to carrying the gospel to heathen lands. Propor- 
 tionate giving — or, a much better term, proportionate payment from an 
 income — as a practical recognition of our stewardship is the only practical 
 recognition we laymen can give. If we adopt it as a rule of life, you can 
 assure us that we are practical partners with you in your life work, you 
 doing our preaching and teaching for us, and we doing our share toward 
 your support. You can assure us that we just as surely help to build 
 churches in destitute places, if, in this way, we help to pay for the build- 
 ing, as if we personally laid the bricks and drove the nails. You can also 
 assure us that, if we do this, we can have, and do have, a personal interest 
 in the salvation of every soul brought to Christ through the efforts of mis- 
 sionaries in every land where we contribute to their support. 
 
 Rev. Joseph Cook of Boston, at one of the sessions, 
 summed up the results of the Parliament of Eeligions in an 
 able manner. 
 
 He said that chief among the salient features of the parlia- 
 ment was the memorable fact that it would not listen to a 
 defense of polygamy. Polygamy was a crime under the laws 
 of the United States, and it was not the purpose of the managers 
 of the parliament that any championship should be made of 
 a system which the law of the land condemns. 
 
 He charged the speaker who dealt with the subject with bad 
 faith, as he had promised not to defend but rather to condemn 
 polygamy when setting forth the principles of Islam. " And 
 yet when those amazing sentences came forth in defense of 
 polygamy," said the speaker, " that audience, which was fair 
 above all things and ready to applaud everything good, hissed 
 and cried ' Shame ! ' That is enough to show that in America 
 we abhor the polygamy which is an acknowledged feature of 
 the Mohammedan faith nnd worship." Mr. Cook went on to 
 indorse the statements of Dr. Pentecost in regard to the 
 immoralities of Indian religions, and said the other features of
 
 954 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 the parliament were that it denounced every form of inter- 
 national injustice, including the opium traffic, the rum traffic, 
 and the Chinese exclusion law; also that it expressed its abhor- 
 rence of caste, and called for the Christianization of Christen- 
 dom. But the sublimest moments in the parliament were those 
 when the representatives of Buddhism, Confucianism, Brah- 
 manism, and Shintoism all joined with the representatives of 
 Christianity in the universal prayer, the first words of which, 
 "Our Father," strike at all caste and bring all men to a com- 
 mon level. 
 
 Another notable address was by Kev. Francis E. Clark, who 
 is at the head of the Christian Endeavor movement. His sub- 
 ject was " Kesponsibility of Young People and Their Societies 
 for Missions." Dr. Clark said: 
 
 The hopeful sign of the present day was the wonderful quickening 
 of interest on the part of young people in the work of foreign missions. 
 Mission work had come to be no longer a novelty; it had been stripped 
 of much of the romance that had encircled it, and it was found to-day to 
 involve not so much a life of adventurous incident as of prosaic hardship. 
 " Even the boys and girls," he said, " have come to know that missionary 
 work in foreign lands is very much like Christian work in any land, so far 
 as the spirit and purpose and determination and grinding attention to 
 details are concerned." He called attention to the remarkable students' 
 volunteer movement in England and America which enrolls in its lists 
 6,000 young people who are ready to go forth as missionaries to foreign 
 lands, and expressed the confident hope that during the coming year the 
 Christian Endeavor Society will make a thank-oflfering of not less than 
 a quarter of a millon dollars for missionary purposes. 
 
 Rev. J. T. Gracey of Rochester, N. Y., read a paper on 
 " Native Agencies the Chief Hope of National Evangelization." 
 He strongly advocated the organization of schools in foreign 
 lands, in which the native converts will be schooled, after which 
 they shall go out and act as missionaries. He said the Ameri- 
 can missionary was the only interpreter of the West to the ^ 
 East, and that more work was done by native Christians than - 
 by the missionaries themselves. In India alone there were 
 enough native Christians to evangelize the entire empire. He 
 prophesied that some day out of the ranks of the native mis- 
 sionaries there will rise a man who will topple over the govern- 
 ments of the East and will demolish forever the old pagan 
 religions, and put up in their place Christianity.
 
 CONGRESS OF MISSIONS. Q55 
 
 On October 2d the "Woman's Congress of Missions convened 
 in joint session with the General Congress of Missions. Mrs. 
 Franklin W. Fisk, president of the "Woman's Congress, delivered 
 an opening address, and devotional exercises were conducted 
 by Mrs. E. B. Capron, formerly a missionary in India. 
 
 Mrs. Benjamin Douglas spoke on woman's missions, explain- 
 ing that they were simply carrying out the principle embodied in 
 the angel song " Peace on Earth, Good "Will to Men." Men's 
 highest good and God's highest glory are bound together, and 
 for this double purpose they are united in the work of woman's 
 missions. "Woman's work in the mission field is only the out- 
 come of that aggressive Christianity, without which there would 
 be little church life or activity. 
 
 George W. Washburn, D. D., president of Koberts College, 
 Constantinople, also delivered an able address on the true aim 
 of missionary work, in the course of which he set forth : 
 
 Whatever work will bring the missionary and the Moslem together, and 
 make them friends, and thus help them to understand each other, is not 
 only a legitimate but an essential form of missionary work It may be, at 
 a given time and place, better missionary work to import plows than tracts; 
 to help a fisherman mend his boat than to repeat to him the catechism; 
 to dig a well than to preach a sermon; to found a college than to build a 
 church; to study the Koran than to read the Bible, if these thingsopen 
 the way to win men's confidence and sympathy. 
 
 The first question, What is the true aim of missionary work, and what 
 kind of work ought a missionary to do? is thus answered: The true aim of 
 the missionary work is to make Christ known to the world, and nothing is 
 foreign to this work which reveals His spirit or His characteristic of His 
 kingdom. We may add that nothing is essential to it which is peculiar to 
 any sect, nation, or civilization. When sectarian propaganda is the chief 
 object, as unhappily it sometimes is, it is the devil's mission and not 
 Christ's. The true and now generally accepted answer to the question, 
 what a missionary ought to expect to accomplish, is the golden mean 
 between these two extremes. He is not simply a witness-bearer, nor does 
 he expect personally to evangelize a nation. His mission is based on that 
 theory of Christian work which Edward Everett Hale has graphically 
 set forth in his "Ten Times One Is Ten." 
 
 A feature of the opening session was the singing of the 
 famous Grace Church Choir of boys under the leadership of 
 Professor Rooney. Dr. George F. Pentecost gave an interest- 
 ing talk on "The Progress of Missions in India." He claimed 
 that India was the key to the situation in the mission fields 
 of the East, the reason being that India is a progressive 
 country quick to respond to new ideas and ready to adopt
 
 956 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 whatever is best from other countries. On the other hand, 
 China, he said, was dense and utterly indifferent to progress, 
 and it was harder, therefore, to influence her in the matter of 
 the Christian religion. The speaker briefly reviewed both the 
 discouragements and encouragements to Christian missions in 
 India, and came to the conclusion that the result was of the 
 most promising character for the future of Christianity in 
 India. He said that Hinduism was being steadily under- 
 mined by Christian teaching, while Mohammedanism, which is 
 one of the strongest religions in India, is not making any 
 appreciable progress. The native religions, he said, had been 
 riven into sects by the impact of Christianity, and all these 
 sects had been more or less modified and their doctrines largely 
 colored by the teachings of the New Testament. He concluded 
 by prophesying that sometime in the near future there would 
 be a great religious upheaval in India, which would break 
 down all existing religions and make Christianity triumphant 
 over all that land. 
 
 Miss Ellen C. Parsons of New York, in an able address, 
 traced the history of organized missionary work from the 16th 
 century up to the dawn of the 19th century. Speaking of 
 woman's efforts in this field, she said: 
 
 What was it that shook the church, roused the women to united, sys- 
 tematic, concentrated action? That moved on and on, a compelling force, 
 until we have now in this country the spectacle of hundreds of thousands 
 of women, representing every branch of the Christian Church, banded 
 together in chartered societies and disbursing from §1,000,000 to $1,500,000 
 every year? Only one other movement, that of the Woman's Christian Tem- 
 perance Union, compares with it in numbers and moral power. Whence 
 came that powerful voice which evoked so much energy and action? It was 
 not patriotism — warning of the menace of an incoming tide of immigrants — 
 that came later. It was not national remorse demanding reparation to 
 the exile Indian. It was not even the last command of Jesus, " Disciple 
 all nations," like a clarion call to the conscience. It was a human cry, 
 appealing expressly to woman's tenderness, and it pierced her heart. It 
 sounded out from that black heathenism, ages old, lost, vast, awful — the 
 heartbreak of motherhood, the stifled cry of distorted childhood. This 
 was what happy women heard in their happy, protected homes. "Are there 
 any female men among you to come and teach us? " asked a group of 
 Chinese women twenty-nine years ago, of the American missionary. Women, 
 and only women, could meet the need; something less strenuous might have 
 caught the ear, but it required a call just so terrible, importunate, so shut 
 up to woman, to fasten irresistibly upon her heart.
 
 SUNDAY-REST CONGRESS. 987 
 
 The United Congress of Missions terminated on the follow- 
 ing evening. The whole session was marked by brilliant, 
 earnest, and scholarly papers. All differences in creed were 
 buried in the purpose of the congress — the furtherance of 
 Christianity and the uplifting of mankind. 
 
 Before adjournment the following were appointed a com- 
 mittee to arrange an International Missionary Conference 
 between the representatives of all the evangelical churches 
 looking to the evangelization of the world: Dr. John Henry 
 Barrows of Chicago, Presbyterian; Dr. James B. Angell of 
 Michigan, Congregational; Archdeacon McKay-Smith of Wash- 
 ington, Protestant Episcopal; Bishop Cheney of Chicago, 
 Reformed Episcopal; Dr. Townsend of Boston, Methodist 
 Episcopal; Dr. A. J. Gordon of Boston, Baptist; Dr. John 
 Brown of Bedford, England, Independent; Dr. Oswald of 
 Chicago, Evangelical Lutheran; the Rev. J. Summerville of 
 Lewisburg, Pa., Christian; the Rev. David Burrill of New York, 
 Reformed Church of America. 
 
 SUNDAY-REST CONGRESS. 
 
 A large number of men and women who have made a spe- 
 cial study of the weekly rest-day question from the standpoint 
 both of religion and social economy, assembled in congress in 
 the Hall of Washington, September 27th. Among those pres- 
 ent were Rev. Dr. Atterburj'', Dr. John H. Hollister, General 
 Howard, William Allen Butler of New York ; Judge Doolittle, 
 Dr. Brocket, Italy; Henri de Vilmorin of Paris, and Rabbi 
 Felsenthal. President Bonney made a suitable address of wel- 
 come in which he said: 
 
 This movement is essentially one for the abolition of a vast oppressive 
 system of human slavery. The laws of nature, which are the laws of God, 
 command a weekly rest-day for every person. Sunday is the vital condi- 
 tion of true civil and religious liberty everywhere. A man who has not his 
 one day in seven is denied not only the rest which he requires, but is 
 denied the precious privileges which belong to civil society and to the fam- 
 ily. My blood has boiled with indignation when I have heard men say in 
 Central Music Hall, in this city, that their own faces were unfamiliar to 
 their families because they left home for work so early in the morning and 
 returned so late every day in the week. You will find, too, that where 
 some men work seven days in the week others are idle seven days of the 
 week. It is a practical question from any point of view.
 
 958 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Dr. Atterbury briefly reviewed the history of the Sunday- 
 rest movement from its inception in Europe to the present 
 time. Gen. O. O. Howard spoke in hearty commendation of 
 the movement, and letters expressive of interest and good 
 wishes were read from the Netherlands Sunday-Rest Associa- 
 tion, the Glasgow Workingmen's Association, Men's Lord's- 
 Day Rest Association, and from Leon Say, the distinguished 
 French statesman. 
 
 Dr. Samuel B. Lyon, medical superintendent Bloomingdale 
 Asylum, New York, submitted an interesting paper on the 
 value of some day rest. Dr. Lyon showed the vicious effects 
 of unremitted labor on body and mind, quoting many high 
 authorities to the effect that such continuous toil results in 
 lowering the vitality of the body, reduces the length of life, 
 incapacitates the toiler from enjoyment, and in many cases 
 drives men to insanity. 
 
 Ex-Senator Doolittle occupied the chair at one session and 
 made the following speech : 
 
 In taking the president's chair for a single session of this International 
 Congress on Sunday Rest, I am deeply sensible of the great honor conferred 
 upon me. In favoring a weekly rest of one day in seven for all who labor 
 with hand or brain, I am sure I am not violating the Constitution of the 
 United States, or any State in this Union, all of which expressly for- 
 bid making any " law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit- 
 ing the free exercise thereof." 
 
 In favoring such a rest I am only recognizing what has been consecrated 
 by all human history, and by all religions, from the earliest times. I am 
 only favoring obedience to those natural laws which God, the Almighty, 
 has stamped upon the very constitution of man, and of human society. 
 
 Others will speak of the physiological and pathological value of Sunday 
 rest — of its good effects upon the products of labor in quantity and quality, 
 and upon wages; of its effect upon the character and habits of laboring 
 people; of its special relation to women in factories, stores, and domestic 
 service, and, more than all, of the inestimable value of Sunday rest to the 
 home and family life, which, after all, is the only sure foundation for God's 
 republic on this earth. When you hear them, I have no doubt you will be 
 satisfied that it is the duty of the State to secure and defend one day's rest 
 in seven for all the people. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States expressly recognizes Sunday as a 
 day of rest for the executive — as a non-legal day as to him. It says: 
 
 If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days, Sundays 
 excepted, after it shall have been presented to him, it shall become a law. 
 
 The Sunday laws have been sustained by the Supreme Courts of Massa- 
 chusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and of all the States 
 except, perhaps, California — not upon religious grounds, not to enforce 
 religion, but to protect those who would worship God in peace in the
 
 SUNDAY-REST CONGRESS. 959 
 
 enjoyment of their rights, and as a police regulation for the good order and 
 peace of society, and for the great benefit of one common day of rest every 
 weelc, for the good of all men. 
 
 Dr. Butler submitted a valuable paper on " Sunday Laws," 
 
 of which the following is a brief summary : 
 
 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 general 
 order of society is a result of civilization, aided by Christianity, both com- 
 bining to give to its support, as a secondary basis, the consent of 
 the communities, 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. It is the part of wisdom to accept and 
 to retain the existing system of Sunday legislation without relaxing the 
 strictness of its prohibitions and without infringing on the freedom of 
 individual conscience. Sunday laws are properly maintained as civil reg- 
 ulations, governing men as members of society. Obedieijce to such laws is 
 properly claimed and partially enforced, while, as a vital principle which 
 gives strength and stability to the world's day of rest, at once the pledge 
 and the guaranty of its perpetuity and its beneficent power, is the faith of 
 humanity that it is a gift of God. 
 
 Rabbi Felsenthal of Chicago discussed the "Sabbath in 
 Judaism " during one of the sessions. He began with a brief 
 outline of the history of the Sabbath, showing its Jewish 
 origin and the manner of its observance among the Jews. He 
 showed how also the Sabbath had been in many ways a bless- 
 ing to the Jews. It endowed that people, he said, with strength 
 to withstand the almost unceasing and pitiless attempts to 
 exterminate the Jewish people and to extinguish the Jewish 
 religion, and had kept them united as one religious denomina- 
 tion, despite their having been dispersed over so many parts of 
 the world, and despite their having no ruling hierarchy and no 
 centralizing authorities. The Sabbath had also brought bliss 
 and happiness to the family life of the Jews, and to its observ- 
 ance was due the conspicuous fact that ignorance had never 
 spread among the Jews as among other nations and sects. In 
 closing, the speaker said: 
 
 Sabbath is a grand and sacred institution, but its celebration must be 
 left to the individual. American liberty, I venture to say, is a still grander 
 and a still holier institution and the maintenance of it is intrusted to each 
 and every American citizen. We praise the weekly Sabbath. We are sure 
 that from its immense blessings will spring forth blessings for the mental 
 and for the moral life of individuals, of families, and of society at large. But 
 what the laws and statutes enacted or to be enacted by the legislative 
 authorities of our American States can do for the Sabbath is this and only 
 this: They can protect and ought to protect every congregation assembled
 
 eeO THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 on their Sabbath for divine worship in a church, or a chapel, or a synagogue, 
 or a mosque, or any other place,' against being disturbed in their worship, 
 and they can guarantee, and ought to guarantee, to each person in our 
 land, even be he the poorest, one day of perfect rest in each week of seven 
 consecutive days. All further legislation by the States or the United 
 States is unnecessary and would be un-American. But let us — let all the 
 friends of the great and sacred Sabbath institution — trust in the power of 
 public opinion. Relying upon that great power, and upon the divine bless- 
 ings of our Heavenly Father, all of us can look hopefully toward the future, 
 and can rest assured that the land in all times to come will have a Sab- 
 bath, a real, genuine Sabbath. 
 
 Alice L. Woodbridge, secretary of the Working Women's 
 Society, New York, sent an interesting article on " Sunday 
 Eest in Relation to Working Women," in which she said: 
 
 Although manufacturing establishments generally close on Sunday, 
 this does not, by any means, signify a day of rest for employes. Sunday to 
 them means simply a change of work. Therehas been a very considerable 
 improvement In the condition of affairs within the last few years, largely 
 due to the efforts of organized labor. 
 
 That the world is awakening to the needs of co-operation is shown 
 through the international assembling of those interested in the cause of 
 Sunday rest. This seems an excellent opportunity to secure the co-opera- 
 tion of all organizations interested in obtaining a Saturday half-holiday, 
 and it may not be amiss to suggest that organized efforts to secure a 
 change of pay day will greatly advance this movement. It is, no doubt, far 
 nobler for the individual to learn to withstand temptation, but under 
 existing conditions we are insured against temptation only through its 
 removal, and a Monday pay day would remove much of the temptation to 
 purchase on Saturday. 
 
