^^ AT THE VORLI^S COLUMB ■yy BERKELEY LIBRARY UNiVERSfTY OF CAUrORNIA ^ mm, m "'><7^'> mmmmm O CO (0 v & c o U THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS TME ADDRESSES AND PAPERS DELIVERED BErORE TME PARLIAMENT. AND • AN ABSTRACT OP TME CONGRESSES MELD IN THE ART INSTITUTE, Chicago. Illinois, U.S.A., AUGUST 25 TO OCTOBER 15, 1893, Under the Auspices of The World's Columbian Exposition. PROEUSELY ILLUSTRATED. WITH MARGINAL NOTES EDITED BY J. W. HANSON, D. D. For Diodes of faith let graceless zealots fight ; He can t he wrong, whose life is in the rights — Pope. 0661DENTAL PUBLISHING CO. (Formerly MONARCH BOOK CO.) STOCKTON, CAL. 1894 Entered according- to Act of Congress in the year A. D. 1893, by the W. B. CONKEY COMPANY, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C ' GL n W7'? PREFACE, HE Parliament of Religions and the World's Re- ligious Congresses attracted the attention of mankind all over the- earth. Those who lis- tened to the valuable papers read and ad- dresses made regretted that millions could not read what only hundreds had heard. But it would require a library of encyclopcedic vol- umes to contain all that was said at those great assemblages. The only feasible method of ex- tending their circulation in a concise form is to print the most of thebestand thebest of the most of the Parliament papers, and condense the substance of the Congresses into what might be termed a literary pem- mican, omitting, as far as possible, all personal and petty details con- nected with the conception, origin and progress of the meetings. Such matter, however interesting to those mentioned, is of minor impor- tance to the public, and if indulged in excludes the far more valuable papers themselves, and is at the expense of the increase of the size and cost of the volume, thus removing it beyond the reach of many who might otherwise possess it. This volume contains the most and the best of the Parliament and the Congresses. The Parliament papers are largely from authors' manu- scripts or stenographic reports, and the Congresses are mainly written by eminent clergymen and others who participated in them. If the reader will compare this book with others that profess to cover the same ground, he will discover that the important papers are not "edited" in a manner to break the hearts of their authors by the omission of vital portions, nor disfigured by such errors as were ex* 5 773 6 PREFACE, cusable in the haste incidental to their original appearance in the daily press, but discreditable in a permanent volume; that papers de- livered to the Congresses do not appear in the proceedings of the Parliament, nor vice versa\ that papers never read are not printed in these pages, nor are important ones read omitted; in a word, that the documents themselves are given as nearly as possible within the com- pass of a single volume, without note or comment. Mechanically, this work is all that any one would desire. Its large, legible type, beautiful illustrations and handsome binding constitute it by far the most elegant book among those devoted to the laudable purpose of preserving the valuable words spoken at the World's Parlia- ment and Congresses. A complaint has been made by some of those who were prominent in the Parliament that their prerogatives have been invaded by others who have published the proceedings. Even Christian clergymen, who profess to be anxious that their utterances may reach the widest cir- culation, have attempted to confine the publication of their papers to one particular work. But it must be apparent that the great Parlia^ ment and Congresses were the property of mankind. No one pos- sesses any monopoly in them. They were made successful by the generous contributions, and the unpaid time and toil of thousands. It was the constant announcement of the prominent promoters of the Parliament, that the unique gatherings were for the moral and religious welfare of mankind, and multitudes of men and women worked with- out money and without price to render the great occasion the mag- nificent success that it was. The statement will, therefore, doubtless occasion surprise, yet it is true, that some of those most prominent in making this proclamation have not only availed themselves of their opportunities to promote their personal emolument, but have attempted to confine the circulation of the valuable documents to the publications in which they are financially interested. The publishers of this volume have proceeded on the ground that no private individual or corporation has any exclusive property in the papers of the World's Parliament and Congresses of Religion, but that they are entitled rather to the widest possible circulation — a view which, it is pleasing to state, has been very heartily indorsed by the majority of those who participated in the Congresses — and they desire to do their part in spreading them before the world. To this end a large amount of money has been expended, and the present volume is the result; and they trust it will be a means to extend the beneficent work of the PREFACE, 7 greatest religious event of the Nineteenth Century, and, with con- fidence in its merits, they send it out to the world. In the compilation and preparation of this volume the publishers are indebted for valuable aid and services to a large number of gentle- men who were prominently identified with the great religious gather- ings, among whom may be specially mentioned Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., Professor Andrew C. Zenos, of McCormick Theological Seminary, Rabbi Joseph Stolz, Bishop B. W. Arnett, D. D., Rev. J. P. Hale, D. D., Rev. George Hall, Rev. D. R. Mansfield, Rev. Lee M. Heilman, Rev. Hugh Spencer Williams and Count William J. Onahan, Secretary of the Catholic Congress. These and others rendered valuable aid, and it is due to them and a pleasure to us, to acknowledge their services. THE PUBLISHERS. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGES. Preface. ,„ 6 to 7 Index of Papers 9 *' 10 Index of Authors 11 Index of Illustrations 12 13 Opening of Parliament 15 " 45 God 47 " 82 Immortality 84 " 97 Scriptures 98 " 142 Comparative Religions \ 253 «« 34Q Judaism 154 " 195 Christ 197 " 251 Hinduism 341 " 376 Buddhism 377 " 427 The Bramo-Somaj 428 " 440 Shintoism and Other Oriental Religions 441 " 469 Confucianism 471 " 490 TVT U91 " 504 Mohammedanism j 523 ** 535 r. c^ (536 •' 539 Practical Subjects 1 .^29 " 938 ( 507 " 521 Miscellaneous j 54j „ r^21 Close of Parliament 939 " 951 Denominational Congresses 953 " 1196 8 INDEX TO PAPERS, A PAGE. .Vrmenia, Spirit and Mission of the Apostolic Church of 467 America, World's Debt to 773 America, What Christianity has Wrought for. 887 Anglican Church and Church of First Ages, Relation Between 787 B Bible; What it has Taught — 139 Brahmo-Somaj, The Principles of 428 Braiuno-Somaj, The Spiritual Ideas of.. 435 Buddha 419 Buddha, Law of Cause and EfEect Taught by. 388 Buddha, The Worid's Debt to 377 Buddhism 409 Buddhism and Christianity 413 Buddhism, As it Exists in Slam 404 Buddhism, Man's Relation to God.. 395 Buddhism, What it has Done in Japan 401 C Catholic Church, Needs of Humanity Sup- plied by 810 Catholic Church, Relation to Poor 536 Children, The Religious Training of 851 China, America's Duty to 507 Church, The Civic 763 Christendom, The Reunion of 613 Christianity and the Social Question 901 Christianity, A Religion of Facts 129 Christianity as a Social Force.. 863 Christianity as Interpreted by Literature 664 Christianity to Other Religions, The Message of 605 Christ the Unifier of Mankind 241 Confucianism, Prize Essay 471 Confucianism 480 Confucianism, Genesis and Development of . 489 Criminal and Erring Classes, Religion and.. 911 Crime and the Remedy 738 E Ethical Ideas, The Essential Oneness of, Amongall Men 336 Evangelism in America... 752 Evolution, Christianity and. 779 F Faiths, Harmonies and Distinctions in the Theistic Teachings of the Various Historic. 319 Germany, Religious State of 743 God, Argument for 64 God, Being of 47 God, Mored Evidence of Existence 75 PAGE. God, Rational Demonstration of the Being of - - 51 Greek Church, Orthodox 547 Greek Philosophy and the Christian Religion 217 H Hinduism 347 Hinduism as a Religion 366 Hinduism, Concessions to Native Religions, Ideas, Having Special Reference to 841 Hindu Thought, The Contact of Christian and 363 Human Progress, Spiritual Forces in. 796 I Immortality, Argumentfor 84 International Arbitration... ... 757 Incarnation Idea in History and in Jesus Christ 197 International Justice and Amity 718 Incarnation of God in Christ 206 Indians, North American, Religion of 541 Japan, Christianity, its Present Condition and Prospects 281 Jains, The Ethics and History of 445 Jews. Errors About.. __ 187 Judaism, The Outlook for 172 Judaism, The Relation of Historic and its Future 162- Judaism, Theology of 154 K Koran, Extracts from 583 Labor, Church and 869 M Man From a Christian Point of View 917 Man's Place in Nature.. 693 Marriage Bond, The Catholic Church and 840 Mohammedanism and Christianity, Points of Contact 491 Music, Emotion and Morals 698 N Negro, Christianity, and 747 Negro Race, The Catholic Church and 898 Negro, Religious Duty to 893 P Parliament, Opening of 15 Pekin, Religion of 517 Parliament, End of 989 9 10 INDEX TO PA J ERS, PAGE. Eeconciliation, Vital, Not Vicarioixe. 248 Reform, Social, The Work of, in India 825 Religion, Certainties of 658 Religion and Conduct, Relation Between 876 Religion, Elements of Universal 329 Religion and the Love of Mankind 595 Religion, Essentials of - 883 Religion Essentially Characteristic of Hu- manity - 640 Religion and Wealth 835 Religion of the World 392 Religion, The Ultimate........ 933 Religion, Science of, Aid to, From Philosoi»hy 707 Religion, Supreme End and Office of 805 Religions, Comparative Study of the World's 304 Religions, Importance of the Study of Com- parative 289 Religions, Influence of Ancient Egyptian, on Other Religions 143 Religions, Swedenborg and the Harmony of. 313 Religions, The Present Outlook of 629 Religions, The Sympathy of 264 Religions, What the Dead, Have Bequeathed to the Living... — . 269 Religio Scientiae 728 Religious as Distinemished From Moral Life. 729 Religious Feeling, The Social Office of 821 Religious Intent, The 651 Religious Mission of the English Speaking Nations 793 Religious Unification, Only Possible Method of . 253 Religious Unity, Practical Service of the Sci- ence of Religions to the Cause of _ 817 _ ^_ ^ ^. . „ PAGE. Rest Day, The Divine Element in Weekly 683 Revelation, Need of a W.der Conception of.. 257 Sacred Books of the World as Literature 672 Saviour of the World, Christ... 220 Scriptures, Catholic Church and 106 Scriptures, Character and Degree of the Inspi- rationof 113 Scriptures, Influence of the Hebrew 120 Scriptures, Truthfulness of... . 98 Scriptures, What they have Taught... 139 Shintoism 441 Social Condition, The Influen ce of 523 Social Question, The Voice of the Mother of Religionson 181 Somerset, Lady Henry, Letter From 566 Soul and its Future Life 93 Sympathy and Fraternity, Grounds of 600 T Theologry, Study of Comparative. 280 Toleration, Plea for 860 Woman and the Pulpit... 551 Women , Influence of Religion on 568 Women of India... 677 Women and Men, Cooperation of 558 Woman. A New Testament _ 580 Women, What Judaism has done for 587 Z Zoroaster, Belief and Ceremonies of 452 Denominational and Other Congresses. PAGE. Jewish - 955 Jewish Women's 969 Catholic 984 Lutheran _ 1025 Lutheran Women's 1032 Presbyterian ..1035 Congregational 1045 Methodist Episcopal ..1058 Reformeil Episcopal 1077 Universalist .1078 Unitarian.. 1098 African Methodist Episcopal 1102 Friends (Hicksite) 1121 Friends (Orthodox)... 1126 Cumberland Presbyterian IISO Adventists 1134 Seventh-Day Baptists 1140 Evangelical Association 1145 Wales and International Eisteddfod 1151 PAGE. Disciples of Christ _ 1153 Missions... 1160 (Christian Science. 1174 New Jerusalem Church 1185 Religious Unity 1185 Evangelical Alliance 1186 Young Women's Christian Association 1187 Evolutionists 1189 United Brethren in Christ 1191 King's Daughters 1192 German Evangelical Church 1192 Theosophists 1192 Buddhist 1193 Free Religionists 1194 Young Men's Christian Association 1195 Ethical Culture 1195 Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant 1195 Reformed Church in the United States 1196 INDEX TO AUTHORS. PAGE. Abbott, Rev. Lyman, D. D 640 Alger, Wm. R 253 Amett, Bishop B.W., D. D --- 747 Ashitsu, Ziteazen 419 Azarias, Brother -- 851 Baldwin, Rev. 8. J., D. D 718 Brown, Rev. Olympia - - 738 Berkowitz, Rabbi H., D. D. 181 BemstorfE, Count A 743 Blackwell, Rev. Antoinette Brown 551 Brand, Rev. James. 752 Boardman, Rev. Dr. Geoi^e Dana.... 241 Briggs, Charles A., D. D 98 Bruce, Prof. A. B 693 Burrell, David James, D. D 887 Byrne, Rev. Thos. S.,D. D 917 Carpenter, J. Estlin -.- - 257 Chatschumgan, Ohannee 4b7 Chudhadham, Prince Chandradat.. 404 Cleary, Rev. James M.. - - 869 Cook, Joseph 139,658 Dawson, Sir Wmiam,F. R. S 723 Dickinson, Mrs. Lydia H 558 Dennis, Rev. James S. 605 Dharmapala,H 377,418 D'Harlez, Mgr. CD 304 Donnelly, Charles F ...^ 536 Dvivedi, Manilal N 347 Drummond, Prof. Henry 779 Eastman, Rev. Mrs. Annis, F. F 568 Elliott, Rev. Walter 805 Ely, Prof. Richard T 863 'Faber, Dr. Ernest 489 Field, Dr. Henry M 860 Fisher, Prof. G. P., D. D 129 Fletcher, Miss Alice C. 541 ^'yandlhi, Yirchand A 445 Gibbons, His Eminence Cardinal 810 Qladden, Rev. Washington 835 i^oodspeed, Prof. G. 8 269 9rant, J. A. S. (Bey) 143 Hale, Rev. Edward Everett 796 Harris, Hon. W. T 64 Haweis, Rev. H. R 698 Headland, Isaac T 517 Hewit, Very Rev. Angostine F.. _ 51 Higginson, Col. T. W ., 264 Kirsch, Dr Emil G. 329 Ho, Kung Hsien 471 Hirai, Kinza Ringe 395 Hoyt, Ex.-Gov. J. W 595 Holtin, Rev. Ida C 336 Hume, Rev. R. A 363 Jessup, Rev. Henry H 793 Keane, Rt.-Rev. John J., D. D ...197, 933 Kohutj Dr. Alexander 120 Koeaki, Prof. Hamichi 231 FAO& Landis, Prof. J. P.,D.D 709 Lazarus. Miss Josephine, Ph. D 172 Lewis, Rev. A. H.,D. D 685 Latas, Most Rev. Dionysios 547 Martin, Dr. W. A. P... 507 Mendes, Rev. H.Pereira 162 MiiUer, Prof. Max 217 Mills, Rev. B. Fay 220 Modi, Jinanji Jamshedji 452 Momerie, Rev. Alfred W. 75, 883 Mercer, Rev. L. P 313 Moxom, Rev. Philip S 84 Mozoomdar. Protap Chzmder.. _. 428 Munger, Rev. Theodore T., D. D 684 Murdoch, Miss Marion 580 Nagarkar, B ..485, 825 Niccolls, 8. J., D. D.,LL. D 47 Noguchi, Zenshori 392 Peabody, Prof. F. G.. 901 Pentecost, Rev. Geo. F 629 Powell, A. M : 600 Rexford, Rev. E. L., D. D 651 Richey, Rev. Thomas 787 Schafif, Rev. Philip, D. D 615 Scovell, President (of Wooster College) ... 729 Semmes, Thomas J 757 Seton, Rt-Rev. Mgr. 106 Sewell, Rev. Frank 113 Shibatfc, Rt.-Rev.Reuchi... 441 Silvern in. Rabbi Joseph 187 Slater, Rev.L. E.. 341 Slattery, Rev. J. R.. 898 Smyth, Rev. Julian K 206 Snell, Merwin— Marie 817 Somerset, Lady Henry.. 566 Sorabji, Mrs. tfeanne 577 Soyen,Shaku 388 Spencer, Rev. AimaG 911 Stead, W. D.... 763 Sunderland, Mrs. Eliza R., Ph. D 289 Szold, Miss Henrietta 587 Terry, Milton S 672 Tiele, Prof. C. P.. 280 Toki, Horin 401 Toy, Prof. C. H 876 Vivekananda Swami 366 Valentine, Prof. M _ 319 Wade, Prof. Martin J 840 Warren, Rev. Samuel M _.. 98 Washburn, Rev. George D. D.. 491 Webb, Mohammed Alex Russell... 523 Williams, Mrs. Fannie B 893 Wright, Rev. Theodore F., Ph. D... 248 Wise, Dr. Isaac M 154 Wolkonsky, Prince Serge.. 821 Wooley, Mrs. Celia P... 773 Yatsubuchi, Banrieu 409 Yu. Hon Rung Kwang 480 11 INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS, PAGE. Art Institute, Chicago, whpre the World's Congress of Religions was Held 2 Officers of the World's Congress Auxiliary. . 14 Charles Carroll Bonney , Chicago 27 Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, Chicago 33 Rev. Dr. Augusta J. Chapin, Chicago 41 Rev. Samuel T. NiccoUs, D. D., LL. D., St. Louis, Mo 46 Very Rev. Augustine F. Hewit, New York 50 Valley of Jehosaphat 63 Hon. W. T. Harris, Washington, D. C........ 65 Rt.-Rev. Wm. E. McLaren, Bishop of Chicago 74 House of Pontius Pilate, Jerusalem 83 Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D. D., Boston 85 Mt. Lebanon and Cedars 92 Rev. Charles A. Briggs, D. D., New York.... 99 Rt.-Rev. Mgr. Seton, Newark, N. J ... 107 Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem 112 Fountain of the Apostles, Bethany.. 119 Dr. Alexander Kohut, New York 121 Rev. Prof, treorge P. Fisher, Yale College... 128 Joseph Cook, Boston 138 South Sea Island Chief; Convert to Christian- ity... 143 Mtmnt Carmel, Where Elijah Killed Baal's Prophets 153 Dr. Isaac M. Wise, Cincinnati... 155 Tomb of Rachel 160 Gate of Damascas, Jerusalem 179 Rabbi Joseph Silverman, New York 186 Rt.-Rev. John J. Keane, D. D. (Rector Catho- lic University), Washington, D. C. 196 Tombs in the Valley of Jehosaphat, Jerusa- lem - — .- 205 Rev. Julian K. Smyth (Church of the New Jerusalem), Boston. Mass 207 Prof. Max Muller, Oxford University 216 Rev. B. Fay Mills, Rhode Island 221 Rev. George Dana Boardman, Philadelphia, Pa 240 . Church of St. John the Baptist, Samaria 247 The Gate of Jerusalem 252 African Mission Children of the Upper Congo 263 Rt.-Rev. Bishop C. E. Cheney. Chicago 268 Interior of the Free Church, Copenhagen, Denmark 279 Mrs. Eliza R. Sunderland, Ph.D., Ann Arbor, Mich .- 288 Mission House, Upper Congo, Africa 312 Rabbi E. G. Hirsch, Chicago 828 Interior of the Church of Ecce Homo, Jerusa- lem.. -- 335 A Hindu Temple, Colombo, Ceylon 346 Dagoba (Sacred Shrine), Anuradhapura — Buried City, Ceylon... 362 Group of Foreign Representatives 367 Buddhist Priest, Siam 383 Buddhist and Aztec Idols 391 Buddhist Temple, Banerkok, Siam 400 Interior of Buddhist Temple, Canton, China.. 412 Buddhist Priest, Ceylon 418 Prayer in a Moorish Mosque 434 12 PAGE. Mohammedan Mother and Children at the Door of the Mosque 451 Mohammedans of Damascus 466 Bedouin Sheik (Mohammedan) 470 Caravan to the Pyramids 479 Interior of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan 488 Tombs of the Mamluks... 506 Procession of the Holy Carpet to Mecca 516 Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb, New York 522 Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem 532 Sunka-Gi and Family, Indian Police 540 Dionysios Latas, Archbishop of Zante, Greece 546 Idol Deesse Thoueris in Ghiza 550 The Door of the Temple of Dendereh 557 Rev. Annis F. Eastman, West Bloomfield, N. Y .569 Mosque of Mahmoudleh II.IIIIII. 576 Miss Marion Murdoch, Cleveland, Ohio 581 Miss Henrietta Szold, Baltimore, Md 588 Mosque of Sultan Barkouk 594 Mosque of Mohamet Aly... _. 599 Prof. Philip Schaff, New York 613 Tombs of Queen Taia, 18(h Dynasty: King Menephtan,19th Dynasty (Exodus) ; and Un- known : 628 Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., New York... 641 Rev. E. L. Rexford, Boston, Mass 650 Mosque of Aboubakr — Moorish Sanctuary... 663 Prof. Milton S. Terry, D. D., Evanston, 111.. 673 Rev. A. H. Lewis, D.D.,Plainfield, N.J 683 Mosque of El-Azhar in Cairo _.. 692 Rev. H. R. Haweis, London. Eng... 699 Prof. J. P. Landis, D. D., Ph. D., Dayton, O- 707 Sir William Dawson, F. R. S., Montreal, Canada 722 Head of King Tahraka 728 Mahommedan Funeral Procession in Tan- giers, Morocco 737 Bishop B. W. Arnett, D. D., Wilberforce, C. 749 Mosque of KaidBey 751 W. T. Stead, London, Eng 762 Rev. Thomas Richey, D. D., New York 786 Chancel and Altar of Modern Lutheran Church, Denmark.. 792 Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D. D., Boston... 797 Tribal Chief, Upper Congo ( Heathen) 804 His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore 809 Japanese Idols— Dragon of the Typhoon 820 Facade of Church of Our Lady (Lutheran), Copenhagen, Denmark 834 Prof. M. J. Wade, Iowa City, la 839 The late Rev. Bro. Azarias 850 Prof. Richard T. Ely, University of Wis- consin 862 Rev. James M. Cleary, Minneapolis. 868 Entrance to the Temple of Thotmes III 910 Very Rev. Thomas S. Byrne, Cincinnati 918 Interior of St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome 932 Rev. John Z. Torgersen, Chicago 938 INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 13 PAGE. Bev. M. C. Banseen, Chicago 952 Rabbi Joseph Stolz, Chicago QH Rabbi G. Gottheil, New York 957 Rabbi A. Moses, Louisville, Ky 959 Dr. M. Mielzner, Cincinnati, O... 961 8. C. Eldridge, San Antonio, Texas 965 Miss Ray Frank, Oakland, Cal 971 Mrs. Helen Kahn "Weil. Kansas City 975 Mrs. Henry Solomon, Chicago 979 Mrs. Louise Mannheimer, Cincinnati, O 981 His Holiness, Pope Leo XII 985 Archbishop Francis Satolli, Papal Ablegate. 991 Archbishop John Ireland, St. Paul, Minn.. . 997 Archbishop P. A. Feehan. Chicago 1007 Archbishop P. J, Ryan, Philadelphia.. 1013 St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome 1019 Rev. Lee M. Heilman, D. D., Chicago.. 1027 Prof. A. C.Zenos, D. D., Chic- go 1037 Rev, Simeon Gilbert, D. D.. Chicaeo 1047 Rev. Alexander McKenzie, I). D., Cambridge, Mass.... 1049 Prof. Williston Walker, Hartford. Conn.... 1051 Rev. Henry A. Stimson. New York 1053 Rev. Frank Gunsaulus, D, D., Chicago 1055 Mrs.C. H. Taintor, Chicago... 1057 Mrs. George Sherwood, Chicago 1059 Rev. J. O. Peck, D. D., New York 1061 Rev. Ferdinand Iclahnrt D. D., N«w York.... 1007 Mift^ Frances E. Willard, Evanston, lU 1073 Rt.-Rev. Samuel Fallows, D. D., Chicago... 1076 Rev. B. T Noakes, D. D., Cleveland, 1079 PAGE. Rev. J. W. Hanson, A. M., D. D., Chicago.. 1081 Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Sawyer, College Hill, Mass 1085 Rev. A. A. Miner, D. D., LL. D., Boston, Mass 1089 Rev.-J. 8. Cpjitwell, D. D.,Chicago.. 1091 Mrs. M. R. M. Wallace, Chicago 1095 Rev. Robert Collyer, New York 1099 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, ('hicago 1101 The Late Bishop Daniel A. Payne, D. D., LL. D 1103 Rev. J. H. Armstrong, D. D 1107 Rev. 8. T. Mitchell, Wilberforce, O 1111 Hon. Frederick Douglac, Washington, D. C. . 1113 Mrs. S.J. Early, Nashville, Tenn 1115 H. T. Johnson, Philadelphia, Pa 1117 Jonathan W. Plummer, Chicago 1123 Anna M. Starr, Richmond, Ind.. 1125 Calvin M. Pritchard, Kokomo, Ind 1129 Rev. H. S.Williams, Chicago.. 1131 Rev. D. R. Mansfield, Chicago... 1185 Rev. A. H. Sibley, Haverhill, Mass.. 1137 Seventh-Day Baptists (Group) 1141 Officers Evangelical Ass'n (Group).. 1147 Welsh Delegates (Group) 1150 Rev.W. F. Black, Chicago 1155 Prof. Williston Walker, Hartford, Conn 1161 Rev. John P. Hale, D. D., Chicago 1171 Rev. Alfred Farlow, Kansas City, Mo 1175 Rev. L. P Mercer, Chicago 1184 Rev. F. A. Noble, D. D., Chicago opp. 1186 Rev. David Swing opp. 1187 < «l >< O < ^ (/) ^ Z O u a:- O U- O c/) Qi ua C9 Du O o d o wb O H & PQ Opening of the Parliament. HIS great religious gathering, never possible before in the history of the world, nor even now, perhaps, possible anywhere else than in the great "city by the unsalted sea," was in- augurated in the Art palace (see frontispiece), on Monday, September ii, 1893, ^.nd con- tinued eighteen days. All nations, tribes and tongues seemed assembled in the Hall of Co- lumbus. The orient and the Occident clasped hands. From ^'India's coral strand," from Japan and China, clad in robes of white, and red and orange, the oriental priests mingled with the sober-clad representatives of the West, and the group on the platform gave to the four thousand spectators in the auditorium such a picture as was never before seen on earth. It would be im- possible, short of a library of volumes, to report the speeches made. A single volume can only give the best, and abstracts of others, and in these days when readers remember the brevity of life, and the multi- tude of books, in making which there is no end, they will be glad to know that the cream of the great religious parliament and congresses is in this volume. This work is not devoted to glorifying the names of those who suggested, or launched, or were conspicuous in this greatest of religious gatherings. It aims, in the shortest, most compact form, to present the gist of the World's Parliament and Congresses. Grouped on the platform were: Bishop D. A. Payne, Rajah Ram, of the Punjab; Carl von Bergen, President of the Swedish Society for Psychical Research, Stockholm, Sweden; Birchand Raghavji Gandhi, B. A., Honorary Secretary of the Jain Association, of India, Bombay; Rev. P. C. Mozoomdar, India; H. Dharmapala, India; Miss Jeanne Serabji, Bombay; Archbishop Ryan, Philadelphia; Rev. Alexander McKenzie, Massachusetts; Count A. Bernstorff, Berlin; Prince Serge Wolkonsky, Russia; Most Rev. Dionysios Latas, Archbishop of Zante, Greece; Homer Perati, Archdeacon of the Greek church; Pung Quang Yu, of China; Bishop B. W. Arnett; H. Toki, Japan; Rev. Takayoshi Matsuga- ma, Japan; Right Rev. Reuchi Shibata, Japan; Rev. Zitsuzen Ashitsu, Japan; Kinza Riuge Hirai, Japan; Swami Vivekananda, Bombay; 15 The Orient and Occident Clasp Hands. On the Plat- form. 16 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Professor Chakravarti, Bombay; B. B. Nagarkar, Bom Day, representative of the religion of the Brahmo, Somaj; Jinda Ram, India; Rev. P. G. Phi- ambolic Occonomus, a priest of the Greek church; Banriu Yatsubuchi, President of Hoju, Buddhist society, Japan; Shaku Soyen, Archbishop of the Zen, of the Buddhist sects; Bishop Sanuki, Japan; Noguchi and Nomura, Inte^-preters, Tokio, Japan; G. Bonet-Maury, Paris; Prince Momulu Massaquoi, of Liberia; Bishop Jenner, Anglican Free church; Rev. Alfred Williams Momerie, D. D., London, England; Rev. Mau- rice Phillips, of Madras; Professor N. Valentine, William T. Harris, Dr. Ernest Taber, Rev. George T. Candlin, Professor Kosaki, Bishop Cotter, of Winona; Dr. Adolph Brodbeck, Z. Zimigrowski, Principal Grant, of Canada. After the Universal Prayer had been recited, led by Cardinal Gib bons. President C. C. Bonney gave the Address of Welcome. Worshipers of God and Lovers of Man: Lel^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 importance of this event cannot be overestimated. Its influence on the future relations of the various races of men cannot be too highly esteemed. President ^^ ^^is congress shall faithfully execute the duties with which it Bonney's Ad- has been charged, it will become a joy of the whole earth, and stand come. ' 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 ear- nest prayer for the harmony and success of this congress. To them our own hearts speak in love and sympathy of this impressive and prophetic scene. In this congress the word "religion" means the love and worship of God and the love and service of man. We believe the Scripture that ** of a truth God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him." We come together in mutual confidence and respect, without the least surrender or compromise of anything which we respectively believe to be truth or duty, with the hope that mutual acquaintance and a free and sincere interchange of views on the great questions of e4:ernal life and human conduct will be mutually beneficial. As the finite can never fully comprehend the infinite, nor perfectly express its own view of the divine, it necessarily follows that indi- vidual opinions of the divine nature and attributes will differ. But, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 17 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 cannot 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 inex- orable law that with what judgment it judges, it shall itself be judged. The religious faiths of the world have most seriously misunder- stood and misjudged each other from the use of words in meanings Fllthf^of^the radically different from those which they were intended to bear, and World, from a disregard of the distinctions between appearances and facts; between signs and symbols and the things signified and represented. Such errors it is hoped that this congress will do much to correct and to render hereafter impossible. He, who believes that God has revealed Himself more fully in his religion than in any other, cannot do otherwise than desire to bring that religion to the knowledge of all men, with an abiding conviction that the God who gave it will preserve, protect, and advance it in every expedient way. And hence he will welcome every just oppor- tunity to come into fraternal relations with men 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 Con- gress of 1893, there came with that idea a profound conviction that the crowning glory should be a fraternal conference of the world's religions. Accordingly, the original announcement of the World's Congress scheme, which was sent by the 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 differ- ent people." At first the proposal of a World's Congress of Religions seemed impracticable. It was said that the religions had never met but in con- flict, and that a different result could not be expected now. A com- mittee of organization was, nevertheless, appointed to make the nee- committeeof essary arrangements. This committee was composed of representa- Organization, tives 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 prom- ised the congress their active co-operation and support. 2 18 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, To most of the departments of the World's Congress* work a single week of the exposition season was assigned. To a few of the most important a longer time, not exceeding two weeks, was given. In the beginning it was supposed that one or two weeks would suffice for the department of religion, but so great has been the interest, and so many have been the applications in this department, that the plans for it have repeatedly been rearranged, and it now extends from Sep- tember 4th to October 15th, and several of the religious congresses have, nevertheless, found it necessary to meet outside of these limits. The programme for the religious congresses of 1893 constitutes what may with perfect propriety be designated as one of the most remarkable publications of the century. The programme of this o/'^thT^Si! general parliament of religions directly represents England, Scotland, gress, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, India, Japan, China, Ceylon, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and the American States, and, indirectly, includes many other countries. This remarkable programme presents, among other great themes to be considered in this congress. Theism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Hin- duism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, Catholicism, the Greek church, Protestantism in many forms, and also refers to the nature and influence of other religious systems. This programme also announces for presentation the great sub- jects of revelation, immortality, the Incarnation of God, the universal elements in religion, the ethical unity of different religious systems, the relations of religion to morals, marriage, education, science, phi- losophy, evolution, music, labor, government, peace and war, and many other hemes of absorbing interest. The distinguished leaders of human progress, by whom these great topics will be presented, con- stitute an unparalleled galaxy of eminent names, but we may not pause to call the illustrious roll. For the execution of this part of the general programme seven- teen 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 religious denominations for the purpose of more fully setting forth their doctrines and the service they have rendered to man- kind. These special congresses will be held, for the most part, in the smaller halls of this memorial building. A few of them have, for special reasons, already been held. It is the special object of these denominational congresses to afford opportunities for further informa- tion to all who may desire it. The leaders of these several churches most cordially desire the attendance of the representatives of other THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, \\^ 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 religion will consist of congresses of various kindred organizations. These congresses will be held between the close of the parliament of religions and October 15th, and will include missions, ethics, Sunday- rest, the evangelical alliance, and other similar associations. The con- gress on evolution should, in regularity, have been held in the depart- ment of science, but circumstances prevented, and it has been given a place in this department by the courtesy of the committee of organ- ization. To this more than imperial feast, I bid you welcome. We meet on the mountain height of absolute respect for the relig- ious convictions of each other, and an earnest desire for a better knowledge of the consolations which other forms of faith than our Welcome to own offer to their devotees. The very basis of our convocation is the p^east.^™^^^ idea that the representatives of each religion sincerely believe that it is the truest and the best of all; and that they will, therefore, hear with perfect candor and without fear the convictions of other sincere souls on the great questions of the immortal life. Let one other point be clearly stated. While the members of this congress meet, as men, on a 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 acknowledgment 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 con- gress, 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 publication in the department of religion, we seek in this congress ''to unite all religion against all irreligion; to make the golden rule the basis of this union; and to present to the world the substantial unity of many religions in the good deeds of the religious life." Without controversy, or any attempt to pronounce judgment upon any matter of faith, or worship, or religious opinion, we seek a better knowledge of the religious condition of all mankind, with an earnest desire to be useful to each other and to all others who love truth and righteousness. This day the sun of a new era of religious peace and progress rises over the world, dispelling the dark clouds of sectarian strife. This day a new flower blooms in the gardens of religious thought, filling the air with its exquisite perfume. This day a new fraternity is born into the world of human progress, to aid in the upbuilding of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men. Era and flower and fraternity bear one name. It is a name which will gladden the hearts of those who worship God and love man in every clime. Those who hear its music joyfully echo it back to sun and flower. It is the brotherhood of religions. In this name I welcome the ftrst Parliament of the Religions of the World. Address by 20 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, He was followed by the Rev. John Henry Barrows, D. D., chair- man 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 I had lost the spirit of manhood and had been forsaken by the spirit of God. The whitest snow on the sacred mount of Japan, the clearest water springing from the sacned fountains of India are not more pure and bright than the joy of my heart, and of many hearts here, that this day has dawned in the annals of time, and that, from the furthest isles of Asia; from India, the mother of religions ; from Europe, the great teacher of civilization ; from the shores on which Dn^Barrows."^ breaks the **long wash of Australasian seas;" that frord 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 invi- tation in the expectation that the world's first parliament of religions must prove an event of race-wide and perpetual significance. * * * Welcome, most welcome, Q wise men of the East and of the West! May the star which led you hither be like unto that luminary which guided the men of old, and may this meeting by the inland sea of a new continent be blessed of heaven to the redemption of men from error and from sin and despair. I wish you to understand that this great undertaking, which has aimed to house under one friendly roof in brotherly counsel the representativesof 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 evidence of His divine guidance and favor. * * * What, it seems to me, should have blunted some of the arrows of criticism shot at the promoters of this movement is this other fact, that it is the representatives of that Christian faith which we believe has in it such elements and divine forces that it is fitted to the needs of all men, who have planned and provided this first, school of com- parative religions, wherein devout men of all faiths may speak for themselves without^ hindrance, without criticism, and without com- promise, and tell what they believe and why, they believe it. I appeal to the representatives of the non-Christian faiths, and ask yoii if Christianity suffers in your eyes from having called this parliament of religions? Do you believe that its beneficent work in the world will be one whit lessened? On the contrary, you agree with the great mass of Christian schol- ars in America in believing that Christendom may proudly hold up this congress of the faiths as a torch of truth and of love which may prove the morning star of the twentieth century. There is a true and noble sense in which America is a Christian nation, since Christianity is recognized by the supreme court, by the courts of the several states, by executive officers, by general national acceptance and observance, as the prevailing religion of our people. This does not mean, of course, that the church and state are united. In America they are THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 21 separated, and in this land the widest spiritual and intellectual freedom is realized. Justice Ameer Ali, of Calcutta, whose absence we lament today, has expressed the opinion that only in this western republic would such a congress as this have been undertaken and achieved. I do not forget — I am glad to remember — that devout Jews^ lovers of humanity, have co-operated with us in this parliament; that these men and women repres'enting the most wonderful of all races and the most persistent of all religions — who have come with good cause to appreci- ate the spiritual freedom of the United States of America — that these friends, some of whom are willing to call themselves Old Testament Christians, as I am willing to call myself a New Testament Jew, have zealously and powerfully co-operated in this good work. But the world calls us, and we call ourselves, a Christian people. We believe in the Gospels and in Him whom they set forth as "the Light of the World," and Christian America, which owes so much to Columbus and Luther, to the pilgrim fathers and to John Wesley, which owes so much to the Christian church and the Christian college and the Christian school, welcomes today the earnest disciples of other faiths and the men of all faiths who, from many lands, have flocked to this jubilee of civilization. Cherishing the light which God has given us and eager to send a Divine this light everywhither, we do not believe that God, the Eternal Spirit, ^^s*^*- 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." Prof. Max Miiller, of Oxford, who 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, Accadian, Babylonian, Vedic, Avestic, Chinese, Mohammedan and modern Hindu — which make it perfectly clear that the sun which shone over Bethlehem and Calvary has cast some celestial illumination and called forth some devout and holy aspirations by the Nile and the Ganges, in the deserts of Arabia and by the waves of the Yellow sea. It is perfectly evident to all illuminated minds that we should cherish loving thoughts of all people and humane views of all the great and lasting religions, and that whoever would advance the cause of his own faith must first discover and gratefully acknowledge the truths contained in other faiths. * * * Why should not Christians be glad to learn what God has wrought through Buddha and Zoroaster — through the sage of China and the prophets of India and the prophet of Islam! We are met together today as men, children of one God, sharers with all men in weakness and guilt and deed, sharers with devout souls everywhere in aspiration and hope and longing We are met as relig- ious men, believing even here in this capital of material wonders — in the presence of an exposition which displays the unparalleled marvels of steam and electricity — that there is a spiritual root to all human 22 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. progress. We are met in a school of comparative theology, which I hope will prove more spiritual and ethical than theological; we are Comparative met, I believe, in the temper of love, determined to bury, at least for Theology. ^^e time, our sharp hostilities, anxious to find out wherein we agree, eager to learn what constitutes the strength of other faiths and the weakness of our own; and we are met as conscientious and truth-seeking men in a council where no one is asked to surrender or abate his indi- vidual convictions, and where, I will add, no one would be worthy of a place if he did. We are met in a great conference, men and women of different minds; where the speaker will not be ambitious for short-lived, verbal victories over others, where gentleness, courtesy, wisdom and moder- ation will prevail far more than heated argumentation. I am confi- dent that you appreciate the peculiar limitations which constitute the peculiar glory of this assembly. We are not here as Baptists and Buddhists, Catholics and Confucians, Parsees and Presbyterians, Meth- odists and Moslems; we are here as members of a parliament of re- ligions over which flies no sectarian flag, which is to be stampeded by no sectarian war cries, but where for the first time in a large council is lifted up the banner of love, fellowship, brotherhood. We feel that there is a spirit which should always pervade these meetings, and if any one should offend against this spirit let him not be rebuked pub- licly, or personally; your silence will be a graver and severer rebuke. It is a great and wonderful programme that is to be spread 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. seven- Careful and *^^^ days of our sessions. Careful and scholarly essays have been Scholarly Es- prepared and sent in by great men of the old world and the new, which are worthy of the most serious and grateful attention, and I am confi- dent that each one of us may gain enough to make this parliament an epoch of his life. You will be glad with me that, since this is a world of sin and sorrow, as well as speculation, our attention is for several days to be given to those greatest practical themes which press upon good men everywhere. How can we make this suffering and needy world less a home of grief and strife and far more a commonwealth of love, a kingdom of heaven? How can we abridge the chasms of alien- ation which have kept good men from co-operating? How can we bring into closer fellowship those who believe in Christ as the Saviour of the world? And how can we bring about a better understanding among the men of all faiths? I believe that great light will be thrown upon these problems in the coming days. * * Welcome, one and all, thrice welcome to the World's first Parlia- ment of Religions! Welcome to the men and women of Israel, the standing miracle of nations and religions! Welcome to the disciples of Prince Siddartha, the many millions who cherish in their hearts Lord Buddha as the light of Asial Welcome to the high priest of the national religion of Japan! This city has every reason to be grate- says < THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 23 ful 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 extend to the twelve himdred 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 Parthenon. I believe the spirit of the wise and humane g .^^.^^ ^ ^ Buddha is here, and of Socrates, the searcher after truth, and of Jeremy Just and Good Taylor and John Milton and Roger Williams and Lessing, the great ^^^ japostles of toleration. I believe th«:: 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 the realization of a noble idea. When, a few days 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 felt 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 today is our confidence that ' The whole round world is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.'* He was followed by 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 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 A^^hM^sho^ come from distant lands, from many shores. They represent many Feehan. types of race. They represent 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 ot opinion, but in all there is a great, high motive. Of all the things that our city has seen and heard during these passing months, the highest and the greatest is now to be presented to it. For earnest men, learned and 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 won- ders of that new city that has sprung up at the southern end of our great city of Chicago; but when learned men, men representing the thought of the world on religion, come to tell us of God and of His truth, and 24 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, of life and of death, and of immortality and of justice, and of good- ness and of charity, then we listen to what will surpass, infinitely, whatever the most learned or most able men can tell us of material things. Those men that have come together will tell of their systems of faith, without, as has been well said by Dr. Barrows, one atom of sur- render' of what each one believes to be the truth for him. No doubt it will be of exceeding interest; but whatever may be said in the end, when all is spoken, there will be at least one great result; because no matter how we may 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 rep- resent, a most cordial welcome. Response by Cardinal Gibbons: Your honored president has in- c^maroife formed you, ladies and gentlemen, that if I were to consult the inter- bons. ests of my health I should perhaps- be in bed this morning, but as I was announced to say a word in response to the kind speeches that have been offered up to us, I could not fail to present myself at least, and to show my interest in your great undertaking. I would be wanting in my duty as a mmister of the Catholic church if I did not say that it is our desire to present the claims of the Catholic church to the observation and, if possible, to the acceptance of every right-minded man that will listen to us. But we appeal only to the tribunal of conscience and of intellect. I feel that in possessing my faith I possess a treasure compared with which all treasures of this world are but dross, and, instead of hiding those treasures in my own coverts, I would like to share them with others, especially as I am none the poorer in making others the richer. 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 race from race, and people from people, and tribe from tribe, and has made us one people, one family, recognizing God as our common Father, and Jesus Christ as our Brother. We have a beautiful lesson given to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ — that beautiful parable of the good Samaritan which we all ought to follow. We know that the good Samaritan rendered assistance to a dying man and bandaged his wounds. The Samaritan was his enemy in religion and in faith, his enemy in nationality, and his enemy in social life. That is the model that we all ought to follow. I trust that we will all leave this hall animated by a greater love fpr THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 25 one another, for love knows no distinction of faith. Christ the Lord is our model, I say. We cannot, like our Divine Saviour, give sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf, and walking to the lame and strength to the paralyzed limbs; we cannot work the miracles which Christ wrought; but there are other miracles far more beneficial to our- selves that we are all in the measure of our lives capable of working, and those are the miracles of chart'*'' of mercy, and of love to our fellowman. Let no man say that he cannot serve his brother. Let no man say, "Am I my brother's keeper?" That was the language of Cain, and I say to you all here today, no matter what may be your faith, that you are and you ought to be your brother's keeper. What would be- come of us Christians today if Christ the Lord had said, *'Am I my brother's keeper?" We would be all walking in darkness and in the shadow of death, and if today we enjoy in this great and beneficent land of ours blessings beyond comparison, we owe it to Christ, who redeemed us all. Therefore, let us thank God for the blessings He has bestowed upon us. Never do we perform an act so pleasing to God as when we extend the right hand of fellowship and of practical love to a suffering member. Never do 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." The Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, D. D., chairman of the women's committees, then said: I am strangely moved as I stand upon this platform and attempt Reicarks by to realize what it means that you all are here from so many lands rep- j.^^hapSS°^i>. resenting so many and widely differing phases of religious thought ^• and life, and what it means that I am here in the midst of this unique assemblage to represent womanhood and woman's part in it all. The parliament which assembles in Chicago this morning is the grandest and most significant convocation ever gathered in the name of religion on the face of this earth. The old world, which has rolled on through countless stages and phases of physical progress, until it is an ideal home for the human family, has, through a process of evolution or growth, reached an era of intellectual and spiritual attainment where there is malice toward none and charity for all; where, without prejudice, without fear and with perfect fidelity to personal convictions, we may clasp hands across the chasm of our indifferences and cheer each other in all that is good and true. The World's first Parliament of Religions could not have been 26 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 acqu?*inted with each other; until scholars had broken the way through th£ pathless wilderness of igno- rance, superstition and falsehood, and con^^elled them to respect each other's honesty, devotion and intelligence. 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 calkd but a single genera- tion 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 nor 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 Fatherhood and Human Brotherhood, and fewer still were they who realized the practical religious power of these 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 Highest college or university open to women students, and when, in all the Honors for modcm world, no woman had been ordained, or even acknowledged, as ^^^^' a preacher outside the denomination of Friends. Now the 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 field of religion hun- dreds have been ordained, and thousands are freely speaking 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 other's faces, and to speak to each other our best and truest words. I can only adc my heartfelt word of greeting to those you have already heard. C welcome you brothers, of every name and land, who have wrought sc long and so well in accordance with the wisdom high heaven has giver? 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 associated with it. Isabella, the Catholic, had not only the perception of a new world, but of an enlight- ened and emancipated womanhood, which should strengthen religion and bless mankind. I welcome you to the fulfillment of her prophetic vision. President H. N. Higinbotham said: It affords me infinite pleasure Presi- to welcome the distinguished gentlemen who compose this august bSham Safd.^" body. It is a matter of satisfaction and pride that the relations exist- Charles Carroll Bonney, Chicago, President World's Congress Auxiliary. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS' OF RELIGIONS, 29 ing between the peoples and nations of the earth are of such a friendly nature as to make this gathering possible. I have long cherished the hope that nothing would intervene to prevent the full fruition of the labors of your honored chairman. I apprehend that the fruitage of this parliament will richly com- pensate him and the world and prove the wisdom of his work. It is a source of satisfaction that, to the residents of a new city in a far country should be accorded this great privilege and high honor. The meeting of so many illustrious and learned men under such circum- stances evidences the kindly spirit and feeling that exists throughout the world. To me this is the proudest work of our exposition. [Cheers.] There is no man, high or low, learned or unlearned, but will not watch with increasing interest the proceedings of this parliament. Whatever may be the differences in the religions you represent, there is a sense in which we are all alike. There is a common plane on which we are all brothers. We owe our beings to conditions that are exactly the same. Our journey through this world is by the same route. We have in common the same senses, hopes, ambitions, joys and sorrows, and these to my mind argue strongly and almost conclusively a common destiny. To me there is much satisfaction and 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 augmented by their intercourse with us and with each other. I hope that your parliament will prove to be a golden milestone on the highway of civilization, a golden stairway leading up to the tableland of a higher, grander and more perfect condition, where peace will reign and the enginery of war be known no more forever. These addresses were responded to by many from the most emi- nent representatives of the world's religions present, extracts from which here follow: The Rev. Alexander McKenzie, of Harvard university, said: I suppose that everybody who speaks here this morning stands for some thing. The very slight claim I have to be here, rests on the fact that RemarkB by I am one of the original settlers. I am here representing the New Rev. Alex. Mo- 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. * * * The little contribution that he makes this morning, in the way of welcome to these guests from all parts of the world, is to congrat- ulate them on the opportunity given them of seeing something of the work his hands have established. We are able to show our friends from other countries, not that we have something better than what they have, but that we have that which they can see nowhere else in the world. It would be idle to present trophies of old countries to men from India and Japan. We cannot show an old hi^ory or stately Keazie. 80 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Address by Archbishop Latas. P. C. Mo- z o o m d a r 81 for the Indus. architecture. We cannot point to the castles and abbeys of Eng- land, 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 can show the dis- placement of buildings that are a few score years old by the stately and elegant structures of our time. But there is another thing we can show, if our brethren from abroad will take pains to notice it. I am not exaggerating when I say that we can show what can be shown no- where else in the world, and that is, a great republic, and a republic in the process of making by the forces of Christianity. * * * The beginning of this republic was purely religious. The men who came to start it came from religious motives. Their religion may not have been exactly what other people liked, but they worked with a distinct- ively religious purpose. 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. He said, in concluding, "We have not built cathedrals yet, but we have built log schoolhouses, and if you visit them you will see in the cracks between the logs the eternal light streaming in. And for the work we are doing, a lOg schoolhouse is better than a cathedral. The Most Rev. Dionysios Latas, Archbishop of Zante, Greece, representing the Greek Catholic church, said: * * I consider my- self 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 ministers of divinity of the different nations and peoples which, for the first time, will write in the books of the history of the world. * * * 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 di- vinely inspired Gospel, which, according to our faith, is the salvation of the soul of man and the happiness of man in this world. All men have a common Creator, without any distinction between the rich and the poor, the ruler and the ruled; all men have a common Creator without any distinction of clime or race, without distinction of nationality or ancestry, of name or nobility; all men have a common Creator, and consequently a common Father in God. I raise up my hands and I bless with heartfelt love the great country and the happy, glorious people of the United States! The eloquent P. C. Mozoomdar, of the Brahmo-Somaj: Leaders of the Parliament of Religions, Men and Women of America: The recognition, sympathy, and welcome you have given to India today are gratifying to thousands of liberal Hindu religious thinkers, whose representatives 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 81 Address from Hon. P u n g Qaang ¥n. 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. 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. An address from Hon. Pung Quang Yu, secretary of the Chinese legation, Washington, was read by Chairman Barrows: On behalf of the imperial government of China, I take great pleasure in responding to the cordial words which the chairman of the general committee and others have spoken today. This is a great moment in the history of nations and religions. For the first time men of various faiths meet in one great hall to report what they believe and the grounds for their belief. The great sage of China, who is honored not only by the millions of our own land, but throughout the world, believed that duty was summed up in reciprocity, and I think that the word reciprocity finds a new meaning and glory in the proceedings of this historic 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 friendliest salutations, and to those who have spoken I give my most cordial thanks. Prince Serge Wolkonsky, of Russia, described the feeling of fraternity everywhere present in the religious congresses, which he illustrated by a Russian legend. The story, he said, may appear rather LegencL 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 miserable creature has suffered more than she can bear, and that she asks the Lord to be delivered from these tortures." The angel promised to do so and flew away. When he had transmitted the message, God said: A Rassian 32 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, " Ask her whether she has done any good to anyone during her life." The old woman strained her memory in search of a good action during her sinful past, and all at once: *' I've got one," she joyfully exclaimed: ** One day I gave a carrot to a hungry beggar." The angel reported the answer. *' Take a carrot," said God to the angel, ** and stretch it out to 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 angel never ceased pulling. It did not seem to be any heavier than the small carrot could support, and they all were lifted in the air. But the old woman suddenly took fright. Too many people were availing themselves of her last chance of salva- tion, and, kicking and pushing those who were clinging to her, she exclaimed: " Leave me alone; hands off; the carrot is mine." No sooner had she pronounced this word **mine" than the tiny stem broke, and they all fell back to hell, and forever. In its poetical artlessnessand popular simplicity this legend is too eloquent to need interpretation. If any individual, any community, any congregation, any church, possesses a portion of truth and of good, let that truth shine for everybody; let that good become the property of everyone. The substitution of the word "mine" by the word **ours," and that of **ours" by the word "everyone's" — this is what will secure a fruitful result to our collective efforts as well as to our individual activities. This is why we welcome and greet the opening of this congress, where, in a combined effort of the representatives of all churches, all that is great and good and true in each of them is brought together in the name of the same God and for the sake of the same men. We congratulate the president, the members and all the listeners of this congress upon the tendency of union that has gathered them on the soil of the country whose allegorical eagle, spreading her mighty wings over the stars and stripes, holds in her talons these splendid words: "E Pluribus Unum." The Rev. Reuchi Shibata voiced the feelings of those of the Th^^e^^oF the Shinto faith, Japan, and expressed the hope that the parliament might Shinto Faith, ''increase the fraternal relations between the different religionists in investigating the truths of the universe, and be instrumental in uniting all the religions of the world, and in bringing all hostile nations into peaceful relations by leading them into the way of perfect justice." Here three Buddhist priests from Japan were introduced: Zitsuzen Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, Chicago. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 35 Ashitsu, Shaku Soyen and Horiu Toki. Through their spokesman, Z. Noguchi, they expressed their appreciation of the cordial welcome they received. Count Bernstorff, of Germany, expressed his delight at being present on an occasion when religion for the first time was officially connected with a world's exposition. The basis of this congress is common humanity. Though the term humanity has often been used to designate the purely human Address by apart from all claims of divinity, I hesitate not, as an evangelical BtorS, of Geri Christian, to accept this thesis. It is the Bible which teaches us that ^^^y- the human race is all 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 image of God. Therefore, man as such, quite apart from the circumstances which made him be born among some historic religion, is meant to come into connection with God. This parliament teaches us that other great lesson. Not that — some one might say, and 1 have heard the objections expressed before — this idea of humanity will tend to make religion indifferent to usv I will openly confess that I also for a time felt the strength of this ob- jection, but I trust that nobody is here who thinks light of his own religion. I, for myself, declare that I am here as an individual evangelical Christian, and that I should never have set my foot in this parliament if I thought that it signified anything like a consent that all religions are equal and that it is only necessary to be sincere and upright. I can consent to nothing of this kind. I believe only the Bible to be true and Protestant Christianity the only true religion. I \w\s\\ no compromise of any kind. We cannot deny that we who meet in this parliament are sepa- rated by great and important principles. We admit that these differ- ences cannot be bridged over, but we meet, believing everybody has the right to his faith. You invite everybody to come here as a sincere defender of his own faith. * * * But what do we then meet for if we cannot show tolerance. Well, the word tolerance is used in a very different way. If the words of the great King Frederick, of Prussia, *Tn my country everybody can go to heaven after his own fashion," are used as a maxim of states- manship, we cannot approve of it too highly. What bloodshed, what cruelty would have been spared in the history of the world if it had been adopted. But if it is the expression of the religious indiffer- ence prevalent during this last century and at the court of the monarch who was the friend of Voltaire then we must not accept it. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians, rejects every other doc- trine, even if it were taught by an angel from heaven. We Christians are servants of our master, the living Saviour. We have no right to compromise the truth He intrusted to us, either to think lightly of it, or withhold the message He has given us for humanity. But wq meet 36 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. together, each one wishing to gain the others to his own creed. ' Will this not be a parliament of war instead of peace? Will it bring us further from, instead of nearer to, each other? I think not if we hold fast our truths that these great vital doctrines can only be defended and propagated by spiritual means. An honest fight with spiritual weapons need not estrange the combatants; on the contrary, it often bring them nearer. Prof. G. Bonet-Maury spoke for France, and as '* a Christian Frenchman and liberal Protestant," alluding to the purposes of the parliament, he said: There is also at Paris a similar institution in our religious branch Mau?y' Speaks of the *' Ecole fratique des hauter etude." You might have seen for for France. 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 telling the history of the various branches of the Christian church. Well now, gentlemen, you have resumed the same work as the •Conqueror Akbar, and more recently the French republic. You have convoked here, in that tremendous city which is itself a wonder of human industry and, as it were, a modern phoenix springing again from its ashes, representative men of all great religions of the earth in order to discuss, on courteous and pacific terms, the eternal problem of divinity, which is the torment, but also the sign of sovereignty of man over all animal beings. I present you the hearty messages of all friends of religious liberty in 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: AH men are sons of the same father, They are the same tear and pour from the same eye! Archbishop Redwood, of Australia, represented "the newest phase of civilization of the Anglo-Saxon race and the English speaking Address by P^opl^-" He closcd an cloqucut address by saying: Archbishoj) Man is not only a mortal being-, but a social beincr. Now the con- dition to make him happy and prosperous as a social being, to make him progress and go forth to conquer the world, both mentally and physically, is that he should be free, and not only to be free as a man in temporal matters, but to be free in religious matters. Therefore, it is to be hoped that from this day will date the dawn of that period when, throughout the whole of the universe, in every nation the idea of oppressing any man for his religion will be swept away. I think I can say in the name of the young country I represent, in the name of New Zealand, and the church of Australasia, that has made such a marvelous progress in our day, that we hope God will speed that day. Redwood. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF' RELIGIONS. S7 Less than a century ago there were only two Catholic priests in the whole of Australasia. Now we have a hierarchy of one cardinal, six archbishops, eighteen bishops, a glorious army of priests, with brother- hoods and sisterhoods, teaching schools in the most practical manner. The last council of the church held in Sidney sent her greeting to the church in America, and the church in America was seized by surprise a*nd admiration at the growth of Christianity in that distant land. It is in the name of that church I accept with the greatest feeling of thank- fulness the greeting made to my humble self representing that new country of New Zealand and that thriving and advancing country of Australasia. H. Dharmapala, of Ceylon, representing Buddhism, followed, bring- ing the good wishes of four hundred and seventy-five millions of Bud- dhists, the blessings and peace of the religious founder of that system which has prevailed so many centuries in Asia, which has made Asia mild, and which is today, in its twenty-fourth century of existence, the Q^od Wishee prevailing religion of the country. I have sacrificed the greatest of all ^'j^.^L*^® ^°'^' work to attend this parliament. I have left the work of consolidation — an important work which we have begun after seven hundred years — the work of consolidating the different Buddhist countries, which is the most important work in the history of modern Buddhism. When I read the programme of this parliament of religions I saw it was simply the re-echo of a great consummation which the Indian Buddhists accomplished twenty-four centuries ago. At that time Asoka, the great emperor, held a council in the city of Patma of one thousand scholars, which was in session for seven months. The proceedings were epitomized and carved on rock and scattered all over the Indian peninsula and the then known globe. After the consummation of that programme the great emperor sent the gentle teachers, the mild disciples of Buddha, in the garb that you see on this platform, to instruct the world. In that plain garb they went across the deep rivers, the Himalayas, to the plains of Mongolia and the Chinese plains, and to the far-off beautiful isles, the empire of the rising sun; and the influence of that congress held twenty-one centur- ies ago is today a living power, because you everywhere see mildness in Asia. Go to any Buddhist country and where do you find such healthy compassion and tolerance as you find there? Go to Japan, and what do you see? The noblest lessons of tolerance and gentleness. Goto any of the Buddhist countries and you will see the carrying out of the programme adopted at the congress called by the Emperor Asoka. Why do I. come here today? Because I find in this new city, in this land of freedom, the very place where that programme can also be carried out. For one year I meditated whether this parliament would be a success. Then I wrote to Dr. Barrows that this would be the proudest occasion of modern history, and the crowning work of nine- teen centuries. Yes, friends, if you are serious, if you are unselfish, if you are altruistic, this programme can be carried out, and the twenty- 38 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. fifth century will see the teachings of the meek and lowly Jesus accom- plished. Dr. Carl von Bergen, of Stockholm, spoke for Sweden, and de- scribed the mental and spiritual affinity between the leaders of relig- ious thought in Sweden and the United States. The best in Sweden and America, he said, were moved by the same impulses. Virchand A, Gandhi, of Bombay, represented Jainism, a faith, he other Voices said, oldcr than Buddhism, similar to it in its ethics, but different men^!^^^'^'^'^^^" from it in its psychology, and professed by one million five hundred thousand of India's most peaceful and law-abiding citizens. You have heard so many speeches from eloquent members, 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 wel- come 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 congratulations on his own behalf, and on behalf of the Jain community, for your having achieved the consummation of that grand idea of convening a parliament of religions. Prof. Minas Tcheraz spoke for Armenia. A pious thought animated Christopher Columbus when he directed the prow of his 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 human- ity to the dogma of universal toleration and fraternity. Old Armenia blesses this grand undertaking of young America, and wishes her to succeed in laying on the extinguished volcanoes of religious hatred the 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 country: Zkorzs tserats merots oogheegh ora i mez, Der, yev zkorzs tserats merots achoghia mez. Prof. C. N. Chakravarti represented Indian theosophy. He said: 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 the two sister streams which join at the town from which I came, Allahabad, represent two sources of spirit and matter, according to the philosophy of my people. And when I think that here, in this city of Chicago, this vortex of physicality, this center of material civilization, you hold a parliament of religions; when I think that, in the heart of the world's fair, where abound all the excellencies of the physical world, you have provided also a hall for the feast of reason and the flow of soul, I am once more reminded of my native land. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 89 "Why?" Because here, even here, I find the same two sister streams of spirit and matter, of the intellect and physicality, joining hand in 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 re- ligions of the world. In allowing men of different shades of religious opinion, and holding different views as to philosophical and metaphys- ical problems, to speak from the same platform — aye, even allowing me, who, I confess, am a heathen, as you call me — to speak from the same platform with them, you have acted in a manner worthy of the motherland of the society which I have come to represent today. The fundamental principle of that society is universal tolerance; its car- dinal belief that, underneath the superficial strata, runs the living water of truth. Swami Vivekananda, of Bombay, India, a monk, responded: It fills my heart w^ith joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in Unspeakable 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 world both toler- ance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal tol- eration, but we accept all religions to be true. I am proud to tell you that I belong to a religion into whose sacred language, the Sanskrit, the word seclusion is untranslatable. I am proud to belong to a na- tion which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all relig- ions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, a remnant which came to southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to th.e religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remem- ber to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: **As the different streams, having their sources in different places, all mingle their water in the sea, oh, Lord, so the different paths which men take through differ- ent tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all to Thee." The present convention, which is one of the most august assem- blies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of , Fraternity. 40 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. the wonderful doctrine preached in Gita. " Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form I reach him, they are all struggling through paths that in the end always lead to Me." Sectarianism, bigotry and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have possessed long this beautiful earth. It has filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to de- spair. Had it not been for this horrible demon, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But its time has come, and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention will be the death-knell to all fanaticism, to all persecutions w^ith the sword or the pen, and to all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal. Principal Grant, of Canada, referring to the feeling of fraternity Feeling^ of between Canada and the United States, remarked: Eighteen years ^ """' " ago, for instance, 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 churces 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 under- stand 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, looking 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 righteous- ness, Israel as a nation did not understand Jehovah, and therefore failed to understand her own marvelous mission. If St. Paul were here today would he not utter the same sad con- fession with regard to the nineteenth 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 Christianity 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 interpen- etrates, interprets, completes and verifies that order, and that so we have hidden its glories and obscured its power. AH day long our Saviour has been saying: *'I have stretched out My hands to a diso- bedient and gainsaying people." But, sir, the only one indispensable condition of success is that we recognize the cause of our failure, that we confess it with humble, Rev. Dr. Augusta J. Chapin, Chicago. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 43 lowly, penitent and obedient minds, and that with quenchless western courage and faith we now go forth and do otherwise. Miss Jeanne Serabji, a converted Parsee woman, of Bombay, spoke: When I was leaving the shores, of Bombay the women of my coun- try wanted to know where I was going, and I told them I was going to America on a visit. They asked me whether I would be at this con- gress. I thought then I would only come in as one of the audierce, but 1 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 w^omen 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 w^ould* never feel homesick again, and I feel today 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 have done it unto the least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." B. B. Nagarkar spoke for the Brahmo-Somaj. He said: 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 uni- versal love for all the prophets and for all the forms and shades of truth by their own inherent merit. We try not only to learn in an in- tellectual way what those prophets have to teach, but to assimilate and imbibe these truths that are very near our spirtiual 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 birthplace of a number of religious faiths. Thisjs a marked charac- teristic 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 spirtiual atmosphere. The Rev. Alfred W. Momerie, D. D., of London, closed an elo- quent address, thus: The fact is, all religions are, fundamentally, more or less true; and all religions are, superficially, more or less false. 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 magnificent address which thrilled Remarks of a Converted Par- see Woman. B. B. Nagar- kar Speaks of the Brahmo- Somaj. All Belifions True. U THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. us this morning: "The whole world is everywhere bound by gold chains about the feet of God." Bishop Arnett, of the African Methodist church, rejoiced that through him Africa had been welcomed. Africa has been welcomed, and it is so peculiar a thing for an African to be welcomed, that I con- gratulate myself that I have been welcomed here today. In respond- ing to the addresses of welcome I will, in the first place, respond for Welcome to the Africans in Africa, and accept your welcome on behalf of the Afri- '^^"^*' can continent, with its millions of acres, and millions of inhabitants, with its mighty forests, with its great beasts, with its great men, and its great possibilities. Though some think that Africa is in a bad way, I am one of those who has not lost faith in the possibilities of a re- demption of Africa. I believe in providence and in the prophesies of God that Ethiopia yet shall stretch forth her hand unto God, and, although today our land is in the possession of others, and every foot of land, and every foot of water in Africa has been appropriated by the governments of Europe, yet I remember, in the light of history, that those same nations parceled out the American continent in the past. 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 please 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 religioUi morality, education and temperance, acknowledging the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man; while the Ten Commandments and the. golden rule shall be the rule of life and conduct in the great republic of redeemed Africa. But, sir, I accept your welcome, also, on behalf of the negroes of 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 representatives 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 chil- dren of Shem, I greet the children of Japhet, and I want you to under- stand that Ham is here. * * * We come last on the programme, but I want everybody to know, that although last, 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 WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 45 the coming civilization: "God our Father, Christ our Redeemer, and mankind our brother." The addresses that follow are not given in the order in which they were presented, but are grouped according to topics, as far as possi- Addres-os ble. Nor are all the addresses given, nor, in all cases the entire ad- thatFoUow. dress. Some of the papers read were of little interest to others than their authors, and frequently speakers indulged in unimportant per- sonal and extraneous matter. The most of the best, and the best of the most, papers of the parliament, and the substance of the congresses will be found to follow. Rev. Samuel J. Niccolls. D. D.. LL. D., St. Louis, Mq. 3eing of God. Introductory Address by the REV. S. J. NICCOLLS, D. D.,LL. D., of St. Louis. EMBERS of the Parliament, Sons of a Common Heavenly Father and Broth- ers in a Common Humanity: It is with special pleasure that I assume the task now assigned to me. Happily for me at least it involves no serious labors, and it requires no greater wisdom than to mention the names of the speakers and the subjects placed upon the pro- gramme for today. And yet, when I mention the name of the subject that is to invite our consideration today, I place before you the most momentous theme that ever engaged human thought — the sublimest of all facts, the greatest of all thoughts, the most wonderful of all real- ities; and yet when I mention the name it points not to a law, not to a principle, not to the ex- planation of a phenomenon, but it points us to a living person. The human mind, taught and trained 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 sum 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 inextinguishable longing; One with whom we all have to do and from whose dominion we can never escape. [Applause.] If such be the subject that we are to consider today, surely it becomes us to undertake it in a spirit of reverence and of humility. We cannot bring to its contemplation the exercise of our reasoning faculties in the same way that we would consider some phenomenon or fact of history. He who is greater than all hides Himself from the proud and 47 Being that ie Infinite. 48 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.. God a Person. the self-sufficient; He reveals Himself to the meek, lowly and the hum- ble in heart. It is racher with the heart that we shall find Him than by measuring Him merely with our feeble intellects. Today, as always, the heart will make the theologian. Perhaps some one may say: "After so long a pe^'^'o'- _i^ iiuman history, why should we come to consider the exict<-ii^c ot God? Is the fact so obscure that it must take long cetitc^iies to prove it? Has He so hidden Himself from t'xe world that we have not yet exactly found out that He is or what He is?" This is only apparently an objection of wisdom. If God were sim- ply a fact of history, if 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 Him for itself; 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 tnat long generations ago men found Him and bowed reverently before Him and adored Him. We must find Him in our age and in our day to know how He fills our lives and guides us to our destiny. This is the grand fact that lies before us, the great truth that is to unite us. Here, if anywhere, we must find God and unite in our beliefs. We could not afford to begin the discussions of a religious parliament without placing this great truth in the foreground. A parliament of religious belief without the recognition of the living God — that were impossible. Religion with- out a God is only the shadow of a shade; only a mockery that rises up in the human soul. [Applause.] After all, we can form no true conception of ourselves or of man's Conceptionof greatness without God. The greatness of human nature depends upon Man's Great- -^^ conceptions of the living God. All true religious joy, all greatness of aspiration that has wakened in these natures of ours, comes not from our conception of ourselves, not from our own recognition of the dignity of human nature within us, but from our conception of God and what He is, and our relation to Him. [Applause.] No man can ever find content with 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 today 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. Explanation of Human Nature Eflfectofthat THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 49 But utter that simple name and straightway there comes gather- ing 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, Simpie'NameT "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. [Cheers.] 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 B^i"§ ^^ God. Paper by VERY REV. AUGUSTINE F. HEWITT, C. S. P., of New York. N honorable and arduous task has been assigned me. It is to address this numerous and dis- tinguished assembly on a topic taken from the highest branch of special metaphysics. The thesis of my discourse is the " Rational Demonstration of the Being of God," as pre- sented in Catholic philosophy. This is a topic of the highest importance and of the deepest interest to all who are truly rational, who think and who desire to know their destiny and to fulfill it. The minds of men always and everywhere, in so far as they have thought at all, have been deeply interested in all questions relating to the divine order and its relations to nature and humanity. The idea of a divine principle and power, superior to sensible phenomena, above the changeable world and its short-lived inhabitants, is as old and as extensive as the human race Among vast numbers of the most enlightened part of mankind it has existed and held sway in the form of pure monotheism, and even among 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 audience, this theme is of paramount interest and import. Christians, Jews, Mohammedans and philosophical theists are agreed in professing monotheism as their fundamental and cardinal doctrine. Even unbelievers and doubters show an interest in discuss- ing and endeavoring to decide the question whether God does or does not exist. It is to be hoped that many of them regard their skepti- cism rather as a darkening cloud over the face of nature than as a light clearing away the mists of error; that they would gladly be CQnviuced 51 Idea of a Di. fine Principlei 52 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. that God does exist and govern a world which He has made. I may, therefore, hope for a welcome reception to my thesis in this audience. I have said that it is a thesis taken f?om the special metaphysics of Catholic philosophy. I must explain at the outset in what sense the term Catholic philosophy is used It does not denote a system derived from the Christian revelation and imposed by the authority of the Catholic church, it 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 subal- IraefsSce?* ^^^^ science to dogmatic theology It has been adopted in great part from Aristotle and Plato and does not disdain to borrow from any pure fountain or stream of rational truth. The topic before us is, therefore, to be treated in a metaphysical manner on a ground where all who pro- fess philosophy can meet and where reason is the only authority which can be appealed to as umpire and judge. All who profess to be stu- dents of philosophy thereby proclaim their conviction that metaphysics is a true science by which certain knowledge can be obtained. Metaphysics, in its most general sense, is ontology, i. e., discourse concerning being in its first and universal principles. 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 appre- hending it. Metaphysics seeks for a knowledge of all things which are within the ken of human faculties in their deepest causes. It in- vestigates their reason of being, their ultimate, efficient and final causes. The rational argument for the existence of God, guided by the principles of the sufficient reason and efficient causality, begins from contiiigent facts and events in the world and traces the chain of causation to the first cause. It demonstrates that God is, and it pro- ceeds, by analysis and synthesis, by induction from all the first princi- ples possessed by reason, from all the vestiges, reflections and images of God in the creation, to d<^tcrmine what God is, His essence andHis perfections. Let us then begin our argument from the first principle that everything that has a'?_y kind of being, that is, which presents itself as a thinkable, know^bfe or real object to the intellect, has a sufficient reason of being. Ihe possible has a sufficient reason of its possibility. There is in it an intelligible ratio which makes it thinkable; without this it is unthinkable, inconceivable, utterly impossible; as, for instance, a circle, the points in whose circumference are of unequal distances from the center. The real has a sufficient reason for its real existence. If it is contingent, indifferent to non-existence or existence, it has not its sufficient reason of being in its essence. It must have it, then, from something outside of itself, that is, from an efficient cause. All the beings with which we are acquainted in the sensible world around us are contingent. They exist in determinate, specific, actual, individual forms and modes, They are in definite times and places. Sufficient Rea- son of Being. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 63 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 combinations 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 individual reality. But they are never, in any one instant, in act to the whole extent of their capacity. There is a dormant potency of further actuation always in their actual essence. Moreover, there is no necessity in their essence o^Th^gaf^^^* for existing at all. The pure, ideal essence of things is, in itself, only possible. Their successive changes of existence are so many move- ments of transition from mere passing potency into act under the im- pulse of moving principles of force. And their very first act of exist- ence is by a motion of transition from mere possibility into actuality. The whole multitude of things which become, of events which happen, the total sum of the movements and changes of contingent beings, taken collectively and taken singly, must have a sufficient reason of being in some extrinsic principle, some efficient cause. The admirable order which rules over this multitude, reducing it to the unity of the universe is a display of efficient causality on a most stupendous scale. There is a correlation and conservation of force acting on the inert and passive matter, according to fixed laws, in ^g^g^' V«^«™ 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 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 nebulas. The atoms and molecules are combined in the definite forms of the various elementary bodies in definite proportions. The movements of rotation are in certain direc- tions, condensation and incandescence take place under fixed laws, and all these movements are co-ordinated and directed to a certain result, viz., the formation of a sun and planets. Now, there is nothing in the nature of matter and force which determines it to take on just these actual conditions and no others. By their intrinsic essence they could just as well have existed in greater or lesser quantities in the solar nebula. The proportions of hydro- gen, oxygen and other substances might have been different. The movements of rotation might have been in a contrary direction. The process of evolution might have begun sooner and attained its finality ere now, or it might be beginning at the present moment. The 54 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. A First Cause Demanded. Chance Absurdity. marks of contingency are plainly to be discerned in the passive and active elements of the inchoate world as it emerges into the consist- ency and stable equilibrium of a solar system from primitive chaos. Equally obvious is the presence of a determining principle, acting as an irresistible law, regulating the transmission of force, along definite lines and in an^harmonious order. The active forces at work in nature, giving motion to matter, 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 forces remain always secondary causes, with no tendency to become primary principles; they demand some anterior, sufificient reason of their being, some original, primary principle from which they derive the force which they receive and transmit. They demand a first cause. In the case of a long train of cars in motion, if we ask what moves the last car, the answer may be the car next before it, and so on until we reach the other end; but we have as yet only motion received and transmitted, and no sufficient reason for the initiation of the move- ment by an adequate efficient cause. Prolong the series to an indefi- nite length and you get no nearer to an adequate cause of the motion; you get no moving principle which possesses motive power in itself; the need of such a motive force, however, continually increases. There is more force necessary to impart motion to the whole collection of cars than for one or a few. If you choose to imagine that the series of cars is infinite you have only augmented the effect produced to infinity without finding a cause for it. 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 locomotive with the motive power applied and acting, and a con- nection of the cars with this locomotive, in order that the train may be propelled along its tracks. The series of movements given and received in the evolution of the world from primitive chaos is like this long chain of cars. The question, how did they come about, what is their efficient cause, starts up'and confronts the mind at every stage of the process. You may trace back consequents to their antecedents, and show how the things which come after were virtually contained in those which came before. The present earth came from the paleozoic earth, and that from the azoic, and so on, until you come to the primitive nebula from which the solar system was constructed. But how did this vast mass of matter, and the mighty forces act- ing upon it, come to be started on their course of evolution, their 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 55 being, self-existing, whose essence is pure act and the source of all actuality. The only alternative is to fall back on the doctrine of chance, an absurdity long since exploded and abandoned, a renuncia- tion of all reason and an abjuration of the rational nature of man. Together with the question ** How" and the inquiry after efficient causes of movements and changes in the world, the question "Why" also perpetually 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 causality can be properly named as a cause. How can it exert a causative influence, retroactively, on the means and agencies by which 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 physically 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-existence 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 fulfillment of his desired end. This finished work is, therefore, the final cause, the motive of the whole series of operations performed by the artist or his workmen. The multitude of causes and effects in the world, reduced to an admirable 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 material 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 causality are directed, the argument proceeds which demonstrates the nature of the first cause, as in essence, intelli- gence and will. The best and highest Greek philosophy ascended by this cosmo- logical 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 intelligible object far sur- passing its capacity of apprehension, the design and construction of the whole natural order must proceed from an author of supreme and divine intelligence. Final Caosee. Design and Purpose. A Snpreme and Dirine Au- thor. Demand of 56 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The questioning and the demand of reason for the deepest causes of 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 assigning 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 why did it come to be in hand and lie in readiness for the divine architect and artist to make it Reaawi. " "' 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 differ- ent from the concept of matter as a constant quantity and distinct from force in chemical science. Metaphysically, first matter has no specific reality, no quality, no quantity. It is not as 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 proportion to the weight of different 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 concept of original chaosl We may call it chaos, relatively to its later, more developed order. The artisan's workshop, full of materials for manufacture, the edifice which is in its first stage of construction, are in a comparative disorder, but this disorder is an inchoate order. So, our solar chaos, as an inchoate virtual system, was full of ini- tial, elementary principles and elements of order. The platonic first tnatter was supposed to be formless and void, without quality or quan- tity, devoid of every ideal element or aspect, a mere recipient of ideas which God impressed upon it. The undermost matter of chemistry has definite quiddity and quantity, is never separate from force, and as it was in the primitive solar nebula, was in act and in violent activity of motion. It is obvious at a glance that a platonic first matter, exist- ing eternally by its own essence, without form, is a mere vacuum, and only intelligible under the concept of pure possibility. Aristotle saw and demonstrated this truth clearly. Therefore, the analysis of mate- rial existences, carried as far as experiment or hypothesis will admit, finds nothing except the changeable and the contingent. Let us suppose that underneath the so-called simple substances^ such as oxygen and hydrogen, there exists, and may hereafter be dis- cerned by chemical analysis, some homogeneous basis, there still remains something which does not accolint for itself, and which demands a sufficient reason for its bei ig, in the efficient causality of the first cause. The ultimate moleculo of the composite substance and the ultimate atom of the simple substance, each bears the marks of a manufactured article. Not only the order which combines and arranges all the simple elements of the corporeal world, but the gath- ering together of the materials for the orderly structure; the union and relation of matter and force; the beginning of the first motions, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Vl Creative of God. and the existence of the movable element and the motive principle in definite quantities and proportions, all demand their origin in the intelligence 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 presents 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 tran- sition from potency into actuality. The first and fundamental tran- sition is from not being, from the absolute non-existence of anything outside of God, into being and existence by the creative act of God; called by His almighty word the world of finite creatures into real existence. In this creative act of God the two elements of intelligence and volition are necessarily contained. Intelligence perceives the possi- bility of a finite, created order of existence, in all its latitude. Possi- bility 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 al- ready seen that final causes must have an ideal pre-existence in the mind, which designs the work of art and arranges the means for its execution. The idea of the actual universe and of the wider universe which He could create if He willed must have been present eternally to the intelligence of the Divine Creator as possible. Now, therefore, a further question about the deepest cause of being confronts the mind with an imperative demand for an answer. sibUity. What is this eternal possibility which is coeval with God? It is evi- dently an intelligible object, an idea equivalent to an infinite number of particular ideas of essences and orders, which are thinkable by in- tellect to a certain extent, in proportion to its capacity, and exhaust- ively by the divine intellect. The divine essence alone is eternal and necessary self-subsisting being. In the formula of St. Thomas: 'Tpsum esse subsistenSc" It is pure and perfect 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 plentitude of being, with a comprehensive intelligence. In this con- templation He perceives His essence as an archetype which eminently and virtually contains 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 act Eternal Poo. 58 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Something Divine. Mental ceptB. Con- nature has been established under fixed laws. They are reflected in the works of God. By a perception of these reasons, these ideas im- pressed on the universe, 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 sen- sible 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, ourselves and our fellowman, bear the marks of con- tingency in their intellectual nature as plainly as in their bodies. Our individual, self-conscious, thinking souls have come cut of non-exist- ence only yesterday. They begin to live with only a dormant intellect- ual 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 imag(\ It is capable of apprehending the eternal reasons which are in the mind of God; its intelligible object is being in all its latitude, according to its specific and finite mode of apprehen- sion and the proportion which its cognoscitive faculty has to the think- able and knowable. 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 in- ferred, and likewise the ideas of necessary and eternal truth which, as so many mirrors, reflect the eternal reasons of the divine mind, sub- jectively considered, come under the same category as contingent facts and effects produced by second causes and ultimately by the first cause. These ideas are not, however, mere subjective concepts. They are, indeed, mental concepts, but they have a foundation in reality, according to the famous formula of St. Thomas: " Universalia sunt conceptus mentis cum fundamento 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 genus; of essence and existence; of beauty, goodness, space and time; of efficient 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 con- tingency and dependence on contingent things, and assume the char- acter of necessary and universal, and therefore of eternal truths. For instance, that the three sides of a triangle cannot exist without 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 THE WCkLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Sd and extra-mental, within the scope of intellectual apprehension; they have objective reality, and force themselves on the intellect, com- pelling its assent as soon as they are clearly perceived in their self- evidence or demonstration. Now, what are these ideas? Are they some kind of real beings, inhabiting an eternal and infinite space? This is absurd and they can- not be conceived except as thoughts of an eternal and infinite mind. In thinking them we are re-thinking the thoughts of God. They are the eternal reasons reflected in all the works of creation, but especially in intelligent minds From these necessary and eternal truths we infer, therefore, the intelligent and intelligible essence of God in which Necessaryand they have their ultimate foundation. This metaphysical argument is EternaiTruthe. the apex and culmination of the cosmological, moral, and in all its forms the a posteriori argument from effects, from design, from all reflections of the divine perfections in the creation to the existence and nature of the first and final cause of the intellectual, moral and physical order of the universe. It goes 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 necessity 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 immediately, by the eternal reasons which are reflected in nature, in our own intellect, and in the ideas which have their foundation in His mind. Our mental concepts of the divine are analogical, derived from created things, and inade- quate. They are, notwithstanding, true, and give us unerring knowl- edge of the deepest causes of being. They give us metaphysical certitude 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 in- trinsic 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 mode of being, but in the whole intelligible ratio of being, in every respect which is thinkable and comprehensible by the absolute, infinite intellect. He is being in all its longitude, latitude, profundity and plentitude; He is being subsist- ing in pure and perfect act, without any mixture of potentiality or Nature and 60 THE WdkLn$ cdNCkE^^ of religions. 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: "Totasimul ac perfecta possessio vitae interminabilis." The total and perfect pos- session, all at once, of boundless life. In order, therefore, to enrich and complete our conceptions of the nature and perfections of God, we have only to analyze the compre- hensive idea of being and to ascribe to God, in a sense free from all limitations, all that we find in His works which comes under the gen- Perfections°of eral 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 excel- lence, beatitude, life, love, greatness, power and every kind of per- fection are phases and aspects of being, goodness and truth. Since all which presents an object of intellectual apprehension to the mind and of complacency to the will in the effects produced by the first cause must exist in the cause in a more eminent way, we must predi- cate of the Creator all the perfections found in creatures. The vastness of the universe represents His immensity. The multifarious beauties of creatures represent His splendor and glory as their archetype. The marks of design and the harmonious order which are visible in the world manifest his intelligence. The faculties of intelligence and will in rational creatures show forth in a more per- fect image the attributes of intellect and will in their Author and orig- inal source. All created goodness, whether physical or moral, pro- claims the essential excellence and sanctity of God. He is the source of life, and is, therefore, the living God. All the active forces of nature witness to His power. All finite beings, however, come infinitely short of an adequate representation of their ideal archetype; they retain something of the intrinsic nothingness of their essence, of its potentiality, changeable- ness and contingency. Many modes and forms of created existence have an imperfection in their essence which makes it incompatible with the perfection of the divine essence that they should have a for- mal being in God. We cannot call him a circle, an ocean or a sun. Such creatures, therefore, represent that which exists in their arche- type in an eminent and divine mode, to us incomprehensible. And those qualities whose formal ratio in God and creatures is the same, being finite in creatures, must be regarded as raised to an infinite power in God. Thus intelligence, will, wisdom, sanctity, happiness are formally in God, but infinite in their excellence. All that we know of God by pure reason is summed up by Aris- totle in the metaphysical formula that God is pure and perfect act, logically and ontologically the first principles of all that becomes by a transition from potential into actual being. And from this concise, comprehensive formula he has developed a truly admirable theodicy. Aristotle says: "It is evident that act (energeia) is anterior to THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 61 potency (dunamis) logically and ontologically. A being does not pass from potency into act and become real except by the action of a principle already in act." (Met. viii, 9.) Again, "All that is pro- duced comes from a being in act." (De Anim. iii, 7.) "There is a being which moves without being moved, which is eternal, is substance, is act. * * * The immovable mover is necessary being, that is, being which absolutely is, and cannot be otherwise. This nature, therefore, is the principle from which heaven (meaning by this term immortal spirits who are the nearest to God) and nature depend. Beatitude is his very act. * * * Contempla- tion is of all things the most delightful and excellent, and God enjoys it always, by the intellection of the most excellent good, in which intelligence and the intelligible are identical. God is life, for the act of intelligence is life and God is this very act. Essential act is the life of God, perfect and eternal life. Therefore we name God a perfect and eternal living being, in such a way that life is uninterrupted; eternal duration belongs to God, and indeed it is this which is 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 Plotinus, the greatest philosopher of the Neo-Platonic school. "Just as the sight of the heavens and the brilliant stars causes us to look for and to form an idea of their author, so the contemplation of the intelligible world and the admiration 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, intelligence, this son so beau- tiful? The supreme intelligence must 'necessarily contain the universal archetype, and be itself that intelligible world of which Plato dis- courses." (Ennead iii. L viii. 10 v. 9.) Plato and Aristotle have both placed in the clearest light the relation of intelligent, immortal spirits to God as their final cause, and together with this highest relation the subordinate relation of all the inferior parts of the universe. Assimi- lation to God, the knowledge and the love of God, communication in the beatitude which God possesses in Himself, is the true reason of being, the true and ultimate end of intellectual natures. In these two great sages rational philosophy culminated. Clem- ent, of Alexandria, did not hesitate to call it a preparation furnished by divine Providence to the heathen world for the Christian revela- tion. Whatever controversies there may be concerning their explicit teachings in regard to the relations between God and the world, their principles and premises contain implicitly and virtually a sublime nat- ural theology. St. Thomas has corrected, completed and developed this theology with a genius equal to theirs, and with the advantage of a higher illumination. It is the highest achievement of human reason to bring the intel- lect to a knowledge of God as the first and final cause of the world. The denial of this philosophy throws all things into night and chaos, God a Perfect and Eterna/ Living Being. Highest Achievement of Haman Reason, 62 . THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. ruled over by blind chance or fate. Philosophy, however, by itself does not suffice to give to mankind that religion the excellence and Its Last Les- necessity of which it so brilliantly manifests. Its last lesson is the ^^- need of a divine revelation, a divine religion, 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 practical 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. a, IS > TIhe Argument for the [)ivine B^in^^- Paijer by HON. W. T. HARRIS, United States Commissioner of Education. HE first thinker who discovered an adequate proof of the existence of God was Plato. He devoted his life to thinking out the necessary conditions of independent being, or, in other words, the form of any wholeortotahtyofbeing Dependent being implies something else than itself as that on which it depends. " It cannot be said to derive its b.eing 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 subsistence from an independent being — that is to say from what exists in and through itself and imparts its be- ing to others or derived beings. Hence the indeperidenf being, which is presupposed by the dependent being, is creative and. active in the sense that it is self-determined and deter- mines others. Plato in most passages calls this presupposed independent being by thte 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 includes all kinds of beings. But the moved- throiigh-others presupposes the self-moved as the source of its own motion. Hence the explanation or 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 inde- pendent beings must possess activity and, in short, be thinking or rational beings. This great discovery of the principle that there must be indepen- Foundation dent jbcing if there is dependent being is the foundation of philosophy of Philosophy and ilsOjof thcology. Admit that there may be a world of dependent uc. ^heo.ogy. j^gjj^gg^ cach one of which depends on another and no one of them nor ^11 of them depend on an independent being, and £^t once philosophy 64 Hon. W. T. Harris, Washington, D. C. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS. 67 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 follows that the independence of the. whole circle of being is something transcend- ent — a negative unity creating and then annulling again the particu- lar beings forming the members of the series. This theory is illustrated in the doctrine of the correlation of Correlation forces. The action of force number one gives rise to force number of Forces, 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 independent 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 de- rivative; it is original, independent and transcendent. It demands as the next step of explanation the exhibition of the necessity of its production of just this series of particular forces as involved in the nature of the self-determined or absolute force It involves, too, the necessary conclusion that a self-determined force which originates all of its special determinations and cancels them all is a pure Ego or self-hood. For consciousness is the name given by us to that kind of being which can annul all of its determinations. For it can annul all ob- jective determination and have left only its own negative might while it descends creatively to particular thoughts, volitions or feelings. It can drop them instantly by turning its gaze upon its pure self as the creator of those determinations. This turn upon itself is accomplished by filling its objective field with negation or annulment — this is its own act and in it rea'izes its personal identity and its personal tran- scendence of limitations. Hence we may say that the doctrine of correlation of forces pre- supposes a personality creating and transcending the series of forces correlated. If the mind undertakes to suppose a total of dependent or derivative beings, it ends by reaching an independent, self-deter- mined being which, as pure subject, transcends its determinations as object and is therefore an Ego or person. Again, the insight which established this doctrine of independent THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Human Rea- son. Proof of Di- vine Existence. beings or Platonic "ideas" is not fully satisfied when it traces depend- ent or derivative 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 a 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 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 sur- vey of human reason. Human reason has two orders of knowing — one the knowing of dependent beings and the other the knowing of inde- pendent beings. The first is the order of knowing the senses, the sec- ond the order of knowing by logical presupposition. I know by see- ing, hearing, tasting, touching things and events. I know by seeing what these things and events logically imply or presuppose that there is a great first cause, a personal reason who reveals a gracious purpose by creating finite beings in time and space. This must be, or else human reason is at fault in its very founda- tions. 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 transcend- ental 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 embryonic or undeveloped, being partially realized and partially potential. At this point the system of Aristotle can be understood in its "har- mony with the Platonic system. Aristotle* too, holds explicitly that the beings in the world which derive motion from other beings pre- suppose a first mover. But he is careful to eschew the first expression self-moved as applying to the prime 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 un- folds his doctrine that dependent beings presuppose a divine being whose activity is pure knowing. He alone is perfectly realized — the school men call this technically "pure act" — all other being is partly potential, not having fully grown to its perfection. Aristotle's proof of the divine existence is substantially the same as that of Plato — an i THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. ascent from the dependent being by the discovery of presuppositions to the perfect being who presupposes nothing else than the identifi- cation of the perfect or dependent being with thinking, personal, will- ing being. This concept of the divine being is wholly positive as far as it goes and nothing of it needs to be withdrawn after further philosophic reflection has discussed anew the logical presuppositions. More pre- suppositions may be discovered — new distinctions discerned where none were perceived before — but those additions only make more cer- tain the fundamental theory explained first 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 first six cent- uries of our era. The object of Christian 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 presuppo- sitions 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 be- ings 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 cannot be conceived as making the imper- fect — it is too absurd to think that a good being should make a bad being. Only Brahman the absolute exists and all else is illusion — it is Maya. How 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 him- self, who philosophizes, is an illusion. An illusion recognizes itself as an illusion — an illusion knows true being and discriminates itself from false being. Such is the fundamental doctrine of the Sankhya philosophy, and the Sankhya is the fundamental type of all Hindu thought. The Greek escapes from this contradiction. He sees that the absolute cannot be empty, indeterminate, pure being devoid of all attributes, without 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-determined being with subject and object the same, hence a self-knowing and self-willed being. Hence the absolute cannot be an abstract unity like Brahma, but must be a self-deter- mined 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 Human Nat- God Taught by Christ. ure of 70 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGION$, space. To hold that God thinks Himself as the world is pantheism — it is pantheism of the left wing of Hegelians. To say that God thinks Himself as the world is to say that He discovers in Himself finite and perishable forms, and therefore makes them objective. The schoolmen say truly that in God intellect and will are one. This means that in God his thinking makes objectively existent what it thinks. Plato saw clearly that the Logos is perfect and not a world of change and decay. He could not explain how the world of change and decay is derived except from the goodness of the divine being who imparts gratuitously of his fullness of being to a series of creatures who have being only in part. 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 pro- cession thus must be in time, but the time process must have eternally gone on because the third has eternally proceeded and been pro- ceeding. The thought underneath this theory is evidently that the Second Person or Logos, in knowing Himself or in being conscious, knows Himself in two phases — first, as completely generated or perfect, and this is the Holy Spirit, and secondly, He knows Himself as related to the First as his eternal origin. In thinking of His origin or genesis from the Father, He makes objective a complete world of evolution con- taining at all times all degrees of development or evolution and covering every degree of imperfection from pure space and time up to the invisible church. This recognition of His derivation is also a recognition on the part of the First of His own act of generating the Second — it is not going on, but has been eternally completed, and yet both the Divine First and the Divine Second must think it when they think of their relation to one another. Recognition is the intellectual of the First, and Sec- ond is the mutual love of the Father and the Son, and this mutual love is the procession of the Holy Spirit. But the procession is not a part of the holy trinity; it is the crea- NotaPart of ^^^^ ^^ time and space of an infinite world of imperfect beings develop- theHoiyTrin- ing into self-activity and as self-active organizing institutions — the * ^* family, civil society, the state and the church. The church is the New Jerusalem described by St. John, the apostle, who has revealed this doctrine of the third person as an institutional person — the spirit who makes possible all institutional organism in the world and who tran- scends them all as the perfect who energizes in the imperfect to develop it and complete it. Thus stated, the Christian thought as expressed in the symbol of the holy trinity, explains fully the relations of the world of imperfect THE WORLD' ^ CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 71 beings and makes clear in what way the goodness or grace of God makes the world as Plato and Aristotle taught. The world is a manifestation of divine grace — a spectacle of the evolution or becoming of individual existence in all phases, inorganic and organic. Individuality begins to appear even in specific gravity and in ascending degrees in cohesion and crystallization. In the plant it is unmistakable. In the animal it begins to feel and perceive itself. In man it arrives at self-consciousness and moral action and recog nizes its own place in the universe. God, being without envy, does not grudge any good; He accord- ingly turns, as Rothe says, the emptiness of non-being into a reflection of Himself and makes it everywhere a spectacle of His grace. Of the famous proofs of divine existence, St. Anselm's holds the first place. But St. Anselm's proof cannot be understood without re- curring to the insight of Plato. Inhis Proslogium St. A^iselm finds that there is but one thought which underlies all others; ) le thought universally presupposed, and this he describes as the thought of that than which there can be nothing greater — "Id quo nihil major cogi- tare potest." This assuredly is Plato's thought of the totality. Every- thing not a total is less than the totality. But the totality is the greatest possible being. The essential thing to notice, however, is that St. Anselm per- ceives that this one thought is objectively valid and not a mere sub- jective notion of the thinker. No thinker can doubt that there is a totality — he can be perfectly sure that the plus the not-me includes all that there is. Gaunillo, in the lifetime of St. Anselm, and Kant, in re- cent times, have tried to refute the argument by alleging the general proposition — the conception of a thing does not imply its corre- sponding existence. The proposition is true, except in the case of this one ontological thought of the totality of the thoughts that can be log- ically deduced from it. The second order of knowing, by presump- tions, implies an existence corresponding to each concept. St. Anselm knew that the person who denied the objective validity of this idea of the totality must presuppose its truth right in the very act of denying it. If there be an Ego that thinks, even if it be the Ego of a fool (insipiens), who says in his heart, "there is no God," it must be cer- tain that its self plus its not-self makes a totality, and that this totality surely exists. The existence of his Ego is or may be contingent, but the totality is certainly not contingent but necessary. This is an onto- , An^^OntoioB logical necessity and the basis of all further philosophical and theolog- """' ''' " ical thoughts. St. Anselm does not, it is true, follow out this thought to its con- templation in his Proslogium nor in his Monologium. He leaves it there with the idea of a necessary being who is supreme and perfect because he contains the fullness of being. He undoubtedly saw the further implication, namely, that the totality is an independent being and self-existent because it is self- active. He saw this so clearly that he did not think it worth while to ical Necessity. 72 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 his Third Meditation, has repeated with some modi- fication the 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 writers in the history of philosophy; it must be taken only in the sense of in- dependent being — being for itself — being that can be what it is with- out support from another — hence perfectly self-determined being. The expression "perfect" points directly to Aristotle's invented word, entelechy, whose literal meaning is the having of perfection itself. The word is invented to express the thought of the independent presup- posed by dependent being. Perfect being, as Aristotle teaches, is pure energy; all of his poten- tialities are realized; hence it is not subject to change nor is it passive or recipient of anything from without — it is pure form, or rather self- formative. Read in the light of Plato's idea and Aristotle's entelechy, St. Anselm and Descartes' proofs are clear and intelligible, and are not touched by Kant's criticism. In his philosophy of religion and else- where, Hegel has pointed out the source of Kant's misapprehension. Gaunillo 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 island, neither a hundred dollars — in short, no finite dependent being is at all a necessary being, and hence cannot be deduced from its concept. But each and every contingent being presupposes the existence of an independent being — a self-determined being — an absolute divine reason. St. Anselm proved the depth of his thought by advancing a new New Theory theory of the death of Christ as a satisfaction, not of the claims of the of Atonement, ^jgyj}^ l^^^ ^^ ^^ satisfaction of the claims of God's justice for sin. Al- though we do not trace out his full thought in the Proslogium we can see the depth and clearness of his thinking in this new theory of atone- ment. For, in order to understand it philosophically, the thinker must make clear to himself the logical necessity for the exclusion of all forms of finitude or dependent being from the thought of the divine reason who knows Himself in the Logos. To think an imperfection is to annul it; hence God's thought of an imperfect being annuls it. This logical statement corresponds to the political 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 individuality. This is justice instead of grace. Grace bears with the imperfect being until it completes itself by its own act of self-determination. But, in order that a world of imperfect beings, sinners, may have this field of probation, a perfect being must bear THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 73 their imperfection. The divine Logos must harbor in His thought all the stages of genesis or becoming, and 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 person. His pure not-me is chaos, but not a personal devil. In order that God's grace shall have the highest possible manifesta- tion. He turns His not-me into a reflection of Himself by making it a series of ascending stages out of dependence and nonentity into inde- pendence and personal individuality. But the process of reflection by creation in time and space involves God's tenderness and long suffer- ing; it involves a real sacrifice in the Divine Being, for He must hold 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 finite things; it is not merely religion, it is philosophy or necessary truth. But it is very important so to conceive nature as not to attach it to the idea of God by them in Himself; such an idea is pantheism. Nature does not form a person of the Trinity. It is not the Logos, as supposed by the left wing of the Hegelians. And yet on the other hand nature is not Nature not an accident in God's purposes as conceived by theologians, who react Self-Existent, too far from the pantheistic view. Nature is eternal, but not self-ex istent; it is the procession of the Holy Spirit and arises in the double thought of the First Person and the Logos, or the timeless generation which is logically involved in the fact of God's consciousness of Him- self as eternal reason. The thought of God is a regressive thought — it is an ascent from the dependent to that on 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 principle by proving the insufficiency of all except the first principle." This is the second order of knowing — the discovery of the onto- logical presuppositions. The first order of knowing sees things and events by the aid of the senses, the second order of knowing sees the first 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. Rt. Rev. Wm. £. McLaren, Bishop ot Chicago (Member General Committee.) jy^oral ^vidence of a J^ivine j^xistence, Paper by REV. ALFRED W. MOMERIE, of London, England. ^\^^ HE evidences for the existence of God may be summed up under two heads. First of all there is what I will designate the rationality of the world. Under this head, of course, comes the old argument from design. It is often sup- posed 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 their sequence. Our power of foreseeing phenomena and our power of controlling them destroy the belief that they are governed by changeable wills." Quite so. But such a belief — the belief, viz., that phenomena were governed by change- able wills — could not be entertained by any philosophical theist. A really irregular phenomenon, as Mr. Fiske has said, would be a manifestation of sheer diabolism. Philosophical theism — belief in a being deservedly called God — could not be estab- lished until after the uniformity of nature had been discovered. We must cease to believe in many changeable wills before we can begin to believe in one that is unchangeable. We must cease to believe in a finite God, outside of nature, who capriciously interferes with her phenomena, before we can begin to believe in an infinite God, immi- nent in nature, of whom mind and will and all natural phenomena are the various but never varying expressions. Though the regularity of nature is not enough by itself to prove the existence of God, the irreg- ularity of nature would be amply sufficient to disprove it. The uniformity of nature, which, by a curious observation of the logical faculties, has been used as an atheistic argument, is actually the first step in the proof of the existence of God. The purposes of a reason- able 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, today and forever. 75 Basis for Be lief. Discovery of 76 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, 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 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 true, but employing means and methods for the accomplishment of His purposes more or less similar to those which would be used by a human workman. It was believed that every species, every organism and every part of every organism had been individually adapted by the Creator for the accomplishment of a defi- nite end, just as every portion of a watch is the result of a particular act of contrivance on the part of the watchmaker. A different and far higher method is suggested by the doctrine of evolution, a doctrine which may now be considered as practically Evolution *a"n demonstrated, thanks especially to the light which has been shed on it ^°^ite^^* by the sciences of anatomy, physiology, geology, paleontology 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 resemblance to extinct species, though in the adult form the resemblance is obscured. Moreover, we frequently find in animals rudimentary, or abortive, organs, which are manifestly not adapted to any end, which never can be of any use, and whose presence in the organism is sometimes positively injurious. There are snakes that have rudimentary legs — legs which, however interesting to the anatomist, are useless to the snake. There are rudi- ments of fingers in a horse's hoof and of teeth in a whale's mouth, and in man himself there is the vermiform appendix. It is manifest, there- fore, that any particular organ in one species is merely an evolution from a somewhat different kind of organ in another. It is manifest that the species themselves are but transmutations of one or a few primordial types, and that they have been created not by paroxysm but by evolution. The Creator saw the end from the beginning. He had not many conflicting purposes, but one that was general and all- embracing. Unity and continuity of design serve to demonstrate the wisdom of the designer. The supposition that nature means something by what she does has not infrequently led to important scientific discoveries. It was in this way that Harvey found out the circulation of the blood. He took notice of the valves in the veins in many parts of the body, so placed as to give free passage to the blood toward the heart, but opposing its 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 i THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 77 the supposition of purpose, the greatest discovery in physiological science might not have been made. And the curious thing is — a cir- cumstance to which I would particularly direct your attention — the word purpose is constantly employed even by those who are most strenuous in denying th^ reality of the fact. The supposition of pur- pose is used as a working hypothesis by the most extreme materialists. The recognition of an imminent 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 Hartmann, according to whom the universe is the outcome of unconsciousness, speaks of "the wisdom of the unconscious," of "the mechanical contrivances which it employs," of "the direct activity in bringing about complete adaptation to the peculiar nature of the case," of "its incursions into the human brain which determine the course of history in all departments of civiliza- tion in the direction of the goal intended by the unconscious." Pur- pose, then, has not been eliminated from the universe by the discover^ ies 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 argu- ment from design. If the world is not due to purpose it must be the result of chance. This alternative cannot 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 explained; merely a statement of the way in which things happen, e. g., the law of gravitation in the fact that all material 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 cannot be explained by the law, for the law is nothing but the precise expression of the fact. To say that the gravi- tation 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 explained 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 appear- ance of purpose in nature could have been produced by chance. Ar- rangements which look intentional may sometimes be purely accidental. Something was bound to come of the play of the primeval atoms. Why not the particular world in which we find ourselves? Why not? For this reason: It is only within narrow bounds that Recognition of a Purpose. A Law of Na- ture Explains Nothing. 78 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. An Infinites- imal Fraction in a Universe. Evidences of Purpose. Other Evi dences of a Supreme Intelligence. seemingly purposeful arrangements are accidentally produced. And, therefore, as the signs of purpose increase the presumption in favor of their accidental origin diminishes. It is the most curious phenomenon in the history of thought that the philosophers who delight in calling themselves experienced should have countenanced the theory of the accidental origin of the world, a theory with which our experience, as far. as it goes, is completely out of harmony. When only eleven planets were known De Morgan showed that the odds against their moving in one direction around the sun with a slight inclination of the planes of their orbits — had chance determined the movement — would have Seen twenty billions to one. And this movement of the planets is but a single item, a tiny detail, an infinitesimal fraction in a universe which, notwithstanding all arguments to the contrary, still appears to be pervaded through and through with purpose. Let every human being now alive upon the earth spend the rest of his days and nights writing down arithmetical figures; let the enormous numbers which these figures would represent — each number forming a library in itself — be all added together; let this result be squared, cubed, multiplied by itself ten thousand times, and the final product would fall short of ex- pressing 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 purpose. '' Science," says Lange", "starts from the prin- ciple of the intelligibleness of nature." To interpret is to explain, and nothing can be explained that is not in itself rational. Reason can only grasp what is reasonable. You cannot explain the conduct of a fool. You cannot interpret the actions of a lunatic. They 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 ^n guessing at these thoughts; scientific verification in proving that we have guessed aright.' " O, God," says Kepler, when he discovered the laws of plan- etary motion, "O, God, I think again Thy thoughts after Thee," There could be no course of nature, no law of sequence, no possibility of scientific predictions, in a senseless play of atoms. But, as it is, we knov/ exactly how the forces of nature act and how they will continue to act. We can express their mode of working in the most precise mathematical formulae. Every fresh discovery in science reveals anew the order, the law, the system; in a word, the reason which underlies material phenomena. And reason is the outcome of mind. It is mind in action. Nor is it only within the realm of science that we can detect traces of a supreme intelligence. Kant and Hegel have shown that the whole of our conscious experience implies the existence of a mind other than but similar to our own. For students of philosophy it is needless to explain this; for others it would be impossible within the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 79 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 infinite 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 miprovement, inspires us with confidence. It suggests, indeed, that the Creator is not omnipotent, in the vulgar sense of being able to do impossibilities; but it also suggests that the difficulties of creation are being surely though slowly overcome. Now, it may be asked, 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 weakness. Thisis the greatest mistake. Restraint may be an evidence of power, of superiority, of perfection. Why is poetry so much more beautiful than prose? Because of the restraints of conscience. Many things are possible for a prose writer which are impossible for a poet; many things are possible for a villain which are impossible for a man of honor; many things are possible for a devil which are impossible for a God. The fact is, infinite wisdom and goodness involve nothing less than infinite restraint. When we say that God cannot 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 wath only three sides or a line with only one end? Admitting, for the sake of argument, that theoretically He had the power, do you suppose that under any conceivable circumstances He would use it? Surely not. It would be prostitution. 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 deliberately 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 being, therefore, who attempted to reverse the truth of mathematics would not be divine. To mathematical necessity Deity itself must yield. Progressive- ness of the World. Infinite straint. Re- Mathematical Necessity. 80 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Similarly in the physical sphere there must be restraints equally necessary 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 strainf^Necet worse than our own. For consider, sometimes pain is needed as a sary. warning to preserve US from greater pain; to keep us from destruc- tion. If pain had not been attached to injurious actions and habits, all sentient beings would long ago have passed out of existence. Sup- pose, e. g., that fire did not cause pain, we might easily be burnt to death before we knew we were in danger. Suppose the loss of health were not attended with discomfort, we should lack the strongest mo- tive for preserving it. And the same is true of the pangs of remorse which follow what we call sin. Further, pain is necessary for the development of character, especially in its higher phases. In some way or other, though, we cannot tell exactly how, pain acts as an intel- lectual and spiritual stimulus. The world's greatest teachers, Dante, Shakespeare, Darwin, etc., have been men who suffered much. Suffer- ing, moreover, develops in us pity, mercy, and the spirit of self-sacri- fice; it develops in us self-respect, self-reliance and all that is implied in the expression, strength of character. In no other way could such a character be conceivably acquired. It could not have been bestowed upon us by a creative fiat; it is essentially the result of personal con- flict. Even Christ became perfect through suffering. And there is also a further necessity for pain arising from the reign of law. There is, no doubt, something awesome in the thought of the abso- lute inviolability of law; in the thought that nature goes on her way quite regardless of your wishes or mine. She is so strong and so indif- ferent! The reign of law often entails on individuals the direst suffer- ing. But if the Deity interfered with it He would at once convert the The Reign of ^i^iverse into chaos. The first requisite for a rational life is the certain Law. knowledge that the same effects will always follow from the same cause; that they will never be miraculously averted; that they will never be miraculously produced. It seems hard — it is hard — that a mother should lose her darling child by accident or disease, that she cannot by any agony of- prayer recall the child to life. 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 such viola- tion were unattended with death men would lose the great induce- ment to discover and obey them. It seems hard — it is hard — that the man who has taken poison by accident dies, as surely as if he had taken it on purpose. But it would be harder for the world if he did not. If one act of carelessness were ever overlooked, the race would cease to feel the necessity for care. It seems hard — it is hard — that children 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 wrong doing were averted from the children, the fathers would lose the best incentive to do right. Vicarious suffering has a great part to play in the moral THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 81 development of the world. Each individual is apt to think that an exception 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 liv- ing in a disorderly universe; we should lose the sense of the para- mount importance of conduct; we should know that we were the sport of chance. Pain, therefore, was an unavoidable necessity in the creation of Tendency To- the best of all possible worlds. But, however many and however great waM Right- were the difficulties 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 remark- able, 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 triumphs over evil. And this tendency toward righteousness, by which we find our- selves encompassed, meets with a ready, an ever readier response in our own hearts. We cannot help respecting goodness, and we have inextinguishable longings for its personal attainment. Notwithstand- ing "sore lets and hindrances," notwithstanding the fiercest tempta- tions, notwithstanding 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 until the tendency within us is brought into perfect unison with the tendency without us, until we also make for righteousness steadily, unremit- tingly 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 scientific, nay, the commonest experience of everyday life, implies the existence of a mind which is omnipresent and eternal, while the tend- Development ency toward righteousness, which is so unmistakably manifest in the course of history, together with 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. of Goodness. "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 \>^X' 83 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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." ^he /argument for Immortality. Paper by REV. PHILIP S. MOXOM, of the University of Chicago. Life of the Human Spirit. is impossible, of course, within the limits pf this brief paper even to state the entire argu- ment 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: First, it is doubtful if any reasoning on this subject would be intelligible to man if he did not have precedently at least a capacity for immortality. However we may define it, there ll^ is that in man's nature which makes him sus- ^ ceptible to the tremendous idea of everlasting existence. Here sits he, shaping wings to fly; His heart forebodes a mystery; He names the name Eternity! It would seem that only a deathless being, in the midst of a world in which all forms of life perceptible by his senses are born and die in endless procession, 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 separate man 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 of which he thinks. A second preliminary consideration is that immortality is insep- arably 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 present, impossible in the ordinary sense of the phrase "scientific proof." The life of the human spirit is a transcendent fact. It cannot be co-ordinated with the phenomena of nature on which the scientific mind is turned. Even the miracle of a physical resurrection, while it 84 Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D. D., Boston. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 87 would be demonstration of revival from death, would not prove immor- tality; for it would be a transaction quite as much on the plane of the material as revival from a swoon, and, as death supervened once, it might supervene again. Demonstration of immortality lies solely in the sphere of personal experience. The man who, from blindness, attains sight, has demon- stration of the reality of vision; but even he could not demonstrate that reality to blind men. So only the soul that has entered upon immortality has demonstration of that supreme reality, and "though one should rise from the dead," yet would he be incapable of demon- strating immortality to mortal man. It is both interesting and immensely suggestive that while St. Paul evidently argues immortality from the attested resurrection of Jesus, Jesus Himself uttered no word basing the doctrine of immortality on the mere fact of His return from death in the sphere of sense perception. True, He said to His disciples, 'Because I live ye shall live also;" but that was an affirmation entirely apart from the implications of physical resurrection. None of the highest, the essentially spiritual, facts of man's knowledge and experience fall within the scope of what is known as scientific proof. God, the soul, truth, love, righteousness, repentance, faith, beauty, the good — all these are unapproachable by scientific tests; yet these and not salts and acids and laws of cohesion and chemical affinity and gravitation, are the supreme realities of man's life even in this world of matter and force. When one demands scientific proof of immortality, then it is as if he demanded the linear measurement of a principle, or the troy weight of an emotion, or the color of an affection, or as if he should insist upon finding the human soul with his scalpel or microscope. A fourth consideration is that immortality is . inseparable from personality. The whole significance of man's existence lies ultimately in its discreetness — in the evolution and persistence of the self- conscious ego. Men cheat themselves with phrases who talk about the re-absorption of the finite soul in the infinite soul. The finite and the infinite co-exist in this world; that of itself is proof that they may co-exist in the next world and forever. The absorption of the con- scious finite into the infinite is unthinkable save as the annihilation of the finite. With the semblance of deeply religious self-abnegation, this idea of human destiny mocks the heart and hope of man by eternally frus- trating the supreme end of aspiritual creation. The treasures of life — of its struggle and passion and pain— are inseparable from personality — the unfolding and perfecting being ir whom the continuity of experience conserves the results of all th divine education of man; the perfected individual fulfilling himself in the perfected society, the ever unfolding kingdom of God. The loss of personality is, for man, the loss of being. Extinction is remediless waste. In nature there is no waste. Individuals perish, but the type remains in ever recurring forms that but repeat the antecedent forms by absorbing their disor- Demonstra- tion of Immor- tality. L088 of Per sonality. SB THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIOMS. ganized substance. There is succession and there is economy, but no advance. In man, because he is a spiritual personality, there is the possibility and the realization of endless progress, not the mere recur- rence of types nourished on the decay of preceding types. The loss of personality is utter loss of life, and such self-abnega- tion as the poet contemplates, were it possible, would be suicide and the lapse of human life into absolute, hopeless failure. The plea that the desire for "personal immortality" (as if there were or could bean impersonal immortality) is selfish, is at once specious and false. The greatest service which we can render to our kind, present or future, is by and through the fullness and strength and sweetness of personality to which we attain. To covet this is the supreme passion of unselfish- ness. " One sows and another reaps," said Jesus, but " that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together " The argument for immortality presents as its first, if not its weightiest consideration, the fact that the belief in the survival of the soul after death is well nigh universal. Practically, it is co-extensive and co-etaneous with the human race. In this respect it is like the belief in God. Within the bounds of our knowledge there is no people nor even a considerable tribe entirely destitute of some idea of God. Quatrefages and other anthropologists make this affirmation. In the case of rare apparent exceptions it is safe to assume that these are due to a lack of adequate and accurate knowledge on the part of inves- tigators. So intimately are these two ideas related — the idea of God and the idea of the perdurable soul — that it is not surprising to find them held co-extensively by mankind. Immortality is not merely an idea to which man in his progress upward from the brute has attained, it is also and increasingly a desire. Thou madest man, he knows not why, He thinks he was not made to die. There is in humanity an instinctive revolt against death. This is far more than our natural recoil from the pain of physical dissolution. Jferolt Against Indeed the fear of death is in part due to the still imperfect discrim- ®^^ • ination in the minds of most men between the fact of mere physical death and the complete extinction of being. Death is the palpable contradiction of life. Man Thinks he was not made to die And instinctively revolts from the threatened termination of his existence. The belief in immortality and the aspiration for immortality, not- withstanding apparent exceptions which a particular time, when special moods are dominant, seems to present, grow stronger with the growth of men, and they are strongest in the best. The wisest, the most spiritual, may be the least dogmatic, but they hold the finest and the most efficacious faith in the persistence of the human spirit through and beyond the death of the body. We are dealing here with a broad and multiform fact of experience and observation. Man does believe that He was not made to die. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 8d And that belief, allying with itself the most of the faiths and hopes and purposes that make life worth living, becomes a reasonable evidence that the belief is a result and reflex of the possession of immortality. Moreover, the universality and strength of the desire suggests its fulfillment. There is prophecy in pure and elemental human desire if we believe in God. The principle of correlation in natural, gains in significance as it is carried up into the spiritual realm. The adoption of supply to need in the whole realm of creature life surely does not cease the moment we rise above the level of sense. It is a fair inference that if man has an appetite and a need for an existence beyond the material life which he shares with plant and ani- aNeeS^^^^'^' mal, there is provision for that need in the divine ordering of the uni- verse. In the experience of men we see instinct growing into idea, and idea ripening into conviction, and conviction shaping not only philos- ophy but the entire conduct of life. That conviction gives steadiness to the thinker, patience to the sufferer and energy and inspiration to the toiler, for it makes life intelligible when otherwise it would sink in confusion and defeat. "For my own part," says John Fiske, *T believe in the immortality of the soul, not in the sense in which I accept the demonstrable truths of science, but as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God's work." Man is God's creature, the evolution of His thought and the product of His love, and his instinctive belief that "life is life forever more" is but his "faith in the reasonableness of God's work." The denial of immortality is always an artificial product; it is not a natural stage in the progress of thought, but the corollary of the philosophy which regards humanity not as an end, but as "a local inci- dent in an endless and aimless series of cosmical changes." s An argument for immortality is grounded in the nature of the human mind, that is, in the nature of man as an intelligent being. I cannot pause here to consider the materialistic conception of mind which excludes the possibility of life after the organism has perished, because it identifies mind with organism. It will suffice to quote these trenchant sentences from Fiske: "The only thing which cerebral physiology tells us, when studied with the aid of molecular physics, is against the materialist, so far as it goes. It tells us that, during the present life, although thought and feeling are always manifested in connection with a peculiar form of matter, yet by no possibility can thought and feeling be in any sense the products of matter. Nothing could be more grossly unscientific than the famous remark of Cabanis, that the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile. It is not even correct to say that thought goes on in the brain. What goes on in the brain is an amazingly complex series of molecular movements with which thought and feeling are in some unknown way correlated, not as effects or as causes, but as con- comitants. * * * The materialistic assumption * * * that 90 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. the life of the soul accordingly ends with the life of the body, is pet- haps the most colossal instance of baseless assumption that is known to the history of philosophy." An argument for immortality, to many the strongest argument of all, is that which is drawn from revelation. Naturally this argument Drawn from appeals chiefly to those whose minds have been nourished on the Revelation. Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The implications of the most spiritual utterances of the Hebrew prophets and psalmists are on the side of man's immortality. The teachings of the New Testa- ment are surcharged with the idea and the atmosphere of immortality Whoever accepts these needs no other argument To expound them here in detail is unnecessary, even were there time. But revelation is broader than the Bible, for it is the communication of spiritual truth to man by the immediate action of the divine spirit, and that is not limited even to the great and incomparable writings of Hebrew prophet and Christian seen But were we confined to the sacred scriptures we should have ample ground and reason for the faith That those we call the dead Are breathers of an ampler day. Whatever the Scriptures contain with respect to the triumph of the soul over death reaches highest expression in the character and teachings of Jesus. Nowhere does Jesus explicitly affirm the abstract truth of man's immortality, but it is the ever-present assumption that is absolutely necessary to the intelligibility of His doctrines and His life and death. Many are His sayings which imply the deathlessness of the human spirit. Many and strong are His affirmations of life eternal. But more impressive even than His words are His constant air and temper. He speaks out of a consciousness of indwelling life to which death, sav^ as an incident in physical experience, is absolutely foreign. The three words that are dominantly expressive of that consciousness are "light," "life" and "God." So domesticated is He in the sphere of eternal moral being that we feel no shock when He speaks of Himself as "The Son of man who is in Heaven." The consciousness of Jesus, as revealed in His speech, approaches as near to a demonstration of immortality as is possible to souls that have not passed through the gate of death. In His last hours before the betrayal, fully aware of what awaited Him, with the seriousness that imminent death must ever give to the calm and thoughtful soul. He spoke to His disciples words, the significance of which lies less even in their explicit sense than in the time and situation and manner in which they were spoken: "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe in Me. In my Father's house are many abiding places. If it were not so, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and will receive you to Myself, that where I am ye may be also." One cannot read those words, even at this remote day, without feeling the calm certainty as of impregnable faith and clear insight THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 91 which breathes through them to infect his heart with happy con- fidence. The teaching of Jesus in its entire scope is unintelligible apart from the fact of immortality,and the unique person of Jesus and His transcendent life among men, and His profound and ever deepening influence on human lives is inexplicable apart from the fact of immor- tality Out of a full consciousness of an indwelling divine life which could not know death He said, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Such a personality and such a life would make man immortal by con- tagion.. With true insight Emerson exclaimed: "Jesus explained nothing, but the influence of Him took people out of time, and they felt eternity." Of revelation as a subjective experience in its bearing on the argu- ment for immortality little has been said, but somewhat has been im- plied in the preceding pages. The communication of God with man is not limited to objective means and forms In the deeper and simpler spiritual natures there is a witness of the ever permanent God. In man's experience there are moments of illumination that compensate for many years of darkness and struggle and pain. There are crises in our lives when we suddenly grow conscious of the real greatness of our nature through the disclosure within us of capacities that nothing but the infinite and the eternal can satisfy Then the soul recognizes itself in God, and through communion with Him immortality passes from a faith into an experience — an actual participation in the eternal love and thought and being of God. Experience of this sort makes clear the truth that immortality is not only a divine gift, but also a moral achievement of man. In other Sarvivaiol worlds, as well as this, the fit survive, and the fit are they who, per- the Fittest, ceiving the prize, press their way into fullness of life by the avenues and process of the spirit. On the subject of immortality the science that deals with the facts and forces of matter has nothing to say, either for or against. To immortality a life of sensual indulgence is insensi- ble or repugnant. To the soul that knows God and strives toward the ideals of culture and character which rise in divine beckonings before us, immortality dawns in growing reasonableness and attractiveness, grows from a hope into an assurance, and from a serene faith deepens into a conscious experience which neither time nor death can bring to an end. Mt. Lebanon and Cedars. The §oul and [ts puture Life. Paper by REV. SAMUEL M. WARREN, of the Swedenborgian Church. T is a doctrine of the New Church that the soul is substantial — though not of earthly substance — and is the very man; that the body is merely the earthly form and instrument of the soul, and that every part of the body is produced from the soul, according to its likeness, in order that the soul may be fitted to perform its functions in the world during Jthe brief but important time that this is the place of man's conscious abode. If, as all Christians believe, man is an im- mortal being, created to live on through the endless ages of eternity, then the longest life in this world is, comparatively, but as a point, an infinitessimal part of his existence. In this view, 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 substantial which is more enduring, and that is the more real part of man in which his characteristics and his qualities are. Ail the facts and phenomena of life confirm the doctrine that the soul is the real man. What makes the quality of a man? What gives him character as good or bad, small or great, lovable or detest- able? Do these qualities pertain to the body? Every one knovvS that they do not. But they are the qualities of the man. Then the real man is not the body, but is '*the living soul." If there is immor- tal 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 cannot be a formless vaporous thing and be a man. Can it have other than the human form? Reason clearly sees that if formless or in any other form he would not be a man. The soul of man, or the real man, is a marvelous assemblage of powers an4 93 Form of the Soul. 94 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, faculties of will and understanding, and the human form is such as it is because it is perfectly adapted to the exercise of these various powers and faculties; in other words, the soul forms itself, under the Divine Maker's hand, into an organism by which it can adequately and perfectly put forth its wondrous and wonderfully varied powers, and bring its purposes into acts. The human form is thus an assemblage of organs that exactly cor^ respond to and embody and are the express image of the various fac- Form of the ultics of the ?oul. And there is no organ of the human form the ^^1- absence of which would not hinder and impede the free and efficient action and putting forth of the soul's powers. And by the human form is not meant merely, nor primarily, the organic forms of the material body. The faculties are of the soul, and if the soul is the man, and endures when the body decays and vanishes, it must itself be in a form which is an assemblage of organs perfectly adapted and adequate to the exercise of its powers, that is, in the human form. The human form is then primarily and especially the form of the soul — which is the perfection of all forms, as man, at his highest, is the consummation and fullness of all living and intelligent attributes. But when does the soul itself take on its human form? Is it not until the death of the body? Manifestly, if it is the very form of the soul, the soul cannot exist without it, and it is put on in and by the fact of its creation and the gradual development of its powers. It could have no other form and be a human soul. Its organs are the necessary organs of its faculties and powers, and these are clothed 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 pres- ervation of his identity. For in the soul are the distinguishing qual- ities that constitute the individuality of a man — all those certain characteristics affectional and intellectual which make up such or such a man, and distinguish and differentiate him from all other men. He remains, therefore, the same man to all eternity. He may become more and more, to endless ages, an angel of light — even as here a man may advance greatly in wisdom and intelligence, and yet is always the same man. This doctrine of the soul involves also the permanency of established character. The life in this world is the period of char- acter building. It has been very truthfully said that a man is a bundle of habits. What manner of man he is depends on what his manner of life has been. If evil and vicious habits are continued through life they are fixed and confirmed and become of the very life, so that the man loves and desires no other life, and does not wish to— will not be led out of them — because he loves the practice of them. On the other hand, if from childhood a man has been inured to virtuous habits, these habits becpme fixed and established and of his very soul and life. In either THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 95 case the habits thus fixed and confirmed are of the immortal soul and constitute its permanent character. The body, as to its part, has been but the pliant instrument of the soul. With respect to the soul's future life, the first important consider- ation is what sort of a world it will inhabit. If we have shown good reasons for believing the doctrine that the soul is not a something the'lto^^wm formless, vague and shadowy, but is itself an organic human form, sub- l^^^bit. stantial, and the very man, then it must inhabit a substantial and very real world. It is a gross fallacy of the senses, but there is no sub- stance but matter, and nothing substantial but what is material. Is not God, the Divine, Omnipotent Creator of all things, substantial? Can Omnipotence be an attribute of that which has no substance and no form? Is such an existence conceivable? But He is not material and not visible or cognizable by any mortal sense. Yet we know that He is substantial; for it is manifest in His wondrous 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 the reality of the spiritual world that makes this world real, just as it is the reality of the soul that makes the human body a reality and a possibility. As there could be no body without the. soul there could be no natural world without the spiritual. Not only is that world substantial, but it must be a world of sur- passing loveliness and beauty. It has justly been considered one of the most beneficent manifestations of the divine love and wisdom that this beautiful world that we briefly inhabit is so wondrously adapted to all men's wants and to call into exercise and gratify his every faculty and good desire. And when he leaves this temporary abode, a man with all his faculties exalted and refined by freedom from the incumbrance of the flesh — an incumbrance which we are often very conscious of — will he not enter a world of beauty exceeding the loveliest aspects of this? The soul is human and the world in which it is to dwell is adapted to human life; and it would not be adapted to human life if it did not adequately meet and answer to the soul's desires. Is it reasonable that this material world should be so full of life and loveliness and beauty, where "Nature spreads for every sense a feast," to gratify every exaitcC' faculty of the soul, and not the spiritual world, wherein the soul is to abide forever. And the life of that world is human life. The same laws of life and happiness obtain there that govern here, because they are grounded in human nature. Man is a social being, and even there, in that world as in this, desires and seeks the companionship of those that are congenial to him; that is, who are of similar quality to him- self. Men are thus mutually drawn together by spiritual affinity. This is the law of association here, but it is less perfectly operative in this world, because there is much dissimulation among men, so that they often do not appear to be what they really are, and thus by false and deceptive appearances the good and the evil are often associated together. 96 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, And so it is for a time and in a measure in the first state and region into which men come when they enter the spiritual world. They go into that world as they are, and are at first in a mixed state, as in this world. This continues until the real character is clearly manifest, and Separation of good and evil are separated, and they are thus prepared for their final ® ^^ ^^* and permanent association and abode. They who, in the world, have made some real effort, an ' ' ^ ^ - vg to live a good life, but have evil habits not yet overcome, remani there until they are entirely purified of evil, and are fitted for some society of heaven; and those who inwardly are evil and have outwardly assumed a virtuous garb, remain until their dissembled goodness is cast off and their inward character becomes outwardly manifest. When this state of separation is complete there can be no successful dissimulation — the good and the evil are seen and known as such and the law of spiritual affinity becomes per- fectly operative by their own free volition and choice. Then the evil and the good become entirely separated into their congenial societies. The various societies and communities of the good thus associated constitute heaven and those of the evil constitute hell — not by any arbitrary judgment of an angry God, but of voluntary choice, by the perfect and unhindered operation of the law of human nature that leads men to prefer and seek the companionship of those most con- genial to themselves. As regards the permanency of the state of those who by estab- lished evil habit are fixed and determined in their love of evil life, it is not of the Lord's will, but of their own. We are taught in His Holy Word that He is ever ** gracious and full of compassion." He would that they should turn from their evil ways and live, but they will not. There is no moment, in this or in the future life, when the infinite mercy of the Lord would not that an evil man should turn from his evil course, and live a virtuous and upright and happy life; but they will not in that world for the same reason that they would not in this, because when evil habits are once fixed and confirmed they love them and will not turn from them. '* Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may they also do good that are accus- tomed to do evil." Heaven is a heaven of man and the life of heaven is human life. The conditions of lite in that exalted state are greatly different from the conditions here, but it is human life adapted to such transcendent conditions, and the laws of life in that world, as we have seen, are the same as in this. Man was created to be a free and will- ing agent of the Lord to bless his kind. His true happiness comes, not in seeking happiness for himself, but in seeking to promote the happiness of others. Where all are animated by this desire, all 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 u, eful ways in heaven by which they can contribute to each other's happiness. And of such Empioydients kind will be the employments of heaven, for there must be useful lu Heaven. employments. There could be no happiness without to beings who THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 97 are designed and formed for usefulness to others. What the employ- ments are in that exalted condition we cannot well know, except as some of them are revealed to us, and of them we have faint and fee- ble conception. But, undoubtedly, one of them is attendance 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. truthfulness of H^ly §criptures. Paper by REV. CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D. D., of New York. Must Face Criticism and Science. HE time alotted 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 re- garded as the inspired word of God. Prom • inent among those sacred books are the Holy Scriptures of the Christian church. The his- tory of the Christian church shows that it is the intrinsic excellence of these Holy Script- ures which has given them the control of so large a portion of our whole race. With a few exceptions the Christian religion was not extended by force of arms or by the arts of statesmanship, but by the holy lives 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 confidently to all men: "All the sacred books of the world are now accessible to you; study them; compare them; rec- ognize all that is good and noble and true in them all and tabulate results, and you will be convinced that the Holy Scriptures of the Old an I 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 dark- ness of the night, but the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Tes- taments are like the sun shining in the heavens and lighting up the whole world. We are living in a scientific age, which demands that every tradi- tional statement shall be tested. Science explores the earth in its height and breadth in search of truth; it explores the heavens in order to solve the mysteries of the universe; it investigates all the monu- ments of history, whether of stone or of metal, and that man must be lacking in intelligence, or in observation at least, who imagines that 98 Rev. Charles A. Briggs, D. D., New York. i THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 101 the sacred books of the Christian religion or the institutions of the Christian church shall escape the criticism 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 criti- cism is a faith so weak and uncertain chat 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 depart- ments of human investigation sooner or later come in contact with the Christian Scriptures; all find somethmg that accords with them or con- flicts with them, and the question forces itself upon us. Can we main- scientific tain the truthfulness of the Holy Scriptures in the face of modern Errors, science? We are obliged to admit that there are scientific errors in the Bible, errors of astronomy, geology, zoology, botany and anthro- pology. In all these respects there is no evidence that the authors of the Scriptures had any other knowledge than that possessed by their contemporaries. Their statements are such as indicate ordinary obser- vation 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 nineteenth century, why should any one suppose that the Divine Spirit influenced them in relation to any such matters as science? Why should they be kept from mis-statements, misconceptions and errors in such respects? The Divine Spirit wished to use them as religious teachers, and so long as they made no mis- takes 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 geog- raphy, discrepancies and inconsistencies which cannot 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 writ- ers of the Scriptures received any of their history by revelation from God. There is no evidence that the Divine Spirit corrected these nar- ratives. 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 discov- ered disturb the religious lessons of the Biblical history, and those les- sons are the only ones whose truthfulness we are concerned to defend. [Applause.] Higher criticism recognizes faults of grammar, of rhetoric and logic in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, 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 consid- erable number of unknown editors. In this process of editing, arrang- 102 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. ing, subtraction and reconstruction, extending through so many cent- uries, what evidence have we that these unknown editors were kept from error in all their work? They were guided by the Divine Spirit in their comprehension and expression of the divine instruction, but, judging also from their work, it seems most probable that they were not guided by the Divine Spirit in grammar, rhetoric, logic, expression, arrangement of material or general editorial work. They were left to those errors which even the most faithful and scrupulous of writers will sometimes make. The science which approaches the Bible from without and the science which studies it from within agree as to the essential facts of the case. Now, can the truthfulness of Scripture be maintained by those who recognize these errors? There is no reason why the substantial truthfulness of the Bible shall not be consistent with circumstantial errors. God did not speak Himself in the Bible except a few words recorded here and there; He spoke in much greater portions of the Old Testament through the voices and pens of the human authors 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 pass- ive in the hands of God, the question is. Can the human voice and pen express truth of the infinite God? How can an imperfect word, an imperfect sentence express the divine truth? It is evident that 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 intuition, and framed them in imagination and fancy. Then, if the divine truth passed through the conception and imagina- tion of the human mind, did the human mind receive it fully without any fault or shadow of error; did the human mind add anything to it or color it; was it delivered in its entirety exactly as it was received? How can we be sure of this when we see the same doctrine in such a variety of forms, all partial and all inadequate? All that we can claim is inspiration and accuracy for that which suggests the religious lessons to be imparted. God is true. He is the truth. He cannot lie; He cannot mislead or deceive His creatures. and Accuracy, ^ut the question arises. When the infinite God speaks to finite man, must He speak words which are not error? This depends not only upon God's speaking, but on man's hearing, and also of the means of communication between God and man. It is necessary to show the capacity of man to receive the Word before we can be sure that he transmitted it correctly. The inspiration of the Holy Scriptures does not carry with it inerrancy in every particular; it was suf^cient if the divine truth was given with such clearness as to guide men aright in religious life. The errors of Holy Scripture are not errors of falsehood or deceit, but of ignorance, inadvertence, partial and inadequate knowledge and of incapacity to express the whole truth of God which belonged to man as man. Just as light is seen, not in its pure unclouded state, but in THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 103 the beautiful colors of the spectrum, so it is that the truth of God, its revelation and communication to man, met with such obstacles in human nature. Men are capable of receiving it only in its diverse operations and diverse manners as it comes to them through the diverse temperaments and points of view of the biblical writers. The religion of the Old Testament is a religion which includes somethings hard to reconcile in an inerrant revelation. The sacrifice of Jephtha's daughter, the divine command to 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 puerilities? We can only say that God was training Israel to the meaning of the higher sacrifices- The offering up of children and domestic ani- mals was part of a preparatory discipline. But it was provisional and temporal discipline. It was the form necessary then to clothe the divine law of sacrifice 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 sacrifice for man. St. Paul calls them the weak and beggarly rudiments, the shadow of the things to come. We cannot defend the morals on 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 condemned. Is God to be held responsible for these twin relics of ^i^g,^J'„i?3e barbarism because He did not condemn, but, on the contrary, recognized them and restrained them in the early stages of His revelation? The patriarchs are not truthful. Their age seems to have had little com- prehension 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 attachment to the worship of God that his sins, though many, were all forgiven 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 character alto- gether 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 revenge in the Old Testament stand out in glaring contrast to the picture of Jesus Christ praying for His enemies, and it is the story of Christ that lifts us into a different ethical air from any of the Old Testament. We cannot 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 ripe for the higher revelation of His will Old Testament. 104 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, such as would guide His people in the right direction, with as steady and rapid a pace as they were capable of making. Jesus Christ teaches the true principle. You may judge the ethics of the Old Testament when He repealed the Mosaic laws of divorce. He said: "Moses, for 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, or with the mind and will of the holy God. [Applause.] God revealed Himself partially to the people of the Old Testa- ment in a way sufficient for their purposes of preparatory discipline, which revelation was to disappear forever when it had accomplished its purpose. The laws of the Old Testament have all been cast down Di^cfpUne^'^ ^V ^^^ Christian church, with the single exception of ten laws; and with reference to the fourth of 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 variety of beautiful poetical representa- tions, which give in the aggregate a grand conception of the creation, a fuller conception than the ordinary doctrine drawn from an interpre- tation of the first and second chapter of Genesis;. I grant He was con- ceived as the Father of the nations and of the kings. But as our Father made known to us through Jesus Christ, He was not known to the Old Testament dispensation. The profound depth of sympathy of God and of Jesus Christ were 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 inadequacy of ancient Israel to understand their God. We all know that the true God, whorn we all love and worship, 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 finds 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 1( i THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 105 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 omprehend. If, in the course of training for these ideals of redemp- ion for God's people, they have made mistakes, it is quite sure that orgiveness of sins was appropriated without any explanation 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 appreciation in the Old Testament of the richness of faith. It was Jesus Christ who first gave faith its unique place in the order of salva- tion — the doctrine of holy love; the doctrine of the future life and Sacrificeb of of the resurrection from the dead. Thus in every department of mentf"^ 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 reve- lation 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 Euro- pean, the South Sea Islander as well as the Asiatic, the child as well as the man. It is just in this respect that the Holy Scriptures in the New Testament are so permanent and have in them religious instruc- tions for the world. They were designs 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 uneducated years of his youthful days. It does not harm the Christian to see the many imperfections, crudities and errors of the more ele- mentary 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 imperfect medium, training them to their utmost capacity, to get man to raise them, to advance them in the true relig- ion. 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, trustworthy and reliable in their religious instruction. They are now, as they always have been, alto- gether truthful in their testimony to the heart and experience of mankind. 8 Tfhe (Jatholic Qhurch and the H^ly §criptures. Paper by RT. REV. MGR. SETON, of Newark, N. J. Written and Printed Word. IBLE is the name now given to the sacred books of the Jews and Christians. Indepen- dently of all considerations of its moral and religious advantages, we believe that no book has conduced more than the Bible to the intellectual advancement of the human race; we believe that no book has been to so many and so abundantly wealth in poverty, liberty in bondage, health in sickness, society in sol- itude; and as a divinely inspired work, such as the testimony of the Jewish nation for the greater part of it and the tradition of the Christian church for the whole of it, declares it to be, it claims our sincerest homage The relations of the church to these Scriptures of the Old and New Testament form an important part of dogmatic theology and an inter- esting portion of ecclesiastical history. They have, also, been the occasion of religious differences in the Christian body; for as the wise Englishman, John Selden, said in his Table Talk of two centuries ago, " 'Tis a great question how we know Scripture to be Scripture, whether by the church or by man's private judgment." We shall not discuss purely controversial matters, but limit ourselves to an introductory statement of facts and to a brief consideration of the Canon, the Inspiration and the Vulgate edition of Scripture. The church is a living society commissioned by Jesus Christ to preserve the word of God pure and unchanged. This revealed word of God is contained partly in the Holy Scripture and partly in tradi- tion. The former is called the Written Word of God. Writing, not necessarily, indeed, on paper, but as often found on more durable materials, such as clay or brick, tablets, stone slabs and cylinders, and metal plates, being the art of fixing thoughts in an intelligible and 106 ^ Y %l Rt. Rev. Mgr. Seton, Newark, N. J. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 109 lasting shape, so as to hand them down to other generations and thus perpetuate historical records. There is a special congruity that the Almighty, from whose instructions not only original spoken, but prob- ably also written, language was derived, should have put His divine revelations in writing through the instrumentality of chosen men; and as the human race is originally one, we think that the fact that script- ures of some sort claiming to be inspired are found in all the civilized nations of the past, shows that such conceptions, although outside of the orthodox line of tradition, are derived from the primitive unity and religion of the human family. The church teaches that the sacred Scriptures are the written Word of God and that He is their author, and consequently she receives 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 cannot be rightly interpreted contrary to her decision; because she claims to be and is the living, unerring authority to whom — and not to those who expound the 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 functions. She is historically independent of the Holy Script- ures, some parts thereof being anterior and other parts subsequent to her own existence, but receives safeguards and preserves them as her most sacred deposit, somewhat 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 conduct of public worship, has ever been the reading of the Script- ures with an explanation of what was read or an exhortation derived from it. Durmg 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 in- terpretation of the Holy Scripture, although never quite neglected, oc- cupied relatively only a small share in the studies of those times. The Catholic principles as to the general use of the Bible may be deduced from the Tridentine decree, which was particularly directed against those irreverent and sometimes blasphemous expounders of holy writ, whom the council qualifies 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 Founder to teach all nations, before the Scriptures as a whole existed and before there was question or dispute about any part of the Script- ures. Written Word of God. General Use of the Bible. 110 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The redemption by our Lord and Saviour 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 m a manner not less calculated to excite their piety than that which is conveyed by means of speech. During this present century several popes have warned the faithful against societies which distribute vernacular ver- ^^Vernacuiar sions, often corrupt ones, with the avowed purpose of unsettling the belief of simple-minded Catholics; but it is unjust to conclude from this that the church is not solicitous for her children to read the Bible if this be correctly rendered into their language and they possess the necessary qualifications and proper disposition. The Christian church did not receive the canon of Old Testament Scripture from the Jewish synagogue, because there was not settled Hebrew canon until long after the promulgation of the Gospel. The inspired writers of the New Testament did not enumerate the books received by Christ and His disciples. Nevertheless, we are certain that the Septuagint version, or translation of the Old Testament Scriptures vfrsiS.**^^^* 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 Saint Augustine says that it is "of most grave and pre-eminent authority." It is supposed to be the oldest of all the versions of the Scriptures and was commonly used in the church for four centuries, since from it was made that very early Latin translation which was used in the western part of the empire before the introduction of Saint Jerome's Vulgate. It was 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 Christians. From it the great body of the fathers have quoted, and it is still used in the Greek church. This celebrated translation contains all the books of the Old Testa- ment which Catholics acknowledge to be genuine. The ' Christian writers of the first three centuries were unanimous in accepting these books as inspired; and the letter of Pope Saint Clement, written about A. D. 96, indicates that a scriptural canon must already have been fixed upon by apostolical tradition in the church at Rome, since the author cites from almost every one of the books of the Old Testament, including those called deutero-canonical 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 union drawn up by Pope Eugene IV for the Orientals who came to Rome to abjure their errors, gives the canon as it had always been held by his predecessors. In the next century the Bible having become an occasion of bitter religious controversy, the canonicity of the Script- ures was thoroughly discussed and forever settled for Catholics by I THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 111 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 venerates 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 books be inserted in this decree, lest a doubt may arise in any one's mind which are the books that are received by this synod." Inspiration is a certain influence of the Holy Spirit upon the mind of a writer urging him to write, and so acting upon him that his work is truly the word of God. Father, since Cardinal, Franzelin's second thesis on the sacred Scriptures, m his course at the Roman college in 1864, states the Catholic idea of inspiration in the following words: •'As books may be called divine in several senses, the Scriptures, according to Catholic doctrine contained both in the apostolic writ- ings and in unbroken tradition, must be held to be divine in this sense, ideaof inspi. that they are the books of God as their efficient cause and that God ration, is the author of these books by His supernatural action upon their human writers, which action is styled inspiration in ecclesiastical terminology derived from the Scriptures themselves." The Holy Scriptures have been translated into every language, but among 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 opin- ion that, from the first age of Christianity, one particular version made from the Septuagint, was received and sanctioned by the church in Rome and used throughout the west. Among individual Christians almost innumerable Latin translations were current, but only one of these, called the Old Latin, bore an official stamp. These translations, corrections and. portions left untouched by Saint Jerome, being brought together form the Vulgate, which, how- ever, did not displace the old version for two centuries, although it spread rapidly and constantly gained strength, until about A. D 600 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 Saint Jerome, September 30th, he is called, *'A doctor mighty in expounding Holy Scripture." ^ m m 43 (character and D^g^^^ o^ the Inspiration of the Qhristian §criptures. Paper by REV. FRANK SEW ALL, of New York. j^ r^ HERE 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 con- tain a direct communication from the Divine Spirit to the mind and heart of man. The nature and the degree of the inspiration which thus characterizes the Bible can only be learned from the declaration of the Holy Scriptures themselves, since only the Divine can truly reveal the Divine or afford to human minds the means of judging truly regarding what is divine. The Christian Scripture, or the Holy Bible, is 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 portion we are enabled to derive a criterion of judgment regarding the degree of divine inspi- ration and authority to be attributed to those other scriptures which were to follow after our Lord's ascension and which constitute the New Testament. The Divine Canon of the Word in the Old Testament Scriptures ^^scrip^r' is declared by our Lord in Luke, twenty-fourth chapter, forty-fourth verse, where he says: "All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning 113 114 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Me." And in verses twenty-five to twenty-seven: "O, fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken;" and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scripture things concerning Himself. The Scriptures of the Old Testament, thus enumerated as testify- ing of Him and as being fulfilled in Him, embrace two of the three divisions into which the Jews at that time divided their sacred books. These two are the Law (Torah), or the Five Books of Moses, so-called, and the Prophets (Nebiim). Of the books contained in the third division of the Jewish canon, known as the Ketubim, or ''Other Writ- ings," our Lord recognizes but two; He names by title "The Psalms," and in Matthew, twenty-fourth chapter, fifteenth verse, when predict- ing the consummation of the age and His own second coming, our Lord cites the prophecy of Daniel. It is evident that our Lord was not governed by Jewish tradition in naming these three classes of the ancient books which were hencefo^-th 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 estab- lished in a twofold manner: First, intrinsically, as including those books which interiorly testify of Him, and were all to be fulfilled in The Law, the Him. Secondly, the canon is fixed specifically by our Lord's naming Se^Psaim?^^ the books whicfi 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" prophets, and finally the book of Psalms. The other books of the Old Testament are Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, Proverbs, First and Second Chronicles, Ruth, Esther, the Song 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 inexhaustible source of revelation and inspiration. We may regard, therefore, as established that the source of the divinity of the Bible, of its unity, and its authority as divine revelation lies in having the Christ — as the Eternal Word within it, at once its source, its inspiration, its prophecy, its fulfillment, its power to illuminate the minds of men with a knowledge of divine and spirit- ual things, to "convert the soul," to "make wise the simple." We next observe regarding these divine books, that, besides being Word of the thus Set apart by Christ, they declare themselves to be the word of the Lord in the sense of being actually spoken by the Lord and so as constituting a divine language. This shows that not only do these books claim to be of God's revealing, but that the manner of the revelation was that of direct dictation by means of a voice actually heard, as one hears another talking, although by the internal organs of hearing. The same is also true throughout the prophetical books above enumerated. Here we are met with the constant declaration of Lord. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 116 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 TheNewTes- which in the time of Christ were yet unwritten, criteria derived from tament. 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 four Gospels either: First. 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." Second 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 evangelists by the Holy Spirit according to His promise to them, in John xiv, 26. Besides the four Gospels we have the testimony of John the Revelator that the visions recorded in the Apocalypse were vouchsafed to him by the Lord Himself, thus showing that the book of Revelation is no mere personal communica- tion from the man John, but is the actual revelation of the Divine Spirit of truth itself. No such claims of direct divine inspiration or dictation are made in any other part of the New Testament Only to the four Gospels and to the book of Revelation could one presume to apply these words, written at the close of the Apocalypse and applying immedi- ately to it. " If any man shall take away from the words of the proph- ecy 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 pre-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 apo9tles and the evangelists themselves heard and the acts which they beheld and recorded had a meaning and content of which they were partially, and in some cases totally, ignorant. Thus when our Lord speaks of the "eating of His flesh" the disciples murmur, "This is an hard saying; who can bear it?" and when He speaks of "going away to the Father and coming again," the disciples say among themselves, "What is this that He saith? We cannot tell what He saith." If we look at the Apocalypse, with its strange visions, its myste- rious numbers and signs, if we read the prophets of the Old Testament, with their commingling of times and nations, and lands and seas, and things animate and inanimate, in a manner discordant with any con- ceivable earthly history or chronology, if we read the details of the ceremonial law dictated to Moses in the Mount by the "voice of Jeho- vah;" if we read in Genesis the account of creation and of the origins of human history, we are compelled to admit that the penmen record- 116 7^HE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS ing these things were writing that of which they knew not the meaning; that what they wrote did not represent their intelligence or counsel, but DinneReve- was the faithful record of what was delivered to them by the voice of i^^Deciared^** ^^ 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 parable 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 king- dom of heaven are clothed in the familiar figures of earthly speech and action. If the Bible is divine, the law of its revelation must be coin- cident with that of divine creation. 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 accord- ance with the receding and more and more sensualized states of man- kind upon earth. Hence, the successive dispensations, or church eras, which mark off the whole field of human history After the Eden days of open vision when "heaven lay about us in our infancy" fol- lowed the Noetic era of a sacred language, full of heavenly meanings, traces of which occur in the hieroglyphic writings and the great world — myths of most ancient tradition; then came the visible and localized theocracy of a chosen nation, with laws and ritual and a long history of its war and struggle and victory and decline, and the promise of a final- renewal and perpetuation; all being at the same time a revelation of God's providence and government over man, and a picture of the process of the regeneration 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 constitution, 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. Thus the process of the evolution 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 con- tinuance the Lord Himself testifies. The letter of Scripture is the cloud which everywhere proclaims the presence of the Infinite God with His creature man. The cloud of the Lord's presence is the infin- itely merciful adaptation of divine truth to the spiritual needs of humanity. The cloud of the literal gospel and of the apostolic tradi- tions of our Lord is truly typified by that cloud which received the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS. 117 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 ciond of the spiritual meaning of both the Old and New Testaments of His Word. Literal GospeL For ages the Christian church has stood gazing up into heaven in ado- ration of Him whom the cloud has hidden from their sight, and with the traditions of human dogma and the warring of schools and critics, more and more dense has the cloud become. In the thickness of the cloud it behooves the church to hold the more fast its faith in the glory within the cloud. The view of the Bible and its inspiration thus presented is only one compatible with a belief in it as a divine in contradistinction from a human production. Were the Bible a work of human art, embody- ing human genius and human wisdom, then the question of the writers* individuality and their personal inspiration, and even of the time and circumstances amid which they wrote, would be of the first importance. Not so if the divine 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 meanings such as they could never possess were its inspira- tion 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 revelation of the divine; the scientific theories may come and go with the changing minds of men. It is not, then, from man, from the intelligence 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 circum- stance, but speaks to man at all times and under all circumstances; if they have a validity and an authority self-dictated to human souls, which survives the passing of earthly 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 may we feel sure that we have in the words of our Bible that which is diviner than any pen- man that wrote them. Here is that which " speaks with authority and not as the scribes." 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 118 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS. the conscience of man is contained, like the flame of the Urim and Thummim, on the breastplate of the high priest, in the bosom of its It Abideth own language to reveal itself by the spirit to all who will " have an ear Foreyer. ^q hear." So shall it continue to utter the ** dark parables of old which we have known and our fathers have told us," and "to show forth to all generations the praises of the Lord," becoming ever more and more translucent with the glory that shines within the cloud of the letter; and so shall the church rest, amid all the contentions that engage those who study the surface of revelation, whether in nature or in Scripture, in the undisturbed assurance that the "Word of the Lord abideth forever." I o Influence of the Hebrew Scriptures, Paper by DR. ALEXANDER KOHUT, of New York. Viewed in the Light of Faith. _ Characteris- tics of Israel's Faith. O them who, cradled in the infancy of faith, rocked by the violent tempests of adversity and tried by passion waves of lurking tempta- tion; who, seeking virtue find but vice; who, striving for the ideal, 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 hur- ricane of outward seas into the gladsome, 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 efful- gence 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 universal 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 inex- haustible 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 more universally acknowledged with the dawn of unbiased reason, turned upon history with the 120 Dr. Alexander Kohut, New York. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 123 Diogenes lantern of searching justice. The religion of Israel is the grandest romance of idealism, blended with the sedate realism of ter- restrial perpetuity. Every unprejudiced mind gladly acknowledges that the Bible, the divine encyclopedia of unalienable truths and morals, belongs to the world, like the sun, the air, the ocean, the rivers, the fountains — the common heirloom of humanity. The doctrine of divine unity, by collecting all the scattered race of beauty and excellence, from every quarter of the universe, and con- densing them into one overpowering conception — by tracing the innu- merable rills of thought and feeling to the fountain of an infinite mind — surpasses the most elegant and ethereal polytheism immeasur- ably more than the sun does the "cinders of the element." However beautiful the mythology of Greece, as interpreted by Wordsworth, it must yield without a struggle to the thought of a great One Spirit. Compared to those conceptions, how does the fine dream of the pagan mythus melt away; Olympus, with its multitude of stately, celestial natures dwindles before the solitary, immutable throne of Adonay, the poetry as well as the philosophy of Greece shrink before the single sentence, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," or before any one of these ten majestic commands hurled down amid lurid blaze above in a halo of divine revelation! The history of the Jewish nation offers to the consideration of the philosopher and the chronicler many peculiar circumstances nowhere else exemplified in any one branch of the great family of mankind, originating from one common stem. In all the characteristics which iistinguish the Israelites from other nations, the difference is wide. The most remarkable of the distinctions which divide the Jewish people from the rest of the world is the immutability of their laws. Revelation, the primal source of inspiration and prophecy, set the universe on fire with a torch of blazing grandeur aglow with the com- bustible sparks of heaven-imparted gifts and illuminated the softly creeping shadows of fast decaying races with the brightest colors of a future hope. Revelation, the essence of religious relief, was the guid- Essence of ing star in the unstudded labyrinth of national and individual progress Religious Be- 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 vouchsafed to a people at one time." The Mosaic ordinance, with its unequaled mastery of detail, its com- prehensiveness of character, its universality of human rights and rigid suppression of most trivial wrongs, its earnest, nay, enthusiastic avowal and championship of truth, justice, morality and above all righteous- ness — yet the firmest seal of His imperishable document — is the most unique marvel of lofty wisdom and divine forethought ever penned into the inspired records of ancient history. Righteousness, from its patriarchal 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 lief. ity. 124 The WdkLD'S congress of religions, commended by the sages of the Talmud, embodying the frequent teachings of the Nazarene, pleads most eloquently Judea's claim as the first moral preceptor of antiquity. Bible ethics, justice, morality, righteousness and all the mighty elements embodied in virtuous life are summed up in Judaism's great truths, faithfully portrayed and preserved to mankind in that ponder- ous volume of poetic inspirations. Israel's Bible first re-echoed the reverberating melody of truth as a musical synonym for omniscience. No more plausible evidence of Scripture verity can be cited than Abraham, that staunch pioneer of monotheism, who, after mocking the household gods of Terah, emerged from his gross surroundings in Ur of Chaldean magic, unscathed by the stigma of sinful idolatry and E^?*nc^ o^ prosecuted his noble mission of popularizing the God-idea with una- Scripture Ver- bated vigor. The same God, with whom Abraham's chivalric spirit of brother-redeeming love pleaded, Jacob's dreaming fancy beheld en- throned on the celestial ladder-top of sterling faith. That very same invigorating and omnipresent 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 Samson iron strength. David's lyre pealed forth, Solomon's wisdom 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 so 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 potential Deity — Jehovah — the Lord of Hosts. We ''search the writ" according to its liberal dictates and cannot but remark a tacit, unflinching and unbending perseverance, continu- ally on the alert to comprehend and appropriate a deeper, more enlightening idea of God and His ways. "We have seen," again remarks Mathew Arnold, "how in its intuition of God — of that net ourselves, of which all mankind from some conception or other — as the eternal that makes for righteousness, the Hebrew race found the revelation needed to breathe the notion into the laws of morality and to make morality religion. This revelation is the capital fact of the Old Testament and the source of its grandeur and power. For while other nations had the misleading idea that this or that other than right- eousness is saving, and it is not; that this or that, other than conduct, brings happiness, and it does not, Israel had the true idea — that righteousness is saving, that to conduct belongs happiness." We have pointed out the priceless benefits conferred upon man- kind by Israel's Bible. It only remains to be briefly demonstrated to what degree humanity is indebted to Hebrew scriptures for gifts 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 Widfi DifEu. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 125 blossomed the bud of polite arts, of the so much boasted sciences of later Greece and plagiarizing Rome. Greece and Rome were indebted to humble Israel for that reputed familiarity with profound philosophy and cognate learning which ascribed to any source^and every origin, save that here advocated, the wide diffusion of 'Hebraic wisdom among the heathen nations of the past. Can Plato, Demosthenes, Cato, Cicero and other thunderers of eloquence compete with such lightning rods of magnetic power as Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and other past orators of Bible times? Who wrote nobler history, Moses, Livy or Herodotus? Were the dramas and tragedies of Sophocles, ^schylus and Euripides Bion'of Hebraio worthy of classification with the masterpieces of realism and grand ^ ®™* cosmogonic conceptions, furnished us in the soul-vibrating account of Job's martyrdom? In poetry and hymnology, the harp of David is tuned to sweater melody than Virgil's ^Eneid or Horace's odes. Strabo's accurate geographical and ethnological accounts are not more thorough in detail than scriptural narratives and the famous tenth chapter of Genesis. The haughty philosophical maxims of Mar- cus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca fade Into insignificance before the edifying discourse and moral chidings of Koheleth, whose very pessi- mism, in contradistinction to heathenish levity, failed not to inspire and instruct. Compare the ethics of Aristotle with those pure gems of monition to truth, righteousness and moral chastity contained in the Book of Proverbs, as confront even the all-conquering wisdom of Soc- rates with Solomonic sagacity. "The Zephyrs of Attica were as bland, and Helicon and Parnassus were as lofty and verdant before Judea put forth her displays of learning and the arts as afterward." Yet no Homer was ever heard reciting the vibrating strains of poetry with David. Isaiah and other monarchs of genius and soul culture poured i'orth their sublime symphonies in the holy land; yet none of all the muses breathed their inspiration over Greece till the spirit of the Most High 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 disciplC; 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 priority of culture and science before the He- braic age. Egypt is accredited with far too much distinction in knowledge which she never possessed to any eminent degree. Recent excava- tions and discoveries from ruins of her ancient cities tend to corrobo- rate our view. A mass of inscribed granite, a papyrus roll, or a sar- cophagus, bears the tell-tale message of her standard in taste and her progress in art. "They prove '* says Hosmer, "that if she was ever en- titled to be called the Cradle* of Science, it must have been when science, owing to the feebleness of infancy, required the use of a cradle. But when science had outgrown the appendages of bewildering and 126 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. tottering infancy, and had reached matured form and strength, Egypt was neither her guardian nor her home." Many of Egypt's works of art, for which an antiquity has been claimed that would place them anterior to David and Solomon, have been shown to be compara- tively modern; while those confessedly of an earlier date have marks of an age which may have excelled in compact solidity, but knew lit- tle or nothing of finished symmetry or grace. Architecture, the boast of Greece and the pride of Assyria, whose stately palaces at Nineveh are to this day the marvel of the world, attained its loftiest summit o\ perfection in the noble structure reared by Israel's mighty hand in Jerusalem, 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 it is found in the record that endureth forever. Though the temple at Jerusalem was Pre-eminence destroyed before Greece became fully adorned with her splendid archi- Sn the Art of tecture, the plan which had been given by inspiration from heaven, and according to which the peerless edifice was built, remains written at full length in Hebrew scriptures. The dimensions, the form and proportions of all the parts are described with minute exactness. Everything that could impart grandeur, grace, symmetry to the art palace of worship, and which made it to be called for ages "the excel- lency of beauty," was placed in the imperishable volume to be con- sulted by all nations in all ages. Wherever we turn, in fact, we are forcibly reminded of Israel's precious legacies to mankind in almost every department of industry. We must ever return and sit at the feet of the Hebrew bards, who as teachers, as poets, as truthful and earnest men, stand as yet alone — unsurmounted and unapproached — the Himalayan mountains of man- kind. The Hebrew scriptures, not mere trickery of fate, is the cause and effect of the long life and immortality of Judaism. To us ** the dictum of a romantic scribe," unique among all the peoples of the earth, it has come undoubtedly to the present day from the most dis- tant antiquity. Forty, perhaps fifty, centuries rest upon this vener- able contemporary of Egypt, Chaldea and Troy. The Hebrew defied the 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 the more force as the distance became great. He saw the Hellenic flower bud, bloom and wither upon the soil of Greece. He saw the wolf of Rome suckled on the banks of the Tiber, then prowl ravenous for dominion to the ends of the earth, until paralysis and death laid hold upon its savage sinews. At last Israel was scattered over the length and breadth of the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 127 earth. In every kingdom of the modern world there has been a Jew- ish element. There are Hebrew clans in China, on the steppes of Cen- tral Asia, in the desert heat of Africa. The most powerful races have not been able to assimilate them. The bitterest persecution, so far from exterminating them, has not eradicated a single characteristic. In mental and moral traits, in form and feature even, the Jew today is the same as when Jerusalem was the peer of Tyre and Babylon. And why not strive through the coming ages to live in fraternal concord and harmonious unison with all the nations on the globe? Not theory but practice, deed not creed, should be the watchword of j^^^ ^^^ modern races stamped with the blazing characters of rational equity Creed, and unselfish brotherhood Why not, then, admit the sgions of the mother religion, the wandering Jew of myth and harsh reality, into the throbbing affections of faith-permeating, equitable peoples now inhabiting the mighty hemispheres of culture and civilization? Three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, imbibed the liquid of enlightenment from that virgin spring of truth, and yet they are distinct, estranged from each other by dogmatic separatism and a fibrous accumulation of prejudice, which yet awaits the redeeming champion of old, who with Herculean grasp of irrevocable conviction should hurl far away the lead-weight of passion and bigotry, of malice and egotism from the historical streams of original truth, equity and righteousness. Three religions and now many more are gathered at the sparkling fountain of a glorious enterprise in the cause of truth, congregated beneath the solid splendor of a powerful throne, wherein reclines the new monarch of disenthralling sentiment, a glorious sov- ereign of God-anointed grace, to examine and to judge with the impartial scepter of Israel's holiest emblem — justice — the merits of a nation, who are as irrepressible as the elements, as unconquerable as reason and as immortal as the starry firmament of eternal hope. The scions of many creeds are convened at Chicago's succoring parliament of religions, aglow with enthusiasm, imbued with the courage of expiring fear, electrified with the absorbing anticipation of dawning light. The hour has struck. Will the stone of abuse, a bur- den brave Israel bore for countless centuries, on the rebellious well of truth, at last be shattered into merciless fragments by that invention of every-day philosophy, the gun-powder of modern war, rational con- viction; and finally, a blessed destiny, establish peace for all faiths and unto all mankind? Who knows? Rev. Prof. George P. Fisher, Yale College. Christianity a Religion of pacts. Paper by PROF G. P. FISHER, D. D., of Yale College. N saying that Christianity is an "historical re- ligion," more is meant, of course, than that it appeared at a certain date in the world's his- tory. This is true of all the religions of man- kind, 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 distinction from every system of religious thought or speculation, like the philosophy of Plato or Hegel, and from every religion which consists exclusively, or almost exclusively, like Moham- medanism, of doctrines and precepts, Christian- ity 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 indissolu- bly 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, without w^hich, if it does not dissolve into thin air, it is transformed into something quite unlike itself. More- over, the postulates of the Gospel, or the conditions which make its function in the world of mankind possible and rational, are likewise in the realm of fact, as contrasted with theoretic conviction or opinion. We can best illustrate and confirm the foregoing remarks by referring to a passage in one of the writings of the great Christian apostle, St. Paul. It stands at the beginning of the fifteenth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians. The state of the Corinthian church, disgraced as it was by con- troversies 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 the essential principles of Christianity. These would put to flight all radical errors, and at the same time cast into the shade minor topics of contention. A due regard to fundamental truth would quell dissension. 9 1^9 In the Realm of Fact. 130 THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, The apostle begins the passage with announcing his intention to describe the Gospel which he had preached to the Corinthians, which they had embraced, in which they stood, indeed, as a vain thing, an idea that none for a moment would admit. After this preface, he pro- ceeds to give a formal statement of that which constitutes the Gospel, and the point which challenges attention is this — that the Gospel, as 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. T., ^ , These circumstances in the Saviour's life were " according^ to the Script- Ihe (lospel a ,, , . , • i i t • r i /-^i ^t-. ^ seriesof Facts, urcs; that IS, m agrccmentwith the predictions of the Old lestament. 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 alive, but the greater part of the five hundred disciples who were in the company of Jesus after His resurrection were also living and could be appealed to. And, finally, he himself had been suddenly converted from bitter enmity, by a specific occurrence, by seeing Jesus, and had set about the work of a teacher, not of his own notion, but by the Saviour's express command — a command to which he was not disobedient. Into this part of the passage, however, which touches on the evi- dence 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 contents 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 flows from them corresponds to the character and situation of men, and this condition in which we are placed is one that can be described in plain propositions. ** Sin " is not some unknown thing, we cannot tell what, but is " the transgression of the law;" and the meaning of the law and meaning of transgression can be explained. Nor is there any valid objection to saying that the Gospel is a sys- tem of doctrine. These truths, of which we have just given examples, are not isolated and disconnected from each other, but they 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, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 131 parts that even appear to clash, the same is true of almost every branch of knowledge. The physiologist, the chemist, the astronomer, will confess jiist this imperfection 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? n 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 everything that the Bible does not reveal is not yet ascertained. In affirming, then, that the Gospel is pre-eminently a religion of facts, 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 dis- qualification for receiving or even comprehending the Gospel. There is a disposition to overlook this grand peculiarity of Chris- tianity, 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 meta- physical necessity and placed among personal beings and among events which find their solution, 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 ^^^ ^*>.^®- 1 • T 1 ment or t li o nature of the phenomena, which we have to explam. In order to pre- wm. sent 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 explication. 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 wrongdoing holds good, of course, of morally evil habits and principles. 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 ex- posure of a soldiers' hospital. What shall be said of these actions? Why, plainly you have done with the explanation when you comeback to that principle of free benevolence — to the noble and loving heart — Lho Soul. 132 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. from which they spring. To make them links in some necessary proc- An Insult to ess by which they no longer originate in the full sense of the word, in a free preference lying in a sphere apart from natural development and inevitable causation, would be an insult to the^oul itself. Or, take a benevolent act of another kind— the forgiveness of an injury. A man whom you have 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 pre-resolve on his part, a will- ing gift, a voluntary love. The supposition of an exterior cause which reduces this act to a mere effect of organization or mental constitution or anything else destroys the very thing which you take in hand to ex- plain. And the consequence would follow if the injury which calls forth pardon were resolved into something besides an unconstrained, inex- cusable, 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 operations 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 sacrifice. Our solutions are, to use technical language, moral, not metaphysical. We have to do, not with puppets moving about under the pressure of a blind compulsion, but with personal beings, endued with a free spiritual nature. The preceding remarks will suggest our meaning when we affirm that Christianity is a religion of facts. We may even go back of the method of solution to the first truth of religion — that of God, the Cre- ator. 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, be- ing 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 concerning our character and condition — the fact of sin, or alienation from fellowship with God. Refuse to look upon sin in this light, just as the unperverted conscience looks upon it, and the Gospel has no longer any intelligible 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 significance in the Gospel. Here, then, we begin not with an abstract theory or first proof of philosophy, bui with a naked fact, which memory and consciousnes§ THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 133 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 proc- ess of life, but of the process of death. To presume to think of it as a necessary, normal transition point to the true life of the soul, is to annihilate moral distinctions at a sin- gle 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 reconcil- iation with God. The method of salvation is not a philosophical theorem, but a living friend of sinners, suffering in their behalf and inviting them to a fellowship with Himself. It is the reconciliation of an offender w ith the government whose laws he has broken, and with the Father whose house he 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 repent- ance for a wrong done an earthly friend and faith in his forgiveness. Ropontance What is repentance? To cease to do evil and begin to do well, to andFuith. 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 witness the rescue of a drown- ing 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 ex- treme peril and fear on the one side with no means of self-help; there was compassion, courage and self-sacrifice on the part of him who did the good deed. And the metaphysics of the matter ends 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 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 earthly parent, of his penitence and return, of his forgiveness and restoration 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 134 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. a person comes to the Bible, having previously 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 destination and true life, no such violation of law as is assumed. But there is nothing save the regular unfolding of human nature passing No Jar in the through various stages of progress according to the primordial design. 2on.^^^^ ^^^^ It seems strange that any one 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 in 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 transgression in the proper sense, but only an upward movement from a half brute existence to civilization and enlightenment, the last step of advancement being the discovery that sin is not guilt, but a point of development, and that evil really is good. And the forms of unbelief which do not bring foward 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 embraces 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 significance. 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 memory recurs in part to the occasions. Every day adds to Inward Peace, j-^^ number of his transgressions. His motives have not been what they ought to be. A sense of unworthiness weighs him down and sep- arates him, as he feels, from fellowship 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 integ- rity 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 of conscience. The want of the soul in this situation 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 135 a man. thus feeling, come to the Bible or to the Gospel? He is not concerned to explain the universe and enlarge the bounds of his knowledge by exploring the mysteries 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 Ch istianity, announcing redemption through Jesus Christ, God's love to sinners, and His method of justifying 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 system 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 impercep- tibly spring up the false view concerning the Gospel on which I have commented. We say truly that the Bibk- is the religion of Protestants. Our attention is directed to the study c/ a book. A one-sided, intel- lectual bent leads to the idea that the sole or the principal office of Christ is that of a teacher. He does not come to live and die and rise 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 attention on the contents of His doctrine; and who shall say that this step is not logically taken? As the intellectual element 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 residuum of abstractions, a perversion and carica- ture of Gospel ideas. This proceeding may be compared to the course of one who should endeavor to resolve the American revolution into Made'''up"of an intellectual process. Redemption is made up of events as real as ^^®^*^^- the battles by which independence was achieved. We need some ex- planation 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 interpretation from the Redeemer Himself, and from those who stand near Him, on whom the events that secured salvation made a fresh and lively impres- Redempti o n 136 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. sion. The import of these events is set forth. And the conditions of attaining 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 culminate in the Lord's resurrection and the mission of the Holy Ghost, the first thing is that these events should be be- lieved. 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 cannot be dissevered from the Christian system of doctrine, that the one cannot be held while the other is renounced, that if the doctrine is abandoned the facts will be denied. So that the time approaches when the acknowledgment of the evan- gelical 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 its early days, which recounts an epitome of the facts of religion. Joseph Cook, Boston. What the B'hle H^s Taught Address by JOSEPH COOK, of Boston. HE trustworthiness of the Scriptures in revealing the way of peace for the soul has well been called religious infallibility. The worth of the Bible results also from the fact that it contains a revelation of religious truth not elsewhere communicated to man. The worth of the Bible results also from the fact that it is the most powerful agency known to history in promoting the social, industrial and political reformation of the world by securing the religious regeneration of individual lives. It is certain that men and nations are sick, and that the Bible, open and obeyed, heals them. All this is true wholly irrespective of any question as to the method of inspiration. 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 infallibility of the Scriptures I assume only two things : One. The literal infallibility of the strictly self-evident truths of Scripture. Two. The veracity of Christ. It is a fact, and a verifiable, organizing, redemptive fact, that the Scriptures teach monotheism, not polytheism, not 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 religions and false philosophies. It has resisted all attack and dominates the enlightened part of the world today. Man's creation in the; image of God is the next columnar truth. This means God's Fatherhood and man's sonship. 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 religious inspiration. It means free will with its responsibilities. l?9 ) Relifdoos In- fallibility o f the Sctiptares. 140 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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, how- ever, and dominates the enlightened portions of humanity to this hour. The Sabbath is the next pillar, a column set up early and seen far Piiiarainthe and wide across the landscapes of time, and dominating their most fruitful fields. The cuneiform tablets now in the hands of Assyriolo- gists show that centuries before Abraham left Chaldea, one day in seven was spoken of as the day of cessation from labor, and the day of rest for the heart. A severe view of sin is the next pillar. Ethical monotheism appears on the first page of the Bible. The free soul of man is there represented as under probation without grace. Freedom is abused; disorder springs up among the human faculties; there is a fall from the divine order. This severe view of sin is found nowhere outside the Scriptures. This fall from the divine order is a fact of man's experience to the present hour. 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 fell from the divine order and is then represented as under probation 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 cen- tral portion of the earliest Scriptures. All the laws in the books in which the Decalogue is found, cluster around it. Even if it were known where and how and when the Decalogue originated, the prodigious fact would yet remain that it works well. Who knows where the mul- tiplication table originated? It works well. Who can tell who in- vented the system of Arabic notation, giving a different value to a figure according to its position? The books do not inform us. This system is based on a very refined knowledge of numbers, and is prob- ably a spark from the old Sanscrit anvil; but the Hindu writers 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 Script- ures, 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 spokw en, Rome 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 righteous- ness, the power, and the majesty of God, but also His mercy. His con- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS, 141 dcscension, His pity, His tenderness, His love. They are the blossom- ing of the religious spirit of the law. The Great Prophecies are the next pillar, or rather we must call these, like the Psalms, a whole transept of pillars. A chosen man called out of Urof the Chaldees was to become a chosen family, and that family was to become a chosen nation, and that nation gave birth to a chosen religious leader, who was to found a chosen church to fill the earth. This prediction existed ages before Christianity appeared in the world. Not even the wildest claim made by negative criticism invalidates the fact that this prophecy spans hundreds of years as an immeasurably majestic bow of the divine promise. This was to be the course of re- ligious history, and it has been. The Jews were to be scattered among all nations and yet preserved as a separate people, and they have been. The Sermon on the Mount is the next pillar, ind it stands where nave and transept of the Bibical 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 conscience. 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 the profoundest wants of man; its capital in the boundless canopy of the Fatherhood of God. Neither the foundation nor the capital will crum- ble, 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 Holy of Holies, 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." ^ S^ 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 Bush- ^ nell, "forbids His possible classification with men." ^ ^ The identification of Christ with the Logos, or the eternal wisdom and reason, and of Christ's spirit with the Holy Spirit, is the supreme truth rising from the side of the sanctuary in the Holy of Holies of the Biblical cathedral. The verifiable promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit to every soul self-surrendered to God in conscience is the next pillar. The founding of the Christian church, which is with us to this day, is the next. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, insti- tuted by our Lord Himself, are His continuous autograph, written across the pages of centuries. The fruits of Christianity are the final cluster of pillars rising to the eastern window that looks on better ages to come, and is perpetu- ally flooded with a divine illumination. Goethe represented the Phil- istine as failing to admire cathedral windows because he sees them from the outside, while they are all glorious if seen from within the 142 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP MllGIdMS. temple. All this is true of the majestic windows in the Biblical cathe- dral, 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 systems 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 architecture, 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 cathedral 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 inspi- ration such as comes from no other book. I believe it and you believe it. I take up the books of Plato, which I think are nearest to those of the 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 Briggs can show that some fly has lighted here or there on one or two of these golden clusters of grapes and specked it. Now, don't misunderstand me, for I think that parts of the 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. • South Sea Island Chief; Convert to Christianity. Influence of the A^^^^^t Egyptian Religion on Qther Religions. Paper by J. A. S. GRANT (Bey), of Cairo, Egypt. ANETHO, 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 myth- ical period and an historical period. These periods were also subdivided into dynasties. The mythical period had four dynasties and the historical period had thirty, down to Nectanebo II, the last Pharaoh of Egyptian blood. As the ancient Egyptian religious ^K t \ beliefs have their foundation in the mythical m$/ |.> period, I shall confine myself to that particular ft ^ division of the history, leaving out only the / prehistoric dynasty that does not come within of this paper, then, is Manetho's way of putting it: ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HISTORY. I. THE MYTHICAL PERIOD. 1st Dynasty— A Dynasty of Gods (Elohim in Hebrew), as rulers, probably over nature and the lower creation. 2d Dynasty — A Dynasty of Gods, as rulers over a higher creation, as Man. 3d Dynasty — A Dynasty of Demi-Gods, as rulers over Man as a race. 4th Dynast^r — A Dynasty of Prehistoric Kings, as rulers over communities of men. We see in this profane history of Manetho transitions that he himself does not explain, but that now' are made clear by the latest X4& the scope Here, A Kind of Evolu- tion. The Mythical Period. 146 fM£: WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGION^. 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. Here 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 unfallen 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 intercourse 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 inter- course 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. DerSGoL. ^^ 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 introduces 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 hearth. 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 movements made 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 married his sister Isis, but we do not read of their having any children fHE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIOMS. 147 during their married life. Osiris was the personification of everything 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 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 paral- lel 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 destined to wage war against Set and to overcome him. Being demi-gods, however, neither the one nor the other could be annihilated; so Set came and arbi- trated 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 as far as his 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 ap- peared 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 personificatioi 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 sacrifices, were sacrifices of thanksgiving, in which they offered to the gods flow- ers, fruits, meat and drink; for they thought the gods had need of such things, as the Egyptians believed spiritual beings lived on the spiritual 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, gentleness, 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 wor- shiped 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 her their Isis or Ashtoreth,as the 148 THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 consisted of three parts: First, Sahoo, the fleshy, substantial body — B^y® Human ^^ mummified body; second, Ka, the double. It was jthe exact coun- terpart of the substantial body, only it was spiritual and could not be seen. It was an intelligence that permeated all through the body and guided its different physical functions, such as digestion, etc. It cor- responded to what we call " the physical life ; third, 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 Amenta, 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 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 over- come by the soul assuming the form of the deity. And, in fact, the justified soul is always called " the Osiris/' or Pa-aa, the great one, i. e., it became assimilated to the great and good god. The Ba was gener- ally represented as a hawk with a human head (the hawk was the em- blem of Horus), as if the seat of the soul was in the head, which was 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 elevated 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 dis- embodied 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 ante- chamber 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 and preserved. The Ka continued to have 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» THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 149 Ma m m House. 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 devouring 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 Kept in 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 contemplation of the death of Osiris would benefit them in the midst of their feasting and hilarity. While Osiris and Horus are represented as father and son, they 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 nowadays 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 origi- nally 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 first mere symbols, but became by the inherent curse of idolatry real objects of worship. Maspero believes that the religion of the Egypti3-"s, 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 dan- gerous proceeding, as we learn from past history. The ancient Egyp- tians 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 disinte- gration 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, one god with many attributes. The one god of the Egyptians was nameless, but the combination of all the other good divinities made up his attributes, which were simply powers of nature. Renouf says that in the Egyptian, as in almost all known religions, a power behind ^U the powers of nature . e 8 the Idolatrj. 150 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. was recognized and was frequently 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 offerings." 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, having 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 backward; 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 Solar Deity, scholars trace it through the Phoenician to an appellation for the sun. Now, Osiris was a solar deity, and his name, "As-ari," means "the en- throned eye," no doubt to indicate that he is the all-seeing one, just as the sun in the heavens throws light on everything and rules the sea- sons for the benefit of man. Jehovah-Elohim in the Hebrew religion 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 mate- rials from Phthah to create the world with. Ra was the creative prin- ciple of Phthah. Phthah was the originator of all things, but he worked visibly through Ra, just as, in the case of the Christian relig- ion, God created all things through Jesus Christ. "The search for 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 God-head is that of One whose unity is not the unity of a monad but of an organ- ism. That God could be God in the attributes which our modern consciousness ascribes to Him, i. e., that He could be ethical, social and paternal, involves the necessity of His nature containing subject and object, both of knowledge and feeling; in ether words, of a sub- division 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-existent. He is at first represented by a battle-ax and after- ward by a dwarfish, embryonic-looking human figure, and as such he supplied materials (protoplasm) to Ra, the sun god, to create the world with. God dwelt with man till man rebelled against Him. A god man (Osiris) had to come to the earth to deliver and do good to man. He, however, was sacrificed, having been killed by the evil principle, but only in as far as his human body was concerned, for he afterward appeared in the next world as the judge of the dead, and his son, Horus, who c^me frgm his father's dead body, manifested THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 151 himself on the earth as the sun at sunrise to dispel darkness and de- stroy 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 conformed to the code of morals laid down in the religious books After death the condemned soul, according to the enormity of its guilt, was allowed a second pro- bation, or had such punishment inflicted as ultimately to end in anni- hilation; the justified soul was assimilated into Osiris, dwelt in his presence and obeyed his commands, being helped by angelic servants (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 disc of the sun that overshadowed the gateways of the Egyptian temples and that represented the overruling Providence was called by the Greeks the Agathodaemon, and the Messiah is referred to in the Bible as the sun of righteousness, rising with healing 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 . Similarities, between the cherubim and the winged Isis and Nephthys protecting ^^ ^™ ^^™ Horus. The ostrich Qgg that one meets with so frequently suspended in oriental places of worship has its origin in the mundane ^gg 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 car- rying 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 blessing on the campaign. The 152 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, "immaculate conception" was accepted by the ancient Egyptians with- out a dissenting voice; for Isis was a goddess, and, therefore immacu- late, and her conception of Horus was miraculous. Many of the Mohammedan social and religious customs are decid- edly ancient Egyptian in their origin. This can easily be accounted F^iSxf ^*^*'° foi' fi'om 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 of their religious customs and super- stitious 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 sufficient, 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. a o Theology of Judaism. Paper by DR. ISAAC M. WISE, of Cincinnati. Error the Cause of Fac tonalidm. Dogmas Specified. HE theology of Judaism, in the opinion of many, is a new academic discipline. They maintain Judaism is identical with legalism; it is a religion of deeds without dogmas. The- ology is a systematic treatise on the dogmas cf any religion. There could be no theology of Judaism. The modern latitudinariansand syncretists on their part maintain we need more religion and less theology, or no the- ology at all, deeds and no creeds. For re- ligion is undefinable and purely subjective; theology defines and casts free sentiments into dictatorial words. Religion unites and theol- ogy divides the human family, not seldom, into hostile factions. Research and reflection antagonize these objections. They lead to conviction, both historically and psychologically. Truth unites and appeases; error begets antagonism and fanaticism. Error, whether in the spontaneous belief or in the scientific formulas of theology, is the cause of the distracting factionalism in the transcendental realm. Truth well defined is the most successful arbitrator among mental com- batants. It seems, therefore, that the best method to unite the human family in harmony, peace and good will is to construct a rational and humane system of theology as free from error as possible, clearly defined and appealing directly to the reason and conscience of all normal men. Research and reflection in the field of Israel's literature and history produce the conviction that a code of laws is no religion. Yet legalism and observances are but one form of Judaism. The underlying principles and doctrines are essentially Judaism, and these are material to the theology of Judaism, and these are essentially dogmatic. Scriptures from the first to the last page advance the doctrine of divine inspiration and revelation. Ratiocinate this as you may, it always centers in the proposition: There exist an inter-relation and a faculty of inter ^.ommunication in the nature of that universal, prior 154 Dr. Isaac M. Wise, Cincinnati, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 157 and superior being and the individualized being called man; and this also is a dogma. Scriptures teach that the Supreme Being is also Sovereign Provi- dence. He provides sustenance for all that stand in need of it. He foresees and foreordains all, shapes the destinies and disposes the affairs of man and mankind, and takes constant cognizance of their doings. He is the lawgiver, the judge and the executor of His laws. Press all this to the ultimate abstraction and formulate it as you may, it always centers in the proposition of "Die sittliche Weltordnung," the universal, moral, just, benevolent and beneficent theocracy, which is the cause, source and text-book of all canons of ethics; and this again is a dogma. Scriptures teach that virtue and righteousness are rewarded; vice, misdeeds, crimes, sins are punished, inasmuch as they are free-will actions of man; and adds thereto that the free and benevolent Deity under certain conditions pardons sin, iniquity and transgression. Here is an apparent contradiction between justice and grace in the Supreme Being. Press this to its ultimate abstraction, formulate it as you may, and you will always arrive at some proposition concerning atonement, and this also is a dogma. As far back into the twilight of myths, the early dawn of human reason, as the origin of religious knowledge was traced, mankind was in possession of four dogmas. They were always present in men's consciousness, although philosophjy has not discovered the antece- dents of the syllogism, of which these are the conclusions. The excep- tions are only such tribes, clans orindividuals that had not yet become conscious of their own sentiments, not being crystallized into concep- tions, and in consequence thereof had no words to express them; but these are very rare exceptions. These four dogmas are: 1. There exists — in one or more forms of being — a superior being living, mightier and higher than any other being known or imagined. (Existence of God.) 2. There is in the nature of this superior being, and in the nature of man, the capacity and desire of mutual sympathy, inter-relation and inter-communication. (Revelation and worship.) 3. The good and the right, the true and the beautiful, are desir- able, the opposites thereof are detestable and repugnant to the superior being and to man. (Conscience, ethics and aesthetics.) 4. There exists for man a state of felicity or torment beyond this state of mundane life. (Immortality, reward or punishment.) These four dogmas of the human family are the postulate of all theology and theologies, and they are axiomatic. They require no proof, for what all men always knew is self-evident; and no proof can be adduced to them, for they are transcendent. Philosophy, with its apparatuses and methods of cogitation, cannot reach them, cannot expound them, cannot negate them, and none ever did prove such negation satisfactorily even to the individual reasoner himself. All systems of theology are built on these four postulates. They L a w B i V o r, Jadce and Ex- ecutor. Jnstice and Grace. Postulate of all Theology. 158 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. differ only in the definitions of the quiddity, the extension and expan- sion of these dogmas in accordance with the progression or retrogres- sion of different ages and countries. They differ in their derivation of doctrine or dogma from the main postulates; their reduction to prac- tice in ethics and worship, forms and formulas; their methods of application to human affairs, and their notions of obligation, account- ability, hope or fear. These accumulated differences in the various systems of theology, inasmuch as they are not logically contained in these postulates, are subject to criticism, an 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 dis- agreements — they are mostly historical. "Whatever we have not from the knowledge of all mankind 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 knowl- edges on its traditions, written or unwritten, as the knowledge of a portion of mankind; so each particulai 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 deri- vation of doctrine and dogma from the main postulates, its entire de- velopment, 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, ligious" Senti- We know what theology is, so we must define here only what ments. Judaism is. Judaism is the complex of Israel's religious sentiments ratiocinated to conception^ in harmony with its Jehovistic God-cogni- tion. These conceptions made permanent in the consciousness of this people are the religious knowledges which form the substratum to the theology of Judaism. The Thorah maintains that its "teaching and canon" are divine. Man's knowledge of the true and the good comes directly to human reason and conscience (which is unconscious reason) from the supreme and universal reason, the absolutely true and good; or it comes to him indirectly from the same source by the manifesta- tions 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 Natural and "^^^ ^^^^ transcendental revelation; both these revelations concerning Transcendent- God and His Substantial attributes, together with their historical ai Revelation, g^nggis^ are recorded in the Thorah in the seven holy names of God, to Israel's Re- Judaism. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 159 which neither prophet nor philosopher in Israel added even one, and cill ot which constantly recur in all Hebrew literature. What we call the God of revelation is actually intended to desig- nate God as made known in the transcendental revelations including the successive God-ideas of natural revelation. His attributes of rela- tion 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 inference 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 contain. 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 com- promises necessarily: The doctrine concerning Providence, its relations to the individual, r^^^ several the nations and mankind. This includes the doctrine of covenant Doctrines of between God and man, God and the fathers ol the nation, God and the people of Israel or the election of Israel. The doctrine concerning atonement. Are sins expiated, forgiven or pardoned, and which are the conditions or means for such expiation of sins? This leads us to the doctrine of divine worship generally, its oblig- atory nature, its proper means and forms, its subjective or objective import, which includes also the precepts concerning holy seasons, holy places, holy convocations and consecrated or specially appointed persons to conduct such divine worship, and the standard to distin- guish 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 wili; is it free, conditioned or controlled 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 ultimate of the historical process, to culminate in 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 such immortality is attained, the con- dition on which it depends, what insures reward or punishment. The theology of Judaism as a sytematic structure must solve these problems on the basis of Israel's God-cognition. This being the highest 160 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, in man's cognition, the solution of all problems upon this basis, eccle- siastical, ethical, or in eschatology, must be final in theology, provided the judgment which leads to this solution is not erroneous. An erro- neous judgment from true antecedents is possible. In such cases the first safeguard is an appeal to reason, and the second, though not sec- ondary, is an appeal to holy writ and its best commentaries. Wher- ever these two authorities agree, reason and holy writ, that the solu- Bearon and tion of any problem from the basis of Israel's God-cognition is cor- ^^ " ' rect, certitude is established, the ultimate solution is found. This is the structure of a systematic theology, Israel's God-cog- nition is the substratum, the substance; holy writ and the standard of reason are the desiderata, and the faculty of reason is the apparatus to solve the problems which in their unity are the theology of Judaism, higher than which none can be. Ideals Im- arted to ^he Relation of Historic Judaism to the Past, and [ts puture. Paper by REV. H. PEREIRA MENDES, of New York. UR history may be divided into three eras — the biblical, the era from the close of the Bible record to the present day, the future. The first is the era of the an- nouncement of those ideals which are essential for Hiankind's happiness and progress. The Bible contains for us and for humanity all ideals worthy of human effort to attain. I make no exception. The attitude of historical Judaism is to hold up these ideals for mankind's inspi- ration and for all men to pattern life accord- ingly. The first divine message to Abraham con- tains the ideal of righteous Altruism — **Be a source of blessing " And in the message an- nouncing the Covenant is the ideal of righteous egotism. "Walk be- fore Me and be perfect." "Recognize me, God, be a blessing to thy fellow man, be perfect thyself." Could religion ever be more strik- ingly summed up? The life of Abraham, as we have it recorded, is a logical response, despite any human feeling. Thus he refused booty he had captured. It was an 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 Fatherhood of God" was announced — "Israel is my son, my first born," implying that 162 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 163 other nations are also his children Then at Sinai were given him those ten ideals of human conduct, which, called the **ten command- ments,'* receive the allegiance of the great nations of today. Magnifi- cent ideals! Yes, but not as magnificent as the three ideals of God revealed to him — God is mercy, God is love, God is holiness. "The Lord thy God loveth thee." The echoes of this are the commands to the Hebrews and to the world. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; ye shall love the stranger." God is holiness! "Be holy! for I am holy;" "it is God calling to man to par- ticipate in his divine nature." To the essayist on Moses belongs the setting forth of other ideals associated with him. The historian may dwell upon his "proclaim freedom throughout the land to its inhabitants." It is written on Boston's Liberty Bell, which announced "Free America." The politi- cian may ponder upon his land tenure system; his declaration that the poor have rights; his limitation 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 ex- ponent of natural law in the spiritual world is anticipated by his "Not by bread alone does man live, but by obedience to divine law." The lecturer on ethics may enlarge upon moral impulses, their co-relation, . free will and such like ideas; it is Moses who teaches the quickening of Moses, cause of all is God's revelation, "Our wisdom and our understanding," and who sets before us "Life and death, blessing and blighting," to choose either, though he advises "choose the life " Tenderness to brute creation, equality of aliens, kindness to servants, justice to the employed; what code of ethics has brighter gems of ideal than those which make glorious the law of Moses! As for our other prophets, we can only glance at their ideals of purity in social life, in business life, in personal life, in political life, and in religious life. We need no Bryce to tell us how much or how little they obtain in our commonwealth today. So, also, if we only mention the ideal relation which they hold up for ruler and the people, and the former "should be servants to the latter," it is only in view of the tremendous results in history. For these very words license the English revolution. From that 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 liberty, America was born — herself the parent of the French revolution, which has made so 164 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Ideals of the Prophets. Voice of His- torical Juda- ism. many kings the servants of their peoples. English liberty, America's birth, French revolution! Three tremendous results truly! Let us, however, set these aside, great as they are, and mark those grand ideals which our prophets were the first to preach. 1. Universal peace, or settlement of national disputes by arbitra- tion. When Micah and Isaiah announced this ideal of universal peace it was the age of war, of despotism. They may have been regarded as lunatics. Now all true men desire it, all good men pray for it, and bright among the jewels of Chicago's coronet this year is her universal peace convention. 2. Universal brotherhood. If Israel is God's first born and other nations are therefore His children, Malachi's '* Have we not all one Father?" does not surprise us. The ideal is recognized today. It is prayed for by the Catholics, by the Protestants, by Hebrews, by all men. 3. The universal happiness. This is the greatest. For the ideal of universal happiness includes both universal peace and universal brotherhood. It adds being at peace with God, for without that hap- piness is impossible Hence the prophet's bright ideal that one day *'A11 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 **A11 nations shall come and bow down before God and honor His name." Add to those prophet ideals those of our Ketubim. The "seek wisdom" of Solomon, of which the " Know thyself" of Socrates is but a partial echo; Job's "Let not the finite creature attempt to fathom the infinite Creator;" David's reachings after God! And then let it be clearly understood that these and all ideals of the Bible era are but a prelude and overture. How grand, then, must be the music of the next era which now claims our attention. The era from Bible days to these is the era of the formation of religious and philosophic systems throughout the Orient and the classic world. What grand harmonies, but what crashing discords sound through these ages! Melting and swelling in mighty diapason they come to us today as the music which once swayed men's souls, now lifting them with holy emotion, now mocking, now soothing, now exciting. For those religions, those philosophies were mighty plectra in their day to wake the human heartstrings. 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 morality, of beauty, but more often it met the debasing sounds of immorality and error. Thus Kuenen speaks of "the affinity of Judaism and Zoroastrian- ism in Persia to the affinity of a common atmosphere of lofty truth, of a simultaneous sympathy in their view of earthly and heavenly things." If Max Miiller declares Zoroastrianism originally was monotheistic, so far historic Judaism could harmonize. But it would raise a voice of protest when Zoroastrianism became a dualism of Ormuzd, light or THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 165 good, and Ahriman, darkness or evil Hence the anticipatory protest proclaimed by Isaiah in God's very message to Cyrus, king of Persia, "lam the Lord, and there is none else." ** I formed the light and create darkness." " I make peace and create evil." ** I am the Lord, and there is none else; that is, I do these things, not Ormuzd or Ahriman." Interesting as would be a consideration of the mutual debt be- tween Judaism and Zoroastrianism, with the borrowed angelology and demonology of the former compared with the "ahmiyat ahmi Mazdan amma" of the latter manifestly borrowed from the "I am that I am" of the former, we cannot pause here for it. Similarly, historical Judaism would harmonize with Confucius's instance of belief in a Supreme Being, filial duty, his famous "What you do not like when done to you, do not unto others," and of in Harmony the Buddhistic teachings of universal peace. But against what is con- ug^M.*^*^^'^ ^^^ trary to Bible ideal it would protest, and from it it would hold separate. In 521 B. C, Zoroastrianism was revived. Confucius was then actually living. Gautama Buddha died in 543. Is the closeness of the dates mere chance? The Jews had long been in Babylon. As Gesenius and Movers observe, there was traffic of merchants between China and India via Babylonia with Phoenicia, and not unworthy of mark is PLrnest Kenan's observation that Babylon had long been a focus of Buddhism and that Boudasy was a Chaldean sage. If future research should ever reveal an influence of Jewish thought on these three great oriental faiths, all originally holding beautiful thoughts, however later ages might have obscured them, would it not be partial fulfillment of the prophecy, so far as concerns the orient, ''that Israel shall blossom into bud and fill the face of the earth with fruit?" In the west as in the east, historical Judaism was in harmony with any ideals of classic philosophy which echoed those of the Bible. It protested where they failed to do so, and because it failed most often historical Judaism 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 Kosmos," "in whom are all things beautiful and good," "who from the beginning makes men" — historical Judaism commends. Again, Plato, his disciple, taught that God was good or that the planets rose from the reason and understanding of God. Historical 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 lumi- naries 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 166 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.. Be Perfect. Hebrew Pro- test. you are lest the common herd accuse you of recommending useless studies" — the useless study in question being astronomy — historical Judaism is opposed and protests. For it holds that even Bezaleal 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 call- eth 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 dignity of labor by themselves engaging in it. And when Macaulay remarks '*from the testimony of friends as well as of foes, from the confessions of Epictetus and Seneca, as well as from the sneers of Lucian and the invectives of Juvenal, it is plain that these teachers of virtue had all the vices of their neighbors with the additional one of hypocrisy," it is easy to understand 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 conventional terms." The skeptic school proclaimed "we have no cri- terion of action or judgment; we cannot know the truth of anything; we assert nothing; not even the Epicurean school taught pleasure's pursuit. But historical Judaism solemnly protested. What are those teachings of our Pirke Avoth but protests formerly formulated by our religious heads? Said they: "The Torah is the criterion of conduct. Worship instead of doubting. ^ Do philanthropic 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 the theory, is the essential," was the cry of Simon to Platonist or Pyrrhic. "Deed first, then creed." "Yes," added Abtalion, "Deed first, then creed, never greed." "Be not like servants who serve their master for price; be like servants who serve without thought of price — and let the fear of God be upon you." "Separation and protest" was thus the cry against these thought-vagaries. Brilliant instance of the policy of separation and protest was the glorious Maccabean effort to combat Hellenist philosophy. If but for Charles Martel and Poictiers, Europe would long have been Mohammedan, then for but Judas Maccabeus and Bethoron or Em- maus, Judaism would have been strangled. But no Judaism, no Chris- tianity. Take either faith out of the world and what would our civili- zation be? Christianity was born, originally and as designed and declared by its founder, not to change or alter one tittle of the law of Moses. If the Nazarene teacher claimed tacitly or not the title of "Son of God" in any sense save that which Moses meant when he said, "Ye are children of your God," can we wonder that there was a Hebrew protest? Historical Judaism soon found cause to be separate and to pro- TME WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 16? test. For sect upon sect arose — Ebionites, Gentile Christians, Jewish Christians, Nazarenes, Gnostic Christians, Masboteans, Basilidians, Valentinians, Carpocratians, Marcionites, Balaamites, Nicolaites, Em- kratites, Cainites, Ophites or Nahasites; evangels of these and of others were multiplied, new prophets were named, such as Pachor, Barkor, Barkoph, Armagil, Abraxos, etc. At last the Christianity of Paul rose supreme, but doctrines were found to be engrafted which not only- caused the famous Christian heresies of Pelagius, Nestorius, Eutyches, etc., but obliged historical Judaism to maintain its attitude of separa- tion and protest. For its Bible ideals were invaded. It could not join all the sects and all the heresies. So it joined none. Presently the Cresent of Islam rose. From Bagdad to Granada Hebrews prepared protests which the Christians carried to ferment in their distant homes. For through the Arabs and the Jews the old classics were revived and experimental science was fostered. The misuse of the former made the methods of the academicians the methods of the scholastic fathers. But it made Aristotleian philoso- phy dominant. Experiment widened men's views. The sentiment of protest was imbibed — sentiment against scholastic argument, against bidding research for practical ends, against the supposition "that syllogistic reasoning could ever conduct men to the discovery of any new principle," or that such discoveries could be made except by induction, as Aristotle held, against the 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 historical 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 Voltaire and a Paine when they made their ribald attacks. It could but praise the success of a Newton as he "crowned the long labors of the astronomers and physicists by co-ordinating the phenom- ena of solar motion . throughout the visible universe into one vast system." So it could only cry "Amen" to a Kepler and a Galileo. For did they not all prove the long unsuspected magnificence of the Hebrew's God, who made and who ruled the heavens and heaven of heavens, and who presides over the circuit of the earth, as Isaiah tells us? So it cried "Amen" to a Dalton, to a Linneus; for the "atomic notation of the former was as serviceable to chemistry as the binom- inal nomenclature and the classificatory schematism of the latter were to zoology and botany." What else could historic Judaism cry when the first message to man was to subdue earth, capture its powers, har- ness them, work? True historical Judaism means progress. A word more as to the attitude of historic Judaism to modern thought. If Hegel's last work was a course of lectures on the proofs of the existence of God; if in his lectures on religion he turned his Biblo Ideas. Invaded. Produced the Beformation. Maintfiins Its Attitude. 168 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 Thoagi.t. ^ ^ ^ 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 con- tend, 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, cannot exclude woman, as he does, from public action; for besides the teachings of reverence and honor for motnerhood; be- sides the Bible tribute to wifehood "that a good wife is a gift of God;" besides the grand tribute to womanhood offered in the last chapter of Proverbs, we produce a Deborah or a woman-president, a Huldah as worthy to give a divine message. If Darwin and the disciples of evolution pioclaim their theory, the Hebrew points to Genesis ii, 3, where it speaks of what God has created "to make," infinitive mood; "not made," as erroneously trans- lated. But historic Judaism protests when any source of life is indi- cated, save in the breath of God alone. We march in the van of progress, but our hand is always raised, pointing to God. This is the attitude of historical Judaism. And now to sum up. For the future opens before us. First. The "separatist" thought. Genesis tells 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 peo- ples." Numbers illustrates it: "Behold, the people shall dwell alone." And Deuteronomy declares it: "He hath avouched thee to be His special people." The thought began as our nation; it grew as it grew. To test its wisdom, let us ask who have survived? The 7,000 separatists who did not bend to Baal or those who did? Those who thronged Babylo- nian schools at Pumbeditha or Nahardea, or those who succumbed to Magian influence? The Maccabees, who fought to separate, or the Hellenists, who aped Greek or the Sectarians of their day? The Bnai Yisrael remnant, recently discovered in India, under the auspices of the Anglo-Jewish association, the discovery of Theaou-Kin-Keaou, or " people who cut out the sinew," in China, point in this direction of separation as a necessity for existence. And who are the Hebrews of today here and in Europe, the descendants of those who preferred to keep separate, and therefore chose exile or death, or those who yielded and were baptized? The course of historic Judaism is clear. It is to keep separate. Second. The protest thought. We must continue to protest against social, religious or political error with the eloquence of reason. Never THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 169 by the force of violence. No error is too insignificant; none can be too stupendous for us to notice. The cruelty which shoots the inno- cent doves for sport; the crime of duelists who risk life which is not The Protest theirs to risk, for it belongs to country, wife or mother, to child or to Thought society; the militarianism of modern nations, the transformation of - patriotism, politics or service of one's country into a business for per- sonal profit, until these and all wrongs be rectified, we Hebrews must keep separate, and we must protest. And keep separate and protest we will, until all error shall be cast to the moles and bats. We are told that Europe's armies amount to 22,000,000 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. How far separation and protest constitute our historical Jewish policy is evident from what I have said. Apart from this, socially, we unite whole-heartedly and without reservation with our non-Jewish fellow citizens; we recognize no difference between Hebrew and non- Hebrew. We declare that the attitude of historical Judaism, and, for that matter, of the reform school also, is to serve our country as good citi- zens, to be on the side of law and order and fight anarchy. We are bound to forward every humanitarian movement; where want or pain calls there must be answer; and condemned by all true men be the Jew who refuses aid because he who needs it is not a Jew. In the intrica- cies of science, in the pursuit of all that widens human knowledge, in the path of all that benefits humanity, the Jew must walk abreast with non-Jew, except he pass him in generous rivalry. With the non-Jew we must press onward, but for all men and for ourselves we must ever point upward to the Common Father of all. Marching forward, as I have said, but pointing upward, this is the attitude of historical Judaism. Religiously, the attitude of historical Judaism is expressed in the creeds formulated by Maimonides, as follows: We believe in God the Creator of all, a unity, a Spirit who never assumed corporeal form, Eternal, and He alone ought to be worshiped. We unite with Christians in the belief that revelation is inspired. We unite with the founder of Christianity that not one jot or title of 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, lov- ing and merciful. We unite in the belief of a coming Messiah. We unite in our belief in immortality. In these Judaism and Christianity agree. As for the development of Judaism, we believe in change in relig- ious custom or idea only when effected in accordance with the spirit of God's law and the highest authority attainable. But no change 12 March Forward Pointing ward. in« and Up- 170 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Development oj^ Judaism. A Legend. Fulfilling Destiny. without. Hence we cannot, and may not, recognize the authority of any conference of Jewish 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 teach- ings and they must be sufficiently advanced in age so as not to be im- mature in thought. And we believe, heart, soul and might, in the restoration to Pales- tine, a Hebrew state, from the Nile to the Euphrates — even though as Isaiah intimates in his very song of restoration, some Hebrews remain among the Gentiles. We believe in the future establishment of a court of arbitration, above suspicion, for a settlement of nations' disputes, such as could well be in the shadow of that temple which we believe shall one day arise to be a "house of prayer for all peoples," united at last in the service of one Father. How far the restoration will solve present pressing Jewish problems, how far such spiritual organization will guarantee man against falling into error, we cannot here discuss. What if doc- trines, 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 frag- ments 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 philosophers of the world. Each claimed and claims that its own fragment alone reflects the light of heaven, forgetting the settings and incrustations which time has added. Patience, my brothers. In 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 reconcilia- tion of all living faiths and systems, the era of all being in at-one- ment, or atonement, with God. Through the gates shall all people pass to the foot of God's throne. The throne is called by us the mercy-seat. Name of happy augury, for God's mercy shall wipe out the record of mankind's errors and strayings, the sad story of our 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 Jew 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 backslidings, wounded besides through others' transgressions, bruised through others* injuries, shall be but fulfilling his destiny to lead back his brothers to the Father. For that we were chosen; for that we are God's servants or ministers. Yes, the attitude THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 171 of historical Judaism to the world will be in the future, as in the past, helping mankind with His Bible, until the gates of earthly paradise shall be reconstructed by mankind's joint efforts, and all nations whom Thou, God, hast made, shall go through and worship before Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy name! 'J'he Outlook for Judaism. Paper by MISS JOSEPHINE LAZARUS. Truth Brought to Light. HE nineteenth century has had its surprises; the position of the Jews today is one of these, both for the Jew himself and for most enlight- ened Christians. There were certain facts we thought forever laid at rest, certain condi- tions and contingencies that could never con- front us again, certain war cries that could not be raised. In this last decade of our civiliza- tion, however, we have been rudely awakened from our false dream of security — it may be to a higher calling and destiny than we had yet foreseen. I do not wish to emphasize the painful facts by dwelling on them, or even pointing them out. We are all aware of them, and whenever Jews and Christians come to- gether on equal terms, ignoring difference and opposition and injury, it is well that they should do so. At the same time, we must not shut our eyes, nor, like the ostrich, bury our head in the sand. The situation, which is so grave, must be bravely and honestly faced, the crisis met, the problem frankly stated in all its bearings so that the whole truth may be brought to light if possible. We are a little apt to look on one side only of the shield, especially when our sense of justice and humanity is stung, and the cry of the oppressed and persecuted — our brothers — rings in our ears. As we all know, the effect of persecution is tc strengthen solidity The Jew who never was a Jew before becomes one when the vital spot is touched. When we are attacked as Jews we do not strike back angrily, but we coil up in our shell of Judaism and intrench ourselves more strongly than before. The Jews themselves, both from natural habit and force of circumstances, have been accustomed to dwell along their own lines of thought and life, absorbed in their own point of view, almost to the exclusion of outside opinion. Indeed, it is this power of concentration in their own pursuits that insures their success in most things they set out to do. They have been content for the ITiost part to guard the truth they hold rather than spre^^d it. Amid J7? THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, 173 Not Tonched by Persecution. favorable surroundings and easy circumstances many of us had ceased to take it very deeply or seriously that we were Jews. We had grown to look upon it merely as an accident of birth for which we were not called upon to make any sacrifice, but rather to make ourselves as much as possible like our neighbors, neither better nor worse than the people around us. But with a painful shock we are suddenly made aware of it as a detriment, and we shrink at once back into ourselves hurt in our most sensitive point, our pride wounded to the quick, our most sacred feelings, as we believe, outraged and trampled upon. But our very attitude proves that something is wrong with us. Persecution does not touch us; we do not feel it when we have an ideal large enough and close enough to our hearts to sustain and console us. The martyrs of old did not feel the fires of the stake, the arrows that pierced their flesh. The Jews of the olden time danced to their death with praise and song and joyful shouts of Hallelujah. They were willing to die for that which was their life, and more than life, to them. But the martyrdom of the present day is a strange and novel one, that has no grace or glory about it, and of which we are not proud. We have not chosen, and perhaps would not choose it. Many of us scarcely know the cause for which we suffer, and therefore we feel every pang, every cut of the lash. For our sake, then, and still more perhaps for those who come after us, and to whom we bequeath our Judaism, it behooves us to find out just what it means to us, and what it holds for us to live by. In other words, what is the content and significance of modern Judaism in the world today, not for us person- ally as Jews, but for the world at large? What power has it as a spiritual influence? And as such, what is its share or part in the large life of humanity, in the broad current and movement of the times? What actuality has it, what possible 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 fiery cloud, leading his people from captivity, and who heard pro- istence and nounced the divine and everlasting name, the unpronounceable, the ^®^*^^*y* ineffable I Am. In Moses, above all, whether we look upon him as semi-historic or a purely symbolic figure, the genius of the Hebrew race is typified, the fundamental 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 thunderings and lightning from heaven. Whatever of true or false, of fact or legend hangs about it, we have in the Mosaic conception, the moral ideal of the Hebrews, a code, divinely sanctioned and ordained, the absolute imperative of duty, a transcendent law laid upon man which he must perforce obey, in order that he may live. *'Thou shalt, thou shalt not," hedges him around on every side, now as moral obligation and again as ceremonial or legal ordinance, and becomes the bulwark of the faith through cent- uries of greatness, centuries of darkness and humiliation. Basis of Ex- 174 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. In the Hebrew writings we trace not so much the development of a people but of an idea that constantly grows in strength and purity. The petty tribal god, cruel and partisan like the gods around him, be- comes the universal and eternal God, who fills all time and space, all heaven and earth, and beside whom no other power exists. Through- out nature his will is law, his fiat goes forth and the stars obey him in their course, the winds and waves, fire and hail, snow and vapors, stormy wind fulfilling his word. The lightnings do his bidding and say, "Here we are," when he commands them. 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 Hebrew *^c o*n- strcss was laid, namely, that it is only in the moral sphere, only Qeption. 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 find 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 satu- rated and fed, sustained 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 metaphysics. 1 heir God was a God whom the people could understand; no mystic figure relegated to the skies, but a very present power, working upon earth, a person- ality 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 all around it, and the darkness \ upon which it was entering, it was necessary that this close, eternal THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF kELIGiONS, 175 organization, this mesh and network of law and practice of regulated usage covering the most insignificant acts of life, knitting them to- gether 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 of^™'S*iiiiM nation, they ceased to be a church, and yet, indissolubly bound by People, these inevitable chains, as fine as silk, as strong as iron, they presented an impenetrable front to the outside world; they became more in- tensely national, more exclusive and sectarian, rnore concentrated in their individuality than they had ever been before. The Talmud came to reinforce the Pentateuch, and Rabbinism intensified Judaism, which thereby lost its power tb expand its claim to become a universal religion, and remained the prerogative of a peculiar people. With fire and sword the Christian era dawned for Israel. Jerusa- lem was besieged, the temple fired, the holy mount in flames and a million people perished, a fitting prelude to the long tragedy that has not ended yet, the martyrdom of eighteen centuries. Death in every form, by flood, by fire and with every torture that could be conceived, leaving a track of blood through history — the crucified of the nations. Strangers and wanderers in every age and every land, calling no man friend and no spot home. With all the ignominy of the Ghetto, a living death. Dark, pitiable, ignoble destiny! Magnificent, heroic, uncon- querable destiny, luminous with self-sacrifice, unwritten heroism, de- votion 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 hun- dred years Judaism has undergone more modification than during the previous thousand 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 imprisoned 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 sou), was broken, and his mind and spirit, released from thrall, sprang into rebirth and vigor. Eager for life in every form and in every direction, with unused pent-up vitality he pressed ta 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 oft the outer shell or skeleton, which, like the bony covering of the tortoise, serves as armor at the same time that it impedes all movement and progress, as well as inner growth, Judaism thought to 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 mechanism, absolutely without myth or dogma of any Modification During the Past Century. 176 THE WORLD' :^ CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. kind, save the all-embracing Unity of God, taxing so little the credu- lity of men, no religion seemed so fitted 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 super- stitions, 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 disagree- ment and opposition, almost a different makeup, a different caliber 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 external conformity or non-conformity, any pecul- iar mode of life. The tremendous background of the past, of tra- ditions and associations so entirely apart from those of the people among whom they dwelt, threw them into strong belief. They were 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 A Marked the most sacred, the most vital and intimate, of parent to child, of Bace Always, brother and sister, bound still more closely together through a com- mon 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 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 of the Intellectual. He threw himself full tilt into the arena where the clash was 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 i forgot his proper birthright. He, the man of the past, became essen- tially the man of today, with interest centered on the present, the act- ual; with intellect set free to grapple with the problems of the hour and solve them by its own unaided light. Liberal, progressive, human- itarian he might become, but always along human lines; the link was gone with any larger, more satisfying and comprehensive life. Relig- ion had detached itself from life, not, only in its trivial everyday con- cerns, 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 fit. Behold the Jew! Every cry could shape itself against them, every class could take alarm and every prejudice go loose. And hence the Proteus form of anti-Semitism. Wherever the social conditions are most unstable, the equilibrium most ^ threatened and easily disturbed, in barbarous Russia, liberal France of Judaism. THE WOkLD'S CONGRESS OP kEUGtONS, 111 and philosophic Germany, the problem is most acute; but there is no country now, civilized or uncivilized, where some echo of it has not reached; even in our own free-breathing America some wave has come to 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 ^^c racial^ Test fortifies us, compensates 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 per- sonality is not touched, our nationality is merged? Will pride of family or race take away the sting, the stigma? Lo! 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 iis, who stand upon the shore in the full blessed light of freedom and watch at last the ending of that weary pilgrimage through the centuries, how great the responsibility, how great the occasion, if only we can rise to it. Let us not think our duty ended when we have taken 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, break- ing free from these, they find themselves, like their emancipated brethren elsewhere, adrift on a blank sea of indifference and mate- rialism. If Judaism would be anything in the world today 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 fellowship with those around him. John, Paul, Jesus Himself, we can claim them all for our own. We do not want "missions" to convert us. We cannot become Presbyterians, Episco- palians, members of any dividing sect, " teaching for doctrines the opinions of men." Christians, as well as Jews, need the larger unity that shall embrace them all — the unity of the spirit, not of doctrine. Mankind at large may not be ready for a universal religion, but let the Jews with their prophetic instinct, their deep, spiritual insight, set the example and give the ideal. The world has not yet fathomed the secret of its redemption, and " salvation may yet again be of the Vt^ TH£: WORtns coNGki:ss Of religion^, Jews." The times are full of signs. On every side there is a call, a challenge and awakening. What the world needs today, 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 Mon- tefiore suggests, but a new spirit put into life which shall refashion it AUOneFather. upon a nobler plan and consecrate it anew to higher purpose and ideals. Science has done its work, clearing away the deadwood of ignorance and superstition, enlarging the vision and opening out the path. Chris- tians and Jews alike, " have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?" Remember to what you are called, you who claim belief 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 meaningless service, nor yet in the world's glittering shapes, the work of men's hands or brains, but in the ever-growing, ever-deepening love and knowledge of His truth and its showing forth to men. Once more let the Holy Spirit descend and dwell among you, in your life today, as it did upon your holy men, your prophets of the olden times, lighting the world as it did for 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." The \loice of the Mother of f^eligions on the Social Question. Paper by RABBI H. BERKOWITZ, D. D., of Philadelphia. ^B ^kV^ dren, in the midst of the religions which have ^B laifciMiBfr:^ received from her nurture and loving care, Ju- ^V ^^8B^^^W\ daism, the fond mother may well lift up her ^B ^^gyi^ ^fcl voice and be heard with reverent and affec- ^" \^^^Slllm^^Blr tionate attention. It has been asked: "What has Judaism to say on the social question?" From earliest days she has set the seal of sanctity on all that question involves. From the very first she proclaimed the dignity, nay, the duty of labor by postulating God, the Cre- ator, at work and setting forth the divine exam- ple unto all men for imitation, in the command: ••Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." Industry is thus hallowed by religion, and igion in turn is made to receive the homage of industry in the fulfillment of the ordinance of Sab- bath rest. Judaism thus came into the world to live in the world, to make the world more heavenly. Though aspiring unto the heavens she has always trod firmly upon the earth, abiding with men in their habitations, ennobling their toils, dignifying their pleasures. Through all the centuries of her sorrowful life she has steadfastly striven with her every energy to solve, according to the eternal law of the eternally righteous, every new phase of the ever recurrmg problems in the social relationships of men. When the son of Adam, hiding in the dismal covert of some pri- meval forest, heard the accusing voice of conscience in bitter tones up- braiding him he defiantly made reply: ''Am I my brother's keeper?" then the social conflict began. To the question then asked Judaism made stern reply in branding with the guilt mark of Cain every trans- gression of human right. From then until now unceasingly through all the long and trying centuries she has never wearied in lifting up The Social Conflict. 182 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, her voice to denounce wrong and plead for right, to brand the op- pressor and uplift the oppressed. Pages upon pages of her Scriptures, folio upon folio of her massive literature, are devoted to the social question in its whole broad range and full of maxims, precepts, injunc- tions, ordinances and laws aiming to secure the right adjustment of the affairs of men in the practical concerns of evei^ 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 thy- self," she says, "this is natural, this is axiomatic, but remember it is never of itself a moral injunction. Egoism as an exclusive motive is entirely false, but altruism is not therefore exclusively and always right. It likewise may defeat itself, may work injury and lead to crime. The worthy should never be sacrificed for the unworthy. It is a sin for you to give your hard earned money to a vagabond and thus propagate vice, as much as it is sinful to withhold your aid from the struggling genius whose opportunity may yield to the world un- dreamed-ot benefits." In this reciprocal relation between the responsibility of the indi- vidual for society, and of society for the individual, lies one of Juda- CWcteriitTc! ism's prime characteristics. She has pointed the ideal in the conflict of social principles by her golden precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself — I am God." (Leviticus xix, i8.) According to this precept she has so arranged the inner affairs of the family that the purity, the sweetness and tenderness of the homes of her children have become proverbial. "Honor thy father and thy mother" (Ex. xx, 12). "The widow and the orphan thou shalt not oppress" (Ex. xxii, 22). "Before the hoary head shalt thou rise and shalt revere the Lord thy God" (Lev. xix, 32). "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children" (Deut. vi, 7). These, and hundreds of like injunctions, have created the institu- tions of loving and tender care which secure the training and nurture, the education and rearing of the child, which sustain the man and the woman in rectitude in the path of life, and with the staff of a devout faith guide their downward steps in old age to the resting place "over which the star of immortality sheds its radiant light." Judaism sets education before all things else and knows but one word for charity — Zedakah,?. 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 Fatherhoodr THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 183 According to this ideal Judaism has sought, passing beyond the envi- ronments of the family,to regulate the affairs of human society at large. "This is the book of the generations of men " — was the caption of Gen- esis, indicating as the Rabbins taught, that all men, without distinction of race, caste or other social difference, are entitled to equal rights as being equally the children of one Creator. The social ideal was accord- ingly the sanctification of men unto the noblest in the injunction to the "priest-people:" *' Holy shall ye be, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." (Ex. xix, 22.) The freedom of the individual was the prime necessary conse- Freedom of quence of this precept. Grandly and majestically the Mosaic legisla- the individual, tion swept aside all the fallacies which had given the basis to the heart- less degradation of man by his fellow man. Slavery stood forever con- demned when Israel went forth from the bondage of Egypt. Labor then for the first time asserted its freedom, and assumed the dignity which at last the present era is vindicating with such fervor and power. Judaism established the freedom to select one's own calling in life irrespective of birth or other conditions. For each one a task according to his capacities was the rule of life. The laborer was never so hon- ored as in the Hebrew commonwealth. The wage system was inaug- urated to secure to each one the fruits of his toil. It was over the work of the laboring man that the master had control, not over the man. Indeed the evils of the wage system were scrupulously guarded against in that the employer was charged by the law as by conscience to have regard for the physical, moral and spiritual well being of his employes and their families. To the solution of all the problems, which under the varying condi- tions of the different lands and different ages, always have arisen and always will arise the Jewish legislation in its inception and develop- ment affords an extraordinary contribution. It has studiously avoided the fallacies of the extremists of both the communistic and individual- istic economic doctrines. Thus it was taught: He that saith, "What is mine is thine and what is thine is mine" (communism), he is void of a moral concept. He that saith, "What is mine is mine and what is thine is thine," he has the wisdom of prudence. But some of the sages declare that this teaching too rigidly held oft leads to barbarous cruel- ties. He that saith, "What is mine is thine and what is thine shall re- main thine," he has the wisdom of the righteous. He that says that, "What is mine is mine and what is thine is also mine," he is utterly Godless. (Pirque Aboth, v, 13.) Judaism has calmly met the wild outbursts of extremists of the anti-poverty nihilistic types with the simple confession of the fact which is a resultant of the imperfections of human nature: "The needy will not be wanting in the land." (Deut. xv, 1 1.) The brotherly care of the. needy is the common solicitude of the Jewish legislatures and people in every age. Their neglect or abuse evokes the wrath of prophet, sage and councillor with such a fury that even today none but the morally dead can withstand their eloquence. The effort of 184 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, all legislation and instruction was directed to a harmonization of these two extremes. The freedom of the individual was recognized as involving the de- velopment of unlike capacities. From this freedom all progress springs. But all progress must be made, not for the selfish advantage w^lre?°'°'°^ of the individual alone, but for the common welfare, "That thy brother with thee may live." (Lev. xxv, 36.) Therefore, private property in land or other possessions was regarded as only a trust, because every- thing is God's, the Father's, to be acquired by industry and persever- ance by the individual, but to be held by him only to the advantage of all. To this end were established all the laws and institutions of trade, of industry, and of the system of inheritance, the code of rentals, the jubilee year that every fiftieth year brought back the land which had been sold into the original patrimony, the seventh or Sabbatical year, in which the lands were tallow, all produce free to the consumer, the tithings of field and flock, the loans to the brother in need without usury, and the magnificent system of obligatory charities, which still hold the germ of the wisdom of all modern scientific charity. "Let the poor glean in the fields" (Lev. xix, 10), and gather through his own efforts what he needs, 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 char- acter, living under certain conditions and environments which proba- bly do not now exist in exactly the same order anywhere. We cannot use the statutes, but their aim and spirit, their motive and method we must adopt in the solution of the social problem even today. Con- sider that the cry of. woe which is ringing in our ears now was never heard in Judea. Note that in all the annals of Jewish history there are no records of the revolts of slaves such as those which afflicted the world's greatest empire, and under Spartacus threatened the national safety, nor any uprisings like those of the Plebeians of Rome, the Demoi of Athens, or the Helots of Sparta; no wild scenes like those of the Paris Commune; no procession of hungry men, women and children crying for bread, like those of London, Chicago and Denver. Pauperism, that specter of our country, never haunted the ancient land of Judea. Tramps were not known there. Because the worst evils which afflict the social body today were unknown under the Jewish legislation, we may claim that we have here the pattern of what was the most successful social system that the world has ever known. Therefore does Judaism lift up her voice and call back her spiritual children, that in her bosom they may find comfort and rest. "Come back to the cradle of the world, where wis- dom first spake," she cries, "and learn again the message of truth that for all times and unto all generations was proclaimed through Israel's THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 185 precept, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself, for I am God.'" (Lev. xix, i8.) : The hotly contested social questions of our civilization are to be settled neither according to the ideas of the capitalist nor those of the laborer; neither according to those of the socialist, the communist, the anarchist or the nihilist; but simply and only according to the eternal laws of morality of which Sinai is the loftiest symbol. The guiding principles of all true social economy are embodied in the simple lessons of Judaism. As the world has been redeemed from idolatry and its moral corruption by the vital force of Jewish ideas so can it likewise be redeemed from social debasement and chaos. Character is the basic precept of Judaism. It claims as the mod- ern philosopher declares (Herbert Spencer) that there is no political Basi^Pr^ptf 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 insistence on this doctrine Judaism retains her place in the van of the religions of humanity. Let the voice of the mother of religions be heard in the parliament of all religions. May the voice of the mother not plead in vain. May the hearts of the nations be touched and all the unjust and cruel re- strictions of ages be removed from Israel in all lands, so that the eman- cipated may go in increasing colonies back to the native pursuits of agriculture and the industries so long denied them. May the colonies of the United States of America, Argentine and Palestine bean 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 dc Hirsch Trust and the various Jewish organizations of the civ- ilized world from Palestine to California, prove Israel's ardor for the honors of industry; may the wisdom of her schools, the counsel of her sages, the inspiration of her lawgivers, the eloquence of her prophets, the rapture of her psalmists, the earnestness of all her advocates, in- creasingly win the reverent attention of humanity to, and fix them unswervingly upon the everlasting laws of righteousness which she has set as the only basis for the social structure. Rabbi Joseph Silverman, New York. ^rrors ^bout the Jews. Paper by RABBI JOSEPH SILVERMAN, of New York. wrong UMAN life has often seemed to be a " Comedy of Errors." Each generation is busy cor- recting the mistakes of the previous one, and, at the same time, making others for the next generation to correct. History is only, as it were, a record of the world's mis- takes. There would be no science, if God had revealed the whole truth to mankind. We are constantly groping in the dark. Every doctrine which today is a fact, becomes merely a theory tomorrow; the next day, a myth. All is mystery; there is scarcely any truth, save the false; any right, save the Knowledge is only opinionbased upon facts, most opinions are errors, or will be tomorrow. One of the keenest and most injurious evils that can befall a man or a people is to be misunderstood, perhaps worse is to be misrepresented. The individual who has experienced both knows both the vital sufferings that were his. To worship truth and to be accused of falsehood ; to be relig- iously virtuous and be charged with vice; to aspire to heaven and, by the world, be consigned to purgatory; to be robbed of one's identity and be clad in the garb of another, of an inferior being; to see one's principles distorted, every motive questioned; one's words misquoted, every act misunderstood; one's whole life misrepresented, and made a caricature in the eyes of all men, without the power of redress, is to suffer all the unmitigated pangs of inner mortification. You breathe the air, you see the world, you live; but the air is poison, the world a snare, and life a delusion. Those are not the greatest martyrs who died for any cause; but those who have lived and struggled in a world which not only did not believe or trust in them, but filched from them every blessed endowment and acquired virtue. If any one were to attempt to analyze the character of the Jew on . 187 The Greatest Martyrs. 188 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. the basis of what has been said about him in history (so called), in fiction, or other forms of literature, both prose and poetry, he would find himself confused and baffled, and would be compelled to give up Paradoxes ^^^ task in despair. The greatest paradoxes have been expressed About tne Jew. about the Jcw. The vilest of vices and crimes, as well as the greatest of virtues have been attributed to him. Pictures of him have been painted as dark as Barabbas and as light as Mordecai, while between the two may be found every shade of wickedness and goodness. There can be no doubt but that many errors and misconceptions about the Jew can be traced to this source. The opinions of the world are to a great extent formed by what men read in history or fiction, in any form of prose or poetry. In this way so great an injus- tice has been done to the Jew that it will be impossible for mankind ever to rectify it or atone therefor. To cite but one example out of an infinite number, I refer to Shakespeare's portrayal of the Jew in his character of Shylock. This picture is untrue in every heinous detail. The Jew is not revengeful as Shylock. Our very religion is opposed to the practice of revenge, the *'lex talionis" having never been taken literally, but interpreted to mean full compensation for injuries. The Jew, in all history, is never known to have exacted a pound of human flesh cut from the living body as forfeit for a bond. Such was an ancient Roman practice. Shylock can be nothing more than a carica- tui'e of the Jew, and yet the world has applauded this abortion of lit- erature, this contortion of the truth more than the ideal portrait which Lessing drew of Israel in his "Nathan, the Wise." If any one coming from another world were to inquire of the inhabitants of this world regarding the character of the Jew, their beliefs and practices, he would obtain the most incongruous mixture of opinions. A dense ignorance exists about the Jews regarding their social and domestic life, their history and literature, their achieve- ments and disappointments, their religion, ideals and hopes. And this ignorance is not confined merely to ordinary men but prevails also among scholars. Ovid, Tacitus, Shakespeare, Voltaire and Renan, most heathen and Christian writers, have been guilty of entertaining, and, what is more culpable, of disseminating erroneous ideas about the descendants of ancient Israel. " In regard to the Jews," says George Elliot, " it would be difficult to find a form of bad reasoning about them which had not been heard in conversation or been admitted to the dignity of print, but the neg- .* lect of resemblances is a common property of dullness which invites ail the various points of view, the prejudiced, the puerile, the spiteful and the abysmally ignorant. Our critics have always overlooked our resemblances to them (the Jews) in virtue; have, in fact, denounced in Jews the same practices which they admired in themselves." There is no doubt but that prejudice against the Jews is as much a cause of ignorance and false reasoning as a result therefrom. When I sometimes hear or read a certain class of opinions con- cerning the Jews, I am reminded of an anecdote about Bishop Brooks. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 189 He attended a meeting in England, at which an Englishman declared, "All Americans are narrow minded and illiberal. They are in spirit, Modern Jews just as in body, small, dwarfed and pigmy." The late Bishop Brooks Hebr^Tlf^m then arose in all the majesty of his colossal stature, and called out in i^*<^®- his stentorian voice, "And here is one ot those American dwarfs." For the sake of completeness I will speak of the error ordinarily CO nmittcd of referring to the Jew as a particular race. Hebrew is the name of an ancient race from which the Jew is descended, but there have been so many admixtures to the original race that scarcely a trace of it exists in the modern Jews. Intermarriage with Egyptians, the various Canaanitish nations, the Midianites, Syrians, etc., are fre- quently mentioned in the Bible. There have also been additionsto the Jews by voluntary conversions such as that in the eighth century, of Bulan, prince of the Chasars and his entire people. We can, therefore, not be said to be a distinct race today. We form no separate nation and no faction of any nation. Nor is there any general desire to return to Palestine and resurrect the ancient nationality. We can only look with misgiving, rather with in- difference, upon any organized effort undertaken by fanatic believers who are deeply concerned in the fulfillment of certain Biblical prophe- cies. They overlook the fact that those prophecies have either already been, or need never be, fulfilled. We form merely an independent religious community and feel keenly the injustice that is done us when the religion of the Jew is singled out for aspersion, whenever such a citizen is guilty of a misde- meanor. Jew is not to be used parallel with German, Englishman, American, but with Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Moham- medan or Atheist. Over fifty years ago the late Isaac D'Israeli wrote that "the Jewish people are not a nation, for they consist of many nations; they are Russian, English, French, or Italian, and, like the chameleon, reflect the color of the spot they rest on. They are like the waters running through the countries tinged in their course with all the varie- ties of the soil where they deposit themselves.' An eminent Jewish divine, in a spirit of indignation at some harsh criticism cast upon the Hebrew nation, so called, asked: "If we are a separate nation, where is our country; where, our laws; where, our armies; where, our courts of justice; where, our flag?" To this ques- tion the critic made no reply. But we, here in congress assembled, can unitedly answer: "The land of our nativity, or of our adoption, is our country. Its laws we obey; in its armies we find our comrades; by the decision of its courts we abide; under its flag we seek protection, and for it we are ready to sacrifice our substance and our lives and to pledge our sacred honor." We are, furthermore, often charged with exclusiveness and clan- nishness, with having only narrow, tribal aspirations, and with being averse to breaking down social barriers. Few outside of that inner close circle that is to be met in the Jewish home, or social group, know 190 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Domestic ^^g^t of tlic Jcw's domestic happiness and social virtues. If there is Happiness and any clannishncss in the Jew, it is due not to any contempt for the out- ..ocia irtues. ^-^^ world, but to an utter abandon to the charm of home and the fas- cination of confreres in thought and sentiment. However, if there is a remnant of exclusiveness in the Jews of today, is he to blame for it? Did he create the social barrier? We must agree with Mr. Zangwil when he says: "People who have been living in a Ghetto for a couple of centuries are not able to step outside merely because the gates are thrown down, or to efface the brands on their souls by putting off the yellow badges. The isolation from with- out will have come to seem the law of their being." (Children of the Ghetto, i, 6.) None is more desirous of fraternity than the Jew, but he will not gain it at the loss of his manhood. He will not accept fraternity as a patronage, but would rather claim it as a simple matter of equality. That is a point which our critics and detractors do not understand. Again, if the Jew is exclusive, it is due to the fact that while he is willing to come to any truce for brotherhood, he declines to do so and be regarded as legitimate prey for religious conquest. And that is a point which the missionaries cannot understand. Tl>e fact that Jews are, as a rule, averse to intermarriage with non- Jews has been quoted in evidence of Jewish exclusiveness. Two errors seem to underlie this false reasoning. The one that Judaism directly interdicts intermarriage with Christians, and the other that the Jewish church disciplines those who are guilty of such an act. The Mosaic law, at best only forbade intermarriage with the seven Canaanit- ish nations and, though the only justifiable inference would be that this interdiction applies also to heathens, still by rabbinical forms of inter- pretation it has been made to apply also to Christians. The historical fact is that the Roman Catholic council held at Orleans, in 533 A. C. E., first prohibited Christians to intermarry with Jews. This decree was later enforced by meting out the penalty of death to both parties to such a union. Jewish rabbis, then, as a matter of self-protection, interdicted the practice of intermarriage. And though today, men are free to act according to their tastes, there exists on the part of the Jew as much repugnance to intermarriage as on the part of the Chris- tian. Such ties are, as a rule, not encouraged by the families of either side, and for very good cause. And even if there exists on the part of the Jew a greater aversion to intermarriage, this cannot and should not be charged to a desire for clannishncss or exclusiveness, but rather to those natural barriers that separate Jewish from Christian society. It is not my purpose, at present, to lay the blame for the creation or continuance of such barriers, but only to submit that social ostracism, as that term is understood today, has never in any form been under- taken by Jews. A sense of just pride even constrains me from strongly protesting against the social ostracism that, at times, manifests itself against the Jew. I desire here to merely point out the error that seems to inspire it, namely, the grievous error that ostracism is sup- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 191 posed to purify the one side of all objectionable characters, and to stamp all ostracised as the outcast of the earth. We are familiar with that false logic that infers a broad generality from a few isolated par- ticulars, which imputes the sins of an individual to the class of which he may be a member, which charges the misdemeanor of one upon a whole people, which condemns a religion because of the wickedness of a few hypocrites, which punishes the guilty with the innocent. And it is such fallacious reasoning that is time and again applied to Jews, Able to Live with this exception that the virtues of a Montefiore or a Baron de Abuse.^ * Hirsch are not generalized in the same manner. We are convinced that Jews who have outlived the terrors of the Inquisition will be able to live down all abuse, all false reasoning, and maintain the majesty of their manhood even outside the charmed circle of self-appointed censors of social life. But we must protest against the error which mistakes ostracism for exclusiveness. In this case the latter is a virtue, the former a vice, a crime. Let the verdict of history say who is guilty? We have even been charged with exclusiveness in our religion, so lit- tle is our practice known. I have myself been lately asked by a lady who makes some pretense to education, whether she could not go to the synagogue in order to see the offering of animal sacrifices and the burning of incense. She had supposed that the Jewish religion was a secret, mysterious rite, to witness which was only the privilege of the initiated. Frequently we are asked whether non-Jews are permitted to enter a Jewish house of worship. Error and misrepresentation about Judaism are common. A Christian divine once remarked that the offering of the Paschal lamb in the synagogue, at this very day, contains a sublime picture of the transfiguration of Christ. And re- cently in New York (and perhaps in other cities also), a missionary was giving performances in Christian churches, showing how the Jews still offer the Paschal lamb. If such gross errors and misrepresenta- tions are current and are taught in this country with the connivance of men in authority who know better, it is not difficult to understand how benighted peasants in Europe can be made to believe that Jews use the blood of Christian children at the Passover services, and how such monstrous calumnies could rouse the prejudice and vengeance of the ignorant masses. So little is Judaism understood by even educated men outside of our ranks, that it is commonly believed that all Jews hold the same form of faith and practice. Here the same error of reasoning is used to which reference has already been made, in speaking of the char- acter of the Jew as an individual and as a class. Because some Jews still believe inthe coming of a personal Messiah, or in bodily resurrection, or in the establishment of the Palestinian kingdom, the inference is at once drawn by many, that all Jews hold the same belief. Very little IS known by the populace of the several schisms in modern Judaism denominated as Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Radical. It is not my province to speak exhaustively of these sects, and it niust suf- 192 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. fice to merely remark here that Orthodox Judaism believes in carry- ing out the letter of the ancient Mosaic code as expounded by the Talmudic rabbis; that Reform Judaism seeks to retain the spirit only of the ancient law, discarding the absolute authority of both Bible and Talmud, making reason and modern demands paramount; that Con- servatism is merely a moderate Reform, while Radicalism declares itself independent of established forms, clinging mainly to the ethical basis of Judaism. Reform Judaism has been the specially favored subject of mis- understanding and of ignorance. Recently an eminent Christian divine of St. Louis objected to extending an invitation to a Reform rabbi to dSsm^"^^ '^' lecture before the Ministers* Association, on the plea that "All Reform Jews are infidels." A still grosser piece of ignorance is the identifica- tion of Reform Judaism with Unitarianism. As scholarly and finished a writer as Frances Power Cobbe, in a recent article on "Progressive Judaism," made bold to show her extreme interest in this Reform movement, believing it to evidence a breaking up of Judaism alto- gether and a turning toward Christianity. Far from breaking up Judaism, Reform has strengthened it in many ways and retained in the fold those who would have gone over, not to Christianity, but to Atheism. Judaism can never tend toward Christianity, in any sense, notably to Unitarianism; the latter rather is gradually breaking away from Christianity and tending toward Jewish belief. For the present, however, Reform Judaism still stands opposed to even the most liberal Unitarians and protests against hero worship,- against a second revela- tion and the necessity of a better code of ethics than the one pro- nounced by Moses and the prophets. To prevent the inference that Judaism is no positive quantity and that there are irreconcilable differences dividing the various sects, I will say that all Jews agree on essentials and declare their belief in the Unity and Spirituality of God, in the efficacy of religion for spiritual regeneration and for ethical improvement, in the universal law of com- pensation according to which there are reward and punishment, either here or hereafter, in the final triumph of truth and fraternity of ail men. It may be briefly stated that the decalogue forms the constitu- tion of Judaism. According to Moses, the prophets and the historical interpretation of Judaism, whoever believes and practices the "ten commandments" is a Jew. Errors about the Jew pertain not only to questions of race and nationality, not only to his individual, domestic and social character, not only to his religion, but also to his inherent power to resist the condemnation and opposition of an evil enemy and his persistent ex- istence in spite of the destructive forces of a hostile world. The very fact that after so many fruitless efforts to destroy the Jew by persecu- tion and inquisition, similar efforts are still put forth, only proves that the invincibility of Israel has ever been, and is still underestimated. It is a fact that the cause of the Jew is strengthened in times of persecu- tion. When the hand of the oppressor is felt, the oppressed band THB WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 193 together encourage one another, become more faithful to their God, firmer in their conviction and more zealous in behalf of their religion. It has been said that martyrdom is the seed of the church. This is no less true of Judaism. The very means adopted to destroy it have only plowed up the fallow land and planted a stronger faith. Persecution against any religion is a wanton error, a monstrous blasphemy. The very traducers and persecutors of the Jews are the real ene- mies of Christianity. Russia has set Christianity one or two centuries Real Ene backward. Anti-Semitic agitation in Germany will have a similar re- SaSty. ™ suit. The church is committing a monumental blunder in conniving at this nineteenth century outrage and must sooner or later be over- taken by her Nemesis. The church should in her own interest, in the name of her own principles and teachings, rise up in arms against unholy Russia and unrighteous Germany. When persecution had done its work to no avail, when inquisition failed to make any impression on the Jew in order to induce him to leave his brethren, detraction and ostracism were resorted to in order to weaken the hold of the Jew upon his co-religionists. We have already referred to some forms of this persecution and wish to add that Jews were falsely charged with having poisonous wells, with havingspread contagious diseases and been the cause of the black death and every public calamity. Strenuous efforts have also been made to impair their commercial relations with the world. Jews have been condemned as a people of usurers, of avaricious money-lenders, as consumers in contradiction to producers. "In the Middle Ages," says Lady Mag- nus (Outlines of Jewish History), " 'Jew' meant to the popular mind nothing more than money-lender. Men spoke of having their 'Jews,' as we speak of having our grocers and druggists. Each served a par- ticular purpose and was primarily regarded in connection with that service. The real reason was never recognized by popular judgment, and the rude peasant of medieval Europe firmly believed that the Jew amassed more money than those about him, not because he was more industrious or more frugal, but because he was meaner, trickier, more deceitful, and, if necessary, positively dishonest." Whatever may be the reprehensible practice of individuals, such an aspersion does not apply to the Jewish character, Jewish teachings, both in Scripture and Talmud, being opposed to usury and overreaching of whatever kind. It is malicious slander to class the Jews as consumers, as distin- guished from producers. The Jew is by birthright a tiller of the soil. Of this birthright he has been robbed by rapacious governments. Through centuries of persecution, when he was but a wandering sojourner on the earth, with no country he could call his own, no government to love, no flag to revere, he was like a tortoise that carries his house with him. The Jew was compelled to traffic in moneys and gems which he could take with him from place to place as necessity demanded. Today, however, he is found in all trades and professions; today he is agriculturist, mechanic and artist, partakes of all the bounties of free citizenship and must be counted among the producers of the world. 194 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. And what shall we say of the Bible, the Talmud, music and poetry, art and science, which the Jews have contributed to the intellectual and material wealth of mankind! To still repeat the old threadbare charge is worse than malicious slander, it is criminal detraction, a sub- version of all fact, a travesty upon truth. There is sufficient reason to believe that all persecution and detraction of Jews rest on the further fundamental erroneous supposi- tion that Jews can, in some way or other, be converted to Christianity. When men think they can destroy the Jew and his religion, they forget his indomitable patience, his untiring perseverance, his almost stolid obstinacy. When they endeavor to crush him, they overlook his hardened nature, steeled by trials and misfortune. When they expect to lure him from his associates, and wean him from his religion, they lose sight of his- keen wit, his sense of the humorous and ridiculous. When they endeavor to punish him with ostracism, they fail to note his cheerful disposition, his happy home, and charming social in- stincts. When they endeavor to injure his influence by slander and detraction, they are blind to his utter disregard for public favors, and to his ability to rise to any emergency. When they look forward to converting him by force of persuasion, by threat or bribe, they disclose their ignorance of his deepseated conviction of the truth of his own religion. The meager results achieved by missionaries and tracts have proved how futile are all efforts to convert the Jews. And even those few who have changed their faith have done so, there is ample reason FutiieEfforts to believe, only through mercenary motives, only because abject pov- jPewB^'"''^''* *^^ erty forced them to accept the bribe that was temptingly held out toward them. I believe there are many sincere missionaries, and that, perhaps, among savages they accomplish some good as a civilizing leaven, but among the Jews their labors are uncalled for and misdirected. This whole modern system of anti-Semitic agitation, and of attempts to convert the Jews by any means, reveals to us the errone- ous impression entertained by many, it seems^ that Jews have entered into a kind of secret rivalry with the rest of the world for the suprem- acy of Judaism and its followers. Nothing could be further removed from the truth. Jews do not aspire to supremacy (perhaps unfortun- ately) religiously, socially, or politically. They desire no distinction as a particular sect, apart from the rest of the world, in dress, habits, manners, social features or politics. Jews have renounced the title of '• Peculiar People," and regard such a sobriquet rather as a reproach than a compliment. They claim the name of Jew merely as a term denoting their particular faith and practice. In religion only are Jews different from others, and they claim the right as free men to worship their God in peace, according to the dictates of their own and not another's conscience. The Jew is tolerant by nature, tolerant by virtue of his religious teaching. He believes in allowing every man, what he claims for him- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 195 self, the right to work out his own salvation and make his own peace with God. He has only one important request to make of Christian teachers and preachers, namely, that they desist from teaching their An Error the school children and congregations the prevailing error that the Jews pj^^udiw?^"*^ have crucified Jesus of Nazareth. Because of this great error the believing world looks upon the Jew through an imperfect medium, one that enlarges faults and minimizes virtues. It is this error which has caused so much prejudice, bitter hatred and unjust persecution. If it were once corrected the way would be opened for the correction of many other errors. Now is the great opportunity of the age for rectifying it. Let the truth be told to the world by the assembled parliament of religions, that not the Jews but the " Romans have cru- cified the great Nazarean teacher." Rt. Rev. John J. Keane, D, P. (Rector Catholic University), Washington, D. C. Yhe Incarnation Jdea in History and in Jesus Qhrist. Paper by RT. REV. JOHN J. KEANE, D. D., of Washington, D. C. HE 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 manifest 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 indi- vidual deists there have always been, but they 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 exist- ence of revelation is not a spontaneous generation from the brain of man. Tyndal -and Pasteur have demonstrated that there is no spon- taneous 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. Curiosly, strangely, sadly as that primitive teaching of man by his Creator has been transformed in the lapse of ages, in the vicissi- 197 Existence of Revelation. 1S8 TBE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. tudes of distant wanderings, of varying fortunes and of changing cul- ture, still the comparative study of ancient religions shows that in them all there has existed one central, pivotal concept, dressed, indeed, in various garbs of myth and legend and philosophy, yet ever recog- nizably 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 A-ncientMem- scHous and honest criticism demonstrates that it is not a spontaneous mMTRace ^^' 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 analogies 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 distinct branches — one shaping thought, or shaped by thought, in the eastern half of Asia; the other in the western half. And these two separate streams receive their distinctive character from the idea prevalent in the east and west of Asia concerning the nature of man, and, consequently, concerning his relation to God. In the west of Asia, the Semitic branch of the human family, to gether with its Aryan neighbors of Persia, considered man as a sub- stantial individuality, produced by the Infinite Being, and produced as a distinct entity, distinct from his Infinite Author in his own finite personality, and through the immortality of the soul. Eastern Asia, on the contrary, held that man had not a substan- tial individuality, but only a phenomenal 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 flame and fall back into it; so all things ema- nate from Brahma and again lose themselves in him." "Behold," says Buddhism, "how the dewdrop lies on the lotus leaf, a tiny particle of the stream, lifted from it by evaporation and slipping off the lotus leaf to lose itself in the stream again." Thus they distinguished between being and existence, between persisting substance, the Infinite and the evanescent phenomena emanating from it for a while. From these opposite concepts of man sprang- opposite concepts of the nature of good and evil. In western Asia, good was the con- formity of the finite will with the will of the Infinite, which is wisdom and love; evil was the deviation of the finite will from the eternal norma of wisdom and love. Hence individual accountability and guilt, as long as the deviation lasted; hence the cure of evil when the finite will is brought back into conformity with the Infinite; hence the happiness of virtue and the bliss of immortality and the value of existence. Eastern Asia, per contra, considered existence as simply and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 199 solely an evil; in fact, the sole and all-pervading evil, and the only good was deliverance from existence, the extinction of all individuality in the oblivion of the Infinite. Although existence was conceived as the work of the Infinite — nay, as an emanation coming forth from the Infinite — yet it was considered simply a curse, and all human duty had this for its meaning and its purpose, to break loose from the fetters of existence and to help others with ourselves to reach non-existence. Hence again, in western Asia, the future redeemer was conceived as one masterful individuality, human, indeed, type and head of the race, but also pervaded by the divinity in ways and degrees more or less obscurely conceived 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 holi- nesSi 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 nat- urally looked forward to as the crowning blessing and glory of humanity. In eastern Asia, on the contrary, as man and all things were re- garded as phenomenal emanations of the Infinite, it followed that every man was an incarnation. And hence 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, strug- gling 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 difference is a difference of philosophy. The touchstone of philosophy is human reason, and we have a right to Difference of apply it to all forms of philosophy. With no irreverence, therefore, PhUosophy. 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. We ask again, How can the emanations of the Infinite Being be evil? For the Infinite Being must be essentially good. Zoroaster declared that Ahriman, the evil one, had had a beginning and would have an end, and was, therefore, not eternal nor infinite. And if there is but one substance, then the emanations, the phenomena of the Infi- nite Being are Himself; how can they be evil? How can His incarna- tion be the one great curse to get free from? Again we ask. How can this human individuality of ours, so strong, so persistent in itself-consciousness and self-assertion, be a phenome- non without a substance? Or, if it has as its substance the Infinite Being Himself, then how can it be, as it too often is, so ignorant and erring, so weak and changeful, so lying, so dishonest, so mean, so vile? 200 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, For, let us remember, 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 constitutes 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 No Answer bases are contradictions. Shall we say that a thing may be false in CwiAcceDt^*^^ philosophy and yet true in religion? That was said once by an inventor of paradoxes; but reason repudiates it as absurd, and the apostle of the Gentiles has well said that religion must be "our reason- able service." Human life, incarnation, redemption, must mean some- thing different from this. For the spirit that breathes through the tradition of the east, the spirit of profound self-annihilation in the 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 sym- pathy, nay, the sincerest reverence. Who that has looked into it t^it 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 philosophy. 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 Infi- nite. We recognize that no multiplication of finite individualties can detract from the Infinite, nor could their addition add to the Infinite; for infinitude resides not in multiplication of things, but in the bound- less essence of Being, in whose simple and all-pervading immensity the multitude of finite things have their existence gladly and grate- fully. ''What have you that you have not received? 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 dependence, but also of their gladsome thankfulness. We recognize that man's substantial individuality, his spiritual immortality, his individual power of will and consequent moral respon- sibility, 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 norma of the Infinite, in which truth and rectitude essentially reside. We see that the end and purpose and destiny, as well as the ori- gin, of the finite must be in the Infinite; not in the extinction of the finite individuality — else why should it receive existence at all — but in its perfection and beatitude. And therefore we see that man's upward aspiration for the better and the best is no illusion, but a reasonable instinct for the right guidance of his life. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 201 All this we find explicitly stated or plainly implied in the tradi« tion 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 grand- eur 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 precursor. The Lord hath used me to deliver His people from the land of bondage, but hath not permitted me to enter the promised The Messiah, 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 mankind from the bondage of evil and lead them into the promised land of their eternal inheritance. Look for- ward 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 principality is on His shoulder, and He shall be called the Wonderful, the Coun- selor, 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 Saviour and judge of the world. Greece hears the olden promise that Prometheus shall yet be de- livered 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 ex- pectancy concerning which Tacitus testifies that all were then looking for a great leader who was to arise in Judea and to rule the world. And the expectation of the world was not to be frustrated. At the very time foretold by Daniel long ages before, of the tribe of ludah, of the family of David, in the little town of Bethlehem, with fulfillment of all the predictions of the prophets, the Messiah appears. "Behold," says the messenger of the Most High to the Virgin of Naz- 202 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS CF RELIGICNS. areth, *'thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt 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 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 Lo'rd: be it done to me according to thy word.'"' And what then? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Andthe 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,consubstan- tial 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 Virgin 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 touchstone of reason and ask, " Is this possible or is it impossible EeiMonlJut a ^^Ings that are here told us? For we never can be expected to believe Philosophy. 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, opposite 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 Infinite 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 stoop to this? Reason sees that to do so would cost the Infinite nothing, since He is ever His unchanging Self; it sees, moreover, that since creation is the offspring not of His need but of His bounty, of His love, it would be most worthy of infinite love to thus perfect the creative act, to thus lift 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 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 203 been craving for, whether intelligently or not. This very thing all re- ligions 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 in- deed "the Expected of the Nations, the Immanuel, Lord with us." Therefore does He answer clearly and unmistakably: "Abraham rejoiced that he should see My day. He saw it and was glad." "Art Thou, then, older than Abraham?" " Before Abraham was I am." "Who art Thou, then?" " I am the beginning, who also speak to you." "Whosoever seeth Me seeth the Father; I and the Father are one." " No one 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 darkness, but shall have the light of life." " I am the vine; you are the branches. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me, for without Me you can do nothing." He asks His disciples to declare who He is. Simon replies: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." He answers: " Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jona, 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 Lord and my God!" He answers, "Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and have yet believed." His enemies threaten to stone Him, "because," they said, "being man. He maketh Himself God." They demand that for this reason He shall be put to death. The high priest exclaims, **I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ, the Son of the living God." He answers, "Thou hast said it, I am; and one day you shall see Me sitting on the right hand of the power of God and coming in the clouds of heaven." In fulfillment of the prophecies He is condemned to death. He declares that it is for the world's redemption: "I lay down My lite 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. The Expected of the Nations. Proof of AH He Said. 204 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. To that church He gives, a commission of spiritual authority ex- tending to all ages, to all nations, to every creature; a commission that would be madness in any mouth save that of God Incarnate. Testimony This is the testimony concerning Himself given to an inquiring Concerning 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 fullness of grace and of truth toward which the sages of the Gen- tiles, with sad or with eager longing, stretched forth their hands. In each of them there was much that was true and good; in Him was 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. §• (0 o > Tfhe Incarnation of Q^d in C^^'ist Paper by REV. JULIAN K. SMYTH, of Boston. T is related that some Greeks once came to Jerusalem and, to a fisherman of Bethsaida, they said: "Sir, we would see Jesus." Hellas came to Israel; the nation of culture approach- ed the people of revelation, and the patrons, if, indeed, we may not say the worshipers, of the Beautiful asked to look into the face of Him who "hath no form nor comeliness," whose "visage was so marred unlike to a man and His form unlike to the sons of meno'! A few years later a Tarsus Jew, a messenger of Jesus of Nazareth, standing in the court of th« Areopagites, said to the men of Athens who asked concerning "the new doctrine:" "Whom ye ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you." V ) ' And the question of the Greeks has passed from mouth to mouth, as the story of the "man of sorrows" has been carried around the world, until now, in this gathering together of all religions, it is put forth as a question of humanity. To attempt to explain from the Christian standpoint the coming and the nature of that Person, the influence of whose 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 flesh, 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 GodinHuman- presence 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 Conqueror's heel. God in His world to champion and redeem it! This is what the religions of the ages have, in some 206 Presence of Rev. Julian K. Smyth (Church of the New Jerusalem), Boston, Mass, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 209 form and with various degrees of certainty, looked for. This is what sang itself into the songs and prophesies of Israel. "And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed; and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it." "Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come in strength, and His arm shall rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." Christianity is in the world to utter her belief that He who revealed Himself as the Good Shepherd realizes these 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 child- ^S^^h! ^* ^^ hood He bears the name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is "God with us." He explains His work and His presence by declaring that it is the coming of the kingdom — not of law, nor of earthly govern- ment, 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 imma- nence; His supreme end, the culmination of all His labors; His suffer- ings. His victories, to become the open and glorified medium of divine life to the world. It is not another Moses, nor another 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 who does not hide or withhold Himself, but who is ever going forth to man inthe effort to reveal Himself, and to be known and felt according to the degree of man's capacity and need. This self-manifestation or "forthgoing of all that is known or knowable of the divine perfections" is the Logos, or Word; and it is the very center of Christian revelation. This word is God, not withdrawn in dreary solitude, but coming into intelligible 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 God 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 made by Him." Hence, too, out of this divine desire to reveal and accommodate Himself to man, His presence in various forms of religion. "He was in the world." Even in man's sin and spiritual blindness the eternal Logos seeks to bring itself to his consciousness. "The Light shineth in the darkness." But gradually through the ages, through man's sinfulness, his spiritual perceptions become dim and he sees, as in a state of open-eyed blindness, only the forms through which the divine mind has sought to manifest Himself. "He was in 210 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. the world and the world knew Him not." What more can be done? Type, symbol, religious ceremonials, scriptures — all have been em- ployed. Has not man slipped beyond the reach of the divine endeav- ors? But the Christian history of the Logos moves on to its supreme announcement: "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Not some angel come from heaven to deliver some further message; not another prophet sprung from our bewildered race to chide, to warn or to extort, 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 com- pletes itself in the story of the manger. And so, too, the incarnation, instead of being exceptional, is exactly in line with what the Logos story of the ^^^' ffom the beginning, been doing. God, as the Word, has ever been Manger. coming to man in a form accommodated to his need, keeping step with his steps until, in the completeness of this desire to bring Him- self to man where he is, He appears to the natural senses and in a form suitable to our natural life. In the Christian conception of God, as one who seeks to reveal himself to man, it simply is 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 extraordinary in the sense of its being a hard or an unnatural thing for God to do. He has always been approaching man, always adapting His revelations to human conditions and needs. It is this constant accommodation and manifestation that has kept man's power of spiritual thought, alive. The history of religions, together with their remains, is a proof of it. The testimony of the 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 toifoUow 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 suffering, 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 man's selfish 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, sacrificed or lowered. It is always this^ divine something trying to manifest itself, trying to make itself understood, trying to redeem man from his slavery to evil and draw .to itself his spiritual attach- ment. Here, plain to human sight, is part of that age-long effort of the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 211 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: "Before Abraham was, I am." We are assured of it when He declares that He came forth from the Father. And we know that He has tri- umphed when, at the last, we hear His promise, "Lo, I am with you always." It is the Logos speaking. The divine purpose has been ful- filled. The Word has come forth on this plane of human life, mani- fested Himself and established a relationship with man nearer and dearer than ever before. He has made Himself available and indis- pensable 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 God's Fatherly help. "I am the Door of the sheep." "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." In this thought of the divine character of the Son of Man, the early Christians found strength and comfort. For a time they did not attempt to define this faith, theologically. It was a simple, di^^ect, 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 Saviour so long promised; the world's hope, "in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." But today 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 concep- tion 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 natural- ism, which regards the external as first and. the internal as second and of comparative unimportance. Neither can be understood unless it be recognized that spiritual forces and substances are related to nat- ural forces and substances as cause and effect; and that thqy, the for- mer, are prior and the active formative agents, playing upon and received by the latter. We do not articulate words and then try to pack them with ideas and intentions. The process is the reverse. First, the intention, then that intention coming forth as a thought, and then the thought incar- nating 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 composed 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 Strength and Comfort. Man Essen- tially a SDirit- ual Being. 212 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. •w^eaves the swathings and coverings which are to serve as a natural or physical body and make possible its entrance into this outer court of life. We do not concede, then, that there is anything impossible or con- trary to order in the declaration of the Gospel, but "that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." It is still in line with the gen- eral law of the 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 derived from a human father, but is especially formed or molded by the divine creative spirit, formed as with us of spiritual substances; formed with a perfection and with infinite possibilities of development 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, in- stead of being derived from a finite paternity, it is unique. It is divine in fTrst principles. In the outer clothings of the natural mind and in the successive wrappings furnished by the woman nature, it shares our weakness. But primarily, essentially, it is born with the capacity of becoming divine through the removal of whatever is imperfect or limiting, and through complete union with the Divine which formed it for Himself. Very like our humanities in all that pertains to the growth of the natural body and natural mind would be this humanity of the Son of Man. The same tenderness and helplessness of its infantile body; the Like Our Hu- possibility of weariuess, hunger, thirst, pain; the same exposure, too, ^^ ^^^* in the lower planes of the mind, to the assaults of evil resulting in eternal struggle, temptation and anguish of spirit. And yet there is always an unlikeness, a difference, in that the very primitive, deter* mining forms and 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 exist- . ence as to be forever after immediately present in them, and so become literally, actually God-with-us. Gradually this was done. Gradually the Divine Life of love and wisdom came into the several planes which, by incarnation, existed in this humanity, removing from them whatever was limiting or imper- fect, 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 He Himself tells us of a process, a distinct change which His humanity underwent, and which is the key to His real nature. "The Holy Spirit," says the record, ''was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Some divine operation was going on within that humanity THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 213 which was not fully accomplished. But on the eve of His crucifixion he exclaimed: **Nowis the Son 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 the glorification is accomplished, when the divine has entirely filled the human and they act "reciprocally and unanimously as soul and body," then the declaration is: "I and the Father are one." Di- vine in origin, human in birth, divinely human through glorification. As to His soul, or immortal being, the Father; as to His human, the Son; as to the life and saving power that go forth from His glorified nature, the Holy Spirit. This story of the divine life in its descent to man, this coming or incarnation of the Logos through the humanity of Jesus Christ, is the sweet and serious privilege of Christianity to carry into the world. I try to state it; I try from a new theological stg-ndpoint to show reasons for its rational acceptance. But I know that however true and necessary explanations maybe, 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 comprehensive 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 to 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, manifesting itself to man, going out into the world, awakening the capacity which is in every man for spiritual, yes, for divine life. Is not that the very heart of the Gospel, or rather, is not that the Gospel? And is it not equally true that up to this hour there is no fact so real, no fact so powerful, no fact that is working such spiritual wonders as the fact, the influence, the being of Jesus Christ? We are sitting here as the first great parliament of the religions of the world. We rightly believe, we boldly say, that from this time on the Fatherhood 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 representa- tives of every faith such a hospitable reception is the evolution of mere good nature. It is the Spirit of Him whose utterance of those simple words, which have been inscribed as the text of the Columbian Liberty Bell, are already ringing in 'The Christ that is to be." "A new com- mandment I give unto you. That ye love one another." And the same lips also said: "Other sheep I have which are not of Hnman Divine ments. and Eie. Love One An. other. 214 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 reality, the marvel is, that the religion of Jesus Christ should be so all-embracing 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 Chris- tianity is not afraid to say that the religion which bears His name is grounded not upon truth — the abstract — nor a philosophy, nor an eccle- siasticism, nor a ritual, but upon a person; a person so true, so perfect Christ the ^" hoHuess, that we believe, nay, we feel, that He embodies the very Truth. life and spirit of God. And with this manifestation has come a new conception of God as one who is willing 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 forgiveness. 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 Prof. Max Muller, Oxford University. Qreek Philosophy and the Christian f^eligion. Paper by PROF. MAX MULLER, of Oxford University. HAT I have aimed at in my Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion is to show that all religions are natural, and you will see from my last volume on Theosophy or Psychological Religion that what I hope for is not simply a reform, but a complete revival of re- ligion, more particularly of the Chris- tian religion. You will hardly have time to read the whole of my volume before the opening of your religious congress at Chicago, but you can easily see the drift of it. I had often asked myself the question how independent thinkers and honest men, like St, Clem- ent and Origen, came to embrace Christianity and to elaborate the first system of Christian theology. There was nothing to iknduce them to accept Christianity or to cling to it if they had found it in any way irreconcila- ble with their philosophical 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 Christians. We may safely conclude, therefore, that they found their own philosophical convic- tions, 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 ineradicable conviction that there is reason or logos in the world. When asked whence that reason, as seen by the eye of science in the phenomenal world, they said: " From the cause of all things which is 217 ^ _ _ Philosophicul ConyictioDB. The Critical 218 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. beyond all names and comprehension, except so far as it is manifested or revealed in the phenomenal world." What we call the different types, or ideas, or logoi in the world are the 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. 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 reason, 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 Step." ''""'^ took, while others refused to take it, was to recognize the perfect real- ization of the divine thought or logos of manhood in Christ, as in the true sense the Son of God; not in the vulgar mythological sense, but in the deep metaphysical meaning which had long been possessed in the Greek philosophy. Those who declined to take that step, such as Celsus and his friends, did so either because they denied the possi- bility of any divine thought ever becoming fully realized in the flesh or in the phenomenal world, or because they could not bring them- selves to recognize that realization in Jesus of Nazareth. Clement's conviction that the phenomenal was a realization of the divine reason 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 historicalgrounds only. Everything else followed. Christian morality was really in com- plete harmony with the morality of the stoic school of philosophy, though it gave to it a new life and a higher purpose. But the whole world assumed a new aspect. It was seen to be supported and per- vaded by reason or logos; it was throughout teleological, thought and willed by a rational power. The same divine presence had now been perceived for the first time in all its fullness and perfection in the one Son of God, the pattern of the whole race of men, henceforth to be called "the sons of God." This was the. groundwork of the earliest Christian theology, as presupposed by the author of the fourth Gospel, and likewise by many- passages in the synoptical Gospels, though fully elaborated for the first time by such men as St Clement and Origen. If we want to be true and honest Christians, we must go back to those earliest ante- nicene authorities, the true fathers of the church. Thus only can we use the words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh/* not as thoughtless repeaters, but as honest thinkers and be- THE WORLD* S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS: 219 lievers. In the first sentence, "In the beginning 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 conception of the history of the whole world, showing that there was a purpose in the ancient religions and philosophies of the world, and that Christianity was really from the beginning a synthesis of the best thoughts of the past, as they had been slowly elaborated by the two principal representatives of the human race, the Aryan and the Semitic. On this ancient foundation, which was strangely neglected, if not purposely rejected, at the time of the Reformation, a true revival of the Christian religion and a reunion of all its divisions may become possible, and I have no doubt that your Congress of the Religions of the World might do excellent work for the resuscitation of pure and primitive ante-Nicene Christianity. Qhrist the §avior of the World. Paper by REV. B.. FAY MILLS, of Pawtuxet, Rhode Island. No ExcuBO for Sin. E are all agreed that, in its present con- dition, 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 cen- ters not in a theory of morals nor a creed, but in a person. Christ is the revelation of what God is and of what man must become. He revealed the character of God as love suffering for the sins of man. He showed the tri- umphant possibility of life among the hardest human conditions, when lived in fellowship with God. He taught one great object lesson of trial and triumph that there could be no excuse for sin and that there would be no escape from righteousness. His one great mission and mes- sage was that God had "sent His Son into the svorld not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." He was Himself the revelation of all history and mystery and prophecy concerning God and man, the origin and destiny of the race. His whole conception of Himself was summed up in these words: "Christ, the Savior of the World," and we get the full thought of His revelation by emphasizing the latter part of this supreme title and realizing that He came not to save selected individuals nor any chosen race, but to save the world — that His mission was to save humanity in all its relationships, to save individuals, indeed, but also to save society and the nations. If Christianity is not fitted and destined to be the universal life of man, it is fit for "nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under the feet of men." Christ stands or falls in connection with His claim to be the Savior of the entire world. 220 J^ev. B. Fay Mills, Pawtuxet^ R. J, THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 223 Whenever in the teachings of Christianity there has been a limita- tion of the extent of the atonement of Christ, for the saving of this world from out its present conditions of bondage and sin into the glorious liberty of redemption, there has come a deadly paralysis of His spirit and of the progress of His kingdom. There is a very real sense in which it was not necessary for Christ, to come into the world in order that individuals might become ac- quainted with God. "The true light, that which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," was shining in darkness for all the ages before the shepherds ^^ ,j^g heard the angel song, and "as many as received Him, to them gave Light He the power to become the sons of God." And then the "Word be- came flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father; full of grace and truth." The Scriptures of the Old Testament and the annals of all nations teach us that "there never was a time when a penitent and consecrated soul might not walk with God." Enoch "walked with God," "and be- fore his translation he had his testimony that he pleased God." Abra- ham was called the "friend of God." Moses was called "the man of God." Socrates was, in his light, a true prophet of the Most High and a forerunner of Jesus of Nazareth. But the mission of Jesus was to save the world itself. As a recent writer has well said, it is a deadly mistake to suppose that "Christ sim- ply came to rescue as many as possible out of the wrecked and sink- ing world." He came to give the church a "commission that includes the sav- ing of the wreck itself, the question of its confusion and struggle, the relief of its wretchedness, a deliverance from its destruction." This certainly was his own conception of his mission upon earth. The first annunciation by his immediate forerunner, when he stood in his presence, was: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." He said of Himself, "For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world." "I am the living 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 give 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 world." The mission of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world may be Mission oi' expressed, as has already been suggested, in four conceptions. Jesus Christ. First. He has a new and complete revelation of God's eternal suffering for the redemption of humanity. He showed that God was pure and unselfish, and meek and forgiving, and that He had always been suffering for the sins of men. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." He revealed the meaning of forgiveness and of deliverance from sin. A popular writer has suggested to us the vast distinction between indifference to sin and its forgiveness, which may well be illustrated m TH^ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Toleration of Sin. by the e^tpetience of an individual in forgiving injury against himself. Resentrnent against sin is a far higher experience than that of indiffer- ence 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 d. self-sacrificing love fill 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 the most thoughtless sinner with all the excruciating tortures of the most terrible unenaing hell conceived by the imagination of man; but, it was infinitely better to take up into His own pure heart the blackest and deadliest sin of the lowest sinner, who should be willing to forsake it and return to God, and there let it be forever blotted out; to bind it upon the bleed- ing Lamb of God and let Him bear it away, as far as the east is from the west, into God's eternal forgetfulness of love. A tender-spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me not long ago that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him; and God's forgiveness of sin means something infinitely in contrast to His being able to look at it with indifference, and something even infinitely beyond the mere destruction of its grasp on man and his deliverance from, its penalty and power. It meant the realizing of it in God's own soul in all its foul 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 cost 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 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 "that 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 reconciling 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." He came to show us that the world had never belonged to the powers of evil, but that, in His original thought, God had decided that ^x.^«^vx ^ ^ moral world should be created, and that in this decision, which gave tion Vparrof to humanity the choice of good and evil. He had to take upon Him- theCreation. ^^jf infinite Suffering until the world should be brought back to Him. The redemption of the world by Christ is a part of the creation of the world for Christ. The cry upon the cross, " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" was the exhibition of what had been in thq The Redemp- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELlCtONS. 225 According to His Own Pur- pose and Gbrace. 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 "foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for us." Our hope of eternal life was promised by "God, that cannot lie, before the world began," and "God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our worics, 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-off country to have its stripes healed with His love, its weakness made strength with His self-sacrificing power, its hunger appeased unto fullness in the banqueting house of love, the new robes placed upon it, the dead made alive again and the lost forever found. 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. Maniel says that all depends on whether we consider the first or second Adam the head of the human race. "I would have you know," says the great apostle of the 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 centeJ^of^ail intimation of force or fear, that can claim subjection from man or as- Things, sert dominion over him, or can effect the subversion of the loye 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 reconcilia- tion of all things. Christ says: "I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end- ing; I am He that was, and is, and is to come." The blood of the world was poisoned and needed an infusion of purity for the correction of its standards and bestowal of desire and power to attain unto its high possibility. This was a partial object and result of the mission of Christ. "He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." He said that His own body was the temple of God, and He taught His 226 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Destiny of Man. Christ's Abil- ity to Save. 