 Other speakers were Miss Jane Addams of Hull House; Miss 
 Florence Kelley, Mrs. Charles Henrotin, Rev. O. Remier of 
 Paris, and John Charlton, M. P., of Canada. 
 
 On Sunday afternoon, October 1st, a mass meeting was held 
 in the Hall of Washington, under the auspices of the congress. 
 The speakers were President Bonney, Rev. Dr. Arthur Little 
 of Boston; Rev. Dr. Atterbury of New York; W. J. Onahan, 
 L. T. O'Brien, S. W. Elliott, and Rev. O. P. Gift'ord of Chicago. 
 The meeting was largely attended and the addresses were cal- 
 culated to aid the movement. 
 
 YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 
 
 On Friday, October 6th, was held the World's Congress of 
 the Young Men's Christian Association, which proved very 
 pleasant and profitable. There were a number of delegates 
 present from Europe. President Bonney opened the congress
 
 YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 961 
 
 with a brief address of welcome, and Elbert D. Monroe of New 
 York officiated as chairman. In his introductory remarks, Mr. 
 Monroe said the mission of the Young Men's Christian Associ- 
 ation is to make men the best men in the class-room, at the 
 bench, in the home, and at the ballot-box. To make the manly 
 Christian life enticing to the young man of the world. 
 
 The first paper was read by Pres. John M. Coulter of 
 Lake Forest University. His subject was "Intercollegiate 
 Work," begun but sixteen years ago. He said: 
 
 To-day, about 450 colleges and 30,000 students in America alone have 
 sworn allegiance to it, and its present momentum is so great that no one 
 can predict its future. That it is one of the greatest modern movements 
 connected with the Christian religion can not be doubted, and the enthu- 
 siasm of it is like that of the ancient crusades, but its spirit is the spirit of 
 Christ. Independent thinking is the educational creed of to-day, and every 
 improvement in college method looks to this end. The result is already 
 apparent in the world's questions about religion. The spirit of the college 
 is the spirit of investigation. Investigation in searching for truth must 
 question everything that claims to be the truth, and must decline to yield 
 assent to human authority. The material possibilities of the next genera- 
 tion pale into insignificance when compared with the thought of the next 
 generation concerning religion. The time is ripe in our colleges for the 
 presentation of some simple essential truth, unhampered by excrescences 
 and unqualified in its demands for the best moral development, and at the 
 same time the colleges will demand that the men who present this truth 
 shall live it. 
 
 The student generally has been brought to think the Bible is a book to 
 believe rather than to study. Any movement which will break down this 
 notion, and which will place the Bible in the hands of the student as any 
 other book, to be searched for the truth it may contain, will effect a 
 mighty revolution. To say it is to be approached with a different spirit is 
 to do it great injustice. The Bible asks only what any book asks, an 
 unprejudiced mind. It is this sort of study that will capture the strong 
 young men of to-day, and its proper direction will demand the most careful 
 thought of this association. My plea is for the injection of more virility 
 and of scientific spirit into Bible study. Medieval and Oriental mysticism 
 may satisfy the ignorant or the emotional, but the men of hard sense, who 
 are being trained to keen analysis and independent judgment, must be led 
 by evident facts. With a firm belief that a thoughtful study of the Bible 
 will lead to acceptance of Christianity, and will stimulate constantly to 
 the practice of its principles, I can see no more important and difficult 
 part of the work in colleges than Bible study. 
 
 E. L. Shuey of Dayton, Ohio, read a comprehensive paper 
 on the educational department of association work. He spoke 
 of the great results already accomplished through the night- 
 school system and the university extension work, describing 
 somewhat in detail some of the results which had followed the 
 efforts of the association in the direction of manual training.
 
 962 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 E. L. Wishard delivered a brief address. He said he found 
 the young men of the student bodies of Asia willing to investi- 
 gate Christianity and to study the Bible. He said that in 
 Japan there were 2,000,000 young men in the higher institu- 
 tions of learning, and 500,000 in India. These young men, 
 with the growth of intelligence, are abandoning the faith of 
 the ancient religions. Mr. Wishard said it was the mission 
 of the Young Men's Christian Association to stay the tide of 
 Western materialism which is sweeping over the Orient and to 
 give to the young men in the place of the old faiths they are 
 so genemlly deserting the eternal truths of Christianity. 
 
 Other addresses were delivered by Luther Gulich, M. D., of 
 Springfield, Mass.; A. A. Stagg, Lord Kinnaird of London; 
 C. M, Hobbs of the I>enver & Rio Grande Railroad, and 
 Cephas Brainerd of New York. 
 
 YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 
 
 A short congress was held by the Young Women's Christian 
 Association on Saturday, October 7th. Mrs. J. V. Farwell, Jr., 
 presided at the opening session and the devotional exercises in 
 the evening were conducted by Bishop Cheney of Chicago. 
 
 Miss R. F. Morse of New York submitted an interesting paper 
 on "A Work for and by Young Women." She said: 
 
 If it is true, as has been said, that " man may educate the world, but 
 woman educates man," let it be also remembered that woman in her youth 
 is being trained for the office of educator, and is forming a character which 
 will either bless or blight the future home in which she will reign as wife 
 and mother. Two years ago I quoted from a reliable source the statement 
 that within fifty years the occupations available for self-supporting women 
 had multiplied from 7 to 342. Of these there were only 27 in 1860, so that 
 in twenty- one years 315 avenues in business and professional lines had 
 been thrown open to woman. Naturally it is young women who for the 
 most part fill these positions, the average age of the business-woman 
 in our large cities being twenty-two years. 
 
 The writer then referred to the growing independence of 
 
 young women and their increasing ability to earn their own 
 
 livelihood, and said there was a growing demand for those 
 
 social and Christian influences to be thrown around the lives of 
 
 young women which would supply the training — moral, intel-
 
 PRESENTATION OF THE BUDDHISTS. 963 
 
 lectual, and physical — which would fit them for their place in 
 the world. She continued: " This is the kind of work which 
 our Young Women's Christian Association is doing." 
 
 Lord Kinnaird of London spoke of " The Progress of the 
 Young Women's Christian Association in Great Britain." 
 
 The closing address in the morning was made by J. H. 
 Elliott of the Bible Institute of Chicago on " The Opportuni- 
 ties for Work for Young Women." He set forth the dangers 
 surrounding young girls by their introduction into so-called 
 good society, and said this kind of influence often led to their 
 ruin and degradation. The tendency of young women in our 
 modern society, so-called, is gossip rather than godliness, the 
 dance rather than denial of self. A good many of our young 
 women, he declared, show a preference for dudes rather than 
 for Daniels, dress rather than that which is more helpful. 
 
 Miss Effie K. Price of Chicago read a paper on "The Object 
 and Methods of the Young Women's Christian Association," 
 which treated in detail the work done by the association in 
 helping woman in the battle she has been waging for equality 
 with man. 
 
 Mrs. Joseph Cook of Boston submitted an interesting essay 
 on "Young Women as Agents in the Evangelization of the 
 World." 
 
 PRESENTATION OF THE BUDDHISTS. 
 
 In the Hall of Columbus on the evening of September 26th, 
 the presentation of the Buddhists was made in the presence of 
 a large audience. Alfred Williams Momerie of London pre- 
 sided, and on the platform were several high-priests of Bud- 
 dhism in their official garments. Y. Naguchi of Japan made 
 the address of welcome, as follows: 
 
 The Parliament of Religions has been a great success, and, before my 
 farewell to this city, let me address a few words about what came to my 
 mind during my ramble of last Sunday. The murmuring waves of Lake 
 Michigan and the whistling winds of Jackson Park reminded me of events 
 told many thousand years ago, and took me back to the age of the ancient 
 Oriental "civilization, especially that of India. It divided itself into two 
 parts, and both traveled in two opposite directions, East and West. That
 
 964 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 tide which ran toward the West has been the source of the material civili- 
 zation of the Occidental countries, and remained there some time until 
 Columbus carried it over the roaring breakers of the Atlantic Ocean to this 
 country, 00 years ago; while that stream which took the Eastern course 
 became the immaterial civilization and was tossing among the wild rocks 
 of China, Corea, and Japan, and at last by this time, having been blown by 
 the calm breeze of the Pacific Ocean, has entered into America. 
 
 I can not 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 have come and w'ill continue to embrace 
 with one another in a cordial fraternity; and if our Oriental thought shall 
 be considered to give an additional tint to the material civilization of 
 America and increase her natural beauty and grace, our presentation was 
 not a needless task and we shall be greatly satisfied. 
 
 A number of addresses were delivered, notably by Shakii 
 
 Soyen, Kinza Ringe Hirai, and Zitsizen Asbitsu. Swami Vive- 
 
 kananda made the closing speech of the session. He said: 
 
 Mr. President, My Brethren, and My Kind Guardians: 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 incar- 
 nate on earth. You have just now heard that I am going to criticise 
 Buddhism, 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 disci- 
 ples. The relation between Hinduism (by Hinduism I mean the' religion of 
 the Vedas) and what is called the Buddhism at the present day is nearly 
 the same as between Buddhism and Christianity. Jesus Christ was a Jew 
 and Shakamuni was a Hindu, but W'ith this difference: The Jew^s rejected 
 Jesus Christ, nay, crucified Him, and the Hindu has exalted Shakamuni to 
 the seat of divinity and worships him. 
 
 But the real difference that we Hindus want to show between mod- 
 ern Buddhism and what we should understand as the teachings of Lord 
 Buddha, lies principally in this. Shakamuni came to preach nothing new. 
 He also, like Jesus, came to fulfill and not to destroy, and, reversing the 
 order of positions — making the Jew come dow^n to the New Testament and 
 the Christian go up to the Old Testament — and as the Jew did not under- 
 stand the fulfillment of the Old Testament, so the Buddhist did not under- 
 stand the fulfillment of the truths of the Hindu religion. Again I repeat, 
 Shakamuni came not to destroy, but he was the fulfillment, the logical 
 conclusion, the logical development of tne religion of the Hindus. 
 
 The religion of the Hindus is divided into two parts, the ceremonial 
 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 con- 
 dition. Shakamuni himself was a monk, and to his glory he had the large- 
 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 con- 
 ceive the idea of proselyting. 
 
 The great glory of the master lay in his wonderful sympathy for every- 
 body, especially for the ignorant and poor. Some of his disciples 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 Sans- 
 krit, but he steadily told them, " I am for the poor, for the people; let me
 
 EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE COyORESS. 9G5 
 
 speak in the tongue of the people." And so to this tlay the great bulk of 
 his teachings are in the vernacuhtr of that day in India. 
 
 Whatever maj^ be the position of phiiosopliy. whatever may be the posi- 
 tion of metaphysics, so long as there is such a thing as ileath in the world, 
 so long as there is such a thing as weakness in the luunan heart, s(j long as 
 there is a crj^ going out of the heart of man in his very weakness, there 
 shall be a faith in God. 
 
 On the philosophic side the disciples of the great master dashed them- 
 selves against the eternal rocks of the Vedas and could not crush them, 
 and on the other side they took away from the nation that eternal God to 
 which every man and woman clings so fondly. And the result was that it 
 had to die its natural death in India, and at the present day there is not 
 one man or woman who calls himself a Buddhist in India, the mother-land 
 of its birth. 
 
 On the other hand, Brahmanism lost something — that reforming zeal, 
 that wonderful sympathy and charity for everybody, that wonderful leaven 
 which Buddhism brought into the masses, and which rendered Indian 
 society so great that a Greek historian who writes about India was led to 
 say that no Hindu was known to tell an untruth and no Hindu woman was 
 known to be unchaste. 
 
 Turning to the group of Buddhists on the platform, the 
 
 speaker continued: 
 
 We can not live without you, nor you without us. Then believe that 
 separation was fjhown to us, that you can not 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 300,000,000 (jf beggars, and that is 
 why India has been the slave of conquerors for the last 1,000 years. Let 
 us then join the w^onderful intellect of the Brahman with the heart, the 
 noble soul, the wonderful humanizing power of the great master. 
 
 A poem, composed by Soyen Shaku, which was written 
 on one side of a white fan, was translated during the meeting 
 
 as follows: 
 
 There are several races of men, some black, some red, some yellow, 
 some white. 
 
 Yet there is but one truth which reigns supreme in the West and East, 
 in the South and North; 
 
 Yet, if you doubt truth being one, only look at the clear moon m the 
 high heavens — 
 
 There is no place in the world where her pure light does not penetrate. 
 
 EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE CONGRESS. 
 
 Great preparations were made for this congress, which was 
 the last of the series, and aroused a great deal of interest. It 
 began on Sunday, October 8th, in the Hall of Columbus, and 
 ended on Sunday evening, October 15th. Three sessions were 
 held daily. A sentiment of unity and fraternity was the key- 
 note of the entire proceedings. In his address of welcome,
 
 966 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 President Bonney referred to the wonderful Christian activity 
 which marks these days, the watchword of the Christian church 
 being the conquest of the world. He said that while at the 
 beginning of the century only one in seven ty-j5ve of the popu- 
 lation professed themselves Christians, at present one in every 
 five bears that sacred name. The Evangelical Alliance was, he 
 said, an agency raised up by Divine Providence to promote the 
 peace and unity of mankind. 
 
 W. E. Dodge, president of the Alliance, said the object of 
 the congress was to gather up the results of all the past con- 
 gresses and give them practical expression for the good of man- 
 kind. In a brief address, Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows said: 
 
 The long series of congresses so soon to terminate would be incomplete 
 without the splendid and noble work represented by the Evangelical Alli- 
 ance, one of the prophecies of a reunited Christendom. Cordially and 
 gratefully I bid you welcome to this hall, made illustrious already by events 
 of world-wide significance, and to this city where the interest in this series 
 of world's conventions has been most intense and pervading. 
 
 We are often told that Chicago is noted for its big things — its big ware- 
 houses, newspapers, railroads, expectations, achievements. But when I 
 think of all the addresses of cordial greeting which the President of the 
 World's Congress Auxiliary has given in the last five and one-half months, 
 about the biggest thing in Chicago is the heart of the man which has been 
 such an ample storehouse of welcome and salutation to more than a hun- 
 dred congresses. 
 
 It is your purpose to bring Christian truth home in a closer and mere 
 practical way to all classes of Christian workers, to make your meeting a 
 school of applied Christianity. This will be a unique and splendid feature 
 of your congress, and I have no doubt from the noble programme which 
 you offer us, that this will prove among the most important conferences 
 which you have ever held. 
 
 Welcome, then, thrice welcome, and may the influence of the reports of 
 this meeting, as they go out into many lands, contribute to the benigner 
 tendencies at work among men, helping greatly what Dr. Schaff pronounces 
 the two most important achievements now presented before our faith 
 and our works — the reunion of Christendom and the conversion of the 
 world. 
 
 Mrs. Potter Palmer also delivered a graceful address of 
 
 welcome, saying in part: 
 
 I should onait one evident part of my duty if I did not use my moment 
 of time in calling attention to the remarkable work which women have 
 organized and carried on in useful and practical directions. With the 
 sanction and under the fostering care of the church, they first organized 
 and found an outlet for their desire to carry comfort and healing beyond 
 the thresholds of their own homes. While silent in the churches on the 
 first day of the week, it has been their high prerogative to aid in keeping 
 alive the spirit and practice of religion during the remaining six days of 
 the week. The results accomplished have borne silent witness to their 
 ability, self-denial, and devotion to the cause of humanity.
 
 EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE CONGRESS. 967 
 
 Among the topics discussed during the week were " Religious 
 Condition of Protestant Christendom," " Christian Liberty," 
 " Christian Union and Co-operation," "Theological Education," 
 and kindred subjects. 
 
 Speaking on Christian co-operation in church extension, Rev. 
 W. Hyde, president of Bowdoin College, said it was nothing 
 more or less than a proposition that Christian {jeopk' shall do 
 their Christian work in a Christian way. To show that this 
 scheme of co-operation is entirely practicable, he related the 
 experience of the interdenominational conference which has 
 been established in the State of Maine, and which settles all 
 questions in reference to the location of churches in diflPerent 
 communities, deciding which denomination is best entitled to 
 the field. The workings of the commission have been entirely 
 satisfactory, and he recommended that in every State a similar 
 commission should be organized. While believing that differ- 
 ent denominations were necessary and in some respects led to 
 salutary results, the speaker pointed out that such differentia- 
 tion was expensive, and could only be afforded in large cities. 
 Continuing, he 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 luxuries because these towns can not support them them- 
 selves? Yet that is what we have been doing for years, and in consequence 
 we find everywhere in these communities empty churches, half-paid min- 
 isters, 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 forty-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 co-operation in church extension is a 
 duty from every point of life. We owe it first to the contrin utors who sup- 
 port home missions; second, to our devoted missionaries; third, to the 
 people we seek to evangelize; fourth, to Christ and the truth of Christianity. 
 
 Morley Williams, speaking in behalf of the Baptist denomina- 
 tion, said: 
 
 I admit that the Baptists have not made the contribution to church 
 unity that they ought to have made. The trouble was that they had 
 forgotten the due co-ordination of the truths for which they believe them- 
 selves to stand. They had emphasized too much the lines of denomina- 
 tional demarkatioc, such as the close-communion principle and bai)ti6m 
 by immersion, rather than the general principles of Christianity. There
 
 968 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 should be greater and more earnest co-operation among the denominations. 
 Let every man pursue the truth as God gives him to see the truth, but let 
 hi^Q never forget that the very first thing he has to do is to make men 
 Christians. 
 