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 op- portunity, 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." Under the pride and vanity of the nation; under the scheming and frivolity and dishonesty and self-will of those who sit in high places in the earth; under the disregard of the law of love by the social, com- mercial and industrial organizations of the day; under every disobe- dience of the domestic and individual life is the eternal righteousness of Jesus Christ striving for manifestation and ''straitened until its bap- tism is accomplished." The third great thought in connection with the salvation of Jesus Christ is, that through the completeness of His redemption there is no necessity or reason for any form of sin in the individual. *' Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness 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 uttermost 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 transgressions," that he is in a position to realize that if he will sur- render himself unto the cross of Jesus and to the teachings of Jesus, the power of death and hell over him shall have forever been broken and he.may live a life of freedom in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The way of salvation for the individual through Christ is the I THE WOkLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 227 knowledge of the love of God making atonement for the sins of the world; the discerning, 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 and to "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for His body's sake." It is here that the teaching and the life of Jesus 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 ex- pressed by the one word, love. God was "not willing that any should perish," and the bitterest drop in the dregs of the unrepentant sinner's cup of woe will be that it is utterly needless, and worse than needless, because of the redemp- tion of the world through Jesus Christ. But if a man "sin willfully after that he hath received the knowl- edge 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 destiny of man, I do "beseech you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain." The last thought concerning the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ is, that the loving righteousness of God must be finally triumphant. We cannot conceive of a heaven in which man should not be a moral being and free to choose good or evil, as he is upon this earth; g,nd 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 spite of all the loving kindness and sacrifice of the eternal God, as still choosing to go on in sin, determining to resist His love, conscious of it, and yet without the power to escape it, saying: "If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there," and yet choosing through the ages and ages to turn away from the righteous- ness of God and to pursue a life of indifference and sin. " Though God be good and free be heaven, No force can love compel; And though the songs of sin forgiven Might sound through lowest hell; The sweet persuasion of His voice Respects thy sanctity of will. He giveth day. Thou hast thy choice To walk in darkness still." No hell can extinguish the righteousness of God, and no flames consume His love, which is the manifestation of His righteousness, and must pursue all unrighteousness in every sinner with a "worm that dieth not and a fire that is not quenched." "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. For our God is a consuming fire." And as for our conception of heaven, when the world shall obey Jesus Christ and when all those who have surrendered unto His heart of love and have been working with Him throughout the eons, in the establishment of righteousness, shall be with Him in the new earth, no Way of Sal- Tation. His RiKht- eoasatiS8. Not Ptdly 228 THE WOkLD'^ CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 be their God. And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." This must be the end of the atonement of the life and the death of Jesus 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, DonemsW^iii. and, indeed, have sometimes scarcely seemed to apprehend it. If we had, it is my honest conviction that we could not be gathered here to- day as a " Parliament 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 tne teachings of Jesus. If China has not been heard from in words of even keener cen- sure, it has not been because she has not had good cause, as she thinks of the opium curse forced upon her by the laws of Christian England and of the action of the corrupt legislatures and congresses and pres- idents 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 some- thing, but with shame and tears I say it — as kingdoms and empires and republics," as states and municipalities, and in our commercial and in- dustrial organizations, 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 prac- ticed them, and as we must again submit to them if we are to be the winners of the world for Jesus Christ. It is no excuse to say that with Christians the nation is not the church. That is a still further confession of comparative failure, for, Compa^adve in SO far as the Christian church and Christian state are not coincident, FaUure. |.]^g church has come short of the command of the Master: "Go ye therefore, and disciple 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 nun- Christian delegates to this Parliament might be converted to Chris- tianity if they could be taken about Chicago blindfolded. There have been, and are today, in every Christian community white-souled saints of God, who are following " the Lamb whitherso- ever He goeth" and bearing His cross after Him; but let us be willing Confession of THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 229 to say plainly, although with shame, that while we have in the life and death and resurrection 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 dissemination, and find Christians who are meek and merciful and poor in spirit and pure in heart, and who count it all joy to be perse- cuted for righteousness' sake; when it shall dart its venomed tongue at men and women who "resist not evil," who "give to him that ask- eth" and from the borrower do not turn 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 teachings of Jesus, they show that we fail only because we may have said, "Lord, Lord," and not done the things that He said. And this 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 uni- versal kingdom of peace which must be set up on earth and which shall have no end. This, my brothers, is all that must, is all that can endure; it is the teaching of teachings and the inspiration of inspirations for the sons of men. It is of universal application. Jesus was born in the east and has gained His greatest present triumphs in the west. When men shall have begun again to practice the teachings of Jesus in every walk and relationship of life, then there will be no social enigmas unsolved and no political questions 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 are indications of such a triumph now. Every lan- guage may be translated into every other tongue of man. The last religion of the world has been mvestigated and its teachings are open to the eyes of all. God today looks down upon such a spectacle of sincere desire and of honest purpose to know the truth as the groan- ing and travailing creation has never before seen, and the only solu- Universal Kingdom of Peace. Indications of Such a Tri- umph, 230 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, tion of all the questionings and differences and hopes of men must be in the principles of the ruler of the kingdom 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, andthy 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 the message of Jesus of Nazareth must abide. This is the reason that the life of Jesus is eternal and that all things must be subdued unto Him; for "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 foretold, When, with the ever circling years, Comes round the age of gold; When peace shall, over all the earth. Its ancient splendor fling, And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing." 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 One Body and of ill," and that through testing, innocence must have been glorified One Spirit, ^j^^-q 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 terrestial ball. To Him all majesty ascribe and crown Him Lord ot all.' Qhristianity in Japan; jts Present Con- dition and puture Prospects. Paper by PROF. HARNICHI KOSAKI, of Japan. ROGRESS of Christianity in Japan is quite re- markable. It is only thirty-four years since the first Protestant missionary put his foot on its shore. And it is scarcely twenty years since the first Protestant church was organ- ized in Japan. Yet now there are more Christians here than in Turkey, where mis- sionaries have been working more than sev- enty years, and there are more self-support- ing churches there than in China, where double or thrice number of missionaries have been working nearly a century. In Japan, ' Christian papers and magazines are all edited by the natives, not only in name but in real- Christian books, which have been most influ- ential, have nearly all been written or translated by them, while in other countries it is very rare to find the native Christians writing Christian books or editing papers. Only recently the Christian, the most influential Christian paper in Japan, had a symposium to name fifteen books which are most useful in leading men to* Christianity, instructing Christians and giving good counsel to young people; and it is interest- ing 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 Leading ail missionary fields have ever attained. Their native Christians not only Ji^sionaf ^^ 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, educa- tional 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 ?3l 232 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Peculiar Fea- lores. The Shizoka Class. union of the Itochi and Kumiai denominations, the two most powerful Christian bodies in Japan, among twenty members of a joint committee appointed by the synod of one and the general council of the other, there were only four missionaries. When a few years ago, the Kumiai denomination adopted a new confession of faith, the missionaries took almost no part. This confession was drawn up by a committee, con- sisting entirely of Japanese, and adopted in the general council, in which missionaries took very little or no part. In Japan mission- aries are really ''helpers," and I should say to their credit, they, in most cases, willingly take secondary position in all Christian works. All this, I say, is not to disparage the work of missionaries, but only to show the progress of Christianity among the natives of Japan. There are now many peculiar features in Japanese Christianity which are seldom seen in other countries. One distinctive feature lies in the peculiarity of the constituency of its membership. In other countries female members always pre- dominate. 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, one hundred and seventy thousand; female members, three hundred and fifty thousand. 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 mem- bers, 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 young faces. We have not yet taken any statistics of members as to their age. But anyone who has experience in Chris- tian work there notes this peculiarity. The last year when Dr. F. E. Clark, president of the Y. P. S. 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 tc;^ take any part in Christian work. But the case is different there. In many places young people 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 predominant and take everything into their hands that elderly people feel often quite annoyed. One more point is the predominance of the Shizoku, or military class. They have been, and still are, the very brains of the Japanese people. Though they are not usually well off in material wealth, they are superior 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 Ching. But in Japan the Shizoku class t^ke a lead, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 233 These peculiarities in the constituency of the membership of Christian churches in Japan may be accounted, for by the simple fact that the males, the 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 men as compared with women. They are generally more progressive and, hence, more accessible. These peculiarities are of its strength as well as its weakness. As the Japanese Christian population is composed of such a constituency, the native Christians are more progressive, more active, more able to stand on their own feet, and more capable of establishing self-support- ing churches. 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 sec- tarian or denominational spirit. About thirty different denominations of Protestant churches, represented by about an equal number of mis- sionary boards, are on the field, each teaching its own peculiar tenets. 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 princi- ple or spirit the greater is the number of their converts. Any one who is at all conversant with the history of denominations knows that all over the world, other things being equal, denominations having stronger denominational spirit are making greater gains in their membership than those which 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 was afterward changed into the Evangelical Alliance, the meeting of all Christians No^ Distinc- in Japan, irrespective of denominations or churches — the most popular and interesting meeting we have. Japanese Christians do not know any distinction in denominations 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 circum- stance which could in no way be controlled, there is no wonder that these Christians begin to ask: Why should not we, all Christians, unite 'n one church .? The union movement in Japan rose at first in some such way. Though we have now lost much of this simple spirit, still Japanese Christians are essentially undenominational. You may see that the church which adopts Presbyterian forms of government refuses to be called "Presbyterian," or "Reformed," and adopted the broad name "Itschi," the "United;" but, not content even with this broad name, it has recently changed it to a still broader name, "Nippon Kinisuto Kio Kwai," "The Church of Christ in Japan." 16 ' . tion in Denom- inations. 234 THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELICIOMS. Doctrinal Mat- tar j. As to the Creeds. 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 along time had no name except this: ''A Church of Christ." When it was found out that it is necessary to adopt some name to distinguish itself from other churches, its Christians reluctantly adopted the name cf "Kumiai," which means "associated;" for at that time they happened to form an association of churches which was until then independent of each other. They always refused to be called the "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 denom- inations may be united in some way. The third distinctive feature of Japanese Christianity is the prev- alence of liberal spirit in doctrinal matters. While missionaries are both preaching and teaching the orthodox doctrines, Japanese Chris- tians are eagerly studying the most liberal theology. Not only are they studying, but they are diffusing these liberal thoughts w^ith zeal and diligence, and so I believe that, with a small exception, most of Jap- anese pastors and evangelists are more or less liberal in their 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 strenu- ously 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 or- thodox 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 find that a young Japanese professor in the sem- inary connected with his own church was teaching quite a liberal the- ology, and he gave him a strong warning. As to the creeds: When the "Church of Christ in Japan" was or- ganized it adopted the Presbyterian and the Reformed standards, namely, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Canon of Dort and the Heidelberg Confession of Faith. But Christians of the same church soon found them too stiff, one sided and conservative, and thus they have lately dropped these standards as their creed altogether. They have now the "Apostles' Creed" with a short preface attached to it.. When the Kumiai church was first organized it adopted the nine articles of the basis of evangelical alliance as its creed. But Christians THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. 235 of the same denomination became soon dissatisfied with its nar^ rowness, and so, in 1890, they made their own creed, which is far simpler and broader. But even this creed is not understood as bind- ing to all, but only as a common expression of religious belief and pre- vailing among them in general. Though Japanese Christians are largely on the side of liberal the- ology, they are not in any way in favor of Unitarianism or even Uni- versalism. Some years ago there was a rumor that the Japanese were in general inclined to Unitarian Christianity. The most of our edu- cated classes have no religion. Though they favor certain kinds of Christian ethical teachings, they have no faith in any religion or super- natural truth, and thus they are seemingly in the same position as cer- tain 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 narrow and prejudiced as some orthodox Christians. And, moreover, their beliefs are too negative. Where there are bigoted, hard orthodox Christians they may have soil to thrive on; but in such a place like Japan they will find it hard work to keep up interest enough to have any religion. There was a time when Christianity was making such a stride in its progress that in one year it gained forty or fifty per cent increase. This was between 1882 and 1888. These years may be regarded as a flowery era in the annals of Japan. It was in 1883 that, when we were having the "Dai shin Boku Kwai" in Tokyo, perhaps the most inter- esting meeting in its history, one of the delegates expressed his firm beliei 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 extrav- agant to cherish such a hope; such was the firm belief of most Chris- tians at that time. Since then progress in our churches has not been such as was expected. Not only members have not increased in such a proportion as years before, but in some cases there can be seen a decline of religious zeal and the self-sacrificing spirit. And so in these last few years the cry heard most 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 illustration from statistics of the Kumiai churches as to its amount of contribution. In 1882 this amount was ;S6.72 per Christian; in 1888 this amount ran down to ;^2.i5, and in the last year there has been still more decline, coming down to $1.95. In amount of increase of mem- bership there has been a proportional decline. Why there was such decline is not hard to see. Among various causes I may mention three principal ones: First. Public sentiment in Japan has been always fluctuating from one side to another. It is like a pendulum, now going to one extreme and then to another. This movement of public sentiment, within the last fifteen or twenty years, can easily be pointed out. From 1877 to 1882 I may regard as a period of reaction and that of revival of anti-foreign spirit. During this period the cry "Repel for- A Flowery Era. Public Senti- ment. 236 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. eigners/' which was on the lips of every Japanese at the time of the revolution, and since then unheard, was again heard. It was at this time that Confucian 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 every- thing 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 of ladies, foreign diet as well as foreign liquors became most popular among all classes. Every newspaper, almost without exception, advocated the adoption of every- thing foreign, so that Japan seemed as if it would be no longer an ori- ental nation, but would become occidentalized. It was at this time that such a paper as Jiji Shimpo advocated adoptio^n of Christianity as the national religion of Japan. It was no wonder'that people poured into Christian churches and that the latter made unprecedented strides in progress. But the pendulum swung to its extreme and now another move- ment 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 "Japan for the Japanese" became heard in all the corners of g A°>i-^oreign 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 Bud- dhistic ceremonies. Christianity is denounced as antagonistic to the growth of our national spirit, in conflict with our best morality, and also as against the intent of the imperial edict which was issued two years ago as the code of morals in all our schools. Conflict between Christianity and national education has 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 Christians 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 pendu- lum 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 cannot be built in a day," and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 237 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 Christianity, but to instill 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 shall be spent in this difficult and great work we cannot hope much for its results. I am not at all anxious about the future of Christianity in Japan, as far as its final victory is concerned. But there are many difficult Fatnreof problems pressing us hard for their solution. I shall here simply state ^^j^p^*^ ^ these problems in a few words. First. The first problem that comes under our notice is that of relation 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, Shintoists 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. Second. 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 sat- isfied under missionary auspices. To be useful to our country the mis- sionaries must either co-operate or join native churches and become like one of the native workers. Third. Problem of denominations and church government is another difficulty. 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, introduced into Japan where no such history exists and 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 any way the exact forms of church governments which are in vogue in the United States or in any other countries. 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. Fourth. Whether we need any writton creed, and if so, what kind of creed is best to have, is also a question. In all teachings of mis- sionaries and others there is always more or less of husks mixed with genuine truth. And at the same time every form of Christianity has 238 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. some excellent truth in it. And it is hard to make distinction between HuBkswith essentials and non-essentials, between creed and husks. This is a hard Genuine Truth, 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 prqgress and a realization of the glorious Gospel which is in Jesus Christ. And now, in conclusion, I may say that Christianity is from God and so it will be in all times. We may plan many things, but all will be executed by the divine will. As the saying runs, " Man proposes and God disposes." Then our prayer is and always must be: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done as in heaven so in earth." Rev. George Dana Boardman, Philadelphia. Qhrist the (Jnifier of .JViankind. Paper by REV. DR. GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN, of Philadelphia. NVOYS Extraordinary and Ministers Pleni- potentiary in the Kingdom of God, Men and women: The hour for the closing of this most extraordinary convention has come. Most extraordinary, 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 Pen- tecostal day again, for here are gathered to- gether devout men from every nation under heaven — Persians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and Pros- elytes, Cretans and Arabians, we do hear them speaking every man in his own language, and yet as though in one common vernacular, the wonderful works of God. All honor to Chicago, whose beautiful "white city" symbolizes the architectural unity of the one city of our one God. 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 managed this most august of human parliaments, this crown- ing glory of the earth's fairest fair. And what is the secret of this marvelous unity? Let me be as true to my own convictions as you, honored representatives of other religions, have been nobly true to your own. I believe it is Jesus of Nazareth who is the one great unifier of mankind. Jesus Christ unifies mankind by His incarnation. For when 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 men," it is not "a son of man," 241 Most Augast of Human Par- liaments. 242 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 Son of Mankind. All other religions, comparatively speaking, are more or less topo- The Religion graphical. For example, there was the institute religion of Palestine; an in . ^^^ priest religion of Egypt, the hero religion of Greece, the empire religion of Rome, the Gueber religion of Persia, the ancestor religion of China, the Vedic religion of India, the Buddha religion of Burmah, the Shinto religion of Japan, the Valhalla religion of Scandinavia, the Moslem religion of Turkey, the spirit religion of our American aborig- ines. 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, partriarchs 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, non-resistance, love of enemies, His bidding each of us use, although in solitary closet prayer, the plural, " Our, we, us." Or take, particu- larly, Christ's summary of His mountain teaching as set forth in His own golden rule. It is Jesus Christ's 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 of organic union or interfunctional connection. Pushing to the extreme the idea of indi- vidualism, its tendency is egotistic, disjunctive, chaotic. The second theory, to borrow again from chemistry, is the moloc- ular. 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 member thereof forming a vital component, a functional factor in the one great organism, so that membership in society is uni- versal, mutual, co-membership. Recognizing each individual of man- kind as a constituent member of the one great human corpus, its ten dency 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 that greatest of modern problems — the problem of sociology. Do you not see, then, that when every human being throughout the world THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 243 obeys our Master's golden rule, all mankind will, indeed, become one glorious unity? Or take Christ's doctrine of neighborhood, as set forth in His parable of the good Samaritan. According to this parable neighbor- hood does not consist in local nearness; it is not a matter of ward, city, state, nation, continent ; it is a matter of glad readiness to relieve 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 two thousand years of an exclusively Jewish religion the risen Lord bids His countrymen go forth into all the world and preach the Gospel of reconciliation to every creature, discipling to Himself every nation under heaven. How majestically the son of Abraham dilates 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 and a cosmopolitan r,eligion. 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 m^Hero.^^' himself the first conspicuous human deputy to the parliament of man, the federation of the world. Do you, then, not see that when every human being believes in Christ's doctrine of mankind, as set forth in His missionary commis- sion, all mankind will indeed become one blessed unity? Or take Christ's doctrine of the church, as set forth in His own parable of the sheep and the goats — a wonderful parable, the magnifi- cent catholicity of which we miss, because our commentators and the- ologians, in their anxiety for standards, insist on applying it only to the good and the bad living in Christian 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 a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but that in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to Him." 244 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Do you see, then, that when every human being recognizes in every ministering service to others a personal ministry to Jesus Christ Himself, all mankind will indeed become one blessed unity? Summa of Once more, and in a general summary of Christ's teaching, take ChS?TJacL 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 the 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 strength; this is the first and great commandment. And a second like unto it is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hangeth the whole law and the prophets." Not that these two commandments are really two; they are simply a twofold commandment ; each is the complement of the other; both being the obverse and the reverse legends engraved on the golden medallion of God's will. In other words, there is no real difference between Christianity and morality, for Christianity is morality looking Godward ; morality is Christianity looking manward. Christianity is morality celestialized. Thus on this twofold command- ment 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 undulatory 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 mag- netism of His nature, 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 abideth 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 empire, Would speak but love. With 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 tnat death the propitiation, not only for the sins of the Jew, 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, underrate not the reconciling, fusing power of our Mediator's blood. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. 245 Recall the memorable prophecy of the high priest Caiaphas, when he counseled the death of Jesus on the ground of the public necessity: "Ye know nothing at all, nor do ye take account that it is expedi- ent for you, that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not." But the Holy. Ghost was upon the sacrilegious pontiff, though he [knew it not, and so he builded larger than he knew. Meaning a nar- [row Jewish policy, he pronounced a magnificently catholic prediction: Now this he said not of himself; but being high priest that year [he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the [nation only, but that He might also gather together (synagogue) into [one the children of God that are scattered 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 fwell 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 ligh; for He is the world's peace, making both Jews and non-Jews one )ody, breaking down the middle wall of partition between them, hav- ing 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 Son- hood of Christ. Aye, Jesus Christ is the unifier of mankind. Jesus Christ is unifying mankind by His own immortality. For we Christians do not worship a dead, embalmed Deity. The Son of Man ^jj^^ -^^^ has burst the bars of death and is alive for evermore, holding in His Evermore, 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 cannot tell whether it means simple unconsciousness or total ex- tinction, 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 foot- stool. Holding personal communion with Him, His disciples 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 eon, 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 legislations; 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 the valleys of poverty; to cast down the mountains of opulence; to straighten the twists of wrongs; to smooth the roughness of environ- The One Uni 246 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. ment; 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 teach- ings, by His own death, by His own immortality, is most surely unify- ing mankind. And the Son of Man is the sole unifier of mankind. 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 followers invited us to meet at versa! Man7"* Mecca? Jcsus Christ is the one universal man, and therefore it is that the first parliament of religions is meeting in a Christian land, un- der 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, disman- tling the fortresses of nations, spanning the seas of races, incorpo- rating 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 an- cient and the infant of days — calmly abiding the centuries, mendingthe bruised reed, fanning the dying wick, sending forth righteousness un- to 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, raptur- ous 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, with solemn, sweet 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 The Church of St. John the Baptist, Samaria. Reconciliation \l\ta\, N^t V^^^^^^^^- Paper by REV. THEODORE F. WRIGHT, Ph. D. Universal Divine Love. HERE are certain dicta of Scripture which are universal because fundamental, and fundamen- tal because universal. One of these is that saying of the Apostle John, "God is Love, and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him." Once of sympathies so narrow- that he was for bringing fire from heaven down upon a village which would not receive his Lord as He journeyed, he was now so tenderly conscious of the Infinite Love which had sought him out and gathered him, that he could say: "He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love; beloved, if God so love us, we also ought to love one another." John had attained to this conviction by the process of religious experience Others have seen the same infinite fact written in vernal fields and ripening harvests. Others find it in the intricate harmony of natural forces. They all see that there is as the center and source of life a fountain of fatherliness which is even begetting and nurturing, so that, indeed, we cannot 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 pres- ent 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; "the fire of the Lord fell." It is in the light of this fact of the universal Divine Love that the fallen condition of man finds its remedy disclosed. There may have been a time when this light was so dim that Judaism fancied its God a partisan, and a regressive Christianity thought that it had ascer- tained the limits of the Divine care, but now we know that God is one, and that "His tender mercies are over all His works." This being so, it is true to say that fallen man was succored by the same love that created him. The father of the prodigal does not sulk in his tent while some elder brother is left to search out the wanderer and bring 248 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 249 him in, pointing to the wounds he got in rescuing him as a means of softening the heart of the father; nay, the father watches the pathway with longings, and sends his love after the boy, and when the way- ward one is yet a great way off, he sees, he hath compassion, he runs, he falls on his neck, he kisses him, he bids them bring the robe, the ring, the shoes, the fatted calf, he reproves the cold vindictiveness of- the elder brother, he is all shepherd-like. We need not dogmatize as to the fallen state of man. Intellect- ually man has not fallen. He is as bright as he ever was. He is grow- ing 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 today. 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 lost 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 must hold some view which limits the Holy One of Israel. If God would come with any mercy He must descend to the place of the fallen. If He would conquer the evil with- out destroying them. He must contend with them on their own plane. To take upon Himself the nature born of woman would be His means of redemption. He must take on the office of Joshua, who led the peo- ple out of the wilderness into their inheritance. And a virgin con- ceived and bore a Son, and called His name Jesus — that is Joshua. The wisdom or word of God was made flesh, so that 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 Zacha- rias. She said: "My spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Saviour. He hath showed strength with His arm. He hath holpen His servant, Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spake to our fathers." And the father of the forerunner said: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people; that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve Him without fear all the days of our life; the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace." Therefore, John the Baptist proclaimed Him as "the lyanjb pf Gpd th^t taketh away the sin of the world," and Fallen Stale of Man. Prophetic Songs of Mary and Zacharias. 250 l^HE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The Ine wri- table Conflict. therefore He bade His hearers prepare the way of Jehovah and make strait His path. Born of woman, and so open to every temptation, He was early led to find the written word, His light of life. He went about His father's business by expounding it. Tried in the wilderness, He made •no other answer than the law. Going about doing 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 resentment. The attempts of habit- ual sinners of this world and the other to overthrow Him failed again and again, but it was inevitable that there must be a last and most direful assault. He foresaw it, but behold the conduct of infinite love. He bathed His disciples' feet in order to teach them the new com- mandment of love to one another. He bade them be not troubled, and spoke of the peace He had to give to them. He chastened Him- self in the garden. On His way to the cross He asked them to weep rather for themselves than for Him. He gave the mother a son to care for her old age. To perjured Peter His answer had been but a look. To the false accusations He had been dumb. For His love they were His adversaries, but He gave Himself unto prayer. Rising again He came with indescribable gentleness to the rec- ognition of Mary Magdalene. To the two discouraged disciples He was all patience. To doubting Thomas He was infinitely condescend- ing. As He stood there for the time made visible to their spiritual sight, having entered where the doors were shut, He was the embod- iment of prophecy fulfilled, of divine love triumphant. He was, He is "Our Lord and our God," "the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person." This is no merely vicarious act of a subordinate or additional per- son 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 in- creasing 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 first the evil condition, then the remedy offered, next the remedy accepted, at once the cure effected, and finally a vital union Vital Union of Safety for him established with the Lord, as shown by his saying, Man u Lord, I believe," and by his worshiping Him. In more difficult cases, as we know by some experience, the knowledge of the remedy may be cold and unfruitful in the memory until in seeking to lead a less selfish life, to be worthy of a loving wife or a trusting child, or to consecrate our lives in full to the Lord's service, we begin to form new motives with the divine aid, to hate what we once wickedly loved, and to love what we once wickedly hated, and so, little by little, born from above, a new heart is formed within us, and we come to act as faithful rather than as unfaithful servants of the Lord, as friends rather than as Between and (Tod THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 251 enemies. So do we cease to do evil and learn to do well, if we will. Thus we may see that the will and the power to rescue and to reconcile wayward souls sprang from the infinite love; that the method is that of the divine order, and that the result in the individual re- deemed through repentance and regeneration is just what man's fallen state required and requires. It is precisely as Paul said: " God was in the Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." (2 Cor., v, 19.) And again He said: " In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." (Col., xi, 9) "We dwell in Him," said John once more, " and He in us; we love Him because He first loved us." "This is the true God and eternal life." That uncreated beauty which has gained My raptured heart, has all rny glory stained; His loveliness my soul has prepossessed, And left no room for any other guest. The Gate of Jerusalem. Xhe O^^y Possible Method of [Religious Unification of the H^^^^ Race. Paper by REV. WILLIAM R. ALGER, of New York. N considering the subject that now asks your attention, "The Only Possible Method of Relig- ious Unification," we must work our way to the solution of the problems by defining our terms and distinguishing the steps. What is unity? The most authoritative speculative thinker that ever lived has given the only possible defini- tion 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 individu- als is God. God is the measure of all person- alities. God is Himself an absolute, self-determined and free self- consciousness; that is, the measure of genus and the head of the innumerable 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. How 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 race already exists in the mind and purpose of God and in the developing destiny of the human race; but, alas! it is not con- sciously recognized by the component individuals who represent it, and is not manifested by them in their own voluntary activity. Why? The reason why is this cosmic spirit, of which Professor Huxley has so recently spoken, the insurrectionary spirit of the parts, the rebellion 253 Source of All Unities. 254 THE WORLD'S COMGkESS OP RELIGIONS. of the parts against the whole. This insurrectionary spirit is a personi- fication, a collectivity 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. Liberals have rebelled, but they simply blink the whole problem of evil and assert "there is no evil, man is divine." Man is not divine in actuality; he is in potentiality. Man is a rational animal. He is a divine animal. The animality is actual, until he develops the potentiality by voluntary co-operation with divine grace. The first form of partial unification of the human race is the aes- thetic unification. The second step is the scientific unification; the third is the essential; the fourth is the political unification by the es- tablishment of an international code for the settlement of ail disputes by reason. The fifth will be the commercial and social, the free cir- culation of all the component items of humanity through the whole of humanity. Our commerce, steamships, telegraphs and telephone. The Several ^^^ ^^ forth; the ever increasing travel is rapidly bringing that about, steps in Unifi- 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 trans- fer of civilization from its pecuniary basis to the basis of labor. The whole effort of the human race must not be to purchase 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 pursuit of money is cosmic and hos- tile. The money I get nobody else can have, but the spirit of co- operation is unifying and universal, because in the spiritual order there is no division; there is nothing but wholes. The knowledge I have all may have, without division. And when we work in co-operation, in- stead of antagonism, in producing and distributing the goods of this life, the interest of all men will be one, namely, to reduce cost to the minimum and increase product to the maximum. That will abolish waste and make the whole earth one in interest, while now they are bristling 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 uni- fication, and the unity of those is the religious unification. Let me define. Philosophy is the science of ultimate ground. Theology is the science of the first principle. The unity of those two, transfused through the whole personality and applied as the dominant spirit of life in the regulation of conduct through all its demands, is religion. That is the pure, absolute, universal religion in which all can agree. The first great obstacle to overcome is our environment — our so- cial environment. Our social environment, instead of being redeemed, instead of representing the archetype rnind of God, the redemptive, is cosmic, and it is utterly vain for us to go and preach Christianity, Obstacles to THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 255 when just as fast as we utter these precepts they are neutralized by the atmospheric environments in which they pass. The great anti-Christ of the world is the unchristian character and conduct of Christendom. All through Christendom we preach and profess one set of precepts and practice the opposite. 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-gratifi- cation. The great obstacle to the religious unification of the human race is the irreligious always associated and often identified with the relig- ReiiSi^n.' ious. There are three great specifications of that. First, hatred is a made religion. Did not the Brahmans and the Mohammedans slaugh- ter efich other in the streets of Bombay a few days ago, hating each other more than they loved the generic humanity or God? Did not the Catholics and Protestants struggle together furiously and come near committing murder in Montreal and Toronto a few days ago? AH over the world the hatred of the professors of religion for one an- other is irreligion injected into the very core of religion. That is fatal. Rites and ceremonies are not religion. A man may repeat the soundest creed verbally a hundred times a day for twenty years. He may cross himself three times and bend his knee and bow his head, and still be full of pride and vanity; or he may omit those ceremonies and retreat to himself into his closet and shut the door, and in strug- gle with God efface his egoism and receive the divine spirit. That is religion-, and so on through other manifestations. We must arrive at pure, rational, universal interpretations of all the dogmas of theology. We must interpret every dogma in such a way that it will agree with all other dogmas in a free, circulation of the distinctions through the unity. Then the human race can be united on that. They never can on the other. We must put the preponderating emphasis, without any division, on the ethical aspects of religion instead of on the spec- ulative. 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 commonplaces, 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 problems which the liberalists have simply blinked at, and settled these prob- lems in universal agreement. For example, the doctrine of the fall of Adam. There was a real problem. The world is full of evil; God is perfect; he could not create imperfections. How happened it? Why, 256 TME WORLD'S COMGkES^ OF kEUGlOm, man was created all right, but he fell. It was an amazingly original, subtle and profound stroke to settle a real problem. The liberals came up and, saying it was not the true solution, they blinked at the prob- lem and denied that it existed. Now the real solution seems to me is not that the evils in the universe have come from a fall. The fall of an archdemoniac spirit in heaven does not settle the problem; it only moves it back one step. How did he fall? Why did he fall? There can be no fall in the archetypal of God. Creatures were created in freedom to choose between good and evil in order that through their freedom and the discipline of struggle with evil they might become the perfected and redeemed images of God. That set- tles the problem and we can all agree on that. Of course you want an hour to expound it. This hint may seem absurd, but there is more in it. Finally, I want to say we must change the emphasis, from the Redemption world of death to this world. Redemption must not be postponed to' 'i*^?p„%K^' 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 incarnate. He is the absolute generic unity of the human race in manifestation. Therefore, he is not the follower of other men, but their divine exem- plar. 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 divine humanity which is God Himself, and realize that that is to be multiplied. It cannot be divided, but it may be multiplied commen- surately with the dimensions of the whole human race. Must Be ized on Earth. Xhe Need of a \Yider Qonception of f^evelation, or Lessons from the Sacred B^oks of the \Yorld. Paper by PROF. J. ESTLIN CARPENTER, of Oxford. HE congress which I have the honor to address in this paper is a unique assemblage. It could not have met before the nineteenth century, and no country in the world possesses the needful boldness of conception and organiz- ing energy save the United States of America- History does indeed record other endeavors to bring the religions of the world into line. The Christian fathers of the fourth century credited Demetrius Phalereus, the large- minded librarian of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 250 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 contemporary of Queen Elizabeth) invited to his court Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, Brahmans and Zoroastrians. He listened to their discussions, he weighed their arguments, until (says one of the native historians) there grew gradually as the outline on a stone the conviction in his heart that there were sensible men in all relig- ions. Different indeed is this from the court condemnation by the English lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, who said a hundred years ago: "There are two objects of curiosity — the Christian world and the Mohammedan world; all the rest may be considered 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 Mussulman. The true philosopher sees in each a fellow seeking after God." With this con- viction of the sympathy of religions, I offer some remarks founded on the study of the world's sacred books. n 257 Keligi pathy ans. 258 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, A Nation without Scrip- tureK. I will not stop to define a sacred book, or distinguish it from those which, like the ''Imitatio Christi," the "Theologia Germanica," or "Pilgrim's Progress," have deeply influenced Christian thought or feeling. It is enough to observe that the significance of great collec- tions of religious literature cannot be overestimated. As soon as a faith produces a scripture, /. e., a book invested with legal or other authority, no matter on how lowly a scale, it at once acquires an ele- ment of permanence. Such permanence has both advantages and dan- gers. First of all, it provides the great sustenance for religious affec- tion; it protects a young and growing religion from too rapid change through contact with foreign influences; it settles a base for future in- ternal development; it secures a certain stability; it fixes a standard of belief, consolidates the moral type. It has been sometimes argued that if the Gospels had never been written, the Christian church which existed for a generation ere they were composed, would still have transmitted its orders and administered its sacraments, and lived on by its great tradition. But where would have been the image of Jesus enshrined in these brief records? How could it have sunk into the heart of nations and served as the impulse and the goal of endeavor, unexhausted in Christendom after eighteen centuries? The diversity of the religions of Greece, their tendency to pass into one another, the ease with which new cults obtained a foot- ing in Rome, the decline of any vital faith during the last days of the republic, supply abundant illustrations of the religious weakness of a nation without scriptures. On the other hand, the dangers are obvious. The letter takes the place of the spirit, the transitory is confused with the permanent, the occasional is made universal, the local and tem- poral is erected into the everlasting and absolute. The sacred book is indispensable for the missionary religion. Even Judaism, imperfect as was its development in this direction, dis- covered this as the Greek version of the seventy made its way along the Mediterranean. Take the Koran from Islam, and where would have been its conquering power? Read the records of the heroic Hoi Book labors of the Buddhist missionaries and of the devoted toil of BroadestEie- the Chinese pilgrims to India in search of copies of the holy books; Reve- yQy j^^y i^g ^^ ^ jQgg ^Q understand the enthusiasm with which they gave their lives to the reproduction of the teachings of the Great Mas- ter; you will see how clear and immediate was the perception that the diffusionof thenewreligiondependedonthetranslationof 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 peni- tence, have been fetched from the tombs of the Nile or the mounds of Mesopotamia, or the sanctuaries of the Ganges. The Bible of hu- manity has been recorded. What will it teach us? I desire to suggest to this congress that it brings home the need of a conception of revel- ation unconfined to any particular religion, but capable of application meat ot lation. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 259 in diverse modes to all. Suffer me to illustrate this very briefly under three heads: First, ideas of ethics; second, ideas of inspiration; third, ideas of incarnation. The sacred books of the world are necessarily varied in character and contents. Yet no group of scriptures fails to recognize, in the long run, the supreme importance of conduct. Here is that which, in the control of action, speech and thought, is of the highest signifi- cance for life. This consciousness sometimes lights up even the most arid wastes of sacrificial detail. All nations do not pass through the same stages of moral evolu- tion within the same periods, or mark them by the same crises. The TheDevpiop- development of one is slower, of another more swift. One people evolution, seems to remain stationary for millenniums, another advances with each century But in so far as they have both consciously reached the same moral relations and attained the same insight, the ethical truth which they have gained has the same validity. Enter an Egyptian tomb of the century of Moses' birth and you will find that the soul, as it came before the judges in the other world, was summoned to declare its in- nocence in such words as these: *T 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 un- chaste, I am not the causer of others' tears." Is the standard of duty here implied less noble than that of the decalogue? Are we to depress the one as human and exalt the other as divine? More than five hun- dred years before Christ the Chinese sage, Lao Tsze, bade his disciples, "Recompense injury with kindness," and at the same great era, faithful in noble utterance, Gautama, the Buddha, said, "Let man overcome anger by liberality and the liar by truth." Is this less a revelation of a higher ideal than the injunction of Jesus, "Resist not evil, but who- soever smiteth thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also?" The fact surely is that we cannot draw any partition line through the phenomena of the moral life and affirm that on one side lie the gen- eralizations of earthly reasons and on the other the declarations of heavenly truth. The utterances in which the heart of man has em- bodied its glimpses of the higher vision are not all of equal merit, but they must be explained in the same way. The moralists of the flowery land, even before Confucius, were not slow to perceive this, though they could not apply it over so wide a range as that now open to us. Heaven in giving birth to the multitudes of the people to every faculty and relationship affixed its law. The people possess this normal virtue. In the 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 260 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, to the whole philosophy of religion will no doubt be discussed by- other speakers at this congress. Suffer me in brief to state my conviction that the authority of con- science only receives its full explanation when it is admitted that that difference 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 been first implanted within it. It is a speech to our souls of a loftier voice, growing clearer and more articulate as thought grows wider and feeling more pure. It is, in fact, the witness of God within us; it is the self-manifestation of His righteousness, so that in the com- mon terms of universal moral experience lies the first and broadest ele- ment of Revelation. But may we not apply the same tests, the worth of belief, the genuineness of feeling, to more special cases? If the divine life shows itself forth in the development of conscience, may it not be traced also in the slow rise of a nation's thought of 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, phi- losophy, 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 cof- fin ere Moses was born: " Praise to Amen-Ra, the good God beloved, the ancient of heavens, the oldest of the earth. Lord of Eternity, Maker Everlasting. He is the Causer of pleasure and light. Maker of grass for the cattle and of fruitful trees for man, causing the fish to live in the river and the birds to fill the air, lying awake when all men sleep to seek out the good of Hisx:reatures. We worshipThy spirit who alone hast made us; we, whom Thou has made, thank Thee that Thou hast given us birth ; we give Thee praises for Thy mercy 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 oldest 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 wor- ship around them and cried: "They call Him India, Mitra, Varuna, Man^^buf ife^ Agni; sages name variously Him who is but one;" or again, "the sages ligionOne. ' 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 ot the freedom and universality of the spirit of THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. 261 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 Justin affirmed that the Logos had worked through Socrates, as it had been present in Jesus ; nay, with a wider outlook he spoke of the seed of the Logos implanted in every race of man. In virtue of this fellowship, therefore, all truth was rev- elation and akin to Christ Himself. "Whatsoever things were said among all men are the property of us Christians." The Alexandrian teachers shared the same conception. The divine intelligence per- vaded human life and history and showed itself in all that was best in beauty, goodness, truth. The way of truth was like amighty river ever flowing, and as it passed it was ever receiving fresh streams on this side and that. Nay, so clear in Clement's view was the work of Greek phi- losophy that he not only regarded it like Law and Gospel as a gift of God, it was an actual covenant as much as that of Sinai, possessed of its own justifying power, or following the great generalization of St. Paul. The law was a tutor to bring the Jews to Christ. Clement added that philosophy wrought the same heaven-appointed service for the Greeks. May we not use the same great conception over other fields of the history of religion? *Tn all ages," affirmed the author of the* wisdom of Solomon, *'wisdom entering into holy souls maketh them friends of God and prophets." So we may claim in its widest applica- tion 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, emulously after good wheresoever ye be. God will one day bring you all together." We shall no longer, then, speak like a distinguished Oxford pro- fessor of the three chief false religions — Brahmanism, Buddhism, Islam. In so far as the soul discerns God, the reverence, adoration, AdoraSm,' trust, which constitute the moral and spiritual elements of its faith, Trust, 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 in- spiration be a world-wide process unconfined by specific limits of one people, or one book, may the same be said of the idea of incarnation? The conception of incarnation has many forms, and in different theol- ogies serves various ends. But they all possess one feature in common. Among the functions of the manifestation of the divine man is instruc- tion; 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 establishes arts, institutes 262 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Goal of Christian Uever. the Fountain of aU Lofty Thought. beneficent laws, abolishes all human and animal sacrifices and sup- presses war — they all revolve around the idea of disclosing among men ahigher 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? When men have become unwise, unbelieving, ignorant, careless, then I, who know the course of the world, declare, *I am so-and-so,' and consider how I can incline them to enlightenment, how they can become partakers of the Buddha nature." To become partakers of the divine nature is the goal also of the Christian believer. But may it not be stated as already implicitly a present fact? When St. Paul quoted the words of Aratus on Mars Hill, " For we also are His offspring," did he not recognize the sonship of man to God as a universal truth? Was not this the meaning of Jesus when He bade His followers pray, "Our Father who art in heaven?" Once more Greek wisdom may supply us with a form for our thought. The Logos of God which became flesh and dwelt in Christ, wrought, so Justin tells us, in Socrates as well. Was its purpose or effect limited to those two? Is there not a sense in 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 ap- plication. 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 high- est forms of human endeavor. It is the fountain of all lofty thought, it utters itself through the creations of beauty in poetry and art, it prompts the investigation of science, it guides the inquiries of phi- losophy. There are so many kinds of voices in the world, and no kind is without signification. So many voices! So many words! Each soul a fresh word with a new destiny conceived for it by God, to be some- thing which none that has preceded has ever been before; to show forth some purpose of the divine Being just then and there which none else could make known. Thus conceiv.ed, the history of religion gathers up into itself the history of human thought and life. It becomes the story of God's continual revelation to our race. However much we may mar or frus- trate it, in this revelation each one of us may have part. Its forms may change from age to age; its institutions may rise and fall; its rights and usages may grow and decline. These are the temporary, the local, the accidental; they 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 in all. African Mission Children of the Upper Congo, By permission of Mr. Wm. S. Cherry. The Sy^^P^^hy of Religions. Address by COL. T. W. HIGGINSON, of Cambridge. AM sorry to see that our chairman keeps up a practice, in the introduction of many gentle- men with long names from many other coun- tries, of heapinginjudicious epithets upon them with a result that could silence anybody but an American. [Laughter.] It is interesting to think, as a result of his great labors and your sympathy, that all over this land probably hundreds of pulpits were making this parlia- ment of religions their topic for discussion yes- terday. All over this land there were discus- sions varying in a range only to be equaled by the range of the parliament itself. Some of those discussions had a breadth and grasp, no doubt, worthy of their subject; others among those I * discussions had a concentrated narrowness and pettiness which could only be illustrated by what a Washington lady said about the English statesman, Mr. Chamberlain, after his residence there. "He is a nice man," she said, "but he doesn't know how to dance. He takes steps so small that you'd think he had practiced on a postage stamp." [Laughter.] Amid all that range of discussion, how few there probably were who recognized that this is, after all, not the first American parliament of religions, but that the first parliament was coincident with the very foundation of this government and was accepted in illustration of its workings. Founded on When in 1788 the constitution of the United States was adopted eratSn!^^ °" and a commemorative procession of 5,000 people took place in Phila- delphia, then the seat of government, a place in the triumphal march was assigned to the clergy, and the Jewish rabbi of the city walked between two Christian ministers, to show that the new republic was founded on religious toleration It seems strange that no historical painter, up to this time, has selected for his theme that fine incident. It should have been perpetuated in art, like the landing of the Pilgrims or Washington crossing the Delaware. And side by side with it might well be painted the twin event which occurred nearly a hundred years 264 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 265 later, in a Mohammedan country, when in 1875 Ismael Pasha, then khedive of Egypt, celebrating by a procession of two hundred thous- and people the obsequies of his beloved and only daughter, placed the Mohammedan priests and Christian missionaries together in the pro- cession, on the avowed ground that they served the same God, and that he desired for his daughter's soul the prayers of all. During the interval between these two great symbolic acts, the world of thought was revolutionized by modern science, and the very fact of religion, the very existence of a divine power, was for a time Modem questioned. Science rose, like the caged Afreet in the Arabian story^ Science, and filled the sky. Then more powerful than the Afreet, it accepted its own limitations and achieved its greatest triumph in voluntarily reducing its claims. Supposed by many to have dethroned religion forever, it now offers to dethrone itself and to yield place to imagina- tive aspiration, a world outside of science, as its superior. This was done most conclusively when Professor Tyndall, at the close of his Belfast address, uttered that fine statement, by which he will perhaps be longest remembered, that religion belongs not to the knowing pow- ers of man, but to his creative powers. It was an epoch-making sen- tence. 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 help- less; in point of credulity, all puerile; in point of aspiration, all sub- lime. All seek after God, if haply they might find Him. All, more- over, look around for some human life, more exalted than the rest, which may be taken as God's highest reflection. Terror leads them to imagine demons, hungry to destroy, but hope creates for them redeem- ers mighty to save. Buddha, the prince, steps from his station; Jesus, the carpenter's Son, from His, and both give their lives for the service of man. That the good thus prevails above the evil is what makes religion — even the conventional and established religion — a step for- ward, not backward, in the history of man. Every great medieval structure in Christian Europe recalls in its architecture the extremes of hope and fear. Above the main doors of 18 266 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 kings and priests; after the last judgment demons, like Uooe and Fear ^^^onkeys, 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 hoins 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 describ- ing an idol room filled with pictures of battles between hideous fiends and equally hideous gods, many-headed and many-armed, says: "But among all these repulsive faces of degraded type, distorted with evil passions, we saw in striking contrast here and there an image of the contemplative Buddha, with beautiful, calm features, pure and pitiful, such as they have been handed down by painting and sculpture for two thousand 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 thflmag^ina^ ^Y ^^^ regrets of those who, in their devotion to pure science, are least tion. willing to share it. The penalties of a total alienation from the relig- ious life of the world are perhaps severer than even those of super- stition. I know a woman who, passing in early childhood from the gentle- ness 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 re- moved by death, **We are resigning a balm for the wounded spirit, for which it would be hard to find an equivalent in all the repertories of science and in all the treasures of philosophy." It is in escaping this dire tragedy — in believing that what we cease to hold by knowledge we can at least retain by aspiration — that the sympathy of religions comes in to help us. That sympathy unites the kindred aspirations of the human race. No man knows God; all strive with their highest powers to create Him by aspiration; and we THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 267 aeed, in this vast effort, not the support of some single sect alone, like Roman Catholics or Buddhists, but the strength and sympathy of the human race. What brings us here today? What unites us? but that we are altogether seeking 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 supernatural infallibility is gone forever, there remain what Stuart Mill called with grander baptism, supernatural hopes. It is the essence of , ,. . a hope that it cannot be formulated or organized or made subject or Hope!^^ ^ conditional, on the hope of another All the vast mechanism of any scheme of salvation or religious hierarchy becomes powerless and insignificant beside the hope in a single human soul. Losing the sup- port of any organized human faith we become possessed of that which all faiths collectively seek. Their joint fellowship gives more than the loss of any single fellowship takes away. We are all engaged in that magnificent work described in the Buddhist "Dhammapada," or, "Path of Light." "Make thyself an island; work hard, be wise." If each could but make himself an island, there would yet appear at last above these waves of despair or doubt a continent fairer than Columbus won. Rt. Rev. Chas. Edward Cheney, D. D., Chicago. (Member General Committee.) t \Yhat the Dead f^eligions Wave 3^' queathed to the Living. Paper by PROF. G. S. GOODSPEED, of Chicago University. E come for the first time in this parlia- ment 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, to 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 some 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 reason 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 as- signed to me is stated is suggestive. It implies that the religions of the world are not isolated or independent. They are related another, and so related that their attitude is not one of hos- 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 somewhat higher purpose than "to point a moral and adorn a tale;" to see in them stages in the religious history of humanity, and to ac- knowledge that a study of them is important, yes, indispensable, to adequate understanding of present systems. If they have sometimes seemed to show "what fools these mortals be" when they seek after God, they also indicate how He has made man for himself and how 269 to one tility. Beligions of the World Re- lated to One Another. 270 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Dead Relig- ions Summed Up. Progress i n Spite of Errors. human hearts 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 several groups: 1. Prehistoric cults, which remain only as they 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. 6. 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 important systems the material is too extensive. Our effort, therefore, will be directed, not toward a presentation of the material exhaustively or otherwise, but merely toward a suggestion of the pos- sible ways in which the achievements of these "dead" systems may contribute to a knowledge of the living religious facts in general, with some illustrations from the immense field which the above groups cover. There are three general lines along which the dead religions may be questioned as to their contributions to the living: 1. What are the leading religious ideas around which they have centered or which they have most fully illustrated? 2. What are their actual material contributions, of ideas or usages, to other systems? 3. In the history of their development, decay and death, how do they afford instruction, stimulus or warning? All religious systems represent some fundamental truth or ele- ments of truth. They center about some eternal idea. Otherwise, they would have no claims upon humanity and gain no lasting accept- ance with men. The religions of antiquity are no exceptions to this principle. They have emphasized certain phases of the religious sen- timent, grasped certain elements of the divine nature, elucidated cer- tain sides of the problem of existence, before which man 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 extrav- agant 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 ana- lytic study of the facts of religious history has borne in upon one the validity of the principles of development in this field, these rekgions appear as parts of the complex whole, and the truths they embody enter into the sphere of religious knowledge as elements in its ever- increasing store. And not merely as units in the whole are these truths part of the possession of living faiths, but since that 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 As- syria had not played their part in history; so correlated in 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 application. Thus the great and fruitful prin- ciples which these dead faiths embodied 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 possi- ble. 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 gave two highly influential relig- ious ideas to the world. There is the religion of Egypt, that land of contradiction and mystery, where men thought deep things, yet wor- Egypt an< shiped bats and cranes, were the most joyous of creatures, and yet Babylonia, seemed to have devoted themselves to building tombs; explored many fields of natural science and practical 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 funda- mental social idea of the Egyptians. The man of Egypt never looked outside of his own land without disdain. 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 conditions 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 jehind him tombs, mummies and the book of the dead. 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 nearness, that bizarre worship of animals, the wonder and the con- tempt of the ancient world. This idea, which underlay that animal worship, though so crudely conceived, was deeply significant and con- stituted a most important contribution to the world. Another great religion of ancient times — the Babylonian-Assyrian, contributed quite a different truth. Living in a land open on every side to the assaults of nature and man, and having no occasion to 272 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. glorify Babylonia as the Egyptian exalted his native land, the Baby- lonian found his worthiest conception of the divine in an exalted deity who, from the heights of heaven and the stars, rained influence. 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 con- stant appeal from the earth to heaven, from the power of the spirits to the grace of the gods. Whatever was its origin, it is noticeable that this idea of the eleva- tion, separateness, transcendence of deity is a fruitful basis of morality. Put one's self under the protection of a Lord implies acknowledgment Penitential ^^ ^ standard of obedience. At first purely ritual or even physical in Psainis. its requirements, this standard becomes gradually suffused with ethical elements. The process is traced in the so-called Babylonian peniten- tial psalms, which, indeed, do not contain very clear traces, if any, 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 relig- ion. 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 fundamental 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 opportunity was not neglected. 2. In considering the extent and character of the influence exer- cised by these religious ruling ideas of Egypt and Babylonia, we pass over to the second element in the bequest of the dead religions to the living, the direct contributions made by the former to the latter. The subject requires careful discrimination. Not a few scholars have gone far astray at this point in their treatment of religious systems. Formerly it was customary to find little that was original in any religion. All was borrowed. The tendency today is reactionary, and the originality of the great systems is exaggerated. There is no question as to the fact of the dependence of religions upon one another. The danger is, lest it be overlooked, that similar conditions in two religions may produce independently the same results. It must be recognized also that ancient nations held themselves more aloof from one another, and especially that religion as a matter of national tradition was much more conservative both in revealing itself tu strangers and in accepting contributions from without. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 273 Yet the student of religion knows how, in one sense, every faith in the world has absorbed the life of a multitude of other local and limited cults. This is true of the sectarian religions of India. Islam swallowed the heathen worships of ancient Arabia. Many a shrine of Christianity is a transformation of a local altar of heathendom. There is no more important and no more intricate work lying in the sphere of comparative religion than an analysis of existing faiths with a view to the recovery of the bequests of preceding systems. 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 Chris- tianity alone. 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 remains. 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 investigation 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 in- fluence 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 and Christianity. The religious ideas of Egypt seem to have spread westward and to have had their greatest influence upon Greece. It has been the fashion to deny utterly the dependence of Greece upon Egypt in re- influence spect to religion, but it cannot be denied that the trend of recent dis- ^^^ Greece, coveries in archaeology 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 borrows from without. Yet Greece herself acknowledged her debt in this matter 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 sufficiency of the present life and the nearness of the divine reveal themselves 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 Egyptian forms yielded to the grace of the Athenian creations of art and religion, but beneath them was the same thought. In man and his works the Greek found the ideal of the divine, and 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 conquest 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 2U f^^ WOkWs CONGRESS OF MLlGWM. that of Phcenicia. But with one people, at a later period, it would seem probable that her religious 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 cf their nation and their religious system dates from their deliverance from this bond- age. Did they not borrow from the well-organized and imposing religious system of their captors? Could they avoid doing "so? The evidences of any such borrowing are not easy to discover. Either they have been carefully removed by later ages or another and more powerful influence has obliterated them. It is also to be remembered that the feeling 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 religious 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 Assyrio-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 from that center of the Israel's De- world's civilization are not clear to us, but the tradition gives no hint of parture from 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 characteristic alike of the relig- ion of Babylonia and in a higher and purer degree of the religion of Israel. Can he have gained his first perception of this truth from the Babylonians? It is not improbable. 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 scholars are inclined to assign to this time a large number of acquisi- tions by Israel in the field 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 whose cruel grasp they found themselves held fast. It is in the second period, that of the Assyrian conquest of Vvcst- ern Asia, that Israel came most fully under the influence of the relig- ion and the religious ideas of the Babylonians. Both Israel and Assyria had developed 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 WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELlCtONS, 275 the God Ashur the nation worked out a conception of a national God, before whom the other deities of the pantheon took subordinate posi- tions. Without denying the divine transcendence, Assyria moved in the direction of monotheism. A God of majesty, he was also con- ceived in the Assyrian style as a God of justice, whose law, though but slightly tinged with ethical ideas as we hold them, must be obeyed. The Hebrew conception of Jahveh had also been fashioned in the struggle after nationality. It was a conception born out of the very heart of the nation divinely moved upon by the true God. It did not owe its origin to Egypt or Assyrio-Babylonia. But we cannot 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 negative 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 im- pressive examples throughout the centuries of Israelitish history. Under this supporting influence Israel took the one higher step which remained to be taken. Moved forward by the irresistible im- pulse thus outwardly and inwardly felt, the 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 be together the possession of Christianity. The doctrine of the divine transcendence is the gift of Judaism to the Christian church, and Christian theology has wrought it out into complex and impress- ive systems of truth. The truth of the divine immanence early found its place in the hearts and minds of the 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 Graeco-Egyptian doctrine which the Alexandrian fathers wrought into the Christian system, and which is today beginning to claim that share in the system which its complementary truth has seemed to usurp. The religions which flourished and passed away have in this way contributed to the fundamentals of Christian theism. The preceding discussion has unavoidably encroached upon the 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 and death give as to the success or failure of religious sys- tems? Two a-priori theories occupy the field as explanations of these religions. First, they are regarded as teaching the blindness of man in his search after God, and the falsity of humanly constructed systems causShe^wero apart from special divine revelation. The dead religions perished False, because they were false, the production either of Satan or of deluded or designing men. The second theory holds these religions to be steps in the progressive evolution of the religious life of humanity, passing through well-defined and philosophically arranged stages, 276 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. each justifiable in its own circumstances, each a preparation for some- thing higher. Both views are inadequate because they do not include all the facts. What is needed in the study of religion today more than any- thing else is a study of the manifold facts which religions present and a rigid abstinence from philosophical theories which find facts to suit themselves. One great excellence of this parliament is that it brings us face to face with these facts. These brief sessions will do more for the study Value of the ^^ religion than the philosophizing of a score of years. No religion Dead Reiig- in the totality and complexity of its phenomena is wholly false or wholly true. The death of a religion is not always an evidence of its decay and corruption, its inadequacy to meet the wants of men. There are certain phases of living religious life which every sane man would prefer to see removed and their place supplied by the doctrine and ^ practice of some dead religions. In the search for the laws of relig- ious life and the results of religious activity, the dead religions are particularly valuable because of what these laws and forces have in them worked out to the end. They have formed a completed struc- ture or produced a ruin, both of which disclose with equal fidelity and equal adequacy the working of invariable and irresistible law. Generalization on these phenomena, if correctly made, have a satisfying quality and a validity which afford a basis for instruction and guidance. Thus these religions themselves constitute what may be after all their most valuable bequest, and as such they have a peculiar interest for the student of religion. The proofs of this statement throng in upon us and 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 relations consisted in almost complete identification of the two organisms. Most frequently the church existed for the state, its servant, its slave. The results were most disastrous to both parties, but religion especially suffered. Its priesthoods either became filled with ambitious designs upon the state as in Egypt, or fell into the position of subserviency and weakness as in Babylon and Assyria, Rome and Greece. Ends and The aims and ends of truth were narrowed and trimmed to fit Aims of Truth, imperfect social conditions, and the fate of religion was bound up with the success or failure or 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 277 Want of a they depended, they met their death through a mightier religious force. The most brilliant example of this phenomenon is the conflict of Christianity with the religions of the ancient world. Christianity's victory was achieved without force of arms. Was it merely that its foes were moribund that the religious forces of antiquity had all but lost their power? This is not by any means all the truth. I cannot glory in the victory of a Christianity over decaying religions that would have died of themselves if only left alone, but I am proud of her power in that when "the fullness of the times" was come, when Egypt and Syria, Judea, Greece and Rome offered to the world their best, she was able to take all their truths into her genial grasp and lincarnating them in Jesus Christ make them in Him the beginning of a new age, the starting point of a higher evolution. These religions were crippled by their essential character. They had no real unity of thought. Their principle of organization was the inclusion of local cults, not the establishment of a great idea. There _ was broad toleration in the ancient religious world, both of forms and The^gy.' 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 humaneness of God, were valid religious ideas, but each was partial. 'These religions, so inclusive of forms, could not include or comprehend fmore 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 jreconciled, all ailments of the world's religious progress, none of these ;ancient system^ could stand before it. They seem to tell us that the true test of a religious system is the measure in which it is filled with God. So far as they saw Him they [led men to find help and peace in Him. They proclaimed His law, [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 ife, 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 evolution of the world. And it was jecause they failed to rise to the height of Christianity's comprehen- ;ion and absorption of God that they perished. We are sometimes inclined, amid the din of opposing creeds, 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 relig- ions, such as are represented in this parliament, we are tempted to Selieve that the ultimate religion will consist in a bouquet of the Jweetest and choicest of them all. The graves of the dead religions 278 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, declare that not selection but incorporation makes a religion, strong; not incorporation but reconciliation, not reconciliation but the fulfill- ment of all these aspirations, these partial truths in a higher thought, in a transcendent life. The systems of religions here represented, or to come, which will not merely select but incorporate, not merely incorporate but recon- cile, 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 today upon the dead past, we behold men in the jungle and on the mountain, in the Roman temple and before the Celtic altar, lifting up holy hands of as- piration and petition to the divine. Sounding through Greek hymns and Babylonian psalms alike are heard human voices crying out 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 blindoess and ignorance. He gave them of Himself. They receive Tho Light the light which lighteth every man. That light has come down the Received. ages untp 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 today, as never before, how many are our spiritual fathers in the past — "hath in these last days spoken unto us in the Son." Interior of the Free Church, Copenhagen, Denmark. §tudy of Qomparative T^heology, Paper by PROF. C. P. TIELE, of Leiden University. Science of Religion in Its Infancy. HAT is to be understood by compara- tive theology? I find that English- writing authors use the appellation promiscuously with comparative re- ligion, but if we wish words to con- vey a sound meaning we should at least beware of using these terms as convertible ones. Theology is not the same as religion; and, to me, com- parative theology signifies nothing but a comparative study of religious dogmas, comparative religion nothing but a comparative study of various religions in all their branches. I sup- pose, however, I am not expected to make this distinction, but compara- tive theology is to be understood to mean what is now generally called the science of religion, the word "science" not being taken in the limited sense it commonly has in English, but in the general signification of the Dutch Wetenschap (H. G. Wissenschaft), which it has assumed more and more even in the Roman languages. So the history and the study of this science 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 (De DiisSyrus), de Brosses (Le culte des dieux fetiches), the tasteful Herder and others, as a science it reaches back not much farther than to the middle of the nineteenth century. "Duxius Origine de tous les Cultes," which appeared in the opening years of the century, is a gigantic pamphlet, not an impartial historical research. Nor can Creuzer's and Baur's Symbolik and Mythologie lay claim to the latter appellation, but are dominated by long refuted theory. Meiner's "Aligemeine kritische Geschichte der Religionen" (1806-07) only just came up to the low standard which at that time 280 ter. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 281 historical scholars were expected to reach Much higher stood Ben- jamin Constant, in whose work. "La Religion Considcree dans sa Source, ses formes et ses Developpments" (1824), written with French lucidity, for the first time a distinction was made between the essence and the forms of religion, to which the writer also applied the theory of development. From that time the science of religion began to assume a more sharply defined character, and comparative studies on an ever grow- ing scale were entered upon, and this was done no longer chiefly with by-desires, either by the enemies of Christianity in order to gharpiy De- combat it and to point out that it differed little or nothing from all finwi charao- the superstitions one was now getting acquainted with, or by the apologists in order to defend it against these attacks and to prove its higher excellence when compared with all other religions. The impulse came from two sides. On one side it was due to philosophy. Philosophy had for centuries past been speculating on religion, but only about the beginning of our century it had become aware of the fact that the great religious problems cannot be solved without the aid of history; that in order to define the nature and the origin of religion one must first of all know its development. Already before 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 any one 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 lacked a clear conception of the real historical development of religion. Nor could this be otherwise. 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 Schmerzens'' (religion of suffering). In doing this, he of course thought of the myth and the worship of Thammuz-Adonis. He did not know that these are by no means of Aryanaic origin, but were borrowed by the people of western Asia from their eastern neighbors, and are, in fact, a survival of an older, highly sensual naturism. Even at the time he might have known that Adonis was far from being an ethical ideal, that his worship was far from being the glorification of a voluntarily 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. 283 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Meanwhile, material was being supplied from another quarter. Philogical and historical science, cultivated after strict methods, arch- aeology, anthropology, ethnology, no longer a prey to superficial the- orists and fashionable dilettanti only, but also subjected to the laws of the critical research, began to yield a rich harvest. I need but hint DSoVeries.^* at the many important discoveries of the last hundred years, the num- ber of which is continually increasing You know them full well, and you also know that they are not confined to a single province nor to a single period. They reach back as far as the remotest antiquity and show us, in those ages long gone by, a civilization postulating a long previous development, but also draw our attention to many concep- tions, manners and customs among several backward or degenerate tribes of our own time, giving evidence of the greatest rudeness and barbarousness. They thus enable us to study religion as it appears among all sorts of people and in the most diversified degrees of devel- opment. They have at least supplied the sources to draw from, among which are the original records of religion concerning which people formerly had to be content with very scanty, very recent and very untrustworthy information. You will not expect me to give you an enumeration of them. Let me mention only Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, India and Persia, and of their sacred books, the ** Book of the Dead," the so-called '* Chaldean Genesis," the " Cabylonia," the "pen- itential psalms " and mythological texts, the '*Veda" and the **Avesta." These form but a small part of the acquired treasures, but though we had nothing else it would be much. I 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 contents. I know alsb that even now, after we have learned how to apply to the study of these records the universally admitted, sound philological principles, much of what we believe to be known has been rejected as being valueless, and that the questions and problems which have to be solved have not decreased in number, but are daily increas- ing. I cannot deny that scholars of high repute and indisputable authority are much divided in opinion concerning the explanation of those texts, and that it is not easy to make a choice out of so many conflicting opinions. How much does Brugsch differ in his represen- tation of the Egyptian mythology from Edward Meyer and Ermann! How great a division among the Assyriologists between the Accadists, or Sumerists and the anti-Sumerists or- anti- Accadists! How much differs the explanation of the Veda by Roth, Miiller and Grassman, from that of Ludwig, and how different is Barth's explanation from Ber- gaigne's and Regnaad s! How violent was the controversy between Speigel and Haupt about the explanation of the most ancient pieces in the Avesta; and now in this year of grace, while the younger gener- ation, Bartholomae and Geldner on the one hand, Geiger, Wilhelm, Foil owing THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 283 Hubschmann, Mills on the other hand, are following different roads, there has come a scholar and a man of genius, who is, however, par- ticularly fond of paradoxes, James Darmsteter, to overthrow all that was considered up to his time as being all but stable, nay, even to undermine the foundations, which were believed safe enough to be built upon. But all this cannot do away with the fact that we are following the right path, that much has already been obtained, and much light has been shed on what was dark. Of not a few of these new fangled theories itmaybe said they are atleast useful in compelling us once more to put to a severe test the results obtained. So we see that the modern science of religion, comparative theology, has sprung from these two theRightPath! sources; the want of a firmer empirical base of operations, felt by the philosophy of religion, and the great discoveries on the domain of his- tory, archaeology and anthropology. These discoveries have revealed a great number of forms of relig- ion and religious phenomena which, until now, were known imperfectly or not at all; and it stands to reason that these have been compared with these already known and that inferences have been drawn from this comparison. Can anyone be said to be the founder of the young science? Many have conferred this title upon the famous Oxford pro- fessor, F. Max Miiller; others, among them his great American oppo- nent, the no less famous professor of Yale college, W. Dwight Whitney, have denied it to him. We may leave this decision to posterity. I, for one, may rather be said to side with Whitney than with Miiller. Though I have frequently contended the latter's speculations and theories, 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, espe- cially in England and in France. But a new branch of study can hardly be said to be founded. Like others, this was called into being by a generally felt want, in different countries at the same time and as a matter of course. The number of those applying themselves to it has been gradually in- creasing, and for years it has been gaining chairs at universities, first in Holland, afterward also in France and elsewhere, now also in Amer- ica. It has already a rich literature, even periodicals of its own. Though at one time the brilliant talents of some writers threatened to bring it into fashion and to cause it to fall a prey to dilettanti — a state of things that is to be considered most fatal to any science, but especially to one that is still in its infancy — this danger has fortunately been warded off, and it is once more pursuing the noiseless tenor of its way, profiting by the fell criticism of those who hate it. I shall not attempt to write its history. The time for it has not yet come. The rise of this new science, the comparative research of new religions, is as yet too little a feature of the past to be surveyed from an impartial standpoint. Moreover, the writer of this paper himself has been one of the laborers in this field for more than thirty 284 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. years past, and so he is, to some extent, a party to the conflict of opinions. His views would be apt to be too subjective, and could be justified only by an exhaustive criticism which would be misplaced N^^cience^^ here, and the writing of which would require a longer time of prepara- tion than has now been allowed to him. A dry enumeration of the names of the principal writers, and the titles of their works, would be of little use, and would prove very little attractive to you. There- fore, let me add some words on the study of comparative 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 recognize sacred writings, but also those of dis- senting sects and the songs and sagas of uncivilized people. So one will have to put up with the translations, and everybody knows that mean- ing of the original is but poorly rendered even by the best transla- tions. One will have to take upon trust what may be called second- hand information, without being able to test it, especially where the re- ligions of the so-called primitive peoples are concerned. All these ob- jections have been made by me for having the pleasure of setting them aside; they have frequently been raised against the new study and have already dissuaded many from devoting themselves to it. Nor can it be denied that they contain at least some truth. But if, on account 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 biological sciences. I am alluding only to anthropology and eth- nology, history, the history of civilization, archaeology, comparative philology, comparative literature, ethics, philosophy. Is the inde- pendent study of all these sciences to be relinquished because no one can be required to be versed in each of their details equally well, to have acquired an exhaustive knowledge, got at the mainspring of every people, every language, every literature,every civilization, every group of records, every period, every system? There is nobody who will think of insisting upon this. Every science, even the most compre- hensive one, every theory must rest on an empirical basis, must start from an "unbiased ascertaining of facts;" but it does not follow that the tracing, the collecting, the sorting and the elaborating of these facts and the building up of a whole out of these materials must needs be consigned to the same hands. The flimsily constructed speculative systems, pasteboard buildings all of them, we have done away with for good and all. But a science is not a system, not a well-arranged storehouse of things that are known, but an aggregate of researches all tending to the same purpose, though independent yet mutually connected, and THE WCRLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 285 each in particular connected with similar researches in other domain,s which serve thus as auxiliary sciences. Now the science of religion has no other purpose than to lead to the knowledge of religion in its nature and in its origin. And this knowledge is not to be acquired, at ^ least if it is to be a sound, not a would-be knowledge, but by an Researches, unprejudiced historical-psychological research. What should be done first of all is to trace religion in the course of its development, that is to say in its life, to inquire what every family of religions, as for instance the Aryan and Semitic, what every particular religion, what the great religious persons have contributed to this development, to what laws and conditions this development is subjected, and in what it really consists? Next the religious phenomena, ideas and dogmas, feelings and inclinations, forms of worship and religious acts are to be examined, to know from what wants of the soul they have sprung and of what aspirations they are the expression. But these researches, without which one cannot penetrate into the nature of religion nor form a conception of its origin, cannot bear lasting fruit, unless the comparative study of religious individualities lie at the root of them. Only to a few it has been given to institute this most comprehensive inquiry, to follow to the end this long way. He who ventures upon it cannot think of examining closely all the particulars himself; he has to avail himself of what the students of special branches have brought to light and have corroborated with sound evidence. It is not required of every student of the science of religion that he should be an architect; yet, though his study may be confined within the narrow bounds of a small section, if he does not lose sight of the chief purpose, and if he applies the right method, he, too, will contribute not unworthily to the great common work. So a search after the solution ot the abstruse fundamental ques- tions had better be left to those few who add a great wealth of knowl- edge to philosophical talents. What should be considered most need- ful, with a view to the present standpoint of comparative theology, is this: Learning how to put the right use to the new sources that have been opened up; studying thoroughly and penetrating into the sense of records that on many points still leave us in the dark; subjecting to a close examination particular religions and important periods about which we possess but scanty information; searching for the religious meaning of myths, tracing prominent deities in their rise and develop- ment, and forms of worship through all the important changes of meaning they have undergone; after this the things thus found have to be compared with those already known. Two things must be required of the student of the science of religion. He must be 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 quick in time, about the whole domain of his science; in short, he must possess a general knowledge of religions and religious phe- nomena. But he should not be satisfied with this. He should then 286 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, select a field of his own, larger or smaller, according to his capacities Require- and the time at his disposal; a field where he is quite at home, where Stud^nte.^ *^^ 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 dillettan- teism which has already been alluded to, or the trifling of those Philis- tines of science, who like nothing better than occupying our attention longest of all with such things as lie beyond the bounds of what is worth knowing. But the last-nanied 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. Mrs. Eliza R. Sunderland, Ph. D., Ann Arbor, Mich. Importance of the §tudy of (Comparative f^eligions. Paper by MRS. ELIZA R. SUNDERLAND, PH. D., of Ann Arbor, Mich. Y theme bears the impress of the nine- teenth century — the century par ex- cellence in scientific research and clas- sification, which has given us the new heavens of the telescope, the spectro- scope and stellar photography; the new earth of geology, chemistry, mineral- ogy, botany and zoology, and the new humanity of ethnology, philology, psychology and hierology. But the nineteenth century is only 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 in- terrogation 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 mon- archies of Europe were asked to give reason why the many should live and toil and die for the few, and modern republicanism was born. Earth, and air and sea were asked to give reason why man should not enter into his birthright of ownership of all physical nature, and steamship 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, ex- 1^ 289 Man's Sover^ 290 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGION^. I plain its symbols, describe its rites, sing its hymns, pray its prayer*? and, finally, give up its life history of origins and transformations. Such in brief is the work of the nineteenth century. What is the value of this work? I am asked to respond only for one department of it, namely, that of hierology, or the comparative study of religions. What is the value and importance of a comparative study of relig- ions? What lessons- has it to teach? I may answer, first, that the results of hierology form part of the great body of scientific truth, and as such Value and ^^^^ ^ recognized scientific value as helping to complete a knowledge Importance. of man and his environment; and I shall attempt to show that a seri- ous study by an intelligent public of the great mass of facts already gathered concerning most of the religions of the world will prove of great value in at least two directions — first, as a means of general, second, as a means of religious culture. Matthew Arnold defines cult- ure as ''the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world and thus with the history of the human spirit." This is a nineteenth century use of the word. The Romans^would have used instead "humanitas," or, with an English plural, "the humanities," to express a corresponding thought. The schoolmen, adopting the Latin term, limited its application to the languages, literature, history, art and archaeology of Greece and Rome, 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 products with "divinity" which completed the circle of scholastic knowledge. But the world of the nineteenth century is larger than that of medieval Europe, and we may well thank Mr. Arnold for a new word suited to the new times. Culture — acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world and thus with the history of the human spirit This will require us to know a great body of literature; but when we inquire for the best we shall find our- selves confronted by a vast mass of religious literature. Homer was a great religious poet; Hesiod, also. The central idea in all the great dramas of ^schylus, Sophocles and Euripides was religious, and no one need hope to penetrate beneath the surface of any of these, who lacks a sympathetic acquaintance with the religious ideas, myths and mythol- ogies of the Greeks. Dante's "Divine Comedy," Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Goethe's "Faust" are religious poems, to read which intelli- gently one must have an acquaintance with medieval mythology and modern Protestant theology. Then there are the great Bibles of the world, the Christian and Jewish, the Mohammedan and Zoroastrian, the Brahman and Buddhist and the two Chinese sacred books. It is of these books that Emerson sings: Out of the heart of nature rolled The burden of the Bible old; The litanies of nations came, Like the volcano's tongue of flame, Up from the burning core below, Tne canticles of love and woe. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 291 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 de- v^elopment of rites, symbols, myths and mythologies, traditions, creeds and priestly orders through long centuries of time, from far away primitive nature worship up to the elaborate ritual and developed lit- urgy which demanded the written book. But religion is a living power and not, therefore, to be confined to book or creed or ritual. All these, religion called into being, and is itself, therefore, greater than any or all of them. So far from being confined to book and creed and ritual, religion has proved, in the words of Dr. C. P. Tiele"one of the most potent factors in human history; Power.*^^^*^ it has founded and overthrown nations, united and divided empires; has sanctioned the most atrocious deeds and the most cruel customs; has inspired beautiful acts of heroism, self-renunciation and devotion, and has occasioned the most sanguinary wars, rebellions and persecu- tions. It has brought freedom, happiness and peace to nations, and, anon, has proved a partisan of tyranny; now calling into existence a brilliant civilization, then the deadly foe to progress, science and art." All this is a part of world history, and the student who ignores it or passes over lightly the religious motive underlying it is thereby ob- scuring the hidden causes which alone 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 rows of sphinxes? What mean these sphinxes and the pyramids, the rock-hewn temple tombs and the obelisks of ancient Egyptian art? Why the low, earth-loving Greek temple, with all its beauty and external adornment? What is the central thought in Greek sculpture? Why does the medieval cathedral climb heaven- ward, with its massive towers and turrets? What is the meaning of the tower temples of ancient Assyria and Babylon and the mosques and minarets of western Asia? All are symbols of religious life, and are blind and meaningless without an understanding of that life. Blot out the architecture and sculpture whose motive is strictly religious, and how great a blank remains? Painting and music, too, have been the handmaidens of religion, and cannot be mastered in their full depths of meaning save by one who knows something of the religious ideas and sentiments which gave them birth; eloquence has found its deepest inspiration in sacred themes; and philosophy is only the attempt of the intellect to formu- late what the heart of man has striven after and felt. Let a student set himself the task of becoming intelligent con- cerning the philosophic speculations of the world, and he will soon - find that among all peoples the earliest speculations have been of a 292 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. religious nature, and that out of these, philosophy arose. If, then, he would understand the development of philosophy, he must begin EarUestSpec- with the development of the religious consciousness in its beginnings nJations. in the ludo-Germauic racc, the Semitic racc, and in Christianity. As 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 independent fact, clearly distinguished alike from politics, art and science. This condition was first fulfilled in Christianity. But no philosophy of religion was possible in medieval Christianity, because independent scientific investigation was impossible. All thinking was dominated either by dogmatism or by an undefined faith." If the germs of a philosophy of religion may be found in the theosophic mysticism and the anti-scholastic philosophy of the renais- sance, its real beginnings are to be found not earlier than the eight- eenth 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, Schleiermacher, Schelling, Hegel, and, if we would follow the tendencies of philosophic religious thought in the present day, Feuerbach, Comte, Strauss, Mill, Spencer, Matthew Arnold, Hermann, Schopenhauer, Von Hartmann, Lotze, Edward Caird,JohnCaird and Martineau. No student, who aspires to an acquaintance with philosophy, can afford to be ignorant of these thinkers and their thoughts; but to follow most intelligently the thought of any one of them he will need a prelimi- nary acquaintance with hierology through such careful, painstaking conscientious work in the study of different religions as has been made by such scholars as Max Miiller, C. P. Tiele, Keunen, Ernest Renan, Albert Reville, Prof. Robertson Smith, Renouf, La Saus saye and Sayce. If religious thought and feeling is thus bound up with the litera- ture, art and philosophy of the world, not less close is its relation to the language, social and political institutions and morals of humanity. It is sacred names quite as often as any other words which furnish the philologist his links in the chain of proofs of relationship between languages. It does not need a Herbert Spencer to point out that political institutions and offices are frequently related to religion as effect to cause; the king's touch and the doctrine of divine right of kings are only survivals from the days of the medicine man and heaven-born chief. The question concerning the relations of religion to ethics is a living one in modern thought. One class of thinkers insists, that ethics is all there is of religion that can be known or can be of value to man; another, that ethics, if lived, will of necessity blossom out into religion, since religion is only ethics touched with emotion; another, that religion and ethics are two distinct things which have no neces- sary relation to each other; and still others maintain that there is THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 293 no high and persistent moral life possible without the sanctions of religion, and no high and worthy religion possible without an accom- panying high morality; that whatever may be true in low conditions of civilization, any religion adapted to high civilizations must be eth- ical, and any ethical precepts or principles which are to helpfully con- trol men's lives must be rooted in faith. A wide and careful study of the world's religions ought to throw light upon the problem. Such a study would point to the conclusion that, though differing . greatly among themselves in other ways, all religions, even the oldest and poorest, must have shown some faint traces at least of awakening moral feeling. From an early period moral ideas are combined wi^^h Moral Ideas, religious doctrines, and the old mythologies are modified by them. Ethical attributes are ascribed to the gods, especially the highest. Later, but only in the higher nature religions, ethical as well as intel- lectual abstractions are personified and worshiped as divine beings. What are the historic facts in the case? Have religion and mor- ality had a contemporaneous development, and in conjunction? or has the history of the two run on distinct and divergent lines? Who shall answer authoritatively save the student of the history of religions? Let us question some such. "All religions," says C. P. Tiele, "are either race religious or religions proceeding from an individual founder; the former are nature religions; the latter ethical religions. In the nature religions the supreme gods are the mighty powers of nature, and though there are great mutual differences between them, some standing on a much higher plane than others, the oldest and poorest must have shown some faint traces, at least, of awakening moral feeling. In some a constant and remarkable progress is also to be noticed. Gods are more and more anthropomorphized, rites humanized. From an early period moral ideas are combined with religious doctrines and the old mythologies are modified by them. Ethical attributes are ascribed to the gods, especially to the highest. Nay, ethical as well as intellectual abstractions are personified and worshiped as divine beings. 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 aesthetic, scientific and philosophical notions; and they are un- able to shut them out, for if they did so they would lose their hold upon the leading classes among the more civilized nations. " If, however, the ethical elements acquire the upper hand so that they become the predominating principle, then the old forms break in twain by the too heavy burden of new ideas, and the old rites being useless, become obsolete. Then nature religion inevitably dies of inanition. When this culminating point has been reached the way is prepared for the preaching of an ethical religious doctrine. " Ethical religions ai e communities brought together, not by a com- mon belief in national traditions, but by the common belief in a doc- a Doctrine of trine of salvation, and organized with the aim of maintaining, fostering. Salvation, propagating and practicing that doctrine. This fundamental doctrine 294 THE V/ORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, is considered by its adherents in each case as a divine revelation, and he who revealed it, an inspired prophet or son of God." The ethical religions Tiele divides into national, or particularistic and universalistic. The latter, three in number, are the dominant re- ligions in the world today. Of these, Islamism has emphasized the religious side, the absolute sovereignty of God, opposing to it the nothingness of man, and has thus neglected to develop morals. Bud- dhism, on the contrary, neglects thedivine, preaches the final salvation of man from the miseries of existence through the power of his own self-renunciation, and as it was atheistic in its origin it soon becomes infected by the most fantastic mythology and the most childish super- stitions. Christianity in its founder did full justice to both the divine and human sides; if the greatest commandment was love to God, the second was like unto it, viz., love to man. Such is a brief resume of C. P. Tide's account of the mutual historical relations of ethics and religion. Albert Reville devotes a chapter of his "Prolegomena to the His- tory of Religions" to the same question. He finds that morality. Tike religion, began very low down and rose very high; that with morality, as with religion, we must recognize in the human mind a spontaneous disposition sui generis, arising from its natural constitution, destined to expand in the school of experience, but which that school can never create. With the entrance of moral prepossessions into religion, life be- yond the tomb becomes a place of divine rdwards, 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 Duiy.'^^^*^^^'^^ completely as physical order. Obedience to the moral law becomes then essentially a religious duty. Consequently, the religious ideal rises and becomes purified at the same time as the moral ideal. We may even say that, in the Gospel, religion and morality are no longer easily to be distinguished; upon the basis of the monotheistic princi- ple and the affinity of nature between man and God, the religion of Jesus moves on independently of dogma and of rite, consisting essen- tially of strictly moral provisions and applications. "Has morality gained or lost by this close alliance with religion?'" asks Reville; and answers: "In a general way we may say that the characteristic of the religious sentiment, when it is associated with another element of human life, is to render this element much more intense and more powerful. From this simple observance we have the right to conclude that as a general rule morality gains in attractive- ness, 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 found- ered on the rock of asceticism, especially Brahmanism, Buddhism and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 295 the Christianity of the Middle Ages. Religion has sometimes failed to distinguish between morality and ritual, or morality and occult belief, and we have the spectacle of a punctilious observer of rites consid- observer of ered to be more nearly united to God, notwithstanding terrible viola- ^^'®^* tions of the moral law, than is the good man who fails in ritual or creed. And yet, Reville concludes from the individual point of view: "The question which the spiritual tribunal of each of us is alone quali- fied to decide is, whether we ought not to congratulate the mar who derives from his religious convictions, freed from narrowness, from utilitarianism and from superstition, the source, the charm and the vigor of his moral life. Persuaded that for most men the alliance be- tween religion and morality cannot but be salutary, I must pronounce in the affirmative." If the conclusions of all students of hierology shall prove in har- mony with the views here expressed as to the close connection in origin and in history, between morality and religion, a connection growing closer as each rises in the scale of worth, until we find in the very highest the two indissolubly united, may we not conclude a wise dictum for our modern life to be "what God in history has joined together let not man in practice put asunder?" Rather let him who would lift the world morally avail himself of the motor power of re- ligion; let him who would erect a temple of religion see to it that its foundations are laid in the enduring granite of character. I come now to the second division of my subject, namely, the value of hierology as a means of religious culture. What is religion? Ask the question of an ordinary communicant of any religious order and the answer will in all probability, as a rule, emphasize some surface characteristic. The orthodox Protestant defines it as a creed; the Catholic, a creed plus a ritual — believe the doctrines and observe the sacraments; what is R©- the Mohammedan as a dogma; the Buddhist as an ethical system; the l^®^- Brahmin as caste; the Confucian as a system of statecraft. But let the earnest student ask further for the real meaning to the worshiper, of his ritual, creed, dogma, ethics, caste and ethics-political, and he will find each system to be a feeling out after a bond of union between the human and the divine; each implies a mode of activity, a process by which the individual spirit strives to bring itself into harmonious re- lations with the highest power, will, or intelligence. Each is of value in just so far as it is able to inaugurate some felt relation between the worshiper and the superhuman powers in which he believes. In the language of philosophy, each is a seeking for a reconciliation of the ego and the non-ego. The earnest student will find many resemblances between all these communions; his own included. They all started from the same sim- ple germ; they have ^11 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 aU found it in symbol, rite, myth, tradition, creed. The r^svilt 296 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. An Attribute of Humanity. Study of AU Religions. of such a study must be to reveal man to himself in his deepest nature; it enables the individual to trace his own lineaments in the mirror and see himself in the perspective of humanity. Prior to such study, religion is an accident of time and place and nationality; a particular revelation to his particular nation or age, which might have been with- held from him and his, as it was withheld from the rest of the world, but for the distinguishing favor of the Divine Sovereign of the universe in choosing out one favored people and sendmg to that one a special revelation of His will. After such study religion is an attribute of humanity, as reason and language and tool-making are; needing only a human being placed in a physical universe which dominates his own physical life, which cribs and cabins him by its inexorable laws, and, lo! defying those laws he steps out into the infinite world of faith, of hope, of aspiration, of God. The petty distinctions of savage, barbarian, civilized and en- lightened sink into the background. He is a man, and by virtue of his manhood, his human nature, he worships and aspires. A compara- tive study of religions furnishes the only basis for estimating the relative worth of any religion. Many of you saw and perhaps shared the smile and exclamation of incredulous amusement over the paragraph which went the rounds of the papers some fnonths ago to the effect that the Mohammedans were preparing to send missionaries and establish a Mel ammedan mission in New York City. But why the smile and exclamation? Be- cause of our sense of the superiority of ourown form of religious faith. Yet Christianity has utterly failed to control the vice of drunkenness. Chicago today is dominated by the saloons. Nor is it alone in this respect. Christian lands everywhere are dotted with poorhouses, asy- lums, jails, penitentiaries, 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 further: "Islam is the most powerful total abstinence association in the world." This testi- mony is confirmed by other writers and by illustration. If it can do so on the western continent as well, then what better thing could hap- pen to New York, or to Chicago even, than the establishment of some vigorous Mohammedan missions? And for the best good of Chicago it might be well that Mayor Harrison instruct the police that the mis- sionaries are not to be arrested for obstructing the highway if they should venture to preach their temperance gospel in the saloon quarters. But if a study of all religions is the only road to a true definition of religion and classification of religions, it is quite as necessary to the intelligent comprehension of any one religion. Goethe declared long ago that he who knows but one language knows none, and Max Miiller applies the adage to religion. A very little thought will show the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 297 truth of the application in either case. On the old time supposition tha*: religion and language alike came down ready formed from heaven, a divine gift or revelation to man, this would not be true. Complete in itself, with no earthly relationships, why 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 prehistoric shadows, the light of history shows each as a gradual evolution or development, whose laws of development can to some extent be traced, whose history can be, partially at least, deciphered. But if an evolution, a development, then are both religion and language in the chain of cause and effect, and no single link of that chain can by any possibility be compre- hended alone and out of relation to the links preceding and following. Allow me to illustrate this proposition at some length. I am a Christian. I want to know the nature, meaning and import of the Christian religion. I find myself in the midst of a great army of sects all calling themselves Christians. I 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 contends earnestly for a Trinity; here one that worships at high altars with burning candles, processions of robed priests, elevation of the host, holy water, adoration of the Virgin Mother, and humble con- fessional, all in stately cathedrals, with stained-glass windows, pealing organ and surpliced choir; there another, which deems that Christian- ity is foreign to all such ritual, and whose worship consists in waiting quietly for an hour within the four bare wails of the quaker meeting- house to see if the inner voice hath ought of message from the great enlightening spirit. How account for such differences when all claim a common . source? Only by tracing back the stream of Christian history to its Comm™i? source and following each tributary to its source, thus, if possible, to yource. discover the origin of elements so dissimilar. Seriously entered upon the quest, we discover here a stream of influence from ancient Egypt, "through Greece and Rome, bringing to Roman Catholic Chris- tendom," so says Tiele, "the germs of the worship of the virgin, the doctrine of the immaculate conception and the type of its theocracy." Another tributary brings in a stream of Neo-Platonism with its doctrine of the Word, or Logos; there a stream of Graeco-Roman mythology with a deifying tendency so strongly developed that it will fall in adoration equally before a Roman emperor or a Paul and Cephas, whose deeds seem marvelous. Another stream from imperial Rome brings its gift of hierarchical organization, and here a tributary comes in from the German forests bringing the festivals of the sun god and the Q^'g god of the newly developing life of spring. Christianity cannot banish these festivals; too long have they held place in the 00 §98 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. religious consciousness of the people. She can, however, and does adopt and baptize them, and we have the gorgeous Catholic festivals of Christmas and Easter. Christianity itself sends its roots back into Judaism; hence, to know it really in its deepest nature, we must apply to it the laws of heredity, i. e.^ we must study Judaism. Judaism has its sacred book, and our task will be easy, so we think. But a very little unbiased study will show us that Judaism is not one, but many. There is the Judaism which talks freely of angels and devils and the future life, happiness or misery, and there is the earlier Mosaism which knows nothing of angels or 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 tributary stream flowing in from Babylonia, and if we will trace this to its source we shall find its fountain head in the Persian dualism of Ormuzd and Ahriman, the god of light and the god of darkness, with their attendant angels. Only after the Babylonish captivity do we find in Judaism angels and a hierarchy of devils. Pass back through the Jewish sacred books, and strange things will meet us. Here a "Thus saith the Lord" to Joshua; "Slay all the 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 Palestinian earth if he would build an altar to the god of the Hebrews whose prophet has cured his leprosy. The Lord guides the Israelites through the wilderness by a pillar of fire by night and of smoke by day, lives in the ark, and in it goes before the Israelites into battle; is captured in the ark and punishes the Philistines till they send Him 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 Chris- tianity, seeking earnestly for the causes of the transformation. What J. ,. . , was the early Hebrew religion? A branch of the great Semitic family the Bemites. ** of religions. What was the religion of the Semites and who were the Semites? These questions have been answered in an exhaustive and scholarly manner, so far as he goes, by Prof. Robertson Smith in the volume entitled, "The Religion of the Semites," a volume to which no student of the Old Testament, who wishes to understand that rich treasury of oriental and ancient sacred literature, can afford not to give a serious study. TMB WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 2^9 Magic and The Semites occupied all the lands of western Asia from the Tigro-Euphrates .valley to the Mediterranean Sea. They included the Arabs, Hebrews and Phoenicians, the Aramaeans, Babylonians and Assyrians. A comparative study of the religions of all these peoples has convinced scholars that all were developments from a common primitive source, the early religion of the Semites. This religion was first nature worship of the personified heavenly bodies, especially the sun and moon. Among the Arabs this early religion developed into animistic polydemonism, and never rose much higher than this; but among the Mesopotamian Semites the nature beings rise above nature and rule it, and one among them rises above all the others as the head of an unlimited theocracy. If magic and augury remained prominent constituents of their ceremonial religion, they practiced, besides, a real worship and gave utterance to a vivid sense of sin, a deep feeling of man's dependence, even of his nothingness, before God, in prayers and hymns hardly less fervent than those of the pious souls of Israel. Among the western Augury. Semites, the Aramaeans, Canaanites, Phoenicians seem to have so- journed in Mesopotamia before moving westward, and they brought with them the names of the early Mesopotamian Semitic gods, with the cruel and unchaste worship of a non-Semitic people, the Akkad- ians, which henceforth distinguished them from the other Semites. From the Akkadians, too, was probably derived the consecration of the seventh day as a Sabbath or day of rest, afterward shared by the Hebrews. The last of the Semitic peoples, the Hebrews, seem to be more closely related to the Arabs than to the northern or eastern Semites. They entered and gradually conquered most of Canaan during the thirteenth century, B. C, bringing with them a religion of extreme simplicity, though not monotheistic, and not differing greatly in char- acter from that of the Arabs. Their ancient national god bore the name El-Shaddai, but his worship had given place under their great leader, Moses, to a new cult, the worship of Yahveh, the dreadful and stern god of thunder, who first appeared to Moses at the bush under the name " I am that I am," worshiped according to a new funda- mental religious and moral law, the so-called Ten Words. Were this name and this law indigenous to Arabia or a special revelation, de ?iovo^ to Moses? But whence had Moses the moral culture adequate to the comprehension and appropriation of a moral system so far in advance of anything which v/e find among other early Semites? Nineteenth century research has discovered an equally high moral code in Egypt, and the very name *'Nukpu Nuk," "1 am that I am," is found among old Egyptian inscriptions. Whatever its origin, this new religion the Hebrews did not aban- don in their new home, although they placed their national god, Yah- .TheirNation- veh, by the side of the deity of the country, whom they called briefly "the Baal," and whom most of them worshiped together with Ashera, the goddess of fertility. After they had left their wandering life and alGod. 300 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. settled down to agriculture, Yahveh, however, as the God of the con- querors, was commonly placed above the others, though his stern char- acter was softened by that of the gentler Baal. "Well for Israel and well for the world that these two conceptions of deity came together in Judea twelve centuries before Christ. If the worship of the jeal- . ous god Yahveh made the Jew stern and uncompromising, it also girded him with a high moral sense whose legitimate outcome was Israel's great prophets, while the fierceness itself, as gradually trans- formed by the gentler Baal conception of deity, gives us in the final outcome, the holy God who cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance and yet pitieth the sinner even as a father pitieth his children. If any have been perplexed over a religion of love such as Christianity claims to be, proving a religion of bloody wars, persecu- tions, inquisitions, martyrdoms, mayhap its Hebrew origin may throw light upon the mystery. Jesus' thought of a God, a Father, could not wholly displace at once the old Hebrew Yahveh, the jealous God. All the Semitic religions, while differing among themselves in the names and certain characteristics of their deities, had much in com- mon. Their gods were all tribal or national gods, limited to particular countries, choosing for themselves special dwelling places, which thus became holy places, usually near celebrated trees or living water, the tree, rock or water often coming to be regarded not simply as the abode, but as in some sense, the divine embodiment or representative of the god, and hence these places were chosen as sanctuaries and places of worship; though the northern Semitic worshiped on hills also, the worship consisted, during the nomadic period, in sacrifices of animals sacred alike to the god and his worshipers, because sharing the common life of both, and to some extent of human sacrifices as well. The skin of the animal sacrificed is the oldest form, says Rob-. ertson-Smith, of a sacred garment appropriate to the performance of holy function, and was the origin of the expression "robe of righteous- ness." Is this the far-away origin of the scarlet robe of office? All life, whether the life of man or beast, within the limits of the AH Life Sa- tribe, was sacred, being held in common with the tribal god, who was cred. the progenitor of the whole tribal life; hence, no life could be taken, save in sacrifice to the god, without calling down the wrath of the god. Sacrifices thus became tribal feasts, shared between the god and his worshipers, the god receiving the blood poured upon the altar, the worshipers eating the flesh in a joyful tribal feast. Here, then, was the origin of the Hebrew religion. It was not monotheistic, but what scholars designated as henotheistic, a belief in the existence of many gods, though worshiping only the national god. Thus, a man was born into his religion as he was born into his tribe, and he could only change his religion by changing his tribe. This explains Ruth's impassioned words to Naomi, "Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God." This idea of the tribal god, who is a friend to his own people but an enemy to all others, added to the belief in the inviolability of all life save when offered in sacrifice, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 301 explains the decree that an animal dying of itself might not be eaten by a tribesman, but might be sold to a stranger. A tribal god, too, might rightfully enough order the slaughter of the men, women and children of another tribe whose god had proved too weak to defend them. Life was sacred only because shared with the god, and this sharing was limited to the tribe. The Hebrew people moved onward and upward from this early Semitic stage and have left invaluable landmarks of their progress in their sacred books. The story of the sacrifice of Isaac tells of the time when human sacrifices were outgrown. Perhaps circumcision does the same. The story of Cain and Abel dates from the time when agricult- ure was beginning to take the place of the old nomadic shepherd life. The men of the new calling were still worshipers of the old gods, and would gladly share with them what they had to give — the fruits of the earth. But the dingers to the old life could see nothing sacred in this new thing, and were sure that only the old could be well pleasing to their god. The god who dined with Abraham under the terebinth tree, at Mamre, was the early tribal god, El-Shaddai. Naaman was cured of his leprosy because the Jordan was sacred to the deity. It was the thunder god, Yahveh, whom the people worshiped on Sinai and who still bore traces of the earlier sun god as he guided the people in a pillar of fire. The ark is a remnant of fetichism, i. e.^ a means of putting the deity under control of his worshipers. They can compel his presence on the battlefield by carrying the ark thither, and if the ark is captured the god is captured also. A powerful element in the upward development of Mosaism was prophecy. The eighth century prophets had moved far on beyond the whole sacrificial system, when, as spokesman for the Lord, Isaiah ex- claims: *T 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 c f holy places when he declares: "Neither in this holy mountain nor yet in Jerusalem shall men think to worship God most acceptably." God is a spirit unlimited by time or place, and they who would worship accept- ably must worship in spirit and in truth. How long the journey from the early tribal sacrificial, magical, unmoral, fetich, holy place, human sacrifice worship of the early Semites, including the Hebrews, to the universal fatherhood and brotherhood religion of the Sermon on the Mount and the golden rule, only those can understand who are willing to give serious study not to the latter alone, but to the former as well. To such earnest student there will probably come another revelation, namely, that there is need of no miracle to account for this religious transformation more than for the physical transformation from the frozen snows of December to the palpitating life of June. They are both all miracle or none. The j « •* t.* great infinite life and love was hidden alike in the winter clod and the and Love, human sacrifice. Given the necessary conditions and the frozen clod 302 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, has **climbed to a soul in grass and flowers," the tribal god and the tribal blood bond are seen in their real character as the universal God Fatherhood and man brotherhood. What the necessary conditions were, only those shall know who are ready to read God's thoughts after Him in the patient researches of scientific investigation. What is to be the future of this religion which has had so long and varied a history from far away Akkad even to this center of the west- ern hemisphere, and from twenty centuries before Christ to this last decade of the nineteenth century after Christ? One contribution made by the Hebrew to the Christian Scriptures demands special notice because it occupies so central a place in the development of the Christian system. I refer to the record of a first man, Adam, a Garden of Eden, a fall, an utter depravity resulting, and ending in a universal flood; a re-beginning and another fall and con- founding of speech at Babel. The founder of Christianity never refers to these events and the Gospels are silent concerning them. Paul first alludes to them, but in his hands and those of his successors they have become central in the theology of Christendom. Whence came this record of these real or supposed events? Genesis is silent con- cerning its origin. The antiquary delving among the ruins of ancient Chaldea finds almost the identical record of the same series of events upon clay tablets which are referred to an Akkadian people, the founders of the earliest civilization of the Tigro-Euphrates valley, a people not Semitic, but Turanian, related, therefore, to the great Tu- ranian peoples represented by the Chinese, Japanese and Fins. We started out to make an exhaustive study of Christianity, an Aryan religion if named from its adherents; Semitic from its origin. We found it receiving tributary streams from three Aryan sources, namely, Alexandrian Neo-Platonism, Pagan Rome and Teutonic-Ger- many; its roots were nurtured in Semitic Hebrew soil which had been enriched from Semitic Assyria, Aryan Persia, Turanian Akkadia and Hematic Egypt. Its parent was Judaism, a national religion, limited by the bound- aries of one nation. It is itself a universal religion, having transcended all national boundaries. How was this transformation effected? For answer go to Kuenen's masterly handling of the subject, " National Religions and Universal Religions." If our study has been wide we have learned that religions, like languages, have a life history of birth, development, transformation, death, following certain definite laws. Moreover, the law of life for all organisms is the same, and may, per- haps, be formulated as the power of adjustment to environment; the greater the adjustability the greater the vitality. Capacity ti ^^^ ^^^^ means capacity to change. "That which is no longer Change. Susceptible of change," says Kuenen, "may continue to exist, but it has ceased to live. And religion must live, must enter into new combina- tions and bear fresh fruit if it is to answer to its destiny; if refusing to crystallize into formulae and usages it is to work like the leaven, is to gpn^ple, tQ inspire and to strengthen." Has Christianity this yit§l THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 303 power? "Yes," again answers Kuenen, and quotes approvingly a say- ing of Richard Rothe: "Christianity is the most mutable of ail things. That is its special glory." And why should this not be so? Chris- tianity has gathered contributions from many lands and woven them into one ideal large enough to include all peoples, tender enough to comfort all, lofty enough to inspire all — the ideal of a universal human brotherhood bound together under a common Divine Fatherhood. o- 'Yhe Qomparative §tudy of the VV^^^^'s Religions. Paper by MGR. C. D. D'HARLEZ, Louvain University. T is not without profound emotion that I address myself to an assemblage of men, the most dis- tinguished, come together from all parts of the world and who, despite essential divergences 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 unprece- dented spectacle, until now unheard of, of dis- ciples of Kong-fu-tse, of Buddha, of Brahma, of Ahura Majda, of Arah, of Zoroaster, of Mo- hammed, of Naka-nusi, of Laotze, not less than those of Moses and of the divine Christ, gath- .^ . ered together, not to engage in the struggle of hos- V I ■ tility, 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, penetrating on through the depths of his heart and stirring into vibra- tion its profoundest chords. Final Happi- How goodly the title of our programme— World's Parliament of nessof Man. 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. But in this parliament of religions it is not the world that is the question, but heaven — the final happiness of man. 304 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 305 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 themselves when this new branch suddenly sprouted forth from the trunk of the tree of science. At first it inspired only repug- nance, or at least great distrust, and this was not without reason. The opinions, the designs of those who made themselves its promoters in- spired very legitimate suspicions. It was evident that the end pursued was to confound all religions as works of human invention, to put them all upon a common level, in order to bring them all into common contempt. The comparative history of religions in the minds of their orig- inators was to be an exposition of all the vicissitudes of human thought, imagination, and, to say the real word, folly. It was to be Darwinism, evolution applied to religious conditions that were generally held as coming from God. Naturally, then, a large number of the enlightened faithful, some of them eminent minds, saw only evil and danger in the new science. Others, clearer of sight, better informed on prevailing ideas, on the needs of the situation, convinced, besides, that a divine work cannot 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 words, drew with them into this new field of research even the hesitating and trembling. 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 in- feriority "the most fatal, and that to abandon any one of them whatever Eternal Truth, 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. Today the most timid Christian, be he ever so little in touch with the circumstances of the times, no longer dreads in the least the chi- merical 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 today 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 Amer- ica — three classes of men may be distinguished by their dispositions and attitudes toward relig'.ous 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 fine, ranged between these two extremes, plunged Some thing 306 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, into doubt, ask themselves, thanklessly, what there is in these truths which they see on the one hand exalted with enthusiasm and on the other attacked with fury. In no way formed by education to submit their intelligence to dogmas which they cannot understand nor to reg- ulate their conduct by inflexible moral 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 demand- ing of the earth the ,bond to cure the evil from which their hearts suffer. Yes, this voice whispers to their ears the most redoubtable prob- lems that ever man proposed. Whence comes he? Who has placed him upon this earth? 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. Today more than ever, asi it has been so energetically said, "Man is homesick for the divine." The divine! The unbeliever has sought to drive it out through every pass. It has come back more triumphant than ever. So today souls, not enlightened by the divine light, feel an indefinable uneasiness such as that experienced by the aeronaut in the superterrestrial region of SituvFaiitijig.^ rarified atmosphere, such as that of the heart when air and blood fail. Those who confine themselves to earthly pursuits feel even in the midst of success that something is still wanting; that is, whatever they say and whatever they do man has not only a body to nourish and an intelligence to cultivate and develop, but he has, I emphatically afiirm, a soul to satisfy. This soul, too, is in incessant travail, in continual evo- lution toward the light and the truth. As long as she has not received all light and conquered all truth, so long will she torment man. Those aspirations, those indefinable states of the soul in the pres- ence of the dreaded unknown, today so common in our midst, are without doubt not unknown in the regions of Asia and Africa. There, too, rationalism, agnosticism, imported from Europe, has made its in- roads. But on the other hand, such incertitude is not entirely new Twenty-five centuries ago the Vidist poet proposed the very problems which today perplex the unbeliever, as we see in the celebrated hymn thought to be addressed to a god, Ka, the fruit of the imagination of interpreters, since this word, Ka, was merely an interrogative used by the singer of the Ganges in asking what hand had laid the foundation of the world, upon whom depended life and death, who upheld the earth and the stars, etc., questions to which the poet could give only this reply, sad avowal of impotence: Kavais Ko Viveda. *' Sacred chant- ers, who knows." We see from these short extracts to what a height the reformer of Evan had already raised himself, and how his eye had already caught a glimpse of many of the mysteries of the metaphysical and Vi\9XdX world; how, besides, his soul w^s ^git^ted and trowbled^ looking THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 307 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 moralis^t, whose lessons she has preserved, Kong- fu-tze, or, as we call him, Confucius was bearing witness to the impo- tence of the mind of man to penetrate the secrets of heaven. To the question which his disciples proposed as to the condition of the soul on leaving this world, he replied by this despairing evasion: "We do not even know life; how can we know death?" How many souls at all times, and in all parts of the world, have been tortured by the same perplexities. What age has ever 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 cannot guide us in all the acts of national life, many of which lie be- Qreaf tL^ot* yond religious control. But history is not composed of a series of facts succeeding one another at hazard. It is the work, direct or in- direct, of God, and according to the divine purpose ought certainly to serve for the instruction of humanity. Now, among all the matters of which history treats, is there a single one which, I will not say sur- passes, but equals, yes, even approaches, by the elevation of its object and the importance of its results, the history of religious opinions and precepts .along through the ages? If, then, the facts of the earthly temporal life of humanity teach it lessons which it ought to store by with care in order to profit by them and direct its actions, what fruits will it not have to gather in from the happenings of its supernatural and immortal life? What dangers it will escape, remembering the faults and errors of former generations whose fatal consequences have been evils innumerable! Does not man there learn only to resist that fever of ambition, source of so many innovations, useless or hurtful to the peace of the world, that pride which thinks to have found the solution of prob- lems the most abstruse, the key to unlock the very heavens, if I may so speak, and which burns to propagate mere fruits of the imagina- tion 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 hori- zon, to give of every matter a just appreciation, which cuts off irre- flective enthusiasm as well as unjustifiable prejudices. It teaches not to attribute to one's self the monopoly of what others equally possess and thus to employ argument whose recognized fallacy injures enor- mously the cause one would defend. From history, too, each one re- quires a more reasonable and scientific knowledge of his own belief. What unlimited horizons these studies unfold before our eyes! Where better learn to know the nature of the human mind, its powers and their limitations, its weaknesses, with their varied causes, than in this great book of the history of religions? What could better un- veil to the eyes of the man of faith the action of that providence which le^d3 him in the naicist pf continual agitation^ ancj disposes of what he 308 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, has proposed, the power of the arm invisible and invincible which chastises him for his faults by his own mistakes and lifts him up, saves him from the perils which he has brought upon himself when he rec- ognizes his weakness and his frailty? Problem admirable and fearful, this providential commission of the strangest intellectual adorations! What a spectacle, that of man plunging into an abyss of error and misery because he has wished to 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 under ground, the prey of the worms or enveloping with the fumes of their incense, honoring with their homages the figure of a low animal which has to attract notice only its brutal instincts, its strength and cruelty, who would not implore of heaven delivering light to save humanity from degradation so profound and so entirely debasing? True, it is often most difficult to follow the designs of Providence in their execution throughout the ages, but it is not always impossible to divine, to guess at the secret. Have not the excesses of Greco- tionarBeifef!'*" Ro^an polytheism, for example, been committed in order to lead man to a clearer and more rational belief? Its shameless immorality to make him desire a higher life? It is evident, on the other hand, that in this kind of appreciation it is necessary to take special count of civilized peoples, of those whose intelligence has attained a certain degree of development, and only very little of those unfortunate tribes which have hardly anything more of man than the bodily form. I come, then, to consider the im- portant side of the study of relig.ion, 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 exercised upon the first explorers in this field by those who came after them, and who had no ready-made system to defend! This is spe- cially true for two concepts, upon which we shall principally dwell, the nature of religion and its origin. What is it that has not been said upon these great questions? 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 phantoms, but that it is a principle which im- poses 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 cannot be certainly shown, it is because their intelligence has come to that degree of degradation in which it has no longer anything human save the capacity of being lifted to something higher. The explanations that have been offered of the religious sentiment inborn in man might be qualified as "truly curious and amusing were it not a question of matters so grave." THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 309 For some it is unreflecting instinct. Be it so; but wherever came this instinct? Doubtless from nature. And nature, what is it? It is reality, as we have said. True instinct does not deceive. For others, relis^ion arises from the need man experiences of relationship with „ i • • '^•i. r^ -111 -ii- ^^*^ 1 g 1 O U R superior beings. Correct again; but now has man conceived the notion Sentiment in- of beings superior to himself if there are none, and whence arises that ^^^^^ ^• natural need which his heart feels, if it has its roots in nothing, a non- entity 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 incon- siderately the time of my honored hearers too precious to be taken up by such trifles. Let us merely note this fact fully attested today. Religious sentiments and concepts are innate in man They enter into the constitution of his nature, which itself comes from its author and master; they impose themselves as a duty upon man, as the declara- tion of universal conscience attests. The idea of a being superior to humanity, its master, comes from the very depths of human nature and is rendered sensible to the intellect by the spectacle of the universe. No reasonable mind can suppose that this vast world has of itself cre- ated or formed itself. This is so true that men of science, the most hostile to religion, the moment they perceive some evidence of design upon a stone, however deeply imbedded in the earth, themselves pro- claim that man has passed here. "It is fear that hath made the gods," said a Latin poet, already two thousand years ago. No, say others, it is a mere tendency to at- tribute a soul to whatever moves itself. You are mistaken, says a third; it is reverence for deceased ancestors which caused their descendants yet remaining upon earth to regard them as superior beings. You are all astray, 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 to- gether 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 cannot, however, pass in silence, till of late uni- versally in vogue in the free-thinking camp, a system whose founda- uprooted by tions historical studies have uprooted. I speak of the theory which Historical 11 1' ri-r>v-- r i- i Dtudies. has borrowed its process irom the Darwinian system or 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 him- self a living principle, man attributed the same to whatever moved about him, and thence arose fetichism and animism. After the first stage of fetichism and animism man would have considered separately the living principles of the beings to which he had attributed it, and this separation would have given rise to the be- lief in spirits. These spirits, growing upon the popular imagination, would have become gods, to whom, ultimately, after the fashion of 3l6 THE WORLb'S CONGRESS OP RELtGtON^. earthly empires, they would have given a head. These gods would have at first been exclusively national, then a universal empire would have been imagined, and national religions would have at length ^ ended as a last effort of the human mind in universal religions. Here, indeed, we have an edifice wonderfully planned and per- fectly constructed. This would appear still more plainly were we to vtth^^Wan*t* describe in detail all its parts. Unfortunately, one thing is wanting — ag. one thing only, but essential — that is a little grain of truth. Not only is the whole of it the fruit of hypothesis \^ithout 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 demonstrated that monotheism real, though imperfect, preceded the luxuriant mythologies whose development astonishes, but is only too easily explained. In Egypt the divinity was first represented by the sun; the different phases of the great luminary were perso'nified and deified. In the most ancient portions of Aryan India the personality of Varuna, with his immutable laws, soars above the figures of India and the other devas who have in great part dethroned him, just as the Jupiter of Greece supplanted the more ancient Pelagian Ouranas. Among these two last people, it is true, monotheism is at its lowest degree; but in China, on the contrary, it shows itself much less imper- fect than elsewhere and even with relative purity. Shang-ti is almost the God of the spiritualist philosophy. These facts, we may easily con- ceive, are exceedingly embarrassing for the adherent of the evolutionary theory, but they worm out of the difficulty in a manner that provokes both sadness and a smile. The thesis of national divinities everywhere preceding the universal divinities is not more solidly grounded. For neither Varuna nor Brahma nor Shang-ti nor Tengri ever saw their power limited by their devotees to a single country The theory that fear or ancestral worship gave birth to the gods received in China the most formal contradiction. In fact, at the very first appearance of this first great empire upon the scene of history, the supreme deity was already considered as the father, the mother, not only of the faithful, but of the entire human race, and the first to receive worship among the dead were not departed relatives but kings and ministers, bene- factors of the people. That it is gratitude which has inspired this worship is expressly affirmed in the Chinese ritual. It remains for us to say a few words about these conditions. The first is clearly that enunciated in our program. These studies ought to be serious and strictly scientific. They should be based upon .strict logic and a thorough knowledge of the original sources. Too long have would-be adepts been given over to fantastic speculations, every- where seeking an apology for either faith or incredulity. Too long have they limited themselves 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 pre- ' tended to treat as masters. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 311 We may easily understand that in order to be able to choose among them all, and to distinguish the sources, it is necessary to know thoroughly the language and the history, both political and literary, of the people whose religions one would investigate and expose. It is necessary to be a specialist and a specialist competent in this special matter. It is only when the work of such authorized and impartial specialist has been done, the others will be able to draw from the waters which they have collected. 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 one's self with the spirit of the people who form the object of particular research. It is necessary, as it were, to think with their ^^ TVeir minds and to see with their eyes, making entire abstraction of one's Minds, own ideas, under pain of seeing everything in a false light as one sees nature through a colored glass and of forming of foreign religious ideas the most erroneous and often even the most unjust. nt u p CJ a w <" ^• a^ ^3 o oTg §1 a o. .2 >> Jwedenborg and the H^^^o^Y of Religions, Paper by REV. L. P. MERCER, of Chicago. V EFORE the closing of this grand historic as- sembly with its witness to the worth of every form of faith by which men worship God and seek communion with Him, one word more needs be spoken, one more testimony defined, one more hope recorded. Every voice has witnessed to the recogni- tion of a new age. An age of inquiry, expec- tation and experiment has dawned. New in- ventions are stirring men's hearts, new ideals inspire their arts, new physical achievements beckon them on to one marvelous mastery after another of the universe. And now we see that the new freedom of "willing and thinking" has entered the realm of religion, and the faiths of the world are summoned to declare and compare not only the formulas of the past but the movements of the present and the forecasts of the future. One religious teacher, who explicitly heralded the new age, be- fore men had yet dreamed of its possibility, and referred its causes to great movements in the centers of influx in the spiritual world, and described it as incidental to great purposes in the providence of God, needs to be named from this platform — one who ranks with prophets and seers rather than with inquirers and speculators; a revelator rather than a preacher and interpreter; one whose exalted personal character and transcendent learning are eclipsed in the fruits of his mission as a herald of a new dispensation in religion, as the revealer of heavenly arcana, and "restorer of the foundations of many generations;" who, ignored by his own generation, and assaulted by its successor, is hon- ored and respected in the present, and awaits the thoughtful study, which the expansion and culminatipn of the truth and the organic course of events, will bring with tomorrow; "the permeating and formative influence " of whose teachings in the religious belief and life of today, in Christendom, is commonly admitted; who subscribed 313 A Revelator Rather than a Preacher. 314 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, with his name on the last of his Latin quartos — Emanuel Swedenborg, " servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." That Swedenborg was the son of a Swedish bishop, a scholar, a practical engineer, a man of science, a philosophei and a seer, who lived between 1683 ^"^^ ^77'^^ is generally known. That the first fifty years of his remarkable life, devoted to the pursuit of natural learning and independent investigation in science and philosophy, illustrates the type of man in which our age believes is generally con- ceded Learned, standing far ahead of his generation; exact, trained Ahead of His *" mathematical accuracy and schooled to observation; practical, see- Generation, ing at once some useful application of every new discovery; a man of affairs, able to take care of his own and bear his part in the nation's councils; aspiring, ignoring no useful application, but content with no achievement short of a final philosophy of causes; inductive, taking nothing for granted but facts of experiment, and seeking to ascend therefrom to a generalization which shall explain them — this is the sort of man which in our own day we consider sound and useful. Such was the man who, at the age of fifty-six, in the full maturity of his powers, declares that " he was called to a holy office by the Lord, who most graciously manifested himself to me in person, and opened my sight to a view of the spiritual world and granted me the privilege of conversing with spirits and angels." "From that day forth," he says, *' I gave up all worldly learning, and labored 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 thus able to note the course of events in both worlds, and locate the stupendous transactions in the spiritual world, in earthly time, he wit- nessed a last judgment in the world of spirits in 1757, fulfilling in every respect the predictions in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse; that he beheld the Lord open in all the Scriptures the things concerning Him- self, revealing in their eternal sense the divine meaning, the whole course and purpose of His providence, organizing a new heaven of angels out of every nation and kindred and tongue, and co-ordinating it with the ancient and most ancient heavens 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 complete all past and partial revelations, to consummate and crown the dispensations and churches which have been upon the earth. The Christian world is incredulous of such an event, and for the 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 prophet was ever welcomed until the event had proved his message? The question is npt whether it meets the expectation of men; not whether it is what THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 315 human prudence would forecast, but whether it reveals and meets the needs and necessities of the nations of the earth. "My thoughts are not your thoughts," saith the Lord, "neither are your ways my ways." The great movements of divine Providence are never what men antici- pate, but they always provide what men need. And the appeal to the Parliament of Religions, in behalf of the revelation announced from heaven, is in its ability to prove its divinity by outreaching abundantly all human forecast whatsoever. Does it throw its light over the past, and into the present, and project its promise into the future? Does it illuminate and unify history, elucidate the conflicting movements of today, and explain the hopes and yearnings of the heart in every age and clime? There is not time at this hour for exposition and illustration, only to indicate the catholicity of Swedenborg's teachings in its spirit, scope and purpose. There is one God and one church. As God is one, the human race, in the complex movements of its growth and history, is cathoiicityof before Him as one greatest man. It has had its ages in their order cor- Swedenborg's responding to infancy, childhood, youth and manhood in the individ- ^^ ^^^^' ual. As the one God is the Father of all, He has witnessed Himself in every age according to its state and necessities. The divine care has not been confined to one line of human descent, nor the revelation of God's will to one set of miraculously given Scriptures. The great religions of the world have their origin in that same word or mind of God which wrote itself through Hebrew lawgiver and prophet, and became incarnate in Jesus Christ. He, as "the word which was in the beginning with God and was God," was the light of every age in the spiritual development of mankind, preserving and carrying over the life of each into the several streams of tradition in the religions of men concerning and embodying all in the Hebrew Scriptures, fulfilling that in His own person, and now opening His divine mind in all that Scripture, the religions of the world are to be restored to unity, purified and perfected in Him. Nor is this word Swedenborgian, the -liberal sentiment of good will and the enthusiasm of hope, but the discovery of divine fact and the rational insight of spiritual understanding. He has shown that the sacred Scriptures are written according to the correspondence of natural with spiritual things, and that they contain an internal spirit- ual sense treating of the providence of God in the dispensations of the church and of the regeneration and spiritual life of the soul. Be- fore Abraham there was the church of Noah, and before the word of Moses there was an ancient word, written in allegory and correspond- ences, which the ancients understood and loved, but in process of time turned into magic and idolatry. The ancient church, scattered into Egypt and Asia, carried fragments of that ancient word and preserved somethmg of its representatives and allegories, in Scriptures and my- thologies, from which have come the truths and fables of the oriental religions, modified according to nations and peoples, and revived from time to time in the teachings of leaders and prophets. 316 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. From the same ancient word Moses derived, under divine direc- tion, the early chapters of Genesis, and to this in the order of Provi- dence was added the Law and the Prophets. The history of the in- carnation and the prophecy of a final judgment of God, all so written as to contain an integral spiritual sense, corresponding with the latter, but distinct from it as the soul corresponds with the body, and is dis- tinct and transcends it. It is the opening of this internal sense in all the Holy Scriptures and not any addition to their final letter which constitutes the new and needed revelation of our day. The science of correspondences is the key which unlocks the Scriptures and dis- closes their internal contents. The same key opens the Scriptures of the orient and traces them back to their source in primitive revela- tion. If it shows that their myths and representatives have been mis- understood, misrepresented and misapplied, it shows, also, that the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures have been likewise perverted and falsified. It is that very fact which necessitates the revelation of their internal meaning, in which resides their divine inspiration and the life of rational understanding for the separation of truth from error. The same rational life and science of interpretation separates the great primitive truths from the corrupting speculations and traditions in all andXmiSofs^^ the ancient religions, and furnishes the key to unlock the myths and symbols in ancient Scriptures and worship. If Swedenborg reveals errors and supersitions in the religions out of Christendom, so does he also show that the current Christian faith and worship is largely the invention of men and falsifying of the Christian's Bible. If he promises and shows true faith and life to the Christian from the Scriptures, so does he also to the Gentiles in leading them back to primitive revelation and showing them the meaning of their own aspirations for the light of life. If he sets the Hebrew and Christian word above all other sacred Scripture, it is because it brings, as now opened in its Scriptural depths, the divine sanction to all the rest and gathers their strains into its sublime symphony of revela- tion. So much as the indication of what Swedenborg does for catholic enlightenment in spiritual wisdom. As for salvation, he teaches that God has provided with every nation a witness of Himself and means of eternal life. He is present by His spirit with all. He gives the good of His love, which is life, internally and impartially to all. All know that there is a God, and that He is to be loved and obeyed; that there is a life after death, and that there are evils which are to be shunned as sins against God. So far as anyone so believes and so lives from a principle of religion he receives eternal life in his soul, and after death instruction and perfection according to the sincerity of his life. No teaching could be more catholic than this, showing that "whom- soever in any nation feareth God and worketh righteousness is ac- cepted of Him." If he sets forth Jesus Christ as the only wise God, in THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 317 whom, is the fullness of the Godhead, it is Christ glorified, and realizing to the mind the infinite and eternal lover, and thinker, and doer, a real and personal God, our Father and Saviour. If he sum- mons all prophets and teachers to bring their honor and glory unto Him it is not as to a conquering rival, but as to their inspiring life, whose word they have spoken and whose work they have wrought out. If he brings all good spirits in the other life to the acknowledgment of the glorified Christ as the only God, it is because they have in heart and essential faith, believed in Him and lived for Him, in living ac- cording to precepts of their religion. He calls him a Christian who lives as a Christian; and he lives as a Christian who looks to the one God and does what He teaches, as he is able to know it. If he denies reincarnation, so also does he deny sleep in the grave and the resur- rection of the material body. If he teaches the necessity of regeneration and union with God, so also does he show that the subjugation and quiesence of self is the true ''Nirvana," opening consciousness to the divine life and confer- ring the peace of harmony with God. If he teaches that man needs the spirit of God for the subjugation of self, he teaches that the spirit is freely imparted to whosoever will look to the Lord and shun selfishness as sin. If he teaches thus, that faith is necessary to salvation, he teaches that faith alone is not suffi- cient, but faith which worketh by love. If he denies that salvation is of favor, or immediate mercy, and affirms that it is vital and the effect of righteousness, he also teaches that the divine righteousness is imparted vitally to him that seeks it first and above all; and if he denies that several probations on earth are necessary to the working out of the issues of righteousness, it is be- cause m.an enters a spiritual world after death, in a spiritual body and personality, and in an environment in which his ruling love is devel- oped, his ignorance enlightened, his imperfections removed, his good beginnings perfected, until he is ready to be incorporated in the grand Man of heaven, to receive and functionate his measure of the divine life and participate in the divine joy. And so I might go on. My purpose is accomplished if I have won your respect and inter- est in the teachings of this great apostle, who, claiming to be called of the Lord to open the Scriptures, presents a harmony of truths that would gather into its embrace all that is of value in every religion and „4^ithat ^.of open out mto a career of illimitable spiritual progress. The most unimpassioned of men, perhaps because he so well un- derstood that his mission was not his own, but the concern of Him who builds through the ages, Swedenborg wrote and published. The result is a liberty that calmly awaits the truth-seekers. If the re- ligions of the world become disciples then, it will not be proselytism that will take them there, but the organic course of events in that providence which works on, silent but mighty, like the forces that poise planets and gravitate among the stars. Present history shows the effect of unsuspected causes. This par- Value in Relig- ion. 3lS THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. liament 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. Harmonies and Distinctions in the 1 he- istic 1 eachings of the Various Historic raiths. Paper by PROF. M. VALENTINE. N calling attention to the "Harmonies and Dis- tinctions in the Theistic Teachings of the Vari-' ous Historic Faiths," I must, by very neces- sity of the case, speak from the Christian stand- point. This standpoint is to me synonymous with the very truth itself I cannot speak as free from prepossessions. This, however, does not mean any unwillingness nor, I trust, in- ability to see and treat with- sincerest candor and genuine appreciation the truth that may be found in each and all of the various theistic conceptions which reason and Providence may have enabled men anywhere to reach. Un- doubtedly, some rays from the true divine "Light of the World" have been shiningthrough reason, and reflected from "the things that are made" everywhere and at all times, God never nor in any place leaving Himself wholly without witness. And though we now and here stand in the midst of the high illumination of what we accept as supernatural revelation, we rejoice to recognize the truth which may have come into view from other openings, blending with the light of God's redemptive self-manifestation in Christianity. It is not necessary prejudice to truth anywhere when from this standpoint I am further necessitated, in this comparative view, to take consStenfcon' the Christian conception as the standard of comparison and measure- elusions, ment. We must use some standard if we are to proceed discriminat- ingly or reach any well defined and consistent conclusions. Simply to compare different conceptions with one another, without the unifying light of some accepted rule of judging, or at least of reference, can never lift the impression out of confusion or fix any valuable points of 319 VII 320 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. truth. Only to hold our eye to the varied shifting colors and combina- tions of the kaleidoscope can bring no satisfactory or edifying conclu- sion. To the Christian's comparative view of the " historic faiths " other The Truth ^^an his own necessarily thus ranges them under his own Christian Clearly Seen, canous of judgment, mcaus no exclusion or obscuration of the light, but merely fixes the leading parallelism of its fall, securing 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, as referring to the whole conception 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. And yet, we are to bear in mind, it is only the "theistic" teach- ing of the historic faiths, not their whole religious view, that falls under the intention of this paper. The subject is special, restricting us spe- cifically to their ideas about God. At the outset we need to remind ourselves of the exceeding diffi- culty of the comparison, or of precise and firm classification of the r^. • .. X. .., theistic faiths of mankind. They are all, at least all the ethnic faiths, Theistic Faiths , , , ^ j_- ^ • ^ • i • of Men. developments or evolutions, having undergone various and immense changes. Their evolutions 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 history than from one another. There is such an inter-crossing of principles and manifold forms of representation as to lead the most learned specialists into disputes and opposing con- clusions, and render a scientific characterization and classification im- possible. The most and best that can be done is to bring the teach- ings of the historic religions in this particular into comparison as to five or six of the fundamental 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 Christianity, the religions of ancient Greece and Rome, of old Egypt, Indian Hinduism or more exactly Brahmanism, Persian Parseeism or Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Chinese Confucianism, Celtic Druidism, the Norse or Teutonic mythology and Mahommedanism, with incidental reference to some less prominent religions. I class Judaism as the early stage of unfolding Christianity. Adopting this method, therefore, of comparing them under the light of a few leading features 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 sustain relations of dependence, obligation and hope. This is the bottom point, the question underlying all other questions THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 321 in religious 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 of some divine existence or existences to be acknowl- edged, feared or pleased. It seems to be part of the religious instinct of the race. And the intellect concurs in fostering and developing 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 all. "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 interpretation, broken in the case of Buddhism. This appears to be atheistic, a religion, or rather a philosophy, of life, with- out a deity or even the apotheosis of nature. Many things, however, ^^^ Fund^ incline me to the view of those interpreters who deny, or at least doubt, Constructive 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 ques- tion. Gautama's work of reform, which swept away the multitudinous divinities of the popular theology, may not have been a denial of God, even as Socrates alleged atheism was not, but rather an overthrow of the prevalent gross polytheism in the interest of a truer and more spiritual conception, though it may have been a less definite one of the divine being. And may we not justly distinguish between Buddhism as a mere philosophy of life or conduct and Buddhism as a religion, with 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 Christian lands, the out- come of bewilderment through speculative philosophies. They may even spread widely and last long. They, however, count but little against the great heart and intellect of mankind, or even as giving a definite characteristic to the religion in the midst of which they appear. And they lose sway, even as the Buddliist philosophy, in becoming a religion that has had to resume recognition of deity. And it is some- thing grand and inspiring that the testimony of the world's religions from all around the horizon and down the centuries is virtually unan- imous as to this first great principle in theistic teaching. It is the strong and ceaseless testimony of the great deep heart and reason of mankind. Nay, it is God's own testimony to His being, voiced through the religious nature and life made in His image. 322 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. But let these various religions be compared in the light of a second principle in theistic teaching — that of monotheism. Here it is start- Discordantly lii^g to find how terribly the idea of God, whose existence is so unan- PoJytheistic. imously owued, has been misconceived and distorted. For, taking the historic faiths in their fully developed form, only two, Christianity and Mohammedanism, present a pure and maintained monotheism. Zoro- astrianism cannot be counted in here, though at first its Ahriman, or evil spirit, was not conceived of as a God, it afterward lapsed into theological dualism and practical polytheism. All the rest are pre- vailingly and discordantly polytheistic. They move off into endless multiplicity of divinities and grotesque degradations of their char- acter. This fact does not speak well for the ability of the human mind without supernatural help, to formulate and maintain the necessary idea of God worthily. This dark and regretful phenomenon is, however, much relieved by several modifying facts. One is, that the search-lights of history and philology reveal for the principal historic faiths back of their stages and conditions of luxuriantly developed polytheism the existence of an early or possibly, though not certainly, primitive monotheism. This point, I know, is strongly contested, especially by many whose views are 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 investi- gation, is decisive for monotheism as the earliest known form of theistic conception in the religions of Egypt, China, India and the original Druidism, as well as of the two faiths already classed as asserting the divine unity. Polytheisms are found to be actual growths. Tracing them back they become simpler and simpler. "The younger the polytheism the fewer the gods," until a stage is reached where God is conceived of as one alone. This accords, too, as has been well pointed out, with the psychological genesis of ideas — the singular number preceding the plural, the idea of a god preceding the idea of gods, the affirmation, "There is a God," going before the affirmation there are two or many gods. Another fact of belief is, that the polytheisms have not held their fields without dissent and revolt. Over against the tendency of de- praved humanity to corrupt the idea oi God and multiply imaginary and false divinities, there are forces that act for correction and im- provement. The human soul has been formed for the one true and only God. Where reason is highly developed and the testing powers of the intellect and conscience are earnestly applied to the problems of existence and duty, these grotesque and gross polytheisms prove unsatisfactory. In the higher ascents of civilization faith in the mythologic divinities is undermined and weakened. Men of lofty genius arise, men of finer ethical intuitions and higher religious sense and aspira^ tion and better conceptions of the power by and in which men live an^ THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 323 move are reached and a reformation comes. This is illustrated in the epoch-making teachings of Confucius in China, of 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 tbove all gods, at once explaining the significance of them all 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 undisputed, full, unbroken sway. Taking these modifying facts into account, the testimony of these faiths to the unity of God is found to be far larger and stronger than at first view it seemed. For neither Christianity, with its Old Testa- ment beginning, nor Mohammedanism, has been a small thing in the world. They have spoken for the divine unity for ages, and voiced it Ear through the earth. And unquestionably the faith of the few grand sages, the great thinkers of the race, who, by "The world's great altar itairs that slope through darkness up to God," have risen to clear views »f 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 :rowded the polytheistic worships. But of the two found, purely monotheistic Christianity has unique characteristics. Its witness is original and independent, not derived ^as that of Islam, which adopted it from Judaic and Christian teaching. uniqueChar- |It is trinitarian, teaching a triune mystery of life in the one infinite acteristics. ind eternal God, as over against Islam's repudiation of this mystery, ''he trinities detected in the other religions have nothing in common ^ith the Christian teaching save the use of the number three. And it Jtands accredited, not as a mere evolution of rational knowledge, a jcientific discovery, but as a supernatural revelation, in which the "".ternal One Himself says to the world: 'T am God, and beside Me there is none." But we pass to another point of comparison in the principle of >ersonality. Under this principle the religions of the world fall into two classes — those which conceive of God as an intelligent be- ing, acting in freedom, and those that conceive of Him pantheistically [as the sum of nature or the impersonal energy or soul of all things. ^In Christian teaching God is a 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, jfilling it with His presence and power, is yet its creator and preserver, jkeeping it subject to His will and purposes, never confounded or identi- led with it. He is the infinite, absolute personality. The finding of this feature of teaching in the other historic religions lepends on the period or stage of development at which we take them, in the polytheistic forms of all grades of development we are bewil- 324 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, dered by the immense diversity in which, in this particular, the objects of worship are conceived, from the intense anthropomorphism that makes the gods but mighty men or apotheosized ancestors, down through endless personifications of the powers and operations to the lowest forms of fetichism. Largely, however, their theistic thought includes the notion of personality, and so a point of fellowship is established between the worshiper and his gods. But we have to do mainly with the monotheistic faiths or periods of faith. In the early belief of Egypt, of China, of India, in the teaching of Zoroaster, of Celtic Dru- idism, of Assyrian and Babylonian faith, and in the best intuition of the Greek and Roman philosophers, without doubt, God was appre- hended as a personal God Indeed, in almost the whole world's relig- ious thinking this element of true theistic conception has had more or less positive recognition and maintenance. It seems to have been spontaneously and necessarily demanded by the religious sense and life. Human F^i- The human feeling of helplessness and need called for a God who leMness. ^ ^' 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 nature speaking to men's hearts and reason led up to the grand truth that the Maker of all is a Thinker, and both knows and wills. And so a relation of trust, fellowship and intercourse was found and recognized. None of the real feelings of worship, love, de- votion, gratitude, consecration, could live and act simply in the pres- ence of an impersonal, unconscious, fateful energy or order of nature. No consistent hope of a conscious personal future life can be estab- lished except as it is rooted in faith in a personal God. And yet the personality of God has often been much obscured in the historic faiths. The observation has not come as a natural and spontaneous product of the religious impulse or consciousness, but of mystic speculative 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 visions of the eternal God. As we understand it, the philosophy of religion with Hinduism, the later Confucianism, developed Parseeism and Druidism is substan- tially pantheistic, reducing God to impersonal existence or the con- scious factors and forces of cosmic order. It marks some of these more strongly and injuriously than others. How far do the religions harmonize in including creational relation and activity in their conception of God? In Christianity, as" you know, the notion of creatorship is inseparable from the divine idea. *Tn the beginning God created." Creator is another name for Him. How is it in the polytheistic mythologies? The conception is thrown into inextricable confusion. In some, as in the early Greek and Roman, the heavens and the earth are eternal, and the gods, even the highest, are their offspring. In advancing stages and fuller pantheons, Relation. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 325 almost everywhere, the notion of creatorship emerges in connection with the mytholop^ic divinities. In the monotheisms, whether the ^Creatiom earlier or those reached m philosophic periods, it is clear and unequiv- ocal — in China, India, Egypt, Persia and the Druidic teaching. Pantheistic thought, however, while it offers accounts of world origins, confuses or overthrows real creational action by various pro- cesses of divine and self-unfolding, in which God and the universe are identified and either the divine is lost in the natural, or nature itself is God. The pantheism seems to 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 :reatio ex nihilo, or absolute creation, is taught. This is a distinction in which Christianity must be counted as fairly standing alone. A point of high importance respects the inclusion of the ethical attribute in the notion of God and the divine government. To what extent do they hold Him, not only a governor, but a moral governor, whose will enthrones righteousness and whose administration aims at moral character and the blessedness of ethical order and excellence? The comparison on this point reveals some strange phenomena. In the nature-worships and polytheistic conditions there is found an almost :omplete disconnection between religion and morality, the rituals of worship not being at all adjusted to the idea that the gods were holy, jin-hating, pure and righteous. The grossest anthropomorphisms have prevailed, and almost every passion, vice, meanness and wrong found imong men were paralleled in the nature and actions of the gods. 'ften their very worship has been marked by horrible and degrading rites. But as human nature carries in itself a moral constitution and the reason spontaneously acts in the way of moral distinctions, judg- lents and demands, it necessarily, as it advanced in knowledge, cred- ited the objects of its worship with more or less of the moral qualities it required in men. The moral institutions and demands could not Lct with clearness and force in rude and uncivilized men and peoples, "he degrees of ethical 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 clearer forms, the logic of reason and con- science lifted thought into clear and unequivocal apprehension of the "mpreme Being as the power whose government makes for righteous- less. Finely and impressively does this attribute come to view in the teachings of the faith of the ancient Egyptians, of Confucianism, of "'^oroastrianism, 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 jsurance that the advancement or triumph of the right and good is |the aim of the divine government. Indeed, the pantheistic thought of 326 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, that system obliterating the divine personality leaves scarcely any room for a moral purpose, or any other purpose, in the cosmic energy. And Buddhism, though largely a philosophical ethic only — however, of the "good" sort — yet by its failure to make positive assertion of a Su- preme Being, save simply as the infinite unknown behind nature, of which (Brahma) nothing may be predicted except that it is, perceives and is blessed, fails also, of course, to affirm any moral predicates for its nature or movement. The ethics of life, divorced from religious sanction, stand apart from theistical dynamics. Christianity makes the moral attributes of God fundamental. His government and provjdence have a supreme ethical aim, the over- throw of sin with its disorder and misery, and the making of all things b^*fotGod"' ^^^ ^^ ^ 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 uplifting of character and life, furnishing a testimony obscured or broken only by the crudest fetichisms, or low- est polytheisms, or by pantheistic teachings that reduce God to imper- sonality where the concept of moral character becomes inapplicable. But a single additional feature of theistic teaching can be brought into this comparative view. How far do the 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 re- demption or deliverance — Buddhism and Christianity. But if Bud- dhism istobe so classed, there is no reason fornot including Brahmanism. For, as Prof. Max Miiller has so clearly shown. Buddhism rests upon and carries forward the same fundamental conceptions of the world and human destiny and the way of its attainment. They both start with the fact that the condition of man is unhappy through his own errors, and set forth a way of deliverance or salvation. Both connect this state of misery with the fundamental doctrine of metempsychosis, innumerably repeated incarnations, or births and deaths, with a possi- ble deliverance in a final absorption into the repose of absolute exist- ence or cessation of conscious individuality — Nirvana. It is connected, too, in both, with a philosophy of the world that pantheistically reduces God into impersonality, making the divine but the ever-moving course of nature. And the deliverance comes as no free gift, gracious help or accomplishment of God, but an issue that a man wins for himself by knowledge, ascetic repression of desire and self-reduction out of conscious individuality, re-absorption into primal being. God is not conceived of as a being of redeeming love and loving activity. A philosophy of self-redemption is substituted for faith and surrender to a redeeming god. As I understand it, it is a philosophy that -pessimistically condemns life itself as an evil and misfortune to be escaped from and to be escaped by self-redemption, because life finds no saving in God. And so these faiths cannot fairly be said to attribute to God redemptive character and administration. Christianity stands, therefore, as the only faith that truly and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 327 fully conceives of God in redemptory rulership and activity. In this faith "God is love," in deepest and most active sympathy with man. While He rules for the maintenance and victory of 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 evolution 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 presence and activity of the supernatural in the world and time. Let us fix this clearly in mind, as its distinction among all relig- ions, causing it to stand apart and alone. From the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the New it is a disclosure in record of what God in grace has done, is doing, and will do, for the deliverance, recovery and eternal salvation from sin of lapsed, sin-enslaved human- ity. It is a supernatural redemptory work and provision with an in- spired instruction as to the way and duty of life. If Christianity be not this, Christendom has been deluded. It is the religion 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 fundamental point of affirming or implying the existence of God the testimony is a rich harmony. To the monotheistic conception there is strong witness from the chief earliest great historical 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, Druidism and among the Greeks. Creational activity in some sense and measure has been almost easy where 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 nations or their religious leaders made inconsistent here and there by pantheistic theories — Christianity, however, giving the moral ideasupremeemphasis. And finally, redeeming love and effort in redemp- tion from moral evil is clearly asserted only in the Christian teaching. The other historic faiths have grasped some of the great essential elements of theistic truth. We rejoice to trace and recognize them. But they all shine forth in Christian revelation. As I see it, the other his- toric beliefs have no elements of true theistic conception to give to Christianity that it has not, but Christianity has much to give to the others. It unites and consummates out of its own given light all the theistic truth that has been sought and seen in partial vision by sincere souls along the ages and round the world. And more, it gives what they have not — a disclosure of God's redeeming love and action, pre- senting to mankind the way, the truth and the life. And we joy to hold it and offer it as the hope of the world. Supernatura Character o f Christianity. A Rich Har- mony Rabbi £. G. Hirsch, Chicago. Elements of Universal Religion, Paper by DR. EMIL G. HIRSCH, of Chicago. ^,,f^ HE dominion of religion is co-extensive with the confines of humanity. For man is by nature not only, as Aristotle puts the case, the politi- cal — he is as clearly the religious creature. Religion is one of the natural functions of the human soul; it is one of the natural conditions of human, as distinct from mere animal life. To this proposition ethnology and sociology bear abundant testimony. Man alone in the wide sweep of creation builds altars. And wherever man may tent there also will curve upward the burning incense of his sacrifice or the sweeter savor of his aspirations after the better, the diviner light. However rude the form of society in which he moves, or however refined and complex the social organism, re- ligion 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 decisive influences rounding out individual life and lifting it into significance for and under the swifter and stronger current of the social relations. Climatic and historical accidents may modify, and do, the action of this all-pervading energy. But under every sky it is vital and under all temporary conjunctures it is quick. A man without religion is not normal. There may be those in whom this function approaches atrophy. But they are undeveloped or crippled specimens of the completer type. Their condition recalls that of the color blind or the deaf. Can they contend that their defect is proof of superiority? As well might those bereft of the sense of hearing insist that because to them the reception of sound is denied the universe around them is a vast ocean of unbroken silence. A society without religion has nowhere yet been discovered. Religion may then in very truth be said to be the universal distinction of man. Still the universal religion has as yet not been evolved in the pro- cession of the suns. It is one of the blessings yet to come. There are now even known to men and revered by them great religious systems Vital under every Sky. 22 329 330 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. which pretend to universality. And who would deny that Buddhism, Christianity and the faith of Islam present many of the characteristic elements of the universal faith? In its ideas and ideals the religion of the prophets, notably as enlarged by those of the Babylonian exile, also deserves to be numbered among the proclamations of a wider out- look and a higher uplook. These systems are no longer ethnic. They thus, the three in full practice and the last mentioned in spiritual inten- tion, have passed beyond some of the most notable limitations which are fundamental in other forms created by the religious needs of man. They have advanced far on the road leading to the ideal goal; and modern man, in his quest for the elements of the still broader univer- sal faith, will never again retrace his steps to go back to the mile-posts these have left behind on their climb up the heights. The three great religions have emancipated themselves from the bondage of racial tests and national divisions. Race and nationality cannot cir- cumscribe the fellowship of the larger communion of the faithful, a communion destined to embrace in one covenant all the children of man. Race is accidental, not essential in manhood. Color is indeed Race Acci- only skin deep. No caste or tribe, even were we to concede the dental. absolute purity of the blood flowing in their arteries, an assump- tion which could in no case be verified by actual facts of the case, can lay claim to superior sanctity. None is nearer the heart of God than another. He certainly who takes his survey of human- ity from the outlook of religion and from this point of view remembers the serious possibilities and the sacred obligations of human life cannot adopt the theory that spirit is the exponent of animal nature. Yet such would be the conclusion if the doctrine • . of chosen races and tribes is at all to be urged. The racial ele- ment is merely the animal substratum of our being. Brain and blood may be crutches which the mind must use. But mind is always more than the brain with which it works, and the soul's equation cannot be solved in terms of the blood corpuscles or the pigment of the skin or the shape of the nose or the curl of the hair. Ezra with his insistence that citizenship in God's people is depend- ent on Abrahamitic pedigree, and therefore on the superior sanctity which by very birth the seed of the patriarch enjoys as Zea Kodesh, does not voice the broader and truer views of those that would proph- esy of the universal faith Indeed, the apostles of Christianity after Paul, the Pundits of Buddhism, the Imams of Islam and last, though not least, the rabbis of modern Judaism, have abandoned the narrow prejudice of the scribe. God is no respecter of persons. In His sight it is the black heart and not the black skin, the crooked deed and not the curved nose which excludes. National affinities and memories, however potent for good ?.nd though more spiritual than racial bonds, are still too narrow to serve as foundation stones for the temple of all humanity. The day of national religions is past. The God of the universe THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 331 speaks to all mankind. He is not the God of Israel alone, not that of Moab, of Egypt, Greece or America. He is not domiciled in Pales- tine. The Jordan and the Ganges, the Tiber and the Euphrates hold water wherewith the devout may be baptized unto His service and re- demption. "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Whither flee from thy presence?" exclaims the old Hebrew bard. And before his won- dering gaze unrolled itself the awful certainty that the heavenly divis- ions of morning and night were obliterated in the all-embracing sweep of divine law and love. If the wide expanses of the skies and the abysses of the deep cannot shut out from the divine presence, can the pigmy barriers erected by man and preserved by political intrigues and national pride dam in the mighty stream of divine love? The prophet of Islam repeats the old 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 gift of the many The Church flaming tongues in it, as the rabbis say was the case at Sinai. God's ^^^^'"sai. revelation must be sounded in every language to every land. But, and this is essential as marking a new advance, the universal religion for all the children of Adam will not palisade its courts by the pointed and forbidding stakes of a creed. Creeds in time to come will be rec- ognized to be indeed cruel barbed wire fences, wounding those that would stray to broader pastures and hurting others who would come in. Will it for this be a Godless church? Ah, no! it will have much more of God than the churches and synagogues with their dogmatic definitions now possess. Coming man will not be ready to resign the crown of his glory which is his by virtue of his feeling himself to be the son of God. He will not exchange the church's creed for that still more presumptuous and deadening one of materialism which \^fould ask his acceptance of the hopeless perversion that the world which sweeps by us in such sublime harmony and order is not cosmos but chaos — is the fortuitous outcome of the chance play of atoms produc- ing consciousness by the interaction of their own unconsciousness. Man will not extinguish the light of his own higher life by shutting his eyes to the telling indications of purpose in history, a purpose which when revealed to him in the outcome of his own career, he may well find reflected also in the interrelated life of nature. But for all this man will learn a new modesty now woefully lacking to so many who honestly deem themselves religious. His God will not be a figment, cold and distant, of metaphysics, nor a distorted caricature of embit- tered theology. "Can man by searching find out God?" asks the old Hebrew poet. And the ages so flooded with religious strife are vocal with the stinging rebuke to all creed-builders that man cannot. Man grows unto the knowledge of God, but not to him is vouchsafed that fullness of knowledge which would warrant his arrogance to hold that his blurred vision is the full light and that there 'can be none other might which report truth as does his. 332 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Says Maimonides, greatest thinker ofthe many Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages: "Of God we may merely assert that He is; what He is in Himself we cannot know. 'My thoughts are not yourthoughts A Prophetic and My ways are not your ways.'" This prophetic caution will re- sound in clear notes in the ears of all who will worship in the days to come at the universal shrine. They will cease their futile efforts to give a definition of Him who cannot be defined in human symbols. They will certainly be astonished at our persistence — in their eyes very blasphemy — to describe by article of faith God, as though He were a fugitive from justice and a Pinkerton detective should be enabled to capture Him by the identification laid down in the catalogue of His at- tributes. 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 re- ligion will once more make the God idea a vital principle of human life. It will teach men to find Him in their own heart and to have Him with them in whatever they may do. No mortal has seen God's face, but he who opens his heart to the message will, like Moses on the lonely rock, behold Him pass and hear the solemn proclamation. It is not in the storm of fanaticism nor in the fire of prejudice, but in the still srnall 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 who mumbles his credo, but he who lives it, is accepted. Were those marked for glory by the great teacher of Nazareth who wore the largest phylacteries? Is the Sermon on the Mount a creed? Was the Decalogue a creed ? Character and conduct, not creed, will be the key- note of the Gospel in the Church of Humanity Universal. But what then about sin? Sin as a theological imputation will perhaps drop out of the vocabulary of this larger communion of the righteous. But as a weakness to be overcome, an imperfection to be laid aside, man will be as potently reminded of his natural shortcom- ings as he is now of that of his first progenitor over whose conduct he certainly had no control and for whose misdeed he should not be held accountable. Religion will then as now lift man above his weaknesses by reminding him of his responsibilities. The goal before is paradise. Eden is to come. It has not yet been. And the life of the great and good and saintly, who went about doing good in their generations, and who died that others might live, will for very truth be pointed out as the spring from which have flown the waters of salvation by whose magic efficacy all men may be washed clean, if baptized in the spirit which was living within these God-appointed redeemers of their in- firmities. This religion will indeed be for man to lead him to God. Its sacramental word will be duty. Labor is not the curse but the bless- ing of human life. For as man was made in the image of the Creator, it is his to create. Earth was given him for his habitation. He changed it from chaos into his home. A theology and a Monotheism, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 333 which will not leave room in this world for man's free activity and dooms him to passive inactivity, will not harmonize with the truer recognition that man and God are the co-relates of a working plan of life. Sympathy and resignation are indeed beautiful flowers grown in the garden of many a tender and noble human heart. But it is active love and energy which alone can push on the chariot of human prog- ress, and progress is the gradual realization of the divine spirit which is incarnate in every human being. This principle will assign to relig- ion once more the place of honor among the redeeming agencies of society from the bondage of selfishness. On this basis every man is every other man's brother, not merely in misery, but in active work. "As you have done to the least of these you have unto Me," will be the guiding principle of human conduct in all the relations into which human life enters. No longer shall we hear Cain's enormous excuse, a scathing accusation of himself, "Am I my brother's keeper?" no longer will be tolerated or condoned the double standard of morality, one for Sunday and the church and another diametrically opposed for weekdays and the counting-room. Not as now will be heard the cynic insistence that "business is business" and has as business no connection with the Decalogue or the Sermon on the Mount. Religion will, as it did in Jesus, penetrate into all the relations of human society. Not then will men be rated as so many hands to be bought at the lowest possible price, in accordance with a deified law of supply and demand, which cannot stop to consider such sentimentalities, as the fact that these hands stand for soul and hearts An invidious distinction obtains now between secular and sacred. It will be wiped away. Every thought and every deed of man must be holy or it is unworthy of men. Did Jesus merely regard the temple as holy? Did Buddha merely have religion on one or two hours of the Sabbath? Did not an earlier prophet deride and con- demn 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 ^^^^^j^ ^^^ the hope which has been man's since the first day of his stay on earth. Hereaftei 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 relig- ion of the future will be impatient of men who claim that they have the right to be saved, while they are perfectly content that others shall not be saved, and while not stirring a foot or lifting a hand to redeem brother men from hunger and wretchedness, in the cool assur- 334 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, ance 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 re- quests for favors to self. Can an unforgiving heart pray "'forgive as we forgive?" Can one ask for daily bread when he refuses to break his bread with the hungry? Did not the prayer of the Great Master of Nazareth thus teach all men and all ages that prayer must be the stirring to love? Had not that little waif caught the inspiration of our universal prayer who, when first taught its sublime phrases, persisted in chang- ing the opening words to *'Your Father which is in heaven?" Rebuked time and again by the teacher, he finally broke out, "Well, if it is our Father, why, I am your brother." Yea, the gates of prayer in the church to rise will lead to the recognition of the universal brother- hood 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 ques- tion of literature, but of life. God's revelation is continuous, not con- of Lif^"^^*^^'^ tained in tablets of stone or sacred parchment. He speaks today 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 starset 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 cannot move, a foundation stone for the all-embracing temple of humanity united to do God's will with one accord. Interior of the Church of Ecce Homo, Jerusalem, "Yhe Essential O^^^^^ss of £^thical [deas Among An Men. Paper by REV. IDA C. HULTIN. F ethical ideas, not of ethical systems or doctrines, am I bidden to speak today. Let me say ethical sense. It will mean the same and be more simple. The uni- versality of the ethical sense. Gravitation is not more surely a fact, it seems to us, than is the unity of all life. If life is a whcile, 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 purpose. Humanhistory has been a strug- gle of man to understand himself and the other selves, and beyond that the infinite self. The laws which, with unswerving fidelity, the stars obey in their eternal sweep through space, that the dewdrop responds to when it becomes an ocean to mir- ror back the world, that chisels the lichen's circle and paints the sun- set, that draws the lily from the black ooze of the pond and calls the atoms to their foreordained places in the crystal — this law is inerad- icably written in the nature of man and issues as ethical sense. Of course, we understand that with some the experiences of animal and" human life in the long eons of their existence is the explanation of the existence of this sense. Add to the experience of individuals the hereditary tendency which accumulates and passes on in increasing power from generation to generation, the results of all struggle, and Whence you have an all-sufficient answer about the whence of this ethical sense. We do not deny the truth of the cumulative tendency of ex- perience, but we do deny that it solves all the problem. Would this not be evolution, doing that which it claims cannot be done, creating something out of nothing? If the fittest, morally as well as physically, is to survive, then there must have been something that had the ele- 336 The of Ethical Sense. IHE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 337 merit of fitness to start with. In the fire-mist and world-stuff 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 hu- man mind and soul? Is there no invisible real to which the visible passing stands related? The old oak tree, we say, is what it is because it has grown through years and storms, through heat and cold, withstanding and outliving them all. What made it to be an oak tree? It will not always be so, and what will the life of it be when it is not oak tree? Did sun and rain and storm and seasons create the oak? Then plant a piece from your polished oak table, give it to the earth and the sun and rain and storms and ask them to make it grow. Will it? What is in the acorn that answers back to the call of the voices of the earth and air, and draws from the invisible places of the universe the atoms that come trooping to take their 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 same invisible spirit that you mean when you pronounce another name. We each know that the other is but naming his or her best conception of the Infinite, and if we should put all of these words together, we would not have the whole name, for the odinUs. secret of its pronunciation lieth with Him, whose children we all are. This all-pervading principle — this sense of right, of good that we find to be the possession of all peoples, of life, is it not God in us? You may call it a categorical imperative, a primitive element in the soul, a sense rooted in the nature of things, the moral sense of the universe, what you will, it is the sign and seal of our heredity from God. Mine, yours, ours, humanity's. Humanity is not God-touched in spots, with primitive exterior revelations on mountain tops 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! — hunger for righteousness. An eternal search — an eternal finding. The resistless sweep of the divine forces bears man on to newer and ever newer births. We find that we cannot speak of ethical principles without touch- ing religious realities. Let us identify morals with religion. Is it not time? I do not mean by religion theological formulas, creeds, doc- trines. I do not mean a religion. I mean religion. The science of man's highest development, physical, mental, moral development. There is no part of life that may not, ought not to be religious. You cannot make one part of yoiir nature religious, as though it were a side issue of real living. In the last analysis it becomes correlated with the nature of things, with God. Not simply dependence on, as 338 Tit£ WOULD' S CONGkSSS OF RELICtONS. Heritage. though there was a full sway from Him, but consciousness of unity, and as if we craved the unity as if He needed us and we were hasten- ing to do His will and ours. The doing of the will is ethical action. It is man at work on the problem, the making of religious conditions. It is humanity on the road toward God. How rarely do we enter mto the full possibilities of our high her- itage. They who have learned to live on the heights have been the Onr Higher prophet souls of all ages and all races. The multitudinous voice of humanity has uttered itself through them. I know that there are sore souls, but if we would know humanity we must interpret it at its best. What these are, all humanity may be. The ideal man is the actual man. It is what all men may become. The ought that moves one man to deeds that thrill a nation is essentially the same in kind with the ought that impels the lowliest deed in the obscurest corner of the world. If one human soul has come into being without a tendency toward goodness, toward the right, the true, and with hope to at length reach a divine destiny, then the universe is a failure. There is a place where God is not, and infinite goodness, infinite justice, is a myth. Morality may not be 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 man is recognized and there is a conscious reach toward him, but because back of worm and clod there is the same persuasive power that impelled man to be man, that led him to lay hold of the forces of the universe and compel them to serve him. Through the realization of the divine potency of the ethical sense in the experiences of his own life, man becomes con- scious of God, of God as good. Rising to this higher realization ^Life's De- through the lesser, the lesser takes on new meaning. Our relations to tree, to dog, to man, assume new dignity. We find the ultimate mean- ing of these common relationships. Here is the explanation of life's details. 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 path- way of the common place. Relationship to Him is the culmination of all these lesser relationships. And "We turn from seeking Thee afar And in unwonted ways, To build from out our aaily lives The temples of Thy praise." Humanity does not reach its best life through any scheme of re- demption, but through an age-long struggle with God. It is not "What shall I do to be saved?" but "What shall I do to inherit eternal lite?" 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 cannot 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 Explanation THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. S39 a law unto himself. Shrink from it though we may, the truth appears, when we are honest with ourselves, that churches and creeds have never done the world's best work. The church has never freed the slave of any land. In this country, even while the armies were gath- ering, which eventually freed the slave, ministers were preaching that slavery was divinely ordained and right according to the word of God. But the spirit of eternal justice, revealing itself in the ethical sense of thousands of men and women, ignoring the dogma and its expounders, moved against the wrong and overcame it. There were those who could read but one page of God's Word, but in the ''terrible swift light- ning" of that judgment day men read the law written by human hearts. Try to evade the truth if you will; you must face it at last. No creedal church and no form of ecclesiasticism has ever lent itself to the emancipation of the woman half of humanity. She has suffered and still suffers because of the results of dogmatic beliefs and theological traditions, but the ethical 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 fellowship 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 demand- ing morality for morality, purity for purity, self-respecting manhood for self-respecting womanhood. She will help remove odious distinc- tions 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 advancement, but in all parts of the world. Churches as a whole do not feed the hungry, clothe the sick, turn prisons into reformatories and unite to stay the atrocities of legalized cruelties. If churches were doing the humane 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 w^omen, 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 Chris- tianity, 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 re- ligious aspirations that gave 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" Spirit of Eternal Jastice Faith With, out Works is Dead. Rich with 340 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, When you remember some of the things that have been taught and have been done in the name of Christ, do you wonder that our brother said, "If such be the Christian ethics, well, we are perfectly satisfied to be heathen ?" Do you wonder that the calm-souled prophet from India pleads with us for a manifestation of the spirit that was in BWngl."" Jesus? Do we need assurance that boasting of our religion will not prove us to be a religious people? This pentecostal session is rich with blessing if we are able to bear it. May it help us to help each other, to understand each other, to believe in each other; and out of the fellowship of this time may there grow a diviner love for all that is human, a deeper reverence and braver faith in its possibility, a surer knowledge of this essential oneness. Learning to love each other, may we abide in the measureless, matchless love which, because we know no better naming, we call our Father, Mother, God. Qoncessions to JN^ative Peligious |deas, p^aving gpecial preference to J-^induism. Paper by REV. L. E. SLATER, of Bungalore, India. HE 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 enter- prise without some religious observance. We thus appeal in our missionary effort to a deeply religious nature; we sow the gospel seed in a religious soil. The religion of a nation is its sacred impulse toward an ideal, however imperfectly appre- hended and realized it may be. The spirit of India's religions has been a reflective spirit, hence its philosophical character, and to understand and appreciate them, we must look beyond the barbaric shows and feasts and cere- monies, and get to the undercurrents of native thought Hinduism is a growth from within; and to study it we have to lay bare that ii\ ward, subtle soul which, strangely enough, explains the outward form with all its extravagances; for India's gross idolatry is connected with her aii?ient systems of speculative philosophy; and with an extensive literature in the Sanskrit language; her Epic, Puranic and Tantrika mythologies and cosmogonies have a theosophic basis. India, whose worship was the probable cradle of all other similar worships, is the richest mine of religious ideas; yet we cannot speak of the religion of India What is styled "Hinduism" is a vague eclec- ticism, the sum total of several shades of belief, of divergent systems, of various types and characters of the outward life, each of which at one time or another calls itself Hinduism, but which, apparently, bears little resemblance to the other beliefs. Every phase of religious 341 Hinduism Not One Religion. 342 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. thought and philosophic speculation has been represented in India. Some of the Hindu doctrines are theistic, some atheistic and material- istic, 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 observances are the only means. Some teach the doctrine of predestination; others that of free grace. It is hard for foreigners to understand the habits of thought and life that prevail in a strange country, as well as all the changes and sacrifices that conversion entails; and, with our brusque, matter-of-fact western instincts and our lack of spiritual and philosophic insight, xSght^^and we too often go forth denouncing the traditions and worship of the Life. people, and, in so doing, are apt, with our heavy heels, to trample on beliefs and sentiments that have a deep and sacred root. A knowl- edge of the material on which we work is quite as important as deft- ness in handling our tools; a knowledge of the soil as necessary as the conviction that the seed is good. Let us glance now, in the briefest manner, at some of the funda- mental ideas and aspects of Brahmanical Hinduism, that may be re- garded 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 be- tween 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 salvation to be wrought by man rather than a restful satisfaction in a redemption designed and offered by God. The underlying element cf all religions, without which there can be no spiritual worship, is the belief that the human worshiper is somehow made in the likeness of the divine. And the central thought of India, which binds together all its conflicting elements, is the reve- lation of life, the progress of the pilgrim soul through all definite ex- istences to reunion with the infinite. From the opening youthfulness, hopefulness and self-sufificiency depicted in the songs of the Rig-veda, where the spirit is bright and joyous and homage is given to the forms and powers of nature — the mirror of man's own life and freedom — on through the dreary stage, where ** the weary weight of this unintelligi- ble world " and the soul wakes from the illusive dream of childhood to experience a bitter disappointment, to realize that the search for individual happiness in the infinite or phenomenal is a futile one, to find that the world is a vain shadow, an empty show, the reverence of the Indian has not been for the material form, but for pure spirit—for his own conscious soul — whose essential unity with the divine is an THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 343 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 Gnostic bows, is the spirit of man. The soul retires within itself, in a state of ecstatic reverie, the highest form of which is called Yoga, and meditates on the secret of its own nature; and having made the discovery, which comes sooner or later to all, that the world, instead of being an ely- sium, is an Ulusion, a vexation of spirit, the speculative problem of Indian philosophy and the actual struggle of the religious man have ideal of the been how to break the dream, get rid of the impostures of sense and f-^g^^ ^""** 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 Apostle John, yet have we not here an affinity with the affirmation of Chris- tianity, that "the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor., iv., 18); that "the world passeth away, and the lust thereof" (i John, ii., 17); though the Christian completion of that verse, "but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever," marks the fundamental defect of pantheistic India and its striking contrast to the Gospel. For the God of Hinduism is a pure Intelligence, a Thinker; not a Sovereign Will as in Islam, nor the Lord o'f Light and Right as in Parsiism, 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 musing man. Hence, while between God and the worshiper there is the most direct affinity, which may become ThiScer^' identity, there exists no bond of sympathy, no active and intelligent co-operation, and no quickening power being exercised on the human will, and in the formation of character, the fatal and fatalistic weak- ness of Hindu life appears, which renders the Gospel appeal so often powerless; the lost sense of practical moral distinction, of the require- me-nts 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 live as long, and only as long, as its share of truth re- mains unrecognized. Adapting words that Archdeacon Hare wrote of Dr. Arnold: "We must be iconoclasts, at once zealous and fear- less in demolishing the reigning idols, and at the same time animated God of the IdolatiT Wit- ness to a Truth. 344 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, with a reverent love for the ideas that the idols carnalize and stifle." Idolatry is a strong human protest against pantheism, which denies the personality of God, and atheism, which denies God altogether; it tes- tifies to the natural craving of the heart to have before it some mani- festation of the Unseen — to behold a humanized god. It is not, at bot- tom, an effort to get away from God, but to bring God near. Once more. The idea of the need of sacrificial acts, "the first and primary rites" — eucharistic, sacramental and propitiatory — bearing the closest parallelism to the provisions of the Mosaic economy and prompted by a sense of personal unworthiness, guilt and misery — that life is to be forfeited to the Divine Proprietor — is ingrained in the whole system of Vedic Hinduism. A sense of original corruption has been felt by all classes of Hindus, as indicated in the prayer: '*I am sinful; I commit sin; my nature is sinful. Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Hari, the remover of sin. The first man, after the deluge, whom the Hindus called Manu and the Hebrews Noah, offered a burnt offering. No literature, not even the Jewish, contains so many words relating to sacrifice as Sanskrit. The land has been saturated with blood." The secret of this great importance attached to sacrifice is to be found in the remarkable fact that the authorship of the institution is attributed to " Creation's Lord " himself and its date is reckoned as coeval with the creation. The idea exists in the three chief Vedas and in the Brahmanas and Upanishads that Prajapati, "the lord and sup- porter of his creatures" — the Purusha (primeval male) — begotten before the world, becoming half immortal and half mortal in a body fit for sacrifice, offered himself for the devas (emancipated mortals) Sacrifice Co- ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ benefit of the world; thereby making all subsequent sacri- evil with Crea- fice a reflection or figure of himself. The ideal of the Vedic Prajapati, mortal and yet divine, himself both priest and victim, who by death overcame death, has long since been lost in India. Among the many gods of the Hindu pantheon none has ever come forward to claim the vacant throne once reverenced by Indian rishis. No other than the Jesus of the Gospels --" the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world " — has ever appeared to fulfill this primitive idea of redemption by the efiicacy of sacrifice; and when this Christian truth is preached it 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 today is that modern Brahmanism, like modern Parsiism, is fast losing its old ideas, relaxing its hold on the more spiritual portions, the dis- tinctive tenets, of the ancient faith. Happily, however, a reaction has set in, mainly through the exertions of these scholars and of the Arya Somaj; and the more thoughtful minds are earnestly seeking to recover from their sacred books some of the buried treasures of the past. For ideas of a divine revelation, "Word of God," communicated directly to inspired sages or rishis, according to a theory of inspiration ft THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 345 higher than that of any other religion in the world, is perfectly familiar to Hindus, and is, indeed, universally entertained. Yet the conclusion reached is this: That a careful comparison of religions brings out this striking contrast between the Bible and all other scriptures; it estab- lishes its satisfying character in distinction from the seeking spirit of 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. The Vedas present *' a shifting play of lights and shadows; some- times the light seems to grow brighter, but the day never comes." For, on examining them, we note a remarkable fact. While they show that the spiritual needs and aspirations of humanity are the same — the same travail of the soul as it bears the burdens of existence — and con- tain many beautiful prayers for mercy and help, we fail to find a single text that purports to be a divine answer to prayer, an explicit promise of divine forgiveness, an expression of experienced peace and delight in God, as the result of assured pardon and reconciliation. There is no realization of ideas. The 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, historic Christ, and charged with unfailing inspiration. Idea of a Di- vine Revela- tion. Hinduism. Paper by MANILAL N. DVIVEDI, of Bombay, India. INDUISM 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 speak- ing is no religion at all. It embraces within its wide intention all shades of thought, from the atheistic Jainas and Bauddhas to the theisticSampradaikas and Samajists and the rationalistic Advaytins. But we may agree to use the term in the sense of that body of philosophical and religious princi- ples which are professed in part or whole by the inhabitants of India. 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 , What Hindu, preliminary observations. And first it would greatly help us on if we had settled a few points, chief among them the meaning of the word religion. Religion is defined by Webster generally as any system of worship. This is^ however, not in the sense in which the word is understood in India. The word has a threefold connotation. Religion divides itself into physices, 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 under- stood there is quite a number of them — has therefore some theory of the physical universe, complemented by some sort of spiritual govern- ment, and a code of ethics consistent with that theory and that govern- ment. So, then, it would be a mistake to take away any one phase of any Indian religion and pronounce upon its merits on a partial survey. 347 ism Embracee. 348 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. fanciful Theories. Indian Philos- ophic Thought. 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 theo- ries 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 testimonies have been unearthed to show the untenableness of Biblical chronology, and it would be safe to hold the mind in mental suspense in regard to this matter. The third point is closely connected with the second.- Every one has a natural inclination toward his native land and language, and particu- larly toward the religion in which he is brought up. It, however, behooves men of impartial judgment to look upon all religions as so many different explanations of the dealings of the Supreme with men of varying culture and nationality. It is impossible to do justice to these themes in this place, but we will start with these necessary pre- cautions that the following pages may not appear to make any extra- ordinary demands upon the intelligence of those brought up in the atmosphere of the so-called "Oriental research" in the west. We may now address ourselves to the subject before us. At least six different and well 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: (i) the Vedas; (2) the Sutra; (3) the Dar- sana; (4) the Purana; (5) the Samapradaya; (6) the Samaja. Each of these is enough to fill several volumes, and all I can attempt here is a cursory survey of " Hinduism," in the religious sense of the word. I. Let us begin with the Vedas. The oldest of the four Vedas is admittedly the Rigveda. It is the most ancient record of the Aryan nation, nay, of the first humanity our earth knows of. Traces of a very superior degree of civilization and art, found at every page, pre- vent us from regarding these records as containing only the outpour- ings of the minds of pastoral tribes ignorantly wondering at the grand phenomena of nature. We find in the Vedas a highly superior order of rationalistic thought pervading all the hymns, and we have ample reasons to conclude that the childish poetry of primitive hearts, Agni and Vishne and Indra and Rudra, are indeed so many names of differ- ent gods, but each of them had really a threefold aspect. Vishne, for example, in his terrestrial or temporal aspect, is the physical sun; in his corporal aspect he is the soul of every being, and in his spiritual aspect he is the all-pervading essence of the cosmos. In their spiritual aspect all Gods are one, for well says the well-known text, "only one essence the wise declare in many ways." And this con- ception of the spiritual unity of the cosmos as found in the Vedas is the crux of western oriental research. The learned doctors are unwill- ing to see more than the slightest trace of this conception in the Veda, for, say they, it is all nature worship, the invocation of different inde- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 349 pendent powers which held the wondering 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 Vedas 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 doubtful 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 to differ from those who see in monotheism, in the recognition of a personal God apart from nature, the acme of intellect- ual development. 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 realization 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 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 reasons for the opposite error of finding nothing more than the worship of many gods in the Vedas. In the first place, western scholars- are not quite clear as to the meaning of the word Veda. Native commentators have always insisted that the word Veda . Understand- does not mean the Samhita only, but the Brahmanas and the Upani- veda. ^ ^ "^ shads as well; whereas, oriental scholars have persisted in understand- ing the word in the first sense alone. The Samhita is no doubt a col- lection of hymns to different powers and, taken by itself, it is most likely to produce the impression that monotheism was not understood at the time. Apart, however, from clear cases to the contrary observ- able by any one who can 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 Orientalist position. The second source of error, if I may be allowed the liberty to refer to it, is the religious bias already touched upon at the outset. If, then, we grasp the central idea of the Vedas we shall understand the real meaning of Hinduism as such. The other conditions of the word will unfold themselves, by and by, as we proceed. We need not go into any further analysis of the Veda, and may come at once to the second phase of religious thought, 350 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. the Sutras and Smritis, based on the ritualistic portion of Vcdic litera- ture. 2. Sutra nieans an aphorism. In this period we have aphoristic works bearing upon ritual, philosophy, morals, grammar and other subjects. Though this period is distinct from the Vedic and subse- quent periods, it is entirely unsafe to assume that this or any other period occurred historically in the order of succession adopted for the The Sutra purposc of this essay. Between the Veda and Sutra lie the Brah- Penod, manas, with the Upanishads and Aryanakas and the Smritis. The books called Brahmanas and Upanishads form part of the Veda, as explained before; the former explaining the ritualistic use and appli- cation 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 later 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 cen- tral idea of the AH 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 mass«" with these sub- jects in this place — leaving the subject of law out of consideration. And first let us say a few words about caste. In Vedic times the whole Indian people is spoken of broadly as the Aryas and the Anar- yas. 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 promoted or degraded to superior or inferior Varnas according to individual deserts. In the Sutra period we find all this considerably altered. Manu 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 351 proved the bane of India's welfare. Varna and Jati are foremost among many other important features which we find grafted on Hin- duism in this period. We find in works of this period that the life of every man is distributed into four periods — student life, family life, forest life and life of complete renunciation. This institution, too, has become a part of the meaning of the word Hinduism. The duties and relations of Varnas, Jatis and Asramas are clearly defined in the Sutras and Smritis, but with these we need not concern ourselves except in this general manner. I can, however, not pass over the well-known subject of the Samskaras, certain rites which under the Sutras every Hindu is bound to perform if he professes to be a Hindu. Those rites, twenty-five in all, may be divided into three groups — rites incum- bent, rites optional and rites incidental. The incumbent rites are such as every householder is bound to observe for securing immu- nity from sin. Every householder must rise early in the morning, wash himself, revise what he has learned and teach it to others without remuneration. In the next place he must worship the family gods and spend some time in silent communion with whatever power he adores. He should then satisfy his prototypes in heaven — the lunar Pitris — by offerings of water and seamen seeds. Then he should reconcile the powers of the air by suitable oblations, 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 cannot go about his business without incurring the bitterest sin. 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 ceremonies in connection with the commencement or suspension of studies, and these, together with the sraddhas, just re- ferred to, make up the four optional Samskaras, which the Smritis allow every one to perform according to his means. By far the most important are the sixteen incidental Samskaras. I shall, however, dismiss the first nine of these with simple enumera- tion. Four of the nine refer, respectively, to the time of first cohab- itation, conception, quickening and certain sacrifices, etc., performed with the last. The other five refer to rites performed at the birth of a child and subsequently at the time of giving it a name, of giving it food, of taking it out of doors, and at the time of shaving its head in some sacred place on an auspicious day. The tenth, withthe 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 ^mskS^. described as initiation. The four subsidiary rites make up the four pledges which the neophyte takes on initiation. This rite is performed on male children alone at the age of from five to eight in the case of Brah- manas, and a year or two later In the case of others, except Sudras, who have nothing to do with any of the rites save marriage. The young boy is given a peculiarly prepared thread of cotton tQ wear con 352 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. stantly on the body, passing it crossways 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 truthfulness. This period of pupilage ends after nine years at the shortest, and thirty-six years at the longest period. The boy then re- turns home, after duly rewarding his teacher, and finds out some suita- ble girl for his wife. This return in itself makes up the fifteen Samskars. The last, but not the least, is the vivaha — matrimony. The sutras and smritis are 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 orcain- ing that there must be a distance of at least ten years between the respective ages of wife and husband, and that the girl may be married at any age b'efore attaining puberty, preferably at ten or eleven, though she may be affianced at about eight or nine. Be it remembered that mar- riage and consummation of marriage are two different things in India, as a consideration of this Samskara, in connection with the first of the nine enumerated at the beginning of this group, will amply show, several kinds of marriage are enumerated, and among the eight gener- ally given we find marriage by courting as well. The Marriage The marriage ceremony is performed in the presence of priests Ceremony. and gods represented by fire on the altar, and the tie of love is sanc- tified by Vedic mantras, repetition of which forms indeed an indispen- sable part of every rite and ceremony. The pair exchanges vows of fidelity and indissoluble love and bind themselves never to separate even after death. The wife is supposed henceforth to be as much dependent on her husband as he on her, for as the wife has to com- plete the fulfillment of love as her principal duty, the husband has, in return, the entire maintenance of the wife, temporally and spiritually, as his principal duty. When the love thus fostered has 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 realiza- tion of the 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 dis- charge of his or her functions as marked out by nature, liberty beyond this limit means shadows, disorder and irresponsible license. And THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 353 indeed nature never meant her living embodiment of lone woman to be degraded to a footing of equality with her partner, to fight the hard struggle for existence, or to allow love's pure stream to be defiled by- being led into channels other than those marked out for it. This is in substance the spirit of the ancient Sastras when they limit the sphere of woman's action to the house, and the flow of her heart to one and one channel alone. 3. We arrive thus in natural succession to the third period of Aryan religion, the Darsanas, which enlarge upon the central idea of Atman, or Brahma, enunciated in the Veda and developed in the Upanishads. It is interesting to allude to the Charvakas, the material- ists of Indian philosophy, and to the Jainas and the Buddhas, who, though opposed to the Charvakas, are anti-Brahmanical, in that they do not recognize the authority of the Veda and preach an independ- ent gospel of love and mercy. These schisms, however, had an in- different effect in imparting fresh activity to the rationalistic spirit of the Aryan sages, lying dormant under the growing incumbrances of the ritualism of the Sutras. The central idea of the All as we found it in the Veda is further developed in the Upanishads. In the Sutra period several sutra works were composed setting forth in a systematic manner the main teach- ing of the Upanishads. Several works came to be written in imitation schools of of these subjects closely connected with the main issues of philosophy Philosophy, and metaphysics. 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, notwithstanding this, their place in the general development of thought and the teachings they embody are as old as the Veda, or even older. The six Darsanas are Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Xoga, Mimansaand Vedanta, 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 con- cerned with the nature of knowledge and the instruments of knowl- edge, and while discussing these it sets forth a system of logic not yet surpassed by any existing system in the west. The Vaiseshika is a complement of the Nyaya, and while the latter discusses the meta- physical aspect of the universe, the former works out the atomic theory and resolves the whole of the namable world into seven categories. So, then, physically, the two Nyayas advocate the atomic theory of the universe. Ontologically they believe that these atoms move in accordance with the will of an extra-cosmic personal creature called Isvara. Every being has a soul called Jiva, whose attributes are de- 23 of Souls. 354 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, sire, .intelligence, pleasure, pain, merit, demerit, etc. Knowledge arises from the union of Jiva and mind, the atomic manas. The high- est happiness lies in Jiva's becoming permanently free from its attri- bute of misery. This freedom can be obtained by the grace of Iswara, pleased with the complete devotion of the Jiva. The Veda and the Upanishad 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 repudiated the idea of a personal creator of the universe. They ar- gued that if the atoms were in themselves sufficiently capable of form- ing themselves into the universe, the idea of a God was quite super- fluous. And as to intelligence the Sankhyas maintained that it is inher- ent in nature. These philosophers, therefore, hold that the whole ^Multiplicity universe is evolved by slow degrees, in a natural manner, from one primordial matter called mulaprakriti, and that purusa, the principle of intelligence, is always co-ordinate with, though ever apart from, mulaprakriti. Like the Naiyayikas, they believe in the multiplicity of purusas — souls; but unlike them they deny the necessity, as well as the existence, of an extra-cosmic God. Whence, they have earned for themselves the name of atheistic Sankhyas. They resort to the Vedas and Upanishads for support so far as it may serve their purpose, and otherwise accept in general the logic of the ten Naiyayikas. The Sankhyas place the summum bonum in "life according to nature." They endow primordial matter with three attributes — pas- sivity, restlessness and crossness. Prakriti continues in endless evolu- tion under the influen-ce of the second of these attributes, and the purusa falsely takes the action on 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 known as the Yogo-Darsana, accepts the whole of the cosmology of the first Sankhya, but only adds to it a hypothetical Isvara and largely expands the ethical side- of the teaching by setting forth several physical and psychological rules and exercises capable of leading to the last state of happiness called Kanivalya — life according to nature. This is theistic Sankhya. The two Mimansas next call our attention. These are the ortho- dox Darsanas par excellence, and as such are in direct touch with the Veda and the Upanishads, which continue to govern them from beginning to end. Mimansa means inquiry, and the first preliminary is called Purva-Mimansa, the second Uttara-Mimansa. The object of the first is to determine the exact meaning and value of the injunctions and prohibitions given out in the Veda, and that of the second is to explain the esoteric teachings of the Upanishads. The former, there- fore, does not trouble itself about the nature of the universe or about the ide^s of God and soul, It tells only of Dharma, religious merit, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 355 which, according to its teaching, arises in the next world from strict observance of Vedic duties. This Mimansa, fitly called the purva, a preliminary Mimansa, we may thus pass over without any further remark. The most important Darsana of all is by far the Utara, or final Mimansa, popularly known as the Vedanta, the philosophy taught in the Upanishads as the end of the Veda. The Vedanta emphasizes the idea of the All, the universal Atman or Brahman, set forth in the Upamshads, and maintains the unity not only of the Cosmos but of all intelligence in general. The All is self- illumined, all thought (gnosis), the very being of the universe. Being implies thought, and the AH may in Venuanta phraseology be aptly described as the essence of thought and being. The Vedanta is a system of absolute idealism in 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 com- plete realization by creating imaginary distinctions of subject and object. This system, besides being the orthodox Darsana, is philo- sophically an improvement upon all previous speculations. The Nyaya is superseded by the Sankya, whose distinction of matter and intelligence is done away with in this philosophy of abso- lute 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 Ab- heda, oneness, of not only man but of all beings, of the whole uni- verse. The light of the other Darsanas pales before the blaze of unity and love lighted at the altar of the Veda by this sublime philosophy, the shelter of minds like Plato, Pythagoras, Bruno, Spinoza, Hagel, Schopenhauer in the west, and Krisna, Vyasa, Sankara and others in the east. We cannot but sum up at this point. Hinduism adds one more attribute 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 Period of the necessity began to be felt the more keenly as Sanskrit began to die Paranas. 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 356 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 popular 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 exam- ple, 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 sepa- rate god of that name in the Puranas, endowing him with all mortal attributes. This is how the orientalist 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 per- fectly 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 Laksmi, a personification of the life and prosperity which emanate from the sun for his consort, 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 suffi- cient 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 conglomeration of solar myths disguised in different shapes. The cycles just referred to put me in mind of another aspect of Puranika mythology. The theory of cycles known as Kalpas, Man- cles"""''' "" ^■'" vantaras and Yugas is 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 fourteen 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 sug- gesting 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 con- fronted in the Puranas with a theory more in accord with reason and Theory of Cy- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 357 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 idolater idol Worship, 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 throw it 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 convenient aids to concentration. These interpretations of Puranika 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 applica- tion to the worship of the Tau in Egypt, of the cross in Christendom, of fire in Zoroastrianism, and of the Kaba in Mohammedanism. With these necessarily brief explanations we may try to see what influence the Puranas have had on 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 principle of uni- versal 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 Bhagavate: "Worship, in whatever form, rendered to whatever God, reaches the Supreme, as rivers, rising from whatever source, all flow into the ocean." 5. And thus, gentlemen, we come to the fifth period, the Sam- pradayas. The word sampradaya means tradition, the teaching handed down from teacher to pupil. The whole Hindu religion considered from the beginning to the present time is one vast field of thought, capable of nourishing every intellectual plant of whatever degree of vigor and luxuriance. The one old teaching was the idea of the All, usually known as the Advaita or the Vedanta. In the ethical aspect of this philosophy stress has been laid on knowledge (gnosis) and free action. Under the debasing influence of a foreign yoke these sober paths of knowledge and action had to make room for devotion and grace. On devotion and grace rest their principal ethical tenets. TheSamprad- ayas Period. 358 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Three important schools of philosophy arose in the period after the Puranas. Besides the ancient Advaita we have the Dvaita, the Visud- dhadvaita and the Visishthadvaita schools of philosophy in this period. The first is purely dualistic postulation, the separate yet co- ordinate existence of mind and matter. The second and third profess to be Unitarian, but in a considerably modified sense of the word. The Visuddhadvaita teaches the unity of the cosmos, but 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 pervad- ing the whole, though not apart from the cosmos. Thus widely differ- ing in their philosophy from the Advaita, these three Sampradayas teach a system of ethics entirely opposed to the one taught 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 teachers of each of these Sampradayas are known as Acharyas, like Sankara, the first great Acharya of the ancient Advaita. The Acharyas of the new Sampradayas belong all to the eleventh and twelfth centuries of the Christian era. Every Acharya develops his school of thought from the Upani- shads, the Vedanta Sutras, and from that sub-sublime poem, **The Bhagvadgita," the crest jewel of the Maha Bharata. The new Achar- yas, following the example of Sankara, have commented upon these works. And have thus applied each his own system to the Veda. In the Sampradayas we see the last of the pure Hinduism, for the sacred Devanagari ceases henceforth to be the medium even of relig- ious thought. The four principal Sampradayas have found numerous ^umerous imitators, and we have the Saktas, the Saivas, the Pasupatas and many nr„fof««. 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 Samp- radayas. The bearing of these Sampradayas and Panthas, the fifth edition, as it were, of the ancient faith on Hinduism in general, is not worthy of note except in the particular that henceforth every Hindu must belong to one of the Sampradayas or Panthas. 6. This brings us face to face with the India of today and Hin- duism as it stands at present. It is necessary at the outset to under- Imitators. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 359 stand the principal forces at work in bringing about the change we are going to describe. In the ordinary course of events one would naturally expect to stop at the religion of the Sampradayas and Panthas. The advent of the English followed by the educational policy they have maintained for half a century has, however, worked several important changes in the midst of the people, not the least important of which are those which affect religion. Before the establishment of British rule and the peace and security that followed in its train, people had forgotten the ancient religion, and Hinduism had dwindled down into a mass of irrational superstition reared on ill understood Pauranika myths. The spread of education set people to thinking, and a spirit of "reformation" swayed the minds of all active-minded men. The chance work was, however, no reformation at all. Under the auspices of materialistic science, and education guided by materialistic principles, the mass of superstition then known as Hinduism was scattered to the winds, and atheism and skepticism ruled supreme. But this state of things was not destined to endure in religious India. The revival of Sanskrit learning brought to light the immortal treasures of things buried in the Vedas, Upanishads, Sutras, Darsanas and Puranas, and the true work of reformation commenced with the revival of Sanskrit. Several pledged their allegiance to their time-honored philosophy. But there remained many bright intellects given over to material- istic thought and civilization. These could not help thinking that the religion of those whose civilization they admired must be the only true religion. Thus they began to read their own notions in texts of the Upanishads and the Vedas, They set up an extra-cosmic, yet all- pervading and formless creature, whose grace every soul desirous of liberation must attract by complete devotion. This sounds like the teaching of the Visishthadvaita Sampradaya, but it may safely be said that the idea of an extra-cosmic personal creation without form is an un-Hindu idea. And so also is the belief of these innovators in regard to their negation of the principle of reincarnation. The body of this teaching goes by the name of the Brahmo-Somaj, which has drawn itself still further away from Hinduism by renouncing the institutions of Varnas and the established law of marriage, etc. The society which next calls our attention is the Arya-Samaja of Swami Dayananda. This society subscribes to the teaching of the Nyaya-Darsana and professes to revive the religion of the Sutras in all social rites and observances. This Somaj claims to have found out the true religion of the Aryas, and it is of course within the pale of Hinduism, though the merit of their claim yet remains to be seen. The third influence at work is that of the Theosophical society. ^^TheTheopM- 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 Mohammedajis; and al Society. 360 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Hinduism Summed Up. Principles for Consideration. it appears to be full of principles contained in the Advaita and Yoga philosophies. It cannot be gainsaid that this society has created much interest in religious studies all over India and has set earnest students to studying their ancient 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 of the Samajas. The Brahmo-Somaj widely differs from Hinduism and the Aryasamaja, or Theosophical society does not profess anything new. To sum up, then, Hinduism may in general be understood to connote the following principal attributes: (i) Belief in the exist- ence of a spiritual principle in nature and in the principle of reincar- nation. (2) Observance of a complete tolerance and of the Sams- karas, being in one of the Varnas and Asramas, and being bound by the Hindu law. This is the general meaning of the term, but in its particular bearing it implies: (3) Belonging to one of the Darsanas, Sampradayas or Panthas, or to one of the anti-Brahmanical schisms. Having ascertained the general and particular scope and meaning of Hinduism, 1 would ask you, gentlemen of this august parliament, whether there is not in Hinduism material sufificient to allow of its being brought in contact with the other great religions of the world by subsuming them all under one common genus? In other words, is it not possible to enunciate a few principles of universal religion which every man who professes to be religious must accept, apart from his being a Hindu or a Buddhist, a Mohammedan or a Parsee, a Christian or a Jew? If religion is not wholly that something which satisfies the crav- ings of the emotional nature of man, but is that rational demonstration of the cosmos, which shows at once the why and wherefore of exist- ence, provides the eternal and all-embracing foundation of natural ethics and by showing to humanity the highest ideal of happiness realizable, excites and shows the means of satisfying the emotional part of man; if, I say, religion is all this, all questions of particular religious professions and their comparative value must resolve them- selves into simple problems workable with the help of unprejudiced reason and intelligence. In other words, religion, instead of being a mere matter of faith, might well become the solid province of reason, and a science of religion may not be so much a dream as is imagined by persons pledged to certain conclusions. Holding, therefore, these views on the nature of religion, and having at heart the great benefit of a common basis of religion for all men, I would submit the follow- ing simple principles for your consideration: First. Belief in the existence of an ultramaterial principle in nature and in the unity of the All. Second. Belief in reincarnation and salvation by action. These two principles of a possible universal religion might stand or fall on their merits apart from the consideration of any philosophy or revelation that upholds them. I have every confidence no philos- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 361 ophy would reject them, no science would gainsay them, no system of ethics would deny them, no religion which professes to be philosophic, scientific and ethical ought to shrink back from them. In them I see the salvation of man and the possibility of that universal love, which the world is so much in need of at the present moment. WM^. 24 o a « •o c« u •§ bO Q T'he Qontact of Christian and H^^^^ Xhought; Points of Likeness and of Qontrast. Paper by REV. R. A. HUME, of New Haven, Conn. HEN Christian and Hindu thought first came into contact in India neither un- derstood the other. This was for two reasons, one outward, the other in- ward. The outward reason was this. The Christian saw Hinduism at its worst. Polytheism, idolatry, a mythol- ogy explained by the Hindus them- selves as teaching puerilities and sen- sualities in its many deities, caste ram- pant, ignorance widespread and pro- found; the3e are what the Christian first saw and supposed to be all of Hinduism. Naturally he saw little except evil in it. /^^-^•^^^SF^^^S^lf^ The outward reason why the Hin- ^1 ^^\^ du, at first contact with Christianity, ^ r ' failed to understand it was this : Speak- ing generally, every child of Hindu parents 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 less had they conceived of an unchristian man from a country where Christianity was the religion. Seeing the early comers from the West killing the cow, eating beef, drinking wine, sometimes impure, sometimes bullying the wild Indian, the Hindu easily supposed that these men, from a country where Christianity was the religion, were Christians. In consequence they despised what they supposed was the Christian religion. They did not know that in truth it was the lack 363 Things Seem- ingly Unlovely. 364 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, of Christianity which they were despising. Even in truly Christian 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 con- tact of Christianity and Hindu thought neither understood the other. But there was an additional, an inward reason, why neither under- stood 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 faculties 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. The Hinda where there is the combination of an active mind and a passive body. Mind. A man may be strong at chess while not strong in meeting the prob- lems of life. The Hindu mind cares little for facts, except inward ideal ones. When other facts conflict with such conceptions the Hindu disposes of them by calling them illusions. A second characteristic of the Hindu mind is its intense longing for comprehensiveness. ** Ekam eva advitiya," i.e., "There is but one and no second," is the most cardinal doctrine of philosophical Hindu- ism. So controlling is the Hindu's longing for unity that he places contradictory things side by side and serenely calls them alike or the same. To it, spirit and matter are essentially the same. In short, it satisfies its craving for unity by syncretism, i. e., by attempts 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 cultivate the imagination. It naturally dwells on individuality and differences which it knows. It has to work for comprehension and unity. Above all, it recognizes that it should act as it thinks and believes. This extreme unlikeness 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. But in the providence of God, the Father of both Christian and Hindu, these two diverse minds came into contact. Let us briefly trace the result. Apart from the disgust at the unchristian conduct of some men from Christendom, when the Hindu thinker first looked at Christian thought he viewed with lofty contempt its pretensions and proposals. Similarly, in its first contact with Hinduism the western mind saw only that which awakened contempt and pity. The Christian naturally supposed the popular Hinduism which he saw to be the whole of Hinduism, a system of many gods, of idols, of puerile and sometimes immoral mythologies, of mechanical and endless rites, of thorough- going caste, and often cruel caste. The Christian reported what he saw and many Christians felt pity. In accordance with the genius of the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS: 965 western mfnd 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 emanation in previous stages of existence. His moral sense is an illusion, for he cannot sin. To popular Hinduism, man is partially what he is to philosophical Hinduism, 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 eat- ing 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 be as much a law of nature and a matter of divine appointment as the creation of separate classes of animals with insur- mountable differences of physical constitution, such as elephants, lions, horses and dogs." Pre-eminently does the contrast between Christian and Hindu thought appear in God's relation to sin and the sinner. According to philosophical Hinduism there is no sin or sinner, or Saviour. According to popular Hinduism sin is mainly a niatter 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 till it is put away. The revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ was pre-eminently of this character and to this end. To philosophical Hinduism (mukti), salvation is passing from the ignorance and illusion of conscious existence through unconsciousness into the infinite. To popular Hinduism, salvation is getting out of trouble into some safe place through merit somehow acquired. To Christianity, salvation is present deliverance from sin and moral union with God. begun here and to go on forever Modification of First Im- pressioKB. Relation to Sin and Sinner. Hinduism as a Religion. Paper by SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, of India. HREE religions now stand in the world which have come down to us from time prehistoric-^ Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Indaism. These all have received tremendous shocks and all of them prove by their revival their internal strength, but Indaism failed to absorb Chris- tianity 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 tre- mendous earthquake, it has receded only for a while, only to return in an all-absorbing flood, and when the tumult of the rush was over these sects had been all sucked in, absorbed and assimilated in the immense body of another faith. From the high spiritual flights of philosophy, of which the latest discoveries of science seem like echoes, from the atheism of the Jains to the low ideas of idolatry and the multifarious mythologies, each and all have a place in the Hindu's religion. Seemingly Where then, the question arises, where then the common center to SaSfctos " which all these widely diverging radii converge? Where is the common basis upon which all these seemingly hopeless contradictions rest? And this is the question which I shall attempt to answer. The Hindus have received their religion through the revelation of the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and with- out end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience — how a book can be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation ex- isted 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. 366 c« B u ctf Q THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 369 The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis and we honor them as perfected beings, and I am glad to tell this audience that some of the very best of them were women. without B©. Here it may be said, that the laws as laws may be without end, fn^,^^"'' "^ but they must have had a beginning. The Vedas teach us that crea- tion is without beginning or end. Science has proved to us that the sum total of the cosmic energy is the same throughout all time. Then, if there was a time when nothing existed, where was all this manifested energy? Some say it was in a potential form in God. But then God is sometimes potential and sometimes kinetic, which would make him mutable, and everything mutable is a compound, and everything com- pound must undergo that change which is called destruction. There- fore 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 perfect health, beautiful body, mental vigor, and with all wants supplied. Others are born miserable. Some are without hands or feet, some idiots, and only drag out a miserable existence. Why, if they are all created, 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 mis- erable in this life will be perfect in a future life. Why should a man be miserable here in the reign of a just and merciful God? In the second place, it does not give us any cause, but simply a cruel act of an all-powerful being, and therefore it is unscientific. There must have been causes, then, to make a man miserable or happy before his birth, and those were his past actions. Why may not all the tendencies of the mind and body be answered for by inherited aptitude from parents? Here are the two parallel lines of existence — one that of the mind, the other that of matter. If matter and its transformation answer for all that we have, there mK^ *^^ is no necessity of supposing the existence of a soul. But it cannot be proved that thought has been evolved out of matter. We cannot deny that bodies inherit certain tendencies, but those tendencies only mean the physical configuration through which a peculiar mind alone can act in a peculiar 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 everything by habit, and habit is 870 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The Ocean of Memory. Thraldom of Matter. The Soul. Haman 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 come down 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 con- sciousness; 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 perfect 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 cannot pierce, him the fire cannot burn, him the water cannot melt, him the air cannot dry. He believes every soul is a circle whose cir- cumference 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 perfect. 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 thral- dom of matter? How can the perfect be deluded into the belief that he is imperfect? We have been told that the Hindus shirk the ques- tion 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 naming, is not explaining. The question remains the same. How can the perfect become the quasi perfect; how can the pure, the absolute, change even a microscopic particle of its nature? The Hindu is sincere. He does not want 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 will 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 tem- pest, raised one moment on the foaming crest of a billow and dashed down into a yawning chasm the next, rolling to and fro at the mercy THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 371 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 rolls on, crushing everything in its way and waits not for the widow's tears or the orphan's cry. The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of nature. Is there no hope? Is there no escape? The cry that went up from the bottom of the heart of despair reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic sage and he stood up The Law of before the world and in trumpet voice proclaimed the glad tidings to Nature, the world, "Hear, ye children of immortal bliss, even ye that resisted in higher spheres. I have found the ancient one, who is beyond all darkness, all delusion, and knowing Him alone you shall be saved from death again." *' Children of immortal bliss," what a sweet, what a hopeful name. Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name, heirs of immortal bliss; yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. Ye are the children of God. The sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth, sinners? It is a sin to call a man so. It is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, live and shake off the delusion that you are sheep — you are souls immortal, spirits free and blest and eternal; ye 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 unfor- giving laws, not an endless prison of cause and effect, but that, at the head of all these laws, in and through every particle of matter and force, stands One ''through whose command the wind blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, and death stalks upon the earth." And what is His nature? He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and the All-merciful. "Thou art our Father, Thou art our Mother, Thou art our beloved Friend, Thou art the source of all strength. Thou art He that bearest the burdens of the universe; help me to bear the little burden of this 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 Krishna, whom the Hindus believe to have been God incarnate on earth. He taught that a man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water, but is never moistened by water; so a man ought to live in this world, his heart for God and his hands for work. It is good to love God for hope of reward in this or the next world, but it is better to love God for love's sake, and the prayer goes, "Lord, I do not want wealth, nor children, nor learning. If it be Thy will I will go to a hundred hells, but grant me this, that I may love Thee without the hope of reward — unselfishly love for love's sake." One of the 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 Mercy 372 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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, the beautiful; there- fore, 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 any- thing. I do not ask for anything. Let Him place me wherever He likes. I must love Him for love's sake. I cannot 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 shall 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 Purity the mercy of God, and this mercy comes to the pure. So purity is the Coiidition of 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 sen- sual 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 God." 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 realizing; not in believing, but in being and becoming. So the whole struggle in their system is a constant struggle to be- come 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 ob- tained the only thing in which man ought to have pleasure — God — and enjoys the bliss with God. So far all the Hindus are agreed. This is the common religion of all the sects of India, but then the question comes — perfection is absolute, and the absolute cannot be two or three. It cannot have any qualities. It cannot be an individual. And so when a soul be- comes perfect and absolute, 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 — existence absolute; knowledge absolute, and life absolute. We have often and often read about this being called the losing of individuality as in becoming a stock or a stone. *'He jests at scars that never felt a wound." THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 373 I tell you it is nothing of the kind. If it is happiness to enjoy the consciousness of this small body, it must be more happiness to en- joy the consciousness of two bodies, or three, four, five; and the ulti- mate of happiness would be reached when it would become a univer sal consciousness. Therefore, to gain this infinite, universal individuality, this miser- able little individuality must go. Then alone can death cease, when I am one with life. Then alone can misery cease, when I am with hap- piness itself. Then alone can all errors cease, when I am one with knowledge itself. And this is the necessary scientific conclusion. Science has proved to me that physical individuality is a delusion, that really my body is one little, continuously changing body in an un- broken ocean of matter, and the 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 reacTi the perfect unity it will stop from further progress, because it will then have reached the goal. Thus, chemistry cannot progress further, 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 the ulti- mate unity is reached, and religion can go no further. This is the goal of all — again and again, science after science, again and again. And all science is bound to come to this conclusion in the long run Manifestation and not creation is the word of science of today, and the Hindu is only glad that what he has cherished in his bosom for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language and with fur- ther light by the latest conclusions of science. Descend we now from the aspirations of philosophy to the relig- ion of the ignorant. At the very outset, I may tell you that there is no polytheism in India. In every temple, if one stands by and listens, he will find the worshipers apply all the attributes of God, including omnipresence, to these images. It is not polytheism. "The rose called by any other name would smell as sweet." Names are not ex- planations. 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 he gave a blow to their idol with his stick, what could it do?" One of his hearers sharply answered: 'Tf I abuse your God what can He do?" "You would be punished," said the preacher, "when you die." "So my idol will punish you when you die," said the villager. The tree is known by its fruits, and when I have been amongst them that are called idolatrous men, the like of whose morality and spirituality and love I have never seen anywhere, I stop and ask my- self, "Can sin beget holiness?" Indiridnality Mast Go. Religion of the Ignorant. 374 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Superstition is the enemy of man, but bigotry is worse. Why does Superatition a Christian go to church? Why is the cross holy? Why is the face and Bigotry. turned toward the sky in prayer? Why are there so many images in the Catholic church? Why are there so many images in the minds of Protestants when they pray? My brethren, we can no more think about anything without a material image than we can live without breathing. And by the law of association the material image calls the mental idea up and vice versa. Omnipresence, to almost the whole world, means nothing. Has God superficial area? If not, when we imaces and ^^P^^t the word wc think of the extended earth, that is all. Form. As wc 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 dif- ferent images and forms. But with this difference:' Some devote their whole lives to their idol of a church and never rise higher, because with them religion means an intellectual assent to certain doctrines and doing good to their fellows. The whole religion of the Hindu is centered in realization. Man is to become divine, realizing the divine, and, therefore, idol, or temple, or church, or books, are only the supports, the helps, of his spiritual childhood; but on and on man must progress. He must not stop anywhere. *' External worship, material wor- ship," says the Vedas, "is the lowest stage, struggling to rise high; mental prayer is the next stage, but the highest stage is when the Lord has been realized." Mark the same earnest man who was kneeling before the idol tell you, ** Him the sun cannot express, nor the moon nor the stars, the lightning cannot express him, nor the fire; through Him they all shine." He does not abuse the image or call it sinful. He recognizes in it a necessary stage of His life. "The child is father of the man." Would it be right for the old man to say that childhood is a sin or youth a sin? Nor is it compulsory in Hinduism. If a man can realize his divine nature with the help of an image, would it be right to call it a sin? Nor, even when he has passed that stage, should he call it an error? To the Hindu, man is not traveling from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher truth. To him all the religions, from the lowest fetichism to the highest abso- lutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and associa- tion, and each of these mark a stage of progress, and every soul is a young eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering more and more strength till it reaches the glorious sun. Unity and variety is the plan of nature, and the Hindu has recog- nized it. Every other religion lays down certain fixed dogmas, and tries to force society to adopt them. They lay down before society one coat which must fit Jack and Job and Henry, all alike. If it does not fit John or Henry he must go without a coat to cover his body THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 375 The Hindus have discovered that the absolute can only be realized or thought of or stated through the relative, and the images, cross or cres- cent, are simply so many centers, so many pegs to hang the spiritual ideas on. It is not that this help is necessary for every one, but for many, and those that do not need it have no right to say that it is wrong One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean any- thing horrible. It is not the mother of harlots. On the other hand, it is the attempt of undeveloped minds to grasp high spiritual truths. The Hindus have their faults; but mark this, they are always toward punishing their own bodies and never toward cutting the throats of their neighbors. If the Hindu fanatic burns himself on the pyre, he never lights the fire of inquisition. And even this cannot be laid at the door of religion any more than the burning of witches can be laid at the door of Christianity. To the Hindu, then, the whole world of religion is only a travel- ing, a coming up, of different men and women, through various condi- tions 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 in- spirer 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 adaptation. But in the heart of everything the same truth reigns. The Lord has declared to the Hindu in His incarnation as Krishna, ** I am in every region as the thread through a string of pearls. And wherever thou seest. extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power raising and purifying humanity, know ye, that I am there." And what was the result? Through the whole order of Sanskrit philosophy, I challenge anybody to find any such expression as that the Hindu only would be saved, not others. Says Vyas, " We find perfect men even beyond the pale of our caste and creed." How, then, can the Hindu, whose whole idea centers in God, believe in the Buddhism which is agnostic, or the Jainism which is atheist? The whole force of Hindu religion is directed to the great central truth in every religion, to evolve a God out of man. They have not seen the Father, but they have seen the Son. And he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father. This, brethren, is a short sketch of the 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 loca- tion in place or time; which will be infinite, like the God it will preach; whose Son shines upon the followers of Krishna or Christ, saints or sinners, alike; which will not be the Brahman or Buddhist, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all these, and still have infinite space for development; which in its Catholicity will embrace in its Conttadic- tions only Ap' parent. Reqairements of a UniTereal Keligion. 376 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. infinite arms and find a place for every human bein^, from the lowest groveling man, from the brute, to the highest mind towering almost above humanity and making society stand in awe and doubt His human nature. It will be a religion which will have no place for persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will recognize a divinity in every man or woman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be cen- tered in aiding humanity to realize its divine nature. Aseka's council was a council of the Buddhist faith. Akbar's, though more to the purpose, was only a parlor meeting. It was reserved for America to proclaim to all quarters of the globe that the Lord is in every religion. May He who is the Brahma of the Hindus, the Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in heaven of the Christians, give strength to you to carry out your noble idea. The star arose in the east; it traveled steadily toward the west, ^ Hail, Coium- soj^e^imes dimmed and sometimes effulgent, till it made a circuit of the world, and now it is again rising on the very horizon of the east, the borders of the Tasifu, a thousand fold more effulgent than it ever was before. Hail, Columbia, motherland of liberty! It has been given to thee, who never dipped hand in neighbor's blood, who never found out that shortest way of becoming rich by robbing one's neighbors — it has been given to thee to march on in the vanguard of civilization with the flag of harmony. The World's Debt to Buddha. Paper by H. DHARMAPALA, of India. F I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems* of life, and has found solutions of them which well deserve the attention of those who have studied Plato and Kant, I should point to India. If I were to ask myself from what literature we here in Europe may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more com- prehensive,, more universal, and in fact more truly human a life, not for this life only, but for a transfigured and eternal life, again I should point to India. Ancient India twenty-five centuries ago was ! ' the scene of a religious revolution the greatest the world has ever seen. Indian society at that time had two large and distinguished religious foundations — the Szmanas and the Brahmanas. Famous teachers arose and, with their disciples, went among the peo- ple preaching and converting them to their respective views. Chief of them were Purana Kassapa, Makkhali, Ghosala, Ajita Kesahambala, Pakudha Kacckagara, Sanjaya Belattiputta and Niganta Nathaputta. Amidst the galaxy of these bright luminaries there appeared other thinkers and philosophers who, though they abstained from a higher claim of religious reformers, yet appeared as scholars of independent thought. Such were Bavari, Pissa Metteyya, Mettagua, Dunnaka, Dkotaka, Upasiva, Henaka, Todeyya, Sela Parukkha, Pokkharadsati, Maggadessakes, Maggajivins These were all noted for their learning in their sacred Scriptures, in grammar, history, philosophy, etc. The air was full of a coming spiritual struggle. Hundreds of the most scholarly young men of noble families (Eulaputta) were leaving their homes in quest of truth; ascetics were undergoing the severest niortifications to discover the panacea for the evils of suffering. Young dialecticians were wandering from place to place engaged in disputa- tions, some advocating skepticism as the best weapon to fight against 377 Religions Revolution. 378 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, the realistic doctrines of the day, some a sort of life which was the nearest way to getting rid of existence, some denying a future life. It was a time deep and many sided in intellectual movements. The sacrificial priest was powerful then as he is now. He was the mediator between God and man. Monotheism of the most crude type, A^^S!^^* fetichism from anthropomorphic deism to transcendental dualism was rampant. So was materialism from sensual epicureanism to trans- cendental nihilism. In the words of Dr. Oldenberg: "When the dialectic skepticism began to attach moral ideas, when a painful long- ing for deliverance from the burden of being was met by the first signs of moral decay, Buddha appeared." " The Saviour of the world, Prince Siddhartha styled on earth. In earth on heavens and hells imcomparable. All honored, wisest, best, most pitiful, The teacher of Nirvana ^nd the law." Oriental scholars, who had begun their researches in the domain of Indian literature at the beginning of this century, were put to great perplexity of thought at the discovery of the existence of a religion called after Buddha in the' Indian philosophical books. Sir William Jones, H. H. Wilson and Mr. Colbrooke were embarrassed in being unable to identify him. Dr. Marshman, in 1824, said that Buddha was the Egyptian Apis, and Sir William Jones solved the problem by say- ing that he was no other than the Scandinavian Woden. The barge of the early orientals was drifting into the sand banks of Sanskrit literature, when in June, 1837, ^^e 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 archaeologist, James Pramsep, by the translation of the Pali Ceylon history into English by Turner, and by the discovery of Bud- dhist manuscripts in the temples of Mepal 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 this great relig- ion was also presented to the thoughtful people of Europe by this great scholar. With due gratitude I mention the names of the scholars to whose labors the present increasing popularity of the Buddha religion is due: Spence. Hardy, Gogerly, Turner, Professor Childers, Dr. Davids, Dr. Oldenberg, Max Miiller, Professor JansboU and others. Pali scholar- ship began with the labors of the late Dr. Childers, and the western world is indebted to Dr. Davids, who is indefatigable in his labors in bringing the rich stores of hidden wisdom from the minds of Pali lit- erature. To two agencies the present popularity of Buddhism is due: Sir Edwin Arnold's incomparable epic, "The Light of Asia," and the theosophical society. "The irresistible charm which influences the thinking world to study Buddhism, is the unparalleled life of its glorified founder. His THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 379 teaching has found favor with every one who has studied his history. His doctrines are the embodiment of universal love. Not only our philologists, but even those who are prepossessed against his faith, have ever found but words of praise," says H. G. Blavatsky. "Noth- ing can be higher and purer than his social and moral code." "That moral code," says Max Muller, "taken by itself is one of the most per- fect which the world has ever known." "The more I learn to know Buddha," says Professor Jansboll, "the more I admire him." "We must," says Professor Earth, "set clearly before us the admirable figure which detaches itself from it, that finished model of calm and sweet majesty, of infinite tenderness for all that breathes, and compassion for all that suffers, of perfect moral freedom and exemption from every prejudice. It was to save others that he who was one day to be Gautama disdained to tread sooner in the way of Nirvana, and that he chose to become Buddha at the cost of countless numbers of supple- mentary existences." "The singular force/' says Professor Bloomfield, "of the great teacher's personality is unquestioned. The sweetness of his character and the majesty of his personality stand forth upon the background of India's religious history with a degree of vividness which is strongly enhanced by the absence of other religions of any great importance." And even Bartholemy St. Hilaire, misjudging Buddhism as he does, says: "I do not hesitate to say that there is not among the founders of religions a figure either more pure or more touching than that of Buddha. 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 fn it the eternity of a universal hope, the immortality of a bound- less 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 is incomprehensible. The foremost and greatest of his disciples, the blessed Sariputta, even he has acknowledged that he could not gauge the Buddha's wisdom and mercy. Already the thinking minds of Europe and America have offered their tribute of admiration to his divine memory. Professor Huxley says: "Gautama got rid of even that shade of a shadow of permanent existence by a metaphysical tour de force of great interest to the stu- dent of philosophy, seeing that it supplies the wanting half of Bishop Berkeley's well-known idealist argument. It is a remarkable indication of the subtlety of Indian speculation that Gautama should have seen deeper than the greatest of modern idealists." His Social and Moral Code. BoundleseLove 380 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, peatmg ■oaa Re- g Itself. (Conflicting Opinions. The tendency of enlightened thought of the day, all the world over, is not toward theology, but philosophy and psychology. The bark of theological dualism is drifting into danger. The fundamental principles of evolution and monism are being accepted by the thought- ful. The crude conceptions of anthropomorphic deism are being rel- egated into the limbo of oblivion Lip service of prayer is giving place to a life of altruism. Personal self-sacrifice is gaining the place of a vicarious sacrifice. History is repeating itself. Twenty-five centuries ago India witnessed an intellectual and religious revolution which cul- minated in the overthrow of monotheism and priestly selfishness, and- the establishment of a synthetic religion. This was accomplished through Sakya Muni. Today the Christian world is going through the same process. It is difficult to properly comprehend the system of Buddha by a spiritual study of its doctrines. And especially by those who have been trained to think that there is no truth in other religions. When, the scholar Vachcha, approaching Buddha, demanded a complete/ elucidation of his doctrines, he said: ''This doctrine is hard to see, hard to understand, solemn and sublime, not resting on dialectic, sub- tle, and perceived only by the wise. It is hard for you to learn who are of different views, different ideas of fitness, 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 it a positivism. Buckner and his school of material- ists thought it was a materialistic system. Agnostics found in Buddha an agnostic, and Dr Rhys Davids, the eminent Pali scholar, used to call him the "agnostic philosopher of India." Some scholars have found an expressed monotheism therein. Arthur Lillie, another stu- dent of Buddhism, thinks it a theistic 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 "the wanting half of Bishop Buckley's well-known idealist argument." Dr. Eikl says that '* Buddhism is a system of vast magnitude, for it embraces all the various branches of science, which our western nations have been long accustomed to divide for separate study. It embodies, in one living structure, grand-and peculiar views of physical science, refined and subtle theories on abstract metaphysics, an edifice of fanciful mysticism, a most elaborate and far reaching system of practical morality, and, finally, a church organization as broad in its principles and as finely wrought in its most intricate network as any in the world. All this is, moreover, confined in such a manner that the essence and substance of the whole may be compressed into a few formulas and symbols plain and suggestive enough to be grasped by the most simple-minded ascetic, and yet so full of philosophic depths THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 381 as to provide rich food for years of meditation to the metaphysician, the poet, the mystic, and pleasant pasturage for the most fiery imag- ination of any poetical dreamer." In the religion of Buddha is found a comprehensive system of a Sublime ethics, and a transcendental metaphysic embracing a sublime psychol- Psychology, ogy. To the simple minded it offers a code of morality, to the earnest student a system of pure thought. But the basic doctrine is the self- purification of man. Spiritual progress is impossible for him who does not lead a life of purity and compassion. The 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 ihe 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 Miiller: "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 giving up what, in our best, our most honest movements, 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-sur- render, the true self-sacrifice, the truest trust in truth, the truest faith." Without that atheism no new religion, no reform, no reformation, no resuscitation would ever have been possible; without that 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 un- prejudiced mind before we start on the road of investigation of truth. The least attachment of the mind to preconceived ideas is a positive hindrance to the acceptance of truth. Prejudice, passion, fear of ex- ideal* of Mmi- pression of one's convictions and ignorance are the four biases that ^^^' have to be sacrificed at the threshold. To be born as a human being is a glorious privilege. Man's dignity consists in his capability to reason and think and to live up to the highest ideal of pure life, of calm thought, of wisdom, without extraneous interventions. Buddha says that man can enjoy in this life a glorious existence, a life of indi- vidual freedom, of fearlessness and compassionateness. This dignified ideal of manhood may be attained by the humblest, and this consum- mation raises him above wealth and royaltyc **He that is compassion- ate and observes the law is My disciple." Human brotherhood forms the fundamental teaching of Buddha — universal love and sympathy with all mankind and with animal life. Every one is enjoined to love all beings as a mother loves her only child and takes care of it even at the risk of her life. The realization of the ideal of brotherhood is obtained when the first stage of holi- ness is realized. The idea of separation is destroyed and the oneness of life is recognized. There is no pessimism in the teachings of Buddha, for he strictly enjoins on his holy disciples not even to sug- 382 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. gest to others that life is not worth living. On the contrary, the use> fulness of life is emphasized for the sake of doing good to self and humanity. From the fetich worshiping savage to the highest type of hu- manity man naturally yearns for something higher. And it is for this reason that Buddha inculcated the necessity for self-reliance and inde- pendent thought. To guide humanity in the right path, a Tathagata (Messiah) appears from time to time. In the sense of a supreme Creator, Buddha says that there is no such being, accepting the doctrine of evolution as the only true one, Evoiutionf^^" with corollary, the law of cause and effect. He condemns the idea of a Creator, but the supreme God of the Brahmans and minor gods are accepted. But they are subject to the law of cause and effect. This supreme God is all love, all merciful, all gentle, and looks" upon all beings with equanimity. Buddha teaches men to practice these four supreme virtues. But there is no difference between the perfect man and this supreme God of the present world. The teachings of the Buddha on evolution are clear and expansive. We are asked to look upon the cosmos ** as a continuous process un- folding itself in regular order in obedience to natural laws. We see in it all not a yawning chaos restrained by the constant interference from without of a wise and beneficent external power, but a vast aggregate of original elements perpetually working out their own fresh redistribu- tion m accordance with their own inherent energies. He regards the cosmos as an almost infinite collection of material, animated by an almost infinite sum total of energy," which is called Akasa. I have used the above definition of evolution, as given by Grant Allen in his " Life of Darwin," as it beautifully expresses the generalized idea of Buddhism. We do not postulate that man's evolution began from the protoplasmic stage, but we are asked not to speculate on the origin of life, on the origin of the law of cause and effect, etc. So far as this great law is concerned we say that it controls the phenomena 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 dis- cussed. In the Kalama, the sutta, Buddha says: "Do not believe in what ye have heard. Do not believe in tradi- tions, because they have been handed down for 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 m conjectures. Do not believe in that as truth to which you have become attached by habit. Do not believe merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Often observa- tion and analysis, when the result agrees with reason, is conducive to the good and gain of one and all. Accept and live up to it." To the ordinary householder, whose highest happiness consists m };)eing wealthy here and in heaven hereafter, Buddha inculcated a sini' 3uddhist Priest, Siam. 384 THE WQRLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, pie eode of morality. The student of Buddha's religion from destroy- ing life, lays aside the club and weapon. He is modest and full of pity. He is compassionate to all creatures that have life. He abstains from theft, and he passes 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. Putting away slander he abstains from calumny. He is a peacemaker, a speaker of words that make for peace. Whatever word is humane, pleasant to the ear, lovely, reaching to the heart, such are the words he speaks. He abstains from harsh language. He abstains from foolish talk, he abstains from intoxicants and stupifying drugs. The advance student of the religion of Buddha, when he has faith in him, thinks " full of hindrances in household life is a path defiled by passion. Pure as the air is the life of him who has renounced all Uprightness worldly things How difficult it is for the man who dwells at home his Object. ^q ijyg \\^q higher life in all its fullness, in all its purity, in all its freedom. Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let me clothe myself in orange-colored robes, let me go forth from a household life into the homeless state." Then before long, forsaking his portion of wealth, forsaking his circle of relatives, he cuts off his hair and beard, he clothes himself in the orange-colored robes and he goes into the homeless state, and 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. He encompasses himself with holiness, in word and deed. He sustains his life by means that are quite pure. Good is his conduct, guarded the door of his senses, mindful and self-possessed, he is altogether happy. The student of pure religion abstains from earning a livelihood by the practice of low and lying arts, viz., all divination, interpreta- tion of dreams, palmistry, astrology, crystal prophesying, charms of all sorts. Buddha also says: **Just as a mighty trumpeter makes himself heard in all the four directions without difficulty, even so of all things that have life, there is not one that the student passes by or leaves aside, but regards them all with mind set free and deep-felt pity, sympathy and equanimity He lets his mind pervade the whole world with thoughts of love." To realize the unseen is the goal of the student of Buddha's teach ings, and such a one has to lead an absolutely pure life. Buddha says : ' 'Let him fulfill all righteousness, let him be devoted to that quietude of heart which springs from within, let him not drive back the ecstasy of contemplation, let him look through things, let him be much alone. Fulfill all righteousness for the sake of the living, and for the sake of the blessed ones that are dead and gone." Thought transference, thought reading, clairvoyance, projection the sub-conscious sel^and all the higher branches of psychical science that just now engage the thoughtful attention of psychical researchers THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 385 are within the reach of him who fulfills all righteousness, who is de- voted to solitude and to contemplation. Charity, observance of moral rules, purifying the mind, making others participate in the good work that one is doing, co-operating with others in doing good, nursing the sick, giving gifts to the deserving ones, hearing all that is good and beautiful, making others learn the rules of morality, accepting the laws of cause and effect are the com- mon appanage of all good men. Prohibited employments include slave dealing, sale of weapons of warfare, sale of poisons, sale of intoxicants, sale of flesh— all deemed the lowest of professions. The five kinds of wealth are: Faith, pure life, receptivity of the mind to all that is good and beautiful, liberality and wisdom. Those who possess 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 faithful, and leads the life of a householder, and possesses the follow- ^^^c/pte^^^^ ing four (Dhammas) virtues, truth, justice, firmness and liberality — such a one does not grieve when passing away. Pray ask other teachers and philosophers far and wide, whether there is found anything greater than ,truth, self-restraint, liberality and forbearance." The pupil should minister to his teacher; he should rise up in his presence, wait upon him, listen to all that he says with respectful attention, perform the duties 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 pre- senting gifts, by courteous language, by promoting as his equals and by sharing with them his prosperity. They should watch over him Ti'hen he has negligently exposed himself, guard his property when he is careless, assist him in difficulties, stand by him and help to provide f >r his family. The master should minister to the wants of his servants, as depend- ents; he assigns them labor suitable to their strength, provides for their comfortable support; he attends them in sickness, causes them to partake of any extraordinary delicacy he may obtain and makes them occasional presents. The servants should manifest their attach- ment to the master; they rise before him in the morning and retire later to rest; they do not purloin his property, do their work cheer- fully and actively and are respectful in their behavior toward him. The religious teachers should manifest their kind feelings toward lawyers. They should dissuade them from vice, excite them to virtu- ous acts — being desirous of promoting the welfare of all. They should instruct them in the things they had not previously learned, confirm them in the truths and point out to them the way to heaven. The 2$ ^ -s.- 386 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. A Tathagata 8orn into the World. A Warning. lawyers should minister to the teachers by respectful attention mani- fested in their words, actions and thoughts, and by supplying them their temporal wants and by allowing them constant access to them. The wise, virtuous, prudent, intelligent, teachable, docile man will become eminent. The persevering, diligent man, unshaken in adver- sity and of inflexible determination will become eminent. The well- informed, friendly-disposed, prudent-speaking, generous-minded, self- controlled, self-possessed man will become eminent. In this world generosity, mildness of speech, public spirit and courteous behavior are worthy of respect under all circumstances and will be valuable in all places. If these be not possessed the mother will receive neither honor nor support from the son, neither will the father receive respect nor honor. Buddha also says: " Know that from time to time a Tathagata is born into the world, fully enlightened, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and good- ness, happy with knowledge of the world, unsurpassed as a guide to erring mortal, a teacher of gods and men, a blessed Buddha. He, by himself, thoroughly understands and sees, as it were face to face, this universe, the world below with all. its spirits and the worlds above, and all creatures, all religious teachers, gods and men, and he then makes his knowledge known to others. The "truth doth he proclaim, both in its letter and its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation; the higher life doth he proclaim in all its purity and in all its perfectness. First. He is absolutely free from all passions, commits no evil even in secrecy and is the embodiment of perfection. He is above doing anything wrong. Second. Self-introspection — by this has he reached the state of supreme enlightenment. Third. By means of his divine eye he looks back to the remotest past and future. Knows the way of emancipation, and is accomplished in the three great branches of divine knowledge, and has gained per- fect wisdom. He is in possession of all psychic powers, always will- ing to listen, full of energy, wisdom and dhyana. Fourth. He has realized eternal peace and walks in the perfect path of virtue. Fifth. He knows three states of existence. Sixth. He is incomparable in purity and holiness. Seventh. He is teacher of gods and men. Eighth. He exhorts gods and men at the proper time, according to their individual temperaments. Ninth. He is the supremely enlightened teacher and the perfect embodiment of all the virtues he teaches. The two characteristics of Buddha are wisdom and compassion." Buddha also gave a warning to his followers when he said: "He who is not generous, who is fond of sensuality, who is disturbed at heart, who is of uneven mind, who is not reflective, who is not of 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 WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 387 The attainment of salvation is by the perception of self through charity, purity, self-sacrifice, self-knowledge, dauntless energy, pa- tience, truth, resolution, love and equanimity. The last words of Buddha w^ere these: '* Be ye lamps unto yourselves; be ye a refuge to yourselves; betake yourself to an eternal voyage; hold fast to the truth as a lamp; hold fast as a refuge to the truth; look not for refuge to any one besides yourselves. Learn ye, then, that knowledge which I have attained and have declared unto you and walk ye in it, practice and increase in order that the path of holiness may last and long endure for the bless- ing of many people, to the relief of the world, to the welfare, the blessing, the joy of gods and men." Attain me nb of Salvation. Xhe Law of Qause and ]§ffect, as Tfaught by 3^ddha. Paper by SHAKU SOYEN, of Japan. Natcure of Cause. F we open our eyes and look at the universe we observe the sun and moon and the stars on the sky; mountains, rivers, plants, animals, fishes and birds on the earth. Cold and warmth come alternately; shine and rain change from time to time without ever reaching an end. Again let us close our eyes and camly 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 ex- citement of reason and will. Thus the action of mind is like an endless issue of a spring of water. As the phenomena of the external world are various and marvelous, so is the internal 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 explana- tion, namely, the law of cause and effect. Now let us proceed to understand the nature of this law, as taught by Buddha himself: First. The complex nature of cause. Second. An endless progression of the causal law. Third. The causal law in terms of the three worlds. Fourth. Self-formation of cause and effect. Fifth. Cause and effect as the law of nature. First. The complex nature of cause. A certain phenomenon cannot arise from a single cause, but it must have several conditions; in other words, no effect can arise unless several causes combine together. Take for example a case of fire. You may say its cause is oil or fuel; but neither oil nor fuel alone can give rise to a flame. Atmosphere, 388 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 389 space and several other conditions, physical or mechanical, are neces- sary for the rise of a flame. 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. Second. An endless progression of the causal law. A cause must be preceded by another cause, and an effect must be followed by an- other effect. Thus, if we investigate the cause of a cause, the past of a past, by tracing back even to an eternity, we shall never reach the first cause. The assertion that there is the first cause is contrary to the fundamental principle of nature, since a certain cause must have an origin in some preceding cause or causes, and there is no cause which is not an effect. From the assumption that a cause is an effect of a preceding cause, which is also preceded by another, thus, ad infinitum, 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 has no beginning, no end. Since, even if we trace back to an eternity, absolute cause cannot be found, so we come to the conclusion that there is no end in the universe. Like as the waters of rivers evaporate and form clouds, and the latter changes its form into rain, thus returning once more into the original form of waters, the causal law is in a logical circle changing from cause to effect, effect to cause. Third. The causal law in terms of three worlds, namely, past, present and future. All the religions apply more or less the causal law in the sphere of human conduct, and remark that the pleasure and happiness of one's future life depend upon the purity of his present life. But what is peculiar to Buddhism is, it applies the law not only to the relation of present and future life, but also past and present. As the facial expressions of each individual are different from those of others, men are graded by the different degrees of wisdom, talent, wealth and birth. It is not education nor experience alone that can make a man wise^ intelligent and wealthy, but it depends upon one's 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 qual- ity 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 or 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. Fourth. 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 un- happy. Now let us observe the different attitudes of human life; one tion of is happy and others feel unhappy. Indeed, even among the members Progression of the Casaal Law. Past, Present and Fatore. Self. andjK^ect. forma- Caaae 390 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The Law Nature. of First Discov- erer of the Law. of the same family, we often notice a great diversity in wealth and fort- une. Thus various attitudes of human life can be explained by the self-formation of cause and effect. There is no one in the universe but one's self who rewards or punishes him. The diversity in future stages will be explained by the same doctrine. This is termed in 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. Fifth. 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 human beings. The law exists for an eternity, without beginning, without end. Things grow and decay, and this is caused, not by an external power, but by an internal force which is in things themselves as an innate attribute. This internal lawacts inaccx^rdance with the law of cause and effect, and thus appear immense phenomena of the universe. Just as the clock moves by itself without any inter- vention of any external force, so is the progress of the universe. We are born in the world of variety; some are poor and unfortu- nate, others are wealthy and happy. The state of variety will be repeated again and again in our future lives. But to whom shsU we complain of our misery? To none but ourselves. We reward our- selves; so shall we do in our future life. If you ask me who deter- mined the length of our life, I say, the law of causality. Who made him happy and made me miserable? The law of 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 conduct. 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 I 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. Xhe [Religion of the World. Paper by ZENSHORI NOGUCHI, Interpreter for the Japanese Buddhist Priests. Drinprs hie B.idrlhist Faith. 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 today without any preliminary preparation, for I have been .^^/£jLj|M'\^ mgr entirely occupied in interpreting for the four f%^^^l^t iD Hijiris who came with me to attend this con- ( ^S^m,--:- Hf( gress. As you remembered Columbus for his dis- covery, 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 awakened us from our long and undisturbed slumber and us to open our eyes to the condition of other \ ' civilized countries, including that in which I now am wondering at its greatness and beauty, especially as it is epito- mized in the World's Fair. I refer to the famous Commodore Perry. I must do for him what Americans have done and do for Columbus. With him I have one, too, to remember, whose statue you have doubt- less seen at the world's fair. His name was Naosuke jl, the Lord or Hikone and the great Chancellor of Bakufu. He was unfortunately assassinated by the hands of the conservative party, which procla^'r.it ^ him a traitor because he opened the door to the stranger 'v^thoat waiting for the permission of his master the emperor. Since we opened the door about thirty-six yeais have passed, dur- ing which time wonderful changes and progress have taken place in my country, so that now, in the midst of the White 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 railed him, Commodore Perry. So my people owe a great deal to him and to the America who gave him to us. I must therefore make some return to him for his kindness, as ycu 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. 892 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 398 Then what is to be done? These things that we have just laid aside as inadequate are only materials, which fire and water can destroy. In their stead I bring something that the elements cannot destroy, and it is the best of all my possessions. What is that? Buddhism! As you see, I am simply a layman, and do not belong to any sect of Buddhism at all. So I present to you four Buddhist sorios, who will give their addresses before you and place in your hands many thousand copies of English translations of Buddhist works, such as "Outlines of the Mahayana, as Taught by Buddha;" ''A Brief Account of the Shin-shu ;" "A Shin-shu Catechism," and "The Sutra of Forty-two Sections and Two Other Short Sutras," etc. Besides these 400 volumes of the complete Buddha Shaka'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, Japanese can read, are made from the original Sanskrit by many Chinese sorios in ancient times. 1 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 En- glish. 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 education, otherwise Chinese or Japanese must learn English Mahayana enough to translate them for English reading people. Whichever ^o*'*^^®- 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 example, I have translated Rev. Pro- fessor Tokunaga's work, without any help from foreigners, on account of the want of time. I am very sorry that I have not enough copies of that book to distribute them to you all, for 1 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 tneir sects are there in the v/orld? Thousands. Is it to be hoped that the number of religions in the world will be increased by thousands more? No. Why? If such were our hope we ought to finally bring the number of religions to as great a figure as that of the population 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 respective 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 lim- 394 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGION^L ited 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 cannot find out that one way among the already estab- lished 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 Religion of its full development in all respects. If the thousands of religions do the World. continue 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 Religions, the gathering together of which is an important step in that direction. \Yhat Buddhism 'Yeaches of Man's Rela- tion to God, and jts Influence on Xhose\Yho Wave f^eceived ]t. Paper by KINZA RIUGE HIRAI, of Japan. HERE are very few countries in the world so misunderstood as Japan. Among the innu- merable unfair judgments, the religious thought of my countrymen is especially mis- represented, and the whole nation is con- demned as heathen Be they heathen, pagan, ^|aH: m ^'"^%-^ or something else, it is a fact that from the ^l&^^l I ^ beginning of our history Japan has received all teachings with open mind; and also that the instructions which came from outside have commingled with the native religion in entire harmony, as is seen by so many temples built in the name of truth 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 the Japanese houses, which have generally two rooms, one for a miniature Buddhist temple and the other for a small Shinto shrine, before which the family study the respective scriptures of the two religions; as is seen by the popular ode, Wake noboru Fumoto no michi oa Ooke redo, Ona ji takane no Tsuki wo miru 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 Q 395 Unfair Jadg- ments of Japan. 396 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. other similar odes and mottoes, which are put in the mouth of the ignorant country old woman, when she decides the case of bigoted religious contention among young girls. In reality Synthetic. religion, or 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 relig- ion was widely spread in my country, but in 1637 ^^e Christian mis- sionaries, combined with the converts, caused a tragic and bloody rebell- ion against the country, and it is understood that those missionaries in- tended to- subjugate Japan to their own mother country. This shocked all Japan, and it took the government of the Shogun a year to suppress this terrible and intrusive commotion. To those who accuse us that our mother country prohibited Christianity, not now, but in a past age, I will reply that it was not from religious or racial 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 Christanity is the instrument of depredation 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 occur- rence. The circumstances of which I am about to speak is the present experience of ourselves, to which I especially call the attention of this parliament, and not only this Parliament, but also the whole of Chris- tendom. Since 1853, when Commodore Perry came to Japan as the ambas- sador of the President of the United States of America, our country began to be better known by all western nations and the new ports were widely opened and the prohibition of the Gospels was abolished, Treaty of 3.S it was before the Christian rebellion. By the convention at Yeddo, 1858. now Tokio, in 1858, the treaty was stipulated between America and Japan, and also with the European powers. It was the time when our country was yet under the feudal government; and on account of our having been secluded for over two centuries since the Christian rebell- ion of 1637, diplomacy was quite a new experience to the feudal offi- cers, who put their full confidence upon western nations, and, without any alteration, accepted every article of the treaty pre ented from the foreign governments. According to the treaty we are in a very disad- vantageous situation; and amongst the others there are two prominent THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 397 articles, which deprive us of our rights and advantages. One is the exterritoriality 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 subjected to the jurisdiction of the authorities of the western nations. Another regards the tariff, which, with the excep- tion of five per cent ad valorum, 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 ist of July, 1872. Therefore, in 1871, our government demanded a revision, and since then we have been constantly requesting it, but foreign governments have simply ignored our requests, making many excuses. One part of the treaty between the United States of America and Japan concernmg 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' natural 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 cir- cumstances. Probably they hear now and then the reports from the missionaries and their friends in Japan. I do not deny that their j/^n^^^^^^^ 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 sacri- ficed? As I understand it, the spirit and the necessity of law is to protect the rights and welfare of the weaker against the aggression of the stronger; but I have never learned in my shallow studies of law that Ihe 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 relig- ious 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 advan- tages 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 S98 THE WORLD'S CONCRESS OP RELIGIONS. cannot discover there any passage which says, "Whosoever shall demand justice of thee smite his right cheek, and when he turns smite In Doubt the other also." Again, I read in the Bible, "If any man will sue thee About Advice, at law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also;" but I cannot discover there any passage which says, "If thou shalt sue any man at the law, and take away his coat, let him give thee his cloak also." You send your missionaries to Japan and they advise us to be moral and believe Christianity. We like to be moral; we know that Christianity is good, and we are very thankful for this kindness. But at the same time our people are rather perplexed and very much in doubt about this advice. For we think that the treaty stipulated in the time of feudalism, when we were yet in our youth, is still clung to by the powerful nations of Christendom; when we find that every year a good many western vessels engaged in the seal fishery are smuggled into our seas; when legal cases are always decided by the foreign authorities in Japan unfavorably to us; when some years ago a Japanese was not allowed to enter a university on the Pacific coast of America because of his being of a different race; when a few months ago the school board in San Francisco enacted a regulation that no Japanese should be allowed to enter the public school there; when last year the Japanese were driven out in wholesale from one of the territories of the United States of America; when our business men in San Fran- cisco 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 hoist- ing lanterns marked "Jap must go;" when the Japanese in the Hawaiian islands are deprived of their suffrage; when we see some western people in Japan who erect before the entrance of their houses a special post, upon which is the notice, "No Japanese is allowed to enter here," just like a board upon which is written, "No dogs allowed;" when we are in such a situation is it unreasonable — notwithstanding the kind- ness of the western nations, from one point of view, who send their missionaries to us — for us intelligent heathen to be embarrassed and hesitate to swallow the sweet and warm liquid of the heaven of Chris- tianity? If such be the Christian ethics, well, we are perfectly satis- fied to be heathen. If any person should claim that there are many people in Japan who speak and write against Christianity, I am not a hypocrite and. I will frankly state that I was the first in my country who ever publicly tiMiltjf ^As^ attacked Christianity; no, not real Christianity, but false Christianity, sailed. ^^e wrongs done toward us by the people of Christendom. If any reprove the Japanese because they have had strong anti-Christian soci- eties, I will honestly declare that I was the first in Japan who ever organized a society against Christianity; no, not against real Chris- tianity, but to protect ourselves from false Christianity and the injustice which we receive from the people of Christendom. Do not think that TMR WORLD'S CONORESS OP RRUCIONS, 399 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 proudly state that if any one discussed the (affinity of all religions before the public, under the title of Synthetic 'religion, it was I. I say this to you because 1 do not wish to be under- [stood as a bigoted Buddhist sectarian. Really, there is no sectarian in my country. Our people well know ^hat abstract truth is in Christianity, and we, or at least I, do not care Fabout the names if I speak from the point of teaching. Whether .Buddhism is called Christianity or Christianity is named Buddhism, whether we are called Confucianists or Shintoists, we are not particu- lar; but we are very particular about the truth taught and its consistent Lpplication. Whether Christ saves us or drives us into hell, whether "rautama Buddha was a real person or there never was such a man, it is not a matter of consideration to us; but the consistency of doctrine md conduct is the point on which we put the greater importance. iTherefore, unless the inconsistency which we observe is renounced, and especially the unjust treaty by which we are entailed is revised upon in equitable basis, our people will never cast away their prejudice [about Christianity, in spite of the eloquent orator who speaks its truth "from the pulpit. We are very often called barbarians, and I have heard [and read that Japanese are stubborn and cannot understand the truth >f the Bible. I will admit that this is true in some sense, for, though they admire the eloquence of the orator and wonder at his courage, :hough they approve his logical argument, yet they are very stubborn ind will not join Christianity as long as they think it is a western lorality 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 fthe 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 jtheir integrity by the patriotic spirit which established the independ- jence of the United States of America. And I feel sure that the cir- |cumstances which made the American people declare independence [are in some sense comparable to the present state of my country. I [cannot refrain my thrilling 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; /ou, I say, may understand somewhat our position, and as you asked ifor justice from your mother country, we, too, ask justice from these [foreign powers. Admiration foi Americans. Buddhist Temple, Bangkok, Siam. \Yhat 3^d^hism W^ls D^^^ ^^^ Japan. Paper by HORIN TOKI, of Japan. HAVE had the pleasure of speaking something about Buddhism, and I now again take the liberty of speaking something further about Buddhism, so that you may understand that reli- gion, 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 doc- trine; the other is to guide the goodness and righteousness of mankind. The former teaches us that our body and spirit are always in con- stant connection with the outside 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 Chris- tianity, the absolute extremity in Confucianism, Ameno Minaka nushi no mikoto in Shintoism, Borankamma in Brahmism, are estab- lished in order to show the truth of the universe. The latter — that is to guide the goodness and righteousnesss 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 use 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 everyday personal action. Such commandments, by pacifying, puri- fying and enlightening our passions, as well as our wisdom, shall in the run of its course make the present society, which is full of vice, hatred and struggles or race, just like hungry dogs or wolves, a holy paradise of purity, peace and love- The regulating power of such command- 401 Ten CotfL- mandmeiits. 402 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, ments shall turn this troublesome world into the spiritual kingdom of fraternity and humanity. This is only one illustration of Buddhist preaching; therefore, you see that Buddhism does not quarrel with other religions about the truth. If there were a religion which teaches the truth in the same way Bud- dhism regards it as the truth of Buddhism disguised under the garment of other religion. Buddhism never cares what the outside garment might do. It only aims to promote the purity and morality of man- kind. It never asks who discovered it? It only appreciates the good- ness and righteousness. It helps the others in the purification of man- kind. Buddha himself called Buddhism " a round, circulating relig- ion," which means the truth common to every religion, regardless of the outside garment. The absolute truth must not be regarded as the monopolization of one religion of another. The truth is the broadest and widest. In short. Buddhism teaches us that the Buddhism is truth, the goddess of truth who is common to every religion, but who showed her true phase to us through the Buddhism. And now let me tell you that this Buddhism has been a living 8 ^ ^t^B.i.d spirit and nationality of our beloved Japan for so many years and will Nationality.^ be forever. Consequently, the Japanese people, who have been con- stantly guided by this beautiful star of truth of Buddha's, are very hos- pitable for other religions and countries, and are entirely different from some other obstinate nations. I say this without the least boast. Nay, I say this from simplicity and purity of mind. The Japanese of thirty years since — that is since v/e opened our country for foreigners — will prove to you that our country is quite unequaled on the way of pick- ing up what is good an^ ^ight, 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 blind 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, architecture 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 boastful, 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, architecture, etc. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIC I ON^. 403 Should you doubt me, please trouble yourself to come over to Japan, where the beautiful mountains and clear streams will welcome you with smiles and open heart. Japan, though small in area, with the glorious rising as well as the setting sun, which shines over the beautiful cherry tree flowers, will do her very best to please you. The Japanese fine arts productions, which abound in all the cities of Japan, will tell you their own history. Not only is there the beautiful climate, which will tempt you to forget the departure from Japan, but I say that you ladies and gentlemen are not so weak as to be tempted by climate or the other things so far as to forget your country; but the respect, courtesy, kindness and hospitality you will constantly receive there might, perhaps, make it too hard for you to leave Japan without shedding tears. You must not 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 originator of customs and the fine arts of worldwide reputation in Japan? Allow Fine Arts, me to assure you that it was Buddhism. I have no time to count, one by one, what Buddhism has wrought out in Japan during the past eleven hundred years. But one word is enough — Buddhism is the spirit of Japan; her nationality is Buddhism. This is the true state of Japan. But it is a pity that we see some false and obstinate religionists, who, comparing these promising Japanese with the South Islanders, have been so carelessly trying to introduce some false religion into our country. As I said before, we 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 our country? The hateful rumor of the collision taking place between the two parties is some- times spread abroad. We, from the standpoint of love to our country, cannot overlook this falsehood and violation of peace and fraternity. Do you think it is right for one to urge upon a stranger to believe what he does not like and call that stranger foolish, barbarous, igno- rant and obstinate on account of the latter's denying the proposition made by the former? Do you think it is right for the former to excite the latter by calling so many names and producing social disorder? I should say that such a one as that is against peace, love and order, fraternity and humanity. I should say that such a one as that is against the truth. He who is against the truth had better die. Justice does conquer injustice, and we are glad to see that the cloud of falsehood is gradually disappearing before the light of truth. Also, you ladies and gentlemen who are assembled now here are the friends of truth. Nay, you are amidst the truth. You breathe the truth as you do the air. And you surely indorse my opinion, because it is nothing but the truth. 3uddhism as It j^xists in §iam. Paper by H. R. H. PRINCE CHANDRADAT CHUDHADHARN, of Siam. Eternal Evo- lution. UDDHISM, as it exists in Siam, teaches that all things are made up from the Dharma, a Sanscrit term meaning the ''essence of nat- ure." The Dharma presents the three fol- lowing phenomena, which generally exist in every being: i. The accomplishment of eter- nal evolution. 2. Sorrow and suffering, ac- cording to human ideas. 3. A separate power, uncontrollable by the desire of man, and not belonging to man. The Dharma is formed of two essences, one known as matter, the other known as spirit. These essences exist for eternity; they are without beginning and without end; the one represents the world and the corpo- real parts of man, and the other the mind of man. The three phenomena combined are the factors 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 man- ner the Dharma represents the universe, and varies according to the degree of evolution accomplished within it. Matter is called in the Pali "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 of evolution that is inherent to matter; and the dif- erence 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 appearances, such as man, animal, ^ deva or any other beings that are also but modified spirits and matter. Man becomes, 404 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. ' 405 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 recreated again and again by an eternal evolution. He is first body and spirit, but, through ignorance of the fact that all is Dharma and of that which is good and evil, his spirit may become impressed with evil temptation. Thus, for instance, he may desire certain things with that force peculiar to a tiger, whose spirit is modified by craving for lust and anger. . In such a case he will be continually adopting, directly or indirectly, in his own life, the wills and acts of that tiger, and thereby is himself that animal in spirit and soul. Yet outwardly he appears to be a man, and is as yet unconscious of the fact that his spirit has become endowed with the cruelties of the tiger. If this state continues until the body be dissolved 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 uni- verse, 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 adopt- ing in his own life the acts and wills of that superior being, man becomes spiritually that superior being himself, both in nature and soul, even while in his present form. When death puts an end to his physical body, a spirit of the very same nature and quality may reap- pear 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 our- selves, death is a suffering. It is, therefore, undesirable to be born into any being that is a modification of Dharma, to be sooner or later, again and again, dissolved by the eternal phenomenon of evolution. The only means by which we are able to free ourselves from sufferings and death is therefore to possess a perfect knowledge of Dharma, and ^^JJ®^**^ * ^°*' 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 con- vinced that we ourselves and whatever belongs to ourselves is 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 attained when the bodies dissolve both spiritually and physically So that one should cease all petty long- ing for personal happiness, and remember that one life is as hollow as the other, that all is transitory and unreal. fering. 406 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 re- pose of Nirvana, the extinction of our being nothingness.. Allow me to give an illustration: A piece of rope is thrown in a dark road; a silly man passing by cannot make out what it is. In his natural ignor- ance 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 that what he took to be a snake is but a piece of rope; his alarm and fright are suddenly at an end; they are annihilated, as it were; the man now becomes happy and free from the suffering he has just experienced through his own folly. It is precisely the same with ourselves, our lives, our deaths, our alarms, our cries, our lamentations, our disappointments, and all other sufferings. They are created by our own ignorance of eternity, of the knowledge of Dharma to do away with and annihilate all of them. I shall now refer to the four noble truths as taught by our Merci- ful and Omniscient Lord Buddha; they point out the path that leads to Nirvana, or to the desirable extinction of self. The first noble truth is suffering; it arises from birth, old age, ill- ness, sorrow, death, separation and from what is loved, association rruths. ^^^^ with what is hateful, and, in short, the very idea of self in spirit and matters that constitute Dharma The second noble truth is the cause of suffering which results from ignorance, creating lust for objects of perishable nature. If the lust be for sensual objects it is called, in Pali, Kama Tanha. If it be for supersensual objects, belongmg 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 Wibhava Tanha. The third noble truth is the extinction of sufferings, which is brought about by the cessation of the three kinds of lust, together with their accompanying evils, which all result directly from ignorance. The fourth noble truth is the means of paths that lead to the cessa- tion of lusts and other evils. This noble truth is divided into the fol- lowing 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 sup- press them. We are not to forget that we are in this world to suffer; that wherever there is pleasure there is pam, and that, after all, pain - and pleasure only exist according to human ideas. By right resolutions is meant that it is our imperative duty to act THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 407 kindly to our fellow creatures. We are to bear no malice against any- body 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 comm it adultery. Temperance and celibacy are also enjoined. 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 therefore 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. I will, therefore, merely summarize their meanings and say that sorrow and sufferings are mainly due to ignorance, which creates in our minds lust, anger ra?^! *° "^^^^^ 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, con- tentment and love. Now comes the question. What is good and what is evil? Every act, speech or thought derived from falsehood, or that which is injuri- ous to others is evil. 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, knowl- edge produces progressive ideas. These are called good because they give pleasure. The teachings of Buddhism on morals are numerous, and are di- vided mto three groups of advantages — the advantage to be obtained in the present life, the advantage to be obtained in the future life, and the advantage to be obtained in all eternity. For each of these ad- vantages there are recommended numerous paths to be followed by in the Present Life. 408 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, those who aspire to any one of them. I will only quote a few exam- ples: To those who aspire to advantages in the present life Buddhism recommends diligence, economy, expenditure suitable to one's income, and association with the good. To those who aspire to the advantages of the future life are rec- ommended charity, kindness, knowledge of right and wrong. To those who wish to enjoy the everlasting advantages in all Advantages eternity are recommended purity of conduct, of mind and of knowl- edge. Allow me now to say a few words on the duties of man toward his 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 the 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. When poverty, accident or misfortune befalls man, the Buddhist is taught to bear it with patience, and if these are brought on by him- self it is his duty to discover their causes and try, if possible, to rem- edy them If the causes, however, are not to be found here in this life he must account for them by the wrongs done in his former existence. Temperance is enjoined upon all Buddhists for the reason that the habit of using intoxicating things tends to lower the mind to the level of that of an idiot, a mad man or an evil spirit. These are some of the doctrines and moralities taught by Bud- dhism, 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. 3uddhism, Paper by BANRIEU YATSUBUCHI, of Japan. ■■^ HE radiating light of the civilization of the present century, to be seen in Europe and America, is reflected on all corners of the earth. My country has already opened inter- national intercourse and made rapid progress, owing to America, for which I return many thanks. The present state of the world's civilization, however, is limited always to the near material world, and it has not yet set forth the best, most beautiful and most truth- ful spiritual world. It is because every relig- ion, stooping in each corner, neglects its duty r ji iiii m :.-z:„-' tm ^ir °^ universal love and brotherhood. But, at |yH^K|ttj^3nr last, the day came fortunately that all religions I 'PIUJP I" nil ^ sent their members to attend the world's relig- ious congress in connection with the Columbian exposition of 1893. Buddhism is the doctrine taught by Buddha Shakyamuni. The word Buddha is Sanscrit and in Japanese it is Satorim, which means understanding or comprehension. It has three meanings — self com- prehension, to let others comprehend and perfect comprehension. 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 saviour, the spirit incarnate of perfect self-sac- rifice 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 difference between Buddha and all other beings is in fined, point of supreme enlightenment. Kegon Sutra teaches us that there is no distinction between Mind, Buddha and Beings, and Nirvana Su- 409 Baddha Do- 410 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Co m p 1 e t e Doctrines o f Buddha. No Boom for Censure. tra also teaches us that all beings have the nature of Buddahood. 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 cogni- zance of the past, present and future in his mind. Kishinron tells us that space has no limit, that the worlds are innumerable, that the beings are countless, that Buddhas are numberless. Buddhism aims to turn from the incomplete, superstitious world to the complete enlighten- ment of the world of truth. The complete doctrines of Buddha, who spent fifty years in elab- orating them, were preached precisely and carefully, and their mean- ings are so profound and deep that I cannot explain at this time an infinitesimal 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 med- icines according to the different cases. Twelve divisions of sutras and eighty-fourthousand 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 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, conquering the passions, giving up the life to the sublime first principle There is no room for censure because Buddhism has many sects which were founded on Buddha's teachings, because Buddha consid- ered it best to preach according to the spiritual needs of his hearers, and leave to them the choice of any particular sect. We are not allowed to censure other sects, because the teaching ot each guides us all to the same place at last. The necessity for separating the many sects arose from the fact that the people of different countries were not alike in dispositions, and could not accept the same truths in the same way as others One teaching of Buddha contains many ele- ments which are to be distributed and separated. But as 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. Those of you who would care to know the outline of Buddhism might read Professor Nanjo's English translation of the *' History of the Japanese Buddhist Sects." This will also give you a general idea ot the Bud- dhism of Japan. B 0) h 3uddhism and Qhristianity. Paper by H. DHARMAPALA, of India. AX MULLER says: "When a religion has ceased to produce champions, proph? ets and martyrs it has ceased to live in the true sense of the word, and the decisive battle for the dominion of the world would have to be fought out among the three missionary religions which are alive: Buddhism, Moham- medanism and Christianity." Sir Will- iam 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 propitiating imaginary deities, but by our own conduct. His doctrines thus cut away the religious basis of caste and had the effi- ciency of the sacrificial ritual and assailed the supremacy of the Brahmans (priests) as the mediators between God and man." Buddha taught that sin, sorrow and deliverance, the state of man in this life, in all previous and in all future lives, are the inev- itable 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 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 exist- ence, according to his merit or demerit. His merit or demerit — that is, his character — consists of the sum total of his actions in all previous lives. By this great law of Karma Buddha explained the inequalities and apparent injustice of men's estate in this world as the consequence of 413 Besnlts of His Own Acts. 414 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. acts in the past, while Christianity compensates those inequalities by rewards in the future. A system in which our. whole well-being, past, present and to come, depends on ourselves, theoretically leaves little room for the interference, or even existence, of a personal God. But the atheism of Buddha was a philosophical tenet, which, so far from weakening the functions of right and wrong, gave them new strength from the doctrine of Karma, or the metempsychosis of character. To free ourselves from the thraldom of desire and from the fetters of sel- fishness was to attain to the state of the perfect disciple, Arabat, in this life and to the everlasting rest after death. PracticaiAim The great practical aim of Buddha's teaching was to subdue the Tea?hL^?*^^'^ lusts of the flesh and the cravings of self, and this could only be attained by the practice of virtue. In place of rites and sacrifices Buddha pre- scribed a code of practical morality as the means of salvation. The four essential features of that code were: Reverence to spiritual teach- ers and parents, control over self, kindness to other men, and reverence for the life of all creatures. He urged on his disciples that they must not only follow the true path themselves, but that they should teach it to all mankind. The life and teachings of Buddha are also beginning to exercise a new influence on religious thought in Europe and America. 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 sa ings and doeth them, he is like a man which built a house and laid the foundation on a rock. Why call ye me Lord and do not the things which I say? Judge not, condemn not, forgive. Love your enemies and do good, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great. Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Be ready, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Sell all that ye have and give it to the poor. Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God said unto him: Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided ? The life is more than meat and the body more than raiment. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be My disciple. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful in much, Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 415 For behold the kingdom of God is within you. There is no man that hath left house or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present time. Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be over- charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always. Here are some Buddhist teachings for comparison: Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time. Hatred ceases by Comp^Snf°' love. This is an ancient law. Let us live happily, not hating those who hate us. Among men who hate us, let us live free from hatred. Let one overcome anger by love. Let him overcome evil by good. Let him overcome the greedy by liberality, let the liar be overcome by truth. As the bee, injuring not the flower, its color or scent, flies away, taking the nectar, so let the wise man dwell upon the earth. Like a beautiful flower, full of color and full of scfent, the fine words of him who acts accordingly are full of fruit. Let him speak the truth, let him not yield to anger, let him give when asked, even from the little he has. By these things he will enter heaven. The man who has transgressed one law and speaks lies and denies a future world, there is no sin he could not do. The real treasure is that laid up through charity and piety,temper- ance and self-control; the treasure thus hid is secured, and passes not away. He who controls his tongue, speaks wisely and is not puffed up; who holds up the torch to enlighten the world, his word is sweet. Let his livelihood be kindness, his conduct righteousness. Then in the fullness of gladness he will make an end of grief. He who is tranquil and has completed his course, who sees truth as it really is, but is not partial when there are persons of different faith to be dealt with, who with firm mind overcomes ill will and cov etousness, he is a true disciple. As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, protects her son, her only son, so let each one cultivate good will without measure among all beings. Nirvana is a state to be realized here on this earth. He who has reached the fourth stage of holiness consciously enjoys the bliss of Nirvana. 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 sel- fishness and realizes the oneness of all beings, is free from all preju- dices and dualism, when he by patient investigation discovers truth, the stage of holiness is reached. Among Buddhist ideals are self-sacrifice for the sake of others, compassion based on wisdom, joy in the hope that there is final bliss for the pure-minded, altruistic individual. The student of Buddha's 416 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Buddhist feligion takes the burden of life with sweet contentment; uprightness Ideals. is his delight; he encompasses himself with holiness in word and deed; he sustains his life by means that are quite pure; good is his conduct, guarded the door of his senses, mindful and self possessed, he is alto- gether happy. H. T. Buckle, the author of the "History of Civilization," says: "A knowledge of Buddhism is necessary to the right understanding of Christianity. Buddhism is, besides, a most philosophical creed. Theo- logians should study it." In his inaugural address delivered at the congress of orientals last year Max Miiller remarked: *'As to the religion of Buddha being influenced by foreign thought, no true scholar now dreams of that. The religion of Buddha is the daughter of the old Brahman religion and a daughter in many respects more beautiful than the mother. On the contrary, it was through Buddhism that India, for the first time, stepped forth from the isolated position and became an actor in the historical 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 com- parative study of religious beliefs Buddhism, as the highest effort of pure intellect to solve the problem of being, is attractive. It is not less so to the metaphysician and the sociologist, who study the philos- ophy 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 connec- tion between the two systems of religion has long been suspected. Can- did inquirers who have paid attention to the history of India and of the Greek world during the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era, and noted the intrinsic relationship which existed between these countries in scientific, religious and literary ideas; found no difficulty in believing that Buddhist ideas and precepts penetrated into the Greek world before the birth of Christ. The discovery of the Asoka inscription of Hirnar, which tells us that that enlightened emperor of India made peace with five Greek kings and sent Buddhist missionaries to preach his religion in Syria, explains to us the process by which the ideas were 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 mission- aries who visited Egypt and Palestine within two generations of the time of Alexander the Great. A few writers like Benson, Seydal and Lillie maintain that the Christian religion has sprung directly from Buddhism." 27 Buddhist Priest, Ceylon. 3uddha. Paper by ZITSUZEN ASHITSU. S it not, really, a remarkable event in human history that such a large number of the dele- gates of different creeds are come together from every corner of the world, as in a con- cert, to discuss one problem of humanity — universal brotherhood — without the least jeal- ousy? I am so happy in giving an address as a token of my cordial acceptance of the mem- bership of this congress of religions. My subject is Buddha. This subject might be treated in two ways, either absolutely or relatively. 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 called 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 enlightened his own mind 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, so it is the name given to the personality of the constitution after the Buddha got the highest Buddhahood. This personality is entirely colorless and formless, but, at the same time, it has the nature of eternality, omnipresence, and unchangeableness. Hosshin 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 personality of the result, which the Buddha attained by refining 419 What the Word Baddha 420 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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. This personality has another designation, which is called Jiyn- shin, meaning an enjoying personality. And it is again subdivided into two classes of Jijiyu and Vajiyo. Jijiyu means to enjoy the Buddha himself, the pleasure of attaining to the highest human virt- ues; while Tajiyu, which is also called world enlightenment, desig- nates the Buddha's benevolent action of imparting his holy pleasure to his fellow beings with his supreme doctrine. In short, the former is to enlighten one's own mind, while the lat- ter is to enlighten those of others. These two make a whole as 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 spontane- ^ities^in^One!" ously appears to all kinds of beings in any state and condition in order to preach and enlighten them equally. In Sanskrit it is called Sha- kammi, and in Chinese, Noninjakumoku. Jakumoku means calmness and Nonin means humanity. He is perfectly calm; therefore he is en- tirely 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 attributes of his one supreme personality. Nay, in the way of explanation, we can say that these three personalities are not the monopoly of the 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? Noth- ing but that he is developed, by his self-culture, to the highest state, while we ordinary beings are buried in the dust of passions. If we cultivate our minds we can, of course, clear off the clouds of ignorance and reach the same enlightened place with the Buddha. So in my sect of 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 cannot be called Kukyosoku Buddha, as Ahaka, or Gautama, is. He is so entitled be- cause he has sprung up to the highest state of mental achievement, and there is no higher attainable. He says, in his sacred Sutra, "Bomino," 'T 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 421 lust like a perfect mirror. But such an excellent nature as I just men- tioned is not the peculiar property of Buddha, but every 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, 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 Nyo, or "something left." Muyo Nehan is the state which has advanced one step higher than Uyo. In this Nehan our body and intellect come to entire annihila- tion and there nothing 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 weappearto 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 Foar Merci- merciful vows accompany them, namely: fuivows. I hope I can save all the beings in the universe from this igno- rance! I hope I can abstain from my inexhaustible desires of ignorance! I hope I can comprehend the boundless meaning of the doctrine of Buddha! I hope I can attain the highest enlightenment of Buddhaship! Out of these four classes of Nirvana the first 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 through- out the universe. But for the convenience of studying its nature we call it. True Mind of Absolute Unity (Shinnyo). It is told in Sutra that "all figures in the universe are stamped but by the one form." What 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 appearance of the Absolute Unity. Thus the mind and the figure (or color) reflect each other; so the 422 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, mind cannot be seen without the figure and the figure cannot be seen without the mind. In other words, the figure and mind are standing relatively, so the figure cannot exist without the mind and the mind cannot exist without the figure. It is told in Sutra that "when we see color we see mind." There is nothing but the absolute mind-unity throughout the universe. Every form of figure such as heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, trees, grasses, even a man, or what else it might be, is nothing but the grand personality of absolute unity. And as this absolute unity is the only object with which Buddha enlightens all kinds of existing beings, so it is clear that the principle of Buddha is the mind. Functions.* ^^^ Function. Three sacred virtues are essential functions of Buddha, which are the sacreilllli'^' i liny »7ssi^?ir^Hi^ mm ?P#^^v^ IP'' %• -^w. ■ 1 iH^ M r V { * « « i» < f ^ Mi 3 iiTI smM mt "^s.^ ' ^^^™^^Hm^ ., ^^^ ^ ^^^^^^m^^^l^^l P*"'~-*^ %?pl«,^'; ; ,IB^M ^"™*' Mohammedsm Mother i^nd Children sit the DoQr of the Mosque. Golden Truth from a Parsee Standpoint. 3elief and Qeremonies of the pollowers of 2oroaster. Paper by JINANJI JAMSHEDJI MODI, of India. HE greatest good that a Parliament of Relig- ions, like the present can do is to establish what Professor Max Miiller calls " that great golden dawn of truth * that there is a religion behind all religions ' " The learned professor very rightly says that '* Happy is the man who knows that truth in these days of materialism and atheism." If this Parliament of Religions . does nothing else but spread the knowledge of this golden truth, and thus make a large number of men happy, it will immortalize its name. The object of my paper is to take a little part in the noble efforts of this great gathering, to spread the knowledge of that golden truth from a Parsee point of view. The Parsees of India are the followers of Zoro- astrianism, of the religion of Zoroaster, a religion which was for centuries both the state religion and the national religion of ancient Persia. As Professor Max Miiller says: ''There were periods in the history of the world when the worship of Ormuzd threatened to rise triumphant on the ruins of the temples of all other gods. If the battles of Marathon and Salamis had been lost and Greece had succumbed to Persia, the state religion of the empire of Cyrus, which was the worship of Ormuzd, might have become the religion of the whole civilized world. Persia had absorbed the Assyrian and Babylonian empires; Jews were either in Persian captivity or under Persian sway at home; the sacred- monuments of Egypt had been mutilated by the hands of Persian soldiers. The edicts of the king — the king of kings — were sent to India, to Greece, to Scythia and to Egypt, and if 'by the grace of Ahura Mazda' Darius had crushed the liberty of Greece, the purer faith of Zoroaster might easily have superseded the Olympian fables." 