 The next speaker was Rev. Dr. Clark, secretary of the Home 
 Missionary Society of the Congregational Church. Dr. Clark 
 said the Congregationalists were disposed to be very tolerant 
 of every form of evangelical Christianity. They believed in 
 denominational courtesy and in the wise economy of mission- 
 aries' funds. They would not plant churches where they were 
 not wanted. He continued: 
 
 Congregationalists are more than willing; they are ready and eager to 
 co-operate with Christians of every name in church extension or, if need 
 be, in church extinction. Show us anywhere in the wide field that a Con- 
 gregational Church has unjustly crowded upon its neighbors, and what- 
 ever can be done to withdraw it will be done. Prove to us in a fair and 
 mutual conference that our presence in any community is a cause of weak- 
 ness or division, and that our retirement will strengthen the interests that 
 remain, and we will esteem it our first duty to retire. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Elmendorf of the Dutch Reformed Church ; Rev. Dr. 
 Baritg of the Lutheran Church, and Rev. Dr. J. M. King of 
 New York also discussed this topic. Bishop Fowler of the Meth- 
 odist Church closed the debate by assuring the congress of his 
 deep sympathy in the success of all work undertaken by the 
 evangelical churches. He did not believe, he said, in the 
 denominations coming too close together, for if they surrender 
 too much to each other they would be apt to surrender their 
 sense of obligation to work in the Master's cause. In a gener- 
 ous rivalry there was something that kept them on their mettle. 
 So he believed that the working of different denominations side 
 by side and still independently would tend to the advancement 
 of the kingdom of God and the upbuilding of His name among 
 men. 
 
 Speaking on the religious condition of Great Britain at one 
 of the sessions, Lord Kinnaird said parochial mission work, as 
 conducted by the established Church of England, was a feature 
 of aggressive Christianity on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 He also alluded in commendatory terms to the work of the 
 Bible Society and the Religious Tract Society, which he char- 
 acterized as great mission feeders. Lord Kinnaird said the
 
 BISHOP C. H. FOWLER, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 Of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
 
 EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE CONGRESS. 969 
 
 efforts of Mr. Quintan Hogg, the well-known evangelist a,nd 
 philanthropist, who established the Loudon Polytechnic, proved 
 that the so-called working-classes were not averse to receiving 
 the gospel if it was presented to them in the right way. 
 
 Principal Grant of Canada also described the religious con- 
 dition of that country. In Canada, he said, church-going 
 habits are universal, the ministry is held in high esteem, 
 and all denominations engage actively in foreign mis- 
 sionary work. The picture, however, has another side, for 
 although public men as a whole represent the best elements 
 of society, the tone of political life is not high, and recent 
 revelations showed corruption among the people. Canada has 
 produced no poetry or literature of first-class rank, although 
 she has young poets of promise. He closed by paying a tribute 
 to the character of the young Canadian students in the univer- 
 sities who come from homes where religion is a living power. 
 
 In an address on the religious condition of Protestant Italy, 
 Rev. W. Matteo Prochet of Rome said the two words that 
 described the present condition of Italy as to religion were 
 gross superstition and growing infidelity. The position of the 
 Italians, he claimed, was unique in the history of the world. On 
 this point, he said: 
 
 Italy is the only land where a man can not be a good patriot and at the 
 same time a good Roman Catholic. The reason of it is obvious. The Pope 
 does not recognize the kingdom, and would break the Italian unity to pieces 
 if it were possible. The Waldensian Church, which is the oldest native 
 church in Italy, is leading the movement in evangelization in all the main 
 cities. They have forty churches, with a membership of 18,000, and the 
 other churches bring up the Protestant membership to 25,000. 
 
 Prof. Richard T. Ely of the University of Wisconsin dis- 
 cussed "The Church and the Labor Problem"; the Rev. 
 Graham Taylor, D. D., spoke upon the needs of sociological 
 training of the minister, and Prof. Henry Drummond showed 
 the relationship between Christianity and evolution of society. 
 Other addresses on sociological lines were given by the Rev. 
 Charles A. Dickenson of Boston; the Rev. George A. Gates^ 
 president of Iowa College; the Rev. H. L. Waylan of Phil 
 adelphia, and the Rev. George D. Herron of Grinnell, Iowa.
 
 970 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The Rev. W. S. Rainsford, D. D., rector of St. George's 
 Church, New York, gave his views of the way to reach non- 
 church-going workingmen. Prof. John R. Common of Indiana 
 University suggested some substitutes for the saloon. Prof. 
 Henry Drummond described work which he has organized 
 under the name of " The Boys' Brigade." The Rev. John 0. 
 Collins and the Rev. H. S. Bliss also talked of boys' clubs. 
 
 Miss Grace H. Dodge of New York discussed the " Domestic 
 Circles and Working-Girls' Clubs." "Social Settlements" 
 was discussed by Miss Jane Addams of Hull House and Mrs. 
 Charles Henrotin. Miss E. A. Buchanon of New York read a 
 paper upon " Holiday Houses." Mrs. Lucy S. Bainbridge of 
 the New York City Mission delivered an address upon " Trained 
 Nurses," "The Work of Deaconesses" was discussed by Mrs. 
 Lucy Rider Meyer of Chicago; Sister Dora of London, and 
 Margaret Dreyer of the German Deaconess Institute , Chicago. 
 Addresses were also made by Miss Lucy Wheelock, Miss Stella 
 Wood, Miss Bertha Payne, and Mrs. Alice H. Putman. 
 
 Ex-Chief of Police Maj. Robert W. McClaaghry pointed out 
 the way in which the churches may hetp to improve criminal 
 administration.
 
 PART IV. 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES, ARTICLES, AND OPINIONS. 
 
 CHARLES CARROLL BONNEY, 
 
 President of the World's Congress Auxiliary. 
 
 Charles Carroll Bonney, president of the World's Congress Auxiliary of 
 the World's Columbian Exposition, president of the International Law and 
 Order League, ex-president of the Illinois State Bar Association, counselor 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States, etc., has long been prominently 
 before the American people in various honorable positions. 
 
 The following facts relating to his career as teacher, lawyer, orator, 
 author, and reformer have been collected and condensed from numerous 
 notices, biographical sketches, and other publications: He is a native of 
 the State of New York, was born at Hamilton in 1831, was named for 
 Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration 
 of Independence, and is a farmer's son. He was educated in public schools, 
 Hamilton Academy, and chiefly by private study, with many advantages 
 from Madison University, though engaged in teaching instead of pursuing 
 the regular course of instruction. He was a teacher in the public schools, 
 or the Hamilton Academy, from the age of seventeen till he moved to 
 Peoria, 111., at the age of nineteen. He there taught an academic 
 school for two years; was public lecturer on education for Peoria County 
 in 1852-53; vice-president of a State Teachers' Institute, and took a leading 
 part in establishing the present educational system of Illinois, conducting 
 the correspondence which resulted in the first State convention for educa- 
 tional purposes, and organizing numerous educational societies. 
 
 Mr. Bonney commenced reading law when but seventeen, and became a 
 writer for the public press at nineteen. He was admitted to the Illinois 
 bar in 1852, and to that of the United States Supreme Court in 1866, was 
 president of the Illinois State Bar Association, and vice-president of the 
 American Bar Association in 1882, and has taken a leading part in the 
 proceedings of both associations. He removed from Peoria to Chicago in 
 1800, where he has since resided. His practice has embraced all depart- 
 ments of law, and includes reported cases in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, 
 
 971
 
 972 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Nebraska, New York, New Jersey, California, and the United States 
 Supreme Court. Public press notices of many States describe him as a 
 profound and accomplished lawyer, one of the most eminent and distin- 
 guished members of the Chicago bar. and a writer on legal and political 
 subjects of wide reputation. 
 
 In the field of practical reform, Mr. Bonney's efforts have been impor- 
 tant and largely successful. He is the author of the scheme for a series of 
 World's Congresses in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition 
 of 1893, intended to set forth, on what has been declared "a scale of 
 unexampled majesty," the achievements of mankind in all the departments 
 of civilized life, and to promote future progress by the fraternal co-operation 
 of the enlightened minds of all countries. The organization and direction 
 of this enterprise has been in his charge from the beginning. 
 
 REV. DR. JOHN HENRY BARROWS. 
 
 The most prominent figure in the great Parliament of Religions was the 
 Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, permanent chairman, who perfected the 
 plan of holding the convocation. Dr. Barrows is pastor of the First 
 Presbyterian Church of Chicago. He is one of the most eloquent pulpit 
 orators in the United States. He was born in Medina, Mich., and is forty- 
 six years old. His parents were of New England stock. He was educated 
 at Olivet College, graduating in 1867. After leaving college, where he 
 showed great taste for literature, history, and classics, Mr. Barrows studied 
 theology at Yale, Union, and Andover. Afterward he spent two and a half 
 years in missionary and educational work in Kansas. For a year he occu- 
 pied the pulpit of the First Congregational Church of Springfield, 111. 
 Then he spent another year in foreign lands, supplying the American 
 chapel at Paris for some time, where he made many friends. On his return 
 to America, Dr. Barrows became the pastor of the Eliot Congregational 
 Church at Lawrence, Mass. Then he went to the Maverick Church at 
 East Boston, and was working there when he was called by the First 
 Presbyterians of Chicago. Dr. Barrows' ministry in Chicago has been dis- 
 tinguished by great energy in all good works. Over one thousand members 
 have been received in his church since October, 1881. As a lecturer and 
 author, Dr. Barrows enjoys an enviable reputation. He is a tall, slender 
 man, with a genial face and pleasant manners. His work during the Par- 
 liament of Religions has placed him in the front ranks of the theologians 
 of the world. 
 
 DIONYSIOS LATAS, 
 
 Archbishop of Zante, Greece. 
 
 The Archbishop Dionysios Latas was born in Zante in 1836. By his 
 pious mother he was brought up in the tenets of the gospel, hence the 
 d?sire was developed in him to visit the Holy Land. He remained three
 
 BIOGRAPHIES. 973 
 
 years in Bethlehem, where he studied the Arabic language, and was adopted 
 by the Metropolitan of the Holy City. After the death of the Metropolitan 
 he was placed in the Theological Seminary of the Holy Cross by the Patri- 
 arch of Jerusalem, where, after seven years' attendance, he graduated. 
 The Patriarch, appreciating his talent, appointed him first " deacon," and 
 then within a week "presbyter"; afterward he attended the theological 
 department of the University of Athens for three years, when, his rare and 
 unique eloquence in pulpits becoming known, he was sent by the mayor of 
 Athens, Loucas Rallis, at the mayor's expense, to the universities of West- 
 ern Europe. He attended the lectures on theology and philosophy two 
 years in the French University of Strasburg; then he went to Germany and 
 studied for three years and a half in the universities of Berlin, Leipsic, and 
 Munich. 
 
 From Germany, in 1869, he went to England to attend the practical ser- 
 mons at the services of the English churches, and remained there about a 
 year. From England, in 1870, he went to Rome, where he listened to, and 
 heard the views of, several prominent Catholic clergymen, concerning the 
 infallibility of the Pope, during the Catholic Ecumenical Congress. In 1871 
 he returned to Greece, where he again preached from the pulpits. 
 
 On account of the deep impression his great eloquence made upon the 
 multitudes, the Greek Government appointed him Preacher of the State. 
 As such he visited and preached in every part of the Kingdom of Greece for 
 fifteen years. At the same time he wrote and edited a religious paper — the 
 Zion — by which he greatly benefited the people of the Orient. For this the 
 king honored him by conferring upon him the Cross of the Savior. 
 
 The eminent American Minister to Greece from 1869 to 1873, Charles K. 
 Tuckerman, in his book entitled " The Greeks of To-day," says, concerning 
 this eloquent archbishop, as follows: 
 
 Dionysios Latas, an "Archimandriti" of commanding abilities, is now 
 exciting great attention by his eloquent sermons in one of the churches in 
 Athens. With the benefit of foreign education and a knowledge of two or 
 three languages, his mind has received an expansion which is most unusual 
 in the class to which he belongs. If he lives and pursues his career with 
 the courage which is absolutely necessary for success, Latas will undoubt- 
 edly do more for the advancement of religious knowledge and religious 
 faith in Greece than has been done by any single individual since the 
 creation of the kingdom. 
 
 For two hours at a time, from hii? pulpit in " St. Irene ", this young 
 preacher holds the undivided attention of a closely packed and standing 
 crowd, for there are no seats in a Greek church, while he explains and 
 enforces the truths of scripture, large portions of which he repeats 
 memorita. He uses no notes, although he has evidently carefully studied 
 his subject beforehand, and he often rises to impassioned eloquence and 
 fervor. 
 
 My only opportunities for judging of the capabilities of this remark- 
 able priest have been in private conversation with him, and these have 
 confirmed the idea that his views, thovigh broad, are sound, and that tho 
 church has nothing to fear, and much to hope for. if such men are permit- 
 ted nninterruptedly to go on in their work of religious enlightenment. 
 
 In 1884, at the request of his fellow-citizens, he was ordained by tho
 
 974 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Holy Synod and Government of Greece Archbishop of Zante, where he 
 lives as such at the present day. 
 
 It is very well known that during the present year there occurred in 
 the Island of Zante 1,200 earthquakes, according to the testimony of the 
 director of telegraphs in Zante and the eminent seismologist, Mr. Foster. 
 The two most terrific shocks occurred January 19th and April 5th. Half of 
 the island was destroyed. Of 5,000 houses in the city of Zante there 
 remained undestroyed only forty-six. Entire villages had become masses 
 of ruins. Churches of all kinds to the number of 132 were wrecked, 
 among others that of St. Dionysios, the largest on the island. 
 
 The Archbishop's famous discourses at the World's Congress of Relig- 
 ions and at the World's Fair were so enthusiastically received, that expres- 
 sions of warm affection were heard concerning him everywhere. People 
 from all parts of the country have invited him to visit their cities before 
 leaving America. 
 
 BUILDING A GREAT RELIGION. 
 
 REV. PROF. DAVID SWING. 
 
 THE COVENANT OF THE CENTRAL INDEPENDENT CHURCH. 
 
 We. desiring to promote our own spiritual welfare and to take some part in 
 helping others to lead the Christian life, do form ourselves into a Christian society 
 to be known as the Central Church of Chicago. We found our Church upon the 
 great doctrines of the New Testament. We believe in the divine character of 
 Christ. That He is the Savior which man in his sinfulness and darkness leeds, 
 and trust all those following this Christ are entitled to the name of Christians. 
 
 Behold I make all things new.— -Re«. xxi., 5. 
 
 Among the great works over which our country is busy must be 
 included the construction of a great religion. America must be happy only 
 in ideas and institutions as great as itself. That quality of mind which 
 demands a harmony in architecture, in music, and in colors asks for a 
 harmony in each department of taste and thought. 
 
 The doctrine of human slavery was not in full accord with the theory of 
 1776, and many of the statesmen who were busy laying the foundations of 
 the new republic wondered long and with pain over the discord which 
 human bondage created. All things that must exist at the same time and 
 must live together in one house must be in some way harmonious. 
 
 When the pioneers built a log house they did not long for a marble door- 
 step; the step must also he a log. There was no plated knob on the front 
 door. It was enough if the leather latchstring was out. The dress of the 
 farmer and of the wife and children was in full sympathy with the house, 
 the windows, the fire-place, and the stairs. A hundred objects fell into 
 unity. 
 
 When what was called progress came the many articles of daily use 
 moved upward side by side. The doorknob advanced only along with the 
 . whole house. When a stone doorstep came the leather latchstring was 
 dismissed from duty. It had lived an honored life, for Abraham Lincoln 
 and Ulysses Grant had pulled it. They thus lifted the great wooden latch 
 that on a winter night lay between them and a blazing hearth. When the 
 house began to undergo changes, dress and language changed for the 
 better, and, in time, the verb began to agree with the nominative case, and 
 adverbs and adjectives became more orderly in their conduct.
 
 REV. PROF. DAVID SWING, 
 Vice-Chairman General Committee.
 
 BUILDING A GREAT RELIGION. 975 
 
 Such a nation, living in such a period, can not make changes many and 
 great without making changes in its religion. A large XJolitics and a small 
 Christianity can not journey onward together. The intellectual life of the 
 people can not widt^n and deepen in all the departments except the tield of 
 theology and worship. When the reasoning power comes it reasons at all 
 hours and in all helds, and the state that is philosophic in politics must 
 soon become philosophic in piety. It at last becomes impossible to ascribe 
 to a God laws and actions which reason would not dare ascribe to 
 humanity. It therefore comes to pass that our country, while it is at work 
 over sciences, and arts, and laws, and inventions, can not but be at work 
 over its popular religion. All our States and all our churches are attempt- 
 ing to find and express a great religion for a great people. 
 
 It is not in bad taste to claim that our nation possesses an unusual 
 greatness. It is, indeed, marked by defects which humiliate national 
 pride, but all the great thinkers and writers in the philosophic fields con- 
 fess the United States to be in advance of all the nations that exist or 
 have existed. De Tocqueville, Count Gasparin, and recent foreign writers 
 have pointed out the great particulars in which our people are more fortu- 
 nate than all the millions of other lands. 
 
 It would have been criminal in our ancestors not to found a great 
 people; for, possessing the highest political education then known — that of 
 England and Prance in the times of the Burkes and the La Payettes — it 
 possessed also the perfect liberty that could select what was best. Edmund 
 Burke was great, but he was crippled by the old follies of his England. 
 All the European thinkers were tied to the past. Our statesmen, having 
 all of European wisdom, were free, and could make a great truth take its 
 place in the constitution and the laws. Here, therefore, European dreams 
 and platonic dreams turned into laws; ancient and modern idealism took 
 its place in the constitution of a republic. Our fathers were free in a wide 
 field to select all the ideas that had been evolved by the students of the 
 past centuries and been made clear by time. 
 
 Could there be a chemistry which might analyze the body and soul of 
 this nation, it would find some traces of each great i^eriod that has passed 
 by. Traces of the mind of Socrates and Plato, traces of Cicero and Taci- 
 tus, traces of the maxims of Jesus, and at last large quantities and deep 
 colorings stolen from all the later dates in history. 
 
 The Greek bishop said last week, when he stood amid the rich buildings 
 near our city: "I seem to be in Olympia. It is as though the American 
 soil had opened and had sent up again into life the souls of my ancestors, 
 and had made them rebuild in a new land all the snow-white splendor of 
 the Acropolis." But as the Bishop of Zante wears the name of an island 
 which was praised in the poem of Virgil and which has worn its waving 
 groves for twenty centuries, so in the political ideas of our people we see 
 more of Olympia than was found in its white columns and more of old 
 Zante than Virgil saw in its fields and leafy-forests. All those states and 
 islands of the Mediterranean have contributed some truth and some law to 
 the mass of wisdom that underlies our young government. Our nation is 
 made out of the whole past. 
 
 Assuming that our state has culled from the past the many elements 
 of its power, we are bound to conclude that the same country that is mak- 
 ing a great state can not but be working on the construction of a great 
 religion. The mind that demands a great politics can not but ask for a 
 ^reat worship. The soul loves harmony. If our ancestors did not wish 
 their creeds disturbed, they ought not to have disturbed the state, or the 
 home, or the literature, or the schoolhouse. 
 
 When, fifty years ago, our mothers or sisters began to plant roses in front 
 of the log cabin in Ohio, the log cabin itself became doomed. From the 
 rose bush the taste radiated in all directions, and the old rail fence in front
 
 976 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 of the house had to give place to something that could be painted white, and 
 the floor made of slabs, hewn with an ax, was followed by ash boards; the 
 ladder which led to the second floor gave place to stairs. Thus, at last, the 
 blooming rose remodeled the whole farm, the dress of the women, and 
 the language that fell from the daughter's lips. Not otherwise one touch 
 of greatness asks that all shall become great. From a great politics our 
 country must move to a great religion. Upon this new religion it is now 
 at work. Each church is immersed in the task, each thoughtful mind is 
 elaborating the new doctrines. 
 
 That the better new might come it was necessary that the vanity of the 
 old should first perish. No state or church will reform itself so long as it 
 assumes itself to be divine. When the people thought the king could do 
 no wrong there was an unbroken procession of kings. When education 
 had destroyed this romance it was easy to dethrone a monarch. Thus 
 time has taken the vanity out of many branches of the Christian church, 
 and now they are asking in humility, What must be done with the wants of 
 the soul and with the temple of God? What must we do with our Galvan- 
 ism, our high church, our Romanism, our definite dogmas, so many and so 
 proud? Our sectarian vanity has perished. Our Galvanism, our Roman- 
 ism has lost its old magical power. Magic has flung its old crown down at 
 the feet of science. All dominion has been concentrated in principles. 
 The creed of a chvirch must be composed of principles. 
 
 Inasmuch as the Western lands have for all time been leading the most 
 intellectual lives, have been greatest in art, in literature, and in all the 
 forms of intellectual action, it is probable that they possess and are still at 
 work at a religion far grander than those of the old East. If we begin at 
 old Athens and look westward we see a mental world of surprising great- 
 ness. Roman law is one of the early impressive scenes. It is attended by 
 the simple religion of Jesus. By slow degrees came the new Italy. Then 
 came Germany, Prance, England, each with a mind which surpassed all the 
 East in breadth and vitility. Even the Greek literature is small and weak 
 in comparison with the written thought of the passing century. Having 
 elaborated a great politics, a great philosophy, a great science, a tremen- 
 dous human life, it is certain that our age is steadily at work upon a great 
 religion. Instead of Calvinism or Romanism being this great product, it is 
 probable that those churches have been only shops in which the age has 
 been making some piece that is to be fitted into its future. When that 
 future shall be complete these old shops will all be closed. 
 
 The Galvinistic church is among the first to feel the transforming touch 
 of the new age, because it has always been a child of universal learning. 
 It has never feared any books, or men, or schools. It has permitted its 
 youth to seek their education in any land, and the minds destined for its 
 pulpit have been permitted to sail away and drink in learning at any Ger- 
 man or English fountain. As that creed arose in the universities of the 
 16th century, it made all colleges its friends, and felt that the greater 
 the learning, the greater the Calvinism. But the universities themselves 
 have become changed, and what was learning in the 16th century has 
 become gross ignorance in the nineteenth. The Presbyterian students are 
 thus among the first not to fall, but to rise. That church is, therefore, now 
 seen as working hard to construct a great religion for a great people. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Church moves forward more slowly. That form 
 of religion has always quarantined its own ship. It has not permitted its 
 people to go ashore nor those on shore to come on board. It has not only 
 intermarried, but it has interstudied and interthought. Those fitting for 
 the priesthood have not been permitted to drink at any and all fountains. 
 They have been reared on Roman food. All, from their dress to their 
 books, from what the eye saw to what the ear heard, has been Roman. As 
 the queen of the beehive is made wholly by her food, as she is while a grub
 
 BUILDING A GREAT RELIGION. ffJl 
 
 fed only queen's food, so the Catholic priest is reared amid only the phe 
 nomena of his church. These men will all be slow to rise from their olu 
 level. The Calviuists are more free to move, and will have a new, true, and 
 grand religion, while the Romanists are still embracing the corpse of antiq- 
 uity. But at last the Roman Church will also rise and become the worthy 
 faith of an intellectual and spiritual race. It will liing away the childish 
 objects and ideas it borrowed from the children of the old woods and the old 
 savages, and will become a sanctuary of divine principles. 
 
 This is not uttered as a simple prophecy. Such a conclusion follows 
 from the fact that the continent is at work at a better politics, and a better 
 humanity can not avoid the task of making a better religion. It is not 
 necessary to recount here the defects of both Romanism and Protestant- 
 ism. They are many and are well known. There can be no pleasure in 
 making out a catalogue of vice and folly. It is enough to know that the 
 age is winnowing the chaff from the wheat, and will never rest until our 
 American Christianity shall be worthy of the nation which contains its 
 shrines. 
 
 The Religious Congress may not teach us the whole truth but it will 
 accomplish one thing, it will clothe with new power the religious sentiment 
 and make millions feel that man is indeed a religious being, that he is trav- 
 eling toward eternity upon the great stream of faith. It will hasten the 
 decline and fall of sectarian self-conceit, and will make the Christian min- 
 ister feel that he is only one of a vast brotherhood. The proud churchman 
 of Anglican or Roman garb and color finds his piety equaled by the wor- 
 shipers from the solitudes of the Himalayas, The Christian, indeed, holds 
 the better religion, but the other religions contain great worth and can 
 shape the soul into great moral beauty. 
 
 Those who read all or hear all of these words now being uttered here in 
 the name of religion, can not but conclude that Christianity excels in the 
 breadth of its teaching. It omits nothing of duty, of culture, or hope. 
 Some branches of the Christian Church have weighted themselves with 
 fable and with the childishness common to barbarians, but the Christian 
 religion in its purity is a spiritual philosophy as broad as the wants and 
 happiness of man. 
 
 The pagan creeds omit too much. Their survey of man is not as broad 
 as that taken in Christianity. One of the most illustrious of the Indian 
 visitors in our city says that our women are not spiritual enough; not relig- 
 ious enough; that they love frivolity more than they love the serious truths 
 and duties of their world. He sees them only in this great holiday of our 
 city. To see all this American picture of women he would have to add a 
 profound seriousness as wide as the nation — woman educating her chil- 
 dren — woman sad over intemperance and all the ruinous vices — woman 
 busy in all the walks of philanthropy — woman hungry for education and 
 usefulness. When seen not in the national festivity, but in the wide 
 expanse of common life, the American woman surpasses all pagandom in 
 the light and depth of serious thought and in the number of hours that 
 contain tears. The volume of her levity is large, her toilet as gay as that 
 of birds, but greater than this mass of gayety is the volume of thought and 
 solicitude. That the frivolity of both men and women is excessive is too 
 evident. Man is such an avowed gamester as to be ridiculous; but the 
 average of seriousness in our land is high. 
 
 This Hindu philosopher lives, indeed, an impressive life. Going up 
 into the mountains he and his wife spend two hours a day in silent 
 worship of the Deity. They thus pass half of each year. Their cottage 
 is simple, their expenses are so small that they could be almost paid by 
 poverty itself. The glory of God is around them. They live in His light 
 and His love. A beautiful picture! But the religion of Jesus, mingling 
 with the deep thought o£ the English and French and German races, asks
 
 978 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 man to forego the sweetness of such solitude and live the most of his 
 days in the midst of the people. The individual dares not be happy up in 
 the mountains when the millions are poor and sad in the valley. The 
 gifts of the pagan orator demand that all his days should be days of study 
 and of useful eloquence. Our Western religion seeks the distribution and 
 equalization of happiness. The contemplative life of many of the pagans 
 is a charming picture in the history of the soul, but the common people 
 are not able to endure yet the absence of any of their noblest men. As the 
 mother must not leave her children, but must be within call in all their 
 early years, so the philosopher that thinks and prays must hold the mill- 
 ions by the hand. 
 
 As "nations in troublous times ask that their statesmen shall be at home 
 and within easy reach of the Senate or the throne, as in the dark days of 
 this nation's history the greatest patriots stood at their places by day and 
 by night, so in our world, while the mind is so dark and the hearts of the 
 people so heavy, the leaders of thought and action must live by the streams 
 of the multitude. The eloquence of religious philosophy must sound by 
 day and by night. Like the Nile in the desert, the eloquence of the 
 Mozoomdars ought to flow all the year. The nightingale may sing only 
 three months in the twelve, but the voice of religion must follow the 
 people and be like a perennial stream in their desert. We may easily con- 
 ceive of a nation that would be glad if it could enjoy the presence of states- 
 men even one summer in four years. We can conceive of a race which 
 would be glad if a religious truth and eloquence could smite its soul once 
 in a lifetime. But this extreme destitution in politics and religion does not 
 affect the ideal that our great men should live in the very heart of the 
 multitude. 
 
 In constructing the religion of a great people our nation is breaking up 
 the monastic life and is asking each one to help all. No religion or reform 
 is adequate if it produces only a little coterie. 
 
 An Emerson club is a valuable thing, but it has not the dimensions of a 
 great nation. A curious science and art may weave a fabric out of a spider's 
 web or spun glass, but what a poor, small art! — capable of making a veil 
 for a princess, but not capable of weaving the clothing for a race. Thus 
 our land is at work at a piety that shall not be satisfied with little groups 
 of the elect, but only with the regeneration of the millions. The nation 
 has outgrown the old religious coterie. It must leave to the humbler 
 leaders of fashion all magnifying of the words " set" and " circle," and 
 must seek a religion which would love to wave its flag over a hundred mill- 
 ions of souls. 
 
 The fall of a Calvinism is, therefore, only proof that something greater 
 is coming. That creed was too exclusive and small. It was not an Emer- 
 son club, indeed, but it was a Calvinistic club. It was an intellectual 
 coterie traveling along for profit and pleasure. It excluded a hundred 
 sects. It dies that a greater Christianity may come. In its death the 
 Presbyterians do not fall; they rise. They move forward toward principles 
 of clearer truth, of wider usefulness, of greater beauty. Their creed moves 
 away from the exceptional Calvins that it may become the abiding faith 
 of a vast throng. In that church this loss is a gain. That creed exchanges 
 its old enigmas for eternal principles. The old labyrinth is destroyed and 
 beautiful homes are built out of its ruins. Over the same path of recon- 
 struction the Catholics inust soon pass. 
 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury requested the English clergy to take no 
 part in the World's Congress of Religions. He must have had no light that 
 was worthy to be placed upon a hill. His light was of the kind that might 
 well be kept under a bushel. He holds some teachings regarding apostolic 
 succession and the office of a bishop. But Mozoomdar and his great con- 
 freres, Bishop Keane, Bishop Ireland, and Cardinal Gibbons, could come
 
 MARY ATWATER NEEL.Y.
 
 THE WISE MEN OF THE EAST. 979 
 
 because they could bring at least the name of God to the multitude, and 
 help make His glory shine into the hearts of the people. On last Monday 
 this lake shore, where the wild Indians gave their war-whoop within living 
 memory, grew almost roseate with the passing chariot of the Infinite; and 
 Catholic, Protestant, and pagan bowed in joy while their hearts were whis- 
 pering: Holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty! If the high church of 
 England did not wish to join in such an anthem and gloria it is only a loss 
 •of sacred fame. The pagan Mozoomdar was willing to follow for 12,000 
 miles, over land and sea, the name of God alone. He knew that in America, 
 among a hundred sects, he could pass every hour in God's presence. The 
 old Orient came to help inspire the West. The morning of piety came to 
 pour its glow and colors into the sunset of magnificence. No such scene 
 has been witnessed since the coming of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Catholic and Protestant, Pagan and Christian, had often met in battle. 
 They had often met in a black passion, which only blood and fagots could 
 appease. To meet in a rich, beautiful brotherhood was a scene which only 
 this late day of love and thought could produce. It is known that wild, 
 new soil will not produce the richest flowers and fruits. Suns and summers 
 must penetrate it and make its chemistry all new for the perfume of the 
 rose and the blushes of the peach. But the heart is more delicate than the 
 dew-sprinkled flowers, and it had to wait for many summers to pass before 
 it could ask all living worshipers to meet in one love and one prayer. 
 
 Out of all these inquiries and greetings something new is coming, 
 namely, a great religion. The old will not be rudely slain. Years ago a 
 Scotch preacher said: "Nature does not beat off dead leaves with iron 
 rods. She makes new buds displace them." This displacement is coming 
 gently by day and by night. 
 
 After the battle of Austerlitz. a British statesman is reported to have 
 said, with a broken heart: "Put away the map of Eui'ope." Napoleon was 
 erasing all the dear old lines, and was making all states mingle in one 
 gigantic despotism. Not with broken hearts, but with joy, may we cry out: 
 "Put away the map of the Christian Church." A greater than Napoleon — 
 an omnipotent thought is coming. Soon the petty districts will find their 
 boundaries erased and themselves to be the members of a wide and sweep- 
 ing religion, under whose flag men will live as Christ lived, with all rights 
 sacred, all men as brothers, with life divine, and with death not a defeat 
 but a triumph. 
 
 THE WISE MEN OF THE EAST. 
 
 MARY ATWATER NEELY, 
 
 The light and the nobility of ideas displayed in the Congress of 
 Religions in Chicago by Brahmans, Mohammedans, and other Oriental 
 philosophers, has been a surprise to the whole Occidental world. No doubt 
 it has been eagerly clutched at as a triumph by opposers of the claims of 
 Christianity, and it has also somewhat nonplussed Christians. 
 
 As to invidious allusions to Christian missions, we may dismiss them 
 with but two remarks. We all know that there are missionaries and 
 missionaries. 
 
 The first of moderns to enter the Oriental field for proselytes were 
 Jesuits, and the history of that order and its intrigues for power is the 
 property of the world. 
 
 Why should we be surprised at great and noble ideas of God and man 
 among those who profess to be learned in the Eastern books of the earlier
 
 980 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The Bible — however we have read into it our narrowest prejudices — the 
 Bible does not represent all who were not Jews or Christians as without 
 light. 
 
 The proofs of this proposition are numerous. Noah, the just man who 
 walked with God, had, when God made a covenant with all flesh making 
 the rainbow his signature, two other sons besides Shem, the founder of 
 the Jewish race — a race that was to have a certain lineage and certain 
 treasures to keep for mankind. Each of Shem's descendants, Arphaxad, 
 Eber, Peleg, Ren, had besides the elect in line " sons and daughters." 
 
 Doubtless the knowledge of the true God was scattered among all 
 nations, " by whom the earth was divided after the flood." " The God of 
 Abraham and the God of Nahor " are spoken of as one. Multitudes on the 
 continent of Asia claim Abraham as their father, and are very proud of their 
 ancestry. Many were the worshipers of God in ancient times outside of 
 the Jewish establishment. The Pentateuch abounds in examples. 
 
 God appeared in a dream to Abimelech, who claims to be a man of 
 " integrity," and his to be " a righteous nation." Melchizadek was a priest 
 of the Most High God, whom Paul sets above Abraham. 
 
 The angel of the Lord appeared twice to Hagar, comforting her with 
 the prophecy of the greatness of her posterity, and opening her eyes to a 
 life-giving fountain; and she is the author of the oft-quoted words: "Thou 
 God seest me." It is expressly declared, "God was with Ishmael." God 
 spoke directly to Laban, and he is the author of that beautiful saying, now 
 a motto of the Christian Endeavor: "The Lord watch between thee and 
 me when we are absent from one another." 
 
 Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, has given us in brief phrase, one of the 
 finest descriptions of good rules extant. "Choose," said he to Moses, 
 "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness." 
 
 Balaam, though he had not the backbone to be content without flatteries 
 and rewards from a king, yet had direct communication with God, and the 
 direct inspiration of prophecy from God. Though he declined to live the 
 life of the righteous in the matter of self-denial, he is the author of that 
 sentiment destined to be the text of unnumbered funeral sermons. "Let 
 me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his; " and 
 of that other beautiful exclamation, chosen ages after as the first tele- 
 graphic message: "What hath God wrought!" 
 