452 TtiE WdkLb'S CdNCRESS OP MLIGIONS. 45S 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 sword 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 sett'ers. As a for- mer 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 byCoSact.'^^ religion absolutely unimpaired by contact with others." In the words of Rt. Rev. Dr. Meurin, the learned bishop (vicar apostolic) 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 which lived no less than 3,000 years ago, a people who for a thousand years have formed in the midst of the great Hindu people, not unlike an island in the sea, a quite separate and distinct nation, peculiar and remarkable as for its race, so for its religious and social life and customs." Prof. Max Miiller says of the religion of the Parsees: "Though every religion is of real and vital interest in its earliest state only, yet its later development, too, with all its misunderstand- ings, faults and corruptions, offers many an instructive lesson to the thoughtful student of history. Here is -a religion, one of the most ancient of the world, once the state religibn 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 priest- hood, and yet professed by a handful of exiles — men of wealth, intelli- gence and moral worth in western India — with unhesitating fervor such as is seldom to be found in larger religious communities. It is well worth the earnest endeavor of the philosopher and the divine to dis- cover, if possible, the spell by which this apparently effete religion continues to command the attachment of the enlightened Parsees of India and makes them turn a deaf ear to the allurements of the Brahm- anic worship and the earnest appeals of Christian missionaries " Zoroastrianism or Parseeism, by whatever name the system may be called, is a monotheistic form of religion. It believes in the exist- ence of one God, whom it knows under the names of Mazda, Ahura and Ahura-Mazda, the last form being the one that is most commonly met with in the latter writings of the Avesta. The first and the great- est truth that dawns upon the mind of a Zoroastrian is that the great and the infinite universe, of which he is an infinitesimally small part, is the work of a powerful hand — the result of a master mind. The first and the greatest conception of that master mind, Ahura-Mazda, is that, as the name implies, he is the Omniscient Lord, and as such He is the ruler of both the material and the immaterial world, the corporeal and the incorporeal world, the visible and the invisible world. The regu- 454 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Harmony and O rd er served. Great lem Solved lar movements of the sun and the stars, the periodical waxing and waning of the moon, the regular way in which the sun and the clouds are sustained, the regular flow of waters and the gradual growth of vegetation, the rapid movements of the winds and the regular suc- cession of light and darkness, of day and night, with their accompani- ments of sleep and wakefulness, all these grand and striking phenom- ena of nature point to and bear ample evidence of the existence of an almighty power who is not only the creator, but the preserver of this great universe, who has not only launched that universe into existence with a premeditated plan of completeness, but who, with the con- trolling hand of a father, preserves by certain fixed laws harmony and order here, there and everywhere. As Ahura-Mazda is the ruler of the physical world, so He is the ruler of the spiritual world. His distinguished attributes are good mind, righteousness, desirable control, piety, perfection and immor- tality. 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 Scriptures, the causer of all causes. He is the creator as well as the destroyer, the increaser as well as the decreaser. He gives birth to different creatures and it is He who brings about their end. How is it, then, that He brings about these two contrary results? In the words of Dr. Haug: "Having arrived at the grand idea of the unity and indivisibility of the Supreme Being, he (Zoroaster) undertook to solve the great problem which has engaged the attention of so many wise men of Prob- antiquity and even of modern times, viz: How are the imperfections discoverable in the world, the various kinds of evils, wickedness and baseness, compatible with the goodness, holiness and justice of God? This great thinker of remote antiquity solved this difficult question philosophically by the supposition of two primeval causes, which, though different, were united and produced the world of material things, as well as that of the spirit." These two primeval causes or principles are called in the Avesta the two "Mainyus." This word comes from the ancient Aryan root "man," to "think." It may be properly rendered into English by the word "spirit," meaning "that which can only be conceived by the mind but not felt by the senses." Of these two spirits or primeval causes or Its Theology THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 455 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-main- yush, the evil principle, both serving under one God. In the words of that learned orientalist. Professor Darmesteter, *'A11 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 Angra-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 * * * An- gro-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 mis- understand Zoroastrian theology. Some authors entertain an opinion that Zoroaster preached dualism. But this is a serious misconcep- tion. In the Parsee scriptures the names of God are Mazda, Ahura and Ahura-Mazda, the last word being a compound of the first two. The first two words are common in the earliest writings of the Gatha and the third in the later scriptures. In later times the word Ahura- Mazda, instead of being restricted, like Mazda, the name of God began iviYs u n'd e'r - to be used in a wider sense, and was applied to Spenta-mainyush, the ^^^^ creative or the good principle. This being the case, wherever the word Ahura-Mazda was used in opposition to that of Angra-mainyush, later authors took it as the name of God, and not as 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 Angra-main- yush or Ahriman led to the notion that Zoroastrian scriptures preached dualism. Not only is the charge of dualism as leveled against Zoroastrian- ism, and as ordinarily understood, groundless, but there is a close resemblance between the ideas of the devil among the Christians and those of the Ahriman among the Zoroastrians. Dr. Haug says the same thing in the following words: 'The Zoroastrian idea of the devil and the infernal kingdom coin- cides entirely with the 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. Conse- quently, though the Almighty is the creator of all, a part of the creation is said to be created by the good principle and a part by the evil principle. Thus, for example, the heavenly bodies, the earth, water, fire, horses, dogs and such other objects are the creation of the good principle, and serpents, ants, locusts, etc., are the creation of the evil principle. In short, those things that conduce to the greatest good of the greatest number of mankind fall under the category of the 456 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. creations of the good principle, and those that lead to the conty«iry result, under that of the creations of the evil principle. This being the case, it is incumbent upon men to do actions that would support the cause of the good principle and destroy that of the evil one. Therefore, the cultivation of the soil, the rearing ot domestic animals, etc., on the one hand and the destruction of wild animals and other noxious creatures on the other, are considered meritorious actions by the Parsees. As there are two primeval principles under Ahura-Mazda that produce our material world, so there are two principles inherent in the nature of man which encourage him to do good or tempt him to do evil. One asks him to support the cause of the good principle, the other to support that of the evil principle. The first is known by the name of Vohumana or Behemana, i. e.y "good mind." The prefix *Vohu" or "beL ' 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 Aka- mana, 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 definition of what is morality or piety. There, first of all, the writer says: "Purity is thebestthing 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 Sanskrit "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 words 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 Safe Pilot to a pious* and moral life and thus to show a clean bill of spiritual health M^vm.*^^^' ^^ 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 inter- cessors, Nothing more will be wanted. They alone will serve you as a safe pilot to the harbor of heaven, as a safe guide to the gates of paradise The late Dr, Haug rightly observed that "the moral philos- ophy of Zoroaster was moving in the triad of 'thought, word and deed.' ' These three words form, as it were, the pivot upon which the moral structure of Zoroastrianism turns. It is the groundwork upon which the whole edifice of Zoroastrian morality rests. The following dialogue in the Pehelvi Padnameh of 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? THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 457 Answer. Question. Answer, devil. Question. Answer. Question. Answer. He who is the most innocent. Who is the most innocent man in the world? He who walks in the path of God and shuns that of the Which is the path of God, and which that of the devil? Virtue is the path of God, and vice that of the devil. What constitutes virtue, and what vice? (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 dishonesty, 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 con- sidered 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 mentioned 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 Homa-i-saphid, or white Homa, a name correspond- ing to the Indian Soma of the Hindus, is held to be the emblem of the immortality of the soul. According to Dr. Windischmann and Prof. Max Miiller, this plant reminds us of the "Tree of Life" in the 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 script- ures the Homa-i-saphid, or the plant which is the emblem of immor- tality, is guarded by innumerable Fravashis, that is, guardian spirits. The number of these 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 English word "best." Hell is known by the name of "Achishta-ahu." Heaven is represented as a place of radiance, splendor and glory, and hell as that of gloom, darkness and stench. Between heaven and this world there is supposed to be a bridge, named "Chinvat." This word — from the 30 Moral Codot Believes in Heaven and HeU. 458 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 be- comes 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?" On the dawn of the third night the departed souls appear at the " Chinvat bridge." This bridge is guarded by the angel Mehei*Daver, i. e.f 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 Mohammedan " aeraf." His meritorious deeds done in the past life would prevent him from going to hell, and his evil actions would not let him go to heaven. Again, Zoroastrian books say that the meritoriousness of good deeds and the sin of evil ones increase with the growth of time. As BwksSa *^* 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 meritori- ousness, so in the case of evil actions and their sins The burden of the sin of an evil action increases, as it were, with interest. A 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 in- creases 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 re- gard fire as an emblem of refulgence, glory and light as the most per- fect 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 459 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 cere- monies 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 ceremo- nies accompanied with prayers that are performed over it, before it is installed in its place on a vase on an exalted stand in a chamber set apart The sacred fire burning there is not the ordinary fire burning in our hearths. It has undergone several ceremonies, and it is these cer- emonies, full of meaning, that render 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 manu- facture 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 Yite Temples, 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 process 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 separate cham- ber. Now what does a fire so prepared signify to a Parsee? He thinks to himself: ''When this fire on this vase before me, though pure in itself, though the noblest of the creations of God, and though the best symbol of the Divinity, had to undergo certain processes of purifica- tion, had to draw out, as it were, its essence — nay, its quintessence — of purity to enable itself to be worthy of occupying this exalted posi- tion, 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 thougnts, words and actions pass, as it were, through a sieve of piety • and purity, virtue and morality, and to separate by that means my good thoughts, good words and good actions from bad thoughts, bad words and bad actions, so that I may, in my turn, be enabled to acquire an exalted position in the next world." Again, the fires 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 graces of society they belong, are equal, provided they pass through the prp- 460 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, cess of purification, i. e., provided they preserve purity of thoughts, purity of words and purity of deeds. Again, when a Parsee goes before the sacred fire, which is kept all day and night burning in the fire temple, the officiating priest pre- sents before him the ashes of a part of the consumed fire. The Parsee Dust to Dust, applies it to his forehead 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 re- duced 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 arid 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 per- petual 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 ris- ing or the setting sun, before the glowing 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 omis- sion 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 the evil words that 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 par- ents. Education is necessary, not only for the material good of the children and the parents, but also for their spiritualgood. Accord- ing to the Parsee books, the parents participate in the meritorious- ness of the good acts performed by their children as the result of the good education imparted to them. On the other hand, if the parents neglect the education of their children, and if, as the result of this neglect, they do wrongful acts or ^vil deeds^ the parents h^ve a spirit- Parsee Pray- WE WOkLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. 461 ual 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 edu- cation of his children at an early age. Thus, from a religious point of view, education is a great question with the Parsees. The proper age recommended by religious Parsee books for or- dinary 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 cere- mony of investiture corresponds 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 perpetual 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 wJiich 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 ^^gn Gener. of the necessity of educating^ all children, whether male or female. ^ .Education 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 considered 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 the most prominent place. Analyzing the Bombay census of 1 88 1, 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 educa- tion is more diffused among the Parsee population than any other class. * * * Contrasting these results with education at an early age among Parsees, we find 12.2 per cent Parsee male and 8.84 per cent female children under six years of age, under mstruction; between six and fifteen the number of Parsee male and female children under in- struction is much larger than in any other class. Over fifteen years of age, the smallest proportion of illiterate, either male or female, is found in the Parsee population." 46^ THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF MUGtOM^. The religious books of the Parsees say that the education of Zoro- astrian youths should teach them perfect discipline, obedience to their teachers, obedience to their parents, obedience to their elders in society, and obedience 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 and 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 san- itary rules and principles. Several chapters of the Vendidad form, as it were, the sanitary 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 rate. One can safely say that that is, to a great extent, due to the Zoroastrian ideas of sanitation, segregation, purification and clean- liness. 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 suffering. He is, under no cir- cumstances, to touch the body of a person a short time after death, flor, ; + o.^ lest he spread the disease, if contagious, of the deceased. If he acci- oanitary Jr .,11 1 1 1 / ti- iri Rules and Prin- dentally or unavoidably does, he has ,to purity himself by a certain process of washing before he mixes with others in society. A passing fly, or even a blowing wind, is supposed to spread disease by conta- gion. 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 accidentally 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 greatest purifier. In places where the rays of the sun do not enter, fire over which fragrant wood is burned is the next purifier. It is a great sin to pollute water by decomposing matter. Not only is the commission of a fault of this kind a 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 run- ning stream 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 it. 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 ciples. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 463 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 of ''cleanliness is godliness" is nowhere more recommended than in the Parsee 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 Herodotus 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 individu- Wealth, Pov. ality in the common interests of his community. He is to consider erty and Labor, 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 brother- hood. He promises, even at the risk of his life, to protect the life and the property of all the members of his community and to help in the cause that would bring about their prosperity and welfare. It is with these good feelings of brotherhood and charity that the Parsee com- munity has endowed large funds for benevolent and charitable pur- poses. 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 socialists to complain from a poor man's point of view. It is these notions of charity and brotherhood that have urged them to start public funds for the general 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 con- tribute large sums in charity to commemorate those events. Again, " on the death of their dear ones, the rich and the poor all pay various sums, according to their means, in 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 com- memorate the names of their dear ones. In the Vendidad three kinds of charitable deeds are especially mentioned as meritorious — to help the poor; to help a man to marry, and thus to 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 Zoroastrian point 4Ai fM WokLiys coNgMss of Ml/C/dM. of view, are that he must be (i) young and handsome; (2) strong, brave and healthy; (3) diligent and industrious, so as to maintain his wife and children; (4) truthful, as would prove true to herself, and Quaiifica- ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Others with whom he would come in contact, and is wise tionsof aGood and educated. A wise, intelligent and educated husband is compared us an . ^^ ^ fertile piece of land which gives a plentiful 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, t. e., to sympathize with him in all his 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 pur- suits 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 the household, but in society as well. As Dr. West says, though a Zoroastrian wife was asked to be very obedient to her husband, she held a more respectable position in society than that enjoined by any other Oriental religion. As Sir John Malcolm says, the ordinance of Zoroaster secured for Zoroastrian women an equal rank with the male creation. The progress of the ancient Persians in civil- ization 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 gener- ous enterprise and its reward." The advance of the modern Parsis, the descendants of the ancient Persians, in the path of civilization is greatly due to this cause. As Dr. Haug says, the religious books of the Parsis hold women on a level with men. " They are always mentioned as a necessary part of the religious community. They have the same re- ligious rites as 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 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 Gatba conveys this meaning: "I say (these) words to you marrying brides and to you bride- TME WdkL£)'S CONgMS^ OF MLlGIdM, m grooms. Impress 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 be 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 Son! own beauty, grace and happiness, but by their righteousness and good conduct are in a position to spread the blessings of help and happi- ness 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 co-reiigion- ists 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 mar- riage 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 selec- tion of wives and husbands. Mutual friends of parents or marrying parties may bring about a good selection. Marriages with non- Zoroastrians are not recommended, 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 rejoic- ings 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 con- sideration of all kinds of moral and charitable notions inculcated in the Zoroastrian scriptures, Frances Power Cobbe, in her ''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 chance that in the Bactrian sage, who lived and tau'ght 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." Marriage a Good Instilu- Had Zoroast- er Never Ex- isted. Mohammedans of Damascus, Spirit and Mission of the Apostolic Church of /^rmenia. Paper by OHANNES CHATSCHUMGAN, of Armenia. CCORDING to the general testimony of histo- rians, Christianity was introduced into Arme- nia in the first century. In the year 34 A. D. the Apostle Thaddeus went to this country, and in the year 60 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 Arme- nians became martyrs for Christianity. In that year vSaint Gregory Illuminator enlightened the entire Armenian nation, and Christianity became the religion of the king as well as of the people. In the Armenian lan- guage to " enlighten " means to " Christianize." Whether, oldest Chris- therefore, we date the establishment of Christianity from the first cent- J|fJ^^ori?^ ^ ury or at the beginning of the fourth, the Armenian church remains the oldest Christian church in thew^orld. 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 two 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 synony- mous in their tongues. The construction of the Armenian church is simple and apos- tolic. It is independent and national. The head is called the Patri- arch Catholicos of all Armenians in whatever part of the world they may be. He is elected by the representatives of the nation and clergy 467 • m m^ WorWS congress op kEUGlOMS, in Etchmiadzin, 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 confirmed 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 parish 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 assem- blies which have to decide general questions, even dogmatic matters, are gathered from both people and clergy. The clergy exists for the people and not the people for the clergy. The Armeni- '^^^ Armenian clergy have always been pioneers in the educa- an Clergy. tional advancement of the nation. They have been the bringers in of European civilization to their people. From the fifth 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 hand. The country owes everything to its clergy. They have been first in danger and first in civilization. The spirit of the Armenian church is tolerant. A characteristic feature of Armenians, even while they were heathen, was that they were cosmopolitan 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, Adramelech and Anamelech 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 Armenian gods. 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' sake, and yet she has never been a religious persecutor. She calls no church heterodox. The last Catholicos, Makar the First, 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 twelfth century defended and practiced the very ideals and equality of all churches and the brotherhood of all men which the most liberal clergy- men of this century believe in. The Armenian church has a great literature, especially in sacred THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 469 lyrics, which has had a vast influence over the people. But the purify- ing influence of our church appears chiefly in the family. In no land is the family life purer. For an Armenian the family is sacred. Eth- nologists ask with reason: "How can we explain the continued exist- ence of the Armenian nation through the fire and sword of four thousand years?" The solution of this riddle is in the pure family life. This is the anchor by which the stormbeaten has been held. It is a singular fact that Armenia never had, even in her heathen time, either polygamy or slavery, although always surrounded by nations who followed these evil practices. Women in Armenia have always had a distinguished place in the church. The first Christian martyr among women in the whole world ArmeniT ^^ was an Armenian girl, Sandooct, the beautiful daughter of the King Sanstreek. In the fifth century, as says the historian, Equishe, the songs of the Armenian women were the psalms and their daily read- ings the Gospel. Geographically, Armenia is the bridge between Asia and Europe. All the nations of Asia have traveled over this bridge. One cannot show a single year in the long past through which she has enjoyed peace. 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-Chiristian peoples, she has kept her Christianity and her independent national church. Through the darkness of the ages she has been a bright torch in the Orient of Christianity and civilization. ' All her neighbors have passed away — the Assyrians, the Babylon- ians, the Parthians, and the Persian fire worshipers. Armenia, herself, has lost everything; crown andscepter 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. SedQuin $heik (Mohammedan). Prize ^ssay on Qonfucianism. By KUNG HSIEN HO, of Shanghai, China. HE 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, *Tn the changes of the world there is a great Supreme which pro- duces two principles, and these two principles are Yin and Yang. By Supreme is meant the spring of all activity. Our sages regard Yin and Yang and the five elements as acting and reacting on each other without ceasing, and this doctrine is all important, like as the hinge of a door. The incessant production of all things depends on this, as the tree does on the root. Even all human affairs and all good are also dependent on it; therefore, it is called the Supreme, just as we speak of the extreme points of the earth as the north and south poles. 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-pioducing forces. When Yang and Yin unite they produce water, fire, wood, metal, earth. When these five forces oper- ate in harmony the four seasons come to pass. The essences of the infinite, of Yin and Yang, and of the five elements combine, and the heavenly become male, and the earthly become female. When these 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 Yorig when it says that what heaven has given is the spiritual nature. This nature is law. All men are thus born and have this law. Therefore it is Mencius says that all children love the parents, and when grown up all respect their elder brethren. If men only followed the natural bent of this nature, then all would go the right way; hence, the Chung Yung says, "To follow nature is the right way." in Spiritual Nat- Tire is Law* 472 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Nature The choicest product of Ying Yang and the five elements in the world is man, the rest are refuse products. The choicest among the choice ones are the sages and worthies, and the refuse among them are the foolish and the bad. And as man's body comes from the Yin and man's soul from the Yang he cannot be perfect. This is what the Lung philosophers called the material nature. Although all men have at birth a nature for goodness, still, if there is nothing to fix it, then de- sires arise and passions rule, and men are not far from being like The Material beasts; hence, Confucius says: ''Men's nature is originally alike, but in practice men become very different." The sages, knowing this, sought to fix the nature with the principles of moderation, uprightness, benev- olence and righteous"ness. Heaven appointed rulers and teachers, who in turn established worship and music to improve men's disposition and set up governments and penalties in order to check men's wicked- ness. The best among the people are taken into schools where they study wisdom, virtue, benevolence and righteousness, so that they may know before hand how to conduct themselves as rulers or ruled. And lest after many generations, there should be degeneration and difficulty in finding the truth, the principles of heaven and earth, of men and of all things, have been recorded in the Book of Odes for the use of after generations. The Chung Yung calls the practice of wisdom religion. Our religion well knows heaven's will; it looks on all under heaven as one family, great rulers as elder branches in their parent's clan, great ministers as chief officers of this clan and people at large as brothers of the same parents; and it holds that all things should be enjoyed in common, because it regards heaven and earth as the parents of all alike. And the commandment of the Confucian is "Fear greatly lest you offend against heaven." 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 friend. Now, the ruler is the Son of heaven, to be honored above all others; therefore, in serving Him there has to be loyalty. The parents' goodness to their children is boundless; there- fore, the parents should be served filialy Brothers are branches from the same root; therefore, mutual respect is important. The marriage relation is the origin of all human relations; therefore, mutual gentle- ness is important. As to friends, though as if strangers to our homes, it is important to be very affectionate. • When one desires to make progress in the practice of virtue as ruler or minister, as parent or child, as elder or younger brother, or as husband and wife; if anyone wishes to be perfect in any relation, how can it be done without a friend to exhort one to good and check one in evil? Therefore, one should seek to increase his friends. Among the five relations there are also the three hands. The ruler is the hand of the minister, the father is that of the son, and the husband i§ that of the wife. And the book of the Ta Hsioh says: "From the stress on Hu man Affairs. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 473 emperor down to the common people the fundamental thing for all to do is to cultivate virtue." If this fundamental foundation is not laid, then there cannot be order in the world. Therefore, great responsibility lies on the leaders This is what Confucius means when he says: "When a ruler is upright he is obeyed without com- mands," Now, to cause the doctrine of the five relations to be carried out everywhere by all under heaven, the ruler must be intelligent and the minister good, then the government will be just; the father must be loving and the son filial, the elder brother friendly, theyounger brother respectful, the husband kind and the wife obedient, then the home will be right; in our relation with our friends there must be confidence, then customs will be reformed and order wi!i not be difficult for the whole world, simply because the rulers lay the foundation for it in virtue. What are the five constants? Benevolence, righteousness, wor- ship, wisdom, faithfulness. Benevolence is love, righteousness is fit- ness, worship is 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 influence of hold of the spiritual nature and is at peace and rest is called a sage, stlnte^^ ^°^' He who sends forth unseen and infinite influences throughout all things is called divine. The influence of the five constants is very great and all 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 dispo- sition is not a man, and he who has not the sense of right and wrong is not a man. The sense of pity is the beginning of benevolence, the sense of shame for wrong is the beginning of righteousness, a yielding disposition is the beginning of religion, the sense of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Faithfulness is not spoken of, as it is what makes the other four real; like the earth element among the five elements, without it the other four manifestly cannot be placed. The Chung Yung says: "Sincerity or reality is the beginning and the end of things There is no such thing as supreme sincerity with- out action, This is the use of faithfulness " As to benevolence, it also includes righteousness, religion and wisdom, therefore, the sages consider that the most important thing is to get benevolence. The idea of benevolence is gentleness and liberal mindedness, that of righteousness is clear duty, that of religion is showing forth, that of wisdom is to gather silently. When there is gentleness, clear duty, showing forth and silent gathering constantly going on, then everything naturally falls to its proper place, just like the four seasons; e. g.\ the spring mfluences are gentle and liberal and are life-giving ones; in summer life-giving things grow; in autumn these show themselves In harvest and in winter they 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 this 474 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 minutely. 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 intelligent 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 flesh and bones die below the dust the material Yin becomes dust, but the immaterial rises above the grave in great light, has odor and is very pitiable. This is the immaterial essence." The Chung Yung, quoting Confu- cius, says: "The power of the spirits is very great! You look and cannot see them, you listen and cannot hear them, but they are em- bodied in all things without missing any, causing 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 the left. Yih King makes much of divin- ing 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 influ- ences of the divinest forces of heaven and earth, when on earth were heroes, when dead are the gods. Their influences continue for many generations to affect the world for good, therefore many venerate and sacrifice unto them. As to evil men, they arise from the evil forces of nature; when dead, they also influence for evil, and we must get holy influences to destroy evil ones. As to rewards and punishments the ancient sages also spoke of them. The great Yu, B. C. 2255, said: "Follow what is right and you Rewards and wiU be fortunate; do not follow it and you Will be unfortunate; the Punishments, results are only shadows and echoes of our acts." Tang, B. C. 1766, says: " Heaven's way is to bless the good and bring calamity on the evil." His minister, Yi Yin, said: " It is only God who is perfectly just; good actions are blessed with a hundred favors; evil actions are cursed with a hundred evils." Confucius, speaking of the "Book of Changes" (Yih King), said: " Those who multiply good deeds will have joys to overflowing; those who multiply evil deeds will have calami- ties running over." But this is very different from Taoism, which says that there are angels from heaven examining into men's good and evil deeds, and from Buddhism, which says that there is a purgatory or hell according to one's deeds. 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 475 these consequences do not appear they are like cold in summer or heat in winter, or like both happening the same day; but this we say is unnatural. Therefore, it is said, sincerity is the way of heaven. If we say that the gods serve heaven exactly as mandarins do on earth, bring- ing quick retribution on every little thing, this is really to make them appear very slow. At present men say, ''Thunder killed the bad man.'* But it is not so, either. The Han philosopher, Tung Chung Shu (sec- ond century B. C), says: "Vapors, when they clash above, make rain; when they clash below make fog; wind is nature's breathing. Thunder is the sound of clouds clashmg against each other. Lightning is light emitted by their collision. 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 transmi- grate, then so many would transmigrate from the human life and ghosts would be numerous. Besides when the lamp goes out and is lit again it is not the former flame that is lit. When the cloud has a rainbow it rains, but it is not the same rainbow as when the rainbow appeared before. From this we know also that these doctrines of transmigra- tion 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 all under heaven. The book of "Great Learning," Ja Hsigh, has already clearly spoken of these. The founda- a Sincere tion is laid in illustrating virtue, for our religion in discussing govern- '^"^• ment regards virtue as the foundation, and wealth as the superstructure. Mencius says: "When the rulers and ministers are only seeking gain the nation is in danger " He also says: "There is no benevolent man who neglects his parents, there is no righteous man who helps himself before his ruler." From this it is apparent what is most important. Not that we do not speak of gain; the "Great Learning" says: "There is a right way to get gain. Let the producers be many and the consumers few. Let there be activity in production and economy in the expenditure. Then the wealth will always be sufficient. But it is important that the high and low should share it alike." As to how to govern the country and give peace to all under heaven the nine paths are most important. The nine paths are: Cul- tivate a good character, honor the good, love your parents, respect great offices, carry out the wishes of the ruler and ministers, regard the common people as your children, invite all kinds of skillful work- men, be kind to strangers, 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 diagrams in order to understand the superhuman powers and 476 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 intelli- gent. Yao handed down to Shun a saying, "Sincerely hold fast to the 'mean'." Shun transmitted it to Yu, and said: "The mind of man is restless, prone to err; its affinity for the right way is small. Be dis- criminating; be undivided that you may sincerely hold fast to the mean." Yu transmitted this to Tang, of the Siang dynasty (B. C. 1766). Tang transmitted it to Kings Wen and Wu, of the Chow dynasty (B. C. 1 122), These transmitted it to Duke Kung. And these were all able to observe this rule of the heart by which they held fast to the " mean." The Chow dynasty later degenerated; then there arose Confucius, who transmitted the doctrines of Yao and Shun as if they had been his ancestors, elegantly displayed the doctrines of Wen and Wu, edited WhenConfu- ^^^ odes and the history, reformed religion, made notes on the "Book cius Arose. of Changes," wrotc the annals of spring and autumn, and spoke of governing the nation, saying: " Treat matters seriously and be faith- ful; be temperate and love men; employ men according to proper times, and in teaching your pupils you must do so with love." He said to Yen Tsze: "Self-sacrifice and truth is benevolence. If you can for one whole day entirely sacrifice self and be true, then all under heaven will become benevolent." Speaking of being able to put away selfishness and attaining to the truth of heaven, everything is possible to such a heart. Alas! He was not able to get his virtues put into practice, but his disciples recorded his words and deeds and wrote the Confucian Ana- lects. His disciple, Jseng Tsze, composed the Great Learning. His proud son, Tsze Sze, composed the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung Yung). When the contending states were quarreling, Mencius, with a loving heart that could not endure wrong, arose to save the times. The rulers of the time would not use him; so he composed a book in seven chapters. After this, although the ages changed this, religion flourished. In the Han dynasty, Tung Chung Shu (twentieth century B. C); in the Sui dynasty, Wang Tung (A. D. 583-617); in the Tang dynasty Han Yo (A. D. 768-824), each made some part of this doc- trine better known In the Sung dynasty (960-1260) these were the disciples of the philosophers Cheng, Chow and Chang, searching into the spiritual nature of man, and Chu Fu-Tsze collected their works and this religion shone with great brightness. Our present dynasty, respecting scholarship and considering truth important, placed the philosopher Cho in Confucian temples to be reverenced axid sacrificed to. Confucianists all follow Chu Fu-Tsze's comments. From ancient times till now those who followed the doctrines of Confucius were able to govern the country; whenever these were not followed there was disorder. On looking at it down the ages there is also clear evidence of re- sults in governing the country and its superiority to other religions. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 477 There is a prosperity of Tang Yis, of the dynasties Hsia Siang and Chow (B. C. 2356, B. C. 255), when virtue and good government flour- ished. It is needless to enlarge upon them. At the time of the con- tending states there arose theorists, and all under heaven became dis- ordered. The Tsin dynasty (of Tsin She-Hwang fame) burned the books and buried the Confucianists and did many other heartless things, and also went to seek the art of becoming immortal (Taoism), and the empire was soon lost. Then the Han dynasty arose (B. C. 206-A. D. 220). Although it leaned toward Taoism, the people, after 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 ministers. Although the emperor Ming, of the eastern (later) Han dynasty, introduced Buddhism, he was able to respect the Confucian doctrines. Since so many followed Confucianism, good 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 T<=iing 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 Huen 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 eating immortality pills. After this the emperor Wu Tsung was fond of Taoism and reigned only a short time. The emperor Tsung followed Buddhism and the dynasty fell into a precarious condition. Passing by the five dynasties (907-960) on to the first emperor of the Sung dynasty (960-1360) who, cherishing the people and having good government, step by step prospered — when Jen Tsung ruled he reverenced heaven and cared for the people; he reformed the punish- ment and lightened the taxes, and was assisted by such scholars as Han Ki, Fan Chung Yen, Foo Pih, Ou Yang Sui, Wen Yen Poh and Chas Pien. They established the government at the mountain Pas Sang and raised the people to the state of peace which is still in everv home. Such government may be called benevolent. Results i n Governing the Country. Benevolent Government. 478 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Afterward there arose the troubles of Kin, when the good minis- ters were destroyed by cliques >nd the Sang dynasty moved to the south of China. When the Mongol dynasty (A. D. 1 260-1 368) arose, it believed in and employed Confucian methods, and all under heaven was in order. In the time of Jen Chung the names of the philosophers^ Chow and Cheng (of the Sung dynasty), were placed in the Confucian temples to be sacrificed to. They carried out the system of examinations and sent commissioners to travel throughout the land to inquire into the sufferings of the people. The empress served the emperor dowager with filial piety and treated all his relations with honor, and he may be called one of our noble rulers, but the death of Shunti was owing to his passion for pleas- ure. He practiced the methods of western priests (Buddhists) to reg- ulate the health and had no heart for matters of state. When the first emperor of the Ming dynasty (A. D. 1368-1644) arose and reformed the religion and ritual of the empire, he called it the great, peaceful dynasty. The pity was that he selected Buddhist priests to attend on the princes of the empire, and the priest Tao Yen corrupted the Pekin prince, and a rebellious spirit sprung up, which was a great mistake. Then Yen Tsung, too, employed Yen Sung, who only occupied himself in worship. Hi Tsung employed Ni Ngan, who defamed the loyal and the good, and the dynasty failed. These are the evidences of the value of Confucianism in every age. But in our present dynasty worship and religion have been wisely regulated, and the government is in fine order; noble ministers and able of^cers 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 latedr^' ""***" religions is that it does not encourage mysteries and strange things or marvels. It is impartial and upright. It is a doctrine of great im- partiality and strict uprightness, which one may body forth in one's person and carry out with vigor in one's life; therefore, we say, when the sun and moon come forth (as in Confucianism), then the light of candles can be dispensed with. Wisely Regu- i Ui PU (Confucianism. Paper by HON. PUNG KWANG j^U, First Secretary o! the Chinese Legation, WafVington, D. C. LL Chinese reformers of ancient and modern times have either exercised supreme authority as political heads of the nation or filled high posts as ministers of state. The only notable exception is Confucius. "Man," says Con- fucius in the Book of Rites, "is the product of heaven and earth, the union of the active and passive principles, the conjunction of the soul and spirit, and the ethereal essence of the five elements." Again he says: "Man is the heart of heaven and earth, and the nucleus of the five elements, formed by assimilating food, by distinguishing sounds and by the action of light." Now, the heaven and earth, the active and passive principles, and the soul and spirit are dualisms resulting from unities. The product of heaven and earth, the union of the active and passive principles, the conjunction of the soul and spirit, are unities resulting from dualisms. Man, MantheHeart being the Connecting link between unities and dualisms, is, therefore, ^Heaven and called the heart of heaven and earth. By reason of his being the heart of heaven and earth humanity is his natural faculty and love his con- trolling emotion. "Humanity," says Confucius, "is the characteristic of man." On this account humanity stands at the head of the five fac- ulties, or the innate qualities of the soul, namely, humanity, rectitude, propriety, understanding and truthfulness. Humanity must have the social relations for its sphere of action. Love must begin at home. What are the social relations? They are the sovereign and sub- ject, parent and child, husband and wife, elder and young brothers and friends. These are called the five relations or natural relations. As the relation of husband and wife must have been recognized before that of sovereign or subject, or that of parent and child, the relation of husband and wife is, therefore, the first of the social relations. The relation of husband and wife bears a certain analogy to that of "kien" and "kium." The word kien may be taken in the sense of heaven. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 481 ' 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 mainstays of the social structure have their origin in the law of nature, and do not owe their existence to the invention of men. The emotions are but the manifestations of the soul's faculties when acted upon by external objects. There are seven emotions, namely, joy, anger, grief, fear, love, hate and desire. The faculties of the soul derive their origin from nature, and are, therefore, called natural faculties; the emotions emanate from man, and are, therefore, called human emotions. Humanity sums up the virtues of the five natural faculties. Filial duty lies at the foundation 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 other's," says Confucius, "^-^hatsoever ye would not that others should do unto you." Again, he says: "A noble-minded 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 required of a subject; to serve one's elder brother in such a manner as is required of a younger brother; to set an example of dealing with one's friends in such a manner as is required of friends." This succinct statement puts in a nutshell all the requirements of sincerity, charity, devotion and honor; in other words, of humanity ah the Re- itself. Therefore, all natural virtues and established doctrines that gjj^^^ ®^ relate to the duties of man in his relations to sodiety must have their origin in humanity. On the other hand, the principle that regulates the actions and conduct of men, from beginning to end, can be no other than propriety. What are the rules of propriety? The "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 observ- ance of stated feasts, the sphere of woman and the education of youth. The rules of propriety are based on rectitude and should be carried out with understanding, so as to show their truth, to the end that humanity may appear in its full splendor. The aim is to enable the five innate qualities of the soul to have full and free play, and yet to enable each in its action to promote the action of the rest. If we were to go into details on this subject and enlarge on the various lines of thought as they present themselves we should find that myriads of words and thousands of paragraphs would not suffice, for then we should have to deal with such problems as relate to the observation of facts, the sys- tematization of knowledge, the establishment of right principles, the rectification of the heart, the disciplining of self, the regulation of the family, the government of the nation and the pacification of the world, 81 482 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Origin of Re- ligious Wor- ship. Natara] Im- j>erfection8. Such are the elements of instruction and self-education which Confu- cianists consider as essential to make man what he ought to be. Now, man is only a species of naked animal. He was naturally stricken with fear and went so far as to worship animals against which he was helpless. To this may be traced the origin of religious wor- ship. It was only man, however, that nature had endowed with intel- ligence. On this account he could take advantage of the natural ele- ments, and his primary object was to increase the comforts and remove the dangers of life. As he passed from a savage to a civilized state he initiated movements for the education of the rising generation by defining the relations and duties of society and by laying special emphasis on the disciplining of self. Therefore, man is called the **nucleus of the five elements and the ethereal essence of the five ele- ments formed by assimilating food, by distinguishing sounds and by the action of light." Herein lies the dignity of human nature Herein we recognize the chief characteristic that distinguishes man from ani- mals. The various tribes of feathered, haired, scaled, or shelled animals, to be sure, are not entirely incapable of emotion. As emotions are only phenomena of the soul's different faculties, animals may be said to possess, to a limited degree, faculties similar to the faculties of man, and are "not therefore entirely devoid of the pure essence of nature From the beginning of the creation the intelligence of animals has remained the same, and will doubtless remain the same until the end of time. They are incapable of improvement or progress. This shows that the substance of their organization must be derived from the im- perfect and gross elenaents 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 individuals that lie prostrate." The idea is that nature has no fixed purpose. As for man, he also has natural imperfections. This is what Con- fucianists call essential imperfections in the constitution. The reason is that the organizations which different individuals have received from the earth are very diverse in character. It is but natural that the faculties of different individuals should develop abilities and capabili- ties which are equally diverse in degrees and kinds. It is not that different individuals have received from nature different measures of intelligence. Man only can remove the imperfections inherent in the substance of his organization by directing his mind to intellectual pursuits, by abiding in virtue, by following the dictates of humanity, by subduing anger, and by restraining the appetites. Lovers of mankind, who have <"he regeneration of the world at heart, would doubtles? consider it THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 483 desirable to have some moral panacea which could completely remove all the imperfections from the organic substance of the human species, so that the whole race might be reformed with ease and ex- pedition. But such a method of procedure does not seem to be the way in which nature works. She only brings out the innate qualities of every substance. Still it is worth while to cherish such a desire on account of its tendency to elevate human nature, though we know it to be impossible of fulfillment, owing to the limitations of the human organization. Man is then endowed with the faculties of the highest dignity. Vet there are those who so far degrade their manhood as to give themselves up to the unlimited indulgence of those appetites which they have in common with birds, beasts and fishes, to the utter loss of their moral sense without being sensible of their degradation, perhaps. In case they have really become insensible then even heaven cannot possibly do anything with them. But if they, at any time, become sensible of their condition, they must be stricken with a sense of shame, not unmingled, perhaps, with fear and trembling If, after experiencing a sense of shame, mingled with fear and trembling, they repent of their evil doings, then they become men again with their humanity restored. This is a doctrine maintained by all the schools of Confucianists. "Reason," says Confucius in his notes to the " Book of Changes," "consists in the proper union of the active and passive principles of nature" Again, he says: "What is called spirit is the inscrutable state of *yin' and '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 principle predominating. "Yin," or the passive prin- ciple of nature, is earth or substance. Whenever a substance which has the property of absorbing ether is attracted to the earth there is an admixture of the active and passive principles of nature, with the passive principle predominating. As the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, its going and coming making one day, so the quantity of ether which the earth holds varies from time to time. Exhalation follows absorption; sys- tole 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 absorp- tion; systole succeeds diastole. It is these great changes that produce heat and cold. The movements of the active and passive principles of the universe bear a certain resemblance to the movements of the sun. There are periods of rest, periods of activity, periods of expan- sion, and periods of contraction. The two principles may sometimes repel each other but can never go beyond each other's influences. They may albo attract each other, but do not by this means spend their Faculties of Dignity. Active and Passive Prinf ciplee. 484 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, force. They seem to permeate all things from beginning to end. They are invisible and inaudible, yet it cannot be said for this reason they do not exist. This is what is meant by inscrutability, and this is what Confucius calls spirit. Still it is necessary to guard against confounding this conception of spirit with that of nature. Nature is an entirely active element and must needs have a passion element to operate upon in order to bring out its energy. On the other hand, it is also an error to confound spirit with matter. Matter is entirely passive and must needs have some active element 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 tive m?mMit°" the essences of the active and passive principles, that the spirit of any- thing owes its being. In case there is no union of the active and pas- sive principles, the ethereal and substantive elements lie separate, and the influences of the heavens and the earth cannot come into conjunc- tion. This being the case, whence can spirits derive their substance? Thus the influences of the heavens and material objects must act and react upon each other, and enter into the composition of each other, in order to enable every material object to incorporate a due propor- tion of energy with its virtues. Each object is then able to assume its proper form, whether large or small, and acquire the properties pecu- liar to its constitution, to the end that it may fulfill its functions in the economy of nature. For example, the spirits of mountains, hills, rivers and marshes are invisible; we see only the manifestations of their power in winds, clouds, thunders and rains. The spirits of birds, quadrupeds, insects and fishes are invisible; we see only the manifestations of their power in flying, running, burrowing and swimming. The spirits of terrestrial and aquatic plants are invisible; we see only the manifestations of their power in flowers, fruits and the various tissues. The spirit of man is invisible; yet when we consider that the eyes can see, the ears can hear, the mouth can distinguish flavors, the nose can smell and the mind can grasp what is most minute as well as what is most remote, how can we account for all this? ^ In the case of man, the spirit is in a more concentrated and better disciplined state than the spirits of the rest of the created things. On this account the spirit of man after death, though separated from the body, is still able to retain its essential virtues and does not become easily dissipated. This is the ghost or disembodied spirit. The followers of Taoism and Buddhism often speak of immortality and everlasting life. Accordingly they subject themselves to a course of discipline, 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 inculcate that the good will receive their due reward and the wicked will suffer eternal punishment. They mean to convey the idea, of course, that rewards THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 485 and punishments will be dealt out to the spirts of men after death according to their deserts. Such beliefs doubtless had their origin in attempts to influence the actions of men by appealing to their likes and dislikes. The purpose of inducing men to do good and forsake evil by presenting in striking contrast a hereafter to be striven for and a hereafter to be avoided is laudable enough in 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 cannot as yet," says Confucius, ''perform our duties to men; how can we perform our duties to spirits?" Again, he says: "We know not as yet about life; how can we know about death?" "From this time on," says Tsang-tze,"I know that I am saved." "Let my consistent actions remain," says Chang-tze,"and I shall die in peace." It will be seen that the wise and good men of China have never thought it advisable to give up teaching the duties of life and turn to speculations on the conditions of souls and spirits after death. But from various passages, in the "Book of Changes," it may be inferred that the souls of men after death are in the same state as they were before birth. Why is it that Confucianists apply the word "ti" to heaven and not to spirits? The reason is that there is but one "ti," or Supreme Ruler, the governor of all subordinate spirits, who cannot be said to be propitious or unpropitious, beneficent or maleficent. Inferior spirits, on the other hand, owe their existence to material substances. A.S substances have noxious or useful properties, so some spirits may be propitious, others unpropitious, and some benevolent, others malev- olent. Man is part of the material universe; the spirit of man, a spe- cies of spirits. All created things can be distributed into groups, and individuals of the same species are generally found together. A man, therefore, Q^Sspirit^ whose heart is good, must have a good spirit. By reason of the influ- ence exerted by one spirit upon another, a good spirit naturally tends to attract all other propitious and good spirits. This is happiness. Now, if every individual has a good heart, then from the action and reaction of spirit upon spirit, only propitious and good influences can flow. The country is blessed with prosperity; 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 cannot but be likewise evil. On account of the influence exerted by one spirit upon another, the call of this spirit naturally meets with ready responses from all other unpropitious and evil spirits. This is misery. If every individual harbors an evil heart, then a responsive chord is struck in all unpropitious and evil spirits. 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, in the administration of public affairs, a wise legislator 486 THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. always takes into consideration the spirit of the times in devising means for the advancement and promotion of civilization. He puts his reliance on ceremonies and music to carry on the good work, and makes use of punishments and the sword as a last resort, in accord- ance with the good or bad tendency of the age. His aim is to restore the human heart to its pristine innocence by establishing a standard of goodness and by pointing out a way of salvation to every creature. The right principles of action can only be discovered by studying the waxing and waning of the active and passive elements of nature, as set forth in the"Book of Changes, "and surely cannot be understood by those who believe in what priests call the dispensations of Provi- dence. Human affairs are made up of thousands of acts of individuals. What, therefore, constitutes a good action, and what a bad action? What is done for the sake of others is disinterested; a disinterested action is good and may be called beneficial. What is done for the sake of one's self is selfish; a selfish action is bad and naturally springs from avarice. Suppose there is a man who has never entertained a good thought and never done a good deed, does* it stand to reason that such a wretch can, by means of sacrifices and prayers, attain to the blessings of life? Let us take the opposite case and suppose that there is a man who has never harbored a bad thought and never done a bad deed, does it stand to reason that there is no escape for such a man from adverse fortune except through prayers and sacrifices? " My prayers," says Confucius, ** were offered up long ago." The meaning he wishes to convey is that he considers his prayers to consist in liv- ing a virtuous life and in constantly obeying the dictates of con- science. He, therefore, looks upon prayers as of no avail to deliver any one Decrees of from sickness. "He who sins against heaven," again he says, "has no Heaven. place to pray." What he means is that even spirits have no power to bestow blessings on those who have sinned against the decrees of heaven. The wise and the good, however, make use of offerings and sacrifices simply as a means of purifying themselves from the contam- ination of the world, so that they become susceptible of spiritual influences and be in sympathetic touch with the invisible world, to the end that calamities may be averted and blessings secured thereby. Still, sacrifices cannot be offered by all persons without distinction. Only the emperor can offer sacrifices to heaven. Only governors of provinces can offer sacrifices to the spirits of mountains and rivers, land and agriculture. Lower officers of the government can offer sac- rifices only to their ancestors of the five preceding generations, but are not allowed to offer sacrifices to heaven. The common people, of course, are likewise denied this privilege. They can offer sacrifices only to their ancestors. Ail persons, from the emperor down to the common people, are THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 487 strictly required to observe the worship of ancestors. The only way in which a virtuous man and a dutiful son can show his sense of obligation to the authors of his being is to serve them when dead, as when they were alive, when departed as when present. It is for this reason that the most enlightened rulers have always made filial duty the guiding prin- ciple of government. Observances of this character have nothing to do with religious celebrations and ceremonies. Toward the close of the Ming dynasty the local authorities of a certain district invited a priest from Tsoh to live in their midst. The people began to vie with one another in their eagerness to worship the new-fangled deities of Tsoh. Shortly afterward an invitation was extended to a priest from Yueh to settle there also. Then the people, in like manner, began to vie with one another in their eagerness to worship the new-fangled deities of Yueh. The Tsoh priest, stirred up with envy, declared to the people that the heaven he taught was the only true heaven, and the deities he served were the only true deities, adding, that by making use of his prayers they could obtain the for- giveness 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 designated 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 ^^^.^q and of Providence, by saying that no blessings can fall to the lot of the False Deities, good without prayer, and that prayer can turn into a blessing the retribution that is sure to overtake the v/icked. Interior of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan. Genesis and Development of C^"" fucianism. Paper by DR. ERNEST FABER, of Shanghai, China. N order to show the greater contrast in modern China and its Confucianism compared with China in the times of Confucius and 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 Confucius 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 attrac- ^ tion of neighboring states but by bloody wars ^ and suppression. The constitution of the state was changed and ruins were everywhere. He no- ticed splendid temples dedicated to gods he had never heard of, while around these magnificent homes lived people who were poor and famine-stricken or who spent their lives opium smoking and gambling. He found that benevolent institutions were misman- aged and that the money which belonged to the poor found its way into the pockets of the respectable managers dressed in long silk robes. There had been changes in dress which chilled the hearts of Con- fucius and Mencius. They sighed when they saw women with dis- torted feet and men wearing queues. As they wandered along they found that sacrifices were made at graves, and that every one bowed down before the genii of good luck. In the colleges they found that most of the time was spent in empty routine and phraseology. There was no basis for the formation of character. Passing by a large bookstore they entered and looked about them in surprise at the thousands of books on the shelves. "Alas!" said Confucius, **I find here the same state of things I found in China 2,400 years ago. The very thing that induced me to clear the ancient literature of thousands of useless works, retaining only a few, filling 32 489 Confucias Sighs. In Honor of 'a 3n 490 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. five volumes, worthy to be transmitted to after ages. Is nothing left of my spirit among the myriads of scholars professing to be my fol- lowers? Why do they not clear away the heaps of rubbish that have accumulated during twenty centuries? They should transmit the essence of former ages to the young generation as an inheritance of wisdom which they have put into practice and so increase." Going into a gentleman's house, they were invited to take chairs, and looked in vain for the mat spread on the ground. Tobacco pipes were handed to the sages, but they declined to smoke, saying that the ancients valued pure air most highly Seeing many arches erected in honor of famous women, they wondered that the fame of women should Fam^B^Woml 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 charita- ble 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 Peking, 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, retribution made a prominent move in morals, codification of penal law, publication of the statutes of the empire and cessation of the imperial tours of inspection. Then they noted the progress of the west, the railroads, the steam engines and steamers of immense size moving on quickly, even against wind and tide. *'Oh, my little children," said Confucius, "all ye who honor my name, the people of the west are in advance of you as the ancients were in advance of the rest of the world. Therefore, leain what they have good and correct their evil by what you have better. This is my meaning of the great principle of reciprocity." Points of Qontact Between Qhristianity and ]\/\ohammedanism. Paper by GEORGE WASHBURN, D. D., President of Robert College, Constantinople. T is not my purpose to enter upon any defense or criticism of Mohammedanism, but simply to state, as impartially as possible, its points of contact and contrast with Christianity. The chief difficulty in such a statement arises from the fact that there are as many dif- ferent opinions on theological questions among Moslems as among Christians, and that it is impossible to present any summary of Moham- medan doctrine which will be accepted by all. The faith of Islam is based primarily upon the Koran, which is believed to 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 distin- guished theologians of the second century of the hegira, especially, for the Sunnis, of the four Imams, Hanife, Shafi, 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 two-fold divisions of Sunniis and Shiites and of the sects of the four Imams, there are said to be several hundred minor sects. It is, in fact, very difficult for an honest inquirer to determine what is really essential to the faith. A distinguished Moslem states- man and scholar once assured me that nothing was essential beyond a belief in the existence and unity of God. And several years ago the Sheik-ul-Islam, the highest authority in Constantinople, in a letter to a German inquirer, states that whoever confesses that there is but one God, and that Mohammed is his prophet, is a true Moslem, although to be a good one it is necessary to observe the five points of confes- 491 What is Es. sential to th« Moslem Faith. ^ 492 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, sion, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage; but the difficulty about this apparently simple definition in that belief in Mohammed as the prophet of God involves a belief in all his teaching, and we come back at once to the question what that teaching was. The great majority of Mohammedans believe in the Koran, the traditions and the teaching of the school of Hanife, and we cannot do better than to take these doctrines and compare them with what are generally regarded as the essential principles of Christianity. With this explanation we may discuss the relations of Christianity and Mohammedanism as historical, dogmatic and practical. It would hardly be necessary to speak in this connection of the historical relations of Christianity and Islam if they had not seemed, Rdations^^*'^ to some distinguished writers, so important as to justify the statement that Mohammedanism is a form and outgrowth of Christianity; in fact, essentially a Christian sect. Carlyle, for example, says: " Islam is definable as a confused form of Christianity." And Draper calls it "The southern reformation, akin to that in the north under Luther." Dean Stanley and Dr. Doel- linger make similar statements. While there is 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 his announcing his prophetic mission he had interested himself at all in Christianity. No such theory is necessary to account for his mono- theism. The citizens of Mecca were mostly idolaters, but a few, known as Hanifs, were pure deists, and the doctrine of the unity of God was not unknown theoretically even by those who, in their idolatry, had practically abandoned it. The temple at Mecca was known as Beit ullah, 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 at Mecca. It was against this prevalent idolatry that Mohammed revolted, and he claimed that in so doing he had returned to the pure religion of Abraham Still, Mohammedanism is no more a reformed Judaism than it is a form of Christianity. It was essentially a new religion. The Koran claimed to be a new and perfect revelation of the will of God, and from the time of the prophet's death to this day no Moslem has appealed to the ancient traditions of Arabia or to the Jewish or Christian Scriptures as the ground of his faith. The Koran and the traditions are sufficient and final. I believe that every ortho- dox Moslem regards Islam as a separate, distinct, and absolutely exclusive religion; and there is nothing to be gained by calling it a form of Christianity. But, after having set aside this unfounded state- ment, and fully acknowledged the independent origin of Islam, there is THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP REUGtONS. 4dd still an historical relationship between it and Christianity which demands our attention The prophet recognized the Christian and Jewish Scriptures as the word of God, although it cannot be proved that he had ever read them. They are mentioned 131 times in the Koran, but there is only one quotation from the Old Testament, and one from the New. The historical parts of the Koran correspond with the Talmud, and the writing current among the heretical Christian sects, such as the Protevangelium of James, the pseudo Matthew, and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, rather than with the Bible. His informa- tion was probably obtained verbally from his Jewish and Christian friends, who seem, in some cases, to have deceived him intentionally. He seems to have believed their statements, that his coming was foretold in the Scriptures, and to have hoped for some years that they would accept him* as their promised leader. His confidence in the Christians was proved by his sending his persecuted followers to take refuge with the Christian king of Abys- sinia. He had visited Christian Syria, and, if tradition can be trusted, he had some intimate Christian friends. With the Jews he was on still more intimate terms during his last years at Mecca and the first at Medina. But in the end he attacked and destroyed the Jews and declared war against the Christians, making a distinction, however, in his treat- ment of idolaters and ''the people of the 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 Hves 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 punish- ment in hell. Some have supposed that a verse in the second sura of the Koran was intended to teach a more charitable doctrine. It reads: *' Surely those who believe, whether Jews, Christians or Sabians, whoever be- lieveth in God and the last day, and doth 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 if Jews, Christians or Sabians become Moslems they will be saved, the phrase used being the com- mon one to express faith in Islam. In the third sura it is stated in so many words: " Whoever fol- loweth any other religion than Islam it shall not be accepted of him, and at the last day he shall be of those that perish." This is the orthodox doctrine; but it should be said that one meets with Moslems who take a more hopeful view of the ultimate fate of those who are sincere and honest followers of Christ. The question whether Mohammedanism has been in any w^y modified since the time of the prophet by its contact with Christianity I think every Moslem would answer in the negative. There is much The Koran and the Tal- mad. geace of Faith. 4U TME WOkLD'S CONGRESS OF REUCtOm, to be said on the other side, as, for example, it must seem to a Chris- tian student that the offices and qualities assigned to the prophet by the traditions, which 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 acknowledged to be essential in 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 of any value to our present dis- cussion. It has been formally decided by various fetvas that the Koran re- quires belief in seven principal doctrines, and the confession of faith is this: "I believe on God, on the Angeft, 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 Wide^Diver dogmas one by one we shall find that they agree with Christian doc- trine in their general statement, although in their development there is a wide divergence of faith between the Christian and Moslem. First. The Doctrine of God This is stated by Omer Nessefi (A. D. 1 142), as follows: ''God is one and eternal. He lives, and is almighty. He knows all things, hears all things, sees all things. He is endowed with will and action He has neither form nor feature, neither bounds, limits nor numbers, neither parts, multiplications nor divisions, because He is neither body nor matter. He has neither beginning nor end. He is self-existent, without generation, dwelling or habitation. He is outside the empire of time, unequaled in His nature as in His attributes, which, without being foreign to His essence, do not constitute it." The Westminster catechism says: "God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. There is but one only, the living and true God." It will be seen that these statements differ chiefly in that the Christian gives special prominence to the moral attributes of God, and it has often been said that the God of Islam is simply a God of almighty power, while the God of Christianity is a God of infinite love and per- fect holiness; but this is not a fair statement of truth. The ninety-nine names of God, which the good Moslem constantly repeats, assign these attributes to Him. The fourth name is "The Most Holy;" the twenty- ninth, "The Just;" the forty-sixth, "The All Loving;" the first and most Qommon is "The Merciful," and the moral attributes are often referred to in the Koran. In truth, there is no conceivable perfection which the Moslem would neglect to attribute to God. Their conception of Him is that of an absolute Oriental Monarch, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 495 and His unlimited power to do what He pleases makes entire submission to His will the first, most prominent duty. The name which they gave to their religion implies this. It is Islam, which means submission or resignation; but a king may be good or bad, wise or foolish, and the Moslem takes as much pains as the Christian to attribute to God all wisdom and all goodness. The essential difference in the Christian and Mohammedan con- ception of God lies in the fact that the Moslem does not think of this great King as having anything in common with His subjects, from whom He is infinitely removed. The idea of the incarnation of God th?(^ception in Christ is to them not only blasphemous but absurd and incompre- of GcX hensible; and the idea of fellowship with God, which is expressed in calli g Him our Father, is altogether foreign to Mohammedan thought. God is not immanent in the world in the Christian sense, but apart from the world and infinitely removed from man. Second. The Doctrine of Degrees, or of the Sovereignty of God, is a fundamental principle of both Christianity and Islam. The Koran says: "God has from all eternity foreordained by an immutable decree all things whatsoever that come to pass, whether good or evil." The Westminister catechism says: "The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained whatever comes to pass." It is plain that these two statements do not essentially differ, and the same controversies have arisen over this doctrine among Moham- medans as among Christians with the same differences of opinion. Omer Nessefi says: "Predestination refers not to the temporal, but to the spiritual state. Election and reprobation decide the final fate of the soul, but in tem- poral affairs man is free." A Turkish confession of faith says: "Unbelief and wicked acts happen with the foreknowledge and will of God, but the effect of His predestination, written from eternity on the preserved tables, by His operation but not with His satisfaction. God foresees, wills, produces, loves all that is good, and does not love unbelief and sin, though He wills and effects it. If 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 us to know." Many Christian theologians would accept this statement without criticism, but in general they have been careful to guard against the idea that God is in any way the efficient cause of sin, and they gener- ally give to man a wider area of freedom than the orthodox Moham- medans. It cannot be denied that this doctrine of the decrees of God has degenerated into fatalism more generally among Moslems than among Christians. I have never known a Mohammedan of any sect who was 496 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. not more or less a fatalist, notwithstanding the fact that there have been Moslem theologians who have repudiated fatalism as vigorously as any Christians. In Christianity this doctrine has been offset by a different concep- tion of God, by a higher estimate of man, and by the whole scheme of redemption through faith in Christ. In Islam there is no such coun- teracting influence. Third. The other five doctrines we pass over with a single remark m regard to each. Both Moslems and Christians believe in the exist- ence of good and evil angels, and that God has revealed His will to man in certain inspired books, and both agree that the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are such books. The Moslem, however, believes S^*Aj?ei8^*^ that they have been superseded by the Koran, which was brought down from God by the angel Gabriel. They believe that this is His' eternal and uncreated word; that its divine character is proved by its poetic beauty; that it has a miraculous power over men apart from what it teaches, so that the mere hearing of it, without understanding it, may heal the sick or convert the infidel. Both Christians and Mos- lems believe that God has sent prophets and apostles into the world to teach men His will; both believe in the judgment day and the resur- rection of the dead, the immortality of the soul, and rewards and pun- ishments in the future life. It will be seen that in simple statement the seven positive doc- trines of Islam are in harmony with Christian dogma; but in their ex- position and development the NewTestamentand the Koran part com- pany, and Christian and Moslem speculation evolve totally different conceptions, especially in regard to everything concerning the other world. It is in these expositions based upon the Koran {e. ^., suras, Ivi, and Ixxviii), and still more upon the traditions, that we find the most striking contrasts between Christianity and Mohammedanism; but it is not easy for a Christian to state them in a way to satisfy Mos- lems, and as we have no time to quote authorities we may pass them over. Fourth. The essential dogmatic difference between Christianity and Islam is in regard to the person, office and work of Jesus Christ. The Koran expressly denies the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, His death, and the whole doctrine of the incarnation and the atonement, and rejects the sacraments which He ordained. It accepts His miraculous birth, His miracles, His moral perfec- tion, and His mission as an inspired prophet or teacher. It declares that He did not die on the cross, but was taken up to heaven without death, while the Jews crucified one like Him in His place. It conse- quently denies His resurrection from the dead, but claims that He will come again to rule the world before the day of judgment. It says that He will Himself testify before God that He never 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 497 is not divine, and consequently not an object of worship, but he was the first created being; God's first and best beloved, the noblest of all creatures, the mediator between God and man, the greatest intercessor, the first to enter Paradise and the highest there. Although the Koran in many places speaks of him as a sinner in need of pardon (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 sanctification seems to have been unknown to the prophet, who represents the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as teaching that it consists of God the Father, Mary the Mother, and Christ the Son. The promise of Christ in the Gospel 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 repudia- tion of the Christian dogma of the Incarnation and the Trinity, and the substitution of Mohammed for Christ in most of his offices, but it should be noted in passing that, while this rejection grows out of a different conception of God, it has nothing in common with the scien- tific rationalistic unbelief of the present day. If it cannot conceive of God as incarnate in Jesus Christ, it is not from any doubt as to His personality or His miraculous interference in the affairs of this 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 isteTnd" l>ajtt^ rather than of the modern rationalism. The deistie rationalism is *^®^^^- represented in that most interesting work of Justice Ameer Aali, "The Spirit of Islam." He speaks of Mohammed as Xenophon did of Socrates, and he reveres Christ also, but he denies that there was any- thing supernatural in the inspiration or lives of either, and claims that Hanife and the other Imams corrupted Islam as he thinks Paul, the apostle, did Christianity; but this book does not represent Moham- medanism any more than Renan's "Life of Jesus" represents Christian- ity. These small rationalistic sects are looked upon by all orthodox Moslems as heretics of 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 judge each other harshly and unfairly by those who do not live up to the demands of their religion, instead of comparing the pious Moslem with the consistent Christian. We cannot enter here into a technical statement of the philosoph- Moslem Atho- Code. 498 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. ical 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 explanation, and is really understood by but few Mohammedans, although the practical application of it is the substance of Mohammedan law. It is enough to say that the moral law is based upon the Koran, and the traditions of the life and sayings of the Prophet, enlarged by deductions and analogies. Whatever comes from these sources has the force and authority of a revealed law of God. The first practical duties inculcated in the religious code are: Confession of God and Mohammed, His prophet; Prayer at least five times a day; Fasting during the month of Ramazan, from dawn to sun- set; Alms to the annual amount of two and a half per cent on prop- erty; 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 perpetual obliga- tion, and this seems to have been the opinion of Hanife. In addition to these primary duties of religion, the moral code, as given by Omer Nessefi, demands: Honesty in business; modesty or decency in behavior; fraternity between all Moslems; benevolence and kindness toward all creatures. It forbids gambling, music, the The Moral 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, humanit\% 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, injustice 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 not righteousness 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 the prophets; who giveth money, for God's sake, to his kindred and to orphans, and to the needy and the stranger, and to those who ask, and for the redemption of captives; who is constant in prayer, and giveth alms; and of those who perform their covenant, and who behave themselves patiently in 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. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIC IONS, ;4dd Beyond this we have a moral code equally binding in theory, and equally important in practice, which is not at all Christian, but is es- sentially the morality of the Talmud in the extreme value which it attaches to outward observances, such as fasting, pilgrimages and cer- emonial rites. All the concerns of life and death are hedged about with prescribed ceremonies, which are not simple matters of propriety, but of morality and religion; and it is impossible for one who has not lived among Moslems to realize the extent and importance of this ceremonial law. In regard to polygamy, divorce and slavery, the morality of Islam is in direct contrast with that of Christianity, and as the principles of Polygamy^ the faith, so far as determined by the Koran and the traditions, are slavery.*'^ 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 Testament is found in the spirit with which the faith is to be propa- gated. The Prophet led His armies to battle and founded a temporal kingdom by force of arm5. The Koran is full of exhortation to fight for the faith. Christ founded a spiritual kingdom, which could only be extended by loving persuasion and the influence of the Holy Spirit. It is true that Christians have had their wars of religion, and have committed as many crimes against humanity in the name of Christ as Moslems have ever committed in the name of the Prophet; but the opposite teaching on this subject in the Koran and the New Testament is unmistakable, and involves different conceptions of morality. Such, in general, is the ethical code of Islam. In practice there are certainly many Moslems whose moral lives are irreproachable according to the Christian standard, who fear God, and in their deal- ings with men are honest, truthful and benevolent; who are temperate 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 religions 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 attaining a state of ecstacy; but others are neither pantheists nor theosophists, and seek to attain unity of spirit with a supreme, per- sonal God by spiritual means. Those who have had much acquaintance with Moslems know that in addition to these mystics there are many common people — as many women as men — who seem to have more or less clear ideas of spiritual life and strive to attain something higher than mere formal morality 500 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. and verbal confession; who feel their personal unworthiness, and hope only in God. The following extract from one of many similar poems of Shereef Hanum, a Turkish Moslem lady of Constantnople, rendered into En- glish by Rev. H. O. Dwight, is certainly as spiritual in thought and language as most of the hymns sung in Christian churches: "O Source of Kindness and of Love Who givest aid all hopes above, 'Mid grief and guilt although I grope, From Thee I'll ne'er cut off my hope. My Lord, O my Lord! Thou King of kings, dost know my need, Thy pardoning grace no bars can heed; Thou lov'st to help the helpless one, And bidd'st his cries of fear be done. My Lord, O my Lord! Should'st Thou refuse to still my fears. Who else will stop to dry my tears? For 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 Spiritual Life showing that many Moslems do attain some degree, at least, of what Attained. Christians mean by spiritual life; while, as we must confess, it is equally possible for Christianity to degenerate into mere formalism. Notwithstanding the generally high tone of the Moslem code of morals, and the more or less Christian experienceof spiritually minded Mohammedans, I think that the chief distinction between Christian and Moslem morality lies in their different conceptions of the nature and consequences of sin. It is true that most of the theories advanced by Christian writers on theoretical ethics have found defenders among the Moslems; but Mohammedan law is based on the theory that right and wrong depend on legal enactment, and Mohammedan thought follows the same direction. 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 sufificient answer to any criticism to say that God commanded or expressly'permitted those acts which in other men would be wrong. There is, however, one sin which is in its very nature sinful, and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 501 which man is capable of knowing to be such; that is, the sin of deny- ing that there is one God, and that Mohammed is His prophet. Everything else depends on the arbitrary command of God, and may Grave and be arbitrarily forgiven; but this does not, and is consequently unpardon- i^ightsina. able. For whoever dies in this sin there is no possible escape from eternal damnation. Of other sins some are grave and some are light, and it must not be supposed that the Moslem regards grave sins as of little conse- quence. He believes that sin is rebellion against infinite power, and that it cannot escape the notice of the all-seeing God, but must call down His wrath upon the sinner; so that even a good Moslem may be sent to hell to suffer torment for thousands of years before he is pardoned. But he believes that God is merciful; that "he is minded to make his religion light, because man has been created weak." (Koran, sura 4.) If man has sinned against His arbitrary commands, God may ar- bitrarily remit the penalty, 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 of consid- eration for his belief in God and the Prophet by divine mercy. Still, we need to repeat, the Moslem does not look upon sin as a light thing. 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 arbitrarily than He can make a wrong action right; that He could not be just and yet justify the sinner without the atonement made by the incarnation and the suf- fering and the death of Jesus Christ. They do not realize that sin itself is corruption and death; that mere escape from hell is not eternal life, but that the sinful soul must be regenerated and sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit before it can know the joy of beatific vision. 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 differ- ence exists, for it is extremely difficult, almost impossible, for Chris- tians and Moslems to understand one another when the question of sin is discussed. There seems to be a hereditary incapacity in the Moslem to comprehend this essential basis of CJiristian 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 firmly fixed his fate about his neck," and the many similar passages, who is Doctrine of taught that at least so far as the future life is concerned his fate has ^« Decrees, been fixed from eternity by an arbitrary and irrevocable decree, natur- ally falls into fatalism; not absolute fatalism, for the Moslem, as we 502 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. have seen, has his strict code of morality and his burdensome cere- monial law, but at least such a measure of fatalism as weakens his sense of personal responsibility, and leaves him to look upon the whole Christian scheme of redemption as unnecessary, if not 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 Will and De- ^^^ ^^^ Same, and seeks to avoid temptation rather than resist it. Of sire. conversion, in the Christian sense, he has no conception — of that change of heart which makes the regenerated will the master of the soul, to dominate its passions, control the desires and lead men on to final victory over sin and death. There is one other point concerning Mohammedan morality of which I wish to speak with all possible delicacy, but which cannot be passed over in silence. It is the influence of the prophet's life upon the^ Prophet's that of his foUowcrs. The Moslem world accepts him, as Christians ^^*®' do Christ, as the ideal man, the best beloved of God, and consequently their conception of his life exerts an important influence upon their practical morality. I have said nothing, thus far, of the personal character of the prophet, because it is too difficult a question to discuss in this connec- tion; but I may say, in a word, that my own impression is that, from first to last, he sincerely and honestly believed himself to be a super- naturally inspired prophet of God. I have no wish to think any evil of him, for he was certainly one of the most remarkable men that the world has ever seen. I should rejoice to know that he was such a man as he is represented to be in Ameer Aali's "Spirit of Islam," for the world would be richer for having such a man in it. But whatever may have been his real character, he is known to Moslems chiefly through the traditions; and these, taken as a whole, present to us a totally different man from the Christ of the Gospels. As we have seen, the Moslem code of morals commands and forbids essentially the same things as the Christian; but the Moslem finds in the traditions a mass of stories in regard to the life and sayings of the prophet, many of which are altogether inconsistent v/ith 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 Moslems, but they find no excuse for it in the life of Christ. They know that they are Christians only in name; while, under the influence of the traditions, the Mohammedan may have such a conception of the prophet that, in spite of his immorality, he may still believe him- self a true Moslem. If Moslems generally believed in such a prophet as is described in the "Spirit of Islam," it would greatly modify the tone of Mohammedan life. We have now presented, as briefly and impartially as possible, the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 503 \ points of contact and contrast between Christianity and Islam, as his- torical, dogmatic and ethical. We have seen that while there is a broad, common ground of be- lief and sympathy, while we may confidently believe as Christians that God is leading many pious Moslems by the influence of the Holy Spirit, and saving them through the atonement of Jesus Christ, in spite ciusiTer ^ *" 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 repent of our sins and forsake them; that the soul is immortal, and that we shall be rewarded or punished in the future life for our deeds here; that God has revealed His will to the world through prophets and apostles, and that the Holy Scriptures are the word of God. These are most important grounds of agreement and mutual re- spect, but the points of contrast are equally impressive. The supreme God of Christianity is immanent in the world, was incarnate in Christ, and is ever seeking to bring His children into lov- ing fellowship with Himself. The God of Islam is apart from the world, an absolute monarch, who is wise and merciful, but infinitely removed from man. Christianity recognizes the freedom of man, and magnifies the guilt and corruption of sin, but at the same time offers a way of recon- ciliation and redemption from sin and its consequences through the atonement of a Divine Saviour and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Mohammedanism minimizes the freedom of man and the guilt of sin, makes little account of its corrupting influence in the soul and offers no plan of redemption except that of repentance and good works. Christianity finds its ideal man in the Christ of the Gospels; the Moslem finds his in the Prophet of the Koran and the Traditions. Other points of contrast have been mentioned, but the funda- mental difference between the two religions is found in these. This is not the place to discuss the probable future of these two great and aggressive religions, but there is one fact bearing upon this point which comes within the scope of this paper. Christianity is essentially progressive, while Mohammedanism is unprogressive and stationary. In their origin Christianity and Islam are both Asiatic, both Sem- itic, and Jerusalem is but a few hundred miles from Mecca. In regard to the number of their adherents, both have steadily increased from the beginning to the present day. After 1,900 years Christianity numbers 400,000,000, and Islam, after 1,300 years, 200,000,000; but Mohammedanism has been practically confined to Asia and Africa, while Christianity has been the religion of Europe and the New World, and politically it rules over all the world, except China and Turkey. Future of the Two ReligionB. 504 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS Monammedanism has been identified with a stationary civilization, and Christianity with a progressive one. There was a time from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries, when science and philosophy- flourished at Bagdad and Cordova under Moslem rule, while darkness reigned in Europe; but Renan has shown that this brilliant period was neither Arab nor Mohammedan in its spirit or origin; and although his statements may admit of some modification, it is certain that, however brilliant while it lasted, this period has left no trace in the Moslem faith, unless it be in the philosophical basis of Moham- medan law, while Christianity has led the way in the progress of modern civilization. Both these are positive religions. Each claims to rest upon a divine revelation, which is, in its nature, final and unchangeable; yet the one is stationary and the other progressive. The one is based upon what it believes to be divine commands, and the other upon di- vine principles; just the difference that there is between the law of Sinai and the law of Love, the Ten Commandments and the two. The ten are specific and unchangeable; the two admit of ever new and pro- gressive application. Whether in prayer or in search of truth, the Moslem must always turn his face to Mecca and to a revelation made once for all to the prophet; and I think that Moslems generally take pride in the feeling that their faith is complete in itself, and as unchangeable as Mount Ararat. It cannot progress because it is already perfect. The Christian, on the other hand, believes in a living Christ, who was indeed crucified at Jerusalem, but rose from the dead and is now present everywhere, leading His people on to ever broader and higher conceptions of truth, and ever new applications of it to the life of humanity; and the Christian church, with some exceptions, perhaps, recognizes the fact that the perfection of its faith consists not in its immobility but in its adaptability to every stage of human enlighten- ment. If progress is to continue to be the watchword of civilization, the faith which is to dominate this civilization must also be pro- gressive It would have been pleasant to speak here today only of the broad field of sympathy which these two great religions occupy in common, but it would have been as unjust to the Moslem as to the Christian If I have represented his faith as fairly as I have sought to do, he will be the first to applaud. No true Moslem or Cnnstian believes that these two great relig- ions are essentially the same, or that they can be merged by compro- mise in a common eclectic faith. We know that they are mutually ex- clusive, and it is only by a fair and honest comparison of differences that we can work together for the many ends which we have in com- mon, or judge of the truth in those things in which we differ. /America's O^ty to China Paper by DR. W. A. P. MARTIN, of Peking, China MONG the hundreds of inviting themes of- fered in the official programme, I have select- ed this because it is pregnant with live issues, and because in a parliament of religions no subject is more fitting than that of duty. A religion that withdraws men from the active duties of life and leads them, to consume their brief span of earthly existence in fruit- less contemplation, or one that exalts cere- monial observances, at the expense of jus- tice and charity, has forgotten the mission of a heaven-sent faith. The seal of religion is the sanction which it lends to morality. This is what St. James means when he says that "pure and undefiled religion is to visit the widow and the father- less in their affliction; and to keep one's self unspotted from the world." The same conception is set forth in the eighty- fifth psalm, in that beautiful picture of heaven and earth combining to give birth to truth, mercy and righteousness: " Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springeth out of the earth. Righteousness hath looked down from heaven." There is not a religion worthy of the name that does not in some degree exert this kind of elevating and sanctifying influence. But it is not claiming too much for Christianity to assert that beyond all other systems it has made its influence felt in the morality of individuals and of nations. It is like the sun, which not only floods the earth with light, but 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 o^ their 507 Inflaence of Christianity. 508 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 indebtedness to China. The word duty in ness^toChina** ^^^ primary sense signifies what we owe. Gathering a fullness of mean- ing and rising with the growth of morals and the development of lan- guage, it finally attains the conception of what we ought, signifying in the first instance an obligation to make a return for benefits received, and in its higher sense that which we are impelled to do from any consideration that binds the conscience. In either sphere we shall dis- cover a number of weighty obligations which we have to discharge to- ward the people of China. To begin with those of the lower order — our obligations for bene- fits received: Rich are the gifts which that ancient empire has poured into the lap of our western civilization; gifts, which like air and sun- shine, we enjoy without taking the trouble to reflect on their origin, though their withdrawal would carry a sense of grievous loss into every household. Here, where the products of inventive genius are so profoundly displayed, let it not be forgotten that to China we are indebted for the best of our domestic beverages; for the elegant ware that adorns our table, and for those splendid dress materials that set off the beauty of our women. To China, moreover, we are indebted for at least one of our sciences, one which is doing more than any other to transform and subjugate the elements. For, as I have shown in a paper devoted to that inquiry, alchemy, the mother of our modern chemistry, though reaching Europe by way of India, Byzantium and Arabia, had its orig- inal root in the Chinese philosophy of Tao, one of the religions repre- sented here today. Its votaries, seizing on a hint of the transmuta- tions of matter which they found in that oldest of the sacred books two thousand years ago, of their country, the Yi 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 that early date, we find among the Chinese the search for the secret of making gold and com- pounding the elixir of immortality — the j:win pursuits that have fired the ambition of alchemists in all subsequent ages. Are not these few items, if taken alone, sufficient to warrant the inference that the nation which originated such things is not unde- serving of respect, as a benefactor of the human race? But I hasten to emphasize another obligation which connects itself directly with the great event commemorated by this Columbian exhi- bition. For to China, beyond a doubt, we are indebted for the motive that stimulated the Genoese navigator to undertake his adventurous voyage, and to her he was indebted for the needle that guided him on his way. Being an Italian, he was familiar with the marvelous narra- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 509 tive of Marco Polo's residence at the court of Kublai Khan (A. D- 1280), in Combalar, the present city of Peking. His imagination was filled with the splendors of Cathay, the name that Polo gives to China The Motive from the Kitai Mongols, to whose sway it was then subject; and be it ^»J. stimuiat- remembered, that at that epoch Europe was far in the wake of China, both in wealth and civilization, her only pre-eminence consisting in the possession of those undeveloped germs of religion and science which since that day have transformed the globe. The doctrine of the earth's rotundity, which was not new, but which he was the first to make subservient to maritime enterprise, assured Columbus that the ocean, on which he looked, must have a farther shore, and that by crossing it to the west he might arrive at the Asi- atic Eldorado after passing the island empire of Zipangu, never dreaming that the ocean held in its bosom a new world, which stretched almost from pole to pole and barred his westward course. 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. In- deed, but for the assistance of that mysterious pilot, he never would have dared to leave behind him coast and headland, and to plunge into a vast unknown where clouds and fogs might deprive him of sun and stars. "Long lay the ocean paths from him concealed; Light came from heaven, the magnet was revealed. Then first Columbus, 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 already intimated, by way of China; for it was to the Chinese that the directive properties of the magnet were first " revealed." Long before the dawn of the Christian era they had made use of it in crossing the treeless prairies of Mongolia and the moving sands of the desert of Cobi. Early in our era they had applied it to coastwise navigation, and nothing was wanting but a Chinese Columbus to enable them to find their way across the Pacific and to pre-occupy this goodly continent, which by a special Providence appears to have been reserved for the people of Europe. We know not the hand by which the magic needle was trans- mitted, but it is morally certain that it came from China, where it had made its home for at least two thousand years. There is, indeed, an apparent difference between our needle and that of China, which might in some minds give rise to a doubt as to their identity. The Chinese always speak of theirs as "pointing to the south," while it is well known that ours points in the opposite direction. Matter this for a pretty controversy — which might not have been easily settled, but for the fortunate observation that a needle has two ends. May not this case serve as a hint to help us in reconciling some of our conflicts Grave ns the 510 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, of religious opinion? Does it not show that both parties may be right* though the divergency of their views appears to be as wide as the poles? Significant it is that the first European known to have employed the compass was Gioja, a Neapolitan, a countryman of Polo's and CompasB!" ""'* those other entefprising Italians, who brought the news of China from the ports of the Euxine or sought them in Tartary. Not merely did Polo's story awaken the aspirations of Columbus, the needle itself spoke to him of China, seeming to say, ** fear not the trackless ocean; here is a guide that I have sent you to conduct you to my shores." In Irving's " Tales of the Alhambra," one of the Moorish kings comes into possession of a wonderful talisman — the ima*ge of a cavalier whose spear is endowed with the inestimable quality of always pomting in the direction from which danger is to be apprehended. Would not the magnetic needle, if only one of the kind had existed, have been regarded as equally mysterious? Is it worthy of less admiration, because capable of being indefinitely multiplied? And is our debt to China the lighter because the 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 grate- ful recognition is it not a matter of surprise that China is not found occupying a conspicuous place in this Columbian exhibition? Could anything have been more fitting than to have had the dragon flag float- ing over a pavilion draped with shining 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: "We have excluded your laborers and skilled workmen because our people dread their competition. We have even enacted a law that not one of them who turns his back on our shores shall be permitted to re-enter our ports. Still we would like to have you help us with our big show, and for this occasion we are willing to relax the rigor of our rules so far as to admit a few of your workingmen to aid in arrang- ing your exhibit, under bond, be it understood, that they shall clear out as soon as the display is over." What wonder that a proud and sensitive government declined the tempting offer, leaving its industries to be represented (if at all) by the private enterprise of its people resident in the United States? Here is China's official reply as communicated by Minister Denby in a dispatch to the Secretary of State. Reporting an interview with the Chinese premier, Li Hung Chpng, he says: THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 511 " I then took up the subject of the Chicago exposition and advised him to send a fleet to Hampton Roads to show the world the great progress China has lately made in the creation of a modern navy. I found, however, that it was useless to argue the subject with him. He said he would not send a fleet, and that China would have no exhibi-* tion at Chicago. I expressed my regret at this irrational conclusion and used some arguments to make him recede from it, but without avail." If our indebtedness to China is such that nothing but ignorance or want of thought could prevent its due recognition; on the other hand our duties to her and her people are not less conspicuous. In treating of them I shall not attempt to carry out the form of a debt and credit account; for though our sense of moral responsibility may sometimes be quickened by sentimental considerations, such as those to which we have adverted, our duties are of a higher order and more positive character. They grow not out of obligation for benefits, such as we have described, but spring directly from the geographical situation, which the Creator has assigned to us, taken in connection with the position which we are called to occupy in the scale of civili- zation. "Who is my neighbor?" is a question which every human soul is ^"^^%™y 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 indi- viduals. It is an answer that sweeps away the barriers of race and religion and shows us the Samaritan forgetful of hereditary feuds ministering to the wants of the needy Jew. Thus China is our neighbor, notwithstanding the sea that rolls between us, a sea which, contrary to the idea of the Roman poet, unites rather than divides. Yes, China, which faces us on the opposite shore of the Pacific; China, which occupies a domain as vast and as opulent in resources as our own; China, teeming with a population 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 which we owe to her? It is unquestionably to make her people partakers with ourselves in the blessings of the Christian religion. Here in this parliament of relig- ions it is unnecessary to stop to prove that religion is our chief good, and that every man who feels himself to be in possession of a clew to guide him through the labyrinth of earthly evils, is bound to offer it to his brother man. Who can deny that we may derive a great advantage from the comparison of our religious experience? And who that be- lieves 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 lookout; he may even feel offended by an implied assumption of superiority, but ought a regard for susceptibilities of that sort to disperse us from the duty of imparting our knowledge? 512 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, "Why should we not send religions to your country?' once said to me a distinguished Chinese professor in the Imperial University of Peking. Careful not to say that it was " because water does not flow up hill," I replied: "By all means, send them and make the experi- ment." "But would your people receive them with favor? " he asked again. " Certainly," said I; "instead of being a voice crying in the wilder- ness they would be welcomed to our city halls and their message would be heard and weighed." Do you suppose that my esteemed colleague at once set about forming a missionary society? He was proud of his position as pro- fessor of mathematics, and proud to be the expositor of what he called " western learning," but his faith was too feeble to prompt to effort for the propagation of his religion. He was a Confucianist and believed in an over-ruling power, which he called "Shangti"or"Tien," and had some shadow of notion of a life to come, as evidenced by his worship of ancestors; but his religion, such as it was, was woefully wanting in vitality, and marked by that Sadduceean indifference which may be taken as the leading characteristic of his school despite the excellence of its ethical system. Another religion indigenous to China is Taoism; but as the Chi- Taoismindig- nese Say of their famous Book of Changes, that "it cannot be carried "*"' *" beyond the seas," we may say the same of Taoism; it has nothing that will bear transportation. Its founder, Lao Tsze, did, indeed, express some sublime truths in beautiful language; but he enjoined retirement from the world rather than persistent effort to improve mankind. His followers have become sadly degenerate; and not to speak of alchemy, which they continue to pursue, their religion has dwindled into a com- pound of necromancy and exorcism. It is, however, very far from being dead. It has at its head a pontiff who represents a hierarchy as old as the Christian era. From his palace on the Tunghn mountains, of Kiongsi, he exercises a serious sort of spiritual jurisdiction over every- thing in the empire, the tutelar deity of the city being by him selected from a list of dead Mondouins. He is supposed, moreover, to be able to control all the bad spirits that molest mankind, and the visitor is shown long rows of jars, each bearing the seal of the pontiff and an inscription indicating that some culprit spirit was there confined. Such is Taoism at the present day, and though it exercises a tremen- dous power over the minds of the superstitious, its doctrines and methods would hardly be deemed edifying in other parts of the world. Buddhism has a nobler record. It imported into China the ele- ments of a spiritual conception of the universe. It has implanted in the minds of the common people a firm belief in rewards and punish- ments. It has cherished a spirit of charity; and in a word, exercised an influence so similar to that of Christianity that it may be considered enous to China. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 51 3 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 Chin- ese 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 cere- Religion of monies borrowed from each of these three systems. And of the ti^e state, religion of the people, it may be affirmed that it consists of parts of all three commingled in each individual mind, much as gases are mingled in the atmosphere, but without any definite proportion. Each of these systems has, in its measure, served them as a useful discipline, though in jarring and irreconcilable discord with each other. But the time has come for the Chinese to be introduced to a more complete religion, one which combines the merits of all three, while it heightens them in degree. To the august character of Shangti, the Supreme Ruler, known but neglected, feared but not loved, Christianity will add the attraction of a tender Father — bringing Him into each heart and house in lieu of the fetiches now enshrined there. Instead of Buddha, the light of Asia, it will give them Christ, the " Light of the world," for the faint hopes of immortality derived from Taoist discipline or Buddhist trans- migration it will confer a faith that triumphs over death and the grave; and to crown all, bestow on them the energy of the Holy Ghost quick- ening the conscience and sanctifying the affections as nothing else has ever done. The native systems, bound up with the absurdities of geomancy and the abominations of animal worship, are an anachronism in the age of steamboats and telegraphs. When electricity has come forth from its hiding place to link the remotest quarters of their land in instan- taneous sympathy, ministering light, force and healing, does it not suggest to them the coming of a spiritual energy to do the same for the human soul? This spiritual power I hold it is pre-eminently the duty of Ameri- cans to seek to impart to the people of China. When Christianity comes to them from Russia, England or France, all of which have pushed their territories up to the frontiers of China, the Chinese are prone to suspect that evangelization under such auspices is only a mask for future aggression. It is not Christianity in itself that they object to, so much as its connection with foreign power and foreign politics. I Now these impediments are minimized in the case of the United States, a country which, until the outbreak of this unhappy persecu- 514 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, tion of their countrymen, was regarded by the Chinese as their best friend, because an impossible enemy. Our treaty of 1858 gives ex- pression to this feeling by a clause inserted at the instance of the Chinese negotiators to the effect that whenever China finds herself in a difficulty with another foreign power she shall have the right to call on America to make use of her good offices to effect a settlement. America holds that proud position no longer. To such a pass have things come that a viceroy, who has always been friendly and at times has been regarded as a patron of missionaries, not long ago said to an American missionary: "Do not come back to China. Stay in your own country and teach your peoplethe practice of justice and charity." This brings us to the duties especially incumbent on our govern- b?nt^upon o^r "^^nt, and the first that suggests itself is that of protecting American Government, interests. That, you may say, is not a duty to China, but one that it owes to its own people. True, but Americans have no interest that does not imply a corresponding good to the Chinese empire. Take, for example, our commerce. Do we impoverish China by taking her teas and silks? Do we not, on the contrary, add to her wealth by 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 bet- ter than from any minute statistics from the fact that within the last thirty years they have been a leading factor in the construction of four lines of railway spanning this continent and of three lines of steam- ships bridging the Pacific. What dimensions will they not attain when our states west of the Mississippi come to be filled with an opulent pop- ulation, and when the resources of China are developed by the appli- cation of occidental methods? Had Columbus realized the grandness of his discovery, and had he, like Balboa, bathed in the waters of the Pacific, what a picture would have risen before the eye of his fervid imagination? A new land as rich as Cathay, and new and old clasping hands across a broad expanse of ocean whitened by the sails of a prosperous commerce. Already has such a dream begun to be fulfilled, and to the prospective expansion of our commerce fancy can hardly assign a limit. In that bright reversion every son of our soil and every adopted citizen has a direct or indirect interest. But what has the government to do with all that beyond giving free scope to private enterprise? Much in many ways. But not to descend into particulars, its responsibility consists mainly in two things, both negative, viz., not by an injudicious tariff to exclude the products of China from our markets, and not to 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 re- pealing that odious law which may not be forbidden by the letter of our constitution, but which three eminent members of our supreme THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 515 court have pronounced to be in glaring opposition to the spirit of our magna charta. In September, 1888, the Chinese government had under advise- ment a treaty negotiated by its minister in Washington in which, to escape the indignity of an arbitrary exclusion act, it agrees to take the initiative in prohibiting the emigration of laborers. That treaty would undoubtedly have been ratified if time had been given for the consideration of amendments which China desired to propose. But the exigencies of a presidental campaign led our government to apply the " closure " with an abruptness almost unheard of in diplomatic history, demanding through our minister in Peking the ratification within forty-eight hours on pain of being considered as having rejected the treaty. The Chinese government, not choosing to sacrifice its dignity by complying with this unceremonious ultimatum, our congress, 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 around, a term which we might very well apply to the periodical game of electing a president, and on the high tide of another presidential contest a new exclusion law, surpassing its predecessors in the severity of its enactments, was successfully floated. Could such a course have any other effect than that of ex- citing in the mind of China a profound contempt for our republican institutions, and an abiding hostility. toward our people? One of our leading journals has characterized that law as " a piece of buncombe and barbarous legislation," of which the adminstration would appear ^h^r^^^^L °* to be " heartily ashamed," to judge from the excuse they find for ^ ^*^ *^* evading its execution. Let a wise diplomacy supersede these obnoxious enactments by a new convention which shall be fair to both parties; then will our peo- ple be welcomed as friends; and America may yet recover her lost influence in that great empire of the East. Procession of the Holy Carpet to Mecca. Religion of Peking, Paper by ISAAC T. HEADLAND, of the Peking University. HE Chinese are often supposed to 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, Buddhism, Taoism and Moham- medanism, a glance at the condition of any city or village is enough to convince one of the fact that, whatever the Chinese wish to do and undertake to do, they are abundantly able to do The country swarms with people — poor people — people who are so very poor that there are, no doubt, thousands who 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 Beggars' 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 Peking 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 lOO 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, im- mediately outside of the west side gate, is expensive and well sup- ported and contains many priests, while the large grounds of the Mo- hammedans with their twenty-one mosques is worthy to be ranked with those above mentioned Professor Headland had a series of pictures of scenes and inci 517 Temples of aU Sorts. 518 THE WORLD'S CONCRESS OE RELIGIONS, dents among the districts of temples in and about Peking, and his ad- dress explained these pictures. He then said: "Besides these, the temple of the sun, the temple of the moon, the temple of the earth, the temple of heaven and the temple of agricult- ure are all immense structures of the most costly type. These are all state temples, where the emperor performs worship for all the people, and the annual sacrifices of cattle and sheep are by no means inexpen- Tempies About sive. There are few churches in the United States which cost more Peking. than $500,000, but some of those I have just mentioned would far exceed, if not more than double, that amount. The Roman Catholics have shown their wisdom in erecting cathedrals, which, though not so expensive, far surpass the others in beauty, design and workmanship. They have three very fine cathedrals, the east, the south and the north, the last of which would be an ornament to any city in the United States." The following translation of the inscription on two tablets at the mouth of a caVe called Hermit's cave will show how temples are some- times repaired. The cave is eight feet square and four and a half feet high, and is cut out of the solid rock: ** On this stone is recorded the restoration of the idols and the rebuilding of the temple Dung Ghing Au on this mountain, Tsui Wei Shan. By whom this temple was originally built many years ago is unknown. A number of eunuchs of the emperor's palace have con- tributed to its entire restoration, and now that the work is completed the buildings, idols and Lo Han fully restored, I make this record that the merit of these generous men may be known to future generations. I, Chas Yu, chamberlain of the emperor's palace, make this record, inscribing first the names of the forty largest donors, Ming Dynasty, Wau Li, emperor." The number of temples in tjie 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 south- west and another at our northwest corner, another at the southwest of our W. F. M. S. property, another in front of our hospital gate and still another near a large well back of our houses. The first one purchased has been turned into a dining-room for the preparatory school of the Peking university. When the workmen came to take the gods out of this temple they first invited them to go out, and then carried them out. When we made our second purchase one of the priests walled himself up in one corner, tied a rope to a large bell, and declared that he would never leave the place. He kept ring- ing the bell at intervals for some time, but this after a while became so monotonous that he took opium for the purpose of committing sui- cide. Our physician was called, and, by administering the proper rem- edies, he was saved and eventually left. Our third temple was turned into a charity school last winter, in which seventeen small boys are studying the catechism and other Christian books, and Durbin hall takes the place of the temples. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 519 All sorts of stratagem are resorted to by the priests to secure pat- ronage. I have heard of an old priest whose temple was rapidly fall- ing into decay who, after thinking of many ways, settled upon the fol- lowing scheme: Having made arrangements with an old woman, he sent her away from the temple some distance and persuaded her to buy a donkey and ride to the temple. She did so. Dismounting, she left the donkey and driver outside while she entered the temple. Not returning for a long time, the driver became impatient and made a disturbance about his pay. Hereupon the priest entered in the midst of the crowd that had gathered and asked what was the matter. When told, he said that it was impossible, that no old woman had come into the temple, and in- vited the driver to go and examine. He led him in among the genii which were arranged around the building and the driver soon picked out the right one. "But," said the priest, "this is not an old woman, this is one of the gods; fall down and worship her and she will give you your money." He did so and to his surprise found a piece of silver on the ground where he knelt. When he returned to the donkey he found a string of cash on its back. He began at once to spread the news. The people went to worship and many of them found silver. The news spread, the money poured into the temple treasury, and the crowd so increased about the temple that the government was forced to interfere. Whether or not it may be considered a misfortune that the Bud- dhist priests are a company of beggars is perhaps largely a matter of opinion. Buddhism was established by a prince, who became a beggar that he might teach his people the way to enlightenment, and they are but following his illustrious example. But while they follow in the matter of begging — at least a large part of them — there is no room for much doubt as to whether most of them make a very strenuous effort to enlighten the people. Indeed, if all the facts brought to light in our foreign hospitals, especially those situated near the Lama temples and visited by the priests, were set forth, they would reveal a condition of things among the class of priests not very different, perhaps, from that which called forth Paul's epistle to the Corinthians. But these facts are of such a character as to be fit only for a medical report. It need not be considered a matter of wonder, then, that the mor- als of the people are not better than they are. "Like Driest, like peo- ple." Says Chaucer: " For if a priest be foul, on whom we truste, No wonder it is a lewid man to ruste." And it is by no means a matter of doubt that a large number of Bud- dhist priests are "foul." They are not all so. We have seen among them faces which carry their own tale; we have heard voices which carry their own recommendations, and we have seen conduct which could only proceed from a devoted heart. But of those with whom we have come in contact, this class has been the exception, not the rule. At Miao Feng Shan, a large temple situated above the clouds, Stratagem for Patronage. Like Priest, Like People. 520 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 lit- tle left to 6ccupy them, they entertain themselves by the gratification of their passions. They may, however, like many other priests, be misrepresented by their own people. By "the most prosperous temples" we mean those to which the most pilgrimages are made. Miao Feng Shan is forty miles west of Prosperous Peking, and another fifty miles east is almost equally popular. To rempks. these in the springtime many thousands of people from all the sur- rounding country make pilgrimages, some of which are of the most expensive and self denying character, while others exhibit almost every form of humiliation and self-torment, such as wearing chains as pris- oners, tying their feet together so as to be able to take only short steps, being chained to another man, wearing red clothing in exhibition of their sin, or prostrating themselves at every one, three, or five steps. The temple worship of the Jews at its most prosperous period was not more largely attended than is this worship at these temples. While the temples are enriched by the gifts or subscriptions of these worshipers, they are, at the same time, robbed by those "pious frauds" who are ready at all times to sell their souls for the sake of their bodies. At Mioa Feng Shan they give candles at the foot of the hill to those pilgrims who arrive at night to enable them to ascend the hill. Here these pious frauds (sham pilgrims) get their candles, as- cend the hill at a little distance; then by a circuitous route join another company and get another candle, and so on as long as, by a change of clothes, they can escape detection of those distributing candles. Thus, instead of worshiping, they become thieves. One thing is noticeable as we pass through the country villages. The houses are all built of mud — mud walls, mud roofs, paper windows, and a dirt floor. But no matter how poor the people may be, or what the character of their houses, the temple of the village is always made of good brick. I have never seen a house in a country village better than the temple in the same village. I think that what I said in the beginning of this article is literally true — 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 $1.50 each year in the worship of ancestors, of which at least two-thirds is for paper money. China is estimated to contain about eighty million families, which would give ;^8o,oco,ooo. A fair estimate for the three annual burnings to the vagrant dead would be about ^6,000 to each hsien, or county, which would aggregate about ; $10,000,000 for the whole country. The average amount burned by ; each family in the direct worship of the gods in the temples may be taken as about half that expended in the worship of ancestors, or $40,000,000 for all China. Thus we have the aggregate amount of THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 52I ;^i 30,000,000 spent annually in China for paper money for use in their worship." While it is impossible to make a correct estimate of the amount of incense burned by the Chinese in their worship, we can neverthe- less 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, perhaps, not quite so much. But $d^ 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 eighty million families would amount in one year to the enormous sum of ;^320,ooo,ooo. U Mahommed Alexander Russell Webb, New York. 'Phe Influence of Social Qondition. Paper by MOHAMMED ALEXANDER RUSSELL WEBB, of New York. NE 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 religious system from the general conduct of those who profess to follow it, and, at the same time, to ig- nore the faults and weaknesses of those who are within the fold of his own faith. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that among the masses of believers religious preju- dice is so strong as to prevent the exer- cise of a calm and just discrimination in the examination of an opposing creed. It would be neither just nor truthful to as- sert that every man who lives in an American city, town or village, is a Christian and represents in his acts and words the natural effects of Christian teachings. Nor is it fair to judge the Islamic system in a similar manner, and yet I regret to say that it is quite generally done in Europe and in America. There are in Asia today many thousands of people who call themselves Mussulmans and yet who have a no more truthful conception of the character and teach- ings of Mohammed than they have of the habits of the man in the moon. If one or a dozen of these should commit an act of brutal in- tolerance or fanaticism, would it be just to say that it was due to the meritable tendencies of their religion? There are several reasons why Islam*and the character of its fol- lowers are so little understood in Europe and America, and one of why islam is these is that when a man adopts, or says he adopts, Islam, he becomes Misunderstood known as a Mussulman and his nationality becomes merged in his re- ligion. As soon as a Hindu embraces Islam his character disappears. If a Mohammedan, Turk, Egyptian, Syrian or African commits a 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 Mohammedan. If an Irishman, an Italian, a Spaniard or a German commits a crime in the United States we do not say that it was committed by a Catholic, 5?3 524 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 reg- istered 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 intol- erance, 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 fundamentals 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 will- ing 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 today. Another of the most potent reasons for the unfavorable opinion of Islam and its professed followers which prevails in America and Europe today, 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 sci- ences, and the perfection of those means by which our physical com- fort and pleasure are secured, give us just cause to feel superior to those who do not bask in the sunshine of our nineteenth century civil- ization. In a general way, and with some few exceptions, perhaps, we consider our social system admirable, and when we find that many Mo- hammedans, 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 heathen and incapable of recognizing and appreciat- ing a good thing when they see it. It would, undoubtedly, surprise What Orients some of my hearers to know what many of the more intelligent Mus- cfvUL^tioi?" sulmans and Hindus 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 tb^s^ "h?£^th?n" have learned b^ experience that it is wprs^ than a THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. 525 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 Orien- tal tongues, and who are well versed in all the known systems of relig- ion and philosophy. It will probably surprise many people here to know that nearly all the more intelligent and highly educated Mussul- mans of India are quite as well informed as to the history and doc- trines of the other religious systems as they are concerning their own. We Mussulmans firmly believe that the teachings of Moses, Abra- ham, Jesus and Mohammed were substantially the same; that the fol- lowers of each truly inspired prophet have always corrupted 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, perhaps, 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 care- fully and without prejudice. In view of the very unsatisfactory and contradictory nature of much that has been written in English con- Between the cerning him, we must learn to read between the lines of so-called his- caUed mstory. tory. 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 produce the best results among all classes of his followers, and made aspiration 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 com- prehending the higher spiritual truths and realize that it was better to lay up treasures for the life to come than to enjoy the 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 sayings of the prophet, aside from the Ko- ran, we should always bear in mind the social conditions prevalent among the Arabs at the time he taught, as well as the general charac- ter 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 bringing the truth to the attention of the Arabs twelve hundred years ago than he would follow before an audience of intelligent, educated people, such as sits before me, in this nineteenth century. Before proceeding further, I desire to explain that, in order to show clearly the influence of Islam upon social conditions, it will be necessary to make some comparisons between the habits and customs 526 THE WOkLD'S CONGRESS OF R^LIGlOISt^, in Mussulman communities and in the cities and towns of Europe and America, where Christianity is the prevailing religion. In doing this I have no intention to reflect upon the latter nor give offense to any of its followers. My purpose is to show, as lucidly and distinctly as possible, a side of the Islamic faith, which is quite familiar to my fellow countrymen and which is the life of the Moslem social fabric. There are a number of objections to Islam raised by western people which I would like to reply to fully, but the very limited time allotted to me prevents my doing so. I can only enter a general J, „ denial and trust to time and the earnest, honest efforts of some erai Denial. " of those who hear me to prove the truth of what I say. Nearly, if not quite all, the objections I refer to have their birth and growth in igno- rance of the vital principles of Islam. The chief objection and the first one generally made is polygamy. It is quite generally believed that polygamy and the Purdah, or ex- clusion of females, is a part of the Islamic system. This is not true. There is only one verse in the Koran which can possibly be distorted into an excuse for polygamy and that is, practically, a prohibition of it. Only the other day I read a communication in a church newspaper, written by a well-known clergyman who said that the Koran required the sultan of Turkey to take a new wife every year. There is no such requirement in the Koran, and what surprised me most was that such an intelligent, well educated man as the writer should make that statement. I am charitablje enough to admit that he made it through ignorance. I never met but two Mussulmans in my life who had more than one wife. There is nothing in the sayings of the prophet nor in the Koran warranting or permitting the Purdah. During the life of the prophet and the early caliphates, the Arabian women went abroad freely, and, what is more were honored, respected and fully protected in the exercise of their rights and privileges. Islam has been called "The religion of the sword," and there are thousands of good people in America and Europe who really believe that Mohammed went into battle with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other. This is rather a singular charge for Christian writers to make; but they do make it and very inconsistently and un- justly, too. The truth is that the prophet never encouraged nor consented to the propagation of Islam by force, and the Koran plainly forbids it. It says: "Let there be no forcing in religion; the right way has been made clearly distinguishable from the wrong one. If the Lord had pleased, all who are on the earth would have believed together; and wilt Thou force men to be believers? " And in the second Sura, 258th verse, it says: "Let there be no compulsion in religion. Now is the right way made distinct from error; whoever, therefore, denieth Taghoot (liter- ally error) and believeth in God, hath taken hold on a strong handle that hath no flaw. And God is He who heareth« knoweth." The WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 52? Our prophet himself was as thoroughly non-aggressive and peace- loving as the typical Shaker, and, while he realized that a policy of perfect non-resistance would speedily have resulted in the murder of himself and every Mussulman in Arabia, he urged his followers to avoid, as far as possible, violent collisions with the unbelievers, and not to fight unless it was necessary in order to protect their lives. It can be shown, too, that he never in his life participated in a battle and never had a sword in his hand for the purpose of killing or maiming a human being. It has been charged that slavery is a part of the Islamic system in the face of the fact that Mohammed discouraged it, and the Koran for- bids it, making the liberation of a slave one of the most meritorious acts a person can perform. But, in weighing the evidence bearing upon this subject, we should never lose sight of the social and political conditions prevalent in Arabia at the time the prophet lived and the Koran was compiled. It has also been said that Mohammed and the Koran denied a soul to woman and ranked her with the animals. The Koran places her on man on^Equat a perfect and complete equality with man, and the prophet's teachings ^*^ often place her in a position superior to the males in some respects. Let me read you one passage from the Koran bearing upon the sub- ject. It is the thirty-fifth verse of the thirty-third Sura. "Truly the men who resign themselves to God (Moslems), and the women who resign themselves; the believing men, and the believing women; the devout men, and the devout women; the men of truth, and the women of truth; the patient men, and the patient women; the humble men, and the humble women; the men who give alms, and the women who give alms; the men who fast, and the women who fast; the chaste men, and the chaste women, the men 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 perfect equality of the sexes before God? The property rights which American women have enjoyed for only a few years have been enjoyed by Mohammedan women for twelve hundred years; and today there is no class of women in the world whose rights are so completely pro- tected as those of the Mussulman communities. And now, having endeavored to dispel some of the false ideas concerning Islam, which have been current in this country, let me show you briefly what it really is and what its natural effects are upon social conditions. Stated in the briefest manner possible, the Islamic system requires belief in the unity of God and in the inspiration of Mohammed. Its pillars of practice are physical and mental cleanliness, prayer, fasting, fraternity, alms-giving and pilgrimage. There is noth- ing in it that tends to immorality, social degredation, superstition or fanaticism. On the contrary, it leads on to all that is purest and noblest in the human character; and any professed Mussulman who is unclean in his person or habits, or is cruel, untruthful, dishonest. 528 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS, Pray ^imes a 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 Mos- lems, 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 hap- pens to feel like it, but at fixed periods. His prayer is not a servile, cringing petition for some material benefit, but a hymn of praise to the one incomprehensible, unknowable God, the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent Ruler of the universe. He does not believe that by argu- ment and entreaty he can sway the judgment and change the plans of God, but with all the force of his soul he tries to soar upward in spirit to where he can gain strength, to be pure and good and holy and worthy of the happiness of the future life. His purpose is to rise above the selfish pleasures of earth and strengthen his spirit wings for a lofty flight when he is at last released from the body. Before every prayer he is required to wash his face, nostrils, mouth, hands and feet, and he does it. During youth he acquires the habit of washing himself five times a day, and this habit clings to him through life and keeps him physically clean. He comes in touch with his religion five times a day in a manner which produces results pro- portionate to the intelligence and spiritual development of the man. His religion is not a thing apart from his daily life, to be put on once a week and thrown aside when it threatens to interfere with his busi- ness or pleasure. It is a fixed and inseparable part of his existence and exerts a direct and potent influence on his every thought and act. Is it to be wondered at that his idea of civilization differs from that of the West; that it is less active and progressive, less grand and impos- ing and dazzling and noisy? I will confess that when I wenl to live among the intelligent Mus- sulmans I was astonished beyond measure at the social conditions I encountered. I had acquired the idea that prevails generally in this country and Europe, and was prepared to find the professed followers of Islam selfish, treacherous, untruthful, intolerant, sensual and fanati- cal. I was very agreeably disappointed. I saw the practical results of Islam manifested in honesty, truthfulness, sobriety, tolerance, gen- tleness and a degree of true brotherly love that was a surprise to me The evils that we Americans complain of in our social 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 THE WORLD' ^ CONGRESS OE EELIGIONS. 529 appearance and habits of the Englishmen. I have never seen a drunken Mussulman, nor one who carried the odor of whisky or beer ^^^x^ about with him. But I have heard that some of those who have be- come 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 five hundred to three thousand Mussulmans were gathered to pray, and at the conclusion of the prayer y I was hemmed in by a hundred of them who were eager to shake my -s^ hand and call me their brother. But I never detected those disagree- '^ able odors which suggest the need of extended facilities for bathing. I have repeatedly called this fact to mind while riding on the elevated railways in New York and in two or three public assemblages in London. Prostitution and marital infidelity, with scandalous newspaper re- ports of divorce proceedings, are quite impossible in a Mussulman community where European influences have no foothold. A woman toiling over a washtub to support a drunken husband and several chil- dren, and a poor widow with her little ones turned into the streets for non-payment of rent are episodes that never occur where Islamic laws and customs prevail. Woman takes her place as man's honored and respected companion and helpmate and is the mistress of her home whenever she is disposed to occupy that position. Her rights are accorded to her freely. It is true that she does not attend public balls and receptions, wearing a dress that some people might consider immodest, and waste her health and jeopardize her marital happiness in the enervating Pleasure and dance, nor does her husband do so. She does not go to the theater, Home?*^'^^ ^^ the circus, the races, nor the public gatherings in search of amusement, but finds her pleasure and recreation at home in the pure atmosphere _/ of her husband's and children's love and the peaceful, refining occupa- ^[^ tions of domestic life. Both she and her husband, as well as their chil- dren, are taught and believe that it is better to retire at nine, just after the prayer of the day, and arise before daybreak and say the morning prayer just as the first rays of the sun are gilding the eastern horizon. Another feature of the Islamic social life that has impressed me is the utter absence of practical joking, or what is popularly known as "guying." There is little or no sarcasm, bitter irony, cruel wit among the Mussulmans calculated to cause their fellows chagrin, shame or an- noyance, wounding the heart and breaking that bond of loving frater- nity which should subsist between men. The almost universal disposi- tion seems to be to cultivate unselfishness and patience and to place as little value as possible upon the things of this world. In the household of the true Mussulman there is no vain show, no labored attempt to follow servilely the fashions, including furniture and ornaments, in vogue in London and Paris. Plainness and frugality are apparent everywhere, the idea being that it is far better to culti- vate the spiritual side of our nature than to waste our time and money trying to keep up appearances that we hope will cause our neighbors 530 TtJE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, to think that we have more money than we really have and are more aesthetic in our tastes than we really are. '* But," someone may say, " what about the story that a Mussulman believes that he will go directly to paradise if he dies while trying to kill a Christian?" This is one of the numerous falsehoods, invented by enemies of the truth to injure as peaceful and non-aggressive a class of people as the world has ever seen. A traveler who has visited nearly all the Mohammedan countries said to me last week: *' I would rather , be alone in the dark woods and miles away from a town with >-^^^ one hundred Mussulmans than to walk half-a-dozen blocks in the slums of an English or American city after dark." He also told me that while he was on a steamer at Constantinople, he gave a Turkish boatman a lira, or about five dollars, to buy him some fruit and cigarettes. The English passengers laughed at his credulity and assured him that he would never see his lira again. But just as the anchor was being raised the boatman returned bringing with him the fruit and cigarettes and the exact change. In April last a lady at the Desbrosses street ferry, in New York, gave her cloak to a young man to hold while she purchased her ticket. She has not seen it since. Hospitable ^ Mussulman, if he is hungry and has no lodging place, may walk Welcome. into the house of a brother Mussulman and be sure of a cordial, hospi- tal welcome. He will be given a seat at the frugal meal and a place where he can spread his sleeping mat. One of the best of Islamic social customs is hospitality. Many Mussulmans are glad to have the opportunity to give a home and food to a poor brother, believing that God has thus favored them with the means of making themselves more worthy to inherit paradise. The greeting, ** Assalam Aleikum " (Peace be with thee), and the response, "Aleikum Salaam" (With thee be peace), have a true fraternal sound in them, calculated to arouse the love and respect of anyone who hears them. In the slums of our American cities this summer there were hundreds of hungry, homeless people, while hun- dreds of houses in the fashionable streets were closed and empty and their owners were living luxuriantly at summer resorts. Such a state of affairs would be impossible in a purely Mussulman community. I have seen it asserted that, under the Islamic system, a high state of civilization is impossible. Stanley Lane-Poole writes as follows: "For nearly eight centuries under her Mohammedan rulers, Spain set to all Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened state. Her fertile provinces, rendered doubly prolific by the industry and en- gineering skill of her conquerors, bore fruit in a hundred fold. Cities innumerable sprang up in the rich valleys of the Guaalquivir and Guadiana, whose names, and names only, still commemorate the van- quished glories of their past. Art, literature and science prospered as they then prosperrd no where else in Europe. Students flocked from France and Germany and England to drink from the fountains of learn- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. 581 ing which flowed only in the cities of the Moors. The surgeons and doctors of Andalusia were in the van of science; women were encour- aged to devote themselves to serious study, and a lady doctor was not unknown among the people of Cordova. Mathematics, astronomy and botany, philosophy and jurisprudence were to be mastered in Spain and in Spain alone. The practical work of the field, the scien- tific methods of irrigation, the arts of fortification and ship building, the highest and most elaborate products of the loom, the graver and the hammer, the potter's wheel and the mason's trowel were brought to perfection by Spanish lords. In the practice of war, no less than in the arts of peace, they long stood supreme. "Whatsoever makes a kingdom great and prosperous, whatsoever tends to refinement and civilization, was found in Moslem Spain." And what has become of this grand civilization, traces of which we still see 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 en- lightenment. So long as the pure teachings of the prophet were followed the ^^J^^ Civiliz- 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 civili^tioh; based upon purity, virtue and fraternal love — is the kind of civilization, that exists today among the better classes of Mussulmans, and brings with it a degree of contentment and happiness unknown amid the tumblt of the western social system. The devout Mussulman, one who has arrived at an intelligent comprehension of the true teachings of the prophet, lives in his religion and makes it the paramount principle of hid existence. It is with him in all his goings and comings during the day, and he is never so completely occupied with his business or worldly affairs that he cannot turn his back upon them when the stated hour of prayer arrives and present his soul to God. His loves, his sorrows, his hopes, his fears are all immersed in it; it is his last thought when he lies down to sleep at night and the first to enter his mind at dawn, when the voice of the Muezzin sings out loudly and clearly from the minaret of the mosque, waking the soft echoes of the morn with its thrilling, solemn, majestic monotones, ** Come to prayer; prayer is better than sleep." &uon. 0) CO o TheK oran. By Rev. George E. Post, D. D., of Beirut, Syria. EV. Geo. E. Post, D. D., held up a copy of the Koran, and said: "I hold in my hand a book which is never touched by two hundred millions of the human race with unwashed hands, a book which is never carried below the waist, a book which is never laid upon the floor." And Dr. Post then read without note or comment: In chapter Ixvi. is said: "O Prophet, at- tack the infidel with arms." And chapter ii says: "And fight for the religion of God against those who fight against you, and kill them wherever ye find them, and turn them )l/ \ '*^£S*^~ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ whereof they have dispossessed f ^^*' you." Also on page 25 it is written: "War is en- ^ joined you against the infidels, but this is hateful unto you; yet perchance ye hate a thing which is better for you, and perchance ye love a thing which is worse for you." Chapter xlviii.: "Say unto the Arabs of the desert who are left behind, ye shall be called forth against a mighty and a warlike nation, ye shaU fight against them or they shall profess Islam." And this may be translated, "until they profess Islam." In chapter ix. it is said: "Now has God assisted you in many engagements, and particularly at the battle of Hunein, when ye pleased yourself in your multitude, but it was no manner of advantage to you and the earth was too straight for you, notwithstanding it was spacious; then did ye retreat and turn your backs. Afterward God sent down His security upon His apostle and upon the faithful, and sent down troops of angels which he saw not. Fight against them who believe not in God." And many more of a similar character. I read in chapter iv. of the Koran: "And if ye fear that ye shall not act with equity toward orphans or the female sex, take in marriage of such other women as please you two, or three, or four, and not more." In the same chapter I read: "Ye may with your substance provide wives for yourselves." I read, however, that these w^re not ^33 R War eligions Justified. Polygamy 534 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, sufficient provisions for the Prophet, and the special revelation had to be made from heaven in these words: ^'O Prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives unto whom thou hast given 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 §he give herself unto the Prophet, in case the Prophet desires to take her to wife. This is a peculiar privilege granted unto thee above the rest of the true believers. We know what we have ordained them concern- ing their wives and their slaves which their right hands possess; lest it should be deemed a crime in thee to make use of the 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 Authorizedr"' are all of them men who stand high in the Mohammedan world, as Origen, Chrysostom, and the other fathers of the church stand in the Christian world, differ as to the meaning of these words. Some think that Mohammed was thereby forbidden to take any more wives than nine, which number he had then, and is supposed to have been his stint, as four was that of other men; some imagine that after this prohibition, though any of the wives he then had should die, or be divorced, he could not marry another in her room. Some think he was only forbidden from this time forward to marry any other woman than one of the four sorts mentioned in the passage quoted. There is one chapter which I dare not stand before you, sisters and mothers, and wives and daughters, and read to you. I have not the face to read it; nor would I like to read it even in a congregation of men. It is the sixty-fourth chapter of the Koran. You may read that chapter if you like yourselves, and you may read the comments of their great leaders and theologians, those men on whom they rely for the interpretation of the Koran. The chapter is called **Prohibi- tion." If I were going to name it I should call it "High License." Chapter xxiv. says: "And compel not your maid servants to prosti- tute their bodies." In chapter xxxiii. it is revealed to the Prophet that he is an exception to this rule: "O Prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives, unto whom thou hast given their dower, and also the slaves which thy right hand possesseth of the booty which God had granted thee." Now let us hear the Koran on the subject of divorce: "Ye may divorce your wives twice, but if the husband divorce her a third time she shall not be lawful for him again until she marry another husband. But if he also divorces her, it shall be no crime in them if they return to each other." Chapter iv: "If ye be desirous of exchanging a wife for another wife and ye have already given one of them a taient, take not anything away therefrom." In chapter iv. it is said: "Ye are also for- bidden to take to wife free women who are married except those WQm^n whom your right hands shall possess as slaves." But this w^g THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OK RELIGIONS. 535 not enough for the Prophet. There had to be 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 expenses. The Prophet had no sooner received the request than he gave them their option either to continue with him or be divorced. In this passage God is supposed to be the speaker. He says: "O Prophet, say unto thy wives, if ye seek this present life and the pomps thereof, come, I will make a handsome pro- vision for you, and I will dismiss you with an honorable dismission; but if ye seek God and His apostles, and the life to come, verily God hath prepared for such of you as work righteousness a great reward." Mohammed purchased a slave boy named Zeid, who was a win- some youth, and Mohammed loved him. The father of the boy, hear- ing where he was, came to Mecca with a great ransom in his hand, and he said to Mohammed: "Give me back my boy and take this gold." Mohammed was magnanimous — he had many great and noble quali- ties, of which I would like to speak at another time — and Mohammed refused the ransom, and, turning to the boy, offered him his freedom. The boy, however, preferred to remain. 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 thus he adopted him. This occurred before the proclamation of Islam. Mohammed) After the revelation of Islam, Mohammed gave the boy a beautiful Poiygamist* girl named Zeinab to wife. Some years after their marriage Moham- med visited the house of Zeid in the latter's absence. His eyes fell upon this young woman and he loved her. She told her husband of this, and he, from his devotion to his adopted father, offered to divorce her so that Mohammed might marry her. Mohammed at first recoiled from this. He said it was a scandal that would ruin him, but it is alleged that God gave him a revelation on which he took the wife of his own adopted son and made her his wife. The revelation is this: "But when Zeid had determined the matter concerning her and had resolved to divorce her we joined her in marriage unto thee; lest a crime should be charged on the true believers in marrying the wives of their adopted sons' when they have determined the matter concerning them; and the command of God is to be performed. No crime is to be charged on tl\e Prophet as to what God hath allowed him conformable to the ordinance of God with regard to those who preceded him (for the command of God is a determinate decree) who brought the mes- sages of God and feared Him, and feared none besides God; and God is a sufficient accountant. Mohammed is not the father of any man among you, but the apostle of God and the seal of the prophets.'' The Primi- tive Christians Charitible. yhe {Relations of the f^oman Catholic Church to the Poor and Destitute. Paper by CHARLES F. DONNELLY, read by Rt. Rev. John J. Keane, D. D. HE Christian church was from the beginning always solicitious of the poor, even in her early struggles and in the persecution she was then undergoing. This solicitude is shown in the first papal prescript transmitted by Saint Clement, the Fourth of the popes, to the Church of Corinth, wherein he said: **Let the rich give liberally to the poor, and let the poor man give praise and thanks to God for having inspired the rich man with the good will to relieve him." A little later Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr, wrote his book on ''Good Works and- Alms-Deeds," an admirable treat- ise on Christian charity, for which he was distinguished. Under the auspices of the church the primitive Christians estab- lished means for the relief of the poor, the sick and the travelers in distress or needing shelter, hospitals for lepers, societies for the redemption of captive slaves, congregations of females for the relief of indigent women, associations of religious women for redeeming those of their sex who were leading dissolute lives, and hospitals for the sick, the orphaned, the aged and afflicted of all kinds, like the Hotel- Dieu, founded in Paris in the seventeenth century and still perpetu- ated. The story of the origin of resorting to the place for the cure of the insane is that an Irish princess. Saint Dymphna, was sl^in there May 15, A. D. 600, by the hand of her own father, a pagan, who having be- come enraged at her conversion to Christianity, caused her to flee, and pursuing her there, beheaded her. An insane person witnessing the act was cured, and thus a belief became current that miraculous cures of the insane were effected by visiting the spot where she was beheaded. A shrine was erected there and in A. D. 1340 a tnemprial church was added. ^ THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 537 The Church an Almoner. It is fair to assume that the charitable religious of the neighbor- hood saw early that the ancient methods of imprisoning the in- sane were irrational, and so gradually surrounded them with condi- tions akin to their home lives, and gently led them to improve, if not to wholly recover their reason, under a method of treatment centuries in advance of the most intelligent methods pursued with the insane until our time, when we find no better 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 charity the poor and needy had to resort to in their distress in later times. But there appeared in the seventeenth century a man surpassing all who preceded him in directing the attention of mankind to the wants and necessities of the poor and to the work of relieving them, the great and good St. Vincent de Paul, whose name and memory st. Vincentde will ever be revered while the church of Christ endures. Born on April Paul. 24, 1576, in the little village of Pouy, near Dax, south of Bordeaux, bordering on the Pyrenees; he was ordained priest in 1600, and later fell into the hands of the Turks and was sold as a slave at Tunis. In the great work of St. Vincent de Paul nothing commends itself more to this practical age than his plan of enlisting large bodies of laymen to cooperate with the clergy by establishing confraternities in each parish of men who devote themselves to seeking out, visiting and relieving the sick, the orphaned and the destitute. Such associa- tions achieve in a quiet and unostentatious way wonderful results by the modest contributions of their own members chiefly and by the zeal and effectiveness of the work 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 accomplished 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 point 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 without achieving the same success, and conspicuously the Alexian, or Cellite Brothers, founded in 1325, at Aix-la-Chapelle, devoted to nursing the sick, especially in times of pestilence, the care of lunatics and persons suffering from epilepsy. de Paul Work. 538 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 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 1824, the Sisterhood of Bon Secours was established for the care of the sick; in 1828, the Fathers of the Institute of Charity; in Ireland, in 183 1, the Community of the Sisters of Mercy was founded for visiting the sick, educating the poor and protecting destitute chil- dren, and this religious body of women has now several hundred houses 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 established in 1835. ^^ St. Servan, in Brit- tany, some peasant women, chiefly young working women and domes- tic servants, instituted the Little Sisters of the Poor, in 1840, having for their object the care of the aged poor, irrespective of sex or creed, and they, too, have hundreds of houses now in nearly all the large cities of the v/orld. But is the state the best almoner? In ancient times in Eng- land it was considered wiser to leave the whole duty of providing for the poor to those who would be required by humanity and religion to The Church care for them, namely, the clergy, regular and secular; and the duty aWe^than^the devolved on them, for centuries, as we have seen. Out of the tithes, state. the products of the labor of the monasteries, and the charitable contri- butions given by the laity to dispense, came the sole means of main- taining the poor in Catholic England, there being no compulsory methods by common law, or statute, looking to their support, and Blackstone himself credits the monasteries with the principal support of the poor in Catholic times. The affecting death of Father Damian among the lepers of Molo- kaoi was better than all polemical discourses to allay religious rancor where it may exist, and to awaken in the mind of all reflecting Chris- tians the importance not only of extending charity to the heathen in remote places, but to each other at home in our differences relating to creed and opinion. It is not improbable that within a few years great changes will be made by the Catholic church itself in the administration of many of its charities throughout the world. Some of its organizations are greatly impressed with the importance of studying new systems and methods of relief growing out of the social conditions of the nineteenth century. The slender equipment of the poor child in the past for the part he had to play in life; the continuous, or casual, administration of alms to the destitute, instead of leading them kindly and firmly forward from de- 7HE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 539 pendence on others to self-help and self-reliance, are not adapted to the needs of the present, or to anticipate the requirements of the future. Ubi Petrus Ibi 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 church to the poor and destitute have been, at its The Home- seat and center. Far back in the history of Christian Rome all the ^sPoorCared nations of Europe assisted in contributing 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 ^800,000 per annum, with the population less than 175,000. It is impossible in a summary of this nature to give more tlian an outline of the ecclesiastical charities of Rome, as they existed up to the assumption of the government by the reigning family, in Italy; but in Eome'sChar- the recital of those charities it is well to mention the schools of gratu- ^*^®^- itous instruction, which were founded by Clement XIII., in 1592; by the Peres Doctrinaires, in 1727, and by St. Angela de Merecia, in 1655, the latter mainly for poor females, and all instructing in the ordinary branches of a common school education. Then there were fifty-five regionary schools; a number of parochial schools, and besides 374 general, or public free schools for the young, with 484 teachers and fourteen thousand pupils, in attendance. So it appears the church has' not failed in her duty to the poor at her center. In the United States there are over seven hundred Catholic' chari- table institutions, the inmates of which are maintained almost entirely by the contributions of their co-religionists, who, with their fellow citizens of other denominations, share in the burden of general taxa- tion, proportionately to their means, in maintaining the poor at the public charitable institutions besides. A truly anomalous condition, but arising from the strong adherence of Catholics to the idea that charity is best administered, where not attended to individually, by those in the religious life, who give to the poor of their means, not through public oflficers and bureaus, but through those who serve the poor in the old apostolic spirit, with love of God and their less fortu- nate neighbor and brother actuating them. In the scheme of the dis- pensation of public charity relief is extended on the narrow ground that there is some implied obligation on the part of the state to main- tain the citizen in his necessities in return for service rendered or ex- pected; but the church imposes the burden on the conscience of every man of helping his neighbor in distress, apart from any service done or expected, and teaches that all in suffering are entitled to aid, whether they live within or without the territory; neither territory. The Catholic nor race, nor creed can limit Christian charity. In its relation to the idea of Charity, poor the church will always be in the future, as she has been in the past, in advance of the state in all examples of beneficence. Sunka-Gi and Fam ily, Indian Police, Xhe f^eligion of the North /American Indians. Paper by MISS ALICE C. FLETCHER. HE North American continent, extending from the tropics to the Polar seas, presents wide diversity of physical aspects, and many dis- tinctive environments which have left their impress upon the arts and cults of its peoples. Within this extended area there are two races, the Esquimau, which will not come under our consideration today, and the American race proper. This race, like our own, is composed of many peoples speaking different languages, languages belonging to widely different stocks. In our race these stocks are few in number, but here, in North America, there are more than two score, each varying from all the others as widely as the Semitic from the Aryan. Among so many linguistic stocks one would expect to find tribes of various mental capacities, and we do find them. There are some possessing a richer imagination, greater vitality of ideas and greater power of organization, and these people have impressed themselves upon others less capable of organization and power of growth. Thus it has happened here, as elsewhere, that one people has been perme- ated by the ideas of another while preserving its own language intact, 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 imple- ments and weapons have been found associated with the remains of extinct specimens of animals. This evidence of antiquity is re-in- forced by the recent discovery of an eminent Mexican archaeologist, who has found the key to the interpretation of the ancient Mexican calendar, thereby revealing a system of time measurements based upon 541 Tribes of Va- nous mental Capacities. ty 542 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. the recurreace of a certain relative position of the sun and moon, which required for the completion of its grand cycle one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four years. By the lowest calculation this calendar was in use two thousand three hundred years B. C. Thus four thousand years ago the Mexicans were using a highly arti- ficial calendar, one that, so far as is known today, could not have been bor- rowed from any other people, since nothing like it has been discovered in any other part af the world. How many years must have been spent in the observations 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 four'thousand years old, stranger facts may come to light in the near future. The point to be emphasized is, that A Race of ^^^^ ^" North America exists a race of great antiquity that has con- Great Antiqui- served social and religious 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 develop- ment of man's mental and spiritual nature. A comprehensive sketch of the religion of the North American Indian cannot be given within the limits of this paper, much less a definite picture. Only the indication of a few salient points is possible, and even these will not be easy to make clear because of our own com- plex methods of thought. Anything approaching a consensus of Indian beliefs can be obtained only from a careful study of the myths of the people, of their ceremonies, their superstitions and their various customs, and by searching through all these for the underlying principle, the governing thoughts and m.otives. Nowhere among the tribes can be found any formulated statement of belief; in no ceremony or ritual does there appear anything resembling a creed. This paper is there- fore 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 poetical and often seemingly inconsequential thought, is an exceedingly delicate and diffi- cult 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 certain generic types, prototypes of everything in the world, and these still exist, but they are invisible to mah in his natural state, being spirit types, although he can behold them and hear them speak in his supernatural visions. 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. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 543 Among these prototypes there seems to have been none of man himself, 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 country, the leaders, who represented the people, gathered together in a solemn ceremony. They sat crouched about a central fire, each wrapped in the skin of a buffalo, 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 power into the specific buf- falo 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 life, 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 reinforces 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 phys- ical strength through a ceremony which always included the partak- ing 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 apart and remained in solitude upon the mountain or in the strength for recesses of the forest; instead of eating in companionship, he fasted the Spirit, and mortified his body, sought to ignore it, denied its cravings, that some spirit prototype might approach him and reinforce his spirit with life drawn from the great unnamable power. Whatever was the prototype which appeared to him, whether of bird or beast, 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 remem- brance, but he did not worship 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 hinde man not only led to numberless observances in order to placate and win favor, but it also prevented the development of individual respon- 544 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. sibility. Success or failure was not caused solely by a man's own actions or shortcomings, but because he was helped or hindered by some one of these occult powers. Self torture was an appeal to the more potent of these forces and was a propitiation, rather than a sac- rifice, arising from a consciousness of evil in himself, for the Ind an seldom thought of himself as being in the wrong, his peculiar belief concerning his position in nature having engendered in him a species of self righteousness. Time forbids any illustration of this intricate belief, the numerous ramifications of which underlie every public and private act of the race. Personal immortality was universally recognized. The next world moSSfy^^^™ resembled this with the element of suffering eliminated. There was no place of future punishment; all alike started at death upon the journey to the other world, but the quarrelsome and unjust never reached it, they endlessly wandered. Religious ceremonials had both open and esoteric forms and teachings. They were comprised in the observances of secret socie- ties and the elaborate dramatization of myths, with its masks, cos- tumes, rituals of song, rhythmic movements of the body and the preparation and use of symbols. As the ceremonials of the Indians from Alaska to Mexico rise before me, it is difficult to dismiss them without a word, for they are impressive and instructive, and although their grotesque features, and in some instances their horrible realism overlies and seems to crush out the purpose of the portrayal, yet they all contain evidences of the mind struggling to find an answer to the ever pressing question of man's origin and destiny. The ethics of the race were simple. With the Indian, truth was literal rather than comprehensive. This conception led to great punctiliousness in the observance of all forms and ceremonies, although it did not prevent the use of artifice in war or in the struggle for power, but nothing excused a man who broke his word. Justice was also literal and inexorable. Retributive justice was in exact proportion to the offense. There was no extenuation, there was no free forgiveness. A penalty must be enacted for every misdeed. Justice, therefore, often failed of its end not having in it the element of mercy. To be valorous, to meet hardships and suffering uncomplainingly, to flinch from no pain or danger when action was demanded, was the ideal set before every Indian. A Ponca Indian who paused an instant in battle to dip up a handful of water to slake his burning thirst brought upon himself such ignominy that he sought death to hide his shame. Hospitality was a marked virtue in the 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 obsta- Peace. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 545 cle in the way of civilizing the Indians, as civilization depends so largely upon the accumulation of property. In every home the importance of peace was taught and the quar- relsome person pointed out as one not to be trusted, since success would never attend his undertakings, whom neither the visible nor invisible powers would befriend. This virtue of peace was inculcated in more than one religious ritual, and it was the special theme and sole object of a peculiar ceremony ^Virtue of which once widely obtained over the valley of the Mississippi — the Calumet or Sacred Pipe ceremony. The symbols used point back to myths which form the groundwork of other ceremonies hoary with age. In the presence of these symbolic pipes there could be no strife. Mar- quette, in 1672, wrote: "The calumet is the most mysterious thing in the world. The scepters of our kings are not so much respected, for the Indians have such a reverence for it that we may call it the God of Peace and War, and the arbiter of life and death. * * * Qne with this calumet may venture among his enemies, and in the hottest battles they lay down their arms before this Sacred Pipe." The ceremony of these pipes could only take place between men of different gentes or of different tribes. Through it they were made as one family, the affection, the harmony, and the good will of the family being extended far beyond the ties of blood. Under this be- nign influence of the pipes strangers were made brothers and enemies became friends. In the beautiful symbolism and ritual of these fel- lowship pipes the initiated were told in the presence of a little child, who typified teachableness, that happiness came to him who lived in peace and walked in the straight path, which was symbolized on the pipes as glowing with sunlight. In these teachings, which transcended all others, we discern the dawn of the nobler and gentler virtues of mercy and its kindred graces. We are recognizing today that God's family is a large one and that human sympathy is strong. Upon this platform have been gath- ered men from every race of the eastern world, but the race that for centuries was the sole possessor of this western continent has not been represented. No American Indian has told us how his people have sought after God through the dim ages of the past. He is not here, but cannot his sacred symbol serve its ancient office once more and bring hinvand us together in the bonds of peace and brotherhood? 35 Dionysios Latas, Archbishop of Zante, Greece. Yhe Orthodox Qreek Qhurch. Paper by THE MOST REV. DIONYSIOS LATAS, Archbishop of Zantc, Greece. EVEREND ministers of the eminent name of God, the creator of the world and of man: Ancient Greece prepared the way for Chris- tianity and rendered smooth the path for the diffusion and propagation of it in the world Greece undertook to develop Chris- tianity and formed andsystemized a Christian church; that is the church of the east, the original Christian church, which for this rea- son historically and justly may be called the mother of the Christian churches. [Ap- plause.] The original establishment of the Greek church is directly referred to the presence of Jesus Christ and His apostles. The coming of the Messiah, from which the God was to originate 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 predestined to point out and determine. Greece had so developed letters, arts, sciences, philosophy and every other form of progress that in comparison with it all other nations were exhausted. For this reason the inhabitants of that happy land used rightly and properly to say: 'Whoever is not a Greek is a bar- barian." 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 fall. The Macedonian and Roman armies gave a definite blow to the political independence and national liberty of Greece, but at the same time opened up to Greece a new career of spiritual life and brought it into immediate contact and intercommunication with other nations and peoples of the earth. Tracing the effect of Grecian philosophy of the Neo-Platonic a8^a¥iStS school upon the faith which came from the east, the archbishop con- Agency, tinued: When the Roman empire began to fall Christianity had tQ under" 547 \ ' } Two Voices 548 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, take the great struggle of acquiring a superiority over all other re- ligions that it might demolish the partition walls which separated race from race, nation from nation. [Great applause.] 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. [Applause.] Mary, the most blessed of all human kind, appears and brings forth the expected divine nature revealed to Plato. She brings forth the fulfillment of the ideals of the Gods of the different peoples and nations of the ancient world. She brings forth at last that one whose name, whose shadow came down into the world and overshadowed the souls, the minds, the hearts of all men, and removed the mystery from every 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, HeMd. '"^''*"' X though it is from Palestine, re-echoed into Egypt, and especially to Alexandria and through parts of Greece and Rome. Another voice from Egypt re-echoed through Palestine, and through it over all the other countries and peoples of the east. And the voices from Pales- tine, having Jerusalem as their focus and center, re-echoed the voice back again to the Grecians and the Romans. And there it was that His doctrine fell amidst the Greek nations, the Grecian element of character, Greek letters and the sound reasoning of different systems of Greek philosophy. [Great applause.] Surely in the regeneration of the different peoples there had been a divine revelation in the formation of all human kind into one spirit- ual family through the goodness of God, in one family equal, without any distinctions between the mean and the great, without distinction of climate or race, without distinction of national destiny or inspiration, of name or nobility, of family ties. And all the beauties which ever clustered around the ladder of Jacob, or were given to it by the men of Judea, was given by the prophets to the Virgin Mary in the cave of Bethlehem. But Greece gave Christianity the letters, gave the art, gave, as I may say, the enlightenment with which the Gospel of Chris- tianity was invested, and presented itself then, and now presents itself before all nations. After referring to his scholarly historical disquisition the arch- bishop continued: It suffices me to say that no one of you, I believe, in the presence of these historical documents will deny that the original Christian, the first Christian church was the church of the east, and that is the ti^^h ^h"^®" Greek church. Surely the first Christian churches in Asia Minor, ■ Egypt and Assyria were instituted by the apostles of Christ and for the most part in Greek communities. All those are the foundation stones on which the present Greek church is based. [Great applause.] The apostles themselves preached and wrote in the Greek letters and all the teachers and writers of the Gospel in the east, the contempora- .ries and the successors of the apostles were teaching, preaching and writing in the Greek language, Especially the two great schools, that THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 549 of Alexandria and that of Antioch, undertook the development of Christianity and form and systematize a Christian church. The great teachers and writers of these two schools, whose names 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. At last, 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 Chris- tian doctrine, of every evangelical truth, of every ecclesiastical senti- ment. After this, my oration about the- Greek church, I have nothing more to add than to extend my open arms and embrace all those who attend this congress of the ministers of the world. I embrace, as my brothers in Jesus Christ, as my brothers in the divinely inspired Gospel, as my friends in eminent ideas and sentiments, all men; for we have a common Creator, and consequently a common Father and God. And 1 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. Most High, omnipotent King, look down upon human kind; en- lighten us that we may know Thy will. Thy ways. Thy holy truths. Bless and magnify the reunited peoples of the world and the great^people of the United States of America, whose greatness and kindness has invited us from the remotest parts of the earth in this their Columbian year to see with them an evidence of their progress in the wonderful achievements of the human mind and the human soul. A Common Creator. Archbishop*! Prayer. Idol Deesse Thoueris, in Ghiza. W^oman and the Pulpit. Paper by REV. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL. EELINGS which come unbidden from the influence of our surroundings tend to produce in us the willing acceptance of anything to which we are accustomed. 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 ideals 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 sunshine will be here directly, but it is not easy to recall the sensa- tion produced by cheerful bright days. If this is true of events to which we are accus- tomed, how much more then of the less familiar, larger facts of history. The present be- comes the instructive measure of the future. This tendency is much more influential than may be supposed in the settlement of many of the 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- eminently 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 benev- olent outside work without detriment either to the home, to society, or to their own highest womanly natures. Wherever any of the fairly acceptable women preachers are heard and known long enough to make their speaking a.^d their good work familar 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 ques- tion. It makes its own place successfully in the varied social domain just as every tree is said to do, let it be planted almost anywhere, adding its own new charm to the landscape. Some one tells a pleasant story of the little boy and girl of a 551 Womea Effi. cient in Mind and Character. 552 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, clergywoman who, like many other children, were discussing together what they were going to do when they grew up. " I'm going to be a minister like mamma," said the little girl. "What'Uyoube?" The boy reflected a while dubiously, but the calling nearest at *hand won the day. '* I'm doin' to be a minister, too," he said. Then the sister put on her small thinking cap, but after a few minutes she replied, seriously, "Well, I suppose mans do preach some- times." But the world is so miscellaneously broad that some of the best men never heard a woman 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 serv- ice. They tighten, reclasp and rivet afresh with more glittering steel, loosening ecclesiastical bonds which belonged to less enlightened ages; for they sincerely think that the world-wide woman movement is only a perverse, detestable offshoot of pernicious infidel tendencies. A greater intellectual blunder than this timid, illogical assumption has seldom been made. Religious creeds have been shaken to their foundations. 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 lavishly for home and foreign benevolences that the church is both astonished and bewildered, though it opens the mouths of its sacks to receive the supplies and it establishes unusual church offices, as that of deaconess, and evangelist, to afford safe out- lets for quickened womanly zeal. Women are taking an active, increasing share in the education, the thought and the investigations of the age and are passing into almost Every Field every field of work certainly to no obvious disadvantage to any worthy of Work. interest. This great parliament of religions is, in evidence, that narrow conservatism is rapidly decreasing and that our conception of the re- ligious pulpit must widen until it can take in all faiths, all tongues which striveto enforce the living spirit of love of God and man. But, on the principle that one outside sheep astray in pastures already cropped to exhaustion is more to be sought after than ninety-nine in the fold, this paper, designed to be both a brief history and discussion of facts, will indirectly remember the unconvinced multitude. As the remoter distances on the painter's canvas are important aids to the bringing out of his principal figures, so the past is an essential back- ground for the present. Recently historians from critical comparative study have decided that in the progress of all peoples toward enlightenment there was a time when women represented the hardship of the family and the tribe or clan more exclusively than men have represented such hardships under later civilizations. That this so-called Matriarchate was a higher Is God a Re- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 553 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, spwter of"sex? who is no respecter of persons, a respecter of sex? Paul's exposition of practical Christianity is: "In honor preferring one another.'' As the heavens are high above the earth, so is that principle above those who have largely controlled the relations of men and women. Com- pare the bright Ithuriel pointing his sword, "having touch of celestial temper," with the other one: "squat like a toad close at the ear of Eve" and not very far from Adam. Under barbarism, when no child could inherit except from the mother, personal property and power were as yet but partially sepa- rate from the community interests. The tribe or clan was a social unit for offense, defense and ownership. Their gods were tutelary, household ^and tribal gods. Like other property safest around the hearthstones, they or their symbols were given into the safe keeping of women. Religion and government were not separate. The mothers controlled the children, took part in the sagest councils of religion, policy or war, or became interpreters, seers or priests as spontaneously as women today, having more leisure time than men, are most active in affairs of society for their class and in benevolences for the less favored. In that condition of morals women could only safely be- queath wealth as chieftainship to sons of their own lineage. That social order was an accepted fact and, miserable as it was, it kept its women and its men side by side, equals in the onward march toward a better future. When property and power were gained by some of the stronger males, naturally they desired to bequeath these to their own children. From that time female chastity began to be enforced as the leading virtue for the legal wives and daughters. In classic lands we know that it was the wives only who were held to this most imperative of all helps to high social order and equity. Courtesans, male and female, were still respectable. Priestesses still held the high, often the highest rank, still interpreted the oracles, lived in the temples, and their social vices were not only sanctioned but enjoined by their religion. The legal adoption of heirs to share with or supersede children born in wedlock was an accepted custom. Unnatural vices also were made honorable. The ruder frank savagery of the Matriarchate was considerate of women, because it had not fpund any way how even tP attempt to be 554 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Plain Speak- iag. Woman s Aptitude Religious Totion. for De- 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 and sons, had not arisen for these simpler heathen folk. Too much is at stake here to allow anything but plain speaking. God forbid that I should charge all good men and women with will- ingly upholding this basest of all injustice. We inherit our early en- vironments. Custom blinds 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 face. The later enforced civil inferiority of women, their legal pauperism from the day when they become wives, the church's solemn requirement of wifely obedience, the husband's cus- tody of the wife, the entire education for debilitating seclusive timid- ity and dependence, all sprang from the same baneful root. It has demoralized 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 iniquityo 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 alterna- tives — 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 monogamous wives and those unwedded others. Of the two plans, which is the most unchristian, let the casuists decide. The highest code of morals is not elastic, but both men and women must look aloft before they can cordially appreciate its teach- ings. 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 apti- tude 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 attendance on relig- ious services everywhere. This has always been largely true. Has THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 555 it ever been wise to fetter conscience or to nourish a weak self- consciousness in the illumined presence of a great hope which points on to an endless triumphant future? Must female modesty be taught to shrink from the public eye as ashamed of the womanhood God has bequeathed it in His wisdom? Dare one allow a poor, shrinking timidity to be pitted against sweet, retiring solemn consolations and inspirations which comfort and strengthen needy humanity? Can we think of Jesus as possibly hin- dered by modesty from proclaiming to sin-laden multitudes, " Blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers?" Can we say the one who counted not His own life here in the service of others, indorsed a self-consciousness so monstrous as to absorb and stifle the Divine proclamation of good will to men? His twelve disciples were not women; but He went about doing good and had not where to lay His head. Women could hardly share His full pilgrimages. 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 v Us between women and the most consecrated work, such walls will tumble down without even the blowing of a horn. The real proprieties will be pre- served. There is no impropriety in proclaiming truth from the highest TheBeaiPro. house-top. The most consecrated pulpit is less sacred than the living pneties will be 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 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 plowshares of intemper- ate disapproval. All that has melted away like black clouds in the morning sunrise, and the cheerful colors alone remain. The fitness of the primary educators o^ the race to be moral and religious teachers has easily demonstrated itself. It was as inevitable. In 1853 an orthodox Congregational church called a council and ordained three women pastors, who had been already settled among them for six or eight months. Then followed a long waiting of ten years. In 1863 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 parlia- ment. 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 v/ere ordained, and in the fourth decade about two hundred h^ve received Qrdin^tipn from many denorninations — Congrc- 556 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. gationalists, 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 ro have proved themselves to be successful above the average in promoting the relig- ious welfare of the church and community. This memorable and com- memorative season's succession of congresses in this place, dedicated first to progress then to art, is an excellent gauge of today'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 discordant echo behind. This annealing world's parliament of religions welcomes half a score of women to share in the presentation of comparative 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 the^Se'^x^ a^s modified insights and inspiration must widen the spiritual horizon. Teachers. 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 the universal needs and to the intelligent acceptance of a whole humanity. Every teacher, having taken into his own heart a central principle, around which clusters a kindred group of ideas, all baptized in the light of his be- lieving 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 con- secrated platform upon which may stand every such soul and freely proclaim those best and highest convictions which must convince, strengthen, comfort and elevate his own mental and spiritual being. Xhe Divine 3^si^ of the Co-operation of iVl^^ ^^d Women. Paper by MRS. LYDIA H. DICKINSON. Woman a Factor in the World's Pro- gress. HAT is the divine basis of the co-oper- ation of men and women? In at- tempting briefly to answer this ques- tion 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 sep- arated when history begins. The woman is subject to the man, and cus- tom, law and the parties themselves 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 world's progress and given to her thrones of judgment and dominion. True, these concessions have been made to the exceptional woman or in the interest of hereditary kingship — have been made to the Helens, the Deborahs, the Catherines and Elizabeths. But the concession proves the intui- tion, the more as the women themselves have accepted the positions and filled them creditably. For the rest, there has never been a peo- ple, except, perhaps, admitted barbarians, among whom, before mar- riage, the woman has not only been equal but superior in love. Uni- versal man in all the historic past has been her subject here. Again, the law in holding women the same as men amenable to punishment as offenders takes a position also at variance with the idea of subjection. It recognizes the individuality of woman, her personal responsibility, and so far contradicts itself whenever it denies, not her right, but her duty to act as an individual in all her relations with him 558 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 559 and society. In truth, the position of woman in the past has been so paradoxical that to a superficial judgment the development in her of a consistent self-consciousness would seem almost miraculous. She has been at once citizen and alien, subject and queen. She has by- common consent been responsible for all the evil and the inspiration to all the good that men do Sentimentally man's superior, practically his inferior, she has been anything rather than what she alone is — his equal. The name woman has been the synonym for all that is contra- dictory in human character and experience. 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 Or iginai two, but one, being- joined together by God Himself — that is, ere- S?°<^ ^*"^^ .', Ti-r -1 1 • 11 ^^^ *^d Wo. atively. In a relation or essential oneness, such as is contemplated man. here, there can of course be no subjection of one to the other, no separation between them. They are complementary of each other. They are each for the other quite equally. It is clear, however, that this prospective relation of essential oneness between the ixidividual man and woman presupposes two things — first, a basic marriage in the universal, a marriage of man as man with woman as woman, a mar- riage in other words of the essentially masculine with the essentially feminine, such a marriage or oneness of interest 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 commanding 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 one other possible. Christ's words un- questionably refer to a time when, by implication, harmony prevailed on all the planes of our individual and associated life. **In the begin- ning," He said, "it was not so." Divorce was impossible, because they are made " male and female," the perfect complements of each other. It may be said that harmony on all the planes of our being would preclude the idea of government as we know it, the need of contend- ing 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 mutuaj service in their relations with each other, 566 mE WOkW^ CONGkEss OP RElIGldMl The proof that the premise is correct will, I think, appear when we conclude what society of necessity would be were the idea of serv- ice the only ruling idea in the marriage relation of today. Of course, our individual and social experiences keep pace with each other. We realize simultaneously on both planes. And the social acts upon as well as reacts toward the individual. But the individual gives the law. According to sacred history, then, marriage, a relation of per- fect oneness or equality, a complementary relation, precluding the idea ot separation or subjection, is the original bond between individual men and women, because it is the bond between masculine and femi- nine principles in the individual mind. But marriage, as we have seen, means harmony, and we have discord in ourselves and in our relations from^the^True ^^^^ each other. How, then, came the departure from the true idea? Idea. The separation, we are told, dates from Eden and the sin of Eve, and one of the consequences of the sin is recorded, not, however, as the vindicating judgment of the Almighty, but as the fact merely in the so-called curse upon the woman for listening to the voice of the ser- pent. "Heathy husband — shall rule over thee." Let us for a moment consider this fact in its relation to the indi- vidual mind. For all truth is true for us primarily as individuals. What we are to others depends upon what we are tojourselves. We have, then, in this declaration, a case not of marriage,-'lMf -of divorce. The mind is at variance with itself. One part rules, 'tftex)tiie^m,ust obey. For the mind, like man and woman, is dual,uliy-is one only in marriage. It is a discordant, too, when we love what the ti-lith forbids', and a harmonious, complementary one when we love what the truth enjoins. By common perception, love is the feminine and truth the masculine principle. Love, when it is the love of self, leads us astray. It led us astray as a race. It blinded us to" the real good. Truth brings us back to our moorings. But it can only" do so by its tem- porary 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 inan and woman. Each is an individual, that is, each is both masculine and feminine in himself and herself, but in their relations to each other man stands for and expresses truth in his form and activities, while woman stands for and expresses love. Here, also, as in the individual, the original bond is marriage, implying no subjection on the part of either wife or husband, implying on the contrary perfect oneness, mutual and equal helpfulness. But except in the symbolic story of Edenic peace and happiness, none the less true, however, because merely symbolic, we have no historic record of that infantile experi- ence of the race. Love, when it is good, unites the truth in herself. But when it is the love of evil or self, she divorces truth and unites herself with the false. This briefly is the meaning of the separation between man and woman in the past; namely, first, the degradation of love into self-love, and the consequent separation between love and truth in the individual THE WOkLDS CONGRESS OF RSLlGIOm, 56l mind, a separation that, blinding us to the highest good, makes it no longer safe for us to follow our desires; second, the separation between man and woman in the marriage relation, and as a farther consequence, between man and man socially. If what I have already said be true, the prominence which the question of woman suffrage has assumed in the present may be easily understood. Woman suffrage more or less intelligently for the uni- versal intuition of the truth I have tried to present, namely, the truth of the creative oneness of man and woman. Human history, it is true, 's the record of a seeming divorce between them. But what God hath joined together man cannot put asunder. Creatively one man and woman cannot be permanently separated. Indeed, their temporary separation is providentially in the interest of their higher ultimate union. We are on our way back to relations between them of which those of our racial infancy were the sure promise and held the potency. Truth divinely implanted in the soul is our leader because truth being 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 ourselves created. First nature without us, always responsive to nature within, is in rebel- lion and must be subdued. Here again, "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" is not a curse but the provision of infinite love for our development, physically and mentally. Nature no longer responds spontaneously to the needs of man, but brings forth thorns and thistles and yields bread only under compulsion of the clay-cold, masculine intellect, which alone is able to master nature's secrets and nature her- self. She understands the law of must and submits to the might of masculine muscle. Woman has apparently no place in this needful preliminary work save to sustain the worker. True, in her representative capacity of love, the highest in both, she is under subjection; yet she sees, not rationally, of course, in the beginning, but intuitively, the reason why, acquiesces, and hidden from view still leads while she follows; still rules in obeying. For love, or its opposite, self-love, is always the very life of man, as love is the life of God who created him. It is always the woman within us that gives first birth, and then responding to the voice 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 Rules in Canaan. Woman, yes, and women are, primarily, even, although ^^y"^«- sometimes ignorantly, responsible from first to last. It has not always seemed so. The past has been so predominately masculine as seem- ingly to obliterate the feminine by absorption — to make the man and the woman one, and that one the man. Yet only in seeming. In reality woman has been the inspiration of all that has been done, both good and evil. Tennyson does not see clearly when he says: "As the hnsband,.so the wife is." It is always the other way. It is always the clown within and not without herself that drags a woman down and the man with her. 562 fH^ WdRLt)'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS, But let us take another step. Our way back involves not only the overcoming of obstacles to harmony of nature without us, the sub- jugation of nature and the consequent establishment of a scientific con- sciousness in accord with spiritual truth that harmony for man pre- supposes his rightful lordship over all below him, it also involves the Within. ^^^^^ overcoming of nature within an at-one-ment of man with himself. And here the worl< is alike for both, in that both are alike subject to truth. In addition, however, she has been externally subject to him. And her temptation has been to identify the voice of truth within herself with his voice, his idea of truth for her. This, when both are led by love, is the true idea for both, since then his voice is the voice of truth. But led by self-love, she, too, must listen to the voice within. And more. She must listen for him as well as for herself. Because so listening she is the very form of embodiment of that love of the truth which alone can lead them back to harmony in themselves with each other and with all others. In other words, so listening she is the revelation of the truth to man. The legal disfranchisement of woman in the past has been in accordance with the truth for the past. It has been a strict necessity of the situation, a necessity for women as well as for men, and with it in the past we can have no conceivable quarrel. Masculine supremacy, the supremacy of truth, has been needed to lay the foundation of Christian character, and a Christian society in the subjection of nature and self-love. But the foundations broadly and deeply laid in natural and social science, we can at least see that the corresponding super- structure can be after no petty or personal, partial or class pattern, but must be divinely perfect; that is, perfect ''according to the meas- ure of a man," of man physical, intellectual and spiritual, of man individual and social, and finally of man feminine as well as mascu- line. We can at last see that love is the fulfillment of law. This truth human law must sometimes embody in order to effect its universal acceptance. Beliefs crystallized into creeds and statutes hold the human mind. It is certain that belief in the creative equality of man and woman will not prevail so long as the statute book pro- claims the contrary. Neither this nor a practical belief in the creative equality of man and man. This waits upon that, that upon individual enlightenment sufficiently focalized to lead the general mind. A rela- tion of marriage, or, in other words, of mutual co-operation all the way through in all the work of both, is the creative relation between man and woman. It follows that as this truth is seen and realized by individual men and women, society will see the same truth as its own law of life, to be expressed, ultimated in all human relations and in the work of the world. This truth alone will lead us back to harmony in all the planes of our associated life, and the dawning recognition of this truth explains, as I believe, the growing interest in the modern question of woman suffrage. One objection to a further extension of the right of suffrage has weight. It should have been considered when the negro was admitted THE WOkLb'S CONGRESS OP kPUGtOM^, S63 to citizenship. Ignorance is a menace to the state. All women are not intelligent. Certainly there is no reason in advocating educated suffrage. But I know of no other discrimination, except, of course, against criminals and idiots, that can consistently be made against a citizen under a government that professes to derive its just powers from the consent of the governed. Opinions vary as to the actual effect of the introduction of the woman element into practical politics. It is my own belief, of course, that the prophets of evil will find themselves greatly at fault in their specific prognostications. Woman suffrage does not mean to women -woman in the pursuit of politics after the fashion of men. But questions are Practical Poli- even now before us, and more will arise, that she should help to ^^^' decide — questions relating to the saloon, to education, to the little waifs of society worse than orphaned, to prison reforms, to all that side of life that most vitally touches woman as the mother of the race. Women hold, or could hold, intelligent opinions on all such questions; and the state should have the benefit of them. Woman suffrage does not mean, as has been charged, a desire on the part of women to be like men or to assume essentially masculine duties or prerogatives. God takes care of that. The inmost desire of the acorn is to become an oak and nothing else. Equally true is it that the soul of woman irresistibly aspires to the fulfillment of its own womanly destiny as wife and mother, and, as a rule, to nothing that definitely postpones such destiny. Most emphatically woman suf- frage does not mean any persistent blindness on the part of women to their high calling as the outward embodiment and representative of what is highest and best in human nature. Blind she has been and is, but God is her teacher. He has kept the soul of woman through all the ages of her 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 today; whence both can see the large meaning of subjection in the past, and the larger realizations that await their accordant union in the future. Imperfectly as she now apprehends it, woman suffrage does, never- theless, mean for women a consistent, rational sense of personal respon- sibility, and it means this so pre-eminently that I could almost say that it means nothing else. Because upon this new and higher sense of personal responsibility is to be built all the new and higher relations of woman in the future with herself, with men and with society. This is a theme in itself. I will only say in passing, that we are ready for new and higher relations between men and women, that women must inaugurate these relations, that an intuition of the truth is the secret of the so-called woman movement, of the intellectual awakening of women, of their desire for personal and pecuniary freedom, their laud- able 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. 564 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Then comes the statelier Eden back to men. Then reign the world's great bridal chaste and calm. Then springs the crowning race of human kind. I wish to emphasize the point that, without the consent of woman her subjection could never have been a fact of history. Nothing is clearer to my mind than that man and woman (and because of her, let me insist) have all along been one in their completeness, as they originally were, and one day again will be one in their completeness. In any relation between man and 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 ^t^s^^oxt ^^^ ^^ hold to them. In doing this, she is apparently separating ing. " herself from man as in the past he has separated himself from her. Really separating herself, some say, but we need not fear. She is simply doing her part, making herself ready for the new and higher relation with man to which both are divinely summoned. The end to be attained, a perfect relation between man and man, symbolized by, but as yet imperfectly realized in, the divine institution of marriage, involves for its realization equal freedom for both. Not independence on the part of either. No such thing is possible. Inequality of natural opportunity operates hardly against women. It is against this inequality that she is now struggling on the material and intellectual plane; that they are struggling, let me say, for no reflecting person can for an instant suppose that the woman movement does not include men equally with women. They are one, man and woman, let us continue to repeat, until we have effectually unlearned the contrary supposition. The woman movement means in the divine providence ''the hard earned release of the feminine in human nature from bondage to the masculine." It means the leadership henceforth in human affairs of truth, no longer divorced from but one with love. It is the last battleground of freedom and slavery* We are in the dawn of a new and final dispensation. This is why I welcome the struggle for personal freedom on the part of women including her struggle for the right of citizenship. It is altogether a new recog- nition by what is highest in man of the sacredness of the individual, and it insures the triumph of the new impulse. The personal freedom of woman when achieved on all planes — material, mental and spiritual — will not separate her from man. It will not harm the woman nature in woman. It will, on the contrary, tend to develop that nature as a fitting complement of the nature of man. It will give her the same opportunity that he has to exercise all THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 565 her faculties free from outward constraint. It is distinctive character that we want in both men and women to base true relations between Personal them, and freedom is the only soil in which character will grow. We womanr™ ^^ 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 disenfranchis- ing woman since she was never legally enfranchised. But as it is her divinely conferred privilege to be one with man, the law as it has come to be understood simply stands for something that could not be, and is therefore misleading and vicious. It stands not only for the subjection of woman, which it has had a right to stand for, but it has also come to mean a real and not apparent separation between man and woman. We must bear in mind that this apparent separation is always of the man from the woman, the masculine from the feminine, truth from love. Letter prom Lady H^^^Y Somerset Read by DR. BARROWS to the Parliament. Keynote to Dnity. EV. DR. JOHN HENRY BARROWS, Chair- man of the World's Religious Congresses, Chicago. Honored Friend: You have doubtless been told with fatiguing reitera- tion, by your worldwide clientele of corre- spondents that they considered the religious congresses immeasurably more significant than any others to be held in connection with the Columbian Exposition. You must allow me, however, to repeat this statement of opinion, for I have cherished it from the time when I had a conversation with you in Chicago and learned the vast scope and catholicity of the plans whose fulfillment must be most gratifying to you and your associates, for, with but few exceptions among the religious lead- ers of the world, there has been, so far as I have heard and read, the heartiest sympathy in your effort to bring together representatives of all those immeasurable groups of men and women who have been united by the magnetism of some great religious principle, or the more mechanical efforts that give visible form to some ecclesiastical dogma. The keynote you have set has already sounded forth its clear and har- monious strain, and the weary multitudes of the world 'have heard it and have said in their hearts: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it would be if brethren would dwell together in unity!" I have often thought that the best result of this great and unique movement for a truly pan-religious congress was realized before its members met, for in these days the press, with its almost universal hos- pitality toward new ideas, helps beyond any other agency to establish an equilibrium of the best thought, affection and purpose of the world, and is the only practical force adequate to bring this about. By nature and nurture I am in sympathy with every effort by which men may be induced to think together along the lines of their agreement rather than of their antagonism, but we all know that it is mpre easy to get them together than to think together. For this THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 567 reason the congresses, which are to set forth the practical workings of various forms of religion, were predestined to succeed, and their influ- ence must steadily increase as intelligent men and women reflect upon the record of the results. It is the earnest hope of thoughtful religious people throughout the world, as all can see who study the press from a cosmopolitan point of view, that out of the nucleus of influence afforded by the congress may come an organized movement for united activity based on the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. The only way to unite is never to mention subjects on which we are irrevocably opposed. Perhaps the chief of these is the historic Episcopate; but the fact that he believes in this while I do not would not hinder that good and great prelate, Archbishop Ireland, from giving his hearty help to me, not as a Protestant woman but as a tem- perance worker. The same was true in England of that lamented leader. Cardinal Manning, and is true today of Monsignor Nugent, of Liverpool, a priest of the people, universally revered and loved. A consensus of opinion on the practical outline of the golden rule, de- n^^*** ^^ clared negatively by Confucius and positively by Christ, will bring us ^* all into one camp, and that is precisely what the enemies of liberty, worship, purity and peace do not desire to see; but it is this, I am persuaded, that will be attained by the great conclave soon to assem- ble in the White City of the West. The congress of religions is the mightiest oecumenical council the world has ever seen; Christianity has from it everything to hope; for as the plains, the tablelands, the foothills, the mountain ranges, all conduct alike, slowly ascending to the loftiest peak of the Himalayas, so do all views of God tend toward and culminate in the character the life and Work of Him who said: "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." Believe me, yours in humble service for God and humanity. Isabel Somerset. jfhe Influence of Religion on \Yomen. Paper by REV. MRS. ANNIS F. F. EASTMAN, of West Bloomfield, N. Y. One Kind of Religion. N Eve, the mother of evil, and Mary, the mother of God, we have the two extremes of religious thought concerning woman. 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!" In the sacred oracles of the Chinese we find these words: '^All was subject to man in the beginning. The wise husband raised up a bulwark of walls, but the woman, by an ambitious desire of knowledge, demolished them. Our misery did not come from heaven; she lost the human race." In the religious annals of the Greeks also, we have Pandora, the author of all human ills. Everywhere in the religious history of mankind you will find some trace of the divine woman, mother of the incarnate Deity On the walls of the most ancient temples in Egypt you may see the goddess mother and her child. The same picture is veiled behind Chinese altars, consecrated in Druid groves, glorified in Christian churches, and in all these the underlying thought is the same. Before entering upon an investigation of the relation of religion to woman, we must decide what we mean by religion. If we mean any particular form of faith, body of laws, institu- tions, organization, whether Hindu, Greek, Hebrew or Christian, then we are forced to the conclusion that no one of these has given to woman an equal place with man as the full half of the unit of humanity; for every organized religion, every religion which has become a human institution, teaches the headship of man and that involves, in some measure and degree, the subjection of woman and her consequent inferiority. m Rev. Annis F. Eastman, West Bloomfield, N. Y. THS: WOkLD'S CONGRESS OP k^LIGlONS, 571 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 mas- ters, and wives on an equality with their husbands. Aristotle charac- terized women as being of an inferior order, and Socrates asks the pathetic question: " Is there a human being with whom you talk less l^IS.®^^^' than with your wife?" Poor Socrates 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 the Christian fathers, said: "Submit your head to your husband and you will be sufficiently adorned." Luther, dear Father Luther, who builded better than he knew, said: **No gown worse becomes a woman than that she should be wise.'* A learned bishop of today said: "Man is the head of the fam- ily; the family is an organic unity, and cannot exist without subordi- nation. Man is the head of the family because he is physically stronger, and because the family grows out of a warlike state, and to man was intrusted the duties of defense." These are the sentiments of leaders of the great systems of relig- ious doctrine and they reflect the spirit of organized religion from the beginning until now. If, however, by religion we mean that universal spirit of reverence, fear and worship of a spiritual being or beings, be- lieved to be greater than man, yet in some respects like man ; if we mean that almost universal conviction of the race, that there is that in man which transcends time and sense; if we believe that religion is that in man which looks through the things which are that he may be able to perceive the right and choose it; if, in a word, religion be the possibil- ity of the fellowship of the spirit of man with the spirit of God, then its relation to woman, as to man, has been that of inspiring guide to a fuller light. With this conception of religion we see that it is a matter of growth; the religious life of the race is a matter of growth and educa- tion. In seeking to discern what part religion thus conceived has played in the advancement of our race, we must go back of religion to man, because religion was made for man and by man, not man for or by religion; first that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual. When you have scanned the earliest written records of mankind you have not yet arrived at the root of things. When you find what you believe are the conceptions of the primitive man concerning God and the supernatural world you have not arrived at the roots of things. For his gods, his beliefs, as to the mystery by which he is encom- passed, were born of his effort to explain and account for that which is in his own condition and circumstance. The religions of various peoples, we now see, were not superim- posed upon them by God; they were the outgrowth of the actual life ^of the race. They were an attempt on man's part to explain himself and nature, to answer the question asked him by his own being and .the universe without. Woman's religious position, therefore, in any 672 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, nation, is only the supernatural or religious sanction put upon hef actual position in that nation. Among primitive peoples she is always a drudge, a chattel, a mere possession, her only actual value being that of the producer of man. This state of things, of course, had its antecedent causes, which we may trace in that seemingly blind struggle for existence which prevailed among the owners of animals below man, out of which one type after another emerged because of superior strength or more per- Antecedent; fcct adaptation to environment. Here we find the foundations of that Cautjes. physical and mental inferiority of the female which has been the reason of woman's position in human society in all times. A foremost scien- tist says: 'The superiority of male mammals is a remarkable fact. It is due to causes little creditable to the male character in general. Not one particle of it is attributable to their noble efforts in protection and supporting the females and their own 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 cannot be a poet. 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 cannot understand 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 the eggs, hatches out the young and takes principal care of them? Why do you not instance that fine, beautiful variety of spider of which the female invariably devours her consort when he is of no further use to her? What if that custom should become preva- lent among women? The fact is that these things prove nothing. If we have made any progress, it is away from nature. We are not spiders, nor lions, nor birds. We 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 cannot trace the degraded and subject, position of woman in ancient times to the religious ideals of her nature and place in the creation, but the reverse is true in a large measure. We can trace her religious position to her actual position in primitive society, and this in its turn back to those beginnings of the human animal which science is just beginning to discover and which will probably always be mat- ter of speculation. We always find the position of woman improving, as warlike activ- ities are replaced by industrial activities. When war and the chase were THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 573 the sole questions of human kind, 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 Laps. It is because the men are not warriors. They have no soldiers; they fight no battles, either with outside foreigners or be- tween the various tribes and families. In spite of their wretched huts, dirty faces, primitive clothing, their ignorance of literature, art and science, they rank above us in the highest element of true civilization — the moral element — and all the military nations of the world may stand uncovered before them." The same writer points out the fact that woman's position is more tolerable when circumstances lead to likeness of occupation between the sexes. Among the Cheroops, who live upon fish and roots which the women get as readily as the men, the women have an influence very rare among Indians. Modern history also teaches us that when women become valuable in a commercial sense they are treated with a deference and respect which is as different from the sentimental adoration of the poet as from the haughty contempt of the philoso- pher. Another important influence in the advancement of woman as of man is the influence of climate. It is a general rule, subject of course to some exceptions, that a tropical climate tends to degrade woman by relaxing her energy and exposing her purity. The rela- tively high regard in which woman was held by some of the tribes of the north of Europe, the strictures of the marriage bond in the case of the man as well as the woman, may be partially explained by climatic influences, though among these people, as among all barbarians, woman was under the absolute authority of husband or guardian, and could be bought, sold, beaten and killed. Yet she was the companion of his labors and dangers — his counselor. She had part of all his wars, en- couraging men in battle and inspiring even dying soldiers with new zeal for victory. 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 outgrowth of the teachings of Buddha. Organized Christianity is not the imitation of the life and teachings of Christ among His followers. Christianity is the teaching of Jesus, plus Juda- ism, plus the Roman spirit of law and justice and Grecian philosophy, plus the ideals of 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 relig- ion in their various transitions, but it is aside from our purpose to get ^t the true genius of a religion. We must go back to the teaching of The Moral Element. Influence of Climate. 574 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, its founders, 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 of Buddha, of Zoroaster, Confucius, E uai in Mohammed and Moses without seeing a divine life and spirit in them Spiritual which is not a reflection from the state of society in which they lived. Things. Charity is the very soul of Buddhic teaching. " Charity, courtesy, benevolence, 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 your master." In that declaration which we quoted before, " The Sabbath was made for man," is the magna charta of man's freedom and headship, male and female. The Sabbath was the chief institution of the Jews, their holy of holies, whose original significance was so overlaid 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 torn and destroyed. Christ says: " Sabbath was made for man." So all institu- tions, all creeds, everything, was made, planned and devised for man. The life is the fruit, and if any institution, any right or form or deed is found to be hampering and hindering, the growing life or spirit of man wants to cast it off, events Christ defied the man-made laws of His people when He healed the man with the withered hand. In His declaration of the supremacy of love, when He foretold that He, the supreme lover of the soul, once lifted up should draw all men unto Himself, He sounded the death knell of the reign of force in the earth and destroyed, by cutting its roots, that headship of man which grows out of the warlike state of human society. If Christ's speech was silver. His silence was golden. He simply ignores the distinctions of rank and class and race and sex among men. He has nothing to say about manly virtues and womanly virtues but, "Blessed are the meek," not meek women; ''Blessed are the merci- Hj8 Silence ful," "the pure in heart." Paul commends the wife to submission to the master husband, which was the sentence of the world upon woman in his day. But in that Gospel which gave her Christ, her lot was un- folded with the germ of that independence and equality of woman with man, which is beginning to blossom and bear fruit in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Christ declared eternal principles. He did not invent them; they >vere always true. Men make systems good, serving a valuable put" Golden. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 575 pose, but they have their day and cease to be. If it be urged that the progress of Christianity since Christ's 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, tha^ Christianity, as He proclaimed it, soon became mingled with Jewish and Grecian philosophy and received the impress of the Romans and the different peoples that embraced it; yet all the time it was slowly molding the race to its own heavenly pattern, while today the principles of Jesus are finding new presentations and confirmations in the scientific spirit of this genera- tion. They are not only in full accord with the revelations of science concerning man's beginning, but when science and religion seek to point out the lines on which the farther advance of the race must be found, they say at once: 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. Ihese two ways place them- selves before me as I endeavor to trace the influence of Christianity on woman's development, or of religion on woman's development. If I could only make up my mind that religion had been her greatest boon, or her greatest curse, then the matterof proving either might be easier. When I began the research on this subject 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 man- ner, though it could not raise her at once to his level, because it found her below him. The fact is that men and women must rise or sink together. It is true in this matter as in all. The letter killeth; the spirit maketh to live. The letter of religion as contained in bodies of doctrine, in cere- monial laws, in all those things pertaining to the religious life which come with observation, has in all ages been hampering and hindering man's progress, male and female. But the spirit of religion which recognizes religion as the spirit of man and binds it to the infinite spirit, which acknowledges the obligation of man to God and. to his fellows, which brings man finally under spiritual attunement with Him who is neither man nor woman, the Christ of God — this is at once the most perfect flower of man's progress. Of the relation of woman to religion as the interpreter of its profoundest truths, there is no time to speak. Of the growing dependence of organized Christianity upon woman, there is no need to speak. Her works speak for h^r. Two Ways of Reading His- tory. Must Rise or Sink Together. o 6 ft O cr tn o 'Xhe \^omen of [ndia. Paper by MISS JEANNE SORABJI, of Bombay. WOULD ask you to travel with me in thought over thirteen thousand miles across the seas to have a glimpse at India, the land of glorious sunsets, the continent 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 am- bitions." It has been said to me more than once in America that the women of my coun- try prefer to be ignorant and in seclusion; that they would not welcome anybody who would attempt to change their mode of life. To these I 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 Effect of do. They live in seclusion; not ignorance. Highly cultured British nrtflds^^ *^^ women, with love for the Master burning in their hearts, have the ex- ceptional privilege 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 man- age their affairs of state with a grace and manner worthy consider- ation. 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 brill- iantly, 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 37 577 578 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 uplift- ing of women. Schools and colleges are open where the women may attain to heights at first thought impracticable. The Parsee and Brah- man women in Bombay twenty years ago scarcely moved out of their houses, while today they have their libraries and reading rooms, they can converse on politics, enjoy a conversation and show in every movement culture and refinement above the common. Music, paint- ing, horsemanship come as easily to them as spelling the English lan- guage correctly. The princes of the land are interesting themselves in the education of the women around them. Foremost among these is the Maharajah, of Mysore,'who has opened a college for wometi, 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 Schools and Guzcrap; also Calcutta, Alahabad, Missoorie and Madras. The latter Womenf^^^°^ college has rather the lead in some points by conferring degrees upon women. The Victoria high school has turned out grand and noble women, so also has the new 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 snow in woman? Allow me to bring before you in thought, that form of a beautiful woman of Incjia, the Pundita Ramabai, who has opened the Sharida Sadan, or widow's home, in India. She has traveled a great deal, and was in America for awhile, taking from you sympathy, affection and funds for her noble work. Do you wish to hear of learned women? Again let me mention the Pundita Ramabai and in companionship with her Cornelia Sorabji, B. A., LL. D. Men and women have written of these in prose and song; their morality is unquestionable, their religion beautiful (for they belong to Christ Jesus), their humility proverbial. These are women for a nation to be proud of. Having prepared themselves to fill important posts they have gone back to their country and their life to glorify their Maker. These good women must have had good mothers. I can speak of one who lives the life of which she is so great an advocate; with her godliness and refinement go THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 579 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 start- ing 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 command. 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 Go^'^J^Creat women, true women, pure women, the greatest as well as the least of ^^^ God's creatures. A woman? Yes, I 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. Paul Digres- A N^w Testament \Yoman; or, W^hat Phoebe Did. Paper by MISS MARION MURDOCH, of Cleveland, Ohio. N the sixteenth chapter of Romans, first and second verses, is found the following: "I com- mend unto you Phcebe, our sister, who is a ser- vant (or deaconess) of the church that is at Cencraea; that ye receive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in what- soever business she hath need of you; for she hath been asuccorer of many, and of mine own i^ -^^S^BP ^K^ ^^^^ also." %, Jmj^V ^^it^^^^ It is not surprising that this passage in Paul's I^P9Hi /*^/:^j^^^ epistle to the Romans should be of peculiar interest. Paul's reputation as an opponent of the public work of women is well known. For many centuries he has been considered as the chief opposer of any activity, official or otherwise, of women in the churches. They were to keep They were not to teach or to talk or to preach. They questions except in the privacy of their homes. Paul merely shared the popular opinion of his time when he exclaimed with all his customary logic, "Man is the glory of God, but woman is the glory of the man!" Eitherproposition, standingby itself, meetsour hearty approval. *'Man is the glory of God!" Woman is, we are told, "the glory of man." But combining them with that adversative par- ticle, we feel that Paul's doctrine of the divine humanity with refer- ence to woman is not quite sound according to the present standard. Because we have come to feel that woman may be also the glory of God, we call Paul prejudiced. We even refuse to take him as author- ity upon social questions, and skip the passages in the epistles where he writes upon this subject. But here in this sixteenth chapter of Romans we notice a digres- sion from the general doctrines of Paul in this direction. 'T commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant (or deaconess) of the 580 silence, he said, were to ask no Miss Marion Murdoch, Cleveland, Ohio. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 583 church which is 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 has courageously put '* or deaconess " into the bargain. By Paul's own statement, then, Phcebe 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 54^^^°°^'®'°' 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. Yet he sent it over to Rome by this woman official of the church, and said: ** I commend unto you Phoebe. Re- ceive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you; for she has been a succorer of many and of myself also." I have thought, therefore, that it might be interesting to ask our- ,; . . selves the question. What did Phoebe do? supplementing it with some references to the Phoebes of today. What was it that so overcame this prejudice of Paul's that he gave her a hearty testimonial and sent her over on important business to the church at Rome? It is evident that, notwithstanding all the obstacles which custom had placed about her, she had been actively at work. It is doubtful whether she even asked if popular opinion would permit her service to the church. She saw that help was needed and she went eagerly to work. She was, we may imagine, a worker full of enthusiasm for the faith, active c^t^m.^^^**' 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, t^ustom would stand back and Paul 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 two thousand 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 mockery indeed And there was much wickedness all about. We see by the letters of Paul, as well as by history, how corrupt and lawless were many of the customs both in Greece and Rome. Much service was needed. And here was a woman in Cenchrea who could not sit silent and inactive and see all this. She, too, must work for a universal church. She, too, must bring religion into the life of humanity. Realizing that it was her duty 584 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Cordial ception. Re- 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 has been a succorer of many," said Paul. In what ways she aided them we need not definitely inquire. It may have been by kind encouragement or sympathy; it may have been by pecuniary assist- ance, or active social or executive plans for the struggling church. Whatever it was, Phoebe possessed the secret. *'She has been a suc- corer of many, and of myself also," said PauL To Phoebe, therefore, has been accorded the nonor 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 intrusted 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 per- plexity 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, Phoebe went home, full of suggestions and plans, we may imagine, for her cherished Grecian church. We must remember that it required no small effort and skill to sustain societies in these various places. Paul often preached without compensation, as we know, working at his trade to support himself and receiving contributions from interested friends. There was con- stant need of money and effort. What did Phoebe 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 respon- sibility in the matter I can imagine that she even arose in church meeting, after the final adjournment, but 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 was undoubtedly this woman whom Paul was constrained to honor. In spite of all restrictions and social obstacles, in the face of unyielding custom and prejudice, she could yet arise to work earnestly for her church, transact its business, extend its in- fluence and be recognized as one of its most efficient servants. Yet, notwithstanding this public work of a woman, and Paul's plain encouragement of it, the letter of his law was the rule of the Sex in Saint- churches for many centuries, and it forbade the sisters from uttering hood. 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 forgot that there was sex in sainthood, and whispered that perhaps they also were called of God. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 585 "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. It's 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 blasphemy." "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 Recognition expressed by our new translators in that tender letter of John: "Be- of the Daugh- loved, now are we the sons of God," was the good old way; "Beloved, ^^'^^^ ^ • now are we the children of God," is the better new one. The recogni- tion grew greater in word as well as spirit, the call was more earnest for the active co-operation of the Phcebes in all the non-ofificial work of the churches, and the Phcebes everywhere responded to the call. But not until the inauguration of a radically new movement in religion were the ofificial 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 literature, 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 Phcebes 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 Pauls 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 daughters shall prophesy." Still there are limitations and restrictions in words. Reforms in words always move more slowly than reforms in ideas. It is won- derful 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. Bartol, 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 mother- hood in God?" 586 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Woman's In- fluence Needed At the Pulpit. 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 for- ever and ever." But what matter the name so we cling to the idea, the ideal of strength and tenderness for the All-Spirit and for the children of the All-Spirit? What matter so we remember that it is not man or woman in the Lord, nor man or woman in the Spirit, neither in the ministry of the Spirit? It is divine; it is human unity. I have referred to the official ministry for the Phoebes as an assured fact in our growing civilization, but this is only a small part of the work which they 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 Cenchrea, and as truly ministers and apostles as any that were ever ordained to the formal ministry. It is found that there is needed not only woman's large moral and spiritual influence, but her large tact and management in many directions. In philanthropic work woman has always been active. " In the broad fields of human help- fulness," says Mr. Hale, "her empire is like that of the Queen of Pal- myra, one that knows no natural limits, but is broad as the genius that can devise and the power that can win." But this church of the new dispensation includes all philanthropy in religion. It includes every- thing that reforms and purifies and strengthens home and society. To the Phoebes, then, should it be dear as life, because it sustains and en- nobles life ; sacred as home, because it beautifies and sanctifies the home. Here are we today in the era of a great reformation. It is a refor- mation not local, not limited to a section or a sect. It reaches over the civilized world and into the various activities of life. It is a reforma- tion which, while it breaks many idols, is to bring about a pure and more enlightened worship; it is to give freedom to reason and faith; it is to proclaim a constant revelation of God; it is to make, by its doc- trine of the divine humanity, a sanctuary of every home and of every heart. It is to show that the ideal of eternity must enter into the king- dom of heaven and the kingdom of earth as well; that theology must have for its highest thought the symbol of both fatherhood 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 sacred services and offices of the church and of life will the real unity in religion be realized. Woman must stand at the pulpit and behind the altar of God before we shall hear all sides of sacred and secret moral questions. If we have women at the con- fessional under the new order, we shall have women to receive the con- fession. We shall have no dividing of the virtues. Upon all the sacred events of life, in birth, in marriage, in death, we shall have woman's divine benediction; we shall have co-operation along all the lines of life and society; we shall have a full realization of that unity, human and divine, which this parliament of religions has so grandly indorsed. \Yhat Judaism H^^ D^ne for \Yomen. Paper by MISS HENRIETTA SZOLD, of Baltimore. RIEFLY, 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 posi- tion assigned to woman by brute force, or oc- cupied by her on account of her physical con- stitution and natural duties, Judaism made that education effectual and uninterrupted in its effects. It would, indeed, be possible to begin with our own Emma Lazarus, distin- guished for gifts alike of heart and brain, and pass upward through history, mounting from Jewish woman's achievement to Jewish wo- man's achievement, our path marked by poet- esses, martyrs, scholars, queens and prophet- esses, until we reach the wilds of our patriarchs. Yet, by these last only may we hope to be taught about Jewish women. In Jewish history, as in that of the rest of mankind, leaders in politics, 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 fulsomely treated. We wish to know, as it were, the ancestry of such steadfast, incorruptible virtue. Moreover, Judaism is so com- pact 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 women whom Judaism has prepared for nineteenth 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 typ- ical 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 587 Mi99 H^ijriett^ Szpl4, Baltimore, M(J. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. 5S9 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 educational 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 energetic than her husband, follows up sentiment and perception Practical Ac with practical action. She makes effectual her conviction that man- ^°'^' kind 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 comparative merits of the two favorites, and the methods of bring- ing up children in general. There is 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 will life do me?" And although we are told earlier in the narra- tive 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 have been the difference of opin- ion between them in regard to their children's affairs, before their chil- dren father and mother are completely at one, for when the first sus- picion of displeasure comes to 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 eyes of Isaac, his father." (Gen. xxviii, 6.) Isaac, the executive, had completely adopted the tactics of Rebekah, the advi- sory branch of the government. The scene, moreover, is remarkable by reason of the fact that we are shown the first social innovator, the first being to act contrary to tradition and the iron-bound customs of society. Rebekah refuses to yield to birth its rights, in a case in which were involved the higher considerations of the guardianship of truth. And this reformer was a traditionally conservative woman. Rebekah is, indeed, the most indi- vidual of the women of patriarchal days, both in her feminine attrac- tions and inner womanly earnestness. To her strong character, it is doubtless due, that Isaac became a strict monogamist, thus perhaps making, by the side of Abraham's and Jacob's numerous additions to civilization's work, his sole positive contribution to its advance. Such are the ideals of equality between man and woman that have come down to us from the days of the Patriarchs. We hear of the mothers of the greatest men, of Yochebed, the mother of Moses, and of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, and the sole director of his earthly 5d0 fUk WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, career. We still read of fathers and mothers acting in equal conjunc- tion, as in the disastrous youth of Sampson. The law ranges them to- gether: "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who hearkeneth not to the voice of his 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, i8, 19.) It is sufficient w?m^^8%f - ^^ indicate a king's evil character to say: **For a daughter of Ahab ^^omans ig- j^^^j j^g f^j. ^ ^jfg » ^jj Kings viii, 18), attesting abundantly a wife's ■ ' influence, though it be for evil. Nor could Abigal's self-confidence (I Sam. xxv) have been a sporadic phenomenon, without precedent in the annals of Jewish households. Finally, we have a most striking evidence of woman's dignity in the parallel drawn by the prophets between the relation of Israel to God and that of a wife to her hus- band, most beautifully in this passage which distinguishes between the husband of a Jewish woman and the lordof a medieval Griseldis: "And it shall happen at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi (my husband) and shalt not call me any more Ba'ali (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 faithfulness." (Hosea ii, 18, 21, 22.) But Israel was a backsliding nation. Even its crowning glory, purity of family life, was sullied, as for instance at Gibeah (Judges xx), and by David (2 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 sons 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 blandish- ments of the daughters of a strange God produced the enactment of many a law by the rabbis of the Talmud. Here was the problem that 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 excep- tional 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 relation, 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 a certain amount of formality. We hear of the bill of divorcement as early as the times of Moses. Marriage was preceded Folly of Worshipin Strange THE WORLD* S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 591 in some cases by the space of a whole year, during which the woman remained with her father, by the making of a contract of betrothal which in every way was as binding as the act of marriage itself. Thus Malachi's expression, "the wife of thy covenant," was not an empty phrase. It indicates a substantial reality, and at the same time em- phasizes the difference between Israel's well regulated moral household and the irregularities and violences of heathen lands. This, then, was the Jewish basis upon which the rabbis could and did build. The subject of marriage and divorce is by them considered so important that one whole treatise out of the six constituting the Marriage and Mishnah is devoted to it. But its treatment is so multifarious and DWorce. exhaustive that only a very skilled Talmudist and an equally syste- matic mind would be able to arrange all the details under satisfactory heads sufficiently to give it a just idea of its admirable perfection. I am not able to do more than give some instances and some laws in order to illustrate how the rabbis accept woman's exceptional position, and by so doing to shield her from wrong and protect her in her right. The marriage contract assured to the wife a certain sum of money, the minimum being fixed by law, in the case of the death of her hus- band, or divorce. This contract had to be duly signed and properly drawn up. Moreover, a widow is entitled to this minimum sum even though no mention is made thereof in the contract. With regard to the 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 her's 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, wash the linen, nurse her children, make her husband's bed and work in wool. If she has a servant at her dis- posal she is not obliged to grind, nor to bake bread, nor to wash the linen. Her work diminishes with the 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 idle- ness leads to wicked thought. Rabbi Simon says: " If a husband has vowed that his wife shall do no work, he is obliged to divorce her, and pay her her dowry, for idleness may bring about mental aliena- tion." This last dread of idleness throws light upon the praise ac- corded 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 dis- pose as she wished. A man with one wife could marry a second only with the consent of the first — a most potent measure for resisting polygamy. The laws and regulations of divorce are equally full and detailed. A passage often quoted in order to fiive an idea of the Jewish divorce 5S2 Tit£: WokLb'S coMCMss oP MLlCtoM^. law is the following: The school of Shammai, clinging to Biblical or- dinances, says that "a wife can be divorced only on account of infidel- ity." The school of Hillel says that the husband is not obliged to give a plausible motive for divorce; he may say she spoiled his meal. R. Akiba expresses the same idea in another way; he may say that he has found a more beautiful woman. And those that wish to throw contempt upon the Jewish law add that the school of Hillel, the milder school, is followed in practical decisions. This is one of the cases in which not the whole truth is told. In the first place, a woman has the same right to apply for a divorce without assigning any reason which motives of delicacy may prompt her to withhold. The idea underly- ing this seeming laxity is that when a man or a woman is willing to apply for a divorce on so trivial aground then, regard 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 dis- tinguishing it far beyond other nations of antiquity are these: A man, as a rule, could not divorce his wife without providing for her; he could not summarily send her from him as was, and is, the custom of eastern countries, but was 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 sensibilities of women. In a mixed marriage, the child Regard tothe f^l^owG the religion of its mother. If men and women present them- Finer Sensibii- selves when alms are distributed, the women must be attended to first, 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 first, for begging is more painful to a woman than to a man. Under no cir- cumstances could a wife be forced to clothe herself in a way to attract remark or call forth ridicule. Women are accorded certain privileges in legal proceedings on account of their grace; that is to say, their sex. This is still subtler in the deference it pays to woman's influence. A daughter must remain with her mother. If a man dies, and his sons, his heirs, who are obliged to provide for the daughters 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 ities WE WOkLUS CONGRESS OF REUCtONL 5SS 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 intrenched the Jewess's position even unto this day. What- ever 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 the 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 rest upon all these things." Now, finally, with what fitness to meet nineteenth century de- mands has Judaism endowed her daughters? Our pulses are quick- ened and throbbing with the new currents of an age of social dissatis- preetoDoAs faction and breathless endeavor. The nineteenth century Jewess is SheWishea 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 bookkeeper, or a telegraph operator, nor does it forbid her becoming anything for which 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 responsibility 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. Juda- ism permits her daughters to go forth into this new world of ours to assume new duties and responsibilities and rejoice in its vast oppor- tunities. But it says: "Beware of forfeiting your dignity." Remem- ber, moreover, that, like mothers in all ages, be they kindly or un- kindly 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. m ^dm •f- %' . "n^Nw, Mosque of Sultan 3arkouk. [Religion and the Love of Mankind Paper by ex-GOVERNOR J. W. HOYT, of Wyoming. introduction say that owing I regret the to the ^reat FTER such an necessity to pressure of duties in connection with the exposition, and to the assumption that I should merely for a moment address this body of people, I do 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 last 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. Hav- ing 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 sympathies must have broad- ened 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 wor- ship, with however rich an adornment of symbol and ceremony; that it is not any particular body of theological dogmas, however interest- ing historically, intellectually, or ethically. It has surely come to be understood that in a generic way it comprehends all frames of senti- ment, 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 recognized, sources of infinite power and good- ness; and finally that, while its mainspring on the part of man is the love and worship of the Supreme Author and Supporter of all things, 595 Benefits t o Come. 5^6 THE WORLD' ^ CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. yet in the mind of God the great office of religion is to insure the pres- ent and eternal welfare of mankind. Religion is a fact of man's existence; has its origin not in any con- ceivable need on the part of God, whose infinity of perfections ex- cludes even the most shadowy thought of the want of any sort, but rather in the finiteness of man, who for this simple reason is none other than a body of wants, both numberless and manifold, and who, because of this conscious insufficiency, is everywhere and always feel- ing after God. In other words, religion is to be recognized as an out- growth of the very constitution of man, with his numberless wants of the body so fearfully and wonderfully made; of the Godlike intellect and will so equal to the discovery of natural laws and to a final con- quest of the material world; of the undying soul, so capable of un- utterable anguish as well as of a joy almost divine. Aye, it is because of this very constitution of man that there has been in all ages, and will be to the end of the world, pressing need of a body of truth, suited to all peoples and times, and embracing such laws as should entitle it to the acceptance and respect of mankind. Of all this there can be no question. But there is a very serious question 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 pro- pounded? And there is yet another question of even greater practical mo- ment, namely: Whether religious faiths, thus made conflicting creeds, may not be so harmonized upon the great essential truths recognized by all as to make their adherents cordial allies and earnest co-workers for man's redemption from the bondage of sin and for his advance- ment 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." The religion that the world needs and will at last have is one that shall make for the rescue and elevation of mankind in every realm and to the highest possible degree — one in which the lofty ideas of thaUhe^Worid ^^^ most perfect living here, and of endless progress toward perfec- Needs. tion in the great hereafter, 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 valuable 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 swept the heavens of both ethical and religious truth. One searches the literature of all kinds and all peoples in vain for treasures comparable with the Ser- mon on the Mount. If it were studied and practically accepted of all men how quickly it would revolutionize society everywhere. THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 597 "Thoushalt love the Lord thyGodwith 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 liv- ing and doing will himself be transformed and exiled. " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 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 Loyalty to Self before the world, fit representatives of the race! How are the multi- tude but dwarfed, crippled, diseased and comparatively feeble carica- tures of the perfect man each ought to be. How small is the minority of those who are loyal to the intellectual self with such culture and development of the mental powers as fit them for man's intended mas- tery and utilization of the wonderful resources of nature. How sadly small is the minority who are so loyal to the mortal self as to have gained a Christlike comprehension of ethical truth, or even a just con- ception of the grand possibilities of the moral forces of mankind. Finally, can it be doubted, that having this perfect love of God and this true and exalted love of self, man would spontaneously love his neighbor? Nay, does not that love of the Heavenly Father neces- sarily imply a love of one's fellows since the Fatherhood of God involves the brotherhood of man? What but such a being could have justified the strong language of the great apostle, " He who loveth God loveth his brother, and he who loveth not his brother abideth in death." "For all the law is fulfilled in one word," said the Apostle Paul; "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And in yet stronger language said the loving Apostle John, " If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." Aye, the brotherhood of 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 sentiment 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 aflFirm- ative expression in these positive words: "Whatsoever ye would that man should do to you do ye even so unto them." In this doctrine is founded the fraternities of peoples as well as the brotherhood of individual man. We sometimes forget that the individual man stands for the race and that the law of Christ, "Do unto others whatsoever ye would have them do unto you," is as bind- Fraternities 598 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. ing upon peoples, upon the aggregations of men in their relations and intercourse with other peoples as it is upon you or upon me as indi- viduals in the world. How forgetful has been mankind of the sublime truths of the brotherhood of man in all the ages. What have meant the wars in all history? Has not the history of the race been written of^PeSes?*"* in blood? Is it not a fact that even religious congregations and the champions of various faiths have drawn the sword and mingled in the strife? Let us thank God for the dawn of a better era — that the time is coming, aye, is at hand, when no nation on earth will dare to draw the sword, or set forth the glistening bayonet without the universal con- sent of mankind. There is a duty of self-preservation which the indi- vidual man and the individual nation must recognize. Aggressive warfare without a submission of one's rights and claims to justice be- fore a high court of arbitration representing all the nations, let us hope, is at an end. If there were established, and there will be estab- lished 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 religion will go forth as an army with Chris- tian banners bearing upon them the high symbols of the cross and. all symbols that represent religion and humanity and make peace for all the 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." Mosque of Mohamet AI7. 'Phe Qrounds of 3y^P^thy and praternity y\mong Peligious ]\/\en. Paper by A. M. POWELL, of the Society of Friends, New York. Salvationists and Quakers. T is in behalf of one of the smaller religious bodies, the Society of Friends, that I am in- vited to speak to you. In the time allotted it would be quite impossible to cover exhaust- ively the whole field of my broad subject, '*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 desirable, that there should be unity and fraternity and co-operation in the promulgation of simple spiritual truth. To illustrate my thought I may say that not very long ago I went to one of the great salvation army meetings in New York with two of my personal friends, who were also members of the Society of Friends. It was one of those meetings full of enthusiasm with volleys innumerable, and we met that gifted 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 religious men and religious women. Every people on the face of the earth has some conception. of the Supreme 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 com- 600 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 601 plete ideal of all. Tt 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 Experience of of justice and truth. It is a matter of history that the relations be- WiiUam Penn. tvveen Penn and the Quakers and the Indians have been exceptional and harmonious on the basis of this ideal brotherhood of man. Alas, that all the Indians in America might not have had representatives of this Quaker humane thought to deal with! What a different page would have been written in American history. Many years later another Friend was sent out under President Grant's administration to labor as a superintendent 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 w^ith them with reference 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 listened to him, and he told them furthermore the wonderful story of Jesus of Nazareth, conamending 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 expenence 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." I do not wonder, in the light of the record which this so-called Christian nation had made in dealing with those Indians, that they thought that they had never seen the Son out that way yet. It is, alas, to our shame as a people that it must be said, as a matter of historic truth, that the very reverse of the Christian spirit has been the spirit shown in dealing with the Indians, who have been treated with bad faith and untold cruelty. A fresh and living instance of this spirit is illustrated in the chap- ter we are now writing so shamefully in our dealings with the Chinese. We are sending missionaries abroad to China, but what are we teach- ing by example in America with reference to the Chinese but the Godless doctrine that they have no rights which we are bound to re- spect? We are receiving lessons valuable and varied, from these dis- tinguished representatives of other religions, but what are we to say in their presence of our shortcomings measured by the standard of our high Christian ideal, which recognizes the brotherhood of all man- kind and God as the common Father? 602 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, I want to say that the potential religious life, — and it is a lessson which is being emphasized day by day by this wonderful parliament, Not a Creed — is not a Creed but character. It is for this message that the waiting ter! ** ^^^^^- multitude listens. We have many evidences of this. Among the recent deaths on this side of the Atlantic which awakens 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 individual human soul. The one poet who has voiced this thought most widely in our own and in other countries, whose words are to be found intheafterpart of the general programme of this parlia- ment, is the Quaker poet, Whittier. His words are adapted to world- wide use by all who enter into the spirit of Christianity in its utmost simplicity. In seeking the grounds of fraternity and co-operation we must not look in the region of forms and ceremonies and rituals, wherein we may all very properly differ and agree to differ, as we are doing here, but we must seek them especially in the direction of unity and action for the removal of the world's great e^ils. I believe we stand today at the dividing of the ways, and whether or not there shall follow this parliament of religions any permanent committee or any general organization, looking, to the creation of a universal church, I do hope that one outcome of this great comming- ling will be some sort of action between the peoples of the different religions looking to the rernoval of the great evils which stand in the pathway of the progress of all true religions. Part of my speech has been made this morning by the eloquent ex-governor who preceded me, but I will emphasize his remarks with regard to arbitration. There were two illustrations of my thoughts to which he did not make specific reference. One is recent in the Behring Sea arbitration. What a blessing that is as compared with the old-« fashioned method of settling the differences between this country and Great Britain by going to war. We may rejoice and take courage in this fresh illustration of the practicability of arbitration between two great and powerful nations. I may cite also one other illustration, the Geneva award, which at the time it occurred was perhaps even more remarkable than the more recent arbitration of the Behring 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, will unite in a general league against war and resolve to arbitrate all difficulties, I believe that that great Krupp gun will, if not preserved for some museum, be literally melted and recast into plowshares and pruning hooks. This parliament has laid very broad foundations. It is presentmg an object lesson of immense value. In June I had the privilege of THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 603 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, Arch- bishop 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, Presbyteri- ans and one Unitarian whose face I see here today. All these were tremendously in earnest to strike a blow at one of the great obstacles to the progress of Christian life in Europe — state regulated vice. I cannot 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 latedVice. ^' its champions in America, who have been seeking, by their propagan- dism, 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 substance 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 op- pression 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 fear- ful responsibility. Though it may not have the actual system of state regulation, we call ourselves a Christian country, and yet, in this be- loved America of ours, in more than one state, under the operation of the laws called "Age of Consent," a young girl of ten years is held capa- ble of consenting to her own ruin. Shame, indeed; it is a shame; a, tenfold shame. I appeal, in passing, for league and unity among religious people for the overthrow of this system in European coun- tries, and the rescue and redemption of our own land from this gigantic evil which threatens us 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 604 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. with 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 progress. Now another thought in a different direction. What the world greatly needs today in all countries is greater simplicity in connection KSfiusLafe^ ^^^^^ ^^^ religious life and propagandism. The Society of Friends, in whose behalf I appear before you, may fairly claim to have been teachers by example in that direction. We want to banish the spirit of worldliness from every land, which has taken possession of many churches, and inaugurate an era of greater simplicity. The actual progress of Christianity in accordance with its ideal may be cited, in a sentence, to be measured by the position of women in all lands. The Society of Friends furnished pioneers in the prisons of old England and of New England in the direction of Divinely inspired womanhood. We believe that there is still urgent need of an ♦ enlargement of this sphere to woman and we ought to have it preached more widely everywhere. There should be leagues and alliances to help bring about this needed change. The individual stands alone, unaided, comparatively powerless, but in organization there is great power, and in the fullness of the life of the spirit, applied through organization, it is possible to transform the world for its benefit in many directions. Some one has described salvation as being simply a harmonious relationship between God and man. If that be a true description of the heavenly condition we need not wait till we pass beyond the river to experience something of the uplift of the joy of salvation. Let us band together, religious men and women of all names and national- ities, to bring about this greater harmony between each other and God, the Father of us all. Then, finally, in all lands 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." T^^ Message of Qhristianity to Q^her Religions, Paper by REV. JAMES S. DENNIS, of New York. HRISTIANITY must speak in the name of God. To Him it owes its existence, and the deep secret of its dignity and power is that it reveals Him. It would be effrontery for it to speak simply upon its own responsibility, or even in the name of reason. It has no philosophy of evolution to propound. 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 J 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 spir- itual healing and mighty with supreme authority, 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, before His advent, all the fin- gers of light pointed; and from Whom, since His incarnation, all the brightness of the day has shone. It has a further and supplemental historic basis in the Holy Scriptures, which God has been pleased to give through inspired writers chosen and commissioned by 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 regeneration, with the inspiration of prophetic vision, in the mastery of spirit control, and by the transforming power of the divine indwell- ing, until its own best evidence is what it has done to uplift and purify wherever it has been welcomed among men. I say welcomed, for Christianity must be received in order to ac- 605 A Sublime MisBion. 606 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. complish 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 notto 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 faith- ful warning, not taunting reproaches; by plain instruction, not argu- ment; by gentle and quiet command, not noisy harangue; by limitless promises to faith, not spectacular gifts to sight. It has a message of supreme import to man, fresh from the heart Message of of God. It records the great spiritual facts of human history; it an- Sjpreme im- nounces the perils and needs of men; it reveals the mighty resources of redemption; it solves the problems and blesses the discipline of life; it teaches the whole secret of regeneration and hope and moral tri- umph; it brings to the world the co-operation of divine wisdom in the great struggle with the dark mysteries of misery and suffering. Its message to the world is so full of quickening inspiration, so resplend- ent 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 righteous- ness 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 message to other religions which are seeking to minister to the same fallen race and to accomplish in their own way and by diverse meth- ods the very mission God has designed should be Christianity's privi- lege and high function to discharge. Let us seek now to catch the spirit of that message and to indi- cate in brief outline its purport. We must be content simply to give the message; the limits of this paper forbid any attempt to vindicate it, or to demonstrate its historic integrity, its heavenly wisdom, and its excellent glory. Its spirit is full of simple sincerity, exalted dignity and sweet un- selfishness. 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 a rival, but rather to subdue by love, attract by its own ex- cellence and supplant by virtue of its own incomparable superiority. It is itself incapable of a spirit of rivalry, because of its own indis^ putable right to reign. It has no use for a sneer, it can dispense with contempt, it carries no weapons of violence, it is not given to argu- ment, it is incapable of trickery or deceit, and it repudiates cant. It relies ever upon its own intrinsic merit and bases all its claims on its right to be heard and honored. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 607 Its miraculous evidence is rather an exception than a rule. It , „. was a sign to help weak faith. It was a concession made in the spirit Evidence! of condescension. Miracles suggest mercy quite as much as they an- nounce majesty. When we consider the unlimited score of divine power, and the ease with which signs and wonders might have been multiplied in bewildering variety and 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 meanwhile we cannot but recognize in Christianity a spirit of mysterious reserve, a marvelous patience, of subdued undertone, of purposeful restraint. It does not *'cry, nor lift up, nor cause its voice to be heard in the street." Cent- uries come and go and Christianity touches only portions of the earth, but wherever it touches it transfigures. It seems to despise material adjuncts, and count only those victories worth having which are won through spiritual contact with the individual soul. Its relation to other religions has been characterized by singular reserve, and its prog- ress has been marked by an unostentatious dignity which is in harmony with the majestic attitude of God, its author, to all false gods who have claimed divine honors and sought to usurp the place which was His alone. We are right, then, in speaking of the spirit of this message as wholly free from the commonplace sentiment of rivalry, entirely above the use of spectacular or meretricious methods, infinitely removed from all mere devices or dramatic effect, wholly free from cant or double facedness, with no anxiety for alliance with worldly power or social eclat, caring more for a place of influence in a humble heart than for a seat of power on a royal throne, wholly intent on claiming the loving allegiance of the soul and securing the moral transforma- tion of character, in order that its own spirit and principles may sway the spiritual life of men. It 'Speaks, then, to other religions with unqualified frankness and plainness, 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. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Challenges Admiration. All this it does with a superb and unwavering tone of quiet insist- ence. 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 possibility of being patronized, no un- dignified spirit of competition. It speaks, rather, with the conscious- ness of that simple, natural, incomparable, measureless supremacy which quickly disarms rivalry and in the end challenges the admira- tion and compels the submission of hearts free from malice and guile. This being the spirit of the message, let us inquire as to its Its Purport, purport. There is one immensely preponderating element here which pervades the 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 char- acter, but that it glorifies and moreperfectly reveals and interprets the nature of God and the history of His dealings with men. The object of this love must be carefully noted — it is mankind — the race con- sidered as individuals, or as a whole. Christianity unfolds 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 man spake like this man," was said of Christ. Never religion spake like this religion, may be said of Christianity. The Christian system is con- ceived in love; it brings the provision of love to fallen man; it administers its marvelous functions in love; it introduces man into an atmosphere of love; it gives him the inspiration, the joy, the fruition of love; it leads at last into the realm of eternal love. While accom- plishing this end, at the same time it convicts of sin, it melts into humility. We who love and 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 ministry to the world. Christianity is its own best evidence. I have sought to give the essential outline of this immortal mes- sage 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 we place in this signal code of Christianity is Fatherhood. This may have a strange sound to some ears, but to the Christian it is full of sweetness and dignity. It simply means that the creative act of God, so far as our human family is concerned, was done in the spirit of fatherly love and goodness. He created us in His likeness, and to express this idea of spiritual resemblance and Fatherhood. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 609 tender relationship the symbolical term of fatherhood is used. Whep Christ taught us to pray "Our Father," He gave us a lesson which transcends human philosophy and has in it so much of the height and depth of divine feeling that human reason has hardly dared to receive, much less to originate, the ^'jnception. 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 like- ness the whole family is created, and the spiritual brotherhood of union in Christ. Here again the suggestion of love as the rule and sign of human as well as Christian fellowship. The world has drifted far away from this ideal of brotherhood; it has been 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 make a universal provision for that end, which, if rightly used, insures the result. I need not remind you that this purpose is conceived in love. God, as redeemer, has taken a gracious attitude toward man from the beginning of history, and He is "not far from every one" in the imminence and omnipresence of His love. Redemption is a world-embracing term; it is not limited to any age or class. Its potentiality is world-wide; its efficiency is unrestrained except as man limits it; its application is determined by the sovereign wisdom of God, its author, who deals with each individual as a possible candi- date for redemption, and decides his destiny in accordance with his spiritual attitude toward Christ. Where Christ is unknown God still exercises His sovereignty, although He has been pleased to maintain a significant reserve as to the possibility, extent and 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 ad- vice of philosophy. He did not seek the permission of ordinary laws. He came in His spiritual chariot in the glory of the supernatural, but 89 Brotiierhood. Redemption. Incarnation. 610 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Atonement. Character. He entered the realm of human life through the humble gateway ot nature. He came not only to reveal God but to bring Him into con- tact with human life. He came to assume permanent relations to the race. His brief life among us on earth was for a purpose, and when that was accomplished, still retaining His humanity, He ascended to assume His kingly dominions in the heavens. W^ are brought now to another fundamental truth in Christian teaching — the mysterious doctrine of Atonement. Sin is a fact which is indisputable. It is universally recognized and acknowledged. It is its own evidence. It is, moreover, a barrier between man and his God. The divine holiness and sin, with its loathsomeness, its rebellion, its horrid degradation and its hopeless ruin cannot coalesce in any system of moral government. God cannot tolerate sin or temporize with it or make a place for it in His presence. He cannot parley with it; He must punish it. He cannot treat with it; He must try it at the bar. He cannot overlook it; He must overcome it. He cannot give it a moral status; He must visit it with the condemnation it deserves. Atonement is God's marvelous method of vindicating, once for all, before the universe. His eternal attitude toward sin by the volun- tary self-assumption in the spirit of sacrifice, of its penalty. This He does in the person of Jesus Christ, who came as God incarnate upon this sublime mission. The facts of Christ's birth, life, death and resur- rection take their place in the realm of veritable history, and the moral value and propitiatory efficacy of His perfect obedience and sacrifical death in a representative capacity become a mysterious element of limitless worth in the process of readjusting the relation of the sinner to his God. Christ is recognized by God as a substitute. The merit of His obedience and the exalted dignity of His sacrifice are both available to faith. The sinner, humble, penitent and conscious of unworthiness, accepts Christ as his redeemer, his intercessor, his Saviour, and simply believes in Him, trusting in His assurances and promises, based as they are upon his atoning intervention, and receives from God, as the gift of sovereign love, all the benefits of Christ's mediatorial work. This is God's w^ay of reaching the goal of pardon and reconciliation. It is His way of being Himself just and yet accomplishing the justifi- cation of the sinner. Here again we have the mystery of love in its most intense form and the mystery of wisdom in its most august exemplification. This is the heart of the Gospel. It throbs with mysterious love; it pulsates with ineffable throes of divine feeling; it bears a vital relation to the whole scheme of government; it is in its hidden activities beyond the scrutiny of human reason; but it sends the life-blood coursing through history and it gives to Christianity its superb vitality and its undying vigor. It is because Christianity eliminates sin from the problem that its solution is complete and final. We pass now to another v/ord which is of vital importance — it is Character. God's own attitude to the sinner being settled, and the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 611 problem of moral government solved, the next matter which presents itself is the personality of the individual man. It must be purified, transformed into the spiritual likeness of Christ, trained for immortal- ity. It must be brought into harmony with the ethical standards of Christ. This Christianity insists upon, and for the accomplishment of this end it is gifted with an influence and impulse, a potency and win- someness, an inspiration and helpfulness, which is full of spiritual mastery over the soul. Christianity uplifts, transforms, and eventually transfigures the personal character. It is a transcendent school of incomparable ethics. It honors the rugged training of discipline; it uses it freely but tenderly. It accomplishes its purpose by exacting obedience, by teaching submission, by helping to self-control, by insisting upon practical righteousness as a rule of life and by introduc- ing the golden rule as the law of contact and duty between man and man. In vital connection with character is a word of magnetic impulse and unique glory which gives to Christianity a sublime practical power in history — it is Service. There is a forceful meaning in the double influence of Christianity over the inner life and the outward ministry of its followers. Christ, its founder, glorified service and lifted it in His own experience to the dignity of sacrifice. In the light of Christ's example service becomes an honor, a privilege and a moral triumph; it is consummated and crowned in sacrifice. Christianity, receiving its lesson from Christ, subsidizes character in the interest of service. It lays its noblest fruitage of personal gifts and spiritual culture upon the altar of philanthropic sacrifice. It is unworthy of its name if it does not reproduce this spirit of its Master; only by giving itself to benevolent ministry, as Christ gave Himself for the world, can it vindicate its origin. Christianity recognizes no wor- ship which is altogether divorced from work for the weal of others; it indorses no religious professions which are unmindful of the obliga- tions of service; it allows itself to be tested not simply by the purity of its motives, but by the measure of its sacrifices. The crown and goal of its followers is, ''Well done, good and faithful servant." One other word completes the code — it is Fellowship. It is a word which breathes the sweetest hope and sounds the highest destiny of the Christian. It gives the grandest possible meaning to eternity, for it suggests that it. is to be passed with God. It illumines and transfig- ures the present, for it brings God into it and places Him in living touch with our lives and makes Him a helper in our moral struggles, our spiritual aspirations and our heroic though imperfect efforts to live the life of duty. It is solace in trouble, consolation in sorrow, strength in weakness, courage in trial, help in weariness and cheer in loneliness; it becomes an unfailing inspiration when human nature, left to its own resources, would lie down in despair and die. Fellowship with God implies and secures fellowship with each other in a mystical spiritual union of Christ with His people and His people with each other. An invisible society of regenerate souls, which we call the kingdom of God Service. Fellowship. 612 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. among men, is the result. This has its visible product in the organized society of the Christian qhurch, which is the chosen and honored instrument of God for the conservation and propagation of Christian- ity among men. This, then, is the message which Christianity signals to other religions as it greets them today: Fatherhood, Brotherhood, Redemp- tion, Incarnation, Atonement, Character, Service, Fellowship. Prof. Philip Schaff, New York. Xhe f^eunion of Chi*istendom. Paper by PROF. PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., of New York. HE reunion of Christendom presupposes an original union, which has been marred and obstructed, but never entirely destroyed. The theocracy of the Jewish dispensation contin- ued during the division of the kingdom and dur- ing the Babylonian exile. Even in the dark- est time, when Elijah thought that Israel was wholly given to idolatry, there were seven thousand — known only to God — who had never bowed their knees to Baal. The Church of Christ has been one from the beginning, and He has pledged to her His unbroken presence '' all the days to the end of the world." The one in- visible church is the soul which animates the divided visible churches. All true believers are members of the mys- tical body of Christ. The saints in heaven and those on earth But one communion make; All join in Christ, their living Head, And of His grace partake. Let US briefly mention the promiinent points of unity which under- lie all divisions. Christians differ in dogmas and theology, but agree in the funda- mental articles of faith which are necessary to salvation; they believe p . Pronrnent in the same Father in heaven, the same Lord and Saviour,and the same °^°^^^ "^'^ Holy Spirit, and can join in every clause of the Apostles' Creed, of the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum. They are divided in church government and discipline, but all ac- knowledge and obey Christ as the Head of the church and Chief Shep- herd of our souls. They differ widely in modes of worship, rites and 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, 615 616 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Modes of Lutheran or Reformed, Calvinist or Methodist, Episcopalian or Pres- Worship. byterian, 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 Methodists. 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 they 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 au- thorized version of the Scriptures, in which about one hundred British and American scholars — Episcopalians, Independents, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Friends and Unitarians, have harmoniously co- operated for fourteen years (from 1870 to 1884). It was my privilege to attend almost every meeting of the Ameri- can revisers in the Bible House at New York, and several meetings of the British revisers in the Jerusalem chamber of Westminster Abbey, and I can 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 different sections of English- speakipg Christendom, a fact of incalculable importance for private devotion and public worship. Formerly, exegetical and historical studies were too much con- trolled by, and made subservient to, apologetic and polemic ends; but now they are more and more carried on without prejudice and with the sole object of ascertaining the meaning of the text and the facts of history upon which creeds must be built. Finally, we must not overlook the ethical unity of Christendom, which is much stronger than its dogmatic unity and has never been seriously shaken. The Greek, the Latin and the Protestant churches, alike, accept the ten commandments as explained by Christ, or the law of supreme love to God and love to our neighbor, as the sum and substance of the law, and they look up to the teaching and example of our Saviour as the purest and most perfect model for universal imitation. Before we discuss reunion we should acknowledge the hand of Providence in the present divisions of Christendom. There is a great difference between denominationalism and sectarianism; the first is consistent with church unity as well as military corps 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. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 617 We must remember that denominations are most numerous in the most advanced and active nations of the world. A stagnant church is a stagnant a sterile mother. Dead orthodoxy is as bad as heresy, or even worse. ueTSother?^'" Sects are a sign of life and interest in religion. The most important periods of the church, the Nicene age, and the age of the reformation, were full of controversy. There are divisions in the church which cannot be justified, and there are sects which have fulfilled their mis- sion and ought to cease. But the historic denominations are permanent forces and represent various aspects of the Christian religion which supplement each other. As the life of our Saviour could not be fully exhibited by one gospel, nor His doctrine set forth by one apostle, much less could any one Christian body comprehend and manifest the whole fullness of Christ and the entire extent of His mission to mankind. Every one of the great divisions of the church has had, and still has, its peculiar mission as to territory, race and nationality, and modes of operation. The Greek church is especially adapted to the East, to the Greek and Slavonic peoples; the Roman to the Latin races of southern Europe and America; the Protestant to the Teutonic races of the North and West. Among the , Protestant churches, again, some have a special gift for the cultivation of Christian science and literature; others for the practial 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 detri- ment 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 enlargemer / 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 under 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 char- acteristic features of the two principal churckes of the reformation would have been prevented or obstructed. If John Wesley had not ordained Coke we would not have a. Methodist Episcopal church, which is the strongest denomination in the United States. If Chalmers and his friends 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. 618 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, All divisions of Christendom will, in the providence of God, be Sin of Schism, 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 dis- tinction and thus undo the work of the past. History is not like ''the baseless fabric of a vision " that leaves ''■not a rack behind." It is the unfolding of God's plan of infinite wis- dom and mercy to mankind. He is the chief actor, and rules and over- rules the thoughts and deeds of His servants. We are told that our Heavenly Father has numbered the very hairs of our head, and that i.ot a sparrow falleth to the ground without His will. The labors of confessors and martyrs, of missionaries and preachers, of fathers, school- men and reformers, and of the countless host of holy men and women of all ranks and conditions who lived for the good of the world, can- not be lost. They constitute a treasure of inestimable value for all the future time. Variety in unity and unity in variety is the law of God in nature, in history and in His kingdom. Unity without variety is dead uni- formity. There is beauty in variety. There is no harmony without many sounds, and a garden 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 peculiar gifts and graces. His power, His wisdom and His goodness are reflected in ten thousand forms. "There are diversities of gifts," says St. Paul, "but the same spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit to profit withal." We must, therefore, expect the greatest variety in the church of the future. There are good Christians who believe in the ultimate tri- umph of their own creed, or form of government and worship, but they are all mistaken and indulge in a vain dream. The world will never become wholly Greek, nor wholly Roman, nor wholly Protestant, but it will become wholly Christian, and will 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 distinctive peculiarity, and lay it on the altar of reunion, but it will cheerfully recognize the excellencies and merits of the other branches of God's kingdom. No sect has the monopoly of truth. The part is not the whole; the body consists of many members, and all are necessary to each other. Episcopalians will prefer their form of government as the best, but must concede the validity of the non-Episcopal ministry. Baptists, while holding fast to the primitive mode of immersion must allow pouring or affusion to be legitimate baptism. Variety in the Church of the Future. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 619 Protestants will cease to regard the pope as the anti-Christ pre- dicted by St. Paul and St. John, and will acknowledge him as the legitimate head of the Roman church, while the pope ought to recog- nize the respective rights and privileges of the Greek patriarchs and evangelical bishops and pastors. Those who prefer to worship God in the forms of a stated liturgy ought not to deny others the equal right of free prayer as the spirit moves them. Even the silent worship of the Quakers has Scripture au- thority, for there was *' a silence in heaven for the space of half an hour." Doctrinal differences will be the most difficult to adjust. When rk^„*.;r,oi 111 1-11 JJoctnnai two dogmas flatly contradict each other, the one denymg what the Dififerencee. other asserts, one or the other, or both, must be wrong. Truth excludes error and admits of no compromise. But truth is many sided and all sided and is reflected in different colors. The creeds of Christendom, as already remarked, agree in the essential articles of faith and their differences refer either to minor points or represent only various aspects of truth and supplement one another. Calvinists and Arminians are both right, the former in maintain- ing the sovereignty of God, the latter in maintaining the freedom and moral responsibility of man, but they are both wrong, when they deny one or the other of these two truths, which are equally important, although we may not be able to reconcile them satisfactorily. The conflicting theories on the Lord's Supper which have caused the bitterest controversies among medieval schoolmen and Protestant reformers turn, after all, only on the mode of Christ's presence, while all admit the essential fact that 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 Protestants concerning Scripture and tradition as rules of faith, and concerning faith and good works, as conditions of justification, admit of an adjustment by a better understanding of the nature and relationship of Scripture and tradition, of faith and works. The difference is no greater than that between St. Paul and St. James in their teaching on justification, and yet the epistles of both stand side by side in the same canon of Holy Scripture. We must remember that the dogmas of the church are earthly vessels for heavenly treasures, or imperfect human definitions of divine truths, and may be 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 con- troverted points by both parties as shall remove misrepresentations, neutralize the anathemas pronounced upon imaginary heresies, and show the way to harmony in a broader, higher, and deeper conscious- ness in God's truth and God's love. In the heat of controversy, and in the struggle for supremacy, the Controverted Points. 620 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. contending parties mutually misrepresented each other's views, put them in the most unfavorable light, and perverted partial truths into unmixed errors. Like hostile armies engaged in battle, they aimed at the destruction of the enemy. Protestants, in their confessions of faith and polemical works, denounced the pope as the "anti-Christ," the pa- pists as "idolaters," the Roman mass as an "accursed idolatry," and the Roman church as "the synagogue of Satan" and "the Babylonian harlot" — all in perfect honesty, on the ground of certain misunderstood 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 an- swered by bloody persecutions; the Council of Trent closed with a double anathema on all Protesant heretics, and the pope annually re- peats the curse in the holy week, when all Christians should humbly and penitently meet around the cross on which the Saviour died for the sins of the whole world. When these hostile armies, after a long struggle for supremacy without success, shall come together for the settlement of terms of peace, they will be animated by a spirit of conciliation and single de- votion to the honor of the great head of the church, who is the divine concord of all human discords. The whole system of traditional orthodoxy, Greek, Latin and Protestant, must progress, or it will be left behind the age and lose its Orthodoxy?^^^ hold on thinking men. The church must keep pace with civilization, adjust herself to the modern conditions of religious and political free- dom and accept the established results of Biblical and historical criti- cism and natural science. God speaks in history and science as well as in the Bible and the church, and He cannot contradict Himself. Truth is sovereign and must and will prevail over all ignorance, error and prejudice. Church history has undergone of late a great change, partly in consequence of the discovery of lost documents and deeper research, partly on account of the standpoint of the historian and the new spirit in which history is written. Many documents on which theories and usages were built have been abandoned as untenable even by Roman Catholic scholars. 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 Constantine's donation, the apocryphal letters of pseudo- Ignatius, of pseudo-Clement, of pseudo-Isidorus, and other post- apostolic and medieval falsifications of history, which were universally believed till the time of the reformation, and even down to the eight- eenth century. Genuine history is being rewritten from the standpoint of impartial truth and justice. If facts are found to contravene a cherished theory, all the worse for the theory; for facts are truths, and truth is of God, while theories are of men. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 621 Formerly church history was made a mere appendix to systematic theology, or abused and perverted for polemic purposes. The older historians, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, searched ancient and Genuine His- medieval history for weapons to defeat their opponents and to estab- ^^^ lish their own exclusive claims. Flacius, the first learned Protestant historian, saw nothing but anti-Christian darkness in the Middle Ages, with the exception of a few scattered "testes veritatis," and described the Roman church from the fifth to the sixteenth century as the great apostacy of prophecy. But modern Protestant historians, following the example of Neander, who is called "the father of church history," regard the Middle Ages as the period of the conversion and the civili- zation of the barbarians, as a necessary link between ancient and mod- ern Christianity, and as the cradle of the reformation. On the other hand, the opposite type of historiography, repre- sented by Cardinal Baronius, traced the papacy to the beginning of the Christian era, maintained its identity through all ages, and de- nounced the reformers as arch-heretics and the reformation as the foul source of revolution, war and infidelity, and of all the evils of modern society. But the impartial scholars of the Roman Catholic church now admit the necessity of the reformation, the pure and unselfish motives of the reformers, and the beneficial efforts of their labors upon their own church. A great change of spirit has also taken place among the historians of the different Protestant denominations. The early Lutheran ab- horrence of Zwinglianism and Calvinism has disappeared from the best Lutheran manuals of church history. The bitterness between Prelatists and Puritans, Calvinists and Arminians, Baptists and Paedo- Baptists, has given way to a calm and just appreciation. The impartial historian can find no ideal church in any age. It was a high priest in Aaron's line which crucified the Saviour; a Judas was among the apostles; all sorts of sins among church members are rebuked in the Epistles of the New Testament; there were " many antichrists" in the age of St. John, and there have been many since, even in the temple of God. Nearly all churches have acted as perse- cutors when they had a 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, in every age and in every church, the footprints of Christ, the abundant manifestations of His spirit, and a slow but sure progress 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 prejudice, enlarges the horizon, liberalizes the mind, and deepens charity. Palestine, by its eloquent ruins, serves as a commentary on the life of Christ, and has not inaptly been called " the Fifth Gospel." 622 THE ivORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. So also the history of the church furnishes the key to unlock the meaning of the church in all its ages and branches. The study of history, " with malice toward none, but with charity for all," will bring the denominations closer together in an humble recognition of their defects and a grateful praise for the good which the same spirit has wrought in them and through them. 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 in^he MidSe Aristotle, but at last turned it into a powerful ally in the defense of Ages. her doctrines, and so gave to the world the Summa of Thomas Aquinas and the Commedia of Dante, who regarded the great Stag- arite as a forerunner of Christ, as a philosophical John the Baptist. Luther, likewise, in his wrath against scholastic theology, condemned "the accursed heathen Aristotle," but Melanchthon judged differently, and Protestant scholarship has long since settled upon a just es- timate. Gregory VII, Innocent III, and other popes of the Middle Ages claimed and exercised the power, as vicars of Christ, to depose kings, to absolve subjects from their oath of allegiance, and to lay whole na- tions under the interdict for the disobedience of an individual. But no pope would presume to do such a thing now, nor would any Catholic king or nation tolerate it for a moment. The strange mythical notion of the ancient fathers that the Chris- tian redemption was the payment of a debt due to the devil, who had a claim upon men since the fall of Adam, but had forfeited it by the crucifixion, was abandoned after Anselm had published the more rational theory of a vicarious atonement in discharge of a debt due to God. The un-Christian and horrible doctrine that all unbaptized infants who never committed any actual transgression are damned forever and ever prevailed for centuries under the authority of the great and holy Augustin, but has lost its hold even upon those divines who de- fend the necessity of water baptism for salvation. Even high Angli- cans and strict Calvinists admit that all children dying in infancy are saved. The equally un-Christian and fearful theory and practice of relig- ious compulsion and persecution by fire and sword, first mildly sug- gested by the same Augustin and then formulated by the master theo- logian of the Middle Ages (Thomas 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 phys- ical science. THE WOkLD'S COMdkE^^ OP MUCldMS. 623 Protestants and Catholics alike unanimously rejected the Coperni- can astronomy as a heresy fatal to the geocentric account of the crea- tion in Genesis, but after a century of opposition, which culminated in the condemnation of Galileo by the Roman inquisition under Urban VIII, they have adopted it without a dissenting voice and "the earth still moves." Similar concessions will be made to modern geology and biology when they have passed the stage of conjecture and reached an agree- Concessions ment as to facts. The Bible does not determine the age of the earth i?ioiog>\°^ ^° or man and leaves a large margin for difference of opinion even on purely exegetical grounds. The theory of the evolution of animal life, far from contradicting the fact of creation, presupposes it, for every evolution must have a beginning, and this can only be accounted for by an infinite intelligence and creative will. God's power and wisdom are even more wonderful in the gradual process of evolution. The theory of liistorical development, which corresponds to the theory of physical evolution, and preceded it, was first denounced by orthodox divines (within my own recollection) as a dangerous error leading to infidelity, but is now adopted by every historian, and is in- dorsed by Christ Himself in the twin parables of the mustard seed 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 develop- ment no less important, which may be called the law of creative head- ships. Every important intellectual and religious movement begins with a towering personality which cannot be explained from ante- cedents, but marks a new epoch. The Bible, we must all acknowledge, is not, and never claimed to be, a guide of chronology, astronomy, geology, or any other science, but solely a book of religion, a rule of faith and practice, a guide to holy living and dying. There is, therefore, no room for a conflict be- tween the Bible and science, faith and reason, authority and freedom, the church and civilization. Before the reunion of Christendom can be accomplished, we must expect providential events, new pentecosts, new reformations — as great as any that have gone before. The twentieth century has marvelous surprises in store for the church and the world, which may surpass even those of the nineteenth. History now moves with telegraphic speed, and may accomplish the work of years in a single day. The modern inventions of the steamboat, the telegraph, the power of electricity, the progress of science and of international law (which regulates commerce by land and by sea and will in due time make an end of war), link all the civilized nations into one vast brotherhood. Let us consider some of the moral means by which a similar affiliation and consolidation of the different churches may be hastened: soHdation °of The cultivation of an irenic and Evangelical-Catholic spirit in the Churches, personal intercourse with our fellow Christians of other denominations. We must meet them on a common rather than on disputed grounds, 624 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. and assume that they are as honest and earnest as we in the pursuit of truth. We must make allowance for differences in education and surroundings, which to a large extent account for differences of opin- ion. Courtesy and kindness conciliate, while suspicion excites irritation and attack. Controversy will never cease, but the golden rule of the most polemic among the apostles, to " speak the truth in love," cannot be too often repeated. Nor should we forget the seraphic description of love, which the same apostle commends above all other gifts and the tongues of men and angels, yea, even above faith and hope. Co-operation in Christian and philanthropic work draws men to- gether and promotes their mutual confidence and regard. Faith without works is dead. Sentiment and talk without union are idle without actual manifestation in works of charity and philanthropy. Missionary societies should at once come to a definite agreement Union of ef- Prohibiting all mutual interference in their efforts to spread the Gospel fort in Mis- at home and abroad. Every missionary of the cross should wish and sionary wor . pj-^y {qj. ^]^g prosperity of all other missionaries, and lend a helping hand in trouble. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and therein I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. It is preposterous, yea, wicked, to trouble the minds of the heathen or of the Roman Catholic with our domestic quarrels, and to plant half a dozen rival churches in small towns where one or two would suffice, thus saving men and means. Unfortunately, the secta- rian spirit and mistaken zeal for peculiar views and customs very ma- terially interfere with the success of our vast expenditures and efforts for the conversion of the world. The study of church history has already been mentioned as an important means of correcting sectarian prejudices and increasing mut- ual appreciation. The study of symbolic or comparative theology is one of the most important branches of history in this respect, espe- cially in our country, where professors of all the creeds of Christendom meet in daily contact, and should become thoroughly acquainted with one another. We welcome to the reunion of Christendom all denominations which have followed the Divine Master and have done His work. Let us forgive and forget their many sins and errors and remember only their virtues and merits. The Greek church is a glorious church, for in her language have come down to us the oracles of God, the 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 CEcumen- ical councils and the Nicene creed, which can never ale. The Latin church is a glorious church; for she carried the treas- ures of Christian and classical literature over the gulf of the migra- t.o.i of nations, and preserved order in the chaos of civil wars; she THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 625 was the alma mater of the barbarians of Europe; she turned painted savages into civilized beings, and worshipers of idols into worshipers of Christ; she built up the colossal structures of the papal theocracy, the cathedrals and the universities; she produced the profound sys- tems of scholastic and mystic theology; she stimulated and patronized the renaissance, the printing press and the discovery of a new world; she still stands, like an immovable rock, bearing witness to the funda- mental truths and facts of our holy religion, and to the catholicity, .unity, unbroken continuity, and independence of the church; and she is as zealous as ever in missionary enterprise and self-denying works of Christian charity. We hail the reformation which redeemed us from the yoke of spirit- ual despotism, and secured us religious liberty, the most precious of all liberties, and made the Bible in every language a book for all classes and conditions of men. The Evangelical Lutheran church, the first-born daughter of the reformation, is a glorious church, for she set the word of God above the traditions of men, and bore witness to the comforting truth of jus- tification by faith; she struck the keynote to thousands of sweet hymns in praise of the Redeemer; she is boldly and reverently investigating the problems of faith and philosophy, and is constantly making valu- able additions to theological lore. The Evangelical Reformed church is a glorious church, for she carried reformation from the Alps and lakes of Switzerland "to the c^rSJes^'^^ end of the West" (to use the words of the Roman Clement about St. Paul); she furnished more martyrs of conscience in France and the Netherlands alone than any other church, even during the first three centuries; she educated heroic races, like the Huguenots, the Dutch, the Puritans, the Covenanters, the Pilgrim Fathers, who by the fear of God were raised above the fear of tyrants, and lived and died for the advancement of civil and religious liberty; she is rich in learning and good works of faith; she keeps pace with all true progress; she grapples with the problems and evils of modern society, and she sends the Gos- pel to the ends of the earth. The Episcopal church, of England, the most churchly of the reformed family, is a glorious church, for she gave to the English- speaking world the best version of the Holy Scriptures and the best prayer book; she preserved the order and dignity of the ministry and public worship; she nursed the knowledge and love of antiquity and enriched the treasury of Christian literature, and bythe 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 626 THE WORLD' ^ CONGRESS OE RELIGtONS. people to a level with the richest and most intelligent nations; she diffused the knowledge of the Bible and a love of the kirk in the huts of the peasants as well as the palaces of the noblemen; she has always stood up for church order and discipline, for the rights of the laity, and first and last for the crown rights of King Jesus, which are above all earthly crowns, even that of the proudest monarch in whose dominion the sun never sets. The Congregational church is a glorious church, for she has taught the principle and proved the capacity of congregational independence and self-government based upon a living faith in Christ, without diminishing the effect of voluntary co-operation in the Master's serv- ice; and has laid the foundation of New England, with its literary and theological institutions and high social culture. The Baptist church is a glorious church, for she has borne, and still bears, testimony to the primitive mode of baptism, to the purity of the congregation, to the separation of church and state, and the liberty of conscience; and has given to the world the "Pilgrim's Progress," of Bunyan, such preachers as Robert Hall and Charles H. Spurgeon, and such missionaries as Carey and Judson. The Methodist church, the church of John Wesley, Charles Wesley and George Whitefield — three of the best and most apostolic English- men, abounding in useful labors, the first as a ruler and organizer, the second as a hymnist, the third as an evangelist — is a glorious church, for she produced the greatest religious revival since the day of pente- cost; she preaches a free and full salvation to all; she is never afraid to fight the devil and she is hopefully and cheerfully marching on, in both hemispheres, as an army of conquest. The Society of Friends, though one of the smallest tribes in Israel, is a glorious society, for it has borne witness to the Inner Light which "lighteth every man that cometh into the world;" it has proved the superiority of the Spirit over all forms; it has done noble service in promoting tolerance and liberty, in prison reform, the emancipation of slaves and other works of Christian philanthropy. The Brotherhood of the Moravians, founded by Count Zinzendorf, a true nobleman of nature and of grace, is a glorious brotherhood, for cietiesandBro^ it is the pioneer of heathen missions, and of Christian union among therhoods. Protestant churches. It was like an oasis in the desert of German rationalism at home, while its missionaries went forth to the lowest savages in distant lands to bring them to Christ. I beheld with won- der and admiration a venerable Moravian couple devoting their lives to the care of hopeless lepers in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Nor should we forget the services of many who are accounted heretics. The Waldenses were witnesses of a pure and simple faith in times of superstition, and having outlived many bloody persecutions, are now missionaries among the descendants of their persecutors. The Anabaptists and Socinians, who were so cruelly treated in the. sixteenth century by Protestants and Romanists alike, were the first to Glorious So- THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 627 raise their voice for religious liberty and the voluntary principle in religion. 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 prominence the human perfection of Christ's character and illustrated the effect of His example in the noble lives and devo- tional writings of such men as Channing and Martineau. It has also given us some of our purest and sweetest poets, as Emerson, Bryant, Longfellow and Lowell, whom all good men must honor and love for their lofty moral tone. Universalism may be condemned as a doctrine, but it has a right to protest against a gross materialistic theory of hell with all its Dantesque horrors, and against the once widely spread popular belief that the overwhelming majority of the human race, including countless millions of innocent infants, will forever perish. Nor shall we forget that some of the greatest divines, from Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, down to Bengel and Schleiermacher, believed in, or hoped for, the ultimate return of all rational creatures to the God of love, who created them in His own image and for His own glory. And coming down to the latest organization of Christian work, which does not claim to be a church, but which is a help to all churches — the Salvation Army — we hail it, in spite of its strange and abnormal my Effective!' methods, as the most effective revival agency since the days of Wes- ley and VVhitefield: for it descends to the lowest depths of degradation and misery, and brings the light and comfort of the Gospel to the slums of our large cities. Let us thank God for the noble men and women, who, under the inspiration of the love of Christ and unmindful of hardship, ridicule and persecution, sacrifice their lives to the rescue of the hopeless outcasts of society. Truly these good Samaritans are an honor to the name of Christ and a benediction to a lost world. There is room for all these and many other churches and societies in the kingdom of God, whose height and depth and length and breadth, variety and beauty, surpass human comprehension. ••• Salvation Ar- Tombs of Queen Taia, i8th Dynasty; King Menephtah, 19th Dynasty, (Exodus); and Unknown. Xhe Present Outlook of {Religions. Paper by REV. GEORGE F. PENTECOST, of London, England. HE center of the world's political power was Rome, as it was the chief seat of the world's religious philosophies. There was the throne of the Caesars; there the Pantheon with its many gods; and there the famous schools of philosophy. There, also, was a small Christian church — composed of a few believing Jews, a larger number of poor freedmen 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 ^i^^'t^e^gj: 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 com- pete 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 influence of the philosophers, who still dominated the cultured portion of the empire; and especially how could he hope to exalt into supreme power the Gospel of Christ, under the very throne from whose authority went forth the sentence of death against Christ Himself, at the same 629 630 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, time branding Him as an impostor and traitor? All these things were, no doubt, in Paul's mind, and gave color to this ringing declaration: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Here is sublime faith and courage in what seemed to the world a madman's dream. His reasons for his faith are crowded into this single sentence, in which he contrasts God's power with the powers of the world. Here is a universal good, offered in competition with those philosophies which are kept exclusively for men of wealth, culture, and leisure and which, at best, were cold speculative theories. In respect of the conquest of the world, or what remains of it among those nations to which the preachers of the Gospel have gone forth, we are occupying much the same standpoint as did Paul. We are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, and are ready to preach it and vindicate it in the face of all the world by every reason which appeals alike to the intellect, heart and the conscience. The powers of the world do not daunt us; nor are we ashamed to dispute with the wise men and scribes of the schools, nor to contend with the darkest superstition, which enthralls the minds of millions yet unenlightened by the cross of Christ. In this regard it is a great privilege for us Christians to meet face to face in this parliament the representatives of many ancient religions and equally ancient philoso- phies; to give to them a reason for the faith and hope that is in us, and show them the grounds upon which we base our contention tjiat Christianity is the only possible universal religion, as it is certainly the only complete and God-given revelation. Liberty and Happily, there is in this great country no political power to hinder Freedom. ^g qj. make US afraid to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. Demanding absolute liberty for ourselves, we are no less strenuous in our demand that they of other faiths shall enjoy the like freedom. When Paul declared, '' I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ," he meant to say, "There is nothing in the Gospel of Christ which causes me to blush or drop my eyes in the face of any man or of all men. I do not have to apologize for believing the Gospel or preaching it, as if there were anything in it or about it that cannot bear the closest scrutiny from every point of view; either respecting its historical basis of fact, its divine rationality, its ethical system or its power to be- stow salvation upon man. The more light that can be brought to bear upon the Gospel the less I am ashamed of it; the more closely it is examined in all its parts the better pleased I will be. I am ready to come to Rome and in the presence of politicians, philosophers and priests of superstitution open up and defend the Gospel of Christ." The word translated " ashamed " also bears the meaning of being "disappointed," as in Romans, v, 5. That is to say, Paul's position is this: " Feeble and foolish as the wise men of this world may deem the Gospel of Christ, great as are the forces, political, religious and philosophical, arrayed against it, I am THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 631 not fearful of the final outcome of the conflict of Christianity with the religions and philosophies of paganism, nor, indeed, with the strong arm of the world's political power. The Gospel of Christ is founded upon a rock, and made one with its foundation, so that not even the gates of death shall prevail against it. The power of God is greater than all possible opposing powers. All power has been given into the hands of Jesus Christ, for the propagation and defense of His gospel, and to give eternal life to as many as believe in Him." Let us now give our attention to the first of these propositions, " I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." We are not ashamed of its antiquity. Some of the religions of the Roman Empire boasted of great antiquity. Indeed, they based their religions on myths whose fancied existence antedated history. This is an easy way to secure antiquity for any faith. There are those among us today, who will tell you that, as compared with their faiths, Christianity is but as the infant of days. The Brahma will tell us that for four thousand years his Aryan ancestors have worshiped the Indian triad on the banks of the Ganges and at Jumna; that the holy city of Benares was the flourishing seat of their faith before Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, and that it has had an unbroken municipality ever since. Peculiarly destitute of the historical sense, millions of years are as easily managed by the orientals as decades are with us. Claiming eternity for their Buddhas and their Puranic heroes, they easily antedate all other faiths by this convenient method. In our prosaic century, however, these magnificent claims for an antiquity which antedates historic times by millions of years go for nothing. On the other hand, Christianity is peculiarly buttressed by historic facts. We are often charged by orientals with being the propagators of a modern faith, because, by our own claims, Jesus Christ did not appear until the comparatively recent time of two millenniums ago. The Hindu faith was then already hoary with age. But Christianity does not date from the birth of Christ. Christ crucified two thousand years ago was only the culmination in time, and to our sense, of a revelation already ages old. Abraham believed in Christ and rejoiced to see His day approach- ing. Christ was believed on in the wilderness when Moses was bring- ing his children of Israel out of Egypt; for "the Gospel was preached to them as well as to us." Nay, we need only to read the first simple records of our historic faith to learn that no sooner did man sin and fall from communion in righteousness with God, and ere there was yet a man born unto the world, than God gave to the primeval pair a promise of salvation through Christ. Since that day faith and hope in Christ, "the seed of the woman" who should deliver the world from sin, like two mighty torches have been held aloft by prophet, sage and psalmist, flinging their bright prophetic rays down the vista of the ages until they were gathered up in and flung out again upon the whole world in fullness of glory by the coming of Him who is the True Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Not Ashamed. 632 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, If this statement is deemed to be overdrawn we are prepared to compare the literature of Christianity with that of all other religions, I mean its foundation literature, and trace back, step by step, checking it with historical 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 revela- tion given before the age of our race, and put forth no myth which antedates the history of earth and man. As far back as history goes the records of our faith are found. Every turn of the archaeologist's spade 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 nine- teen centuries ago was not an unexpected event. For centuries, even from the beginning of man's spiritual need. He had been looked and longed for, foretold in a hundred predictions, uttered by prophets of many ages and of different 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 cere- mony. An entire nation, whose wonderful people are still scattered among 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 resurrection of the dead." Every detail of His advent was predicted ages before He came; every circumstance and characteristic of His ministry was the subject of prophecy. His resurrection predicted the spread of His Gospel among all nations foretold. In this respect the Gospel stands without a rival upon the face of the world. The heroes of the world's religions have been either myths or un- Heroesof the looked-for men springing up among their fellows, for whom their ions. ^ ^ *^' disciples neither looked nor were prepared. Who prophesied the com- ing of Confucius, or Zoroaster, or Krishna, or Buddha? Moreover, none of these heroes or leaders of men were in any sense saviours. They were, at best teachers, throwing their followers back upon them- selves to work out their own salvation as they best might. Jesus stands on an entirely different platform, declaring Himself to be the way, the truth and the life. And so at His birth the angels heralded: ** For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour which shall be unto all people." Christianity is not belief in a doctrine nor primarily a li^e work, but it consists in a living union with a living Saviour. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 633 If we consult the Bibles of the world's religions we find the same absence of pathetic sequence. There is, indeed, growth of a kind seen in the ancient Scriptures of the Hindus, but no living evolution from pathetic seed to fruitful branch of promises fulfilled. The great truth of Christianity alone appealed to previous promises and prophecies. In every development of fact and doctrine in the Christian religion this is the appeal made, "according to the Scriptures," or "as God had afore promised," or "thus it is written and thus it behooved." Chris- tianity was planted a 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 through- out the world and lifted them high up against the sky. The natural- ists 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 Testa- The Divine ment, or of the Jesus-God of the New Testament, there is nothing in chrLti^ity?* either that suffers by the highest ethical criticism which may be applied to them. In the Old Testament, from the beginning, God pro- claims Himself in love, holiness, righteousness, truth and mercy. One passage out of hundreds will suffice for an illustration of this. When God gave to 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, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keep- ing mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." We might well challenge comparison to this passage, in which God reveals His character, from the pages of any religious writing or philosophical speculation 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 infirmity," and " tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin," the "friend of publicans and sinners" coming into the world to seek and save that which was lost, to call sinners rather than righteous men to repentance — He stands without a peer among men or gods. The moral glory of His character lifts Him head and shoulders above that of all men or beings, ideal or real, with which we are acquainted. Nineteen centuries of study have only served to 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 634 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. language of a distinguished Hindu gentleman and scholar, uttered in my presence in the old Mahratta city of Poona and before an audience of a thousand of his Brahmanical fellows, "the peerless Christ." To compare Him to any of the gods worshiped by the Hindus is to mock both them and Him; to compare Him with any of the great religious teachers and philosophers of the world, who, while not claim- ing for themselves divinity, are put forth by their followers as the highest and brightest examples of human wisdom and character, is only to dazzle their wisdom, dwarf their character, and reveal their thousand and sometimes nameless thoughts in the resplendent bright- ness of His glory. Before Jesus came into the world it was the custom of religious men to create an ideal character upon which to model life. No such ideal character ever satisfied the demands of the moral consciousness of the ancient world. Since Jesus came no further attempt has been made to idealize human nature, for one is here whose moral glory shines and glows upon the pages of the Gospels with a brightness and perfection which leaves room only for admiration, wonder and wor- ship. It is the moral glory of character that has compelled the homage of those even who blindly reject His supernatural origin, compelling flippant Strauss to say: "Jesus represents within the sphere of religion the culminating point, beyond which posterity can never go, yea, euJfReUgfo^' which it cannot even equal. He remains the highest model of religion within the reach of our thought and no perfect piety is possible with- out His presence in the heart." Renan says: "Whatsoever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His worship will grow young without ceasing. All ages will proclaim that among the sons of men there is none born greater than Jesus." Goethe, the father of the modern school of high culture, in one of his utterances expresses the convic- tion " that the human mind, no matter how much it may advance in intellectual culture and the extent and depth of the knowledge of nature, will never transcend the high moral culture of Christianity as it shines and glows in the canonical Gospels." Napoleon, the Great, declared: "I search in vain in history to find one equal to Jesus Christ or anything which can approach the Gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature afford me anything with which I am able to compare or by which to explain it." These are not the testimonies of devoted but prejudiced disciples of Jesus and Christianity, but the voluntary testimony of men who could do naught else, though they rejected Him as their personal Sa- viour. Why is it that "rationalism today cannot look at Him closely except on its knees?" Simply because of the infinite perfection and moral glory of His character, which stamps itself upon all His teaching, and without which the demands which He makes upon His disciples to follow Him and to believe unhesitatingly all His words would have long ago been repudiated by the world. There is no such discrepancy THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 635 between the teachings of Jesus and the character of Jesus as is gen- erally manifest between the teachings of Hinsua in the Gita and the character of Hinsua as set forth in the Parana. We are not ashamed of the ethical basis of the Gospel. Without denying that there is to be found ethical teaching of great beauty in the non-Christian religions of the world, it is still true that these re- ligions lay their stress upon their cults rather than upon moral culture. Among most of them there is a striking divorce between religion and morals, if, indeed, these are ever found joined together. But in the Gospel we find that the final test of Christianity is in its power to re- generate and sanctify man. The moral basis of Christianity may be found throughout the Scriptures; but for the sake of brevity we take only two examples: The first is that code of righteousness revealed by God to Moses, and which we commonly speak of as the ten commandments. It is strikingly significant that this wonderful moral law was communicated at a period when ethical truth among the then existing nations was at its lowest point and the morals of the people lower than the teaching, Where did Moses get these words? Not from Egypt, nor from the desert where for forty years he lived. They were written by the finger of God and given to him. God halted the Israelites, to declare to them not only His character, but to lay down for them a law of righteousness In the keeping of which there was life and in the disregard of which there was death. With the exception of the single commandment in respect to the Sab- bath day, consecrated to the worship of God, every one of them bears directly on personal morality and righteousness. We need not stop to discuss the unmeasured superiority of these ten words to any code of morals which up to that time the world had ever known. Nor need we do more than remark that, after nearly four thousand years, tested by every intervening age and the most rigid criticism which the advanc- ing moral sense of man (largely developed by the power of this very law), these words still stand unrivaled. Who has ever proposed an amendment either by addition or elimination to this matchless moral code? Passing from the Old Testament to the New, we have only to call attention to the Sermon on the Mount. These of Jesus spoken to His disciples are but the transfie^uration of the ten words given by God to Sermon on Moses. Jesus declared that He came not to relax or destroy the moral teachings of either the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them. There- fore, in speaking 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 Ser- mon on the Mount digged up its very roots and exposed the hidden life to view. The law deals with actions; the Sermon on the Mount with character. We may be permitted to make the same remark of these wonderful words of Jesus that Vv^e did respecting the ten com- mandments: Who has ever assumed to revise the Sermon on the the Mount. 636 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Mount in order to eliminate that which is not good or add to it that which it lacked in the way of moral teaching? And may we not ask where can there be found in religious literature a code of morals with which this Sermon on the Mount may be compared ? It has been urged against this claim that Jesus was not altogether an original teacher; that some, if not many, of His most beautiful sayings are to be 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 bor- rowed by Jesus from some religious predecessor. But even a casual comparison of the sayings of Christ with those of other teachers will show a vast difference. Truths partially uttered of old, when taken up and stated by our Saviour, are lifted out of the dark and negative sur- roundings into their positive and unselfish fullness. They are energized and filled with the fullness of His own life, henceforth going forward unfettered to their mission of regenerating the world of fallen human- ity. Is it that the truths, or partial truths, spoken by the ancients, dead and powerless for ages, were raised to life and given to the world with all the 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 question far in advance of all statements which the world had ever had, and which stand today upon the outermost confines of possible statement, Jesus has brought to us a revelation of God Himself, not ci r L* M ^^^y ^^ to th^ ^^^t o^ -Hi^ being, but as to His nature and the love and of Midday Rev- grace of His purpose toward men. Moreover, He has shown in us elation. 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. Besides this, again, the misery of death is unfolded, while life and immortality are brought to light. All these questions have been matters of philosophical inquiry, albeit the inquiry has confessedly been made in the dark. The latest utterances from scientific headquarters have declared that concerning them science is agnostic, without knowledge or the power to know. But Jesus 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 in- separably associated with facts and life. In other words, Christianity is a history, a doctrine and a life. History, back of its doctrine, doc- trine growing out of its history, and life springing from these. The final test of the truth of the history and the doctrine is the life which results from them. Let me briefly summarize these: THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 637 By the incarnation, roughly speaking, we mean that revelation which God made of Himself in Jesus Christ. All natural religions and philosophies show us man seeking after God if happily he may find Him, but here only do we see God seeking after man. The incarna- tion shows us not only God seekmg after man, but identifying Himself with man; not simply acting in grace toward him, but by taking his very nature into union with Himself, and by that union crowning him with glory and honor. Originally made lower than the angels, we see Him in Christ, carried through every stage of existence and seated at last at the right hand of God. The incarnation shows us what God's thought was in His creation — the broken image of God as seen in man is more than restored in Christ, who is the express image of the Father — the demonstration ol God'scharacterandthe very brightness of His glory. This not only in respect of the risen and glorified Christ, but of the man Christ Jesus as He lived and moved among men. What shall we say of that match- less life, its purity, its power, and its divine benevolence? Do men scoff at the miracles of mercy wrought by Christ as being fables and Mercy^^^^ °* inventions of the religious imagination? Do they compare them with the fabulous and mythical stories of the gods and heroes of the orient? When preaching to the educated 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 Puranic stories. When they in turn challenged me for proof I simply said: "Look around you, even here in India. The reported miracles of your gods and heroes stand only in stories, but each miracle of Christ was a liv- ing seed of power and love planted in human nature and has sprung up and flourished again, bringing forth after its kind wherever the 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 sufferers whom Christ healed." This is the difference between the fables of the ancients and the living wonders wrought by the living Christ. He Himself, the em- bodiment 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 cannot help loving Him. The world never knew the like of Him before. When I think of Him I am ashamed of our gods." In the doctrine of atonement we see the solution of one of the ol(iest and most stressful questions of the human mind. How God 638 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, may still '*be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly." How in for- giving transgression, iniquity and sin, He establishes and magnifies the law. This is the very heart of the Gospel. Here is no doctrine of ven- Attitude of geance exacted by a vindictive God, but the voluntary sacrifice which Skiers^^*^^ eternal love makes, to win and bring back to God a lost son, who has by sin come under just condemnation. Here is another statement of the same great doctrine by the same apostle: "But now the righteous- ness of God, which 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 righteousnesss imparted freely by grace arid righteousness imparted freely through faith by the holy spirit of God, man stands free from sin and its penalties and is panoplied with a new spiritual nature. He is enabled not only to apprehend an ideal character of holiness, but to attain to such a character through the further sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. By the Gospel, man, a wanderer and alien from God and an enemy by wicked works, be- comes a son filled with the mind of Christ, living and walking in full- est fellowship with God and with man. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead has solved the problem of immortality, not by argument, but by demonstration, and has guaranteed to us a like immortality, not of the soul but of the whole man; spirit, soul and body; for even these bodies of ours, now humiliated and dishonored by sin, and too often yielding themselves instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, shall be changed and fash- ioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working of that mighty power that worketh in us by Jesus Christ. Here is a salvation, not only for a surviving spirit, but for the whole man. The body is not a vile encasement of matter essentially gross and sinful, to be gotten rid of, but a temple to be purged of its defilement and become the dwell- ing place and instrument of the regenerated spirit of man and the per- manent tabernacle of God. In these great central doctrines of the Gospel we have a true knowledge of God, peace for our conscience, new strength for our moral responsibilities and an assured victory over death, by an immor- tality which reaches beyond the grave into the infinite future, not an absorption into the original God, not an extinction in eternal uncon- sciousness. This goal is not reached by a series of transmigrations almost endless in extent; but at a bound when the summons com^ for THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 639 us to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, and in the subse- quent resurrection and translation of the body. In the proclamation and defense of these doctrines no matter in presence of what audience, or in debate, whom for antagonists, we are not ashamed of the Gospel. The unity of God and of the race, and the consequent brother- hood of man, as suggested in Paul's great speech on Mar's Hill, is a statement that causes us to blush of shame, and I may say that it is a teaching unique in Christianity. It is not found in the Hindu Bud- dhistic Bible. The unknown God whom those two superstitious Athe- nians worshiped is our God, who "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from any one of us. Christ, the Son of God and of Man, in His incarnation, joined Himself to the race by a clean dissent from Adam, so that His salvation has introduced broth- erhood in the highest and best sense into the unity of race relation- ship. A brotherhood real in every respect, making every man equal, before God, with every other man, and placing woman where she be- longs, at the man's side, neither slave nor inferior, but companion, wife and helpmate. While it thus equalizes all men before God it recognizes those necessary and inevitable distinctions which must needs be among men Distinctions! in order to the development and consecration of the human family. In these human relations, all sanctified by the in dwelling spirit of Christ, the believer gives due honor to all men, from the station, place and calling wherewith he is called. The rnaster must remember that the servant is also the free man of Christ, and the servant must remember that in the service that he renders to his earthly master he is honoring God. The wife is obedient to her husband, and the husband must reverence and love his wife as his own body. Children must obey their parents in the Lord, and the parent must see to it that he does not provoke his son to wrath by any unjust use of his parental power. The poor must discharge their service to the rich patiently, giving due and honest labor for due and honest wages, and the rich must look to it that they do not keep back the laborer's hire, nor grind the faces of the poor, for God is their avenger and will exact it of them. Religion Essentially Qharacteristic of J-|umanity. Paper by REV. LYMAN ABBOTT, D. D., of New York. Religion the Mother, Not tiie Child. O adequately elucidate the meaning of this phrase, which has been given me as my title, and to attempt to demonstrate the truth which it expresses wouM require a wealth of schol- arship which I do not possess and a length" of time which it is impossible shall be accorded to any one topic on such an occasion as this. I shall not occupy your time in any words of introduction or peroration, nor shall I at- tempt the truth of the proposition which I have been asked to speak to. I shall simply endeavor, in a series of statements, to eluci- date ajid interpret, and, in some small meas- ure, apply it. Religion then — and you will pardon me if I speak in dogmatic phraseology: I am giving you my convictions, and it will be egotistic, as well as needless, for me to interpolate con- tinually "this is what I think" — religion is essential to humanity. It is not a something or a somewhat external to man. It is an essential life of man. It is not a something apart from him which has been im- posed upon him by priest or hierarchies here or anywhere. It is not a fungus growth that 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 or selfish purposes. But this does not contradict the truth that religion itself is an essen- tial integral part of his own inherent nature. Religion is not a some- thing or a somewhat which has been conferred upon him by any cultus, by any hierarchy, by any set of religious teachers. It has not been handed down from the past to him. Religion is the mother of all religions, not the child. The white city at yonder end of Chicago is not the parent of architecture; archi- 640 Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., New York. 41 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 643 tecture 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 univer- sal characteristic of humanity It belons^s to man as man. Relie^ion , ^^H^-^^^iw^'^' , . , , - - ^ 1 . , ^ herent m Man IS not a somewhat that has been conferred upon him by any super- natural act of irresistible grace, either upon an elect few or an elect many. Still less is it a somewhat that has been conferred upon a few, so that the many, strive never so hard to 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 stifle it, they may refuse 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 mechan- ism 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 Eter- nal. 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 vil- lagers, the tribe, the nation, at last reaching out and taking in the whole human race, and in all of this learning that there is a still larger life in which we live and move and have our being, toward Avhich we tend and by which we are fed and are inspired. Max Miiller 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 644 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, conduct of man, It is not merely the moral character and conduct: That is ethics. It is not merely a perception of the Infinite: That is theology. It is such a perception of the Infinite as produces an influ- ence on the moral character and conduct of man: That is religion. My proposition then is this, that in every man there is an inherent capacity so to perceive the Infinite and to every man on this round globe of ours God has so manifested Himself in nature and in inward experi- ence, as that, taking that manifestation on the one hand and a power of perception on the other, the moral character and the conduct of man, Ca acit to ^^ ^^ follows the light that he receives, will be steadily improved and Perceive the enlarged and enriched in his upward progress to the Infinite and the Infinite. 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. They are borne in upon him by his perceiving faculties. And he is also conscious of a relation between himself, this thinking, willing creature that he is, and this outward world that impinges upon him. He is conscious that the fragrance of the rose gives him pleasure, and the fragrance of the bone- boiling establishment does not give him pleasure. He is conscious that fire warms him, and he is conscious that fire burns and stings him. * He is conscious of hunger; he is conscious of the satisfaction that comes through the feeding of himself when hungry. He is brought into perpetual contact with this outward world, so he becomes con- scious 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 movement of his life. It begins with the cradle and does not end until the grave. Life is perpatually 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 rela- tionship between this thinking, feeling creature that he calls self and this outward and material and phenomenal world in the midst of which he lives. In the pursuit of this inquiry he begins by attributing to all the phenomena 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 differ- ' ently. He groups them in classes, he produces them in provinces, he becomes polytheistic. He goes but a very little way through life before he learns there is a larger unity of life than at first he thought. THE WORLD' ^ CONCRESS OF RELIGIONS. 645 One. He learns that all phenomena of Iffe are bound together in some 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 eter- nal. The old teachers of the old religion, the old teachers of the Jap- anese 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 mysteries 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 phe- nomena of life but to the infinite and eternal energy from which all these phenomena spring. And in the study of this energy he very soon discovers that it is an intellectual energy. All the phenomena of ^j Forces life have behind them thought relations. The world has not happened; Combined in life is not a chapter of mere accidents; the universe is not a heap of disjecta membra; 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 one. 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 phenomena 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 finds them. Science is a thought of man trying to find the divine reality that is behind all this transitori- ness. 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 discover 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 possibility 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 perceives 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 also resolve and break their resolves and keep their resolutions. He sees Search for the Beautiful in Art. 646 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. that he is but one of the great company marching along the same high- way out of the great unknown in the past toward the same great un- known 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 Unite?Togeth- narration of things that have happened, history is the evolution of er. the progress of a united race, coming from the ^%'g into the fullfledged 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 hu- manity is united together by unmistakable ties; united with a power that far transcends the local temple, the temple of tribes or nations or creeds or circumstances. 