 Job, an Oriental prince who lived when Time was young, as all the 
 internal evidence proves, worshiped God in the style that He required in the 
 childhood of the race. In the Book of Job are to be found some of the 
 sublimest conceptions of the Almighty ever conceived by mortal man. Yet 
 thei'e is not the slightest evidence that Job belonged to any ecclesiastical 
 body or that in his lifetime any such body ever existed. And. finally, the 
 Wise Men, or Magi, of the East, saw the Star of Bethlehem, and came to 
 worship "the Desire of all nations." 
 
 The Bible gives abundant evidence that the knowledge of God was gen- 
 eral in the world. The mighty David, Solomon in all his glory, Joseph, the 
 Prime Minister of the Pharaohs, and Daniel, who ruled Babylon when that 
 city ruled the world, made known the true God in most striking and 
 remarkable ways. The Queen of Sheba blessed God, and carried his name 
 and fame into her distant country. 
 
 Paul, in his masterly address on Mars Hill, quotes a Grecian poet as say- 
 ing: " We are God's offspring," and again, to the devotees of Jupiter and 
 Mercury, he says: " The living God left not himself without a witness in 
 that He did good, and gave them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, 
 filling their heart with food and gladness." Peter says: " I perceive that 
 God is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he that feareth 
 God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him." 
 
 Paul again says: " His eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen by
 
 THE WISE MEN OF THE EAST. 981 
 
 the things that are made," leaving people " without excuse," and ho Bpeaks 
 of the nations as having once known Ciod. 
 
 History informs us the gospel was preached in India with no little 
 power and success before the close of the 2d century of the Christian 
 Era; and that was 700 years before the rise of the modern philoso- 
 phies of religions in that country. "In Malabar the Christians, by 
 an ancient charter, enjoyed the rights of nobility and— a respected caste — 
 they supplied the bodyguard of kings; they were ground to pieces under 
 the millstone of the Inquisition by the Portuguese," some three hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 Yes, the nations have had light. 
 
 Yet, nevertheless was the awful picture sketches by Paul in the first 
 chapter of Romans true, and it is true to-day. A priest testifies: " Bud- 
 dhism is the best of religions, but its priests are the most degraded of its 
 class." 
 
 Lord, what is man. whose thought at times. 
 
 Up to tiiy seven-lold biightness climbs. 
 
 While still his grosser instinct clings 
 
 To eartti, like ottier creeping things! 
 
 So rii'h in words, in acts so mean ; 
 
 So high, so low; chance- swung between 
 
 The foulness of the penal pit 
 
 And truth's clear sky, millennium-lit! 
 
 Sir Edwin Arnold may read into the legends of Buddhism Christian 
 phrases and Christian conceptions, but, the fact remains indisputable, it 
 has never lifted the masses out of the terror and the vices of degrading 
 superstition. Nor do many of its votaries dream of such a consummation 
 as "one devoutly to be wished." 
 
 Sir William Hunter says: "Hinduism is a deliberate system of compro- 
 mise — the cultured faith of the Brahmans with the ruder rites of more 
 backward races. For the highest minds it has a monotheism pure and 
 philosophical. To the materialistic multitude it offers the infinite phases 
 of divine power as objects of adoration with calm indifference as to 
 whether they are worshiped as symbols of the unseen Godhead or as bits 
 of wood and stone." 
 
 The ancient Veda gives no countenance to widow-burning, infant-mar- 
 riage, and the many popular inhuman rites, and the appeal to it as the 
 highest authority has lately been made with good results in assuaging the 
 tide of woes caused by these evils. 
 
 Whatever may have been the source, no doubt God's own light shines 
 in some of those ancient pages. 
 
 People wonder at the exalted ideas and the vigor of Mohammedanism. 
 But it never pretended to be a new religion. Protesting Christ to be a 
 true prophet — though in a measure superseded by Mohammed — retaining 
 the Bible ideas of the unity of God and the equality of men in His sight, 
 no wonder it came to the downtrodden people of the low castes in Asia as 
 a revelation from on high. 
 
 Truth is truth, however or by whosoever spoken, and great truths like 
 these are emphatically purifying and uplifting. Per contra, error is, in its 
 very nature, corrupting and degrading. A mixture of both produces mixed 
 results. Whether Mohammedanism be an improvement on Christianity let 
 facts testify and the whole world be jury. 
 
 Bright, and pure, and sparkling are the waters of the Jumna, as they 
 descend from the lofty Himalayas, but, on they sweep through the cholera- 
 infested throngs of Hurdwar, creeping, slowly creeping, ever downward 
 through the rotting, decaying vegetation of the tiger-and-fever-haunted 
 jungles. 
 
 All nations have been gathered together in this peerless Exposition. In 
 the searching for the causes of the progress of Christian nations which is
 
 982 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 sure to follow, God grant some noble souls may find the secret, not merely 
 of the transmission of water for the health of the body, but also of that 
 truth of God which springs up into everlasting life. . , . , 
 
 Christianity— all religions— must be judged, not by a few isolated 
 speeches, but by its fruits among the masses, and that by centuries. ^ 
 
 So, in reviewing the whole matter, were we learned enough, we might 
 
 say with Whittier: 
 
 I gather up the scattered rays 
 Of wisdom in the early days, . 
 
 Faint gleams and broken, like the light 
 Of meteors in the Northern night; 
 I listen to the sibyl's chant, 
 The voice of priest and hierophant; 
 I know what Indian Kreeshna saith, 
 And what of life and what of death 
 The demon taught to Socrates; 
 And whnt beneath his garden treos. 
 Slow pacing with a dreamlike tread. 
 The solemn-thoughted Plato said. 
 Nor lack I tokens great or small. 
 Of God's clear light in each and all. 
 While holding with more dear regard 
 The scroll of Hebrew seer and bard. 
 The starry pages promise -lit 
 With Christ's evangel over- writ. 
 Thy miracle of life and death, 
 O holy one of Nazarethl 
 
 A LIMITLESS SWEEP OF THOUGHT. 
 
 MADELEINE VINTON DAHLGREN. 
 
 The Parliament of Keligions, held at the Art Institute, Columbus Hall, 
 whose spirit and purpose was the study of all beliefs, presented a spectacle 
 of unequaled moral grandeur. 
 
 The poetic fancy can not soar beyond the reality of the scene where, to 
 the visible eye, all nations assisted amid the invisible hosts of martyrs to 
 the inexorable cruelty of the tyranny of past ages, who, now crowned with 
 beatific light and waving triumphal palms, must have responded with a 
 jubilant " amen " to the " universal prayer " that ushered in this millennial 
 dawn. 
 
 Nor will the glory of this new era fade away without result. Out of the 
 entanglement of seemingly perplexing tenets, the first point made manifest 
 was that all religions discover fundamental truths, so that however obscured 
 are the expressions of faith, they all rest upon elemental principles. 
 
 It is not to be expected that the popular mind will at once clearly 
 define the outcome of a convention where there was no discussion, but only 
 an exposition of belief; but thinkers, and especially the thought leaders, 
 will doubtless be able to reach conclusions and formulate results that 
 must react on the masses. 
 
 Certainly the range of subjects and their treatment was a magnificent 
 intellectual exhibit of the soul's aspirations, wherein nothing would seem 
 to have been overlooked appertaining to the divine science. 
 
 The points of contact between the codes of Islam and Christianity were 
 presented. The teachings were declared of Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, 
 Brahmanism, that lead to the pantheistic obliteration of the divine person- 
 ality and their ultimate " Nirvana, or cessation of conscious iiuliviauality. 
 The rational demonstration of the being of God. and the idealism of the 
 supernatural through grace, were taught by the Roman Catholics. 
 
 Fine addresses on the attributes of God and the unification of the 
 human brotherhood were given by the various Protestant creeds.
 
 SONG OF PROPHECY. 983 
 
 In fact, there was a common aim among those who hold Christ as the 
 Redeemer and the inspiration of the Bible. 
 
 Then, the venerable doctrines of the Children of Israel, "sons of a com- 
 mon Heavenly Father," were complemented as it were by the metaphysical 
 speculations of the fin-de-siecle literature, and these in turn were con- 
 trasted by the actual life of facts. 
 
 What a limitless sweep of thought! 
 
 Out of all this is to he discerned a certain conclusion, viz., that the 
 vague assurances of the ethnic religions, where we are confronted with 
 annihilation, can not be compared with the unity of Catholic dogma. 
 
 It will be seen that, although the ethnic faiths claim to represent over 
 four hundred millions, yet, when we come to examine closely these vast 
 numbers, they are onbj an aggregation formed by the accumulation of ages, 
 and their faith is tvithout any redemptive quality, while the unity of the 
 Catholic faith is a real oneness of dogma. 
 
 The full defense of Christianity, it was shown, could only proceed 
 through the unity of these dogmas, because through their expression the 
 incarnation and the supernatural find their elucidation. 
 
 The light thus given is certain, and we draw near to God through Christ 
 by means of channels He Himself has directed. 
 
 The result, therefore, is, that the best defense of Christianity rests along 
 Catholic lines, because they alone represent essential unity. 
 
 SONG OF PROPHECY. 
 
 Composed by John W. Hutchinson (of the Hutchinson family) August, .1867, 
 •while in his recluse— a log cabin at Hutchinson, JUinn., and suug at his meetmgs 
 held during the "■Woman's Biiflrage Campaign" through Kansas, is dedicated to 
 the " "World's Fair Cougresses," and sung by him during that period when promi- 
 nence was given to the " Fatherhood of God and BrothiThood of Man." empha- 
 sizing this principle as a true method of restoring the unity of all good for the 
 whole race of man. This motto was the keynote of the " Congress of Religions. 
 By request Mr. Hutchinson pang the song at the ringing of the '" Columbia Lib- 
 erty Bell " in honor of " Manhattan Day" and the anniversary of the discovery of 
 America. 
 
 " Ring out the old. King in the new. Ring out the false, Ring in the t'ue." 
 Every one of the two hundred and fifty thousand contributions voiced the 
 inscription: " Peace on earth, and good will to man." As Whittier said: "Blessed 
 the ear. that yet shad hear, the jubilant bell, that rings the knell of war, and 
 slavery, forever." And the twenty million patrons of the World's Fair may well 
 echo this sentiment, and join in the grand chorus of the song, on Saturday.^ 
 October 28th, " and round the world there soon shall be a glorious brotherhood. 
 
 We'll raise the song of triumph when we see the hosts advance, 
 Our banners streaming high, and its mottoes shall entrance. 
 As the golden words they read, they will quickly join our van. 
 And vote for the cause of freedom, and the Brotherhood of Man. 
 
 Chorus.— The Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man, 
 
 The cause of true religion is spreading through the land. 
 Oh, the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man, 
 We'll talk and sing while on the wing, and ring it through 
 the land. 
 
 Columbia's sons must lead the way, raise high the lofty standard 
 Of equal rights they now maintain, though once to slavery pandered 
 Our country shall this banner bear, " Free Suffrage " is our motto; 
 For liberty they'll work, you see, and vote the way they ought to.
 
 984 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Chorus.— For, the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man; 
 The cause of Arbitration is speeding through the land. 
 The Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man, 
 This message that the angels bring, we'll sing it through the 
 land. 
 
 Let discord and contention cease, that fill our hearts with sorrow; 
 A ray of hope dispels the gloom, there's sunshine on the morrow. 
 The truth for man proclaimed by Christ far centuries ago. 
 Its resurrection cheers us now, and oh, our hearts o'erfiow. 
 
 Chorus — With gratitude to God for the Brotherhood of Man, 
 
 We all revere the higher law, do a good turn when you can. 
 The Fatherhood of God, we obey His high command, 
 This message that the angels bring, we'll sing it through the 
 land. 
 
 Now peace on earth, the hosts above proclaim the nations free, 
 And all of every kin enjoy this booh of liberty, ' 
 We claim no creed for class or clan, but cherish all the good; 
 So round the world there soon will be a glorious brotherhood 
 
 List, ye sorrow-stricken people, to the voice of truth to-day; 
 
 On the world the sun is rising, error's clouds shall flee aw^ay. 
 
 True hearts watching for the dawning, earnest seers their joys foretold; 
 
 Look, ah, look, the field of promise white with harvest, rich as gold. 
 
 Ever hopeful, never doubting, always working for the right, 
 
 Loving, waiting, watching, longing for the millennial day of light. 
 
 Chorus.— The Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man; 
 
 Proclaim it through the Nations, this glorious Christian plan. 
 The Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man, 
 Come join with us this chorus now, and waft it through the 
 land. 
 
 World's Columbian Exposition, Executive Department. 
 
 Chicago, November 7, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq., 232 Fifth Avenue, Chicago. 
 
 Dear Sir: I have your request of 31st ult. I will repeat what I recently 
 stated to Rev. Dr. Barrows— that I regard the Parliament of Religions 
 held in Chicago in 1893 as not only the most important feature of the 
 congresses held in connection with the Columbian Exposition, but if the 
 Exposition had secured no other result than this congress the large 
 sacrifice involved in producing it would be justified. The far-reaching 
 importance and value to a fraternity among religionists that has been 
 promoted by this parliament can not be over-estimated. All honor to 
 Dr. Barrows and his associates who have brought about such a remarkable 
 convention. Truly yours, 
 
 Ferdinand W. Peck, 
 
 Vice- President. 
 
 'President's Office, Northwestern University. 
 
 EvANSTON, III., November 11, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, 232 Fifth Avenue, Chicago. 
 
 Dear Sir: In reply to your note, dated November 2d, asking for my 
 opinion on the Parliament of Religions, I send you the following;
 
 OPINIONS. 965 
 
 The effect of the Parliament of Religions will be to establish Christian 
 people more firmly than before in their faith, while it will, at the same 
 time, render them more charitable than bef(jre in their judgment of the 
 religious faith of other peoples. It never would have occurred to any but a 
 Christian people, having absolute confidence in the foundations of their 
 faith, to have convened a Parliament of Religions; and the thought so 
 happily conceived and so well carried out will be productive of great good 
 in the years that are to come. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry Wade Rogers. 
 
 State op Illinois, Execittive Office. 
 
 Springfield, November 9, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Chicago. 
 
 Dear Sir: For the first time since man began to gaze with awe at the 
 mysteries around him have the representatives of the different religions 
 met and extended to each other a friendly hand and given each other a 
 respectful hearing. This is one of the highest achievements of human 
 civilization, and as this Parliament of Religions dealt with a subject that 
 vitally affects the happiness of mankind, it will give to the world more 
 toleration and more co-operation, more liberal building up and less fanat- 
 ical tearing down It has proclaimed a new gospel of peace on earth 
 and happiness among men. 
 
 John P. Altgeld. 
 
 The Catholic University op America. 
 
 Washington, D. C, October 29, 1893. 
 F. Tennyson Neely, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir: The Parliament of Religions is, thus far, the only phase 
 of humane and intellectual development that makes possible the hope of a 
 millennium. Chas. Warren Stoddard. 
 
 Chicago, November 1, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq., 232 Fifth Avenue, City. 
 
 Dear Sir: In reply to yours of October 31st, I beg to say that the 
 interest taken by the public, those living in Chicago as well as visitors to 
 our city, as expressed by their attendance at the sessions day and night of 
 the Parliament of Religions, evidenced the fact that the establishment of 
 congresses in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition must 
 result in great good and in setting an example to those who will have to 
 do with future expositions, and proving to them that the advance in relig- 
 ion and science can better be understood in listening to learned people, 
 such as we had the pleasure of hearing during the six months just ended, 
 than by a cold exhibit between walls. These congresses can not help but 
 have an influence for good in the future. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 W. J. CHAIiMERS, 
 
 My full appreciation of work well done extend to those who have had a 
 part in the Parliament of Religions just dissolved. They dealt with human 
 interests touching the soul of the world, and a carefully prepared record of 
 the proceedings will stand among and be one of the few great universal 
 studies of the present and the future. 
 
 Chicago, 1893. Ajlexandeb H. Reveix.
 
 986 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Chicago, November 1, 1893. 
 Mr. F. T. Neely, Chicago, III. 
 
 Dear Sir: In reply to your request for my opinion as to the result and 
 influence of the Parliament of Religions, will say, it has brought together 
 people of many creeds from all parts of the world, permitting them to come 
 in personal contact with one another, giving the world at large the benefit 
 of their different ideas and arguments. It has shown us where we are 
 strong, and also where we are weak. If these parliaments could be held 
 every few years it would, no doubt, be a great benefit to mankind. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Chas. T. Yerkes. 
 
 Chicago, November 1, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq., Chicago. 
 
 Dear Sir: It seems to me that it is too early yet to form a just judg- 
 ment of the result of the Parliament of Religions so recently held in 
 this city, or of its influence. An undertaking such as this was, having in 
 view so comprehensive a gathering of the repTesentatives of all the dif- 
 ferent fields of religious thought, it would seem, must certainly broaden 
 the views of all who participated, or to whom an opportunity is given to 
 study the records of the meetings. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 J. J. P. Odell. 
 
 Chicago, November 1, 1893. 
 Mr. F. T. Neely, 232-234 Fifth Avenue, City. 
 
 Dear Sir: I consider that a full report of the Parliament of Relig- 
 ions will be a fitting conclusion to one of the grandest achievements of 
 this century. Yours truly, 
 
 G. H. Wheeler. 
 
 Chicago, November 10, 1893. 
 The Chicago Congresses of the past six months indicate that democracy 
 suffers from intellectual homesickness. I know no book more comforting 
 than the little pamphlet published here last April and bearing this motto: 
 " Not Things, but Men." Its official title is "The General Programme of 
 the World's Congresses of 1893.'' What a thirst for knowledge it contains, 
 what a respect for all that constitutes the spiritual and moral treasure- 
 house of humanity, and what a sign of the invincible vitality of Christian- 
 ity, even in face of the triumphs of science, is that Religious Parliament 
 held in the very capital of the positivist, industrial universe. The results 
 of that parliament were inadequate. It did not reach, it could not reach, 
 a practical and satisfactory conclusion, but it will remain the surpassing 
 excellence of that Exposition. In the words of the poet, it is the hand of a 
 clock pointing from the spire of a huge cathedral toward heaven. Seated 
 in the amphitheater of that parliament hall, and seeing a multitude of 
 attentive faces about me — amiable faces of tradesmen and laborers — I felt 
 the certainty revive, which told me that in spite of the moral and mental 
 transformation the human heart is undei-going, it need not fear for its most 
 precious or most mournful gems. I felt that certainty revive again during 
 my last visit to the palaces of the White City. I long to see it again as I 
 left it, in its dreamy whiteness, enshrouded by its weird, gray mist, and 
 behind it the sun. 
 
 PAinj BOVRGET.
 
 OPINIONS. 987 
 
 Mobile, Ala., November 8, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq., Publisher, Chicago, III. 
 
 Deak Sir: Your favor of the 1st iust. in reference to tbo Parliament 
 of Religions is before me. My duties as National Commissioner prevented 
 my attending the parHament in person. All that I know of it is derived 
 from the reports made by the daily newsj)apers of Chicago at the time. 
 Perusing those convinced me that the parliament was the most remarkable 
 outcome of the great Exposition. It is invaluable as presenting a body of 
 statements of religious beliefs and creeds made by those who believe them. 
 It "is, also, a monumental demonstration that there have been immense 
 strides made in the direction of religious tolerance in all parts of the 
 world, and this demonstration could not have been made in any other way 
 than by the parliament. I hope the proceedings of the parliai ent will be 
 made part of the official history of the Columbian Exposition. 
 Very truly, 
 
 Frederick G. Bromberg, 
 Comndssioner for Alabama, World's Columbian Exposition. 
 
 Chicago, November 2, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq., Publisher, 232 Fifth Avemie, City. 
 
 Dear Sir: Replying to yours 31st, in giving every aid possible, both as a 
 Director of the Exposition and as a private citizen to the end that every 
 sect and belief might be fully represented in the Parliament of Religions, 
 I did so with the conviction that in religion, as in every walk in life, not 
 only advancement but more advancement was being made toward one 
 universal belief, and that great good would not only accrue toward that 
 end through this parliament but an impetus would result which otherwise 
 it would take years to accomplish. This I believe to be the fact and that 
 we are nearer by years to that one universal religion, namely, love of God 
 and fellowman. Yours very truly, 
 
 James W. Ellsworth. 
 
 Chicago, November 3, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq., Publisher, Chicago. 
 
 DE.-.R Sir: In reply to your favor of October 31st, requesting a lino in 
 relation to the Parliament of Religions, I take pleasure in saying: When 
 the wonderful beauty of the Court of Honor shall have faded from memory, 
 and the World's Columbian Exposition itself shall have been forgotten, the 
 Parliament of Religions will, in my opinion, stand out as one of the great 
 events in the history of civilization. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 F. S. Winston. 
 
 South Bend, Ind., November 8, 1893. 
 Mr. F. T. Neely, CJiicago. 
 
 Dear Sir: I believe that the Parliament of Religions will result in 
 bringing religious denominations closer together. There will be less quar- 
 reling over denominational lines, and, I hope, more effort made by those 
 who profess religion to manifest it in their daily lives. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Clem Stxjdebakeb.
 
 988 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Philadelphia, November 7, 1893. 
 Mr. F. T. Neely, Publisher, Chicago. 
 
 Dear Sir: I regard the Parliament of Religions as the grandest object 
 lesson which the world has ever had of the possibilities of a sincere frater- 
 nity between those who are laboring, though in different directions and by 
 different methods, for the moral and spiritual upbuilding of mankind. 
 
 Future generations will, I doubt not, date from this event the epoch of 
 genuine religious liberty. The participants in the parliament, having 
 drawn near to each other without any sinister i^roselytizing motives, have 
 thus made a truce which marks the beginning of the end of religious, or, 
 rather, irreligious strife. The religions are henceforth pledged to that 
 larger fellowship whose standard is religion itself. 
 
 Henry Berkowitz. 
 
 New Haven, Conn., November 14, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Publisher. 
 
 Dear Sir: In reply to your request I enclose my opinion of the 
 World's Parliament of Religions. 
 
 The World's Parliament of Religions was a practical recognition of the 
 truth, " That God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that 
 feareth Him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him" (Acts x., 
 34), and it demonstrated with great clearness Christ's words, " I am the 
 way, and the truth, and the life." (Jno. xiv., 6.) 
 
 Edward L/. Curtis, 
 Professor in the Yale Divinity School. 
 
 124 East Ninety-Second Street, New York, November 9, 1893. 
 Mr. F. T. Neely. 
 
 Dear Sir: In answer to your request for a line from me regarding the 
 late Parliament of Religions I would say, the Jew has ever stood, even 
 in ages of hatred and ignorance, as the apostle and herald of brotherhood, 
 and has toiled and suffered for that day when the confessors of every 
 religion will melt the sword of combat and selfishness in the flame of 
 human love. The Jew, therefore, sees in the Parliament of Religions a 
 potent factor toward the fulfillment of his centuried hope, the realization 
 of his glorious ideal. Wishing you abundant success, I am 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 Rudolph Grossman. 
 
 Cranpord, N. J., Wednesday, October 8, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir: Below I send you a line on the Parliament of Religions 
 in response to your request. The Parliament of Religions strengthens one's 
 faith in the brotherhood of man. But without your report of the proceed- 
 ings its influence must have been woefully limited. No thinking man should 
 be uninformed of the opinions of so important a representative body, and 
 on this great subject the man who does not think must be incapable of 
 thought. Truly yours, 
 
 William Drysdale. 
 
 New York City. 
 F. T. Neely, CJiicago. 
 
 ' Dear Sir: Your book will be an important addition to the literature 
 of the 19th century. Tnos. W. Knox.
 
 OPINIONS. 989 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y., November 6, 1893. 
 Mr. F. T. Neely. 
 
 Two features of this magnificent Exposition pre-eminently type the 
 prof^ress of the century — the electrical display and this fjk)rious Congress 
 of Relij^ious. Unity is the text of l)oth. .Electricity i)ring8 earth's ends 
 into mental unity; the congress poiuts earth's spiritual unity in human 
 brotherhood and divine Fatherhood. Rabbi Alex. II. Gkismar. 
 
 Fort Atkinson, Wis., November 6, 1893. 
 Mr. F. T. Neely, 2Si Fifth Aiienue, Chicago, III. 
 
 Dkar Sir: It seems to me that there can bo but one opinion regarding 
 the publishing of the discussions of the Parliament of Religions. It will 
 enlighten the world in regard to the faith of the different nationalities. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 D. W. Curtis. 
 
 New York, November 3, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir: In compliance with your request, I beg to say that the 
 Parliament of Religions, conceived, nurtured, and ripened into glory on 
 American soil, is the grandest achievement in the histoiy of cultural and 
 intellectual progress, and has marked a luminous epoch in the philosophy 
 and liberal education of mankind. Only democratic enthusiasm and heroic 
 vitality, allied with an innate reverence for the ideal and sesthetic, could 
 give birth to such a triumph of 19th-century genius and so conclusively 
 demonstrate to all the world that our country is at the head of the great 
 pilgrimage to the goal of truth, marching with the uplifting hopes, the 
 sustaining love, and indomitable spirit which span mankind with the rain- 
 bow of kinship and brotherhood. 
 
 The record of proceedings printed by your enterprising publishing 
 house may, indeed, lay claim to an honorary work in the vast library of 
 noble endeavor, in whose dust-covered retreat live Jew, Christian, and all 
 believing minds intent in the search for light, enlightenment, and fra- 
 ternity. The parliament sowed these seeds, let us culture them. Wishing 
 you much success, and hoping to hear from you soon, I am, dear sir, 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Dk. Alexander Kohut, Rabbi, 
 
 Chicago, November 10, 1893. 
 Dear Mr. Neely: I think that it was appropriate in Chicago, at the 
 time of the Parliament of Religious, to quote the celebrated Latin verse of 
 the grand poet Lucretius: 
 
 Quantum religio potent suadere malorum ! (How many evils could religion 
 advise!) 
 
 We have all learned how intolerance has been for centuries the rule of 
 mankind and how mighty nations, illustrious princes, were all brought into 
 what we might call a wild temper as soon as a faith somewhat dilferent 
 from theirs was taken up or kept up by other people. And what a striking 
 spectacle was that of free America calling the representatives of all the 
 religious world, a vast congregation, in which everybody was invited to 
 present, in the way he liked, the description of his own faith, to explain 
 the sacred lines which held him to the creed of his fathers. If ever the 
 friends of " peace on earth,'' which has been so often promised to " men of 
 good will," have been entitled to conceive the broadest hopes of a better 
 future for the ever-suffering children of Adam, it was certainly by enter- 
 ing the majestic hall, where the priests and laymen of the world were 
 gathered.
 
 990 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 What an admirable conception of religion to understand at last that it 
 is the charm which unites the man to God, and which has to unite us to 
 the Almighty, without any interference of any mortal being in this sacred 
 communion ! 
 
 If we are entitled to claim a perfect equality of political and civil rights, 
 are we not ten times better entitled to claim the religious equality? 
 Religion has nothing to do with the terrestrian ambitious, nothing with 
 the gorgeous displays of gold, silver, and diamonds, nothing with 
 the pride, nothing with the tyrannical commands of classes of men pre- 
 tending to rule over other men. I do not like to see so many perishable 
 things between me and my God. Let me pray Him alone, under the 
 skies, where millions of stars proclaim His unparalleled i^ower! Let me 
 think of those unknown worlds, of which we begin to guess the movings 
 and the rules! And now I ask you, men of narrow faith. Do you earnestly 
 believe that, in those quadrillions of billions of stars which dash through 
 the ether quicker than the electricity, your little sects, your miserable 
 anthropomorphistic conception of Divinity, your selfish hope of favors to 
 you and hatred to your brethren, do you believe that all those pitiful, 
 daily thoughts are taken into any consideration? 
 
 Do you suppose mankind has the monopoly of life in this wonderful 
 cosmos, of which we can not see the limit even in our boldest dreams, 
 with the most powerful imagination? 
 
 If all those stars drive with them innumerable planets, as our sun 
 drives the earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Neptvine, and still 
 others which our telescope will discover one day or another, what is relig- 
 ion on those celestial bodies? 
 
 Have you ever thought of this, and dare you, after having put your head 
 into your hands, after having cried for help, after having, thi'ough dajs 
 without knowledge and nights without sleep, computed thousands of thou- 
 sands of doubts, dare you say one thing but this: There is a power beyond 
 us? There is a God who conceived and created all that surrounds us, and 
 ourselves, too! This is my faith! This must be the faith of all the beings 
 through all the infinite space! And now, children of the earth, go in peace 
 and try to do good, because, if there are terrible doubts for the sincere 
 man about the way in which God is to be understood and worshiped, 
 there is no doubt aliout the eternal morality. The principles of morality 
 are deeply impressed in our souls. Nearly all the religions agree in their 
 main lines, and here is a marvelous field in which the most different faiths 
 can find a common plan to unite themselves. Let us look for what unites, 
 not for what divides us. This has been the spirit of the Parliament of 
 Religions. May it be ever praised for this! 
 
 Raphael George Levy, 
 Professor at the University of Political Science, Paris. 
 
 Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq., Chicago. 
 
 Dear Sir: I regard the Parliament of Religions as the greatest adjunct 
 to the Columbian Exposition. What the Exposition has accomplished in 
 the material elevation of mankind the Congress of Religions has attained 
 for the spiritual development of men. It will have done more to lilierali/e 
 and advance the world in this respect than all other causes since the reign 
 of ignorance and superstition during the dark ages. Your work, designed 
 to perpetuate the mighty lessons of that parliament, will not only be 
 timely but the grand climax of that historic event and period. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Joseph Eiboeck, 
 National Commissioner for Iowa.
 
 OPINIONS. 991 
 
 Massachusetts Statk Board op Tkade. 
 
 Lowell, Mass., November 9, 1893. 
 Mr. F. T. Neely, Chicago, III. 
 
 Dear Sir: I am ])loasc(l that your house is to have the i)ubHcation of 
 the work, and believe tliat tlie Parliamciit of Relijjionshas iiiiphmtcd upon 
 the mimls and hearts of men broailer and lii'^iier views of C'lii istianit \ . and 
 the lessons of love, faith, and charity, taupjiit at tliat wonderful j,'^athi<r- 
 \ng, must also exert a powerful inlluence in elevating the standard of 
 honor, intepfrity, and tolerance to sucii an extent, that even the channels of 
 trade, manufactures, and commerce will receive fresh impetus from this 
 new presentation of the great abiding truth of the biotherhood of man. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Chas. E. Adams. 
 
 Hartford, Conn., November 10, 1893. 
 Mr. F. T. Neely, 234 Fifth Avenue, Chicago, III. 
 
 Dear Sir: I was not able to be present to hear the addresses delivered 
 at the Parliament of Religions, but from extracts of speeches which I have 
 read in the daily journals and from comments of individuals, there can be 
 no question but that the influence of those meetings and addresses will 
 tend to create a more kindly feeling in each denomination toward the others; 
 and that it will create a leaven which, in its influence, will spread far 
 beyond the limits of that convention; if those present have been able to 
 learn, and admit, that there is some good in all, and that in reality there is 
 not such a wide difference in the essentials as has been heretofore thought, 
 it may possibly (in the near future, if not sooner) lead to some formula upon 
 which all earnest seekers for the truth can unite with contldence, and one 
 which will remove the numerous doctrinal stumbling-blocks which appear to 
 those who attempt to reconcile the various creeds of the present. Let us 
 hope with faith. Very truly, 
 
 L. Brainard. 
 
 Fort Smith, Ark., November 10, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir: The Parliament of Religions is much like the system of 
 awards given at the Columbian Exposition. Each has given the points of 
 excellence claimed for it. A compilation of the claims should be in every 
 library. Christianity has nothing to fear from the contrast. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 J, H. Clendening, 
 National Commissioner for Arkansas. 
 
 Tempe, Akiz , November 7, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Chicago, Til. 
 
 Dear Sir: Answering yours of the 2d, the Parliament of Religions can 
 be regarded but as a grand step toward unification of the human race, 
 upon a lasting plane, higher than can be afforded l)y commerce or the arts. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 W. L. Van Horn. 
 
 The fact that orthodoxy has allowed people of conflictory faiths to 
 express themselves in the same city without attempting to cut off their 
 heads, or burn them alive, speaks volumes for the progress of liberalizing 
 thought. 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
 
 992 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 Chicago, November 12, 1893. 
 While the late World's Parliament of Religions was an event without 
 precedent, it is not to be assumed that it would not have been possible at 
 any previous time. The world's expositions have afforded convenient 
 opportunities for illustrating the recent rapid jjrogress of mankind in that 
 knowledge of things scientilic and practical which finds easy acceptance 
 among all peoples, and have thus broadened and deepened the conviction 
 that it may also be well to exchange thoughts upon things of yet higher 
 concern. The parliament was the natural and fitting conclusion of a 
 remarkable series of congresses embracing the whole field of human 
 interests. It was happily devised and wisely carried through. That it 
 developed a very encouraging liberality among the representatives of many 
 faiths is beyond question; but it is no less certain that it was composed of 
 the more liberal of them and is not to be understood as showing the real 
 statusof the religious world. The millennium is coming, but has not yet 
 arrived. Such parliaments will hasten its coming and are to be provided 
 for as among the most important and blessed accompaniments of all future 
 universal expositions. 
 
 John W. Hoyt. 
 
 New York Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 New York, October 30, 1893. 
 F. T. Neely, Esq. 
 
 My Dear Sir: Yours of 24th inst. is received. I may say to you, as 
 an individual, that, looking at the matter of religion purely from the 
 standfjoint of the world, it has always seemed tome that its weakest point 
 has alv/ays been its easy cleavage, resulting in endless disagreement. If 
 there were but one religion preached in the world, and by as many and as 
 able and sincere men as now preach all shades of religion, it does not seem 
 to me that there could long remain any considerable proportion of the race 
 standing in denial toward it, nor that it would keep the asperity that now 
 antagonizes the outside world, as well as the different branches of religious 
 profession toward each other. I have not witnessed any part of this par- 
 liament, but it strikes me that the movement contains more of "the 
 promise and potency " of unification of belief as well as of purpose than 
 any religious movement since the possession, by our form of faith, of the 
 old Roman Empire. In any event, it seems to me, its effect must be to 
 increase the respect, as well as the knowledge, of every form of belief for 
 every other, and thereby to make plainer the primal truth that man must 
 be forever man, pure and simple, first, and a professor of religious belief 
 afterward. Yours cordially, 
 
 G. M. McCoNNEL. 
 
 Atlanta, Ga. 
 If, as we believe, Christianity is divine and other faiths are not so 
 largely so, she had nothing to fear and very little to lose by this conference, 
 while they had much to learn of her. The inspired inscription upon the 
 White City's magnificent peristyle is written at the head of each page of 
 the parliament's proceedings: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
 shall make you free." America knows far more of truth and promises a 
 larger measure of freedom because of the World's Parliament of Religions. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Harlan P. Beach.
 