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 development of thci human race is a witness that there is not only an infinite but an eternal energy from which all things proceed, but an infinite and eternal moral energy frorn which all human life proceeds, and in which all human life in its last analysis has its unifying 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 fellow- men. If he fails, all sorts of distresses 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, what are the right relationships between parent and children. Again, he does not make them, but finds 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 millions of people behind it, infringes against the divine, eternal and infinite law of human liberty, and it goes down with one great clash and is buried forever. So man is compelled by the very nature of his social and civil organization to seek for an infinite and eternal behind humanity, an infinite and eternal behind the material and behind the aesthetic. Un- consciously he has been seeking for the divine, but he awaits the con- sciousness. He knows that there is a divine somewhat, an eternal somewhat, an infinite somewhat, an ideal ^iomewhat, if you like, behind all material and behind all spiritual phenomena, and his emotions are stirred toward that somewhat, stirred to awe, stirred to fear, stirred to reverence, stirred to curiosity, but stirred. So with temple and with worship, and with ritual .and with priest, he endeavors consciously to learn who and what this somewhat is who draws him in his moral reso- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 647 lutions to his fellowman, who speaks the inward voice of righteous- ness in the conscience of the individual. Thus we get out of religion religions — religions that vary with one another, according as curiosity or fear or hope or the ethical ele- ment or the personal reverence predominates. Religious curiosity wants to know about the infinite and eternal, and it gives us creeds and theologies; the religion of fear gives us the sacrificial system, with its atonements and propitiations; the religion of hope expects some reward or recompense from the great Infinite, and 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 law-giver, 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 worships, and last of all learns to love If, in this very brief summary, I have carried you with me, you will see that the object of man's search is not merely religion; he is seeking to know the infinite and the eternal, not merely the priests and the hierarchies, not merely the men and women, with their serv- ices, and their rituals, and their prayer-books; but the whole current and tendency of human life is a search for the infinite and the divine. All science, all art, all sociology, all 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 the agnostic try to stop our search to know the infinite and eternal; in vain does he tell us it is a useless quest. Still we press on and must press on. The incentive is in ourselves, and nothing can blot it out of us and still leave us men and women. God made us out of Himself and God calls us back to Himself. It 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 the eternal, give him love for his fellowmen and reverence for God. In vain does the philosopher of the barnyard say to the ^gg, "You are made of G^gg; you always were an Qgg\ you always will be an ^gg\ don't try to be anything but an ^gg!' The chicken pecks and pecks until he breaks the shell and comes out to the sunlight of the world. We welcome here today, in this most cosmopolitan city of the most cosmopolitan race on the globe, the representatives of all the various forms of religious life, from east to west and north to south. We are glad to welcome them We are glad to believe that they, as we have been seeking to know something more and better of the Divine from which we issue, of the Divine to which we are returning. We are glad to hear the message they have to bring to us. We are glad to Religiuos Coriositjr. Tendency of Human Life. 648 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 mars of the tiSy bu?t£ human handiwork. It has been too intellectual, too much a religion of Christ. creeds. It has been too fearful, too much a religion of sacrifices. It has been too selfishly hopeful; there has been too much a desire of reward here or hereafter. It has been too little a religion of unselfish service and unselfish reverence. No! It is not Christianity that we want to tell our brethren across the sea about; it is the Christ. What is it that this universal hunger of the Human race seeks? Is it not these things — a better understanding of our moral relations, one to another; a better understanding of what we are and what we mean to be, that we may 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 repre- sented 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 that the world has ever had. We recognize the voice of God in all prophets and in all time. But we do think we have found in this Christ, in His patience, in His courage, in His heroism, in His self-sacrifice, in His unbounded mercy and love an ideal that trans- cends all other ideals written by the pen of poet, painted by the brush of artists, or graved into the life of human history. We do not think that God has spoken only in Palestine and to the few in that narrow province. We do not think He has been vocal in Christendom and dumb everywhere else. No! We believe that He is a speaking God in all times and in all ages But we believe no other revelation transcends and none other equals that which He has made to man in the one transcendental human life that was lived eighteen centuries ago in Palestine. And we think we find in Christ one thing that we have not been able to find in any 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 message of the incarnation — that is the glad tidings we have to give to Africa, to Asia, to China, to the isles of the sea. The everlasting Father is also seeking the children who are seek- ing Him. He is not an unknown, hiding Himself behmd a veil impen- etrable. He is not a Being dwelling in the eternal silence; He is a speaking, revealing, incarnate God. He is not an absolute justice, sit- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS 01^ RELIGIONS, 649 ting 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, r^^ Awake in in our metaphysical definitions, we have sometimes been too anxious His Likeness, to be accurate and too little anxiou-s to be true. , He Himself has said it — He is a door. We do not stand merely to look at the door for the beauty of the carving upon it. We push the door open and go in. Through that door God enters into human life; through that door human- ity enters into the Divine life; man seeking after God, the incarnate God seeking after man; the end in thatgreat future after life's troubled dream shall be o'er, and we shall awake satisfied because we awake in His likeness. " 42 Rev. E. L. Rexford, D. D., Boston, Mass. Yhe Religious jntent Paper by REV. E. L. REXFORD, D. D., of Boston. ENERABLE BROTHERS: By the lead- ing of that beneficent providence which has always attended the fortunes of men, we are brought to this most significant r^^- \piiiinMi|i^'~«i f-^^^m^Yf hour in the history of religious fellow- iG^A ship, if, indeed, it be not the most signif- icant hour in the history of the religious development of the world. What event in the earlier or the later centuries has ever transcended or even closely ap- proached in its import the meeting of this assembly? What day in all the frag- mentary annals of good will ever wit- nessed a fraternity so manifold or a con- gress whose constituency w^as so essen- tially 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 over- reaching the special limits of his chosen sect that he might pay a fit- ting tribute to the spirit of religion in its several forms, displayed a noble catholicity of spirit, but, unsupported by the popular sympathies of his age, his generosity was largely personal and resulted in no rep- resentative movement. We have had our national and international evangelical alliances among Christians, and likewise our national and international Young Men's Christian Associations, with assemblies filling the largest halls of Europe "and America; but these fellowships have embraced only a slight diversity of opinions and practices in one division of the relig- ious world, while larger numbers of even fellow Christians have been excluded. The portals of the Divine Kingdom have been held but slightly ajar by such untrained Christian hands, while it has been left to 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 m The Parlia- ment a Most Significant Hour in Relig- ious Develop- ment. 652 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS True Worship. form, "Welcome in the great and all inclusive name of God, the com- mon Father of all souls." This is a day and an occasion sacred to the sincere spirit in man, and it is devoutly to be hoped that, out of its generosity and its justice, a new and self-vindicating definition of true and false religion, of true and false worship, 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 1 assume to be, that whatever worshiper in all the world bends before The Best he knows, and walks true to the purest light that shines for him, has access to the highest blessings of heaven; while the false hearted and insincere man, whatever his creed or form may be, has equal access, if not to the flames, then at least the dust and ashes and darkness of hell. I doubt if, at any period very long anterior to this, such an as- sembly could have been convened. Those great aggregations of the world's interest at Paris and London and Philadelphia had no such feature. Men sought to have the world's activity as completely repre- sented in those expositions as possible, but no man had the courage or the inclination to suggest a scheme so daring as that of a congress of religions. This achievement was left to the closing years of a won- derful century wherein a mightier spirit seems swaying the lives of men to higher issues, at a time when the very Gods seem crowning all the doctrines of the past with the imperial dogma of the solidarity of the race. The time-spirit has largely conquered, though we cannot close our ears entirely to the sullen cry of a baffled and retreating anger, charged with the accusation that the whole import of this con- gress 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 wor- shipers 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 of^^the'^Con- ^cings worshiped. The reverse of this is practically unthinkable. To gress. 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 Lorraine once said that the most im- portant 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 \x\ Solidarity of the Race. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 6S^ the landscape. Such a rule must be essential in art, but it is not less imperative in the treatment of that spectacle which religion presents to us in its wide fields, and this observation point of the identity of the religious intent of all the world commands permanent features of every religion in the history of mankind. Some men 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 relig- ious wrath that may rage. And after these storms of vituperation shall have spent their fury, and editors shall have written leading arti- cles, and archbishops and sultans shall have predicted dire calamities, it will be 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 had been thrust upon this earth from worlds created by hostile gods forever at war with each other and whose children should legitimately fight in the names of their parent deities. If the history of religion in this world could th^^Slii^onl have commenced with the monotheistic conception, the bitter chap- ters 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 help- less ignorance to the freedom and grace of self-poised and masterful souls. The infinite wisdom of this universe seems to have decreed that man shall 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 disguises, and at last to "think God's thoughts after Him." It has been a diflficult 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 failings and the intel- ligent comprehension of God and man and religion and duty and the fellowship of today is almost amazing, and yet, in all the tragic though ever brightening way, there is no point where the line of suc- cession breaks off. God's working is by development, and we have only to look into 654 THE WORLD' ^ CONGRESS OJF^ ML/CIONS, Growth Beligion. of Personal faUibility. In- the magic white city to see that man's work follows the same law and method. Not a single excellence is there that has not had its imperfection that it might be even as perfect as it is. Not a science exists today in all its beautiful adaptations that was not an offensive vulgarism at an earlier day. And religion — shall we say of it that here is a fact in human life that reverses in its movement and method all the human and divine ways with everything else? If there be one pre-eminent fact in the history of religion, that fact is the growth of religion. There is no religion in the world, if it be a living religion, that is today what it was one, two or ten centuries ago. The Christian religion is not today what it was five centuries ago in the thought of the people, and what the religion or anything else is in the actual thought of the people that the thing practically is. And if this great exposition is wanting in one of the most signifi- cant exhibits conceivable, it is a hall that should contain a historic illustration of religion. Max Miiller would be one of the few men who could arrange the order of such a hall. And who could visit it without feeling a great uplift of faith and love and joy that we have been what we have and have become what we are? I expect that this suggestion of an evolutionary unity of religion may disturb some classes of men, but you shall see no man in all the retreating centuries performing his devotions with whatever tragic or forbidding accompaniment without saying and being compelled to say: "That man might have been my- self, or I might have been as he and should have been had I lived in his country and been educated as he was." It is quite too superficial for us to suppose that this great Spirit bestowed His blessings on the score of the geography and the centuries. Personal infallibility is not yet attained by any one, inasmuch as personal fortunes are related to the infinite, and that sense of a linger- ing weakness which must be felt by all men must ally them with the world-wide necessity of a rugged and persistent sympathy. The world has been wounded by fragments of truth, whereas no man can ever be wounded by an entire truth. A detached truth fallen even from heaven would be voiceless, but relate it to the economy of God's pur- poses and immediately it becomes vocal. It bears in its joyous or its tremulous tones the varying fortunes of every soul that 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 theology had been written while the theologians were looking in the faces of their human brothers, many a judgment and confusion would have been greatly modified. If one hand had written while the other clasped a human hand the ver- dict would have been changed. The Word made flesh, or the Divine Spirit set forth in human form and fashion, gleaming out from human faces becomes very tender and very considerate, while the mere theories of men lay no check upon those severities of judgment which have shattered this human world and rent it asunder in the name of religion. Back to the primal unity, where man appears as a child of God, ance. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 655 before he is a Christian or Jew, Brahman or Buddhist, Mohammedan or Parsce, 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 born 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 religious traditions if it will gain recognition — fields preoccupied and bristling with inveterate hostility. It must meet the warlike array of "special providences," and "divine elections," and "sacred books," and "revelations," and "inspirations," and "the chosen people," and "sacraments," and "infallibilities," and institutionalisms of nameless and numberless kinds; but it is not timid, and it has resources of great Resourcos of endurance. Who will say that any man ever sincerely chose any Great Endur- ... c < I- l -r . • I'll At •»T»''^- religion for any other than a good purpose? 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 wor- ship; for an immortal soul, talking with God, is greater than a king. And while we wait in this divine silence, let us read the profound and befitting word which heaven has vouchsafed to the people of the Ori- ent, 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 really given by me " ( Bhagavad Gita, Chap. 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 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 idol, and that being is the one who has wor- shiped it. He alone can tell when it has ceased to be of service. And assuredly the Great Spirit who works through all forms and who makes all things His ministers can make the rudest image a medium through which He will approach His child. There is no plea of "revelation" or 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 discovered. God's revelations are made to the world by man's discovery of God's meaning to the world. Revelation by dis- covery is the eternal law. The " sacred books" of the world, instead of being a revelation from God, are the records of a revelation or the 656 TM£: WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 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 Miiller says that what the world needs is a ''bookless relig- ion." It is precisely this bookless religion that the world already has, but does not realize it as it should. There is, I repeat, an experience Bookless Re- ^^ human souls that lies deeper than the conviction of any book — a hgion. religious sense, a holy ecstacy that no book can create or describe. The book does not create the religion; the religion creates the book. We should have religion left if all the books should perish. The eter- nal emphasis must be placed upon that living spirit that lies back of all Bibles, back of all institutions, and is the eternal reality forever dis- coverable, but never completely discovered. There is not a piece of mechanism in all this Columbian Exposition that does not owe its defectiveness to a nearer approach to the idea which God concealed in the mechanical laws of the universe. The revelation came through somebody's discovery of it, and the same law holds good from the dust beneath our feet to the star dust of all the heavens, from the trembling of a forest leaf to the trembling ecstasies of the immortal soul. The "special providences" that pleaded by those who are unwill- ing to take their places in the common ranks of men, are wholly admis- sible if it be meant that the specialties are created from the human side. The "divine election" is on the human side, and today it largely means the right of any man to elect himself to the highest 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 com- mon Father elects some and rejects others, forgets some and remem- bers others in the sense of finality, is to proclaim a Fatherhood little needed on this earth. Because I am a Christian and my brother is a Buddhist is not construed by me as a proof that God loves me better than He does him. I am not willing to be so victimized by love. He is no more cursed by such divine forgetfulness than I am by such capricious remembrance. Let the specialties 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 benefi- cence of Heaven? They have not created; they have discovered what existed before. Some have revealed more, others less, but all have revealed some truth of God by helping the world to see. They have asked nothing for themselves as finalities. They have lived and taught and suffered and died and risen again. That they might bring us to themselves? No; but that they might bring earth to God. "God's consciousness," to borrow a noble word from Calcutta, has been the TM£ WokLt)'^ CONGRESS 6P RELIGIONS, 657 goal of them all. It is still before all nations. There 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 burdens and break the chains which retard their progress. Our fel- lowswSi ^^'' lowship will be closer as we approach the radiant summits and there, on the heights, we shall be one in love and one in light, for God the infinite life is there, "of Whom and through Whom and to Whom are all things, and to Whom be the glory forever." certainties Jn Religion, Paper by JOSEPH COOK, of Boston. Morality and Bellgion. T is no more wonderful that we should live again than that we should live at all. It is less won- derful that we should continue to live than that we have begun to live. And even the most determined and superficial skeptic knows that we have begun. On the faces of this polyglot international audience I seem to see writtea as I once saw chiseled on the marble above the I '^M^^!& W^J^ tomb of the great Emperor Akkabar in the V ahDhm ***HKKk ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Ganges, the hundred names of God. ^ ■^■B^ f^^^^ 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, irreversi- ble self-surrender to God as both Saviour and Lord? Only such of us as are thus ready can call ourselves in any deep sense religious. I care not what name you give to God if you mean by Him a spirit omnipresent, eternal, omnipotent, infinite in holiness and every other operation. Who is ready for co-operation with such a God in life and death and beyond death? Only he who is thus ready is religious. William Shakespeare is supposed to have known something of human nature and certainly was not a theological partisan Now, Shakespeare, you will remember, in "The Tempest," tells you of two characters who con- ceived for each other supreme affection as soon as they met. **At the first glance they have changed eyes," he says. The truly religious man is one who has ''changed eyes" with God under some one or another of His hundred names. It follows from this definition of relig- ion 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 Saviour, but as Lord also, is scientifically known to be a necessity to the peace of the soul, whether we call God by this name or the other, whether we speak of Him in the dialect of this or that of the four continents, or this or that of the ten 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 658 THE WORLtXS CONGRESS OJ^ RELIGIONS, 659 the peace of the soul? And now, though I do not undervalue moral- ity and the philanthropies, I purpose to speak of the strategic cer- tainties of religions from the point of view of comparative religion. First, from the very center of the human heart and in the presence of all 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," '*! will not," there is lack of peace in us, and until only we say "I will," and do like to say it, there is no harmony within our souls. The delight in saying "I will" to the still, small voice, "thou oughtest" is religion Merely calculating, selfish obedience to that still, ismall 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 qualities did not constitute the changing of eyes. That mighty capacity which exists in human nature to give forth a supreme affection was not the changing of eyes. Let us not mistake a capacity of religion which every man has for religion itself. We must not only have a capacity to love God, wc must have adoration of God, and half the loose, limp, unscientific liberalisms of the world mistake mere admiration for adoration. It is narrowness to refuse mental hospitality for any single truth, but we assembled in the name of science, in the name of every grave purpose, have an international breadth and what we purpose to promote is such a self-surrender to God as shall amount to delight in all known duty and make us affectionately and irreversi- bly choose God under some one of His names — I care not what the name is if you mean by it all the Bible means by the word "God" — choose Him not as Saviour only but as God also, not as Lord only but as Saviour also. But choice in relation to persons means love. What we choose we love, but conscience reveals a holy person, the author of the moral law, and conscience demands that this law should not only be obeyed but loved, and that the holy person should be not only obeyed but loved. This is the unalterable demand of an unalterable portion of our nature. As personalities, therefore, must keep company with this part of our nature and with its demands while we exist in this world and in the next, the love of God by man is inflexibly required by the very nature of things. Conscience draws an unalterable distinction between loyalty and disloyalty to the ineffable, holy person whom the moral law reveals, and between the obedience of slavishness and that of delight. Only the latter is obedience to conscience. Religion is the obedience of affectionate gladness. Morality is the obedience of selfish slavishness. Only religion, therefore, and not mere morality, can harmonize the soul with the nature of things. A ThatStJll, Small Voico Self-Surron» der to God. Love of God Required. 660 THE WORLD'S CONGMSS OF RELIGIONS, delight in obedience is not only a part of religion but is necessary to peace in God's presence. A religion consisting in the obedience of gladness is, therefore, scientifically known to be according to the nature of things. It will not be tomorrow or the day after that these propositions will cease to be scientifically certain. Out of them multitudinous inferences flow as Niagaras from the brink of God's palm. Demosthenes once made the remark that every address should begin with an 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. Lincoln, Garfield, Seward, Grant, Beecher, Gough, Emerson, Longfellow, Tennyson, Lord Beaconsfield, George Eliot, Carlyle — I know not how many Mahomets — are gone, and we are going. These are certainties that will endure in the four continents and on the isles of the sea. Till the heavens are old, and the stars are cold, And the leaves of the judgment book unfold. The world expects to hear from us this afternoon no drivel, but something fit to be professed face to face with the crackling artillery Certainty of the science of our time. I know I am going hence, and I know I Truth! ^ ^^ wish to go in peace Now, I hold that it is a certainty, and a certainty founded on truth absolutely self-evident, that there are three things from which I can never escape — my conscience, my God and my rec- ord of sin in an irreversible past. How am I to be harmonized with that unescapable environment? Here is Lady Macbeth. See how she rubs her hands: Out, damned spot! Will these hands ne'er be clean? All the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten this little hand. And her husband in a similar mood says: This red right hand, it would the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red. What religion can wash Lady Macbeth's red right hand? That is a question I propose to the four continents and all the isles of the sea. Unless you can answer that, you have not come here with a serious purpose to a parliament of religions. [Applause.] I beg you not to applaud, because if there is a topic of more supreme importance than any other it is the topic I am now introduc- ing. I speak now to the branch of those skeptics which are not rep- resented here, and I ask who can wash Lady Macbeth's red right hand, and their silence or their responses are as inefilicient 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 661 unless a man is washed from the old sin and the guilt of mankind he cannot be at peace in the presence of infinite holiness. [Applause.] 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 occasion is too grave for mere courtesy and nothing else. Some of the faiths of the world are marvelous, as far as they go, but if they were completed along the lines of the certainties of the ^^^^ j^ jj^^^. religions themselves, they would go up and up and up to an assertion of the Soui from 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 anywhere in the universe for a soul with bad intentions," and there ought not to be. Ours is a transitional age, and we are told we are all sons of God; and so we are, in a natural sense, but not in a moral sense. We are all 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 delib- erately bad intentions. I hold that we not only cannot 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 wind its direction; but I maintain with a solemnity which I cannot express too strongly, that it is a certainty, and a strategic certainty, that the soul can have no intel- No Peace ligent peace until it is delivered from the love of sin. It is a certainty, Sity!* ^^^^ and a strategic certainty, 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 kingdom of heaven. Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven; a man cannot serve God and mammon. God cannot deny Himself. Why, these cans and cants are touching the crags of cer- tainty underlying the universe as well as the Scriptures, and it is these crags of absolutely self-evident truth upon which I would plant th^ 662 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, basis of a universal religion, ascertaining the necessity of the new birth for our deliverance frortt 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 stu- dent 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 cannot see, for I do not see how He ought to." [Applause.] The murderer, the ravisher,the thief have bad intentions, but per- haps, according to their light, those ancients have no more moral tur- pitude than some bad intentions you and I have cherished. But we must keep peace with our faculties, with this record and with the God who cannot 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 reve- lation 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 Revelation in niatter, that you may tear up the web and not injure the matter. I the Argument, make a distinction between the two questions: ** Does death end all?" and *' Is the soul immortal ?" I want every faculty at its best. Shakes- peare said: "Conscience 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 Saviour, and being melted into the vision and made glad to take Him as Lord also. [Applause.] I bought a book full of the songs of aggressive evangelical relig- ion and I found in this little book words which may be bitter indeed, when eaten, but which, when fully assimilated, will be sweet as honey. ■ I summarize 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. If what heaven loves I hate, Shut from me is heaven's gate. Endless sin means endless woe, Into endless sin I go. If my 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 deepest tide Groove its b^d and there abide. cr (0 o (Christianity as Interpreted by Literature. Paper by REV. THEODORE T. MUNGER, D. D., of New Haven, Conn. Hebrew Lit- erature. HEN Christianity appeared in the world it might have been regarded in two ways: — as a force requiring embodi- ment — something through which it could work; or as a spirit seeking to inform everything with which it should come in contact. It was both — a force and a spirit, the objective and subjective of one energy whose end was to subdue all things to its own likeness. It was in- evitable that Christianity as a con- quering energy should lay hold of the strong things in the world and use them for itself. It was inevitable also that as a spirit it should work, spirit- like, from within, secretly penetrating into all things open to it, transforming them by its mysterious alchemy mto forces like itself, drawing under and within itself govern- ments, art, learning, science, literature and whatever else enters into society as shapmg and directing energy. I am to speak of Christianity as interpreted by literature, or, more accurately, upon the way in which Christianity has mfused itself into literature and used it for itself, making it a medium by which it con- veys itself to the world. We should never lose sight ot the fact that Christianity had its roots in a full and varied literature. It was a literature rich and pro- found in all departments except philosophy. The Jew was too primi- tive and simple-minded as a thinker to analyze his thought or his na- ture; but in history, in ethics, in imaginative fiction and in certain forms of poetry, his literature well endures comparison with any that Qf^n be named. mi Not a Book. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 665 It is sometimes said that Christ left no book, and that He did not contemplate one; and so men go searching around for the seat of authority, locating it now in an infallible church, and now in Chris- tain consciousness, and now in traditions and institutions; and, not finding any or all of these sufficient, they turn on the bookless Christ, and, as it were in defiance of Him, put together some biographical sketches and sundry epistles, and formally declare them to be the divinely constituted seat of authority. Christ, indeed, left no book, but He was not, therefore, a bookless Christ. His revelation was not so absolute as to cut Him off from the literature of the past as something upon which He stood, nor from that of the future as something which might embody Him. It is often ieS°ctSiS! made an object of study to find Christ in the Old Testament; it were a more profitable study to find the Old Testament in Christ. His first discourse begins with a quotation from it, and He dies with its words upon His lips. It is not necessary, and it would not be wholly true, to say that the Hebrew scriptures gave shape and direction to Christ. He was too unique, too original, too full of direct inspiration and vision to justify such an assertion; but He stood upon them not as an authori- tative guide in religion, but as illustrative of truth, as valuable for their inspiring quality, and as full of signs of more truth and fuller grace. His relation to them, using modern phrases, was literary and critical; He emphasized, 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 cannot think of Christ apart from this litera- ture. It is not more true to say that it was full of Him than that He was full of it. Such being the case, we have a right to expect that Christ will go on investing 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. 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. say that Christ is to be pat among the poets — not the singers of rhymes nor the builders of epics, but those who see into the heart of things Christ a Poet, 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 miscroscope 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 first literary products of Christianity, apart 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 composi- tions. They are not treatises, but letters — one mind pouring itself out to others in a most human way for high ends. What freedom, the cur- rent flowing here ai;d 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 fountain 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 first, if not the greatest, name in Christian literature. The Divine Comedy regarded superficially is medieval, but at the bottom 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 revolu- tionary. By portraying the ideal he revealed the hopelessness of the actual church. He was full of errancy — political, ecclesiastical, theo- logical — 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 distinctly Christian in his conception of God and of sin. In the purgatory and paradise he enters a world unknown out- side of Christian thought. In the Greek tragedies mistake is equiv- alent to sin and crime, and it led to the same doom; but the Inferno (with a few exceptions made in the interest of the church) contains only sinners. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 667 The strong point in Dante is that he ingrafted into literature the purgatorial character of sin; I do not say the dogma of purgatory. VVhatever Protestant theology has donQ^vith this truth, protestant literature has preserved it, and, next to love, made it the leading factor in its chief imaginative works. Sin and its reaction, pain eating away the sin, purity and wisdom through the suffering of sin, sin and its disclosure through conscience — what else do we find in the great masterpieces of fiction and poetry, not, indeed, with slavish uniform- ity, 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 literature because Christianity imparted it. In Dante it was settled that henceforth Christianity should have literature for a mouthpiece. As the Renaissance and the Reformation prepared the field — one bringing back learning 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 cannot 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 Spencer to Longfel- low and Lowell; from Cowper to Shelley and Wordsworth; from Mil- ton to Matthew Arnold; from Bunyan to Hawthorne and Victor Hugo and Tolstoi; from Thomas a Kempis 'and Pascal to Kant and Jona- than Edwards and Lessing and Schleiermacher and Coleridge and Maurice and Martineau and Robertson and Fairbairns; from Jeremy Taylor and South and Barrow and the Cambridge Platonists to Emer- son 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 alien 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, hopeful spirit, despite the agnostic note heard now and then, but amply redeemed and counteracted by the general tenor. Something of the same sort might be said of Goethe. Goethe is Sin the Dom- inant Thought of Fiction. Shakespeare on the Side of Ilamanity. 668 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, to be regarded as one in whom Christianity won a victory and he ren- dered it the weightiest service by checking two powerful influences which, however corrective and within limits useful, were pressing un- duly 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 mechan- ism and of God as an ''external world-Architect" — conceptions that had come in through the Latin theology, or rather had been fostered by it. The Christian value of an author is not to be determined by the Christian fullness of his Christian assertion. There is, of course, immense value Author! ^^ ^ in the great, positive, full-statured believers like Dante and Bacon and Milton and Browning. But Christianity is all the while in need of two things — correction of its mistakes and perversions, and development in the directionof 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 teacher of Christian ethics in his prose writings, did nothing to enlarge the domain of Christian belief or to better theological thinking in an age when it sadly needed improvement; but Goethe taught Christian- ity to think scientifically, and prepared the way for it to include modern science. So of Shelley and Matthew Arnold and Emerson and the group of Germans represented by Lessingand Herder, authors who, with their Hellenistic tendencies, represent a phase of thought and life which undoubtedly is to be brought within the infolding scope of Christianity; and no one can do it so well as those modern Greeks. 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 over- / borne or undeveloped truth. There is no doubt the church has relied too exclusively upon the miracles; Arnold reminds it that the sub- stance of Christianity does not consist of miracles. It had come to wor- ship the Bible as a fetich, and to fill it with all sorts of magical mean- ings and forced dogmas, the false and nearly fatal fruit of the reforma- tion. Arnold dealt the superstition a heavy blow that undoubtedly strained the faith of many, but it is with such violence that the kingdom of heaven is brought in. When God lets loose a thinker in the world there is always a good deal of destruction. Such teachers must be THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 669 watched while they are listened to. We, ourselves, 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 treat- ment 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 permeated with the humanity and freedom of Christianity. Milton more thanfialf defeated his magnifi- cent geniusby weighting it with a mechanical theology. The later poets seldom forego their birthright of spiritual vision. Cowper verged in the same direction, but saved himself by the r^^ Later humanity he wove into his verse, a clear and almost. new note in the Poets' , Spirit, 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 services 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. 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 righteousness for its fulfillment. The roll might be called from Wordsworth and Coleridge down to Whittier, and but few would need to be counted out. The marked examples are Tennyson and Browning, and of the two I think Tennyson is the clearer. Speaking roughly, and taking his work as a whole, I r.egard it as more thoroughly informed with Christianity than that of any other master in literature. I do not forget the overwhelming positiveness of Browning, whose faith is the very evidence of things unseen and whose hope is like a contagion. It is this very positiveness that removes him a little way from us; it is high and we cannot quite attain to it. Tennyson, on the contrary, speaks on the level of our finite hearts, believes and doubts with us, debates the problems of faith with us, and such victories as he wins are also ours. Browning leaves us behind as he storms his way into the heaven of his unclouded hope, but Tennyson stays with us in a world which, being such as it is, is never without a shadow. The more clearly we see the eternal the more deeply are we enshrouded in the finite. Tennyson and Browning as Examples. 670 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The most interesting fact in connection with our subject is the thorough discussion Christianity is now undergoing in literature, 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 faith 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 Real Defend- writcs an enticing plea for agnosticism, and seems to sweep the uni- ers of tiie Faith, yerse clean of faith and God; we read Tennyson's " Higher Panthe- ism," "The Two Voices," ''In Memoriam," or Browning's "Saul," ** Death in the Desert," or Wordsworth's odes on Immortality and Duty, or Whittier's " My Psalm," and the plea for agnosticism fades out. In some way it seems truer and better to believe. Such prophets never cease, though their coming is uncertain. In the years just gone three have " lost 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 sub- ject too large and widespreading to be brought within an hour's space. To amend for so scanty treatment, I will briefly enumerate the chief ways in which literature becomes the interpreter of Christianity. Literature interprets Christianity correctly for the plain reason that both are keyed to the spirit. The inspiration of high literature is Waysin which that of truth; it reveals the nature and meaning of things, which is terprets^ChrisI the ofificc of the Spirit that takes the things of Christ and shows them tianity. unto US cvcn 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 thfe 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 it5 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 WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 671 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 Theology tool for priestcraft; it is easily defended by formal logic, but it does the West. not satisfy the thinker and it is abhorrent to the poet. Hence, thoroughly as it has swayed the occidental world, it has never com- manded the assent of the choicest occidental minds. Hence the long line of mystics, through whom lies the true continuity of Christian theology, always verging upon poetry and often reaching it. A the- ology that insists on a transcendent God, who sits above the world and spins the thread of its affairs as a spinner at a wheel, that holds to such a conception of God because it involves the simplest of several perplexing propositions; that resents immanence as involving panthe- ism; that makes two catalogues — the natural and the supernatural — and puts everything it can understand into one list and everything it cannot understand into the other, and then makes faith turn upon accepting this division, such a theology does not command the assent of those minds who 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, re- deeming it from dogmatism and making it capable of belief, not clear, perhaps, but profound. §tudy of the §acred 3^^^^^ ^^ the \Yorld as Literature. Paper by PROF. MILTON S. TERRY, D. D., of Evanston, lU. HERE 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 homes 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 maybe said of anyone who is so circum- scribed by the conditions of race and language in which he has been reared that he has no knowledge or appreciation of lands, nations, religions and literatures which differ from ^ 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 Looked at of Homer and will never lose interest in the story of Odysseus, the ianstmidpointi 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 Accadian 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 Persian 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 followir.^ words as a solemn commandment: "Whatever things are true, whatever things are worthy of honor, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are Q72 43 Prof. Milton S. Terry, D. D., Evanston, III, The WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELlGiONS, 675 lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise exercise reason upon these things" (Phil, iv, 8). My task is to speak of the ''sacred books of the world" as so much various literature. And I must at the very outset acknowledge my inability to treat such a broad subject with anything like comprehen- sive thoroughness. And had I the requisite knowledge and ability, the time at my disposal would forbid. I can only glance at some no- table characteristics of this varied literature, and call attention to some few things which are worthy of protracted study. I commence with a quotation from the treatise of the old Chinese p^^ r B fc philosopher Lao Tsze, where he gives utterance to his' conception of of all Phenom- 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 maybe regarded as the mother of the universe I know not its name, but give it the title of Tao. If I am forced to make a name for it 1 say it is Great ; being great, I say that it passes away; passing away, I say that it is far off; being far off, I say that it returns. Now, Tao is great, heaven is great, earth is great, a king is great. In the universe there are four greatnesses and a king is one of them. Man takes his law from the earth; the earth 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 pro- duction of an ancient sage, born six hundred 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 pilgrim 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 sense 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 element of power in the literary features of the book. Prodnc t i o n An- Old navian 6W THE WORLiys CONGRESS OF MLICIONS. That suggestiveness of something great and yet intangible, a some- thing that awes and impresses and yet eludes our grasp, is recognized by all great writers and critics as a conspicuous element in the master- pieces of literature. I have purposely 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. lo, ch. 129). It is not by any means the most beautiful specimen of the Vedic hymns, but it shows how an ancient Indian poet thought and spoke of the mysterious or'igin of things. He looked out on a mist-wrapt ocean of being, and his soul was filled with strong desire to know its secrets. "Then there was nothing being nor not-being; The atmosphere was not, nor sky above it. What covered all? And where? By what protected? Was there the fathomless abyss of waters? When neither death nor deathlessness existed; Of day and night there was yet no distinction. Alone that one breathed calmly, self-supported, Other than it was none, nor aught above it. Darkness there was at first in darkness hidden; This universe was undistinguished water. That which is void and emptiness lay hidden, Alone by power of fervor was developed. Then for the first time there arose desire. Which was the primal germ of mind, within it. And sages, searching in their 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 uncreated, He only knows, who from the highest heaven Rules — the all-seeing Lord — or does not He know?" One naturally compares with these poetic speculations the begin- ning of Ovid's Metamorphoses, where we have a Roman poet's concep- Scandi- tion of the original chaos, a rude and confused mass of water, earth ^^^^' and air, all void of light, out of which ''God and kindly nature" pro- duced the visible order of beauty of the world. The old Scandina- vians had also, in their sacred book, "The Elder Edda," a song of the prophetess, who told the story of creation: "In that far age when Ymir lived, And there was neither land nor sea, Earth there was not nor lofty heaven; A yawning deep but verdure none. Until Bor's sons the spheres upheaved, And formed the mighty midgard round; Then bright the sun shone on the cliffs, And green the ground became with plants." THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 677 I need not quote, but only allude to, the Chaldean account of crea- tion, recently deciphered from the monuments, and the opening chap- ter of the book of Genesis, which contains what modern scholars are given to calling the ** Hebrew poem of Creation." In this we have the sublime but vivid picture of God creating the heavens and the earth and all their contents and living tribes in six days and resting the seventh day and blessing it. As theologians we naturally study these theosophic poems with reference to their origin and relationship. But we now call attention to the place they hold in the sacred literatures of the world. Each com- position bears the marks of an individual genius. He may, and prob- ably does, in every case express the current belief or tradition of his nation, but his description reveals a human mind wrestling with the mysterious problems of the world, and suggesting, if not announcing, some solution As specimens of literature the various poems of crea- tion exhibit a world-wide taste and tendency to cast in poetic form the profoundest thoughts which busy the human soul. I turn now to that great collection of ancient Indian songs known as the Rigveda. As a body of sacred literature, it is especially ex- pressive of a childlike intuition of nature. The hymns are addressed to various gods of earth and air and the bright heaven beyond, but owing to their great diversity of date and authorship they vary much in value and interest. By the side of some splendid productions of gifted authors we find many tiresome and uninteresting compositions. It is believed by those best competent to judge that m the oldest hymns we have a picture of an original and primitive life of men just as it may be imagined to haveisprung 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 two thousand years theieafter. The Indus and the rivers of the Punjab water the fair fields where the action of the Vedas is laid. The people cultivated the soil and were rich in flocks and herds But they were also a race of mighty warriors, and with apparently the best good conscience prayed and struggled to enrich themselves with the spoil of the ene- mies. Ail these things find expression in the Vedic songs, and a pop- ular 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 poetical concept of their nature is seen in the idea that he lies concealed in the soft wood, and when two sticks are rubbed to- gether 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 Chaldean Ac- count of Crea- tion. The Rigveda. To the God 678 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Take the following as a fair specimen of many hymns of praise addressed to the god of fire: "O, Agni, graciously accept this wood which I offer thee, and this my service, and listen to my songs. Herewith we worship thee, O, Agni, thou high-born, thou conqueror of horses, thou son of power, of Fire?" ""'^ 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 thousand fold. To him who praises thee and seeks thy help, draw near, O, youngest messenger and noblest priest of the gods, draw near through 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 sacrificial service and seat thyself upon this sacred grass." As Agni is the principal deity of the earth, so is Indra of the air. He is the god of the clear blue sky, the air space, whence come the fer- tilizing rains. The numerous poems addressed to him abound in images which are said to be especially forcible to such as have 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 roar- ing monsters, but Indra, armed with his fatal thunderbolt, smites them with rapid lightning strokes, ruins 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, splits the mountains with his thunderbolt and sets them at liberty again. Such a powerful deity is also naturally worshiped as the god of battle. He is always fighting and never fails to 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, high adored, alone has power to succor. The 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 the dawn; Rudra's sons, the Maruts, gods of the thunderstorm. Where in all the realm of lyric poetry can be found compositions more charming than the Vedic hymns to Aurora, the goddess of the dawn? She opens the gates of day, drives away darkness, clears a pathway on the misty mountain tops and sweeps along in glowing brightness with her white steeds and beautiful chariot. All nature springs to life as she approaches, and beasts and birds and men go forth with joy. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 679 The sacred scriptures of Buddhism comprise three immense col- lections known as the Tripitaka, or ** three baskets." One of these con- tains the discourses of Buddha, another treats of doctrines and meta- The Buddhist physics, and another is devoted to ethics and discipline. In bulk these Tripitika. writings rival all that was ever included under the title of Veda, and contain more than seven times the amount of matter in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The greater portion of this exten- sive literature, in the most ancient texts, exists as yet only in manu- script. 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 Buddhism 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: First, all existence, being subject to change and decay, is evil; second, the source of all this evil is desire; third, desire and the evil which follows it may be made to cease; fourth, there is a fixed and certain way by which to attain ex- emption from all evil. Next after these verities are the doctrines of the* eightfold path: First, right belief ; second, right judgment; third, right utterance, fourth, right motives; fifth, right occupation; sixth, right obedience; seventh, right memory, and eighth, right meditation. Then we have further, five commandments: First, do not kill; second, do not steal; third, do not lie; fourth, do not become intoxicated; fifth, do not commit adultery. The following passage is a specimen of the tone and style of Buddha's discourses: 'The best of ways is the eightfold; the best of truths the four words; the best of virtues passionlessness; the best of men he who has eyes to see. This is the way; there is no other that leads to the puri- fying of intelligence. Go on this way. 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 when I had understood the thorns of the flesh. You yourself must make an effort. The Buddha is only a preacher. The thoughtful that enter this way are freed from the bondage of the tempter. All created things perish; he who knows this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity. All created things are grief and pain; he who knows and does fhis becomes passive in pain, this is the way that leads to purity/* We who are reared under a western civilization can see little that is attractive in the writings of Buddhism. The genius of Edwin Ar- nold has set the story of the chief doctrines of Buddha in a brilliant g^^g^^ **' dress in his poem of the ''Light of Asia;" but the Buddhist script- ures as specimens of literature are as far removed from that poem as the Talmud from the Hebrew Psalter. Here and there a nugget of gold may be discovered, but the reader must pay for it by laborious toiling through vast spaces of tedious metaphysics and legend. It is THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 Confucian- ism, 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, Sacred Books however, are the works of Confucius's disciples, and hold not the rank ism. ^ '^^'^^^- and authority of the five King. The word king means a web of cloth (or the warp which keeps the thread in place) and is applied to the most ancient books of the nation as works possessed of a sort of canon- ical authority. Of these ancient books the Shu King and the Shih King are of chief importance. One is a book of history and the other of poetry. The Shu King relates to a period extending over seventeen centuries, from about 2357 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 an- cestors. 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 example of my shrived father? Ah! far-reaching were his plans, And I am not able to carry them out. However I endeavor to reach to them My continuation of them will be all deflected. c^to *** *^ -^^ 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 itself into one of worldly wisdom rather than of spiritual life. Con- fucius says: "When I was fifteen years old I longed for wisdom. At thirty my mind was fixed in pursuit of it At forty I saw certain principles clearly. At fifty I understood the rule given by heaven. At sixty everything I heard I easily understood. At seventy the desires of my heart no longer transgressed the law." In passing now fron; sacred literaturc3 of the far east to those of THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF, RELIGIONS, 681 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 perhaps rival the Veda in inter- est, if not in value. I can only take time to cite an old Akkadian hymn to the setting sun, which seems to have been a portion of the Babylonian ritual: "O sun, in the middle of the sky, at thy setting. May the bright gates welcome thee favorably; May the door of heaven be docile to thee; May the god director, thy faithful messenger, mark the way. 5^^ Akkadian In Ebara, seat of thy royalty, he makes thy greatness shine for thee. Hymn. May the niorn, thy beloved spouse, come to meet thee with joy; May thy heart rest in peace; May the glory of thy godhead remain with thee. Powerful hero, O sun! shine gloriously. Lord of Ebara, direct thy foot lightly in thy road. O sun, in making thy way, take the path marked for thy rays. Thou art the Lord of judgments over all nations." As for the sacred scriptures of the Parsees, the Avesta, it may be said that few remains of antiquity are of much greater interest to the student of history and religion. But these records of the old Iranian faith have suffered sadly by time and the revolutions of the empire. One who has made them a special life study observes: '*As the Par- sees are the ruins of a people, so are their sacred books the ruin of a religion. There has been no other great belief that ever left such poor and meager monuments of its past splendor." The oldest por- tions of the Avesta consist of praises to the holy powers of heaven and invocations for them to be present at the ceremonial worship. The entire collection, taken together, is mainly of the nature of a prayer book or ritual. We pass now to the land of Egypt, and notice that mysterious compilation of myth and legend, and words of hope and fear, now commonly known as the "Book of the Dead." It exists in a great number of manuscripts recovered from Egyptian tombs, and many chapters are inscribed upon coffins, mummies, sepulchral wrappings, statues and walls of tombs. Some of the tombs contain exactly the same characters, or follow the same arrangement. The text is ac- cordingly very corrupt. The writing was not, in fact, intended for mortal eyes, but to be buried with the dead, and the prayers are, for the most part, language supposed to be used by the departed in their progress through the under world. We can, therefore, hardly expect to find in this strange book anything that will greatly mterest us as literature. Its value is in the knowledge it supplies of the ancient Egyptian faith. The blessed dead are supposed to have the use of all their limbs, and to eat and drink, and to enjoy an existence similar to that which they had known on earth. But they are not confined to 682 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGION^ The Moham laedan Bible. Wor«3 of Sii W Uliam Jones. any one locality, or to any one form of existence. They have the range of the entire universe in every shape and form which they de- sire. We find in one chapter an account of the terrible nature of cer- tain divinities and localities which the deceased must encounter. This before gigantic and venomous serpents, gods with names significant of death and destruction, waters and atmospheres of flames. 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 abodes. The following is a specimen of invocations to be used in passing through such dangers: "O Ra, in thine ^g^, radiant in thy disk shining forth from the hori- zon, swimming over the steel firmament, sailing over the pillars of Shu: thou who hast no second among the gods, who produced the winds 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 night when Aanit was weighed." The Mohammedan Bible is a comparatively modern book. It is a question whether its author ever learned to read or write. He dictated his revelations to his disciples and they wrote them on date leaves, bits of parchment, tablets of white stone and shoulder blades of sheep. After the prophet's death the different fragments were collected and arranged according to the length of the chapters, beginning with the longest and ending with the shortest. As a volume of sacred litera- ture the Koran is deficient in those elements of independence and originality which are noticeable in the sacred books of the other great religions of the world. It is a tedious book to read. It is full of repe- tition and seems incapable of happy translation into any other lan- guage. Its crowning glory is its glowing Arabic diction. Mohammed himself insisted that the marvelous excellence of his book was a stand- ing 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 purposed to omit par- ticular notice of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. The New Tes- tament is a unique book, or set of books, and the gospels and epistles constitute a peculiar literature. But as a body of rich and various literature these writings are surpassed by the Scriptures of the Old Testament. In giving the palm to the sacred books of the Hebrews, I will simply add the words of Sir William Jones, written on a blank leaf of his bible. That that distinguished scholar was a most com- petent critic and judge none will dispute. He wrote: *T am of opinion that this volume, independently of its divine origin, contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more pure morality, more important history and finer strains of poetry and elo- quence than can be collected from all other books in whatever age or language they may have been written." Rev. A. H. Lewis, D. D., Plainfield, N. J. Xhe ]3ivine Element in the \Yeekly f^est Day. Paper by REV. A. H. LEWIS, D. D., Plainfield, N. J. ( O subject deserves a place on the pro- gramme of this parliament which does not involve truths as wide as the w^orld, as lasting as time, and hence vital to all the higher forms of religion. ") . The theme assigned to me is in- vested with unusual importance be- cause of the various and vital interests which now cluster around the Sabbath question. The demand for reconsid- } eration 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 verdicts through history than on the question of the divine element 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 that those who disregard 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 revolution, 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, 685 God's Verdict is Clear. 686 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS Not an Acci- dent in Human History. the clouds of divine retribution are gathering, many-voiced, rebuking human disregard for sacred time. The slight regard which the world pays to these verdicts is as foolish as it is futile and ruinous. Facts do not cease because men ignore them. Divine decisions are not removed because men invent new theories to show that they ought to be erro- neous. God and truth outlive man's ignorance and his experiments in disobedience. The weekly rest day is not an accident in human history. It is not a superficial and temporary phenomenon. It springs from the in- herent philosophy of time and from man's relation to God through it. Duration is an immediate attribute of God. It is an essential charac- teristic of the self-existing deity. He is inconceivable without it, "Time" is measured duration in which man has being. Herein is it true that men "live, move and have their being" with and within God. He is forever in touch with His children through this environment of duration as definitely as the atmosphere is in touch with their physical bodies. Existence within this attribute of God is not subject to man's volition. We cannot remove ourselves from continuous living contact with Him, even though we refuse to commune with Him through love and obedience. On the other hand, the loving soul cannot hold com- munion with God without this medium of time; and such are the de- mands of life on earth that sacred time must be definite in amount and must recur at definite periods. This is doubly true because men are social beings, and social worship and united service are essential fac- tors in all religions. In accordance with these fundamental principles and demands we find that the idea of sacred time, in some of its many forms, is universal. It varies with religious and social development and with monotheistic Idea pf Sa- and polytheistic tendencies. The supreme expression of this idea is Universal.^ ^^ fouud in the wcck, a divinely appointed cycle of time, measured, iden- tified and preserved by the Sabbath. It is not a week, but the week; a uniform and sacred multiple of days, which has endured, unvariantand identical, from the prehistoric period to the present hour All other divisions of time are marked wholly by the planets, or are so con- nected with them as to be variable, through needful adjustment to the natural order of things. Imperfect imitations of the week, like the "nundine" of the Romans, and the intercalated lunar weeks of the Assyrians, serve only to emphasize the supernatural and divine order of the week . The weekly rest day and the week are the special representatives of God, not of "creation" simply, but of the universal Father, Creator, Helper and Redeemer; the All in All; the Ever-living and Ever-loving One. Springing from such universal facts, and continuing according to such divine philosophy, the week and the weekly rest day are inte- gral factors in the eternal fitness of things. The foundations of relig- ious 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. cred THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 687 Philology is a department of history. Language is embalmed thought. It is an archaeological museum of crystallized facts. It gives unerring testimony concerning the habits and practices of men in all ages. Names are among the most enduring elements of language. The existence of a name is proof that the thing existed as early or earlier than the name. Thus the so-called '* dead languages " preserve the life of the people who have passed away. Nautical terms in a language show that it belonged to a seafaring race. If a language be filled with the names of agricultural implements, we know that those who spoke it were tillers of the soil, even though the land they inhab- ited be now a desert. Under this universal law of philology the identity of the week in its present order is placed beyond question. A table of days carefully prepared by Dr.W. M. Jones, of London, assisted by other eminent scholars, shows that the week as we now have it exists in all the principal languages and dialects of the world. This philological chain encircles the globe, includes all races of men 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 the weekly rest day, by which alone the universal week is measured. Thus God ordained to keep constantly in touch with men through this sacred attribute of Himself within which His children exist. Being founded in the divine order and created to meet a universal demand, linking earth and heaven as God's especial representative, the Sabbath and the week have a supreme value in all human affairs. 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 bless- ings which come to the physical side of life through rest are much, mainly or only, when rest comes through religious sentiment. Irre- ligious leisure insures holidayism and dissipation. These defeat all higher results. 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, aU their higher interests are served. Spiritual intercourse and acquaintance with God are the first and supreme results. Wor- ship and religious instruction follow. Under the behest of religion the ordinary duties of life, its cares and perplexities are really set aside, not simply refrained from. Such a rest day promotes all that is best; it is not merely a time for physical inaction. It raises men into companionship with God and with good. It is not burdened with hair-splitting distinctions about what is worldly, what may be done, or what may not be done Not "Thou shalt not do," but *T delight to do Thy will, O God," is its language. Nothing less than sacred time can meet such demands. Sacred places and sacred shrines cannot come to them as time does. They are too far removed from God and too local as to men. They cannot speak to the soul as time speaks. Sacred hours are God's unfolding \ presence, lifting the soul and holding it in heavenly converse. Social A Philologi- cal Chain. Valne of the Sabbath. 688 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, worship comes only through specified time. Religious intercourse among men, whereby each stimulates the other's faith and aids the other's devotion, is an inevitable result of sacred time and is unattain- able without it. Sacred time cultivates religious life by spiritual com- munion, by wholesome instruction and by healthful, spiritual sur- roundings. It preserves and develops religious life by continual recurrence. God drops out of mind when the practical recognition of sacred time ceases. The religious sense and religious tendencies disappear when the consciousness of God's presence is lost. On the other hand, all that is holiest and best springs into life and develops into beauty when men realize that God is constantly near them. The sense of personal obligation, awakened by the consciousness of God's pres- ence, lies at the foundation of religious life and of worship. God's day is a perfect symbol of His presence, of His enfolding and redeem- ing love. The lesser blessings which come to men through sacred time need not be catalogued here, but it must be remembered that these do not come except through sacred time, and that the results which flow from irreligious idleness are curses rather than blessings. Holidayism is removed from Sabbathism. An adequate conception of the problems which surround the Sab- bath question will not be obtained unless we consider some things which prevent these hip;her views from being" adopted. First among- which Sur- hindrances is the failure to recognize duration as an attribute of God, bath^Q^tion" ^^^ hence the Sabbath and the week, as necessary parts of the divine and everlasting order of things. Without a recognition of the fact that sacred time, as God's representative, is a necessary result of the primal and fundamental relations between God and His creatures, there is no adequate basis for a religious rest day, nor for any permanent conception of sacred time. If time is but the accident of man's earthly, existence, Sabbathism sinks to the plane of a temporary ceremony, or a passing rite born of momentary choice, or personal desire. Such a conception is too low to awaken conscience or to cultivate spiritual life. The absence of this higher conception is the source of the present 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." Any conception of the weekly rest day which does not recognize it as God's representative in human life, and as growing out of the universal relations which men sustain to Him, as earthly, sensuous and fatal to religion. Conscience finds no congenial soil in such low 1 ground. Growth heavenward cannot take root in the falsehood which separates the Sabbath from God and from the life to come. There can be no religious rest day without conscience. There is no con- science where God's authority is not. God has written this verdict on every page of history. Another great hindrance is interposed when men emphasize and exalt the importance of physical rest as the reason for maintaining Sab- Pr o b 1 e m 8 Observance. Civil E n- a THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, bath observance This is done because the divine element is unrecog- nized, and in turn the divine element is obscured in proportion as physical rest is crowded to the front. This reverses the true order. It places the lowest, highest. It exalts the material and temporary above physical Rest the spiritual and eternal. When the physical needs are made prom- anjd^Sabbath inent, the spiritual perceptions are benumbed and clouded. Upon such "''""•""'^ a basis the obligation to rest is determined by the extent of weariness, and the manner of resting by the kind of weariness. This de-sabbatizes the rest day and destroys the religious foundation which alone can uphold it. Let it be repeated; irreligious resting at the best is holi- dayism. It usually sinks to dissipation and debauchery. Another decided hindrance to the recognition of the divine ele- ment in the weekly rest day is reliance on the civil law for the enforce- ment of its observance. This point is worthy of far more careful and scientific consideration than it has yet received. The vital divine ele- force^ment ment in the weekly rest day is eliminated when it is made a " civil Hindrance institution." The verdict of history on this point is unmistakable, uniform and imperative. Any argument is deceptive and destructive if it places the rest day on a par with those civil institutions that spring from the relations which men sustain to each other in organized so- ciety. The fundamental difference is so great that the same treatment cannot be accorded to each. Civil institutions spring from earthly relations between men. But, as we have seen, duration 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 authority 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 question in sight, when "the law of the land" is presented as the main point of contact. The ultimate appeal is not to Caesar, but to God; to con- science, not to congress. Here is the fatal weakness of "modern Sabbath reform." History sustains these conclusions with one voice. No weekly rest day was ever religiously or sacredly kept under the authority of the civil law alone. On the contrary, the religious ele- ment is always destroyed by the supposed protection of civil law. When conscience, springing from the recognition of the divine element is wanting, nothing higher than holidayism can be reached. The weekly rest day loses its sacredness and its power to uplift and bless whenever divine authority and the sanctity which follows therefrom are separated from it. Another of the higher elements which enter into the weekly rest day must be noticed here. The Sabbath is the prophecy of everlast- prophecy of ing and perfected rest in the life to come. Heavenly life is the second the^^Life to Stage in the existence of redeemed men. Secure in the consciousness Come. 690 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Type and Promise of Eternal Rest. Conclusio n s Reached. of immortality, religion is always looking forward to a better time beyond. Visions of this eternal Sabbath, untouched by care, undi;nmed by sorrow and filled with delightsome rest, are a part of universal relig- ion. These are not baseless dreams. They are the most real of real- ities. Spiritual vision sees them in part while awaiting the hour of their fuller revelation. Earthly Sabbaths are the type and the promise of eternal rest. They are pulse throbs from God's heart of love, which speed along the arteries of our immortality, assuring us of the rest which remaineth for God's children close beyond the veil that but thinly intervenes between the loving soul and the fair city of eternal light and joy. Hence it is, that the Sabbath is not sacred because its observance is commanded. Its observance is commanded because it is intrinsically sacred. It was not created at Sinai, but Sinai was made glorious by the presence of Him from whom time and eternity proceed, and who there re-announced this representative of Himself and of His continued presence among men. A fountain of religion opened to satisfy man's spiritual nature, it is far more than a "memorial of crea- tion." It is God's accredited ambassador at the court of humanity, always saying to men, "God is your Father, your Preserver, your Spir- itual Head, the Bearer of your burdens, the Healer of your sorrows; living in Him your salvation is secured and your joy co-eternal with your immortality." Before passing to consider a still broader and possible result than men have yet considered, it may be well to repeat the conclusions al- ready reached. (a) Duration, eternity, is the attribute of Deity. Time is meas- ured duration, within which man exists and by means of which he is forever living, moving and being in God. It is the divine involucrum within which man is created and developed. (b) 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 spiritual communion with Him. Its order and identity are coequal with history and the human race. (c) The weekly rest day cannot serve the ends for which it was created on any other than a religious basis. That basis is revealed by divine comm.and, divine example and human needs, all springing from man's relation to God, to time an^I to eternity. Christ's precepts and example repeated and intensifies God's example and commandment, while His sacrifice magnified rnd re-established the divine law. (d) Our restless, overworked age cries out with deep and religious longings for the blessings of the divinely ordained religious rest day. All nations and all individuals need these blessings to lead them heav- enward and to lift them into spiritual childship and communion with the Father and Redeemer of all. (e) Reliance upon lower considerations and earth-born motives increases existing evils, prevents religious development, obscures the Godward side of the question, and delays genuine reform. The clos- ing decade of the nineteenth century has fully entered a world-wide THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 691 • transition in religious thought, and hence of the Sabbath question. It is too early to say in detail what the final readjustment will bring. As men rise to this higher, this true conception of time, of the week and of the Sabbath, and come to observe it — not as a form, a cere- mony, a something to be done, but in recognition of their existence with and within the Divine One — it is not too much to hope that uni- versal Sabbatism, religious Sabbatism, according to God's command- ment, to continue Sabbatism is neither long nor unnatural. It is rather legitimate and ought to be expected. Some could have approached this in all ages; but the masses are yet far from it,, mainly because the treatment of the Sabbath question since the third century of the Chris- tian era has obscured or destroyed the idea of sacred time. Real Sab- batism cannot be attained on any ground lower than religious and spir- itual rest. So long as men think of the Sabbath as a temporary insti- tution, belonging to one " dispensation," or to one people, the higher conception will not be reached even in theory, 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 Sabbath is a part of the eternal order of things, as essential an element of true religion as the sun is of the solar system. It is older than any legisla- tion and permanent beyond all changes, national or dispensational. When men rightly apprehend the divine element in the weekly rest day, they do not need the law of the land nor the fiat of the church to induce obedience to this blessed provision of their existence, which answers their "crying out for God." Until they do apprehend this higher idea, little value is gained and true Sabbatism 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 Final c o n- authority, manner of observance and future character must be remand- elusion, ed to the realm of religion. • Conscientious regard for it as divinely or- dained, sacred to God and therefore laden with blessings for men is the only basis for its continuance. It is not an element of ceremonial- ism to be performed for sake of a ritual. It is not part of a "legal system" to be obeyed under fear of punishment, nor is it to be kept as a ground 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 jurisprudence It rises far above all these. It reaches deeper than any of these It is an integral part of the relation which God's immortal children sustain to Him within time and throughout eternity. The "morning stars" sang at its birth and the "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 forever and ever. Mosque of El-Azhar in Cairo. JVlan's Place in fsjature, Paper by PROF. A. B. BRUCE, of Glasgow. i\ ^ ^ ^ HAT is man? A century ago our pious <^^A /^ ^' " 'T^jT grandfathers would have replied: ^^^^'.' » '^Ml^ " ^^^ ^^^^ ^"^ k^^^g o^ creation." The \fB^ H^ ,\. latest science has not dethroned him. 1^R\ ^^ ^ ^.1*S^ The evolutionary theory as to the genesis of things confesses that man is at the head of creation as we know it. It not only confesses this truth, it proves it, sets it on a foundation of scientific certainty, making man ap- pear the consummation and crown of the evolutionary process in that part of the universe with which it is our power to become thoroughly ac- quainted. It is not quite a settled matter that man is out and out the child of evolu- tion. That he is the product of 'evolution on the animal side of his nature is now all but universally acknowledged. Any dispute still outstanding re- lates to the psychical aspect of his being — to his intellect and his con- science. It is on this side admittedly that man's 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 re- stricted 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 significance of man's position. in the universe, the interest by no means lies exclusively on the more conservative and cautious side of the question. Making man out and out the child of evolution, if it can be done, without sacrifice of essential truths, has its advantages for the cause of theism. On this view the process of evolution becomes an absolutely universal mother of creation, whereof man in his entire being is the highest and final product. And what we gain from this conception is the right to interpret the whole pro- cess by its end. By putting man in his highest nature apart from the Process of Eyolation. All that is 694 The WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIOIOm. process and regarding him in that respect as the creature of an im- mediate divine agency, we lose this right. In reason and conscience outside the great movement, he is neither explained by it nor does he explain it in turn. But bring him soul as well as body within the jaighest" in 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 evolution- ary account of man all along the line. That means that we regard man physically as shown by similarity of anatomical structure, con- nected with the family of apes and by the successive stages through which he passes in the embryonic period of his history betraying kin- ship with the whole lower animal world. It means, further, that we regard man intellectually as evolved from the rudiments of reason traceable in the brute creation The contrast is so great that the growth of the higher out of the lower seems incredible. Man thinks and plans, the brute acts by blind instinct. Man forms highly abstract concepts, the brute is capable at most of forming what has been called "precepts," spontaneous associations of similar objects so as to be able to distinguish between a stone and a loaf, between water and rock, so as to avoid trying to eat a stone or to dive into a rock; ''implicit, unperceived abstractions " Once more; man speaks, the brute, at most, can only make significant signs. How far the human animal has outstripped his humbler brothers! But great advances can be made by very small steps if sufficient time be given. And there was plenty of time, according to the geol- ogists. Man has been in existence since the ice age — say two hundred and fifty thousand years. Surely, within that period, precepts might nmitive an. gj^^^jy p^53 jj^^q concepts, and inarticulate, sounds into articulate words! The dawn of reason inaugurates the crude beginning of lan- guage, and the use of language in turn stimulates the further develop- ment of reason. Of course, we are not to conceive of primitive man as speaking in highly developed language, as Sanskrit or Greek; perhaps for a long time he could not speak at all, but a man in body, he remained a mere animal in the use of signs. And even after the epoch of speech 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 prone un 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. Wt accept, further, the evolution of morality. And that means that the sense of duty and moral conduct have been evolved out of elements i raceable in the brute creation, such as the instinct of self-preservatior , natural care of young and the social disposition characteristic of th< ; ant, the bee and the beaver. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, m An important factor in raising ethics from the animal'to the human level was, of course, reason. Reason looks to the future and forms an idea of life as a whole and to develop the prudence which can sacrifice present pleasure for ultimate gain. Another important factor was the prolongation of the period of infancy, upon which Mr. Fiske has rightly laid emphasis. This depth 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 appre- ciate the 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 appear- ance the highest producible. If man had not been, it would not have been worth while, for the lower world would not have come into exist- ence. This is how the theist must view the matter. He must regard the sub-human universe in the light of an instrument to be used, in subservience to the ends of the moral and spiritual universe and created by God for that purpose. The Agnostics can evade this conclusion by regarding the evolution of the universe as an absolutely necessary and aimless process which cannot 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. If it arrive at length at man, why, then says the materialist, we can only conclude that it is in the nature of mechanics to produce in the long run mind, and of motion to be permuted ultimately into thought. 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 in the Hebrew writings. By ab- staining from all elaborate cosmogony and confining attention to the purely religious aspects of the world, the Scriptures have given a rep- resentation which, for simple dignity and essential trust, leave little to be desired: "God said, let us make man in our own image." This is a flash of direct insight and "inspiration," not an inference from scien- tific knowledge of the exact method of creation. It is, however, asso- ciated with the perception that man's place in the world is one of lord- ship. In both cases, the Hebrew prophet by religious intuition grasped truths which our nineteenth century science has only confirmed. Man is lord, therefore God is manlike. The point that needs emphasizing today is not that man is like God, but that God is like man, for it is God, His being and nature that we long to know, and we welcorne any legitimate avenue to this high knowledge. And man, by his place in nature, is accredited to us as our surest, perhaps our sole source of knowledge. And it confirms us in the use of this source to find that ancient wisdom as represented by the Hebrew sage, to whom we owe the story of Genesis, indirectly indorses our method by proclaiming that in man we may see God's image. The Soci Instinct. al Ic Hie Imaga THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, In Advance ot llieir Time. Need the Teaching of Jeeos. Men everywhere and always have conceived their Gods as man- like. They have done so too often in most harmful ways, imputing to the Divine, human passions and vices. This, however lamentable and pernicious, was inevitable. There is no effectual cure for it except the growth of mankind in its ethical ideal. The purification 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 anthropomorphism, as Mr. Fiske expressed it "the anthropomorphisation" 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 development has reached its growth. There has been, indeed, a rudimentary likeness all along from the day when man became, in the incipient degree, human. It is not necessary to take the image of God ascribed to man in Genesis in too absolute a sense. The likeness was in outline, in skeleton, in germ, in fruitful possibilities rather than in realized fact. And what we have to do is to interpret God through man, not in view of what man is, but of what man has in him to 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 fill in the picture of the divine personality by an indiscriminate imputation to God of the very mixed contents of the average human personality. Our very ideals are imperfect; how much more our realizations. Our theology must be constructed, therefore, on a basis of careful, impartial self- criticism, casting aside as unfit material for building our system not only all that can be traced to our baser nature, but even all in our highest thoughts, feelings and aspirations that is due to the influence of the time-spirit, or is merely an accident of the measure of civiliza- tion reached in our social environment. The safest guides in theology are always the men who are more or less disturbed because they are in advance of their time; the men of prophetic spirit, who see lights not yet above the horizon for average moral intelligence; who cherish ideals regarded by the many as idle, mad dreams;. who, while 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 prophets to lead it inthe 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 possible that there may be prophets of bygone days whose significance as teachers has been by no means exhausted. This may be claimed pre-eminently for Him whom Christians calltheir Lord, I do not expect a time will ever come when men may say, we do not need the teaching of Jesus any more. That time has certainly not come yet. We have not got to the bottom of Christ's doctrine of God and man, as related to each other as father and son. How beautifully THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 697 He has therein set the great truths that God is manlike and man god- like, 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; und, 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. And the better fathers and mothers grow, the better they will know God. The- ology will become more Christian as family affection flourishes. And what a benefit it will be to mankind when Christ's doctrine of father- hood has been sincerely and universally accepted: Every man God's son; therefore, every man under obligation to be godlike, that is, to be a true man, self-respecting and worthy of respect. Every man God's son; therefore, every man entitled to be treated with respect by fellow- men, despite poverty, low birth, yea, even in spite of low character, out of regard to possibilities in him. Carry out this programme and away goes caste in India, England, America, everywhere, in every land where men are supposed to have forfeited the rights of a man by birth, by color, by poverty, by occupation; and where many have yet to learn the simple truth quaintly stated by Jesus when He said, "Much is man better than a sheep." Does the view of man as the crown of evolutionary process throw any light on his eternal destiny? 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, behold, we know not any- thing. Yet, it is worthy of note that leading advocates of evolutionism ^^^j^^ ao- are among the most pronounced upholders of immortality. Mr. Fiske vocates of Etc says: "For my own part I believe in the immortality of the soul, not i^^^omsm. 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 cannot believe that God made the world, and especially its highest creature, simply to destroy it like a child who builds houses out of rocks just for the pleasure of knocking them down. Not less strongly 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, signi- fying nothing." These utterances, of course, do not settle the question. But, con- sidering whence they emanate, they may be taken at least as an Authoritative authoritative indication that the tenet of human immortality is con- Indication, gruous to, if it be not a necessary deduction from, the demonstrable truths that man is the consummation of the great world-process, by which the universe has been brought into bein^. JVlusic, ^motion and ]V\orals. Paper by REV. H. R. HAWEIS, of London. The only Liv- ing, Growing Art. T 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 ap- proval before I begin speaking, because it is impossible to know what your feelings may be when I have done. [Laughter.] 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 a,nd morals is also a very grave sub- ject. Yet, here we are, ladies and gentlemen, living in the middle of the golden age of music, per- haps without knowing it. What would you have given to have seen a day of Raphael or to have seen a day of Pericles, you who have been living in this great Christian age? And yet the age of Augustus was the golden age of Roman literature. The a2;e of Pericles was that of sculpture, the Medicean age of painting, so the golden age of music is the Victorian or the Star Spangled Banner age. [Applause.] Music is the only living, growing art. All other arts have been discovered. An art is not a growing art when all its elements have been discovered. You paint now and you combine the discoveries of the past; you discover nothing; you build now and you combine the researches and the experiences of the past; but you cannot paint better than Raphael, you cannot 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, because we can almost within the memory of a man reach hands with Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner. We place their heads upon pedestals side by side with Raphael and with Michel Angelo, yet we have no clear idea of the connection between the art of music and morals, although we acknowledge great men like Beethoven along with the great sculptors, poets and painters. 093 Rev. H. R. Haweis, London, Eng. ftt£ World's comnEss oP religions. Wl Basis. 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 con- nection 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 en- slaves 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 be- tween music and the conduct of life. Now if, after today, any one asks you what is the connection between music and morals, I will give it to you in a nutshell. This is the connection: Music is the language of emotion. I suppose you all admit that music has an extraordinary power over your feelings, and therefore music is connected with emotion. Emotion is connected with thought. Some kind of feeling or emotion underlies all thought, which from moment to moment flits through your mind. Therefore music is connected with thought. Thought is connected with action. Most people think before they act — or are supposed to, at any rate, and I must give you the benefit of the doubt. Thought is connected with action, action deals with conduct, and the sphere of conduct is connected with morals. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, if music is connected with emotion, and emotion is connected with thought, and thought is connected with action, and action is connected with the sphere of conduct, or with morals, things which are connected by the same must be connected with one another, and therefore music must be connected with morals. Now, the real reason, the cogent reason why we have coupled all these three worlds — music, emotion, morals — together, is because emo- tion is coupled with morals. Y'bu will all admit that if your emotions j>r feelings were always wisely directed, life would be more free from the disorders which disturb us. The great disorders of our age come Out'Sl^ hot from the possession of emotional feeling, but from its abuse, its misdirection and the bad use of it. Once discipline your emotions, once get a good quantity of that steam power which we call feeling or emotion and drive it in the right channel, and life becomes noble, fertile and harmonious. Well, then, if there is this close connection between emotion or feeling and the life, conduct or morals, what the connection between emotion and morals is, that also must be the character of the connec- tion between music, which is the art medium of emotion and morals. Now, there are a great many people who will say: "After all, that art which deals with emotions is less respectable than an art which deals with thought." I might be led here to ask, "What is the coij- An £tiucal Disorders of %2 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. Connection Between Emo- tion and Thought. Uears, Idle Tears. Nothing Good Without Emo- tion. nection between emotion and thought?" But that would carry me too far. In a word, 1 may say that thought without feeling is dead, being alone. You 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 won- derful inner life of emotion with which music converses first hand, most intimately, without the meditation of thoughts or words. So strange is thjs inward life of emotion, so powerful and important 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. [Applause.] Tell me, when does the actor culminate? When he is pouring forth an eloquent diatribe? When he is uttering the most glowing words of Shakespeare? 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 sub- lime, and emotion has transcended thought. [Applause.] Now, why has emotion or feeling got a bad name? Because emo- tion is so often misdirected, so often wasted, so often stands for mere gush without 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 one hundred dollars, you find that their emotion is of no use whatever. 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 emo- tion, aye, of emotion through music, on politics and patriotism; the power of emotion, aye, emotion through music upon religion and morals — that, in a nutshell, will be the remainder 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, 'T 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 last he gets the whole country in a ferment, and then he comes back to parliament or to congress and says: "Gentlemen, you see the people will have it. Their voice is as tiie voice of many waters. It is as the roaring of the ocean and as irresistible." And the government cannot oppose a law which has the emotional feeling of the country back of it, and so the THE WORLD'S CONCRESS OF RELlGIOl^S, %Z 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. [Great applause.] And why? Because he would go into a meeting packed with southerners or with advocates of slavery and disunion, and leave that meeting ranting and roaring for the liberation of the slaves and the preservation of the union. [Applause.] That was the power steam-powei 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 peo- ple in his great fight for the freedom of Italy; he devoted his life to that mission — that he fired his people with patriotism, and it was noth- ing but the steam power of feeling and emotion which carried that great revolution for a united Italy. It may be true that Victor Emman- uel was the brain .and gave it its constitutional element, but it was Garibaldi who aroused the great emotional feeling, 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 been the voiceless emotion of the people. 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 lies 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 re- member when Wagner, as a very young man, came over to England and studied our national anthems. He said that the whole of the British character lay in the first two bars of "Rule Britannia." It means get out of the way; make room for me. It is John Bull elbowing through the crowd. [Laughter and applause.] And so your "Star-Spangled Banner" has kindled so much unity and patriotism. The profoundly religious nature of the Germans comes forth in their 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 Moral Nature. •y04 THE WOkLD'S CONGRESS OP kEUGIONS. from my lecture today, or the power of emotion through music upon religion and through religion upon morals, for religion is that thing which kindles and makes operative and irresistible the sway of the moral nature. It is impossible, with this motto, "Music, Emotion and Religion" for my text, to exclude the consideration of the effect of music upon religion. I read that our Lord and His disciples, at a time when words failed them and when their hearts were heavy, when all Sway of the had been said and all had been done at that last supper — I read that, after they had sung a hymn, our Lord and the disciples went out into the Mount of Olives. After Paul and Silas had been beaten and thrust into a noisome dungeon, they forgot their pain and humiliations and sang songs, spiritual psalms, in the night, and the prisoners heard' them. I read, in the history of the Christian church, when the great creative and adaptive genius of Rome took possession of that mighty spiritual movement and proceeded to evangelize the Roman empire, that St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan in the third century, collected the Greek odes and adapted certain of them for the Christian churches, and that these scales were afterward revived by the great Pope Greg- ory, who gave the Christian church the Gregorian chants, the first elements of emotion interpreted by music which appeared in the Christian church. It is difficult for us to overestimate the power of those crude scales, although they seem harsh to our ears. It is difficult to realize the effect produced by Augustine and his monks when they landed in Great Britain, chanting the ancient Gregorian chants. When the king gave his partial adherence to the mission of Augustine, the saint turned from the king and directed his course toward Canterbury, where he was to be the first Christian archbishop. Still, as he went along with his monks, they chanted one of the Gregorian chants. That was his war-cry: [intoning] " Turn away, O, Lord, Thy wrath from this city, and Thine anger from its sin." That is a true Gregorian; those are the very words of Augustine. And later on I shall remind you of both the passive and active func- tions of the Christian church — passive, when the people sat still and heard sweet anthems; active, when they broke out into hymns of praise. Shall I tell 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, fester 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 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 705 night, in the solitude of the Welsh hills, as I saw a little light in a cot- tage, and as I came near I heard the voices of the children singing: Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly. And I thought how those little ones had gone to school and had learned this hymn and had come home to evangelize their little remote cottage and lift up the hearts of their parents with the love of Jesus. Why, the effects of a good hymn are incalculable. Wesley and White- Effects of a field, and the great hymn writers of the last century, and the sacred ^**^ Hymn. 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 present. Do make your services congregational, and do not let the organist "do" the people out of the hymns. Don't let him gallop through them with his trained choir. Remind him that he has his time with the anthems and the voluntaries, and that, when the hymns come, it is the people's innings, and fair play is a jewel. [Laughter and applause.] Hymns have an enormous power in knit- ting 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 har- monium 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 on the twenty-fifth or thirtieth verse the whole of the hall was in full cry. They were warmed up and enthusi- astic, and then in comes Mr. Moody and he would play upon that vast crowd like an old fiddle. Believe me, that emotion through music is a great power in vitalizing and cementing and unifying the religious aspirations of a large mixed congregation. I now approach the last clause of ,my discourse. We have dis- covered the elements of music. Modern music has been three or four hundred years in existence, and that is about the time that every art has taken to be thoroughly explored. After that, all its elements have been 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 * '^*^^f m ®^*'*^" "golden age." It is difficult to imagine anything more complicated ^^" ^^°* than Wagner's score of Parsival, or the score of the Trilogy. We have all these wondrous resources of the sound art placed at the dis- posal of humanity for the. first time. But there is a boundless future in store formusic. We have not half explored its powers of good. I say let the people have bands. Cultivate music in the home; harmonize crowds with music. Let it be more and more the solace and burden lifter of humanity; and, above all, let us learn that music is not only a consolation^ it not only has the power of expressing emotion, of exciting emotion, but also the power of disciplining, controlling and purifying emotion. When you listen to a great symphony of Beethoven 45 706 tHE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, you undergo a process of divine restraint. Music is an immortal bene* factor 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 yourselves in the hands of a great master. You hold your breath in one place and let it out in another; you have now to gi\^ way in one place and then you have to expand in another; it strikes the whole gamut of human feeling, 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 uai of the Arts! age; it is not only a consolation, but a kind of ministering angel in the heart, and 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 above ourselves. We move about in worlds not realized; it is as the footfalls on the threshold of another world. We breathe a higher air. We stretch forth the spiritual antennae 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 as hither. Prof. J.T. Landis, D. D., Ph. D., Dayton, Ohio. pjow C^^ , Philosophy (jive ^\d to the Science of Religion? Paper by PROF. J. P. LANDIS, D. D., Ph. D., of Dayton, Ohio. CHLEIERMACHER defined religion as '^a sense of absolute dependence." But it in- cludes more than this feeling, namely, the apprehension of a supreme or at least a superior being; that is, it includes knowl- edge. Even in the feeling itself there is more than a mere sense of dependence, namely, reverence, fear, love. An eminent philosophical Christian writer says: "Relig- ion is the union of man with God, of the finite with the infinite expressed in con- scious love and reverence." James Free- man Clarke, seeking for a simple and com- prehensive expression, says: ** Religion is the tendency in man to worship and serve invisible beings like himself, but above himself." This is purposely comprehensive, so that it may in- clude animism, 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, "that man has a natural faith in supernatural powers with whom he can commune, to whom he is related, and that this life and this earth are not enough to satisfy his soul." What is science? In its broadest definition, science is system- atized knowledge. This, however, implies more than an orderly ar- rangement of facts. It includes the discovery of the principles and laws which underlie and pervade the facts. Science seeks to reach the highest principles, those which have given shape and character to the facts, and among these principles even aspires to grasp the central one, so as to give rational unity to the subject. Now, is there, or may there be a science of religion? It is a gratuitous assumption to claim there is no science but natural science. This assumption would exclude 7Q9 Faith in Snpernatural Powers. 710 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Religious Phenomena. Three Subjects Considered. 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 subject of a science if they follow one another' according to constant laws; although those laws may not have been discovered, nor even be discoverable by our existing resources." The religious phenomena of the world and human experience are just as real as any with which* physical science has to deal. In the sense in which he means it, James Freeman Clarke is right when he says: " The facts of consciousness constitute the basis of religious science. These facts are as real and as constant as those which are perceived through the senses. * * * Faith, hope, love, are as real as form, sound and color. The moral laws also, which may be deduced from some such experiences, are real and permanent, 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 science of religion requires the collation of a vast historical data, an exhaustive and true analysis of the facts of con- sciousness, the discovery of the relations of these facts to one another, of the principles which underlie and pervade them and the laws bv which they are governed and the logical arrangement or .systematization of these elements or data. The science of religion as above defined, is broader than system- atic theology 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 into mathematical, physical and theological. He says: "There is another science which treats of that which is immutable and trans- cendental. If, indeed, there exist such a substance, as we shall indeed endeavor to show that there does, this transcendental and permanent substance, if it exist at all, must surely be the sphere of the divine; it must be the first and highest principle." This he called theology. Whatever else theology, or the science of religion must consider, the three most prominent subjects must be: First, God, His being and attributes, the sources of our idea of God, proofs of His existence, His rulership over the world, etc.; second, nature or the works of God; third, man in his relations to Deity. The fact of sin, its nature and con- sequence, the question as to the possibility of man's recovery from sin, and man's destiny, or the question of immortality, are also prominent subjects for consideration. Having taken a glance at the definition and scope of the science of religion, let us do the same for philosophy. Definitions have been very various, from the days of Plato and Aris- totle to the present time. With Aristotle philosophy is the systematic THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 711 and critical knowledge of the first or ultimate principle of capital being. Herbert Spencer calls it "knowledge of the highest degree of generality" and adds: "Science is partially unified knowledge; philos- ophy 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 mean- ing. It would fain know the rationale of all things, physical and mental, natural and supernatural. Philosophy strives to comprehend in unity and to understand the ground and causes of all reality. This necessarily includes life in all its aspects and relations. I should give the scope of philosophical inquiry, or the philosophical encyclopedia, as follows: Metaphysics or ontology, psychology, logic, ethics, religion, aesthetics, politics. These divisions partly overlap. one another. On comparing the scope of both the science of religion and philosophy, it is seen in part they cover the same ground. The ultimate object about which they both treat are God, nature and man. Said Lord Bacon, " The three objects of philosophy are God, nature and man." The relations of philosophy, therefore, to the science of religion are of necessity very intimate. We cannot sepa- rate them entirely, try we never so hard. Schleiermacher and his school, at the beginning of our century, attempted this, but even Schleiermacher, with all his genius, failed, and his very 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 philos- ophy to religion are shown by the history of both, from ancient times to the present. While the ultimate aim of religion is practical and that of philosophy is speculative, no serious or thoughtful mind can rest in the contemplation of the practical or utilitarian elements of religion. Moreover, even the speculative or rational elements of religion everywhere underlie the practical. But the consideration of these rational elements brings her within the domain of philosophy. Rational theology is indeed a part of philosophy. Man finds himself to be a religious being. He has a sense of de- pendence on a superior Being. There are, we may say, deposits in his feelings themselves which are peculiar and may turn out to be very significant and lead to the discovery of very important truths. There are in all men certain spontaneous religious beliefs, but as man ad- vances in. intellectual growth and intelligence, he begins to 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 charac- ter is our knowledge of Him? These are all questions which must be Scope of Philo. Bophical In- quiry. Dependence on a Superior Being. 712 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, answered if we are able to have any such thing as scientific theology 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 pro- foundest depths of human thought, in the very realm of inquiry in which philosophy as such lives and has its being. As in the case of other subjects, religion must come to philosophy to settle for it all the problems which are purely rational. Philosophy must furnish the ultimate data, the basal truths, though not the histor- ical facts upon which a great part of the religious doctrine rests. Natural theology is constantly assuming a more metaphysical or phil- osophical character. The sacred books, as the Bible of the Jews and Christians, proceed upon the assumption of the existence of the Divine Being. If there is no such being, there is no religion. The question, then, which at once confronts us in inquiring into the reality of religion itself relates to the existence of a God. This is the fundamental question, but it is The Fnnda- philosophical in its nature, and its solution belongs to the realm of tion. philosophy. It is not my purpose to enter further into this question than to show its relation to philosophy. Some say the knowledge or the conviction of the existence of God is innate, that it cannot be proved. Others 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 met- aphysics can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. Dr. McCosh does not admit that we have an intuitive knowledge of God, but that ''Our intuitions, like the works of nature, carry us up to God, their author." Yet he says: 'The idea of God, the belief in God, may be justly represented as native to man." Many writers go so far as to speak of a God-consciousness. Professor Fisher says: "We are conscious of God in a more intimate sense than we are conscious of finite things." Professor Luthardt, of Leipsic, says: "Consciousness of God is as essential an element of our mind as consciousness of the world, or self-consciousness." The names of many other writers, phil- osophical and theological, who teach that idea is innate, might be added such as DesCartes, Dr. Julius Miller, Dr. Dorner, Professor Bowen, of Harvard University; Professor Harris, of Yale University. Dr. McCosh says: "Among metaphysicians of the present day it is a very common opinion that our belief in God is innate." Their doc- trine may be expressed thus: We have an intuitive necessary belief in the divine existence. . But belief implies knowledge more or less clear. "Necessary be lief involves necessary cognition." Hence God, as the object of our intuitive belief, becomes in some sense the object of intuitive knowl- edge. For instance, if one ask for an explanation of finite 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 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 713 We can by no means eminent Max MuUer conception as he has of the existence of a God. free ourselves from the notion of God." The puts the statement thus: "As soon as man becomes conscious of himself as distinct from all other things and persons, he at the same time becomes conscious of a higher self; a power without which he feels that neither he nor any- thing else would have any life or reality. This is the first sense of the godhead, is the source of all religion. It is that without which no re- ligion, true or false, is possible." When objections are raised to this doctrine, the examination of its validity can be determined only within the field of philosophy. This is done by appealing to the criteria of intuition. It is necessary to our nature, so that, when the problem is put before the mind, the op- posite cannot be believed. Its denial does violence to our whole nature, and is forced. As soon as the laws of nature act unrestrained, the belief in Deity asserts itself. It is necessary somewhat in the same sense as our conviction of the moral law, or of right, is necessary —we cannot rid ourselves of it. This is not disproved by the fact that some men have doubted the existence of God. Men may do violence to their mental constitution, either by wrong metaphysics or by sin. A man may so cauterize his hand that he loses the sense of touch. Men have been born blind or deaf, but this does not prove that sight and hearing are not native to man. Some have doubted whether there is an externalworld at all, as Bishop Berkeley; others, whether th^re 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, /. e., it is held in some form by all nations, tribes and tongues. The claim has in a tew in- stances been set up that some small tribes have been discovered who had no idea whatever of God, but when the case was narrowly inquired into, the statement was found to be incorrect. Even Professor De Quatrefages, professor of anthropology in unbelieving Paris, writes: ** Obliged in the course of my investigation to review all races, I have sought atheism in the lowest as well as the highest. I have no- where met it except in individuals, or in more or less limited schools, such as those which existed in Europe in the last century or which may still be seen at the present day." The universality of this belief means, further, that it is a belief belonging to the nature of all men. This denotes that all men are capable of having this belief. A horse is not capable of this belief, but, as a matter 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 46 Source of all Religion. Universal Be- lief in a Divine Being. 714 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. as the outer world presents itself to the senses for external recognition, so God in and by the world presents Himself to reason for internal recognition," said Christlieb. The statement of the doctrine above, namely, that this is in the first instance an intuitive belief, which, however, involves knowledge, also leads to the question as to the relation of faith and knowledge, a question which has been much discussed ever since the days of Origen. He uttered the dictum, "Fides prascepit intellectum." This was also Relation of held by Augustinc, Anselm, Calvin, Pascal. Anselm's motto was, Faith and "Credo ut intellig^am." 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, Schleier- macher, Jacobi, Christlieb. Can the existence of God be proved, or do we rest solely on this innate conviction? There is a vast amiount of cumulative proof, which is as a large reserve to support the inner conviction. The well known classification of these proofs is into the ontological, the cosmological, the teleological and the anthropological. Without discussing these, the mere statement of them itself will determine their character as phil- osophical. The determination of their validity and force belongs to philosophy. The ontological argument is purely metaphysical. An- selm was the first to put it into form. Descartes constructed another, and after him Dr. Samuel Clarke, and still later on, Victor Cousin. Anselm's argument is in substance this: "That which exists in reality is greater than that which exists only in the mind. There exists in the human intellect the conception of an infinitely perfect being. In infinite perfection necessary existence is God a Per- included; necessary existence implies actual existence, for if it must feet Being. j^^^ ^^ -^^ j£ ^y^^ 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 perfection of being. Hence an absolutely perfect being exists, who is God." Gaunillo, a contemporary of Anselm's, sought to show that there is a paralogism in this argument. We have, for instance, an idea of a centaur, but this does not prove that a centaur ever existed. Kant also, with a quiet smile remarked that he might have an idea of three hundred dollars 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. Leib- nitz followed. The great theologians, Cudworth, Stillingfleet, Howe and Henry More, adopted it in their debates with the infidels of their tirne. Cousin developed still another form of it. Validity is allowed to it by Luthardt, Dr. Dorner, Henry B. Smith, Dr. Caird, Professor Shedd, Ulrici, Thompson, Tulloch and others. Dr. Shedd has an elab- orate ansvver to the objections of Gaunillo and Kant. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 715 The cosmological and teleological arguments ultimately rest on the intuition of cause and effect. The teleological has always been considered as the most persuasive and powerful. Through all the ages since Anaxagoras, but especially since Socrates, the great mass of ' thinkers have laid special emphasis upon it. John Stuart Mill advised theologians to adhere to it. Yet it has been vehemently attacked in our time. Kant, although he professed respect for it, regarded it as inadequate, and so does Hermann Lotze. John Stuart Mill, on the other hand, says: *T think it must be acknowledged that in our present state of knowledge, the adaptations of nature afford a large balance of prob- ability in favor of creation by intelligence." Jenet's "Final Causes" is an admirable exposition of the subject. It is to be remembered that moral proof is not mathematical demonstration; that no one line of argument is to be taken by itself alone; that taken together, the ontological, the cosmological, the tele- ological and the anthropological arguments are like so many converg- j^^^.^^ Proof, ing lines, all pointing toward, even if they do not in strict demonstra- tion reach, the common center — 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 Him by different paths." Dr. Carpenter speaks of some departments of science, "in which our conclu- sions rest, not on any one set of experiences, but upon our unconscious co-ordination of the whole aggregate of our experience; not on con- clusions of any one train of reasoning, but on the convergence of all our lines of thought toward one center." In connection with those arguments philosophy must explain the meaning and vindicate the reality of cause. For religion, the question whether there are efficient and final causes is very vital. If Hume's position be 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 be- tween 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 unavoidably postulate absolute being as their com- mon basis. The persistence of the universe is the persistence of that unknown cause, power or force which is manifest to us through all phe- nomena. 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 substantially on Aristotleian ground. Again, can personality be postulated of the infinite or absolute? Philosophy must both explain personality and how this can be consist- ent with the infinite and absolute. This has been a great subject with the philosophers. Witness Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Cousin, Hamilton, Conscious Self. 716 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Mansel, John Stuart Mill, Calderwood, McGosh, Spencer. Here we shall ultimately come back to the Cartesian Cogito, ergo sum. The deepest revelation of consciousness is the ego and the non- ego. In consciousness we become aware at once of self, a modification of self, which is a mental state or act, and the not-self. We find here sensations, perceptions, memories, imaginations, beliefs, volitions, etc., but in connection with each of these is also invariably given the self, and its antithesis, the not-self. This conscious self thus experiencing or exercising sensations, judgments, volitions, is what we call a per- son. If we should here adopt the theory of James and his son, John Stuart Mill, that self is only a ''permanent possibility of feeling," all proper notion of selfhood or personality vanishes. The self, with these powers of thought, feeling and self-determination, we call a spirit. From consciousness, then, we have the idea of spirit, and are prepared to understand the doctrine, ** God is spirit;" and a knowledge of our own personality prepares us for the idea of the personality of God. Materialism, which regards thought as only an 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 substance, lands us precisely in the same place. But as Dr. Fisher truly says: "Belief in the personality of man and belief in the personality of God stand or fall together." Religion ascribes attributes to the absolute and infinite being. Philosophy must show whether this is possible, and if so, how. In John Stuart Mill's criticism of Sir William Hamilton's doctrine of the absolute, we have a hint how this maybe done. Particularly is philos- ophy of service in the discussion and elucidation of such attributes as unity, omnipresence, omnipotence, eternity. In many religions there are hints of the trinity in the Godhead. A great mass of the Christian world finds in the Bible the doctrine of the Godhead to be that of a triune being. The determination of the mean- ing of such a doctrine, if not the possibility of it, belongs almost wholly to the rational or philosophical side of religion. It belongs to philosophy or reason to determine the laws of evi- dence which are to prove not only the doctrines, but also the facts of religion as well. Various religions claim to possess the truth and to have a more or less positive revelation. Are these claims all false? Or, is there one religion which possesses the truth and the divine revela- tion? Or, are these elements of truth and of revelation in several or all of them? Plainly it belongs to philosophical inquiry to determine these grave questions. I am a Christian and accept the Bible as a pos- itive revelation from God; but if I would justify and vindicate to my- self this faith, I must have recourse to reason and philosophical prin- ciples. The doctrine of the will, especially of the freedom of the will, is also a question of philosophy, but far-reaching in its bearing on theo- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 717 logical doctrine. It is related to the question of the personality of man and of God; to the question of moral government, of responsibility and of virtue to that of sin and rewards and punishments. Its importance is seen in the fact that one's philosophy of the will determines him to be an Augustinian, an Arminian, a Pelagian or a fatalist. Edwards really wrote his great work in the interest of Calvinism, and Dr. Whedon his in the interest or Wesleyan Arminianism. Thus it is seen, that philosophy is one of the most important of the secondary sources of the science of religion. Philosophy can aid True Phil- the science of religion by keeping to her own proper sphere and dil- osophy. igently cultivating that, and by teaching religion also to keep her proper sphere A true philosophy can do much for our science as a correct- ive of false religious dogmas and philosophical doctrine. Hence, finally, with the advance of a true philosophy the science of religion, and even religion itself, must advance. International Justice and A^^ty, Paper by REV. S. J, BALDWIN, D. D., of New York. HESE words are rightly associated in the theme assigned me for discussion at this time, for it is only by justice that real amity between na- tions can be secured. Nations are just as much bound to be governed by justice as indi- viduals. There is an idea still afloat, I am aware, that the proper course for a nation to take in dealing with others is to keep a sharp lookout for advantages for itself, to secure all that it can from other nations and give as little as possible in return. This is reckoned smart diplomacy and, it must be confessed, is still the basis of action with too many nations professing to be governed by Christian princi- ple. But the true basis for international conduct, as for that of the indi- vidual, is the golden rule, '* Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Or the rule laid down by Confucius, which maybe called a negative form of the golden TraeBasis rule, ''What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to ^^(^o^^ others." 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 acknowledging that nations and individ- uals are alike bound to be governed by considerations of justice and fair dealing in their treatment of one another. As Theodore Parker beautifully said, "Justice is the keynote of the world, and all else is ever out of tune." Mazzini, Italy's Christian hero and patriot, voiced the true senti- ment when he said, "Foremost and grandest amid the teachings of Christ were these two inseparable truths: There is but one God; all men are the sons of God, and the promulgation of these two truths changed the^ face of the world and enlarged the moral circle to the confines of the inhabited globe. To the duties of men toward the family and 718 for tional duct. Con- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 719 country to the other for the purpose of curiosity, of trade, or as perma- nent residents." This is not a Chinese idea, but an American idea, which we in- sisted 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 restriction. The reason assigned for this curi- ous action was the fear that we. would be overwhelmed by a vast num- ber of Chinese laborers who would work untold misery to the laborers of our country. The facts in the case were that the whole Chinese population, at that time, was about one hundred and five thousand; that in the year preceding there had actually been more departures than arrivals of Chinese at San Francisco, as shown by the reports, the number of arrivals being 6,544, and of departures, 6,906. For the three years pre- Chinese Ar- vious the arrivals were 23,868, and the departures, 21,270, or a gain of rivals and De- 2,598. There was absolutely no reason for the fright into which our p*^'^®** 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 government availed itself of to pass a law prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers foj 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 who had returned to China with the certificates of the govern- ment in their hands assuring their right to return to this country. Under this enactment members of Christian churches in this country who arrived in San Francisco trusting to the pledge of the govern- ment 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 accom- panied by a faithful Chinese nurse, who had watched him through a dangerous illness, and 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 720 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, one year from the time of its enactment, to comply with its provisions. On this Justice Field well said: "The punishment is beyond all reason in its severity. It is out of all proportion to the alleged offense. It is cruel and unusual. As to its cruelty, nothing can exceed a forcible deportation from a country of one's residence and the breaking up of all relations of friendship, family and business there contracted. I will pursue the subject no further. The decision of the court and the sanction it would give to legislation depriving resident aliens of the guarantees of the con- stitution fill me with apprehension. These guarantees are of priceless value to every resident in the country, whether citizen or alien, I cannot but regard the decision as a blow against constitutional liberty when it declares that congress has the right to disregard the guaran- tees of the constitution intended for all men domiciled in the country, with the consent of the government, in their rights of person and property." These words are none too strong. Our treaty had promised to these men the same treatment accorded to the citizens or subjects of iSi^o^ut*^^ the most favored nation, but this solemn promise seems to have been Weight. utterly ignored when this unblushing violation of our treaty was en- acted into so-called law. What apology is there for such action ? None whatever. The reasons urged against the Chinese have been frequently shown to be without weight In regard to the charge of their lessening the price of labor and bringing ruin to the American laborer, Rev.. Dr. L. A. Banks, a native of Oregon and for many years a resident of the Pacific coast, has said: *'One of the most deplorable features of the whole matter, aside from the direct dishonor of such action, is that no intelligent man be- lieves for a moment that such a bill could have been passed on its merits; but that members of congress of both parties permitted them- selves to be made the tools of an infamous race prejudice because it was understood that the electoral vote of the Pacific coast states, in the last presidential election, would be affected by it. I was born on the Pacific coast and lived there for thirty years; was there through the riots of six and seven years ago, and I say deliberately that there was no just cause for the cruel persecution the Chinese received. It was not a question of low wages through Chinese competition, for during those years the highest wages paid to workingmen in the civilized world were being paid on the Pacific coast." We have already shown that the charge of coming in overwhelm- ing numbers is without foundation. It was charged against them that they would not become citizens, and then, to make sure that the charge would hold, a law was enacted that no court should naturalize them. It was charged that the' Chinese sent all their money to China, and thus tended to impoverish America; but it was shown that out of $ii,- 000,000 earned in California in one year $9,000,000 were spent in this country and only $2,000,000 were sent to China, and some of the same orators who dwelt on this charge against them commended the Irish Race Preju- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 721 immigrants in this land for sending ;^7.o,000,ooo to Ireland. And so with all the other charges against them. The real fact in the case is, as Dr. Banks says, that it has a basis in race prejudice and political schemes, and I quote further these stirring words from the same noble representative of the Pacific coast. ** This legislation does not represent Christianity, and it does not fairly represent the average citizenship of this country. It represents the narrow minded and vicious elements of the Pacific coast popula- tion, who are given power to work this disgrace because of the shame- diS^and Poat- less cowardice of political leaders in all parties. It is surely a time icai Schemes, 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 Chris- . tians throughout the country will arouse such a ground-swell of pub- lic sentiment that congress will be compelled to repeal this infamous law. In no other way can the work of our missionaries, accomplished through many long and weary years, be saved from disaster, our com- merce with China preserved from annihilation, and our good name protected from ineffaceable shame.'- The true course for us to take in this matter is to recover from the fright into which 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 earlies^t and best traditions of the re- public. Only in this way may we expect the blessing of God and ultimate honor and success as a nation, for it still remains true that "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people," and the law of God still remains. Sir Wiilifim Dawson, F. R. S., Montreal, Canada. Religio §cientiae. Paper by SIR WILLIAM DAWSON, F. R. S., Montreal. REVENTED by age and infirm health from being present at the Parliament of Religions, I accede to the request of the chairman, Rev, Dr Barrows, to prepare a short summary of my matured conclusions on 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 discussion. For such a purpose the term natural science may be held to include our arranged and systematized knowledge of the earth and its living inhabitants. It will thus com- prise not only geology and the biological sciences, but anthropology and psychology. On the other hand one may take religion in its widest sense as covering the beliefs common to all the more important faiths, 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 closely allied to natural science, and if reduced to a system may even be con- sidered as a part of it. Our principal inquiry should, therefore, be not so much **How do scientific results agree with religious beliefs or any special form of them?" but rather "How much and what particular portion of that which is held as religious belief is inseparable from or fairly deducible from the results of natural science?" All scientific men are probably prepared to admit that there must First Cauae. be a first cause for the phenomena of the universe. We cannot, with- out violating all scientific probability, suppose these to be causeless, self caused or eternal. Some may, however, hold that the first cause, being an ultimate fact, must on that account be unknowable. But though this may be true of the first cause as to origin and essence, it 723 724 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Primitive Power. No Place for Pantheism. No Place for Agnosticism. cannot be true altogether as to qualities. The first cause must be antecedent to all phenomena. The first cause must be potent to pro- duce all resulting effects, and must include potentially the whole fabric of the universe. The first cause must be immaterial, independ- ent, and, in some sense, self-contained or individual. These proper- ties, which reason requires us to assign to the first cause, are not very remote from the theological idea of a self-existent, all-powerful and personal Creator. Even if one failed to apprehend these properties of the first cause we are not necessarily shut up to absolute agnosticism, for science is familiar with the idea, that causes may be entirely unknown to us in themselves, yet well known to us in their laws and their effects. Since, then, the whole universe must in some sense be an illustration and development of its first cause, it must reflect light on this primitive power, which must thus be known to us at least in the same manner in which such agencies as gravitation and the ethereal medium occupying space are known. That mutual attraction of bodies at a distance, which we call gravitation, is unknown to us in its origin and nature, and, indeed, unthinkable as to its manner of operation, but we know well its all-pervading laws and effects. The ether, which seems to occupy all space and which transmits to us by its undulations the light of the heavenly bodies, is at present, in its nature and constitution, not only unknown but inconceivable; but science would not justify us in assuming the position of agnostics either with reference to gravitation or ether. Nor can we interpret these analogies in a pantheistic sense. The all is itself a product of the first cause which must have existed pre- viously, and of which we cannot affirm any extension in a material sense. The extension is rather like that of the human will, which, though individual and personal, may control and animate a vast num- ber of persons and agencies; may, for example, pervade and regulate every portion of a great army or of a great empire. There, again, we are brought near to a theological doctrine, and can perceive that the first cause may be the will of an Almighty Being, or at least some- thing which, relating to an eternal and infinite existence, may be com- pared with what will is in the lesser sphere of human consciousness. In this way we can at least form a conception of a universal all-pervad- ing yet personal agency, free, yet determined by its own innate consti- tution. Thus science seems to have no place for agnosticism, except in that sense in which the essence of all energies and even of matter is unknown; and it has no place for pantheism, except in that sense in which energies, like gravitation, apparently localized in a central body, are extended in their effects throughout the universe. In this way science merges into rational theism, and its first cause becomes the will of a Divine Being, inscrutable in essence, yet universal in influ- ence and manifested in His works. In this way science tends to be not only theistic but monotheistic, and connects those ideas of the unity THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 725 volition. of nature which it derives from the uniformity and universality of natural laws with the will of one lawmaker. Nor does law exclude volition. It becomes the expression of the unchanging will of infinite wisdom and foresight. Otherwise we should have to believe that the laws of nature are either necessary or fortuitous, and we know that neither of these alternatives is possible. All animals are actuated by instincts adapted to their needs and place in nature, and we have a right to consider such instincts as in accord- ance with the will of their Creator. Should we not regard the intu- itions of man in the same light, and also what may be called his relig- ious and moral instincts? Of these, perhaps one of the most universal, next to the belief in a God or gods, is that in a future life. It seems to have been implanted in those antediluvian men whose remains are found in caverns and alluvial deposits, and it has continued to actuate their descendants ever since. This instinct of immortality should surely be recognized by science as constituting one of the inherent and essential characters of humanity. So far in the direction of religion the science of nature may log- ically carry us without revelation, and we may agree with the apostle Paul that even the heathen may learn God's power and divinity iigion. from 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 men in some form more or less crude and imperfect. There are also numerous special points in revealed re- ligion, respecting which the study of nature may give some testimony. When natural science leaves merely material things and animal instincts and acquaints itself with the rational and ethical nature of man, it raises new questions with reference to the first cause. This must include potentially all that is developed from it. Hence, the rational and moral powers of man must be emanations from those inherent in the first cause, which thus becomes a divinity, having a rational and moral nature comparable with that of man but infinitely higher. On this point a strange confusion, produced apparently by the philosophy of evolution, seems to have affected some scientific think- ers, who seek to read back moral ideas into the history of the world at a time when no mundane moral agent is known to have been in exist- ence. They forget that it is no more immoral for a wolf to eat a lamb than for the lamb to eat grass, and regarding man as if he were derived by the ''cosmic process" of struggle for existence from savage wild beasts rather than, as Darwin has it, from harmless apes, represent him as engaged in an almost hopeless and endless struggle against an inherited "cosmic nature," evil and immoral. This absurd and atheistic exaggeration of the theological idea of original sin, and the pessimism which springs from it, have absolutely no foundation in nature, since, even on the principle of evolution, no moral distinctions could be set up until men acquired a moral sense, Natural and Revenled Re- First cause ethical. Confusion of ideas. -^^6 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Discord Per- ceived. Moi-al of Man. Needs Divine Mira- cle. 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 philo- sophical 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 har- mony and symmetry. In other words, the independent will, free agency and inventive powers of man have set themselves to subvert the nice and delicate adjustments of natural things in a way to cause much evil and suffering to lower creatures and ultimately to man him- self. How this has occurred science has not the means of knowing, except conjecturally, and it can do little by way of remedy. Indeed, the practical results of scientific knowledge seem in the first instance usually to aggravate the evil, though in some directions at least they diminish the woes of humanity. Science sees, moreover, a great moral need, which it cannot supply and for which it can appeal only to the religious idea of a divine redemption. 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 objection to this or 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 which gives man his rational nature. Is it probable, then, that the mind of man is the only part of nature shut out from the agency and communications of the all-per- vading mind? This is evidently infinitely improbable. If so, have we not the right to believe that divine inspiration 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 cannot assure us of this, but it makes no objection to it. This, however, raises the question of miracle and the supernat- ural, but in opposition to these science cannot consistently place it- self. It has by its own discoveries made us familiar with the fact that every new acquisition of knowledge of nature confers power, 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 possibility of miracles have, in fact, been destroyed by the progress of science, and no limit can be set to divine agency in this respect, provided the end is worthy of the means. Qn the other hand science has rendered human imitations of divine THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 121 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 con- tradictory to natural facts and laws. This is a question on which I do not propose to enter, but may state my conviction, that the Old and New Testaments of the Christian faith, while true to nature in their references to it, infinitely transcend its teachings in their sublime rev- elations respecting God and His purposes toward man. Finally, we have thus seen that natural science is hostile to the old materialistic worship of natural objects, as well as to the worship of heroes, of humanity generally and of the state, or indeed of any- i^iigiSa thing short of the great first cause of all. It is also hostile to that agnosticism which professes to be unable to recognize a first cause, and to the pantheism which confounds the primary cause with the cos- mos resulting from his action. On the contrary, it has nothing to say against the belief in the Divine 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 proportion of the more distinguished scientific men have been good and pious in their lives, and friends of religion. Friends o f Head of King Tahraka, VV^hat Constitutes a J^eligious as Dis- tinguished from a JVloral Life. Paper by PRESIDENT SCOVELL, of Wooster College, HERE is a certain loftiness in the port and mien of religion. It is conscious of power. It is strangely confident, if it is not divine! It knows that all the good in the world in broken bits came from and under the same ordering, and will be brought together in "Him who filleth all with all." If some moral life will have nature, it says, "Well, nature is God's, and when men come to understand nature fully they will come to know God and them- selves and me better." If some moral life as- serts its own sufficiency, 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 sufficient and you will see rifts and chasms and disharmonies and im- possibilities which reduced far older thinkers to the ethics of despair," If still other morals assail the divine power of sudden reconstruction and peace, of forgiveness and the justice of atonement, religion says, "Wait and see. Whence is the righteousness coming into the world, by the law, or by faith?" I say there is something sublime in this regal confidence which the religious life breathes amid all contradictions. All religions (in proportion as they are religious and not mere systems of ethics) share in this confidence in proportion to the truth they contain. Our peer- less Christianity dares to ask them to come and lay all the utterances of their assurance beside her own. "A child's prayer may go as far as a bishop's," and all aspirations which are truly religious breathe in soft, prolonged accord in the great rounded heaven above us, as I heard the lingering harmonies ring in the baptistry dome at Pisa. What we happily emphasize in this congress of religions is simply religion. That we write out in large letters and trumpet the greJit 730 Sablime in Regal CoBfi- 730 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 al- most fearful fancy Heine declared that he would seize a towering pine tree and dip it brushwise in'^tna and write on the heavens, "Agnes, Ich Hebe 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." What the This, the nineteenth century, has carried forward out of the deadly World Wants, contests of the eighteenth, and under the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which consecrated with revived religious life this great missionary century of the ages until now, and here at its close the world shall recognize its own priceless heritage. What the world wants is the best religion. It wants with a deeper thirst than it wants silver or gold, or knowledge or science. And I believe this congress will help the world to get just what it wants and needs — more and more genuine religious life. From this point, then, is the place to go forward in the recital of the infinite positive blessings the religious life brings as distinguished from the moral life. The world tries ethics every once in a while. Cain tried it and murdered Abel. The Pharisees tried it and crucified Christ. The Jesuits tried it and met Pascal. 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 skepticism; Scotch Presbyterian moder- atism tried it and was roused from fatal coma by Cook's eloquence'and modern missions. Wherever the two have come into comparison, it has been found that the force and vitality of the peoples and the churches declined as ethics supplanted religion, and the moral life was substituted for the religious. The religious life alone has creative power. The moral can never create the religious, while the religious will always create the moral life. The moral life is (roughly) the mineral kingdom to the vege- table. The first can feed the life of the second, but cannot kindle it. The religious life develops more continuity, more fiber and more prop- agative power than a moral life. Whatever else may and ought to be said, Mohammedanism's monotheism told tremendously on the world. It overrode the weaker ethical systems, though in fearful contrast with the 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 pro- portion to the controlling position of its religious elements. Its mis- sion, however, is overwhelmingly evangelical. This is the secret of its THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 731 port and mien of power. "It is never alone," as Christ was not. But moralism is always alone. To be more specific, the religious life has a different attitude altogether toward the supernatural. The whole enlargement of life which this brings is a vital distinction of the relig- ious life. Eyes are opened, ears opened, messages come and are re- ceived, the moral life at best is bounded within the narrow rim of things seen, and the tendency is to narrow it still more by emphazing only the utilitarian details. What so narrow as mere ethics set against religion? What so liberal as that which admits the supernatural? In the religious life there is the glory of the unseen. There is the hush and awe of the omnipotent and eternal. There is the unseen holy, there is an extension of the being upward and forward 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 miss; what a calamity if all men would thusdeny the upper- most realm of being. The candle cannot be understood until it burns, nor can man until his being is tipped with the deathless flame. The religious life is peerless here. They utterly fail to appreciate it who think of the religious view of the immortality of the soul as a matter of personal comfort only. No! No! In it, especially, we are risen into that plane to which George Eliot has said, the just interest in man and the world must bring us, *'a desire to have a religion, which is more than a personal consolation." The whole world is one thing if men are immortal, and another if they are not. Guizot shows, you remember, that society is the means and man is the end in civilization, because man is immortal. Laws and language and literature and government are economics and orbics are all differ- ent things if man be immortal. They are the things they are, and which they are 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 immortal- ity. Without the religious life as allied to the supernatural, I do not believe any severe morality can be maintained among men. Gladstone is upon record as teaching that, in connection with the area of morals covered by the seventh commandment, no religion but Christianity has ever attempted to restrain the race, and that any other religion would in vain undertake the task. Clifford (the most interest- ing of all who have bemoaned the loss of faith) writes: " Belief in God and a future life is a source of refined and elevated pleasure to those who can hold it. But the foregoing of a refined and elevated pleasure, because it appears we have no right to indulge in it, is not, in itself, and cannot produce as its consequences, a decline of morality." The Merely Moral Life. Refined and Elevated Pleas- ure, 732 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. How, then, the stepping of the benumbed hold of an Alpins climber from the icy ledge would not by consequence dash him to pieces, if it simply proved that he must let go? Oh, sirs, the world's fearful fall into immorality cannot be concealed. Despaii shall come in place of hope. Every earthly conflict will increase m bitterness and every earthly possession seem more sternly to be clung to, if there is to be nothing but earth. Clifford's own despair proves it sadly enough. Take away this refined and elevated pleasure and what multitudes of coarse and sensual ones clamor for its room. Oh, how they honeycomb the structure of society now and pluck the children from our homes and altars for want of belief in the supernatural! Thus the religious life, considered as individual or general, must always surpass the merely moral because of its confessed and vital relations to the supernatural. Out of the unseen we are come, as all things are come; into the unseen we must go. All the visible must change, but we must ** join the choir invisible." While the fair vision of immortality "lifts up the eye and brow of hope," the world will go onward by stairs sloping upward unto God. When that hope deserts the world we shall be dry and still and inert and gaze out into the dreariest of worlds as the fabled dwellers of the Fair Vision Dead sea who Spurned Moses and forgot they had souls and were ?ty. ■^™°^®^'*^" turned into apes. The religious life has a serious way of looking at all obligations, whether ritual or ethical, because of the certainty which attaches to direct prescription and the consequences of reward and punishment which form part of its motive power. "The Lord is at hand," says the religious life. "Thus saith the Lord," says the relig- ious life. Now this strength of religion has displayed itself so far, often, as to lean over to excess in a slavish punctuality of ritualistic observances, on the one side; then on the other side, in a rigidity as to minor morals. The danger is to be recognized at once that we may lean over on the side of specific individual requirements and, perhaps, neglect the weightier matters of judgment and mercy. But this only proves how superb the power is which God and intelligence command, and hope of rewards and fear of punishment give us, even in the moral arena. However the religious life may have wandered in these direc- tions, it has shown everywhere wonderful vitality. We desire to "put a hedge around the law." The religious life, therefore, stands out as the strongest force for the duties of life. It is capable of adaptation to all circumstances and presses alike upon every duty according to the square inches of exposed surface. Sweep- ing a room may be devotional, according to the saintly Herbert; and you remember the servant who knew she was converted because she swept under the door mat. "In the elder days of art" you remember how they wrought be- cause the gods saw everywhere religion: Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen, Make the house where God may dwell beautiful, entire and cleaii. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.. 73^ Who doubts the flexibility of religious motives. They are as elas- tic as the atmosphere, as divisible and equally constant in their press- ure. You may (presently) extract from Niagara's visible omnip- otence the power to light a single electric lamp in a distant city; and there is no work so humble but religion may bring power into it from the throne of God. And what might not be said, what is not every pious heart saying, of the religious life as containing a commun- ion with God, which the merely moral life, alas, either ignores or denies. What is prayer? The outbreathing of innermost life into the whaHs closest contacts. "Speak to Him," for spirit with spirit may meet. Prayer? "He is closer than breathing." Prayer! It is the eloquence of need, perceived rather by the infinite listener than by the soul which so im- perfectly at best understands its own need. Prayer! It is the sob of a broken heart (whether by sin or by sorrow) heard by God and hymned by angels. What is praise? What are the sacraments? Public worship; church; fellowships? Are these things vital? Are they dear priv- ileges? Do our world-parched souls long for them as the hart for the water-brooks? Ah! 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 up- ward extension of our being by communion with God. It is of the same range with outward extension of the religious life into duty, or its forward extensions into immortality. And when man's whole nature is considered, it is found that the moral life is most distinctly related to the intellectual and volitional activities and is deficient on the emotional side. But just here the religious life is full and powerful. Not that we propose to accept the half-humorously proposed distribution of the soul territory which would give the intellect to science and the will to ethics and surrender the emotions to religion. No,- sirs. We do not propose to accept this with any greater readiness than Germany accepted the proposal to give P2ngland 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 education and philosophy and art, was still preparing to strike out vigorously for recognition, both on sea and land, as the world has witnessed at Sadowa and Sedan, and in the colonial policy of the new empire. Even so religion w^ill not forget other things, but she does accept the dominion of the heart. Oh, how appropriately "Thou shalt love the Lord thy Godo" (First great commandment.) "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (The second like unto it.) There is no such apostasy in religion as the apostasy from love. Now, what would the heart-life of the race become without religion? Where would we go without the mercy of God, the Father's pity; with- out the boundless compassion of a dying Chirst? To what utter hard- ness are wp kft by law and morals considered only in themselves? In 734 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGION^, the emotions and affections are the springs of action. How shall the world do its work without the religious life to cultivate and enlarge them ? In this great tract of the soul lies far the largest part of the com- mon life of all men. How shall it be made the source of happiness it Wwidiy^nap- ought to bccome? Here are the materials of character. How is piness. 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 in pessimism. To which we answer: First. We are glad that it is confessed that men want something more interesting than evolutional ethics. Second. We would not follow poetry away from truth; but we know no truth which has in it so much poetry as the deep, wide, high and warm things of religion. And the same author adds: "The high- est poetry is that of love, and it is the realization of this poetry that the ethics of evolution teach, promise and enjoin." Third. Quite right, then,. to join in the lists against religion as to producing and appreciating the poetry of unselfishness and love. The history of the world thunders its answer; love has made it from God to man; has descended from the cross and rippled out into millionfold currents swelling down the ages. The only brotherhood ever realized, even approximately, has been from Christian sources. Fourth. The love of evolution, the struggle for life and the sur- vival of the fittest is best seen by submerging nine rats in a cage and watching them struggle to survive. The love of evolution is a minus quantity. Fifth. The religious life must be greater than the moral life, even though the latter be all that Kant's one eloquent passage makes it appear to be. He finds the stars annihilating him by their massive- ness, but found himself greater than the stars. You remember "the moral nature within" spurning any compromise and proposing him- self as the end of his being. The whole meaning of the invincible imperative cannot be con- tained in the moral life. Even Kant did not find it so, returning, as he did, through the practical reason to God and immortality. Conscience implies God, as the southward winging bird implies the south. All that is in us, then, all the fundamental departments of the microcosm we call man demand the religious life. The intellect reaches its highest principles when it thinks God's thoughts after him, and finds mind everywhere in the universe. The affectations and emotions find their true objects in divine things, and from these run out exuberantly and DiSti&gaish- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 735 beneficently to all human needs. The will finds its freedom steadied and the man back of the will certified by the infinite personality of God. The conscience whispers approval of them and rebukes us. The spiritual aspirations find their true direction only in the religious life. How much of man is denied or docked bymoralism? And now we come to the religious life as concerned with sin. inglimnent S Here we find the distinguishing element of repentance, which has ReEsntaace. 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 repentance. It is made up of elements which do not appear in the moral life. First. Fear of sin's eternal consequences. Second. Regard to the mercy of God. Third. Faith in God's promises and the method of pardon He has proclaimed. Fourth. Turning unto God with a surrendered will, a poignant sorrow and a full purpose of obedience. Can I be wrong in saying that the moral life misses the greatest possible joy of man when it fails of repentance? Did not all divine interpositions in the world, from the first voice to Cain, to the last pleading of the risen Christ seek to awaken it? Does not the tear of repentance (as in Tom Moore's exquisite fiction) move the crystal bars of Paradise? And does not every true act of repentance awaken the praises of intelligent spirits — sinless, themselves, in the presence of God? This evangelical repentance refreshes the 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 betterment of the good and the besting of the better. It is associated with every prayer It is the leading of all God's goodness. It may be anguish to the taste, but what comfort it brings the soul! The cry of the publican, the moan of the prodigal, are just the "coming to our- selves," as they are our coming to the Father. Nothing can be more just, more rational, more sensible, as nothing can be deeper and nothing more important. Moralism excludes repentance in its just meaning and vital nature. It stands on the brink and then turns away. Its calculations as to sin are narrow and worldly. They are "of the world." They are born of today and die with what they were born with. Moralism is apt to make much more of discovery than of sin. The hideous ingratitude of continuous rebellion against God does not in- tensify any deed of wrong against man for Him. The higher relations of a sinning soul are hidden from Him, and that helps Him to hide from Himself the lower. But the religious life never loses the deep tone (it might be called the minor third) which is evoked when the soul knows its sin in the lights from above. 736 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, Facing the WcathtoCome How necessary to repentance religion 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. * * * Pqi- when man comes to front the everlasting God, and look the splendor of His judgments in the face, personal integrity, this dream of spotlessness and innocence, vanishes into thin air Your decencies and your church goings, and your regularities and your attachment to correct school and party, your Gospel formulas of sound doctrine — what is all this in front of the wrath to come?" 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 hundredfold of good deeds and turns blasphemers into apostles. And the moralist cannot know it. The religious life is sundered wholly from the moral life and ele- vated 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 conse- quences 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 pas- sive 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, myste- ReiigSuB^Li^^ I'ious, 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 en- during 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 anal- ogies. The only thing the moralist can do about it is to deny it, because he cannot comprehend even the experience of it Mohammedan Funeral Procession in Tangiers, Morocco. 47 A Humani" larian Age. Qrime and the {Remedy. Address by REV. OLYMPIA BROWN. T is a. significant and encouraging sign that in this great parliament of religion so much time is given to practical questions, such as are sug- gested by intemperance, crime, the subordiba- tion of woman and other subjectsdf a. similar character. The practical applications of relig- ion are today of more importance than pl^lo- sophical speculation. All the religions of the world are here, not to wrangle over the theo- logical differences, or forms, or modes of worship, but to join hands in one' grand, heibic effort for the uplifting of humanity; We live in a humanitarian age when relig- ionists and theologians are asking, not so much, how best to secure an interest in the real estate of the eternal city, as how they may make this earth habitable for God's children. Not how they may appease the wrath of an offended Deity and purchase their own personal salva- tion hereafter, but>how they can bless their fellow men, here and nov/. *' If ye love not your brother whom ye have seen, how can ye love God whom ye have not seen?" The cause and cure of crime is one of the most important ques- tions that can engage the attention of theologian, philanthropist or statesman. In the complex society of modern times, crimes are 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 repre- senting 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 selfishness prompt to crime; oppoffnfiities for escape are mahy7and consequently violations of law are frequent, and, therefore, there is pressing need that we should consider what can be done Xq remedy 738 ItAry. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 739 these evils, lessen crime, and out of these varied elements to pre- sent at last the perfected, well-rounded human character which shall combine all the best qualities of the various nations and people congre- gated here, while at the same time eliminating the vices and weakness of each one. The causes usually given for crime are many, such as poverty, evil associations, intemperance, etc. But these are rather the occa- sions than the causes of criminal conduct. The true philosopher looks behind all these and finds inherited tendencies one of the most fruit- ful causes of crime. " The fathers and the mothers, too, have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are on edge." It is not the intoxicating cup but the weak will which causes drunkenness; not the gold within easy reach but the avaricious mind which prompts to robbery; it is not the weakness of the victim, but the angry passions of the murderer which makes the blood flow. A care- ^^^ Dispiri ful study of the subject, by means of statistics, has shown that evil tj^ns Hered- deeds, in a very large proportion of cases, can be traced back to the ' ""^ evil passions cherished by the immediate ancestors of the wrong- doer, and our means of tracing such connections are so limited that we really know but a small part of the whole truth. A few years ago public attention was called to a widely circu- lated pamphlet which gave a history of the Jukes family, which for generations had been characterized by acts of lawlessness and crime; the taint seemed to extend to every ramification of the family, the awful record showing that out of many hundreds only one or two had escaped idiocy or criminality. The story of Margaret, the mother of criminals, is familiar to all. Margaret was a poor, neglected, ignorant inmate of the almshouse in one of the counties in New York state; her progeny were found in the poorhouses and jails of that region for generations. In a recent report of one of our great reformatories, the superin- tendent says: "The investigations and experience of the past year have served to strengthen the opinion that physical degeneracy is a common cause of criminal conduct," which statement confirms the theory that in the majority of cases the criminal is a man badly born. So true is it that in all the relations of life men are dependent upon other men, and each one is interested 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 con- victed of murder committed in the most cruel and brutal manner and without any apparent motive. The crime attracted much attention from the fact that he had been reared with great care and tenderness by wise and good parents. At the time of his trial it was shown that the woman he had killed was not, as he had supposed, his own mother, 740 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Crime a He- reditary Ten- dency. Woman Su- greme in the Lome. but that his reputed 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 concerning his parentage except that his father was a murderer. Thus, in spite of education and circumstances, the inherent tendency to murder asserted itself and the crime of the father was repeated in the son. This is but one instance, but it is the type of many that are famil- iar to students of this subject, all showing that the criminal is often 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 diseases, so other evil passions reappear in different guises and give birth to a great variety of crimes. What can we do to check this great tide of criminality which perpet- uates itself thus from generation to generation, gathering ever new strength and force with time? How stop this supply of criminals? There is but one answer, 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 gen- eration. God has intrusted the mother with the awful responsibility of giving the first direction to human character. In the long months which precede the birth of the young spirit what communion of angels may elevate and inspire her soul, thus giv- ing the promise of the advent of a heavenly messenger who should proclaim peace on earth, good will to men! Or what demons of pride, avarice, jealousy may preside over the development of the new life sending forth upon earth an avenger, to lift his hand against every man, to blast the joys of life and to weigh like an incubus upon society! Woman becomes thus an architect of human life with all its possibili- ties of joy or sorrow, of virtue or vice, of victory or defeat, and it was because of this momentous mission that she was not only given joint dominion with man over the earth, but was made to be supreme in the home and in the marriage relation. Old and New Testament Scriptures alike announce the Divine 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 molding character she may surround herself with such conditions, and win to herself such heavenly communions, that her children shall indeed be heirs of God bearing upon their foreheads the stamp of the divine. When in some of our marriage ceremonies she is required to promise implicit obedience to her lord and master, and in so-called Christian states she is bound by law to work all her lifetime for board and clothes, it is evident that we are not fulfilling the Scriptural law. No wonder the world is cursed with cowards, idiots and criminals, THE WOkLD'^ CONGRESS Of RELIGIONS, 74I 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 France most needed, replied, good mothers. What France, America and all lands need is a free motherhood. Helen Gardner well says: "Moral idiots, like Jesse Pomeroy and Reginald Berchall in life, Pecksniffs, Becky 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 who bear them, and as woman is elevated, her mental vision enlarged, her true dignity established, will her sons go forth armed with a native power to uphold the right, trample out iniquity and overcome the world. The battle for womanhood is the battle for the race; upon her dignity of character and position depends the future of humanity. We shall have taken the first and all-important step in doing away with crime and lessening the number of criminals when we have emancipated motherhood. The emancipation of women means society redeemed and humanity saved. With the elevation of women education will be- come more effective. Not only will children be better born, but there will be higher ideals, neW incentives, and the whole scope of education and reform will be enlarged. The Universalist church, which I have the honor to represent, stands for the humanitarian element in religion. It recognizes the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. We believe in a God who has made all things good and beautiful in their time and whose supreme and beneficent law will work out the final victory of the good. We believe that even the poorest, most ill-born, most mis- directed human being possesses capabilities of goodness which are in their nature divine and indestructible, and which must at last enable him, by God's grace, to rise above weakness and folly and sin, and to share in the inheritance of eternal life. We believe that love is the potent influence which shall at last win all souls to holiness and to God; love, exemplified and made effective through the life, the labors, the teachings, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who came to be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. And, so believing, our church stands for those humane methods of dealing with the criminal, which, while protecting society, shall at the same time seek the reformation of the erring one. Regarding human life as too sacred a gift to be placed in the hands of human courts, we oppose capital punishment and we make unceasing war upon such kinds of prison discipline as tend to harden and brutalize the criminal. 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 application to the work of the world so little sought, how can officers be found to fitly manage such institutions and conduct them in the interest of the highest humanity? While our legislatures 742 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. are still so much imbued by the material and utilitarian spirit of pre- vious ages of selfishness, how secure such laws as shall represent the philanthropy and the sympathy of a truly Christian people? We need, in dealing with these humanitarian questions, the mother's sympathy with her little ones. Mothers, who alone know at what great cost a human life has been given to the world, should help to make the laws which affect the condition and decide the earthly destiny of their children. Our legislators have been so much occupied with questions of The Mothers tariff and taxes, of silver and coinage and other pecuniary interests Destin^!*^™ °^ *^^^ ^^y have, in a measure, neglected the higher objects of legisla- tion, namely, the development of a redeemed and perfected humanity. When the mothers sit in council those subjects which affect the improve- ment of society, the protection of the weak, the education of the youth, the elimination of the unfortunate and dangerous classes, will be made prominent. As in the sick room it is the mother's tender touch that soothes the child's pain and calls back the glow of health; so in this sin-sick world it must be the loving sympathy of mothers that shall win back the erring and restore them to mental health and moral beauty. It is the glory of Christianity that it has recognized and enthroned woman- hood. The great Master, first revealed Himself as the Messiah to a woman. He wrought His first miracle at the command of a woman, and as a recognition of the supremacy of motherhood; He revealed the great truths that He came to bring to women, and He sent woman forth to proclaim the risen Lord, and so today He commands women to go abroad publishing the Gospel of a world's salvation. And shall men, churches or governments dare longer to prohibit women from obeying the command and fulfilling the divine decree? All reforms wait for woman's freedom. The only effectual remedy for crime is the enlightenment, independence and freedom of motherhood. Religious S^^t^ of G^^^^^Y- Paper by COUNT A. BERNSTORFF SHALL try to give this short sketch as impar- tially as I can, though this is not easy for one who stands in the midst of the contests about which he is going to speak Well meaning patriots who wish to stir up the activity of good men often give a pessimistic view of things; others who wish to show off their country will 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 there is also sufficient good to mention without being obliged to add to the truth. It may truly be said that Germany is a I country where spiritual problems are fought out. "^^ V I ^ I feel happy to belong to such a country and to be able to take an active share in those struggles. In order to under- stand the present condition of Germany we must go back to some point in history which gave a turning to affairs, and which forms even now the basis on which religious life has developed. The first is the Reformation. Germany is emphatically the land of the Reformation, by which, of course, I don't mean to say that all Germany is Protestant. Oh, nOo The reformation has divided Germany into two hostile camps. It has been the source of many political and religious difficulties. Yet we praise God's name for it. The Reformation luckily had no political sides; it was a purely religious act. Luther sought peace with God for his own soul, and all the acts of penance could not satisfy the yearning of his heart. It was only when he got to read a Bible — these bound teachers — and when he found in it that the just shall live by faith, that he found the peace with God which his heart was yearning after, through the two great 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 dealing blood of Christ. However, the mere intellectual truth alone does not suffice. We must therefore consider the feeling of 743 Spiritnal ProblemB. 744 ^'^^ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, the masses during the early part of the eighteenth century as the second turning point. Protestantism revived, but only in form; unbelief carried the day. The great minds of the last century failed to see the truth of revela- tion. This is to a great extent due to the fact that the repression of Liberty^*^^ °* orthodox truths had turned into enemies scholars who found a pleas- ure in quarreling on points of minor interest. The revival in religion began in what we call the wars of liberty. When the great Napoleon wanted to stamp Prussia out of the rnap of Europe, when the whole nation rose to defend its national independence, men were turned out 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 the union of the Lutheran and the Calvinist churches into one church, which he called Evangelical. Such a measure would be impossible now; but in those times of unbelief people had ceased to attach any value to differences in doctrine, and the new revival was also spiritual, not ecclesiastical. Those who be- gan to love their Saviour gladly joined those whom they found sim- ilarly affected, without asking to what church they belonged. The increase of religious convictions, however, also increased the opposition of special doctrines. The old feud between Lutherans and Calvinists began with renewed strength, and the friendly relations be- tween Protestants and Catholics made way to a sharp antagonism. About half a century later the revolution of 1848 opened the eyes of many Christians to the unsatisfactory state of many things and the numerous works of home missions began about that time. Finally, in 1873, the organization of a synodal constitution for the Protestant church brought a new element into our religious life. Excuse me hav- ing begun with this historical introduction. 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 into a Catholic and Protestant population still exists in all its force. I am a poor judge of the inner life of the Catholic church, but I must say that she has greatly consolidated herself. Unhappy measures of our government to repress her influence, which a d'cSdSs^ were in force in 1873, have only served to increase her power. With her strong discipline on the power she wields over the people through the confessional, with the assistance of a numerous political party that represents her interests in Parliament, she undoubtedly has a large in- fluence. 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 Lutheran 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 Netherlands, assisted THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 745 at the reopening of the beautifully restored church of Wittemberg, and publicly declared their adherence to the doctrines of the Reformation. With Protestantism, the old feud between Lutherans and Calvin- ists has made way to problems of greater importance. If I speak of the development of Protestantism, 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 balance of heaven, this work will not be ac- counted lightly, but their numbers are small and their influence in the national life of Germany is smaller still. The great struggle and problems of the day are fought out within the national churches, and this is not only true, is voluntary conviction in the press and by simi- lar means, but also is the official battle-ground provided in the synod. Our churches have their own voice ever in public life, and the very abuse, heaped on the general synod of Prussia, for her clear testimony of the old truths of the Gospel, is a sure sign of her influence. At first a number of persons were eleeted into the synod only be- cause 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 without religion, but the so-called ethical movement found but few ad- herents. 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. In this theology Christ is not pre-existent from all eternity, but only a man in whom divine life has come to its highest develop- ment; the great fact of redemption 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. Church and State. Ethical Move- ment. 746 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, I do not share their fear. There are too many forces of divine help in our congregations now to render this possible, and to these forces I must lastly refer. We have faithful preaching in many of our churches, and where the Gospel is preached in power and in truth the churches are not empty. We have an honest fight for the truth in our synods. Even in the capital the orthodox Christians have rallied to gain the victory and they carried the day. We have the great organizations of home mission work, deacon- esses' institutions, reformatories, workingmen's city missions and so forth. These are only examples. We have a large religious press. The sermons published by the Berlin city mission are spread in one hundred and twelve thousand PreS.