 INDEX, 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Address, Opening (C. C. Bonney) -------- 37 
 
 Address of Welcome (Dr. J. H. Barrows) 40 
 
 Africa, In Behalf of (Bishop Arnett) 70 
 
 American Civilization and Christianity (Prof. Thos. O'Gorman) - 669 
 
 America, What Christianity Has Wrought for (Dr. D. J. Burrell) - 675 
 
 America, World's Keligious Debt to (Celia Parker WooUey) - - 787 
 
 Anglican Church and Church of First Ages (Rev. Thomas Richey) - 703 
 
 Arbitration Instead of War (Shaku Soyen) ------ 797 
 
 Archimandrite of Syria, ----_.___ 567 
 
 Armenia, Greeting from Old (Prof. Minaz Tcheraz) - - - - 62 
 
 Armenia, Spirit and Mission of Church of (Ohanner Chatschumyna) 641 
 
 Armenian Church, The (Prof. Minaz Tcheraz) - - - . - 785 
 
 Armenians, Thanks from 507 
 
 Asia, World's Religious Debt to (P. C Mozoomdar) - - - - 596 
 
 Athens, Metropolite of--- 621 
 
 Australasia, Words from (Archbishop Redwood) - . - - 58 
 
 A White Life for Two (Frances E. Willard) 747 
 
 Baptists in History (Rev. George C. Lorimer) - . . . . 832 
 
 Bible Lands (Dr. George E. Post) 450 
 
 Bible Orthodoxy, Persistence of (Rev. Luther F. Townsend) - - 728 
 
 Bible, What It Has Wrought (Rev. Joseph Cook) - - - - 572 
 
 Brahmo-Somaj, Spiritual Ideas of the (B. B. Nagarkar) - - - 743 
 
 Brotherhoodrf Man (Dr. W.C.Roberts) 148 
 
 Buddha (Continued) 445 
 
 Buddha (Rev. Zitsuza Ashitzu) 537 
 
 Buddha, The World's Debt to (H.Dharmapala) 406 
 
 Buddhism and Christianity (H. Dharmapala) 803 
 
 Buddhism (Banrieu Yatsubuchi) 323 
 
 Buddhism, History of in Japan (Horin Toki) 222 
 
 Buddhism, What It Has Done for Japan (Horin Toki) ... 779 
 
 Buddhism, Would Win Converts to (ZenshiroNoguchi) - - - 156 
 
 Canada as a Link in the Empire (Principal Grant) - - - - 65 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons' Message (Bishop Keane) ------ 185 
 
 Catholic Church and Marriage Bond (Prof- Martin J. Wade) - - 339 
 
 Catholic Church and Negro Race (Rev. J. R. Slattery) - - - 602 
 
 Catholic Church and the Bible (Mgr. Seton) 305 
 
 Cause and Effect as Taught by Buddha (Shaku Soyen) - . - 378 
 
 Ceylon, Good Wishes of (H. Dharmapala) ------ 60 
 
 Children, Religious Training of (Brother Azariae) - . - . 35,5 
 
 China, America's Duty to (W. A. P. Martin) 654 
 
 Christ, Savior of World (Rev. B. Fay Mills) 464 
 
 Christ, The Historic (Rev. T. W. Dudley) ---_-. .367 
 
 993
 
 OlM 
 
 INhl'lX. 
 
 !lirli(l, Mm li.oiiriDii n\ lli<^ I Ini vnnm (l^(^v .liiiiinii W. Tidd) 
 
 !|iriiu, Mm lliiillnr III' IVl ii.mIiiimI ( I )r. < !(«». I )nim lloiinliiiiiii) 
 
 'liriMliiiii iiii.l IIIihIii TIioiikIiI, < 'oiiI.uc.I, of (|{tw. IL A. Iliiiiio) - 
 
 llii iiihiiM I'lviMiK"!'!*'" ('>'"V. ■Iiuimii UriiiMh ... 
 
 lliiiiil.Hiii Hi:ii|ihiro, liiM|iiiiiliiHi ol' (|{,(^v. r'r7iiil( Howoll) 
 
 HiiiMljiiii Unity, llroUiniliuoil ol' ('I'lioudoni I''. H(iwiiril) 
 
 lliliMtllMlily nil llilil.nl'inli,l |{,(ilip;i()ll (( Jnui(.:n I'lllll l''illll(ir) - 
 
 lliiiiitiiiiiil.y (iiiil Mm NnKi'>("ii'li"I' AriH'll) 
 
 lliiiiiliiiMily mill Mm Mndiiil (.(irnnl imi ( I'ml' I''. (J. Poiihody) 
 
 lliiiiilimiilV iin " Hodinl l''<ii<-n (I'n.r, IMcliiinl 'r I'lly) - 
 
 'liriMMimit.y iiii liilni|irol.nil hy Litnriiiiiin ( i;.nv. I'lmi.ddro'r. Miiiiki'i) 
 
 'lirmriiiiiil y iiii Hnnii l)y n. V"yn|.j<ii' (l*<'V. l''iiiimiM I'l. < Miirli) 
 
 lliriiiliiuiil.y, AHiliiilnl-o OlJmr l;,nlif.Moim ( I'n.f W.(!. WilUiiiiiuii) 
 
 lliiiMrmiiily, ll-M IVI(iMiiiiK<» In OMior l(,o!iKi<'iiii ( K'nv. .Iiiiimii H. |)«>viii()) 
 
 !|iiiri'linii liiiil ( 'ily l'nil>l<*iiiii (rrnC. A. W. Hiiiiill) 
 
 JliiiicImM, ( Juvoiiiiimiil, < !oiMUiii ol' (Ivov. 1 1. K. ( !(irroll) 
 
 liviii/.iiMoii, .lnwinli ( 'oiitj'iliiiMoiiH lo ( I) (1. liyoii) 
 
 !niii|iiMii.Mvo 'I'lmojoj^y, Hliiily ol' ((!. l*. Tiolo) .... 
 
 loiil'iii-iiiiiiiiiii, < Joimiiiii mill l)inoli.|.iimiil, of (Dr. I'lriitil, Fiilmr) - 
 
 tuni'imiiiiilMiii, l'ri/.i> I'liiiuiy oii(Kiiiif{ lliiitMi ilo) 
 
 liiiiriiriiiiiiiiiii (I'liiiK KwmiK Nil) 
 
 !<iiiiiriinMii<i|ilM, II |{o|iiiMi<Miliilivn ol' (lliM'mil IVI . K irolrlijiiui) 
 
 III o|innil loll, |)iviim iSiiiiiii III' (Mni. liyiliiill. I >ii'l(iiiiioii) 
 
 li'itimmiil Mm |{,oiimily (Knv. ()lym|iiii lliovvii) 
 
 )ivlim llniiitf, AiKmiK'iil ''<"' Mn' (W. 'I'. Iliiiiin) 
 
 )iily ol' ( Joil III IVImi ( Mnt. liiiiirti < Inuiiilon ( Hiiiiil) 
 
 li'i'i'iimoiiii lili'iiii, I'loli'iil iiKiiiiiiil ( A irlil)iiiliii|i ol' '/iililo) 
 
 IMiiriil lilriiii, MnMrnliiiM )iii^lii<MM of (L'nv. Iilil.(]. Illlll.ill) 
 
 illliicii III' ( Hiiiitl inn HciiMirn . - . - . 
 
 IvidiMii'n ol' n Mii|iiiMiM' IliMiiK (llin. I>i-. IVloini<rii<) 
 
 '.vojiiliipii, < 'liiiiiliiinily Mild ( I'lol'. Ilniiry I >niiiiiiionil) 
 
 ',\iii|iMirn and A II liliidiii ol' ( Jo.l ... 
 
 'nilliii, 'i'lm (1 1 ni Ail (Dr. I''. W. M. IIiikomIioII//.) 
 
 'iNAI. VVlllilKI 
 
 Dr. All'inil W. Ml Min ... 
 
 |{,ov. I'. ('. IMo/i Iiir 
 
 I'rlnro HiM^'o VVoliioiinliy - 
 
 Hon. I'iin|j, (^)iiiin(j; Vii - - 
 
 Kiii/ii M. I linii - . - - - 
 
 II. I Uminiiiiiiilii 
 
 i:iHld i;.i'V. Mr. Mliiiliilii 
 
 Dr. ( liMiiuo T. ( 'midliii .....-.- 
 
 Hwniiii Vivoiuiiiiindii. 
 
 Vii'limid ( iiiiidlii ...--.. 
 
 Dr. I'liiiil lliiiirli - - ... 
 
 I'rinro Momolii IMiiiiai|Uoi . . - . 
 
 Dr, l«'ranU M, llriulol - - - - 
 
 Mill. ( 'lim Irii I loiHiil in - - - - 
 
 Ivnv. .li'iiUin I iloyd .loni'ii .... 
 
 Hiniioji Arnrll. • . . . 
 
 Mm. .luliii Wind llo\vi> . . . - 
 
 |{.ov, A iij-^iinlii ( Miii|iiii 
 
 Itiiiliop Ivomm 
 
 I )r. John llrnry Hni rown 
 
 Tron. ('.('. lloniii'V 
 
 li'ori'iKii Miiinioiuiiy Mrlliodn .... 
 Ii'iimrn, < lionliiiK Troni (i'lol'. (), l!.>ll(^l Maiiry) .... 
 
 I''rmirp, IColiKioiiti 'i'lioiic.ld III (I'lol. (). Itoimi Miiiiry) 
 
 pAnn 
 
 . :mm) 
 
 . Hi I 
 
 • im 
 ni'.t 
 
 - f)00 
 
 - :w(> 
 . (;(ir» 
 . r.'.'(; 
 
 r.fi() 
 :t(ii) 
 7[)(; 
 
 7f)l» 
 7(!(5 
 
 - r.H7 
 
 - otto 
 
 ■ •^T^ 
 
 ■ 'l\U 
 
 ■ ij(;7 
 Iti) 
 
 -11)7 
 
 - Il>7 
 
 . f>7r) 
 
 - 1l(( 
 
 • lif.() 
 
 - (if.'J 
 
 . 471 
 
 - r.7i) 
 
 HI 
 
 - K2H 
 
 ri 
 
 - 812 
 
 - HI 7 
 
 - HIH 
 
 . H,M» 
 
 . Hid 
 
 . HI.l 
 
 - Hf.'i 
 
 . Hr.'J 
 . Hli.'i 
 
 - Hf.;i 
 
 - Hr.i 
 
 - Hr.r> 
 . Hr.r» 
 
 . Hf.(*. 
 
 - Hf.7 
 
 - Hr)7 
 
 . Hf.J) 
 
 - Hr»!> 
 
 - HW) 
 
 - H(il 
 
 - mi 
 . m\\ 
 
 . (507 
 
 - r»7 
 
 - 772
 
 
 
 TXnRX, 
 
 Fttv ^ - - 
 
 ^^^^♦hnfeitv>rN ' 
 
 - » . , - 
 
 IW 
 
 .-.>f Uoli. 
 
 
 l5o 
 
 ^ < • : " • 
 
 
 Un 
 
 
 -, 
 
 l?r:. 
 
 
 
 l»ttH\XV 
 
 l« 
 
 >x, Pu- 
 
 Ortv»? i^ 
 
 .-s 
 
 ;KVn r 
 
 c>j-.- 
 
 
 
 lU 
 
 
 
 sw 
 
 - SI I 
 :<> 
 
 ^ . r^ - - 4U^ 
 
 i) - > aH 
 
 . . ,\. ,. NiDvtv^U> - IvVN 
 
 -u.^f - . . - :h>s 
 
 Ui. .o»iu\si vl^r. K. Kv>hU''r> \4A 
 
 Mvv \ :, l>r. AvUf litxxUi^'k) -.Si 
 
 In-,: ^U>\VM\^ - . - . .(^il 
 
 hu - xih^ > . - . 401 
 
 In. , . ,.;- . :..... .s\ - \iV 
 
 luv' V frvHU ^IM\ > M 
 
 ln> ^ in ^Nrtrashuw ». jUO 
 
 Intiiulo . v^^*'^- ^ J •^'^'^^^i'*^ «^ 
 
 lnt«>n?. ,,,s^KVv V T K«^\fv>r\J\ ^A^ 
 
 Into . , V. IV I. \Vhm\u»n^ ?*> 
 
 In;. " s »1, S«>n>n\«\««^ t\3S 
 
 In:. .'.i^i.vv ;r...i .Vr.-.,;> ^^Kov. 5n U lv*Kl\v\r^ r>4A 
 
 Int ; 
 
 l!»I, > ».\\«ui\tiv\ns anv! ^Mv^hamuuKl Wobb> M4 
 
 Islam. Ituv Spirit v>( ^Mv>h;^mnvt^^ Wobb) - - 4iV 
 
 J;ii»\!s Kthu^ juul U>stv>r\ of ^Viv^hanvl A. l«Amihi'» T^ 
 
 Jaixiiu OhristianitN in ^llarniohi Kiv,Tj»ki) - 4^* 
 
 Ja^vin, ^^^tur\''v>f K*>li^)on in ^^Nv>bnta Kis^himot. r^M 
 
 J«|vtn, K*vU IX^sition of tvnvanl I'hristuvnitv iKuua M. llira\> UM 
 
 Juuaitau.Orthv\Uv\ v>r H\tstoru\«.l vH. IVirara MonvU>«*> - - "211 
 
 Jiuiai^iii. <.huUy>k for ^Miss .Kv«v^ph»no l*>uarus^ ^i4 
 
 JvKlai*im.l\iiblM Jvv*»»|>l\ SiUorn»an^ - - ^v>» 
 
 Kvu-au anvl lt>i iVs m ^ ,\s; ^Kvn, lUw K, \\>«6t) vUvi 
 
 Kvvan. Jinnuo -; vNf ^J. Sauna AU>vtNavKiarrt\ » . « ii\i 
 
 Man frvu>» a ». i\<ii\t v>f Viow vVory Kov. \VilUan\ IKvno"^ 141 
 
 Man s riavx> in Natvux- vlV^f. A. l>. Hrvuv^ 4<^ 
 
 M.vUvl Man. Tho iUishv>p ArtiotO l.\N 
 
 M^>h;unnu^^anisn^. ^^^n^av'ts with (.Miristiamtx v<.«v\m>;v W ashlnuno^ ^i*'^^ 
 
 Mv>nks. Mivst AtUMont Oi\ior v»f vSwami Vi\oka»\anila^ - OA 
 
 Mv>s\^ lirvMtnt^ss anvi livtUioiuv o( \K.»Mm iu^tthoiU 'JVW 
 
 Musiv, Kniv<ti\MK anvi MvvraU ilu>\, H. Iv. Mawoij*^ i'ilJ 
 
 Nat)\o Kolivi\>us \vlous, i.\vuvx\«tivuis tv> ^Kov. T. K Sl>i. i ^ \»U 
 
 NatuM> vvf Man. Tho UKl 
 
 Now Kt\>:laiul l\trita« (K*'V. .VU>x. MoKwitio'i 4S 
 
 Ortivvrs v>f WorUVs (.\v»iit»\\s«» .Vnxiliavy U» 
 
 Ortlcial WoKxnno ( A^v'hTM^4hv>^» b\vhan) 44 
 
 <.">{HMiin>r of tho l^arliamont .... ;t;^ 
 
 (.Vi^in of IVrlianvtMit v<f Kolij;\vM\«« - - "H 
 
 l^irablo. A vS\\;nuv Vivokananvla^ "-^^V* 
 
 l\ir!5^v. Oonvort»Hl \\\nnan (Mis^<.KMnni SiM-abjv^ 0»T 
 
 i\u«oo^ Ktili^ioiu ;S^;itcm uf ^Jiuuigi Jttiu«»livsgl Mv^ll) I rit
 
 996 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Parliament, Closing Scenes of 846 
 
 Parliament, Possible Results of (Julia Ward Howe) - - - - 764 
 
 Parliament, The World's (Mrs. L. Ormiston Chant) - - - - 811 
 
 Pekin, Religion in (Isaac T. Headland) 494 
 
 Philosophy and the Science of Religion (J. P. Lamdis) - -. - 432 
 
 PrGfclCG •----- — — — — •"" iJ. 
 
 Protestant Missions, Results of in Turkey (Rev, Mardiros Ignados) - 776 
 
 Pung Quang Yu, Hon. ---52 
 
 Rational Demonstration of the Being of God (Very Rev. Augustine 
 
 F. Hewitt) 75 
 
 Reconciliation, Vital not Vicarious (Rev. Theodore Wright) - - 471 
 
 Redemption of Man through Christ (Rev. T. J. Kennedy) - - - 498 
 
 Reform, Individual Effort at (Prof. C. R. Henderson) - - - - 558 
 
 Religion, Ancient Egyptian (J. A. S. Grant) .... - 261 
 
 Religion and American Negro (Mrs. F.B.Williams) .... 631 
 
 Religion and the Erring (Rev. Anna G. Spencer) . . . _ 512 
 
 Religion and Labor (Rev. James M. Cleary) 564 
 
 Religion and Love of Mankind (Ex-Gov. Hoyt) 618 
 
 Religion and Music (W. L.Tomlins) 813 
 
 Religion and Music (Prof. Waldo S. Pratt) 477 
 
 Religion and Social Problems - - 507 
 
 Religion and Wealth (Rev. Washington Gladden^ .... 568 
 
 Religion, Certainties of (Rev. Joseph Cook) 218 
 
 Religion Connected with Art and Science 410 
 
 Religion Essentially Characteristic of Humanity (Rev. Lyman 
 
 Abbott) 191 
 
 Religion, Great Teachers of - 364 
 
 Religion, Influence of on Women (Rev. Annis F. Eastman) - - 345 
 
 Religion in Hawaiian Lands (Rev. E. P. Baker) 574 
 
 Religion in Social and Married Life .-....- 330 
 
 Religion, Necessity of---- 184 
 
 Religion of North American Indians (Alice C. Fletcher) - - - 584 
 
 Religion of Science (Sir William Dawson) 418 
 
 Religion, Relation between and Conduct (Prof. C. H. Toy) - - 483 
 
 Religion, Relation of Science to (Dr. Paul Carus) . . . . 450 
 
 Religion, Supreme End and Office of (Walter Elliot) - . - - 167 
 
 Religion, Synthetic (Kinza Riuge M. Hirai) ------ 798 
 
 Religion, Systems of 227 
 
 Religion, The Essentials of (Rev. A. W. Momerie) - - - - 625 
 
 Religion, Working Forces in 452 
 
 Religions and the Social Question (Rabbi H. Berkowitz) - - - 665 
 Religions, Importance of Serious Study of All (Mrs. Eliza R. 
 
 Goodspeed) 275 
 
 Religions of the World (Mgr. C. D. D'Harlez) 286 
 
 Religions, Present Outlook of (Rev. George T. Pentecost) - - - 682 
 
 Religions, Sympathy of (Thomas Wentworth Higginson) - - - 364 
 Religions, What the Dead Have Bequeathed to the Living (C. S. 
 
 Sunderland) 228 
 
 Religious Distinguished from a Moral Life (Sylvester S. Scovell) - 427 
 
 Religious Feeling, Social Office of (Prince Serge Wolkonsky) - - 268 
 
 Religious Mission of English-Speaking Nations (Rev. H. H. Jessup) - 638 
 
 Religious Unification, Only Possible Method of (Dr. W. R. Alger) - 826 
 
 Religious Union of the Human Race (Rev. John Gmeiner) - - 781 
 
 Religious Unity and Missions (Rev. Geo. T. Candlin) - - - - 706 
 
 Response to Addresses (Cardinal Gibbons) ------ 45 
 
 Reunion of Christendom (Prof. Phillip Schaflf ) ----- 711 
 
 Revelation. Need of a Wider Conception of (J. Estlin Carpenter) - 386 
 
 Roman Catholic Church; Its Relations to Poor (Charles F, Donnelly) 519
 
 INDEX. U97 
 
 VAOE 
 
 Russia, Legend of (Prince Wolkonsky) 
 
 Sacred Books of the World (Milton S.Terry) .... - 312 
 Salvation, The World's (Rev. John Duke M'Fadden) ... - 824 
 Science of Religions, Service of (Marwin-Marie Snell) - - - 259 
 
 Scriptures, Sacred of the World - 292 
 
 Scriptures, Truthfulness of Holy (Charles A. Briggs) - - . - 292 
 Second Message from Bombay (B. B. Nagarkar) ----- 67 
 
 Shinto Bishop of Japan .------.- S-l 
 
 Siam, Buddhism of (Prince Chandradit Chodharharn) - - - 271 
 
 Social Reform in India (B. B. Nagarkar) - - 330 
 
 Somerset, Lady Henry 410 
 
 Soul and Its Future Life (Rev. Samuel N. Warren) - - - - 170 
 Speakers and Essayists at theParliament — 
 
 Abbott. Rev. Lyman 191 
 
 Alger, Dr. W. R 826 
 
 Arnett, Bishop - 70, 155, 605, 859 
 
 Ashitzu, Rev. Zitsuza .-.- 537 
 
 Azarias, Brother 355 
 
 Baker, Rev. E. P. 574 
 
 Baldwin, Rev. S. L. 645 
 
 Barrows, Dr. John Henry 40,811,862 
 
 Bergen, Dr. Carl von 61 
 
 Berkowitz, Rabbi H. 665 
 
 Bernstorff, Count 55, 456 
 
 Blackwell, Rev. Antoinette Brown 660 
 
 Boardman, Rev. George Dana _..--- 764, 841 
 
 Bonet-Maury, Prof. G. 57, 772 
 
 Bonney. President C. C. - - 37,863 
 
 Brand, Rev. James - - - 463 
 
 Briggs, Dr. Charles A. - - 292 
 
 Bristol, Dr. Frank M. 856 
 
 Brodbeck, Dr. Adolf - - -. 122 
 
 Brown, Rev. Olympia - - 575 
 
 Bruce. Prof. A.B. - . 415 
 
 Burrell, Dr. D. J. - - - 675 
 
 Byrne, Rev. William 141 
 
 Candlin, Rev. George T. 608, 706, 853 
 
 Carpenter, J. Estlin 386 
 
 Carroll, Rev. H. K. - 690 
 
 Carus, Dr. Paul 450 
 
 Chaira, Narasima 610 
 
 Chakravarrti. Prof. C. N. 62 
 
 Chant, Mrs. Laura Ormiston 250, Oil 
 
 Chapin, Rev. Augusta - - - - - - - - 46, 859 
 
 Chatschumyna, Ohanner - - - - - - - ' - 641 
 
 Chodharharn, Prince Chandradit 271 
 
 Clark, Rev. Francis E. - 756 
 
 Cleary, Rev. James M. 564 
 
 Cook, Rev. Joseph, ...----. 218, 572 
 
 Dawson, Sir William - - 418 
 
 D'Harlcz, Mgr. C. D. - - 286 
 
 Devine, Rev. James S. 766 
 
 Dharmapala, H. 60,406,803,607,852 
 
 Dickinson, Mrs. Lydia H. - 197 
 
 Donnelly, Charles F. 519 
 
 Douglass, Frederick -...----- 702 
 
 Drummond, Prof. Henry --------- 82S 
 
 Dudley, Rev. T. W. :{t'7
 
 998 lA'DEX. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Dvivedi, Manilal Ni 105 
 
 Eastman, Rev. Annis P. .---- 345 
 
 Elliot, Rev. Walter 167 
 
 Ely, Prof. Richard T. 550 
 
 Faber, Dr. Ernst 267 
 
 Feehan, Archbishop ----44 
 
 Field, Dr. Henry M. 452 
 
 Fisher, George Park 380 
 
 Fletcher. Alice C. 584 
 
 Gandhi, Vichand 61,701,732,854 
 
 ^ Goodspeed, Prof. C. S. 228 
 
 Gottheil, Rabbi 297 
 
 Grant, J. A. S. 261 
 
 Grant, Principal 65 
 
 Gibbons, Cardinal - - - 45, 185 
 
 Gladden, Rev. Washington 568 
 
 Gmeiner, Rev. John 781 
 
 Hale, Dr. Edward Everett 207 
 
 Harris, W. T. 116 
 
 Haweis, Rev. H. R. 422 
 
 Haworth. Rev. Dr. 615 
 
 Headland, Isaac T. 494 
 
 Henderson, Prof. C. R. 558 
 
 Henrotin, Mrs. Charles 857 
 
 Hewitt, Very Rev. Augustus F. 75 
 
 Higinbotham, H. N. 47 
 
 Higginson, Col. Thomas Wentworth 364, 510 
 
 Hirai, Kinza M. 157, 798 
 
 Hirsch, Dr. Emil 816, 855 
 
 Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward 764, 859 
 
 Howe, Prof. J. A. ---------- 736 
 
 Hoyt, Ex-Governor -.._--..-- 618 
 Hugenholtz, Dr. F. W. M. - - - - - - - . - 812 
 
 Hultin, Rev. Ida C. 474 
 
 Hume, Rev. R. A. - - 612, 792 
 
 Ignados, Rev. A. Marderos 497, 776 
 
 Jessup, Rev. H. H. - 638 
 
 Jibara, Very Rev. Christophore ..--..- 699 
 Jones, Rev. Jenkin Lloyd -.._..- 567, 857 
 
 Keane, Bishop - - - 185, 191, 838, 801 
 
 Kennedy, Rev. T. J. 498 
 
 Kiretchjian, Herant M. 497, 806 
 
 Kishimoto, Nobuta - - 794 
 
 Kohler, Dr. K. - . 145 
 
 Koh'ut, Alexander - 308 
 
 Kozaki, Harnichi 489 
 
 Kung Hsien Ho - - 252 
 
 Lamdis, J. P. 432 
 
 Latas, Right Rev. Dyonisios 50, 139, 652 
 
 L/azarus, Miss Josephine _ . - 324 
 
 Lee, Rev. James W. 390 
 
 Lewis, Dr. A. H. 350 
 
 Lorimer, Rev. George C 832 
 
 Lyon, D. G. - - 373 
 
 McFadden, Rev. John Duke - 824 
 
 McKenzie, Rev. Alex. 48 
 
 Martin. W. A. P. - 654 
 
 Masaquois, Prince Momolu 855
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mendeb, H. Peirara - - - - - - - - - "-Ml 
 
 Mercer. Rev. L. P. . . - - SJI 
 
 Mills, Rev. B. Pay - .-..--.- 4G-1 
 
 Modi, Jinanjo Jcimshodji --------- 173 
 
 Momerie, Dr. Alfred W. ----- - C8. 84, 025, 847 
 
 Moxon, Rev. Phillip --------- 10!) 
 
 Mozoomdar. P. C. ----- - ^l. 1.34. 5%. 8iH 
 
 Munger, Rev. Theodore T. - - ----- - 'iW 
 
 Murdock. Mrs. Marion - - 301) 
 
 Naddara. J. Sanna Abou -------- O-'j.'J 
 
 Nagarkar. B. B. - - 07, 74:{ 
 
 Niceolls. Rev. S. J. - - - - 7:5 
 
 Noguchi, Zenshiro . . - - - I.jO 
 
 O'Gorman. Prof. Thos. --------- 00!) 
 
 Peabody, Prof. F G. --------- 52G 
 
 Pentecost, Rev. George T. ...----- 082 
 
 Pliiambolis, Rev. P. - - - 643 
 
 Phillips, Kev. Maurice --------- 100 
 
 Post, Dr. Geo. E. - - - 450, 013 
 
 Powell, A. M. ---------- 622 
 
 Pratt. Prof. Waldo S. --------- 477 
 
 Pung Quang Yu -------- .52. 149, 851 
 
 Redwood, Archbishop --------- 58 
 
 Rexford, Rev. E. T. - - - - 202 
 
 Richev, Rev. Thomas - - 703 
 
 Roberts, Dr. W. C. - - - - 148 
 
 Schaff, Prof. Philhp --------- 711 
 
 Scovell, Sylvester S. " " ■ " ' ^-'^ 
 
 Semmes, Thos. J. .----.--- 028 
 
 Serabji, Miss Jeanni - 07, 5;i5 
 
 Seton. Mgr. ..---.----- 305 
 
 Seward, Theodore F. - - - 509 
 
 Sewell, Rev. Frank ----- ----- 319 
 
 Shabita, Right Rev. Mr. - - - ------ 852 
 
 Silverman, Rabbi Joseph -------- 636 
 
 Slater, Rev. T. E. - - 164 
 
 Slatterv. Rev. J. R. ----- ----- 602 
 
 Small. Prof. A. W. ---------- 587 
 
 Smyth, Rev. Julien K. - - - - 401 
 
 Snell. Marwiu-Marie . - - - 259 
 
 Somerset, Lady Henrv --------- 410 
 
 Soyen,Shaku --------- .378,797 
 
 Spencer. Rev. Anna (x. -------- - ^12 
 
 Stanton, Elizabeth Cadv --------- «53 
 
 Sunderland, Mrs. Eliza R. -------- 275 
 
 Szold, Miss Henrietta - - - - o54 
 
 Tcheraz. Prof. Minas ------- 62, 4o2, /8;) 
 
 Terry, Milton S. - - 312 
 
 Tiele, C. P. ----- - 24.) 
 
 Toki. Horin ----- 222, ( ^9 
 
 Tomlins. W. L. ---------- 813 
 
 Townsend, Rev. Luther F. -------- <28 
 
 Toy. Prof. C. H. - - - - - - " . Iq oo J-o 
 
 Vivekananda. Swanii 04. 258. 438, 8:j3 
 
 Wade. Prof. Martin J. ----- ;«9 
 
 Warren. Rev. Samuel N. 1/"J 
 
 VVashburne. George - - - ~-j^' 
 
 Webb, Mohammed 460. oii
 
 1000 IXDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Whitman, Rev. D. L. 120 
 
 Wilkinson. Prof. W. C. -------- - '-^9 
 
 Willard. Frances E. .-.----'-- <47 
 
 Williams, Mrs. F. B. 631 
 
 Wise. Dr. Isaac - - 96 
 
 Wolkonsky, Prince Sert,^e 52,268,649,850 
 
 Woolley. Mrs. Celia Parker -------- 787 
 
 Wright, Theodore F. - - - 471 
 
 Yatsubuchi, Banrieu --------- 323 
 
 Spirit and Matter (Prof. C. N. Chakravarrti) 62 
 
 Stones for Bread ----------- 506 
 
 Swedenborg and Harmony of Religion (Rev. L. P. Mercer) - - 821 
 
 Sweden for Christ (Dr. Carl von Bergen) ------ 61 
 
 Sympathy and Fraternity, Grounds of I A. M. Powell) - - - 622 
 
 Sympathy from England (Rev. Alfred W. Momerie) - - - - 68 
 
 Syria, A Voice from (Christophore Jibara) ------ 699 
 
 Test of Works Applied (Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson) - - 510 
 
 Theology of Judaism (Dr. Isaac Wise) - - - - - - - 96 
 
 Toleration. Plea for (Dr. Henry M. Field) ------ 452 
 
 Toleration (Prof. MinazTcheraz) ------- 412 
 
 Ultimate Religion, The (Bishop John J. Keane) ----- 8.38 
 
 Universal Brotherhood (Prince Wolkonsky) ----- 649 
 
 Universal Religions. Elements of (Dr. Emil G. Hirsch) - - - 816 
 
 Voice from New India (P. C. Mozoomdar) ------ 1-34 
 
 Weekly Rest Day, Divine Element in (Rev. Dr. A. H. Lewis) - - .350 
 
 Woman and the Pulpit (Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell) - - 660 
 
 Woman, A New Testament (Mrs. Marion Murdock) . - - - 369 
 
 Woman, What Judaism Has Done for (Miss Henrietta Szold) - - 554 
 
 Women of India (Jeauni Serabji) - 535 
 
 Women, On Behalf of (Rev. Augusta G. Chapin) - - - - 46 
 
 Word from Bombay (Vichand A. Gandhi) ------ 61 
 
 W\)rds on Toleration (Count Bernstorff) 55 
 
 World's Congresses of 1893 --------- 15 
 
 Worship of God in Man (Elizabeth Stanton) - - - - - 753 
 
 Young Men of the Orient, a Voice from (Herant M. Kiretchjianj - 806 
 
 DENOMINATIONAL AND OTHER CONGRESSES. 
 
 Advent Christian Church - - - 930 
 
 African Methodist Episcopal Church ------- 935 
 
 Catholic Church Presentation - - 004 
 
 Chicago Tract Society - - 9-^9 
 
 Christian Endeavor ---------- 965 
 
 Columbian Catholic Congress -------- 890 
 
 Congresses of the Lutheran Church ------- 872 
 
 Congress of Disciples of Christ -------- 917 
 
 Congress of Evolutionists ..-- 940 
 
 Congress of Jewish Women --------- 870 
 
 Congress of Missions .-_------- 950 
 
 Congress of Theosophists --------- 926 
 
 Congregational Church Congress -------- 899 
 
 Congress of Wales --------- - 883 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church ------- 940 
 
 Ethical Congress -..-------- 945 
 
 Evangelical Alliance ---------- 965
 
 INDEX. 1001 
 
 i^ ,- , PAOE 
 
 Evangelical Associ;ition - 94(5 
 
 Free Religious Association --.....-. 9;^-^ 
 
 Friends Congress - - . . 9.J3 
 
 Friends Church (Orthodox) - - 9:?<) 
 
 (ierman FA'aEj:eliciil Synod of North America D.']7 
 
 Jewish Church Confjress 807 
 
 King's Daughters and Sons - . - 9;^; 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church 937 
 
 New Jerusalem Church Congcress -------- 919 
 
 Presbyterian Church -.----.... 932 
 
 Presentation of Buddhists . - - - 9(53 
 
 Presentation of Christian Scientists ------- 934 
 
 Reformed Church of the United States - - - - - 938 
 
 Reformed (Dutch) Church --.-..- ix;.! 
 
 Reformed Episcoi)al Church - - - - . - . 931 
 
 Seventh-Day Rajitist Congress - _ - . . - - 921 
 
 Sunilay-Rest Congress- ----- - - - . 957 
 
 Sunday-School Presentation - 9G5 
 
 Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant ------ 939 
 
 United Brethren Church --------- 931 
 
 Unitarian Church Congress - - - - 90^ 
 
 Universal! St Congress - - - 91o 
 
 Woman's Missions ----------- Qgr, 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association ....... (x,0 
 
 Young Women's Christian Association ----.. 9132 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES, ARTICLES, AND OPINIONS. 
 
 A Limitless Sweep of Thought (Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren) - - 982 
 
 Barrows. Dr. John Henry - - - 972 
 
 Bonney. Charles Carroll . . . _ 97^ 
 
 Building a Great Religion (Prof. David Swing) - ... - 97.1. 
 
 Latas. Very Rev. Dionysios 972 
 
 Opinions - 934 
 
 Song of Prophecy (John W. Hutchinson; 983 
 
 The Wise Men of the East (Mary AtTrater Neely) ... - 979
 
 
 
 
 ■■■>"■> 
 
 
 20 > 
 
 
 > > 
 
 
 
 y-^> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J) 
 
 \^> 
 
 ^ 
 
 ''y 
 
 ')> 
 
 n^ 
 
 > 
 
 ^)) 
 
 >» > ) > 
 
 >^ 31 > 
 
 ^ > 
 
 ^^:/^^ s i>l») '> > ')> 
 
 
 
 
 
 '/) 
 
 J. > ^ > 
 
 > JO 
 
 :> > y'j 
 
 .' >> 
 
 
 ^'^s^^?;> ^
 
 
 
 
 AA 001225 411 6 
 
 
 
 
 ;> >^^ 
 
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 
 
 W 
 
 
 7V> 
 
 
 > > >) , ) >l 
 
 J ) 3) • V