^^^^^°'^^ copies every week. A great number of so-called Sunday papers, that is, not political papers, which appear on Sunday, but small religious periodicals, which give good religious reading to the people, are circu- lated, besides the sermons, to a great extent by voluntary helpers. We are making way to a better observation of the Lord'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 building of new churches. The empress tries to stimulate the ladies to more of what you call woman's work, and a society of three thou- sand women in Berlin last winter shows that her call was not in vain. We have altogether learned a great deal more of aggressive Chris- tianity. Our Sunday-schools have nearly doubled in the last three years. The institute founded for training evangelists has been removed to Barmes, where it works more efficiently. Lay work, unknown in for- mer generations, quietly but steadily gains ground. I could mention a number of eminent laymen who no longer object to presenting the Gospel publicly. We are not afraid for the cause of believing evangel- ical 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 be purely political, not religious. It is one of the things that we have to contend with, but a beginning has been made. There is much dark- ness in Germany, but there is also much light. May God grant that the light increase. Aggres 8 i V e Christianity. Christianity and the N^g^o- Address by BISHOP B. W. ARNETT, D. D., of the African M. E. Church. E have gathered from the east, from the west, from the north, from the south this day to celebrate the triumph of human freedom on the American con- tinent. For there is not one slave within all of our borders. There is no master. From Huron's lordly flood to where the venturesome Magellan passed from sea to sea in the south, every man is free, owning no master save his own free will on earth and his God in heaven. The greatest of all things created, visible or invisible, that we know of, is man. He is the greatest mystery of creation. The world was made for him. The ultimate design of God can- not be fully comprehended until we see the dust standing erect in the form of man, with body, soul and spirit; a compound of matter and mind, material and immaterial, and a mortal and an immortal being, the master of the realm of thought. I congratulate the representatives of all nations of the earth who have assembled in this hall this day — a day around which clusters so much history, so much hope, and so much liberty. We have met for the first time since the children of Noah were scattered on the plains of Shinar. The parliament at Shinar plotted treason against the divine command and Providence; inaugurated a rebellion against heaven; their tongues were confused and they were banished until this day; in fact, this is the adjourned meeting, from Shinar to Chi- cago. They met to show their disloyalty to God; we have met to dis- cuss the subjects which are ultimately connected with our 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 747 To Examine the Truth* 748 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. examine the truth, in order that our faith might be strengthened, and our hopes brightened, 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 victo.ries won in search after truth. Also to report the discoveries made in the investigation of the material world and in the realms of mind and thought, and to give the latest conclusions of phi- losophy about the relations of 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, whioh is God. It has been said that philosophy searches for, 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 relation 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 Two Rev 1 ^^^^^ unwritten. The unwritten revelation of God is nature, from atioM of God. whose forms of matter and systems of operating forces flash the sug- gestions 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 contains truths which are subject to explanation. Thetheologian is the interpreter, not alone of the Bible, but also 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 One of the Le- ^^ ^^ legitimate sons of his father and grandfather. In some way or gitimate Sons other he has been connected with the history of every age and every *** Ser.^^ work, so that no history of the past is complete without some refer- ence to the Negro or his home, Africa, whose soil has been abun- dantly fruitful in some of the best and many of the worst of human productions. The Negro's home, Africa, was the home of Dido, cf 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 be- loved physician, was from Cyrene, an African by birth, if not by blood. Lucjus, of Cyrene, was one of the first teachers of Christianity and was from Africa. Simpn, 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 estab- lishment of the religion of Christ upon earth, certainly her sons and daughters ought to be permitted to enjoy the blessings purchased with so much sorrow, suffering and tears. Among the early teachers of Bishop B. W. Arnett, D. D., Wilberforce, Ohio. 750 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Life, Liberty and Happiness. Sample of the Christian N e- gro. The Slave Trade. 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 Chris- tians of this land in favor of the brotherhood of man, and from this time forward they will accord to us that which we receive in every land except this " land of the free and home of the brave." All we ask is the 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 Christi^p^ commonwealth. It is not pity we ask for, but justice; it is not hel^', but a fair chance; we ask not to be carried, but to be given an opportunity to walk, run or stand alone in our own strength, or to fall in our own weakness; we are not begging for bread, but for an opportunity to earn bread for our wives and children; treat us not as wards of a nation nor as objects of pity, but treat us as American citizens, as Christian men and women; do not chain your doors and bar your windows and deny us a place in society, but give us the place that our intelligence, our virtue, our industry and our courage entitle us to. " But admit none but the worthy and well qualified." 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 home- stead, but the Christian and model Negro is living in the city of indus- try and thrift, and in the cottage of comfort and ease, which he has dedicated to religion, morality and education, and morning and even- ing the p'asser-by may hear music from the piano or organ of ''Home, Sweet Home," the dearest spot on earth. We speak not thus in anger, but in words of truth and soberness. 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 name of religion, chained as captives and brought to this conti- nent in the name of the liberty of the Gospel; they bound our limbs with fetters in the name of the Nazarene in order to save oar souls; they sold us to teach the principles of religion; they sealed the Bible to increase our faith in God; pious prayers were offered for those who chained our fathers, who stole our mothers, who sold our brothers for paltry gold, all in the name of Christianity, to save our poor souls. When the price of flesh went down the interest in our souls became small; when the slave trade was abolished by the strong hand of true Christianity, then false Christianity had no interest in our souls at all. Christianity has always had some strong friends for the negro in the south and in the north; men who stood by him under all circumstances. Mosique of Kaid Bey. Qhristlan Evangelism in America, Address by REV. JAMES BRAND, of Oberlin, Ohio. The Great A.wakening. HRISTIAN Evangelism is the preaching or pro- mulgation 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 Christianity of spe- cial evangelistic movements which have ap- > peared from time to time in our history. The theme will thus cover what we are accustomed to call general revivals or special Pentecostal seasons in the progress of Christ's kingdom. The first century of religious history in this country was largely devoted to church polity and the relation of religion to the state. Spiritually it was a rather barren period. There had been some revivals from 1670 to 1712, but they were local and limited in extent. The firsc great movement which really molded American Christianity was in 1 740- 1 760, called "The Great Awakening," under the leadership of Jonathan Edwards Whitefield, Wesley and the Tennants, of New Jersey. This movement was probably the most influential force which has ever acted upon the development of the Christian religion since the Protestant reformation. In 1740 the population of New 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 were converted to Christ in that revival — a far greater proportion than at any other period of our history. This movement overthrew the so-called "half way covenant," a pernicious system which had filled both the churches and pulpits with unconverted men. In 1740 men without any pre- tense 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. 752 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.. 753 Necessity of The great awakening reversed that state of things. Students of the- ology were converted in great numbers, and prominent men to the number of twenty, who had been long in the pulpits in and about Bos- ton, regarded George Whitefield as the means, under God, of their conversion to Christ. This revival was not confined to New England or to any one body of Christians. All denominations in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the south were equally blessed. The movement awakened the public mind more fully to the claims of home missions, especially among the Indians. It likewise gave a great impulse to Christian education. The founding of Princeton college was one of the direct fruits. Dartmouth college, founded in 1769, also sprang from the same impulse. The proposition that in the preaching of the Gospel the distinction should be maintained between the regen- erate and unregenerate, and that the church must be composed of converted souls only, has been accepted by substantially all evangel- ical denominations since that time. The great doctrines made espe- cially prominent in this religious movement were those required to meet the peculiar circumstances of the times, viz., the sinfulness of sin, the necessity of conversion and justification by faith in Christ Conversion, alone. These doctrines were the mighty forces wielded by the leaders of that time, and resulted in the recasting of the religious opinions of the eighteenth century. The second general evangelistic movement, 1 797-18 10, generally called the revival of 1800, was hardly less important as a factor in our Christian life than its predecessor. It, too, followed a period of formal- ism and religious barrenness. It was the epoch of French infidelity and of Paine's "Age of Reason," from which this revival emancipated America while France was left a spiritual wreck. Up to this time almost nothing had been done in the line of foreign missions, and there were hardly any permanent institutions of a national character for the spread of the Gospel apart from the churches and three or four colleges. From this movement sprang, as by magic, nearly all the great national religious institutions of today. The "Plan of Union" in 1801 to evangelize New Connecticut — Andover Seminary in 1808 to provide trained pastors; the American Board, representing two or three denominations, in 1801; the American Baptist Missionary Union, in 1814; the American Edu- cation Society, in 1815; the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society, in 1819; the Yale Theological Department, in 1822; American Tem- perance Society, in 1826; American Home Missionary Society, in 1830; East Windsor Theological Seminary, in 1833. Here, again, all relig- ious bodies were* equally enriched and enlarged by the stupendous impulse given to religious thought and activity by this revival. The leading characteristic of this movement, so far as doctrines were con- cerned, was the sovereignty of God. The success of the colonies in Ihe Revolutionary war, the establishment of national independence, the awakening forces of material and industrial development, together with the prevailing rationalistic and atheistic influence of France, had pro- duced a spirit of pride and self-sufficiency which was hostile to the EeviTalof 1800. 1U THk WOkLD'S CdNCMSS dP MLlCldNS. The Third Great Move- ment. The Fourth Pentecostal Season. liitest Evan- g listic Move- ments. authority of God, and, of course, antagonistic to the Gospel. To mfeet this state of the public mind, evangelistic leaders were naturally led to lay special emphasis upon the absolute and eternal dominion of God, as the infinitely wise and benevolent Ruler of the universe, and man as His subject, fallen, dependent, guilty, to whom pardon was offered. Here was found the divine corrective of the perils which were threat- ening to overwhelm the country in barren and self-destructive mate- rialism. The third great m'ovement was in 1 830-1 840. The tendency of the human mind is to grasp certain truths which have proved specially effective in oiie set of circumstances and press them into service under different circumstances, to the neglect of other truths. Thus the se- verity of God, which had needed such peculiar emphasis in 1800, came to be urged to the exclusion of those truths which touch the freedom and responsibility 6f man. When, therefore, this third revival period began, the truths most needed were the freedom of the will, the nature of the moral law, the ability and therefor-^ the absolute obligation of man to obey God and rnake 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 administered which tended not only to correct and convert vast multitudes of souls, but also to establish the scriptural JDalance 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 reckless speculation and other immoral methods of gratifying material ambition had overreached itself and plunged the nation into a financial panic. The Divine Spirit seized this state of things to con- vict men of their sins. The result was a great turning to God all over the land. In this awakening no great leaders seem to stand out pre- eminent. But the plain lessons of the revival are God's rebuke of worldliness, the fact that it is better to be righteous than to be rich, and that nations, like individuals, are in His hands. The latest evangelistic movements which are meeting this new era and are destined to be as helpful to American Christianity as any pre- ceding ones are those under the present leadership of men like Messrs. Moody and Mills and their confreres. These revivals, though perhaps lacking the tremendous seriousness and profundity of conviction which came from the Calvinist preachers dwelling on the nature and attributes, of God, nevertheless exhibit a more truly balanced. Gospel than any preceding ones. They announce pre-eminently a Gospel of hope. They emphasize the love of God, the sufficiency of Christ, the guilt and unreason of sin, the privilege of serving Christ and the duty of imme- diate surrender. If men said, 'Ts not the Gospel being outgrown?" They said, "No, that cannot be." If they said, **Is the doctrine broad enough and deep enough to lead the progress of the race in all stages of its devel- opment and be the text-book of religious teaching to the end of time?" THE WOULD' $ CONGRESS OF kELIGlom, 'J'5$ They said, "Yes." Why? Because Christ's teachings are based upon certain indestructible principles of human nature that never change. They are based upon the moral sentiment of the soul. 1 have spoken of these general revivals as evangelistic movements. It must not be inferred, however, that they are merely human under- takings. They originate with the Spirit of God. Leading men, whether as general evangelists or evangelistic pastors, were moved by the Di- vine Spirit to yearn for the deepening of religious life and the conver- sion of the multitudes. As of old God from time to time chooses Him a Moses, fits him for his work and gives him a message. This di- vine superintendence, rather than any human sagacity, explains the peculiar types of truth and the special adaptations of -doctrines to the circumstances at different stages of our national life, to meet the pecul- iar perils or tendencies of such times. This only proves that Christ is the head of His church and does not abandon it to the discretion of any set of men. The Scripture truths which have been specially instrumental in these great spiritual awakenings, perhaps, should have a more specific consideration. Manifestly, no one school of theology can claim pre- eminence. Calvinism, old schpol and new school on the one hand, Truths and Arminianism on the other, have been alike blessed at different times in the conversion of souls. The earlier evangelists dwelt upon the nature and attributes of the Divine Being. They preached the utter depravity of man, the unspeakable guilt of sin, the infinite doom of final impenitence. They said, "Nothing but eternal woe is possible to one who will not come into harmony with God." This was not to frighten men into religion, but as a philosophical fact in the nature of things. It was to arouse them out of deadly apathy to rational concern as to their spiritual condition, and it was effective. White- field's great topic was, "The Necessity of the New Birth," because this was a neglected truth. It was said at the time that Whitefield had "infatuated the multitude with his doctrine of regeneration, and free grace, and conversion, all of which was repugnant to common sense." There can be no doubt that this form of evangelism we are con- sidering has had a very helpful influence upon the development of our American Christian life. Yet it must be said jn 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 services 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: Moved by the Divine Spirit. The Scripture Serious Peril 756 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE kELlGIONS. First. A higher conception of the mission of the local church. The fact should never be lost sight of, that the local church itself is, Missionofthe after all, the responsible body for the evangelization of its own vicin- Locai Church, j^y, \ would be the last to disparage outside evangelists, but it is man- ifestly not God's design that churches should depend upon any great combined movement. They are to depend rather upon the Christ- likeness of their own membership and the evangelistic preaching of their pastors. The true aggressive, soul-reviving power under God for any community is the real people of God in that community, if there are any. More stress must be laid upon consecrated church member- ship. Second. A new evangelistic ministry. That means men in the pulpits, men impressed with the infinitely practical reach of their work, the awful responsibility of their position, and their utter depend- A New Evan, ence upon the Holy Spirit. It means men closeted more with God. ^iwtic Min- ^j^ hour with Him is worth a week among the people. We must get ourselves under the burden of those views of mankind which weighed upon the soul of Christ and led Him to the cross; those great truths which underlie God's government, which undergird the Christian's hope, which appeal to the sinner's reason and intensify his rational fears. Perhaps the supreme suggestion of the whole subject for this rush- ing, conceited, self-asserting, money-grasping, law-defying, Sabbath- desecrating, contract-breaking, rationalistic age is, that we are to return to the profound preaching of the sovereignty of God. International /arbitration. Paper by THOMAS J. SEMMES, of Louisiana. URING six and a half centuries, from Numa to Augustus, the temple of Janus was closed only six years. Roman civilization is character- ized by a disdain of human life, until it became a sanguinary thirst. It was for them a joy to cause the death of others. Hence their hatred to the Christian religion, although so indifferent to all religion; the manner in which the Christians regarded things, human and Divine, was essentially opposed to the Roman view and inspired a profound antip- athy. It is no doubt true that in proportion as the intellectual faculties developed men learned to appreciate their superiority over the material element. But intellectual de- velopment of itself does not weaken the influ- ence of the body on the soul; it only im- presses on the passions more refined tendencies. It stimulates gen- erous emotions, such as the love of glory and patriotism; it excites in the egotist the thirst for riches and honors. This is the reason why the military spirit is manifested even in an advanced state of civiliza- tion; the worship of force is established under the name of glory or patriotism. These are only names for Jupiter and Hercules — the object of the worship is the same. In the beginning of Roman domination international law had no Federation of real existence; the Roman world was in fact a federation of peoples, t^® Peoples, under the same ruler as soverign arbitrator; the allies and confederates of Rome were subjects who preserved the appearance of liberty. This union of states did not resemble the society of free and equal states, like that of modern times; it was a society of states, equally subject to Roman power, though the forms of subjection were dif- ferent. At a later period appearances were abandoned; the territories of allies, confederates and kings were divided into Roman provinces, subject to the imperial power. Then came Christ, who, uniting in His 757 758 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. person God and man, revealed to the world the doctrine of charity and the liberty of man. The church alone, in the midst of this world of desolation, was completely and powerfully organized. The various states, conscious of their weakness, voluntarily sought pontifical interventions until the pontifical tribunal became the resort of peoples and princes for the settlement of their controversies on principles of equity and justice. The oldest treaty now on record made by an English king with a for- eign power was arranged by Pope John XV, A. D. 1002, and drawn up in his name. In 1298 ioniface 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 Condition of as the equal spiritual value of all men is established, the dignity of Changed. labor is rccognizcd and a new society, commercial and industrial, has been born which teaches that the earth is only fertilized by the dews of sweat, that work is not a malediction, but a re-habilitation; that the earth is only truly cursed by Cain, to whom "God said she shall refuse her fruits to thy labor." This society, notwithstanding the philosophies of the age, is fun- damentally Christian, not pagan, for paganism defined force, duty, pleasure, and it believed the unfortunate deserved the anger of God. This society believed that Jesus came to solve the problem of the misery of the poor and wished to solve it by voluntary poverty and the rehabilitation of labor. With treaties of arbitration commences the judicial status of nations, and statesmen think that international wars will disappear before the arbitration tribunal, before a more advanced civiliza- tion. In 1883 the senate of the United States voted in favor of inserting in our treaties an arbitration clause, the arbitrators to consist of eminent jurist consults not engaged in politics. President Grant, in his message to congress in 1873, mystically said: " I am disposed to believe that the Author of the universe is preparing the world to become a single nation speaking the same language, which will here- after render armies and navies superfluous." In 1874 the congress by a joint resolution- declared that the people of the United States recommend that an arbitration tribunal be constituted in place of war, and the President was 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 " to guarantee peace on earth." The United States in many instances has added example to precept. During the present century the United States, since 1818, has settled by arbitration all of its controversies with foreign nations. ' The differences with England as to the interpretation of the treaty of Ghent were amicably settled. The Bering Sea controversy with England, settled a few weeks THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 759 ago by arbitration in Paris, brings to the mind the interesting fact that during the century from 1793 to 1893 there have been fifty-eight inter- national arbitrations, and the advance of public opinion toward that mode of settling national controversies may be measured by the gradual increase of arbitrations during the course of the century. From 1793 to 1848, a period of fifty five years, there were nine arbitrations; CwSov^r^!'*' there were fifteen from 1848 to 1870, a period of twenty -two years; there were fourteen from 1870 to 1880, and twenty from 1880 to 1893. The United States and other American states were interested in thir- , teen of these arbitrations; the United States, other American states,"^ and European nations weje 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 ar- bitration 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 interest- ing arbitration of the century was that in which the highest represen- tative of moral force in the w^orld was accepted in 1885 by the apolo- gist of material force to mediate between Germany and Spain. Leo XIII revived the role of the Popes in the Middle Ages. The sensibd- ities of both nations had been intensely excited by events at the Car- olines and at Madrid; under these circumstances the acceptance of mediation by Spanish pride and German pride forces us to acknowl- edge, says Frederick Papy, "that the spirit of peace has made prog- ress in the public conscience and in the intelligence of governments." Peace leagues and international conferences, and associations for the advancement of social science,Jiave for over thirty years endeav- ored to elaborate an international ''code with organized arbitration. The French opened to the world the Suez canal by an analagous phe- nomenon. Laborers group themselves into unions and hold their inter- national congresses, and substitute' the patriotism of class 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 the earth to the . other Its wires, transmitting human speech, bind together cities and villages; its explorers renew geography and open new continents to the activity and ambition of the older nations. This economical sol- idarity suggests success in formulating some plan for reorganizing a permanent judical tribunal of arbitration. No one wishes to consolidate all nations into one and establish a universal empire, the ideal state of the humanitarians; for nations are moral persons and are part of humanity, and, as such, they assume reciprocal obligations which constitute national right A nation is an organism created by language, by tradition, by history and the will of those who compose it; hence all countries are equal and have an equal 760 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, an Internation- al code right to inviolability. There may be some countries of 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 Obstacles to arbitration depends upon the practicability of so organizing it as to se- T_.. .... (:\xx^ impartiality. Many suggestions have been made by the wise and the learned, by philosophers, statesmen and philanthropists, but none seems to be free from objection. In despair the eyes of some are fixed on the pope. David Urquard, a Protestant English diplomat, in 1869. made an eloquent appeal to Pius IX. Jules La Cointa, a jurist of high authority, in his introduction to the recent work of Count Kamarowski, entitled " The International Tribunal," makes an interesting quotation from the Spectator and English Review, in which the writer says: "Humanity is in search of an arbitrator whose impartiality is indis- putable. In many respects the pope is by position designed for this office. He occupies a rank which permits monarchs as well as repub- lics to have recourse to him without sacrifice of dignity. As a conse- quence of his mission the pope is not only impartial between all na- tions, but he is at such a degree of elevation that their differences are imperceptible to him. The difficulty about religion is becoming weaker every day. No country can have stronger prejudices on this subject than Germany, yet Prince Bismarck has consented to apply to the head of the Roman church. Evidently the Carolines are of little im- portance to Prince Bismarck, but the fact that the most haughty statesman of Europe recognizes, in the face of the world, that he can without loss of dignity submit his conduct in an international affair to the judgment of the pope, is an extraordinary proof that the pope still occupies an exceptional position in our skeptical modern world." Why should not the exceptional position of the pope be utilized by the nations of the world? He is the highest representative of moral force on earth; over two hundred millions of Christians scattered throughout all nations stand at his back, with a moral power which no other human being can command; no longer a temporal sovereign, the ambition of hegemony cannot affect his judgment; religion and state are practically disassociated throughout Christendom so that in mat- ters of religion all are free to follow the dictates of conscience without fear of the civil power, and therefore political motives cannot disturb his equilibrium; provision could be made for the exceptional contro- versies to which his native country might be a party. "In the next war armies will not be confronted, but nations and the conquerors, exhausted by their victories, will contrive to forever ex- tinguish in the conquered the idea of revenge; hence Europe hesitates at the perspective of this supreme shock, and in the year 1891 one of Italy's statesmen, in a public discourse, gave warning to his country- men that the certainty of victory and the certainty of acquiring glory would not compensate for the infinite injury of the disastrous conflict Position fche Popa. of W. T. Stead, London, Eng, jfhe Qivic Qhurch. Paper by W. T. STEAD, of London. its salvation is ENERAL Idea of the Civic church. The fundamental idea of the Civic church is that of the intelligent and fraternal co-operation of all those who are in earnest about making men and things somewhat better than they are today. Men and things, individually and collectively, are far short of what they ought to be, and all those who, seeing this, are ex- erting themselves in order to make them better, ought to be enrolled in the Civic church. From the pale of its communion no man or woman is excluded because of speculative differences of opinion upon ques- tions which do not affect practical co-operation. The world has to be saved, and the number those who will exert themselves in the work so great that we^ can afford to refuse the co- operation of any willing worker because he cannot pronounce our shibboleth. An atheist of the type say of John Morley would no more be excluded from the Civic church because of his inability to reconcile reason and revelation than you would turn a red-haired man out of a lifeboat crew. For the basis of the fellowship of the members of the Civic church is their willingness to serve their fellow men, and he is the best Civic churchman who devotes himself most loyally, most utterly, and most lovingly to work out the salvation of the whole com- munity. Here let me at the very outset forestall one common misconcep- tion. There is nothing in the idea of the Civic church that is hostile to the existence and prosperity of all the existing churches. It pre- supposes the existence of such organizations, each of which is doing necessary work that is more efficiently done by small groups acting independently than by a wider federation acting over a broader area. The idea of any antagonism between the Civic church and the in- numerable religious societies already existing is as absurd as the notion of an antagonism between the main drain of the city and the 763 The World Has to Be Saved. 764 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. wash-hand basin of the individual citizen. The main drain is the necessary complement of the wash-hand basin, but its construction does not imply any slight up©n the ancient and useful habit of each man washing his own face. He can do that best himself, although the community as a whole has to help him to get rid of his dirty water. So for the salvation of che individual soul our existing churches may be the best instrument, while for the redemption of the whole community the Civic church is still indispensable. What is the objective of the Civic church? The restitution of Object of the ^uman society, so as to establish a state of things that will minimize Civic Church, evil and achieve the greatest possible good for the greatest possible number. What is the enemy that has to be overcome? The selfish- ness which in one or other of its innumerable forms — either by indolence, indifference or downright wrongdoing — creates a state of things which renders it difficult to do right and easy to do wrong. To a Christian such a church seems to be based upon the central principle of the Christian religion. To Christians who recognize that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him, all religions have within them something of God, all have something of help in them by which man is able to attain nearer to the divine, and all, therefore, have something to teach us as to how we can best accom- plish the great work that lies before all religions, viz., how to remake man in the image of God. To a Christian that religion is the truest which helps most to make men like Jesus Christ. The apostle says: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." The Civic church accepts that principle and carries it out to its logical ultimate. Who are those who are in Christ Jesus? Those who conform to certain outward rites, call them- selves by particular names, or worship according to a certain order? Not so. Those who are in Christ Jesus are those who have put on Christ, who are baptized with His spirit, who deny themselves to help those who need helping, who sacrifice their lives to save their fellow- men; in other words, those who take trouble to do good to others. And it is time they were gathered into a society which could act as an associated unit of organization for the realization of the ideal. The recognition of this wide brotherhood of all who take up their cross to follow Christ must necessarily precede the attempt to secure federaetd co-operation for the attainment of a common end. To take up your cross, what is that but to deny yourself, and to follow Christ — but to give up time, thought and energy to the service of your fellowmen? Those who do that, so far as they do that, constitute the church militant below which will constitute the church triumphant above. And the triumph of the church will be achieved the sooner the more readily the church militant below gets into line, recognizes its essential unity and employs its collective strength against the common foe. Union, co-operation, coijcerted action — these are only possible on THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 765 the basis of federation. Gone forever are the days when any one church can hope to lord it over God's heritage. The Civic church is an attempt to get the undisciplined, scattered crowds into line. We are only waging a guerrilla warfare, where we might be carrying on a regular campaign. Differences of uniform or of accouterments are held to be sufficient to justify our standing aloof from each other, while the com- mon enemy holds the field. Now, we ask, has the time not come when the attack on evil should be conducted with ordinary common sense ? There is no suggestion on the part of the advocates of the Civic church that a committee representing the various existing organiza- tions for mending the world, the men and women who are willing to take trouble to do good to others, should supersede any existing institution. The Civic church comes into existence not to supersede, but rather to energize all the institutions that make for righteousness, to bring them into sympathetic communication the one with the other, and to adapt the sensible methods of municipal administration, with its accurate geographical demarcation and strict apportionment of re- sponsibility, to the more spiritual work of the church. The Civic church is the spiritual counterpart of the town council, representing the collective and corporate responsibility of all the cit- izens for the spiritual, moral and social welfare of the poorest and most neglected district within their borders. It is an attempt to organize the conscience of the community so as to bring the collective moral sentiment of the whole community to bear upon the problems which can only be solved by collective action. The work which lies before such a federative center is vast and varied. Vast and varied though it be, it is surprising how much of it is beyond dispute. Men may differ about original sin, they agree about the necessity of supplying pure water; they quarrel over apostolical succession, but they are at one as to the need for cleansing cess pools and flushingsewers. It is in the fruitful works of righteousness, in the practical realization of humanitarian ideals, that the reunion of Christendom, and not of Christendom only, is to be brought about. Broadly speaking, the difference between the municipality and the Civic church is that one deals solely with the enforcement of such a minimum of cooperation as is laid down by act of parliament or congress, while the other seeks to secure conformity, not to the clauses of a law, but to the higher standard which is fixed by the realizable as- pirations of mankind for a higher life and a more human, not to say divine, existence. The church lives forever in the realm of the ideal. She labors in the van of human progress, educating the community up to an ever-widening and expanding conception of social obligations. As soon as her educational work is complete she hands over to the state the performance of duties which formerly were exclusively dis- charged by the church. The relief of the poor, the establishment of hos- pitals, the opening of libraries, the education of the children — all these in former times were intrusted to the church. But as the church edu- Spiritnal Counterpart of the Town Cooncil. 766 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. cated the people, these duties were transferred one by one to the care of the state. The church did not, however, lose any of her respon- sibilities in regard to these matters, nor did the transfer of her obliga- tions to the shoulders of rate-paid officials leave her with a corre- sponding lack of work to be performed. The duty of the church be- came indirect rather than direct. Instead of relieving the poor, teach- ing the young, caring for the sick, her duty was to see that the pub- lic-bodies who had inherited the responsibilities were worthy of their position, and never fell below the standard either in morals, or in phi- lanthropy which the church had attained. And in addition to the duties, which may be styled electoral, the church was at once con- fronted with a whole series of new obligations springing out of the ad- vance made by the community in realizing a higher social ideal. The duty of the church is ever to be the pioneer of social progress, to be the educator of the moral sentiment, so as to render it possible to throw upon the whole community the duties which at first are neces- sarily borne exclusively by the elect few. There is little doubt that in any English or American city the good people could rule if they would take as much trouble to organize and work for the victory of justice, honesty, purity and righteousness as the bad people take to secure the rule of the rum seller and the dust con- tractor. But where are they to find their organizing central point? They can only find it in the Civic church, the establishment of which in every community is indespensable, if the forces which make for righteousness and progress are to have their rightful ascendancy in the governance of our cities. An Electoral The Civic church would of necessity become an electoral cen- Center. ^gj.^ what may be described as a moral caucus, created for the purpose of making conscience supreme in the government of the affairs of the town. First and foremost, the Civic church would, wherever it was power- ful, render absolutely impossible the nomination of candidates notori- ously dishonest and immoral. Secondly, the Civic church, on the eve of every election, could and would stir up all the affiliated churches to appeal to the best cit- izens to regard the service of the municipality as a duty which they owe to God and man, and to all citizens to prepare for the ballot with a due sense of ^he religious responsibility of the exercise of citizenship. The Civic church could also bring almost irresistible pressure to bear to prevent the coercion, the corruption and the lying which are at present so often regarded as excusable, if not legitimate, methods of influencing elections. Thirdly, there are always in all elections certain great moral issues upon which all good men agree of whatever party they may be. But as these issues seldom affect, except adversely, the pockets of wealthy and powerful interests, they are ignored. The Civic church would bring them to the front and keep them there. All that is needed is that the professedly religious men shoi'ld be as resolute to pull the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. .767 wires for the kingdom of heaven as irreligious men are to roll logs for the benefit of the gaming hell or the gin shop. II. Its Social Functions. The duty of the Civic church is to its Social inspire and direct mankind in all matters pertaining to the right con- Functions, duct of life, the amelioration of the condition of the people and the progressive development of a more perfect social system. Much of this work is no doubt performed already more or less imperfectly by existing organizations. But without reflecting in the least upon the zeal, intelligence and devotion of those who have borne the heat and labor of the day, is there one among the most earnest of the laborers who would not confess in the bitterness of his soul how often he was hampered and crippled in his best efforts by the absence of any gen- eral conception of the plan of operations and the difficulty of securing the co-operation of those who agree about the needs of this life, because they cannot agree about the number or shape of the steps that lead up to the portals of heaven? The best way in which this truth can be brought out into clear relief is to take the life of man from the cradle to the grave, and in a rapid and necessarily most incomplete survey, to point out objects which command the undivided support of all men of all religions, and which, therefore, could be much more efficiently pursued in common or in concert than by the isolated and independent action of a multi- tude of small organizations. In making this survey I do not attempt . . to draw up any scheme of ideal perfection. I rigidly confine myself to noticing the best that has already been attained by the most advanced civilizations, or by the most progressive citizens. I frame" . my Givic church programme strictly on the principle of leveling up.. What the most forward have already attained can be in time attained by the most backward. It is all a question of the rate of progress. That rate is likely to be accelerated by nothing so much as by display- ing before the eyes of the laggards in the rear a bird's-eye view of the positions occupied in advance by the pioneers of the race. Hence I claim no originality for the programme of the Civic church. Absolute originality is not for federations, which of necessity must not advance beyond the solid ground of verified experiment and ascertained fact. As the Civic church is in advance of the state, so the individual reformer is ever in advance of the Civic church. The heretic always leads the van. What the Civic church can do is to generalize for the benefit of all the advantages which have hitherto been confined to the few. I begin with the infant; everything begins with the infant. And . the Civic church begins with the infant before his birth. The first doctrine • of the Civic church, as I conceive it, is an urgent insistence upon the infinite responsibility of parentage, and especially of paternity. Every child has a right to be well born of healthy parents with legiti- mate status, and no child ought to be born into the world unless his parents have the means and the opportunity to provide him adequately with food, clothing, shelter and education. When the child comes to the birth, there is at every ^tep need for 768 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. the watchful care of the church. The question of foundling hospitals is one on which much may be said. If the great evil of the advent of unwanted children were seriously grappled with, need for such institutions would dwindle to a minimum. At present, with the sub- ject ignored by the churches, the community that closes the foundling hospital with one hand opens the murderous baby farm with the other. When the child is born it needs nourishment, and the supply of good milk cheap is one of the first necessities of its existence. I well remember Thomas Carlyle speaking to me with much sad bitterness of > ■ the change that had come over the rural districts of Scotland in his lifetime. "Nowadays," he said, "the poor bairns cannot get a sup of milk to their porridge. The whole of the milk is sent off to town, and the laborer's child gets none. The result is that they are brought up on slops, and the breed decays." A little thought might have se- cured the peasantry against this loss of their natural means of subsist- ence, but the church does not take thought for such trifles. The lairds and the large farmers sent the milk to the best market, and the chil- dren of the men who tilled their land had to do without. To deprive children of milk is simply infanticide at one or two removes. The prevention of cruelty to children is surely one of the good Prevention of works Upon which the Civic church could agree without one dissen- CrueitytoChii- tient voice. The fact that in all our cities a certain number of chil- dren are annually tortured to death by starvation, blows and all man- ner of hideous brutalities, is unfortunately but too well attested by the reports of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. So we may go on. From the infant we come to the child. Here we have a constantly extending field for the intelligent activity of the Civic church. Every child ought to be protected against the exploita- tion of his life until he is at least thirteen years of age. That is the child's learning time. To put him to work before then is to compel him to live on his capital, and to impoverish him for the rest of his life. The whole influence of the Civic church would be thrown into the scale in favor of postponing child labor until at least thirteen years had been allowed in which to grow and play and learn. It is only within very recent times and only in some countries that children of tender years have ceased to be regarded as the legitimate chattels of their parents. The spectacle of some streets swarming after dark with child venders of newspapers, matches, etc., is a melancholy re- flection upon the civilization that necessitates such an immolation of childhood. If exemption from being driven to mine and factory and the work- shop until after thirteen years of age be the first clause in the chil- dren's charter, the second is the provision of places in which to play. To the young child a playground is more important than a school- room. But in most cities the street with all its dangers, or the gutter with all its filth, is the only playground of the child. Within five min- utes from every door there should be the counterpart of the village dren. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 769 green, where the little toddlers could roll and frolic without dread of the wheels of the van or the rush of the street. A few great parks at great intervals are no substitute for the playground close at hand. And as there should be public playgrounds open to all in fine weather, so there should be public playrooms under cover, lighted and warmed, for use in wet weather or in winter. The Civil church could do much in this way. There are plenty of odd corners and empty sites that might be utilized for playgrounds if there were but a public body ready to take the matter in hand, and in the empty but spacious halls of our board schools there is, in the evening at least, ample playing room for the children of our cities. But all these things require direc- tion, organization, and the cooperation of all existing agencies. How can these be secured save by the Civic church? After a place to play in, the child needs most a place to learn in. And it will be well if the first schoolroom can be made as much of a playing place as possible. In the advocacy of the more extended use of the method of the kindergarten the church could lift from many a weary little head a burden which it was never intended to bear. Education for young children can be made a delight instead of, as too YouSSMkiren often it is at present, being made a torture. The whole question of the efficiency of education in school, in all its stages, can never be absent from the thought of the Civic church. This involves no med- dlesome interference with the proper function of the school board. But it does involve a constant encouragement to the best members of the school board to press on to the attainment of the highest possible efficiency. In the case of orphans, and children who are in a special manner the children of the state, there is everywhere noticeable absence of systematic, comprehensive action. Here and there private philanLiro- pists will found orphanages, or a single church, like Mr. Spurgeon's, will undertake to provide for the fatherless; but the Civic church will have to be created before the duty of caring for the orphan will be adequately performed. There is an almost universal agreement among the best authorities that children left to the guardians are much better boarded out than brought up in the workhouse taint. But how many workhouses teem with children, and how often the timid proposals of the reformer for making a change in this respect are baffled by the vis inertice of prejudice and use and wont? Whether the children are boarded out or massed together in the workhouse, there is a constant need for the healthful, life-giving influence of loving supervisors. These children are the natural objects of the mother love that is run- ning to waste in the community. The heart of many a childless wife or lonely old maid would be filled with gladness and joy if they could but be taught to mother the orphan family in the union. But a thou- sand obstacles are placed in their way, and there is no Civic church to constantly urge this mothering of the motherless children upon ^he attention of the unemployed women of the middle class. Toys and picture books are needed. Mr. Labouchere in London, 4y 770 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, through the columns of Truth, does more to supply this need than all the churches, although I am glad to say that toy services are now be- coming more common. Why should not the superfluity of the well- to-do nurseries be utilized for the benefit of the children of the com- munity? Every one agrees that it would be well to do this. But how to get it done is the question, and, short of the creation of the Civic center which would exercise a kind of philanthropic Episcopate over the whole community, I see no other resource. When the child grows up and attains the status of a youth, the Scholarships widening temptations of life widen the field of usefulness for the Civic for Youths. church. The provision of a system of scholarships, by which the most capablje youths of either sex should be assisted in obtaining the best education which school or university can afford, is no dream of the visionary idealist. Such provision is made here and there. It would be the duty of the Civic church to make it universal. The en- dowments intended for the poor, now monopolized by the rich, need to be reclaimed for their rightful owners. Every community should have a complete system of graded schools through which the scholar should be passed, from the kindergarten to the university. Endow- ments should be divided equally between the sexes, instead of being distributed on the principle that to him that hath shall be given, while from her that hath not shall be taken even that which she has. Every town should have its branch of the home reading union, and every school its recreative evening classes. Provision should be made of quiet classrooms where the student could pursue the studies which would be impossible amid the distractions of a crowded room. Playing fields, available for cricket, football, hockey and lawn tennis, should be preserved with jealous care in the heart of every urban com- munity. Opportunities for learning to swim, and if possible to boat, should be provided in every center of population. Regular field clubs and garden associations should be formed, in order to develop a taste for natural history and a love of flowers. And in winter, when out- door pursuits are impossible, there should be in every district a warm and well-lighted popular drawing room, where the young people could meet for social purposes, instead of being confronted with the alterna- tives of the street or the music hall. The youth of every town needs the gymnastic classes and all the conveniences of the polytechnic or the people's palace. But who is to secure this? The individual is as powerless as the isolated church or chapel. It requires the combined action of all the philanthropists of the community to secure these advantages for the young. But the organizing center as yet does not exist. The Civic church will seek to enforce the law where it exists, and to strengthen it where it is faulty and inadequate. But in secur- ing the teaching of temperance in schools it need not appeal to the law; it only needs to educate those who are intrusted with the control of the education of the people. The need for technical education for the youth of both sexes, al- acation. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 771 though generally recognized, is almost as generally neglected. The old technical education of the household enjoyed by our grandmothers Technical is vanishing fast; the new generation is growing up uninstructed in the household arts. But who will press forward the consideration of these subjects? The homing of the youth in our great cities, the making of pro- vision for the young man and young woman from the country who find themselves suddenly launched into the midst of a wilderness of houses, all peopled by unsympathetic strangers — there is a vast field for religious and philanthropic endeavor. The home is the great nursery of all the virtues and all the amenities of life. How to create substitutes for the home for the benefit of the dishomed, this is one of the problems which the Civic church might profitably press upon the attention of all the churches. As I go on unfolding page after page of the endless series of philanthropic activities in which the Civic church might play the lead- ing part, I marvel at the immensity of the humanitarian effort that is demanded, but I marvel still more at the silence of so many of our pulpits and the indifference of so many of our churches to the press- ing needs of the human race. My heart stirs within me when I con- template the innumerable good causes of our own time which urgently and clamantly'demand the attention of religious men, and I contrast with these needs the arid and empty dialectic which does duty for a sermon in many of our pulpits. Instead of being the leader in all good works, the director-general of the world-transforming crusade, the religious teacher has often dwindled into a mere ecclesiastical Mr. Fribble, who drivels through twenty minutes of more or less polished inanity, and then subsides into complacent silence, feeling that he has done his duty. Meanwhile the hungry sheep look up and are not fed, and humanity bereft of its natural leaders wanders aimlessly about in the wilderness of sin, seeking guidance everywhere and finding it not. Nor will it find it until by the reconstitution of the Civic church we create once more a center of inspiration and of counsel around which will gather all the energy and enthusiasm that exist in the community for the realization of our social ideals. The field is white unto the harvest and the laborers are few. And of those who have entered their names as laborers, how many are there who are twiddling their thumbs over more or less aimless inanities and ecclesiastical twaddle? So far, I have but described the work which the Civic church might do in the service of the young. I have said nothing concerning the work that awaits it in relation to the adults. To describe that even in the most cursory fashion would need a volume. But lest any should say that I have shirked the most important part of my subject, I will jot down, without any pretense at exhaustive or scientific definition, some of the services which the Civic church might render to the adult citizen often in connection with existing institutions. In drawing up this formidable catalogue of labors that await this modern Hercules, I 772 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. strictly confine myself to indicating useful work which has been ac- complished in some places, and which, pending the intervention of the state, can be accomplished everywhere by the efforts of some such voluntary agency as the Civic church. Such are a few of the subjects upon which the community needs guidance, which the Civic church would be constantly needed to give. There is hardly a community in which some progress has not been made by individvals, or by churches, or by other societies, in the solu- tion of the problems to which I have briefly alluded. But in no community is there any organized effort to secure for all the citizens all the advantages which have been secured for a favored few here and there. What is wanted is a Civic center which will generalize for the benefit of all the results obtained by isolated workers. The first desid- GeneralBen- ^^atum is to obtain a man or woman who can look at the community •iits. as a whole, and who will resolve that he or she, as the case may be, will never rest until they bring up the whole community to the stand- ard of the most advanced societies. Such a determined worker has the nucleus of the Civic church under his own hat; but, of course, if he is to succeed in his enterprise, he must endeavor by hook or by crook to get into existence some federation of the moral and religious forces which would be recognized by the community as having author- ity to speak in the name and with the experience of the Civic church. The work will, of necessity, be tentative and slow. For do I dream of evolving an ideal collective Humanitarian Episcopate on democratic lines all at once. But if the idea is once well grasped by the right man or woman it will grow. The necessities of mankind will foster it, and all the forces of civilization and of religion will work for the estab- lishment of the Civic church. Xhe \^orld's Debt to \meY\cdi. Paper by MRS. CELIA P. WOOLEY, of Chicago. MERICA 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 general intel- ligence 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 civili- zation as are represented in the names of Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius, Moses, or those types of culture of less ancient date which the names of Homer and Soc- rates, Seneca and Petrarch have made illustrious. The religious growth of these older climes runs back into the dim beginning of time. We trace it through vol- umes of myth, legend and song, which the adoration of ages have ele- vated to the rank of Scripture, each an expression of the same human need and longing, equally divine in origin, a permanent contribution to the world's spiritual treasures. All that the past has of legend therein, of wisdom and lore, of beautiful myth or fable, aspiring hymn or prayer, or elaborate ceremony or ritual embodying these, is ours, here in latter-day America, as historical bequest rather than in- digenous growth and possession. America did not spring fully equipped from the brain of omnipo- tent might and wisdom, as Minerva did, but she was nevertheless grown up when she began. We are in the same line of general in- heritance as that of England, from which we separated ourselves one hundred years ago, but spiritually this line of inheritance runs much farther back to far-off Aryan sources with special nourishment of an- other sort in the Hebrew Bible, in which we have been trained, so that religiously we are Semitic as well as Aryan, and may claim cousinship with the representatives of the most distant faiths on this platform. 773 Historical Bequest. tion. 774 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The world, it must be admitted at the outset, owes but little to America for that wealth of traditions which lies at the roots of its religious life, as it owes almost as little for that mass of doctrinal liter- ature which marks a later stage of development. In deep poetic per- ception 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 wor- - ship side of religion, we are more indebted to Asia and to that dreamy mystic, all-surveying mind she produces, than to any other single source. Great Lesson " One of the great lessons which India teaches is introspection," o f ^ introspec- 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 orientals, 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 profound, 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 innumerable battles of sword and pen; but a record more fairly described as one long, grand intellectual conquest, in which the devout and liberty-loving heart of man has continually gained new triumph over those twin foes of the human mind, ignorance and tyranny. Here was the arena of the world's greatest mental struggles. Europe also had her mine of religious myth and tradition, lying back of the period of Christian culture; a living juice, pure and strong as the native mead of her sturdy northern tribes, which, unlike the lotos blossom of the East, had no power to soothe or enervate, but rather stimulated to wild excess. Back among the worship of Thor and Odin we find those ideas of personal independence and integrity which have made our western civilization what it is. Man is a creature of action, not of contemplation, who must struggle to live. Out of this struggle the race began to evolve its first ideal of true selfhood. In the home, the state, the church, this struggle of evolving selfhood went on. In the East man had dreamed of an ideal of perfect wisdom and goodness until all other desires merged into one, to unite himself with that ideal, to realize and possess God, Nirvana, reabsorption into the infinite. Heaven was attained through longing, not through will. But the occidental mind likes to have a hand in the creation of its own benefit, to help build its own heaven. A regenerated and active will became the first requisite of a re- ligious life. The merits of a life study and. contemplation still re- mained, as the various monastical institutions of Europe testified, Nearly all were derived from non-Christian origin; but the genius of the new time found incomplete expression in the cloister and cell and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 775 truer exercise in camp and court. The mind of man was fully awake. Religious devotion now took the form of religious dialectics; spiritual culture gave way to spiritual instruction. It was no longer enough for the soul to live in contemplation of itself; to religious being must be added that other idea derived from the new Gospel, religious doing: ''Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve!" In a sense, religion hardened and narrowed during this period. It was the age of the theologians and the creed-makers, but it was also the age of the religious missionaries. Man had never felt his respon- sibility in matters of faith as now. This missionary spirit belonged, in a degree, to all the great ethnic systems preceding Christianity — we know that Buddha came from a high position to save mankind, as Jesus was raised from a low one — yet it must be admitted that it finds wider illustration in the later era. To Asia, then, the sentiment of religion; to Europe, its conviction or dogma. It is to the civilization of Galileo, Dante, Calvin, Rous- seau, Voltaire, Bacon, Newton, Darwin and Huxley that we are chiefly indebted for the thought life of religion. All was action on the mate- rial and mental planes until one continent no longer afforded sufficient outlet for the seething heart and brain of man, the new impulses and ideas taking shape everywhere in the social and religious world. Religious belief and aspiration, religious conviction and devotion, had been bestowed by the old world, the power to feel and to think; but there arose in time another need which neither the tropical imag- ination of one continent nor the busy intellect of another could supply. With power to think must go room to think. Man had gained some theoretical knowledge of liberty in the old world, a vision of the promised land, but he yearned for a chance to apply the knowledge. With all his powers alive and eager for action, where was the field? Nowhere, but in an unknown land across an unchartered sea. The world's religious debt to America is defined in one word, op- portunity. The liberty men had known only as a distant ideal now reached the stage of practical experiment. It is true, if we try to esti- mate this debt in less abstract terms, we shall find we have made a special contribution of no mean degree in both men and ideas. We have had our theologians of national and worldwide fame, men of the highest learning their age afforded, of consecrated lives and broad understanding. There were the Mathers, Edwardses and Higginsons of the earlier days, one of whom plainly declared that New England was *'a planta- tion of religion, not of trade." These and others like them were men, as one writer has described, " who felt themselves to be in personal covenant with God, like Israel of old, who framed their state as a temple and invited the Eternal to rule over them, whose state assem- bly was a church council, whose voters were church members, only voters because members, only citizens because saints." Along with these rigid disciplinarians were believers of a gentler order, like Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, Dr. Hopkins, and later Age of Creed- makers. Defined i n one Word— Op- portunity 776 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, the Nortons and Dr. Channing. We have had our clear, bold teachers of the word, of golden-mouthed fame like Chrysostom of old, our Whitefields, Lyman Beechers, Father Taylors, Theodore Parkers and Dvvight L. Moodys, each of whom stands for some new ''great av/ak- ening" 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 discoveries in the realm of ideas as it provided a chance for the appli- cation of these ideas. The conditions were new, the experiment of self-government was new, under which all the lesser experiments in religious faith and practice were carried on, but the thing to be tried, the ideal to be tested, that was well understood. They knew what they wanted, those stanch, daring ancestors of ours. It would be hard to say when or where the gift of liberty was first bestowed on man. Prof. John Fiske, in his '' Discovery of Amer- ica," shows how, after repeated experiments and failures, each leading to the final triumph, no one standing for that triumph alone — this discov- ery was, in his words, " not a single event, but a gradual process." Still more are the moral achievements of mankind '' gradual processes," not " single events." Instinct of The iustinct of freedom is part of nature's savage and beast-life Freedom. progeny, a Caliban 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 find the record of as many strug- gles in behalf of mental integrity and personal rights there as elsewherfe. In the historic periods we have learned little more than how to mark the times and places in which this struggle culminated; we can name the captains of the host; we know where a Moses, a Socrates, 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 the opportunity to test and apply this principle is to say enough. Whatever the religious consciousness of man gained was ours to begin with. This adult stage of thought in which our national life began deprived us of many of those poetic and picturesque elements which belong to earlier forms of thought. The faith of the new world being Protestant, aggressively and dogmatically Protestant at times, felt itself obliged to dispense with the large body of stored 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 corruption 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 respectability, had seen religion and the Bible made the excuse for war, lust and tyranny, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 777 until sham and oppression in all their forms had 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 Israel- itish; in both we find the same stern insistence on practical righteous- ness as a fundamental requirement of the religious life. It was a fundamental overlaid 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 dishonest or impure man. He might, in the cause of God, burn witches or whip Quakers, but he must pay his debts, send his children to school, be a good neighbor 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 vicegerent; his virtues were personal and his own. Personal integrity — this was the Personal in- root of the Puritan ideal in public and private life, one which this tegrity. nation must continue to observe if it would prosper, which will prove its sure loss and destruction to ignore. We hear a great deal in the present day about an ''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 dis- covery of our own age and country than a restatement of a truth long understood. We find struggling witnesses of one or the other far back in the earliest period of human history, and at every one of those his- toric 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 practical demonstra- tion of such a religion be found as now and here in our loved and free America? This is not said in reproach or criticism of any other land, but in just command and exhortation to ourselves. Where, except under republican rule, can the experiment so well be tried of a personal religion, based on no authority but that of the truth, finding its sanc- tion in the human heart, demonstrating itself in deeds of practical helpfulness and good will? How sadly will our boasted republic fail in its ideal if it realize not in the near future this republic of mind. The principle of democ- racy, once accepted, runs in all directions. Religion is fast becoming democratized in these days. If America is to present the world with a Religion Be- new type of faith it must be as inclusive as those principles of human J^™i,°fe(j ^®™' brotherhood on which her political institutions rest and embody a great deal of Yankee common sense. Its sources of supply will be as various 778 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 opportunity, or religion applied, it is a debt the future will disclose more than the past has disclosed it. If ours is the opportunity, ours is still more the obligation. Privilege does not go without responsibility; where much is bestowed, much is required. If a new religious ideal, based on the unhindered action of the mind in the search for truth with no fear but of its own wrong doing, justifying itself only as an aid to human virtues and happiness — if such a faith were to be evolved here and by us, how proud our estate. But such a faith when evolved, even as we see it evolving today, will not be the product of one age or people, nor is it a result the future alone is to attain. Its roots will search ever 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 hearts together here today and will never let them be wholly loosed from each other again. How pale grows the phantom of a partial religion, the religion of intellectual assent, before the large, sweet and comprehensive spirit that has ruled in these halls ! How strong and beautiful the disclosing figure of that coming faith that owns but two motives, love of God and love to man ! "We need not travel all around the world to know that every- where the sky is blue," said Goethe. We need not be Buddhists, Par- sees, Mohammedans, Jews and Christians in turn and all the little Christians besides, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians and Unitarians, to know that in each and all God is choosing His own best way to dem- onstrate Himself to the hearts of His children. Knowledge gaining Gai^ng%*^on slowly upon ignorancc, truth upon error, goodness steadily gaining Ignorance. j^^^ powerto heal the world's wickedness and misery, man overcoming himself, growing daily in the divine likeness, not into which he was born, but which he was born to attain — thus the soul's life proceeds wherever found, by the Indus or the Nile, the shores of the Mediter- ranean or in the valley of the Mississippi, whether it prays in the name of Jesus or of Cyrus, wears black or yellow vestments. "The World's Religious Debt to America! " Measure as large an actual accomplishment or future possibility and desire as our fondest fancy or most patriotic wish can fashioo it, there is a debt larger than this, one which will grow larger still with time, which we acknowledge with glad and grateful hearts today, and can never discharge, and that is Arnerica's religious debt to the world, Knowledge Qhristianity and E^^l^tion. Paper by PROF. HENRY DRUMMOND, of Glasgow, Scotland. O more fitting theme could be chosen for discussion at this congress than the re- lation of Christianity to evolution. By evolution I do not mean Darwinism, which is not yet proved, norSpencerism, which is incomplete, nor Weismann- ism, which is in the hottest fires of crit- icism, but evolution as a great category of thought, as the supreme word of the nineteenth century. More than that, it is the greatest generalization the world has ever known. The mere presence of this doctrine in science has reacted as by an electric induction on every surround- ing circle of thought. No truth can remain now unaffected by evolution. We see truth as a profound ocean still, but with a slow and ever-rising tide. The- ology must reckon with this tide. We can stir this truth in our vessels for the formulation of doctrine, but the formulation of doc- trine must never stop; but the vessels with their mouths open must remain in the ocean. If we take them out the tide cannot rise in them, and we shall only have stagnant doctrines rotting in a dead the- ology. The average mind looks at science with awe. It is the breaking of a fresh seal. It is the one chapter of the world's history with which he is in doubt. What it contains for Christianity or against it he knows not. What it will do or undo he cannot tell. The problems to be solved are more in number and more intricate than were ever known before, and he waits almost in excitement for the next development. And yet this attitude of Christianity is as free from false hope as it is free from false fear. The idea that religion is to be improved by reason of its relation with science is almost a new thing. Religion and science began the centuries hand in hand. And after a long separation we now ask what contributions has science to bestow? What God-given truths is science 779 Truth in Its Relation to Ev- olntion. Religion and Science Hand in Hand. 780 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, bringing now to lay at the feet of our Christ? True, science is as much the friend of true theology as any branch of truth, and in all the strug- gles between them in the past they have both come out of the struggles enriched, purified and enlarged. The first fact to be registered, is that evolution has swept over the doctrine of creation and left it untouched except for the better. Science has discovered how God made the world. Fifty years ago Darwin wrote in dismay to Hooker that the old theory of specific creation, that God made all species apart and introduced them into the world one by one, was melting away before his eyes. One of the last books on Darwinism, that of Alfred Wallace, says in its opening chapter these words: ** The whole scientific and literary world, even the whole educated public, accepts as a matter of common knowledge the origin of species from other allied species by the ordinary proces- ses of natural birth." Theology, after a period of hesitation, accepts this version. The hesitation was not due to prejudice, but for the ar- rival of the proof. The doctrine of evolution, no one will assert, is yet proved. It will be time for theology to be unanimous when science is unanimous. If science is satisfied in a general way with its theory of evolution as the Doctrine o f method of creation, assent is a cold word with which those whose busi- Proved^^ ^®* ness it is to know and love the ways of God should welcome it. The theory of evolution fills a gap at the very beginning of our religion. As to its harmony with the question or the theory about the book of Gen- esis, it may be that theology and science have been brought into per- fect harmony, but the era of the reconcilers is to be looked 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 recon- cile it would seem to be a mistake. Genesis is a presentation of one or two great elementary truths of the childhood of the world. It can only be read in the spirit in which it was written, with its original pur- pose in view, and its original audience. Its object was purely relig- ious, the point 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 be- tween science and religion is at an en I. Evolution has swept over the rei'gious conception of origins and left it untouched except for the better. The method of creation, the question of origin is another. There is o ily 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 op- posed to creation, assumes creation. Law is not the cause of the order of the world, but the expression of it. Evolution only professes to offer an account of the development of the world; it does not offer to account for it. This is what Professor Tyndal said: "When I stand in the springtime and look upon the bright foliage, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS Of RELIGIONS, 781 the lilies in the field, and share the general joy of opening life, I have often asked myself whether there is any power, any being or thing in the universe whose knowledge of that of which I am so ignorant is greater than mine. I have said to myself, can it be possible that man's knowledge is the greatest knowledge, that man's life is the highest life.^ My friends, the profession of that atheism with which I am sometimes so lightly charged would, in my case, be an impossible answer to this question." And more pathetically later, in connec- tion with the charge of atheism, he said: " Christian men are proved by their writings to have their hours of weakness and christian of doubt, as well as their hours of strength and conviction, Men Proved by and men like myself share in their own way these variations of ®^' " ^^^ mood and sense. I have noticed during years of self-observation that it is not in hours of clearness and of vigor that this 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 mys- tery in which we dwell and of which 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 Tyndal calls a fierce and distorted theism is as much the enemy of Christianity as of science; and if science can help Christianity to destroy it, it does well. What we have really to fight against is both unfounded belief and un- founded unbelief, and there is perhaps just as much of the one as of the other floating in current literature. As Mr. Ruskin says: "You have to guard against the darkness 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 pass- ing the authorized statement of a well-known fellow of the Royal Society of London, which, I need not remind you, is the representative 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 been opponents, but it is fair to suppose that the greater number have given no very serious thought to the subject. The figures indicate that religious faith rather than unbelief have characterized the leading 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 con- ception. 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. 782 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Science Dem- onstrates God. New Series of Thonghto. If science has not by searching found out God it has not found any other God, nor anything else like a God that might continue to be a conceivable and rational object of worship in a scientific age. If by searching it has not found God it has found a place for God. As never before from the purely physical side of things it has siiown there is room in the world for God. It has given us a more Godlike God. The new energies in the world demand a will and an ever present will. To science God no longer made the world and then withdrew; He per- vades the whole. Under the old view God was anon-resident God and an occasional wonder worker. Now He is always here. It is certain that every step of science discloses the attributes of the Almighty with a growing magnificence. The author of "Natural Religion" tells us that "the average scientific man worships at present a more awful and, as it were, a greater Deity than the average Christian." Certain it is that the Christian view and the scientific view together form a conception of the object of worship such as the world in its highest inspiration never reached before. Never before have the attributes of eternity and immensity and infinity clothed themselves with language so majestic. in its sublimity. Mr. Huxley tells us that he would like to see a scientific Sunday-school established in every parish. If this only were to be taught we should be rich indeed to be qualified to be the teachers of those Sunday-schools. One cannot fail to prophesy in view of the latest contributions of science, that before another half century has passed there will be a theological advance of moment. Under the new view the whole ques- tion of the incarnation is beginning to assume a fresh development. Instead of standing alone an isolated phenomenon, its profound rela- tions to the whole scheme of nature are opening up. The question of revelation is undergoing a similar expansion. The whole order and scheme of nature are seen to be only part of the manifold revelation of God. As to the specific revelations, the Old and New Testaments, evolu- tion has already given the world what amounts to a new Bible. Its peculiarity is, that in its form it is like the world in which it is found. It is a word, but its root is now known, and we have other words from the same root. Its substance is still the unchanged language of heaven, yet it is written in a familiar tongue. This 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 doctrines, but a nursery of growing truths. Like nature, it has successive strata and valley and hill-top and atmosphere, and rivers are flowing still, and here and there a place which is a desert, and fossils whose crude forms are the stepping stones to higher things. It is a record of inspired deed as well as of inspired words, a 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 a method whose main warrant is that the book lends itself to it. THE WOkLb'S CONCRESS 6P HElIdlON^ 783 Other questions are moving the world just now, but one has only time to name them. The doctrine of immortality, the relation of the person of Christ to evolution, and the operation of the Holy Spirit, are attracting attention, and lines of new thought are already at the suggestive stage, and among them not least in interest is the possible contribution from science on some of the more practical problems of theology, and the doctrine of sin. On the last point the suggestion has been made that sin is probably a relic of the animal part, the unde- stroyed residuum of the animal, and the savage ranks at least as an hypothesis, and with proper safeguards, may one day yield some glim- mering light to theology on its oldest and darkest problem. If this partial suggestion — and at present it is nothing more — can be followed out to any purpose the result will be of much greater than speculative interest. For, if science can help us in anyway to know how sin came into the world, it may help us better to know how to get it out. A better understanding of its genesis and nature may modify, at least, some of the attempts made to get rid of it, whether in a national or individual life. But the time is not ripe to speak with more than the greatest caution and humility of these still tremendous problems. There is an intellectual covetousness abroad, which is neither the fruit nor the friend of a scientific age. The haste to be wise, like the haste Speculation to be rich, leads many to speculate in indifferent securities, and can not Theoiogjr. only end in fallen fortunes. Theology must not be bound up with such speculations. At the same time speculation must continue to be its life and its highest duty. We are sometimes warned that the scientific method has dangers, and are told not to carry it too far. But it is then after all it becomes chiefly dangerous when we are warned not to carry it too far. Apart from all details, apart from the influence of modern science on points of Christian theology, that to which most of us look with eagerness and gratitude is its contribution to applied Christianity. The true answer to the question, is there any conflict between Christi- anity and theology, is that in practice, at all events, the two are one. What is the object of Christianity? It is the evolving of men, the making of higher and better men in a higher and better world. That is also the object of evolution, 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 a scientific fact it cannot stop there. It must goon to include the whole man, and all the work and^thought and life and aspiration of man; the great moral facts, th^^' """^kh ^^ embraces nations as well as individuals, and '^^ ^ gg^^^j^ stretches on to the end of time. Every nation N^L«— ^^PwC^J^ ^^^ people are 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, A.nd the thoughts of men are widened with the proc- ess of the suns. 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 English tongue. In 1800 the English speaking population of the globe numbered twenty-four millions. It now numbers not less speSdng Pop- than one hundred and eight millions, an increase of over four hundred q^^^ ^^ ^® 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 planting and training. 2. Its geographical position. 3. Its physical and political traits. 4. Its moral and religious character — which, combined, con- stitute : 5. Its Divine call and opportunity, and result in its religious mission, its duty and responsibility. 1. The Historic Planting and Training. In the begirining of the seventh century the Saxon race in Britain embraced the religion of Christ. From that time through nine centuries the hand of God was training, 793 794 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 Historic Columbus discovered the Continent of America, and opened the new Planting and and final arena for the activity and highest development of man. Was Training. ^^ ^^ accident that North America fell to the lot of the Anglo-Saxon race, that vigorous northern people of brain and brawn, of faith and courage, of order and liberty? Was it not the divine preparation of a field for the planting and preparation of the freest, highest Christain civilization, the union of personal freedom and reverence for law? The composite race of Norman, Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic blood, planted on the hills and valleys, by the river and plains and among the inex- haustible treasures of coal and iron, of silver and gold, of this marvel- ous continent, were sent here as a part of a far reaching plan, whose consummation will extend down through the ages. 2. The Geographical Position. A map of the world, with North America in the center, shows at a glance the vantage ground, the PositS^ * strategic position of Great Britain and the United States. Their vast sea coast, the innumerable harbors facing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the maritime instincts of the two nations, their invigorating climate, matchless resources, world-wide commerce, facilities for ex- ploration and travel and peculiar adaptation to permanent coloniza- tion in remote countries, give these people the control of the world's future and the key to its moral and ethnical problems. 3. The physical, social and political traits of the English-speaking people are a potent factor in the influence among the nations. * * * 4. The moral and religious character and training of these nations. * * * While no other European race has succeeded in planting success- ful colonies 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 Af- rica 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 conscience; in man's responsibility to God and the ruler's responsi- bility to the people; in the purity of the family, the honor of woman and the sanctity of home; in the obligation to treat all men — white, black and tawny — as brothers made in the image of God. Such prin- ciples as these are destined to mold and control all mankind. The United States are impressing deeply the semi-Latin populations of South America, and England and America are affecting France. A sincere religious spirit, a God-fearing integrity, will mold 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, polit- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 7C:5 ical and religious elements, it is easy to see what constitutes the Divine call and opportunity, the religious mission and responsibility of these True ideal of great nations. The true ideal of the religious mission of a nation em- Missionf *°°* braces 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 religiousiiberty, the promotion of Sabbath rest, tem- perance, social purity and reverence for the laws of God. The Anglo- American peoples should foster and defend those principles which their fathers fought to secure, and keep pure the foundation whose streams are to gladden and refresh the world. It is treason to liberty, disloyalty to religion, and a betrayal of the sacred trust we hold from God for our children and our country, to surrender the control of our educational system, our moral code,, and our holy Sabbath rest from toil, to our brethren from other lands, who have come at our disinterested invitation to share in these blessings, but who, as yet hardly free from the shackles of Old World absolut- ism or the despair begotten dreams of unbridled license, are not yet assimilated to our essential and vital principles of liberty and law, of perfect freedom of conscience, tempered by the absolute subjection of the individual to the public good. Let us each rear his own temple for the worship of his God ac- cording to his own conscience, but let the schoolhouse be reared by all in common, open and free to all, and patronized by all. To the civilized nations this mission is one which can only be effective through a consistent, moral example. The English speaking nations are not set as dumb finger-posts of metal or stone, but as liv- ing, speaking, acting guides. They are set for an example — to exhibit reform in act, to shun all occasion of war and denounce its horrors, to show the blessings of arbitration by adopting it as their own settled international practice, and to treat all social questions from the stand- point of conscience and equity. The Alabama and Behring sea arbitra- tions have been an object lesson to the world more potent in exhibiting the true spirit of Christianity than millions of painted pages or the per- suasive voice of a hundred messengers of the cross. The recent action of congress and the house of commons with regard to a treaty of arbitration is pregnant with promise for the future peace of the nations and cause for profound gratitude to God. It is the religious mission of the English speaking nations to form a juster estimate of other nations, to treat all men as entitled to respect, to allow conscience its full sway in all dealings with them. Let these closing years of this noble century of progress be crowned with the glorious spectacle of a heaven-born and heaven- blessed covenant of lasting and inviolable peace between these great nations, one in history, one in faith, one in liberty, one in law, one in future service to God and all mankind §piritual porces in H^^^^ Progress, Paper by REV. EDWARD EVERETT HALE,D. D. Keen Fore- sight of the 4bbe. E Speak and think in this matter of the celebration of the discovery of our country as if everybody else had al- ways spoken and thought as we do. Now, this is by no means so. Only a century ago, when Columbus's discov- ery was 300 years old, the whole world of science, the whole world of litera- ture, the whole world of history, was very doubtful whether we had done any good to the world at all. In fact, the general weight of opinion was that America was a nuisance and had done a great deal more harm than good to civilized men. And, if you think of it, they had some reason for this im- pression. 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, impov- erished 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 which, it was univer- sally said, had been introduced from America, and there had been no additions to the arts or the sciences, no addition to those things which seem to make life worth living which they were willing to deem as re- ceived from America. The Literary Society at Lyons 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 impecunious, and France was so much engaged in other matters of more importance 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 Genty. The abbe, after 796 Rev. Edward Everett Hale, Boston. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 799 going from the north pole to the south, from Patagonia to Greenland, comes out with the view that America has never been of any use to the world so far; and, if it is to be of any use, it will be because of the moral virtues of 3,000,000 people in the United States. It has proved that the 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 dis- posal, to state exhaustively what these spiritual forces are. I had rather allude in more detail to one alone and let the others speak for themselves at the lips of other speakers here. I do not believe that Americans of today sufficiently appreciate the strength which was given to this country when every man in it went about his own busi- ness and was told that he must "paddle his own canoe," that he must *'play the game alone," that he must get the best and that he must not trust to anybody about him to work out these miracles and mysteries. And the statement of these duties, these necessities to each man and to every man in the Declaration of Independence, gave an amount of r^uzS^^^*** power to the United States of America which the United States of America does not enough realize today. It is power given to America that the European writers never could conceive of, and, with one or two exceptions, do not conceive of to this hour. When you send a man off into the desert and tell him he is to build his own cottage and break up his own farm, make his own road and that he is not to depend for these things on any priest or bishop or on any prefect or mayor or council, that he is not to write home to any central board for an order for proceeding, but that he is to work out his own salvation and that he himself, by the great law of promo- tion, is to ascend to the summit, you add incalculably to your national power. It is a thing which the earlier travellers in this country never could understand. It drove them frantic with rage. They would come over here, this French gentleman, that English adventurer, that Scotchman working out his fortune; they would come over here, with that habit of condescension which I must observe is remarkable in all Europeans to this day when they travel in America; and, with that habit of condescension, they were invariably disgusted with the language in which the American pioneer spoke of the future of his country. One of these travellers travelled along on his horse through the mud for thirty miles over a wretched road, which was not a road, over a corduroy, which was not corduroy, and at length he re- ceived a welcome in a dirty little log cabin by a man who was hospita- ble, but he would not stand nonsense. And this 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 red- akins in the neighborhood, and occasionally the howl of a wolf in the iiclds at night was going to be the most magnificent city ever read of in 800 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. history. And the traveller never could bear this; he could never stand it. What did it mean? It meant that the pioneer had been sent by the nation, as one of the children of the nation, and that he knew he had the nation behind him; he knew he had a country which would stand by him. This country had said to him, "Do what you will, so you do not interfere with the rights of others." This country said to Freeandwith him, in the great words of the Declaration of Independence, that every Equal Rights. ^^^^ jg born free and that 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 magnificent proverbial phrase, " Root, hog, or die;" you are to live out your own life, but you shall be free to live out your own life; you are to work out your own salvation, but working out your salvation you are to will and do according to God's good pleasure. The country thus gave to him the inestimable privilege of free- dom. What does a country gain which gives to its citizens this inestimable privilege? Why, if that country needs a million pioneers it sounds its whistle and a million pioneers rise at its order. If, in the course of history, that country needs that every son of hers shall rise in her defence, every son of hers rises in her defence. A government of the people, for the people, by the people, gives the country strength such as no nation ever had before. The pioneer looks forward to such strength as this in that magnificent expression of patriotism which seemed so brutal to the Scotch or 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 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-spangled banner, oh 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 thescrap book of historical speeches of, say, the first thirty years of the century. There is a sort of wish and attempt to keep this matter of slavery out of sight, you know. Why, it is as if we had a fine boy come up here to make his exhibition 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 of the free and the home of the brave, and we would not remember that there were some black people there; we would keep them out of sight if we could. 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 801 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 deduction. 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 men 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 understood. They are forever telling that, when the wealth of our prairies is exhausted, we shall have to begin where they began; and now they begin to tell us that it is the accident of gold and silver, of workingUn. lead and copper, that makes our country what it is. No, all these der God's Law 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 work- ing 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 theologians, so-called — that it was the people who proved to be the great theologians in this affair. The fall of Augustinianism, the utter ruin of the theory of the middle ages, that men are children of the devil, born of sin — all this dates from the decision of the people of America that they would live by universal suffrage Universal suf- frage came in, one hardly knows how, there was so little said about it. It worked its way in. The voice of the people is the voice of God, y^*^^ .Popuii 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 Bur- goyne, 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 Connecticut valley farmer is good enough to die for you, he is good enough to vote for you. This custom of universal suffrage was in advance of all the theologians and, although they kept bits of paper with statements of Augustinianism on them to the effect that the people were the children of the devil, they gave them a suffrage as sons of God Augustinianism d- ed 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 51 802 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Dollar. for US was the great truth that was announced in the beginning, that was written in the Gospels, 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 mak- ing money, to mines and timber and crops, that we would never know The Almighty what ideas were, and that for spiritual truths we must go back to Ger- many 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 today. The man who speaks the word, which some miner in his humble cabin read last night when he took down from his book-shelf Emer- son's Essays; the rnan who wrote the poem which some poor artist read in Paris last night, to his comfort; the man whose works were read last Sunday as the Scriptures are read in some rude log house in the mount- ain, is Ralph Waldo 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 the 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 twentieth century which is before us. We have built up all our strength, all our success on the triumph of ideas, and those ideas for the twentieth century are very simple. God is nearer to man than He ever was before, and man knows that and knows 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 The Plato of this Clime. Lessons Learned. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 803 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 nineteenth 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 won't use words in his prayers. Life with God for man in heaven — that is the religion on which the light of the twentieth century is to be formed. The twentieth century, for instance, is going to establish peace among all the nations of the world. Instead of these transient arbitration boards, such as we have now occasionally, 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 satisfied with any such thing as that. It means that every man and woman in the United States shall be able to study wisely and well all the works of God, and shall work side by side with those who go the farthest and study the deepest. Universal education will be the best for every one — that is what is coming. That is life with God for man in heaven. And the twentieth 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 baby 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 twentieth century will give to every man accord- ing to his necessities. It will receive from every man according to his opportunity. And that will come from the religious life of that century, a life with God for man in heaven. As for purity, the twen- tieth century will keep the body pure — men as chaste as women. Nobody drunk, nobody stifled by this or that poison, given with this or that pretense, with everybody free to be the engine of the almighty soul. All this is to say that the twentieth century is to build up its civili- zation on ideas, not on things that perish; build them on spiritual truths which endure and are the same forever; build them of faith, on hope, on love, which are the only elements of eternal life. The twen- tieth century is to build a civilization which is to last forever, because it is the civilization of an idea. Nearer to Each Other. Peace Among all Nations. Care of the Health. Social Rights. A Permanent Civilization. Tribal Chief, Upper Congo (Heathen). [By permission of Mr. Wm. 8. Clierry,] 'Yhe S^P^^^^ E^d and Qiiice of {Religion. Paper by REV. WALTER ELLIOTT, of the Paulist Convent, New York. HE end and ofifice of religion is to direct the aspirations of the soul toward an infinite (if^ ^3v good, and to secure a perfect fruition. Man's ^^^^_ , wrt^l^SLv longings for perfect wisdom, love and joy are not aberrations of the intelligence, or morbid conditions of any kind; they are not purely subjective, blind reachings forth toward noth- ing. They are most real life, excited into activity by the infinite reality of the Supreme Being, the most loving God, calling His creat- ure to union with Himself. In studying the office of religion we therefore 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 ap- proach his ideal condition, directed, dedicates our best efforts to progress 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 mov- ing toward 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 con- tent to strive after what is no better than his own best self. The longing toward virtue and happiness is for the reception of a supe- rior, a divine existence. The end of religion is regeneration. Otherwise stated, religion has not done its work with the efface- ment of sin and the restoration of the integrity of nature. It has, indeed, this remedial office, but its highest power is transformative; it is the elixir of a new and divine life. The supreme office of religion is regeneration. 805 Reason, if well toward perfect life; Man's Ideal More than Hu- man. generation. 806 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. To remit actual sin is not the main purpose of religion, but rather to remedy that first evil by which our race lost its supernatural and divine dignity — the evil called original sin. And this is the meaning of Christianity's great word, regeneration. It is not only said, ''unless ye repent," but also, "unless ye are born again, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God;" "born of water and of the Holy Ghost;" "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Not Emanei- The Supreme end of religion is not emancipation, but regenera- pation but Re- tion. As among" the Romans, when a citizen emancipated his slave, ireneration. <=> ,..-. ,. . '■^ -' he by that act conferred citizenship on him, so the pardon of sin by Christ is not only remission, but also adoption among the sons of God. That gift from above known as the grace of Christ does not simply break the fetters of sin, it ennobles the slave with the dynastic dignity of God. Thus the value of grace is essential in its transforming power, accidental in its cleansing power, or its power of reconciliation. The final end of all created existence is the glory of God in His office of Creator. As man is a micro cosmos, so the human nature of the God-man, Jesus Christ, is the culminating point at which the crea- tive act attains to its summit and receives its last perfection. In that humanity, and through it in the Deity with which it is one person, we all are called to share. The supreme end and office of religion is to bring about that union and to make it perfect. "The justification of a wicked man is his translation from the state in which man is born as a son of the first Adam, into the state of grace and adoption of the sons of God by the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour." These words of the Council of Trent affirm that the boon of God's favor is not merely restoration to humanity's nat- ural innocence. God's friendship for man is elevation to a state higher than nature's highest, and infinitely so, and yet a dignity toward which all men are drawn by the unseen attraction of divine grace, and toward which, in their better moments, they consciously strive, how- ever feebly and blindly. Religion, as understood by Christianity, means new life for man, ^NewLifefor different life, additional life. "He breathed into his face the breath of life." What life? What life did Christ mean when He said, "I am come that they may have life and may have it more abundantly?" Is it merely the fullness of the natural life of man? No, but a superior and transcendent life, which is nothing less than the natural life of God, given to man to elevate him to a participation in the Deity — into a plane of existence which naturally belongs to God alone. In the breathing forth in Eden, the Holy Spirit, God's life and breath, passed into man. Mark the second breathing: "Breathing upon them, he said, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost.'" And this is what St. Paul means when he says, "For us, we have the mind of Christ" (I Cor. ii, i6). The Christian mind is thus to be discovered and tested by comparison with the highest standard: " Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect/* Man. Atonement. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 807 Before coming to the ways and means and processes of acquiring this divine life, we must consider atonement for sin. It may be asked, Why does Christ elevate us to union with his Father through suffering? The answer is that God is dealing with a race which has degraded itself with rebellion and with crime, which naturally involve suffering. God's purpose is now just what it was in the beginning, to com- municate Himself to each human being, and to do it personally, eleva- ting men to brotherhood with His own Divine Son, ' making them partakers of the same grace which dwells in the soul of Christ, and shares hereafter in the same blessedness which he possesses with the Father. To accomplish this purpose, God originally constituted man in a supernatural condition of divine favor. That lost by sin, God, by an act of grace yet more sie^nal, places His Son in the circumstances . The Order of of humiliation and suffering due to sin. This is the order of atone- ment, a word which has come to signify a mediation through suffering, although the etymological meaning of it is bringing together into one. Mediation is now, as ever before, the constant and final purpose of God's loving dealing with us. We are saved, not only by Christ's death, but, says the apostle, " being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Rom. V. lo). Understand atonement thus, and you know, as a sinner should, what mediation means. Understand mediation thus, and you know, as a child of God should, what a calamity sin is. In the present order of things atonement is first, but originally mediation, as it was the primary need of imperfect nature, was like- wise God's initial work. As things are, too, the gift of righteousness through sharing the cross of Christ elevates man to a degree of merit impossible if the gift were purely and simply a boon. A mistaken view of this matter of atonement is to be guarded against. For if there is any calamity surpassing the loss of conscious- ness of sin, it is the loss of consciousness of human dignity. If I must believe a lie, I had rather not choose the monstrous one that I am totally depraved. I had rather be a Pelagian than a Predestinarian. But neither of these is right. Christ and His church are right, and they insist that the divine life and light are communicated to us as being sinners, and in an order of things both painful to nature and superior to it, and yet will allow no one to say that any man is or can be totally depraved. Hence St. Paul: "I rejoice in my infirmity." Not that sorrow is joy, or is in itself anything but misfortune; but that in the order of atonement it is turned into joy by restoring us to the Divine Sonship. Religion is positive. It makes me good with Christ's goodness. Religion does essentially more than rid me of evil. In the mansions of the Father, sorrow opens the outer door of the atrium in which I am pardoned, and love leads to the throne-room. If forgiveness and union be distinct, it is only as we think of them, for to God they are one. And this is to be noted: All infants who pass into heaven through the laver of regeneration have had no conscious experience of pardon of THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, any kind, and yet will consciously enjoy the union of filiation forever. Nor can it be denied that there are multitudes of adults whose sancti- fication has had no conscious process of the remission of grave sin, for many such have never been guilty of it. To excite them to a fictitious sense of sinfulness is untruthful, unjust and unchristian. Hounding innocent souls into the company of demons is false zeal and is cruel. Yet with some it seems the supreme end and office of religion. This explains the revolt of many, and their bitter resentment against the ministers and ordinances of religion, sometimes extending to the God whose caricature has been seated before their eyes on the throne of false judgment. No order of life needs truthfulness, strict and exact in every detail, so much as that known as the religious. The church is the pillar and ground of truth. The supreme end and office of religion is not the expiation of sin, but elevation to union with God. The expiation of sin is the removal of an obstacle to our union with ^Expiation of Qod. Nothing hinders the progress of guileless or repentant souls, even their peace of mind, more than prevalent misconceptions on this point. Freed from sin, many fall under the delusion that all is done; not to commit sin is assumed to be the end of religion. In reality pardon is but the initial work of grace, and even pardon is not possible without the gift of love. The sufferings of Christ, as well as whatever is of a penitential influence in his religion, is not in the nature of merely paying a pen- alty, but is chiefly an offering of love. Atonement is related to media- tion as its condition and not as its essence. Thus viewed the sufferings of the King of Martyrs manifest in an indescribably pathetic manner the holiness of God's law, the evil of sin, and the divine compassion for the sinner. Pardon, we repeat, considered solely by itself, is the removal of an obstacle to our advancement into the divine order. The comple- tion of man's being is his glorification in the Godhead. This is the answer to those who are shocked at the thought that Christ came into the world as a mere sin victim. Christ's sorrow is indeed our atone- ment, but the end he had in view is the ecstatic joy of the union of human nature with the divine nature. We are washed in the Re- deemer's blood, but that blood does not remain on the surface; it pen- etrates us and sanctifies our own blood, mingling with it. We are not ransomed only but ennobled. It never can be said that it is by reason of obedience that men love, but it must always be said of obedience that it is by reason of love that it is made perfect. Obedience generates conformity, but love by Lovo ^^^^^ has a fecundity which generates every virtue, for it alone is wholly unitive. The highest boast of obedience is that it is the first-born of love. As the humanity said of the divinity," " I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I," so obedience says of love, " I go to my parent-virtue, for love is greater than I." His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. 52 ContrastB of the Pagan World with oar Own. "f he Needs of H^^^^^ty §upplied by the Qatholic f^eligion. Paper by HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL GIBBONS, Archbishop of Baltimore. E live and move and have our being in the midst of a civilization which is the legitimate offspring of the Catholic religion. The blessings resulting from our Christian civilization are poured out so regularly and so abun- dantly on the intellectual, moral and social world, like the sunlight and the air of heaven and the fruits of the ^A^' I % °'1i^to^^ earth, that they have ceased to excite ^^\^ \ i^ BH^K.<;^ any surprise except to those who visit lands where the religion of Christ is little known. In order to realize ad- S -^ >M W^' •> equately our favored situation we ^ ^^^Mb ^:^^^~ ^ -^^ should transport ourselves in spirit to ^^^^^^^ C^^ . ^^kW ante-Christian times and contrast the ..^ condition of the pagan world with our own. Before the advent of Christ the whole world, with the exception of the secluded Roman prov- ince of Palestine, was buried in idolatry. Every striking object in nature had its tutelary divinities. Men worshiped the sun and moon and stars of heaven. They worshiped their very passions. They 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 corrupt- ible man, and of birds and beasts and creeping things. They wor- shiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever." But at last the great light for which the prophets of Israel had sighed and prayed, and toward which even the pagan sages had stretched forth their hands with eager longing, arose and shone unto 810 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 811 them "that sat in darkness and the shadow of death." The truth con- cerning our Creator, 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 clearness 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 wisdom, and whose superintending Providence watches over the affairs of nations as well as of men, "without whom not even a bird falls to the ground." He proclaimed a God infinitely holy, just and merciful. This idea of the Deity so consonant to our rational conceptions was in striking .con- trast with the low and sensual notions which the pagan world had formed of its divinities. The religion of Christ imparts to us not only a sublime concep- tion of God, but also a rational idea of man and of his relations to his Creator. Before the coming of Christ man was a riddle and a mys- tery to himself. He knew 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 en- lightened us regarding our origin and destiny and the means of attain- ing it. He has rescued man from the frightful labyrinth of error in which paganism had involved him. The Gospel of Christ, as propounded by the Catholic church, has brought not only light to the intellect, but comfort also to the heart. It has given us "that peace of God which surpasseth all understanding" — the peace which springs from the conscious possession of truth. It has taught us how to enjoy that triple peace which constitutes true r rt t happiness as far as it is attainable in this life — peace with God by the the Heart, observance of His commandments; peace with our neighbor by the exercise of charity and justice toward him, and peace with ourselves by repressing our inordinate appetites and keeping our passions sub- ject to the law of reason and our reason illumined and controlled by the law of God. All other religious systems prior to the advent of Christ were national like Judaism, or state religions like Paganism. The Catholic religion alone is world-wide and cosmopolitan, embracing all races and nations and peoples and tongues. Christ alone of all religious founders had the courage to say to His disciples: "Go, teach all nations." "Preach the Gospel to every creature." "You shall be witness to Me in Judea and Samaria and even to the uttermost bounds of the earth." Be not restrained in your mission by national or state lines. Let my Gospel be as free and uni- versal as the air of heaven. " The earth is the Lord's and the fullness tnereof." All mankind are the children of My Father and my breth- ren. I have died for all, and embrace all in my charity. Let the whole human race be your audience and the world be the theater of your labors. 812 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Every Human Crnature a Child of God. What the Church has Done for Sooi- oty. It is this recognition of the fatherhood of God and the brother- hood of Christ that has inspired the Catholic church in her mission of love and benevolence. This is the secret of her all-pervading charity. This idea has been her impelling motive in her work of the social regeneration of mankind I behold, she says, in every 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 feet of the slave and will rescue degraded women from the moral bondage and degradation to which her own frailty and the passions of the stronger sex had consigned her. Montesquieu has well said that the religion of Christ, which was instituted to lead men to eternal life, has contributed more than any other institution to promote the temporal and social happiness of man- kind. The object of this parliament of religions is to present to thoughtful, earnest and inquiring minds the respective claims of the various religions, with the view that they would *' prove all things, and hold that which is good," by embracing that religion which above all others commends itself to their judgment and conscience. I am not engaged in this search for the truth, for, by the grace of God, I am conscious that I have found it, and instead of hiding this treasure in my own breast I long to share it with others, especially as I am none the poorer in making others the richer. But, for my part, were I occupied in this investigation, much as I would be drawn toward the Catholic church by her admirable unity of faith which binds together 250,000,000 of souls; much as I would be attracted toward her by her sublime moral code, by her world-wide Catholicity and by that unbroken chain of apostolic succession which connects her indissolubly with apostolic times, I would be drawn still more forcibly toward her by that wonderful system of organized benevolence which she has established for the alleviation and comfort of suffering humanity. Let us briefly review what the Catholic church has done for the elevation and betterment of society: First. The Catholic church has purified society in its very fountain, which is the marriage bond. She has invariably proclaimed the unity and sanctity and indissolubility of the marriage tie by saying with her founder that "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 Chris- tian 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 house hold; if you are no longer confronted by usurping rivals like Moham- medan and Mormon wives, but the queens of the domestic kingdom^ you are indebted for this priceless boon to the ancient church, and particularly to the Roman pontiffs who inflexibly upheld the sacred- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 815 ness of the nuptial bond against the arbitrary power of kings, the lust of nobles and the lax and pernicious legislation of civil governments. Second. The Catholic religion has proclaimed the sanctity of hu- man life as soon as the body is animated by the vital spark. Infanticide was a dark stain on pagan civilization. It was universal in Greece, with the possible exception 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 com- mon among the Romans. Nor was there any legal check to this in- human crime, except at rare intervals. The father had the power of life and death over his child. And as an evidence that human nature does not improve with time and is everywhere the same, unless per- meated with the leaven of Christianity, the wanton sacrifice of infant life is probably as general today in China and other heathen countries as it was in ancient Greece and Rome. The Catholic church has sternly set her face against this exposure and murder of innocent babes. She has denounced it as a crime more revolting than that of Herod, because committed against one's own flesh and blood. She has condemned with equal energy the atrocious doctrine of Malchus, 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 oi ante-natal infanti- cide, which is msidiously and systematically spreading among us in defiance of civil penalties and of the divine law which says, "Thou Shalt not kill." Third There is no place of human misery for which the church does not provide some remedy or alleviation. She has established infant asylums for the shelter of helpless babes who have been cruelly abandoned by their own parents or bereft of them in the mysterious dispensations of Providence before they could know or feel a mother's love. These little waifs, like the infant 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. Fourth. As the church provides homes for those yet on the thresh- old of life, so, too, does she secure retreats for those on the threshold of death. She has asylums in which the aged, men and women, find at one and the same time a refuge in their old age from the storms of life, and a novitiate to prepare them for eternity. Thus, from the 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 France who had fought in the service of their country. And so has the Catholic religion provided for those who Sanctity of Homau Life. Asyloms. Hospitals. 814 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. have been disabled in the battle of life a home, in which they are ten- derly nursed in their declining years by devoted sisters. The Little Sisters of the Poor, whose congregation was founded in 1840, have now charge of 250 establishments in different parts of the globe, the aged inmates of those houses numbering 30,000, upward of 70,000 having died under their care up to 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 Christianity embraces all. The only question proposed by the sisters to the applicant for shelter is this: Are you oppressed by age and penury? If so, come to us and we will provide for you. Fifth. She has orphan asylums where children of both sexes are reared and taught to become useful and worthy members of society. Sixth. Hospitals were unknown to the pagan world before the coming of Christ. The copious vocabularies of Greece and Rome had no word even to express that term. The Catholic church has hospitals for the treatment and cure of every form of disease. She sends her daughters of charity and of mercy to the battlefield and to the plague-stricken city. During the Crimean war I remember to have read of a sister who was struck 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 Raphael, who concealed his name from Tobias, the sister hides her name from the world. Several years ago I accompanied to New Orleans eight Sisters of Charity, who were sent from Baltimore to re-enforce the ranks of their heroic companions or to supply the places of their devoted associates who had fallen at the post of duty in the fever-stricken cities of the south. Their departure for the scene of their labors was neither an- nounced by the preSs nor heralded by public applause. They rushed calmly into the jaws of death, not bent on deeds of destruction like the famous 600, but on deeds of mercy. They had no Tennyson to sound their praises. Their only ambition was — and how lofty is that ambi- tion — that the recording angel might be their biographer; that their names might be inscribed in the Book of Life, and that they might receive their recompense from Him who has said: *T 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 815 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 Christian duty and by the love of God and her fellow-beings. Seventh. The Catholic religion labors not only to assuage the phys- ical distempers of humanity, but also to reclaim the victims of moral disease. The redemption of fallen women from. a life of infamy was never included in the scope of heathen philanthropy; and man's unre- generate nature is the same now as before the birth of Christ. He worships woman as long as she has charms to fascinate, but she is spurned and trampled upon as soon as she has ceased to please. It was reserved for Him who knew no sin to throw the mantle of pro- tection over sinning woman. There is no page in the Gospel more touching than that which records our Saviour's 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 accordance with the Mosaic law. *'Hath no one condemned thee?" asked our Saviour. "No one. Lord," she answered. '*Then," said He, "neither will I condemn thee. Go; sin no more." Inspired by this divine example, the Catholic church shelters erring females in homes not inappropriately called Magdalena asy- lums and houses of the Good Shepherd. Not to speak of other institutions established for the moral reformation of women, the con- gregation of the Good Shepherd at Angers, founded in 1836, has charge today of 150 houses, in which upward of 4,000 sisters devote themselves to the care of over 20,000 females who had yielded to temptation or were rescued from impending danger Eighth. The Christian religion has been the unvarying friend and advocate of the bondman. Before the dawn of Christianity, slavery was universal in civilized as well as in barbarous nations The apostles were everywhere confronted by the children of oppression. Their first task was to mitigate the horrors and alleviate the miseries of human bondage. They cheered the slave by- holding up to him the 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 slavey by being reminded with apostolic freedom that they and their servants had the same Master in heaven, who had no respect of per- sons. The ministers of the Catholic religion down the ages sought to lighten the burden and improve the condition of the slave as far as social prejudices would permit, till at length the chains fell from their feet. Human slavery has, at last, thank God, melted away before the noonday sun of the Gospel. No Christian country contains today a solitary slave. To paraphrase the words of a distinguished Irish jurist, Victims of Moral Disease. Friend of the Bondman. 816 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Manual La- bor Ennobled. as soon as the bondman puts his foot in a Christian land he stands redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled on the sacred soil of Chris- tendom. Ninth. 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 Christ appeared among men, manual and even mechanical work was regarded as servile and degrading to the free- men of pagan Rome and was consequently relegated to slaves. Christ is ushered into the world, not amid the pomp and splendor of imperial majesty, but amid the environments of an humble child of toil. He is the reputed son of an artisan and His early 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 carpenter 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 Tocqueville said sixty years ago of the United States is true today — that with us every honest labor is laudable, thanks to the example and teaching of Jesus Christ. To sum up: The Catholic church has taught man the knowledge of God and of himself; she has brought comfort to his heart by in- structing him to bear the ills of life with Christian philosophy; she has sanctified the marriage bond; she has proclaimed the sanctity and in- Summed Up. violability of human life from the moment that the body is animated by the spark of life till it is extinguished; she has founded asylums for the training of children of both sexes and for the support of the aged poor; she has established hospitals for the sick and homes for the re- demption of fallen women; she has exerted her influence toward the mitigation and abolition of human slavery; she has been the unwaver- ing friend of the sons of toil. These are some of the blessings which the Catholic church has conferred on society. I will not deny, on the contrary I am happy to avow, that the various Christian bodies outside the Catholic church have been and are today zealous promoters of most of these works of Christian benevolence which I have enumerated Not to speak of the innumer- able humanitarian houses established by our non-Catholic brethren throughout the land, I bear cheerful testimony to the philanthropic institutions founded by Wilson and Shepherd, by Johns Hopkins, Enoch Pratt and 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 beneficent movements have been inaugurated by us, and that the other Christian communities in their noble efforts for the moral and social regeneration of mankind have in no small measure been stimulated by the example and emula- tion of the ancient church? Xhe Practical §ervice of the §cience of Religions to the Qause of f^eligious LJnity, and to Missionary Enterprise. Paper by MERWIN-MARIE SNELL. ELIGION is a universal fact of human experi- ence There are people without Gods, with- out sacred books, without sacraments, with- out doctrines, if you will — but none without religion. There is in every human breast an instinct which reaches outward and up- ward toward the highest truth, the highest goodness, the highest beauty, and which testifies at the same time to the existence of an intimate relation of affection, of honor and of beauty between each individual per- son and the surrounding universe. Everything that exists or can exist m.ay be an object of religious devotion, for every- thing is in some sense a compendium of the World- All and a symbol of creative power, preserving wis- dom and transforming providence In all the world, from pole to pole oJt Some^ind and from ocean to ocean, there lives not one single unperverted human of Religion, being from whose soul there does not ascend the incense of adoration and in whose hand is not found the pilgrim staff of duty Mankind is one in the recognition of the relationship between the individual and the cosmos, and one in the effort to manifest and perfect that relation- ship by sacrifice and service. Superimposed upon this universal foundation of the spiritual sense, as the late Brother Azarias was wont to describe it, rises a great structure of religious and ethical truths and principles, regarding which there is a substantial agreement among all the branches of the human family. If the precise extent of this agree- 817 818 T-HE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. merit can be aefinltely ascertained, as well as the exact significance and cause of the real or apparent divergencies trom a common standard, either in the way of omission or addition, the way will be prepared for the complete annihilation of vital religious difterences, and the placing of the facts and principles of religions upon an absolutely inexpung- able basis. It cannot be too much insisted upon that for a pertect realization of the highest development and firmest demonstration of religion, the An indispens- perfection of the science of religions is an mdispensable condition, able 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 hiero- logical museum, a working collection of religious specimens, having the same indispensable value to the hierologist that the herbarium has to the botanist. It is not only an exhibit of religions, but a school of comparative religion, and every one who attends its 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 relig- ious disunion are in a large proportion of cases the result of gross misconceptions of the true character ot the rival creeds or cults. The anti-Catholic, anti-Mormon and anti-Semitic agitations in Christen- dom, and the highly colored pictures of heathen degradation in which a certain class of foreign missionaries indulge, are significant illustra- tions of the malignant results of religious ignorance. No one would hate or despise the Catholic church who knew its teachings and practices as they really are; no one would exclude the church of the latter day saints from the family of the world's relig- ions who had caught the first glimpse of its profound cosmogony, its spiritual theology and its exalted morality; no one would fail in respect to Judaism could he once enter into the spirit of its teaching and ritual; and no one would attribute a special ignorance and super- stition to the pagan systems as such who had taken the trouble to acquaint himself with their phenomena, and, as it were, enter into union with. their inner souls and thus fully perceive the divine truths upon which they rest. Those who aspire to prepare themselves to give intelligent assist- ance to the cause of religious unity by a scientific study of religions should bear in mind the following rules: 1. An impartial collection and examination of data regarding all religions with- out distinction is of primary importance. 2. It is 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 relig'OD 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 cvdts without regard to history. THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 8l9 5. Resemblances in nomenclature, in beliefs or in customs must not be too hastily accepted as conclusive evidence of the special relationship between systems. 6. Resemblances in ceremonial details must not be considered as necessarily indicating any fundamental similarity or kinship. 7. When any 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 significance of those facts. It is not necessary to be a scientist by profession in order to give intelligent study to the science of religions. The professional hierolo- gist analyzes 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 this science, the secret of religious variations and to ob; tain such a knowledge of the relation of other religious systems to his own, their points of agreement and contradiction and their historic contact as will enable him to carry on a very powerful and fruitful propaganda. Missionary work, in particular, cannot 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 mis- sionary training school should be a college of comparative religion. ^.^ ^.^^ It should be realized that ignorance and prejudice in the propagandist sionaryWork. are as great obstacles to the spread of any religion as the same qual- ities in those whom it seeks to win, and that the first requisite to suc- cessful missionary work is a knowledge of the truths and beauties of the existing religion, that they may be used as a point d'appui for the special arguments and claims of that with which it is desired to replace it. However, whatever may be the motives of the scientist, the truth seeker and the 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 tow^ard the ideal of the universe is religious aspira- tion. Into this union of religious science all men can enter — Catho- lics, 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 impartial inquiry and to obtain a free and appreciative audience for all that they can say on their own behalf. a. y he §ocial O^^^^^ of f^eligious peeling, Paper by PRINCE SERGE WOLKONSKY, of Russia. T 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 of some nationality, or of some association, or of some institution, or of any kind of collective unity that absorbs his indi- viduality 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 V ] ' 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 speaking 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 outstretched hands and said: " We want to thank you because we like your ideas of humanity and o{ internationality— we like them." - If I mention the fact it is not because I gather any selfish satis- faction in doing so, but because 1 feel happy to live at a time when the advancement of inventions and ideas made such a fact possible as that of a stranger coming from across the ocean to this great country of the New World and being greeted as a brother by children of a race that a few years ago was regarded as not belonging to humanity. I feel proud to live in such times, and I am glad to owe the experience to America. But that same evening a lady came to me with expression of greatest astonishment and said she was so much surprised to hear 821 8 Not a Bepre> Bentative of a Natiou. 822 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS-. such ideas, such evidences of the brotherhood of man, advanced "oy a Russian "Why so?" I asked her. *• Because I always thought these ideas were American." "American ideas? No, madame; these ideas are as little Ameri- can as they are Russian. They are human ideas, madame, and if you are a human creature you must not be astonished — you have no right to be astonished — that another human creature spoke to you a lan- guage that you would have spoken yourself." No, I am representative of no nationality, of no country. I love my country; I would not stand at this very place, I would not speak to you tonight if I did not; but our individual attachment to our own country is of no good if it does not give to us an impulse to some wider expansion, if it does not teach us to respect other people's attachment to their country, and if it does not fill our heart with an ardent wish that every one's country should be loved by every one. Now remains a last question: Am I representative of one particu- lar religion? I am not, for if I were I would bring here words of divis- ion, and no other words but words of union should resound in this hall. And so I introduce myself with no attributes, considering that after the permission of the 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 atten- tion. Now, we must extend the same restrictions to the subject we are going to treat.' First of all, we settle the point that we are not going to speak of any particular religion, but of religious feeling in general, independently of its object. Secondly, we will not speak of the origin FeeiinglnGen! of the religious feeling; whether it is inspired from heaven or it is the ^^^^' natural development of our human faculties; whether it is a special gift of the Creator to man or the result of a long process of evolution that has its beginning in the animal instinct of self-preservation. The latter theory that places the beginning of religion in the feeling of fear seems to prevail in modern science and is regarded as one of its newest conquests, although many centuries ago the Latin poet said that ** Primus in orbe deos fecit timor. ' A remarkable evolution, in- deed, that would place the origin of religion in the trembling body of a frightened mouse, and the end of it on the summit of Golgotha. We will not contest, but we will invite those who were clever enough to discover and prove this wonderful process of evolution to pay their respect and gratitude to Him who made such a process of evolution possible Let us forget for once that eternal question of origins. Do you judge the importance of a river by the narrowness of its source? Do you reproach the flowers with the putrified elements which nourish its roots? Now, you see what a WTong way we may take sometimes in in- vestigating origins. No, let us judge the river by the breadth and strength of its full stream, and the flower by the beauty of its colors Rel i g i o u THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 823 and of its odor, and let us not go back nor down 'co darkness when we have the chance of living in light. Religious feeling is a thing that exists, it is a reality, and wherever it may come from it deserves our attention and our highest respect as the motor of the greatest acts that were accomplished by humanity in the moral domain. Two objections may be urged: First, the human sacrifices of ancient times that were accomplished under prescriptions of religion. To this we must answer that religious feeling, as everything on earth, requires a certain time to become clear and lucid; and we can observe that the mere fact of its gradual development brings up by and by a rejection and condemnation of those violences and abuses that were considered incumbent in those prehistoric times when everything was but con- fusion and in a state of formation. The same religions that started with human sacrifices led those who followed the development of ideas and did not stick to the elaboration of rituals — to highest feelings of humanity and charity. Socrates and Plato wrote the introduction, and Seneca the first volume of the work that was continued by St. Paul. The second objection will be the violences accomplished in the name of Christianity. Religious feeling, it will be said, produces such atrocities as the inquisition and other persecutions of modern and even present times. Never, never, never! Never did Christian religion in- spire a persecution. It did inspire. those who were persecuted, but not those who did persecute. What is it that in persecution is the product of religious feeling? Humility, indulgence, pardon, patience, heroism, martyrdom; all the rest that constitutes the active elements of a per- secution is not the work of religion: martyrization, torture, cruelty, intolerance, are the work of politics; it is authority that chastises in- subordination, and the fact that authorities throughout history have been often sincerely persuaded that they acted "ad majorem Dei gloriam," is but a poor excuse for them, an excuse that in itself in- cludes 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 PointVfYiew.' that only in considering the single individual you really embrace the whole humanity. The moment you consider a collective unity of several or many individuals you exclude the rest. It is that very desire to embrace all humanity that determined us in the choice of our theme. In fact, what other feeling on earth but the religious feeling could have the property of reuniting all men on a common field of discussion and on the same level of competence? No scientific, no artistic, no political, no other religious subject but the subject we selected; that feeling of our common human nothing- ness in presence of that unknown but existing being, before whom we are all equal; who holds us under the control of those laws of nature that we are free to discover and to study, but cannot transgress with- out succumbing to their inexorable changelessness, and who regulates Indi V i d u a 1 824 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. our acts by having impressed upon each of us the reflection of Him- self through that sensitive instrument, the human conscience. If we appeal to one creed or to one religion, we will always have either a limited or a divided audience; but if we appeal to the human con- science, no walls will be able to contain our listeners. All limits and divisions must fall if only we listen to our conscience. What are national, or political, or religious differences? Are they worth being spoken of before an appeal that reunites, not only those who believe differently, but those who believe with those who do not believe? This is the great significance of religious feeling I wish to point out to you. Not the more or less certitude it gives to each individual of his own salvation in the future, but the softening influence it must have on the relations of man to man in the present. Let us believe in our equality; let us not be "astonished" when life once in a while gives us the chance of experiencing that one Unit and "^^^ fccls like another man. Let us work for unity and happiness. Happiness. obeying our conscience and forgetting that such thmgs exist as Cath- olic, or Buddhist, or Lutheran, or Mohammedan. Let every one keep those divisions each one for himself and not classify the others; if some one does not classify himself, and if he does not care to be clas- sified at all, well, then, let him alone. You won't be able to erase him from the great class of humanity to which he belongs as well as you. He will fulfill his human duties under the impulse of his conscience as well as you, and perhaps better; and if a future exists, the God in whom he did not or could not believe will give him the portion of . happiness he has deserved in making others happy. For what is morality after all? It is to live so that the God who, according to some of us, exists in one way, according to some others in another way; who, according to some others, does not exist at all, but whorr we all desire to exist, that this God should be satisfied with our acts Yes, Christianity is broad because it teaches us to accept and not to exclude. If only all of us would remember this principle the ridicu- lous word of "religion of the future" would disappear once and for- ever. Of course, as long as you will consider that religion consists in forms of worshiping that secure to you your individual salvation, the greatest part of humanity will declare that forms are worn out and that we need a new "religion of the future." But if you fill yourself Saml.^^^ ^^® with the idea that religion is the synthesis of your beliefs in those pre- scriptions that regulate your acts toward other men, you will give up your wanderings in search of new ways of individual salvation, and you 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. Xhe \York of §ocial preform in jndia. Paper by B. NAGARKAR. HE conquest of India by England is one of the most astounding marvels of modern history. To those who are not acquainted with the social and religious condition of the diverse races that inhabit the vast India peninsula, it will always be a matter of great wonder as to how a handful of English people were able to bring under their sway such an extensive con- tinent as Hindostan, separated 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 of 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 gcaie^^of^ i?^ did make a brave and successful stand against powerful armies of ^^^us. fierce and warliketribes 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 w^arded off by the united armies of the ancient Hindus. Time there w^as when the social, political and religious institutions of the Aryans in India were in their pristine purity, and when as a result of these noble institutions the people were in the enjoyment of undisturbed unity, and so long as this happy state of things continued the Hin "us enjoyed the blessings of freedom and liberty. But time is the great destroyer of everything; what has withstood the withering influences of that arch-enemy of every earthly glory and greatness? In proportion as the people of India became faithless to their ancestral institutions, in the same proportion they fell in the scale of nations. 825 826 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. State of Dead- ly Division. Cloud of De- cay. At first they fell a prey to one foreign power and then to another, and then again to a third, and so on, each time degeneration doing the work of division, and division in its own turn doing the ghastly work of further and deeper degeneration. About two hundred years ago this fatal process reached its lowest degree and India was reduced to a state of deadly division and complete confusion. Internecine wars stormed the country, and the various native and foreign races then living in India tried to tear each other to pieces. It was a state of complete anarchy, and no one could fathom what was to come out of this universal chaos. At this critical juncture of time there appeared on the scene a distant power from beyond the ocean. No one had heard or known anything of it. The white-faced sahib was then a sheer novelty to the people of India. To them in those days a white-faced biped animal was synonymous with a representative of the race of monkeys, and even to this day, in such parts of India as have not been penetrated by the rays of education or civilization, ignorant people in a somewhat serious sense do believe that the white-faced European is perhaps a descendant of apes and monkeys. For aught I know the ever-shifting, ever-changing, novelty-hunting philosophies of the occult world and the occult laws, of spirit presence and spirit presentiment in your part of the globe may some day be able to find out that these simple and unsophisticated people had a glimpse of the "Descent of Man" accord- ing to Darwin. Whatever it may be, no one could ever have dreamt that the people of England would ever stand a chance of wielding supreme 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 Hindostan into the hands of the people of Great Britain. Through the lethargic sleep of centuries the people of India had gone on degen- erating. Long and wearisome wars with the surrounding countries had enervated them; the persistent cruelty, relentless tyranny and ceaseless persecution of their fanatic invaders had rendered them weak and feeble even to subjection, and a strange change had come over the entire face of the nation. The glory of their ancient religion, the purity of their social insti- tutions and the strength of their political constitution had all been eclipsed for the time being by a thick and heavy cloud of decay and decrepitude. For a long time past the country had been suffering from a numberofsocial evils, such as wicked priestcraft, lowsuperstition, degrad- ing rites and ceremonies and demoralizing customs and observances. It was, indeed, a pitiable and pitiful condition to be in. The chil- dren of God in the holy Aryavarta, the descendants of the noble Rishis, were in deep travail. Their deep wailing and lamentation had pierced the heavens, and the Lord of love and mercy was moved with com- passion for them. He yearned to help them, to raise them, to restore THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 827 them to their former glory and greatness; but He saw that in the coun- try itself there was no force or power that He could use as an instru- ment to work out His divine providence. The powers that were and long had been in the country had all grown too weak and effete to achieve the reform and regeneration of India. It was for this purpose that an entirely alien and outside power was brought in. Thus you will perceive that the advent of the British in India was a matter of necessity and, therefore, it may be considered as fully providential. It is not to be supposed that this change of sovereignty from the eastern into the western hands was accomplished without any blood- NewEiementa shed or loss of life. Even the very change in its process introduced of Discord, new elements of discord and disunion, but when the change was com- pleted and the balance of power established, an entirely new era was opened up on the field of Indian social and political life. This trans- fer of power into the hands of your English cousins has cost us a most heavy and crushing price. In one sense, it took away our liberty; it deprived us, 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 the return, too, has been inestima- ble. We have paid in gold and silver, but we have received in exchange what gold and silver can never give or take away — for t^e English rule has bestowed upon us the inestimable boon of knowledge and enlight- enment. And knowledge is a power. It is with this power that we shall measure the motives of the English rule. The time will come, as it must come, when, if our English rulers should happen to rule India in a selfish, unjust and partial manner, with this same weapon of knowledge we shall compel them to withhold their power over us. But I must say that the educated natives of India have too great a confi- dence in the good sense and honesty of our rulers ever to apprehend any such calamity. Our Anglo-Saxon rulers brought with them their high civilization, their improved methods of education, and their general enlightenment. We had been in darkness and had well-nigh forgotten 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 Face to Faoe^^ stand in the presence of the new. The old we began to see in the light of the new, and we soon learned to feel that our country and society had been for a long time suffering from a number of social evils, from the errors of ignorance and from the evils of superstition. Thus we began to bestir ourselves in the way of remedying our social organiza- tion. Such, then, were the occasion and the origin of the work of social reform in India. 828 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Work of Re- form. Institution of Caste. Before I proceed further, I must tell you that the work of reform in India has a twofold aspect. In the first place, we have to revive many of our ancient religious and social institutions. Through ages of ignorance they have been lost to us, and what we need to do in regard to these institutions is to bring them to life again. So far as religious progress and spiritual culture are concerned, we have little or nothing to learn from the west, beyond your com- pact and advanced methods of combination, co-operation and organ- ization. This branch of reform I style as reform by revisal. In the second place, we have to receive some of your western institutions. These are mostly political, industrial and educational; a few social. But in every case the process is a 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 department of reform is, "Adapt before you adopt." I shall now proceed to indicate to you some of the social reforms that we have been trying to effect in our country. The abolition of caste — what is this Hindu institution of caste? In the social dictionary of India, "caste" is a most difficult word for you to understand. Caste may be defined as the classification of a society 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 go on butchering men. Thus the son of a grocer is born to be called a grocer, and the son of a shoemaker is fated to be called a shoemaker. Originally, there were only four castes — the Brahman, or the priest; 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 profession. 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 process, the original four castes have been multi- plied 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 scal^ and a 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 opera- tion of caste may be said to be confined principally to matters of first, food and drink; second, matrimony and adoption; third, the per- formance of certain religious rites and ceremonies. Each caste has its own code of laws and its own system of observ- ances. They will eat with some, but not with others. The higher ones will not so much as touch the lower ones. Intermarriages are strictly prohibited. Why, the proud and haughty Brahman will not deign to bear the shadow of a Shudra or low caste. In the west you have social classes, we, in India, have "castes." But remember that THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 829 "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 between "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 stratum from every other. The former arrangement is a source of strength and support and the latter a source of alienation and weakness. Per- haps 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 serve a high purpose; but now it is long, too long, since that social condition underwent a change. Under those ancient social and polit- ical environments of India tKe institution of caste was greatly helpful - in centralizing and transmitting professional knowledge of arts and occupations, as also in grouping, binding together and preserving intact the various guilds and artisan communities. But centuries ago that social and political environment ceased to exist, while the mischiev- ous 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, healthy 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 perni- j^j^^^ g^ p^^. cious caste system. Young India has been fully convinced that if the Down. 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 abolished. Therefore, the first item on the pro- gramme of social reform in India is the abolition of caste and further- ance of free and brotherly intercourse between class and class as also between individual and individual, irrespective of the accident of his birth and parentage, but mainly on the recognition of his moral worth and goodness of heart. Freedom of intermarriage. Intermarriage, that is marriage be- tween the members of two different castes, is not allowed in India. The code of caste rules does not sanction any such unions under any circumstances. Necessarily, therefore, they have been marrying and marrying for hundreds of years within the pale of their own caste. Now, many castes and their substances 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 degener- 830 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. ation of the race. The progeny of such parents go on degenerating 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 castes of Hin- dus 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 binding upon the innocent parties than actual consummation of mar- riage. 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- Betrothai of not at any time be separated from each other even by law, for the Children. Hindu law does not admit of any divorce. This is hard and cruel. It often happens that infants that are thus married together do not grow in love. When they come of age they come to dislike each other, and then begins the misery of their existence. They, perhaps, hate each other, and 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 arranged that, generally speaking, we come to tolerate, if not to like, whatever our lot is cast in with. Rut even if it were only a question of likes and dislikes, there is a large number of young couples in India that happen to draw nothing but blanks in this lottery of infant marriage. In addition to this serious evil there are other evils more pernicious in their effects connected with infant mar- riage. They are physical and intellectual decay and degeneracy of the 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 place and position in the world, consequent penury and poverty of the race, and latterly, the utterly hollow and unmeaning character imposed upon the sacred sacrament of marriage. These constitute only a few of the glaring evils of Hindu infant marriage. On the score of all these the system of Hindu infant marriage stands condemned, and it is the aim of every social reformer in India to suppress this degrading system. Along with the spread of education the public opinion of the country is being steadily educated and, at least among the enlightened classes, infant marriages at the age of four and five are simply held up to ridicule. The age on an average is being raised to twelve and fourteen, but noth- ing short of sixteen as the minimum for girls and eighteen for boys would satisfy the requirements of the case. One highest ideal is to secure the best measure possible; but where the peculiar traditions, customs and sentiments of the people cannot give us the best, we have, for the time being, to be satisfied with the next best, and then again keep on demanding a higher standard. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 831 The marriage laws in general — the Hindu marriage laws and cus- toms — 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 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 Laws and Ca^ 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 problems that relate to a thorough reform of the marriage laws in India. But situ- ated as we are at present, society is not ripe even for a calm and dis- passionate discussion of these, much less then for any acceptance of them, even in a qualified or modified form. However, in the distant future people in India shall have toface these problems. They cannot avoid them forever. 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 widow Mar- considered to be in perfect accord with social usage even for a widow riage- of three score and five to be on the lookout for a husband, especially if he can be a man of substance. But certainly you can never com- prehend 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 possession of your minds. Happiness is not to be confounded with palatial dwellings, gor- geously fitted with soft seats and yielding sofas, with magnificent cos- tumes, with gay balls or giddy dancing parties, nor with noisy revel- ries 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 im- petuous youth, who, when suddenly smitten with the death of the lord of her life, at once takes to the pure and spotless garb of a poor widow, and with devout resignation awaits for the call from above to pass into the land which knows no parting or separation. But these are cases of those who are capable of thought and feeling. What sen- 832 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. timent of devoted love can you expect from a girl of twelve or four- teen whose ideas are so simple and artless and whose mind still lingers at skipping and dollmaking? What sense and reason is there in ex- pecting her to remain in that condition of forced, artificial, lifelong widowhood? Oh, the lot of such child-widows! 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 condition of widows, and the heartless, pitiless customs of the country barbarously shave them of their beau- toSs^^^^ ^^^ ^^^"^ ^^^^' 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 merriment they must confine themselves to their dark cells and close chambers. The unfort- unate 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 themselves in an adjoining pool or a well or make a qui- etus to their life by draining the poison cup. After this I need hardly say that the much-needed reform in this matter is the introduction of widow marriages. The 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 ortho- dox 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 today, perhaps, about two hundred widow mar- riages 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 any one who marries a widow is put under a social ban. He is excommunicated; that is, no one would dine with him, or enter- tain any idea of intermarriage with his children or descendants. In spite of these difficulties the cause of widow marriage is daily gaining strength, both in opinion and adherence. The position of woman. A great many reforms in the Hindu social and domestic life cannot be effected until and unless the ques- tion as to what position does a woman occupy with reference to man of is solved and settled. Is she to be recognized as man's superior, his equal or his inferior? The entire problem of Hindu reform hinges on the position that people in India will eventually ascribe to their women. The question of her position is yet a vexed question in such advanced countries as England and Scotland. Here in your own Position Woman. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 833 Work of Sc. cial Reform. country of the states you have, I presume to think, given her a. supe- rior place in what you call the social circle and a place of full equality in the paths and provinces of ordinary life. Thus my American sis- ters 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 giving 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 tho house and the "deity of the palace;" but that is no more than a poet's conceit, and indicates a state of things that long, long ago used to be rather than at present is. For every such passage you will find the other passages in which the readers are treated with terse dissertations and scattering lam- poons on the so-called innate dark character of woman. The entire thought of the country one finds saturated with this idea. The Hindu hails the birth of a son with noisy demonstrations of joy and feast- ing; that of a female child as the advent of something that he would most gladly avoid if he could. The bias begins here at her very birth. Whatever may be the rationale of this state of things, no part of the programme of Hindu social reform can ever be successfully carried out until woman is recognized as man's equal, his companion and co- worker in every part of life; not his handmaid, a tool or an instru- ment in his hand, a puppet or a plaything, fit only for the hours of amusement and recreation. To me the 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 Hindu social reform. These are the lines of our work. We have been working 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 faith- ful 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 pieaforjoung 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 institutions, I entreat you, my beloved American brothers arid sisters, to grant us your blessings and good wishes, to give us your earnest advice and active co-opera- tion in the realization of the social, political and religious aspirations of young India. 53 India. Religion and \Yealth. Paper by REV. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D. D. ELIGION 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 Father of men, with some sense of dependence upon Him and obligation to Him. The religious life is the keynote is harmony with the divine nature and conformity to the divine will. What will the man who is living this kind of life think about wealth? How will his religion affect his thoughts about wealth? If all men were in this highest sense of the word religions, 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 products, commodities, rights which men desire and which in this commercial age can be exchanged for money, we may include under this term. But the question before us has in view the abun- dance, the profusion of exchangeable goods now existing in all civilized nations. There is vastly more in the hands of the men of Europe and America today than suffices to supply their immediate physical neces- sities. Vast stores of food, of fuel, of clothing and ornament, of luxu- ries of all sorts, millions of costly homes, filled with all manner of com- forts 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 di- rected. Our question is whether, if all men lived according to God, in perfect harmony with His thought, in perfect conformity with His will, 835 Wealth Defined 836 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Virtue. the 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 ptevalent conception of. religion has involved the renunciation of riches. The life of the pious Brah- man culminates in mendicancy; he reaches perfection only when he rids himself of all the goods of thip world. Buddhism does not demand ci all devotees the ascetic life, but its eminent saints adopt this life, and poverty is regarded as the indis- Mendicanc pcnsable condition of the highest sanctity. The sacred order founded In Buddhistic 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 almsbowl, a razor, a needle and a water strainer. The monastic rule has had wide vogue, however, in Christian communions, and great numbers of saintly men have adopted the rule of poverty. Many of the early Christian fathers use very strong language 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 cannot serve God and Mammon." '* How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God." "Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath he cannot be My disciple." It will not be difficult for the student to find other words of Jesus relating to the possession and the 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 cannot, I think, be clearly drawn from the New Testament. Nevertheless, this doctrine has greatly influenced the thought, if not the life, of the Christian church. This feeling has been strengthened also by the abuses 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, of 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, and corruption, and bribery in the commonwealth; it is the purveyor of lust and debauchery; it is the instigator of count- less crimes. It is in these abuses of wealth, doubtless, that devout men have found the chief rec^son for their skepticism concerning it and their re- Abuse Wealth. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS, 837 nunciation 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 anchorites rightly interpret the will of God? Is their manner of life the perfect 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 re- sources. It is plain that these material resources of the earth readily submit themselves to ihis process of development under the hand of man. Is it not 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 law 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. There must be time and facilities for travel, that the prod- ucts and thoughts of all climes may be studied and compared; that human experience may be enlarged and human sympathies broadened and deepened. It is no more possible that humanity should attain its ideal perfection in poverty than that maize should flourish in Green- land. If, then, the material wealth of the world consists simply in the health the development of powers with which nature has been stocked by the Deyeiopmeat Creator, and if this development is the necessary condition of the per- fection 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 distribution? 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 suf- fering 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, may be freely admitted, but when that is all taken account of there is a great deal of penury left which it is hard to justify in view of the opulence every- where visible. What is the rule by which the wealth of the world is now distrib- uted? Fundamentally, I think, it is the rule of the strongest. The rule has been greatly modified in the progress of civilization; a great of Nature. 838 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIO'NS. many kinds of violence are now prohibited; in many ways the weak are protected by law against the encroachments of the strong; human rapacity is confined within certain metes and bounds; nevertheless, the wealth of the world is still, in the main, the prize of strength and skill. Our laws furnish the rules of the game, but the game is essen- tially as Rob Roy describes it: To every one according to his power, is the underlying principle of the present system of distribution. It is evident that under such a system, in spite of legal restraints, the strong will trample upon the weak. We cannot believe that such a system can be in accordance with the will of a Father to whom the poor and needy are the especial objects of care. The ability of men productively and beneficently to use wealth is 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 fellows ;^ioo,ooo a year; .another could not handle ;^i,ooo a year without doing both to himself and his fellows great injury. If the function of wealth under the divine order is the development of manhood, then it is plain that an equal distribution of it would be alto- gether inadmissible; for under such a distribution some would obtain far less than they could use with benefit and others far more. The socialistic maxims: **To each according to his needs," and " To each according to his worth," are evidently ambiguous. What needs? The needs of the body or of the spirit? And how can we assure ourselves that by any distribution which we could effect real needs would be supplied? Any distribution according to supposed needs would be constantly perverted? It is impossible for us to ascer- tain and measure the real needs of men. " To each according to his works " is equally uncertain. What works? Works of greed or works of love? Works whose aim is sordid or works whose aim is social? According to the divine plan the func- tion of wealth, as we have seen, is the perfection of character and the promotion of social welfare. The divine plan must, therefore, be that Greed.^*^ °^ Wealth shall be so distributed as to secure the greatest results. And religion, which seeks to discern and follow the divine plan, must teach that the wealth of the world will be rightly distributed, only when every man shall have as much as he can wisely use to make himself a better man, and the community in which he lives a better community; so much and no more. It is obvious that the divine plan is yet far from realization. Other and far less ideal methods of distribution are recognized by our laws, and it would be folly greatly to change the laws until radical changes have taken place in human nature. Works of Prof, M. J Wade, Iowa City, Iowa. Marriage a ^crament. Yhe Catholic Qhurch and the JV\arriage 3ond. I*aper by PROF. MARTIN J. WADE, University of Iowa. PON the great question of marriage and the effect of the marriage bond, as upon all other questions involving moral and social duties and obligations, the Cath- olic church speaks with an unfaltering voice. "What therefore God hathjoined together let no man put asunder," has been adopted as the true doctrine of the church; and, through the darkness and the light, the successes and reverses of Christian civilization, those sacred words have been breathed down through the ages, a solemn benediction upon indi- viduals and upon society. Divinely instituted in the beginning, mar- riage, throughout all the ages before the Chris- tian era, was a recognized institution among the children of men. In the chaos incident to the moral darkness which preceded the Dawn is true it lost much of its sanctity; but, when the Light came, that divine institution was again impressed with the seal of divinity and was honored by being elevated to the dignity of a sacrament. The teaching of the Catholic church is, therefore, that marriage is a sacrament — that true marriage properly entered into by compe- tent persons is of a threefold nature — a contract between the persons joined in wedlock, a contract between the persons joined in wedlock and society — the State, and a solemn compact between the contracting parties and God. The difference which is seen between this view of marriage and the civil conception of marriage is that in the latter the only recognized elements are the personal obligations one to the other and the joint and several obligations to the state. The most liberal will not claim that marriage is a mere contract of the parties. 840 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 841 The civil law teaches that by marriage each party assumes certain duties and responsibilities toward the other; both parties assume cer- tain 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 the state guards the individuals 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 citizens, good members of society. It is well settled in our jurisprudence that the contracting parties cannot 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 cannot be severed, but that it is binding 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: ** Marriage 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 that 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 a solemn compact for life — a compact which, when once val- idly made and consummated by competent parties, cannot be com- pletely dissolved by judge, by priest, by 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 first 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 marriage 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 disso- lution 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 ^4 Marriage Tie Cannot Be Sev- ered. Something Holy. No Decree of Divorce from Rome. 842 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. besieged, priests and people maltreated, churches desecrated, the cioss, 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 im- mortal for all future ages." The church is condemned, by those who know not, for compel- ling persons who have entered the marriage state to live together, regardless of the faults of one or the other. This is an error; the church teaches that man and wife should live together; she imposes upon husband and wife the solemn duties of sharing in the joys and sorrows of each other, but she by no word holds virtue chained in the grasp of vice, nor compels the sober wife to submit to the brutal treats ment of the drunken husband. The object of her teachings is to pro- mote 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 interpose between husband and wife, to shield the weak from the strong. Exercising 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 abso- lute 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 Civil Divorces "^"^^ about to marry to consider well the step they are about to Permitted. take; shc throws about them such protection as she can by requir- ing the " publication of the bans " in order to prevent secret marriages, and to circumvent the scheme of any adventurer or other unworthy person, who, by secret marriage, would pollute innocence and ruin a ^ young life. It is liberty of remarriage after divorce which encourages divorce. We know that in the marital relations differences arise which seem to point to separation as the only remedy. We know that the wrongs of one may be- such that common humanity dictates that the other be freed from the bonds which have become unbearable. We may even admit what is claimed by the advocates of divorce, that it seems in one sense to be an injustice to compel the innocent to remain unmarried THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS. 843 after divorce because of the wrongs of the wicked, but it must be remembered that laws cannot 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 propriety. It is said that such a rule destroys individual liberty, but no, the contract to be bmding must, in the first instance, be the voluntary act of the parties. If it is understood that the bond is to remain unbroken during 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 innjocence, 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 wrongs have been inflicted with the purpose of forcing a separation and consequent divorce in order to enable the wrongdoer to again take the vows of marriage, to be in turn violated as whim or passion may dictate The wrongdoer, 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 sys- tem has grown, there has been developing its correlative, the matri- monial bureau, through the operations of which wives and husbands ^ Threatai- are taken on trial with the full knowledge that if they prove unsuitable ingEvH. 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 today, 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 remar- riage after separation be not permitted is the only safeguard of mar- riage. That emment legal scholar, John Taylor Coleridge, in a note to his edition of Blackstone'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 upon individuals, yet it must be carefully remembered that the general happiness of the married life is secured by its indissolubility.* When people understand that they must live together, except for a few rea- sons known to the law, they learn to soften, by mutual accommoda- tion, that yoke which they know they cannot shake off; they become good husbands and good wives from the necessity of remaining hus- 844 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS^ bands and wives, for necessity is a powerful master in teaching the duties which it imposes. If it were once understood that, upon mutual disgust, married persons might be legally separated, many couples who now pass through the world with mutual comfort, with attention to their common offspring and to the moral order of civil society, might have been at this moment living in a state of mutual unkindness, in a state of estrangement from their common offspring, and in a state of the most licentious and unrestrained immorality. In this case, as in many other cases, the happiness of some individuals must be sacrificed to the greater and more general good." Gibbon, after speaking of the loose system of divorce among the Romans, adds: "A specious theory is confuted by this free and per- fect experiment, which demonstrates that the liberty of divorce does not contribute to happiness and virtue.'' What can be more convincing than the words of that eminent statesman and scholar, Rt. Hon. William E. Gladstone, who, in answer to the question "Ought divorced people be allowed to marry under any circumstances?" replies: "The second question deals with what maybe called divorce proper. It resolves itself into the lawfulness or unlawfulness of remarriage, Question of ^^^ the answer appears to me to be that remarriage is not admissible tie-marriage, under any circumstances or conditions whatsoever. Not that the dif- ficulties arising from incongruous marriage are to be either denied or extenuated. They are indisputable. But the remedy is worse than the disease. 'These sweeping statements ought, I am aware, to be supported by reasoning and detail, which space does not permit and which I am not qualified adequately to supply. But it seems to me that such reason- ing might fall under the following heads: "That Christian marriage involves a vow before God. "That no authority has been givefi to the Christian church to cancel such a vow. "That it lies beyond the province of the civil legislature, which, from the necessity of things, has a veto power within the limits of rea- son 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 for- bidden by the text of Holy Scripture. "While divorce of any kind impairs the integrity of the family, divorce with remarriage destroys it, root and branch. The parental and conjugal relations are "joined together" by the hand of the Almighty, no less 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 and independent obliga- tions, stretching into the future and limited only by the stroke of death. These obligations, where divorce proper is in force, lose all com- munity, and the obedience reciprocal to them is dislocated and de- stroyed." TME WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, g45 Thus it is seen that the most eminent minds of different ages re- gard 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 this 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 con- ception of which was in the vices of the people. Gibbon tells us that " passion, interest or caprice suggested dai^y 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 pleasure.'"' And, Oh, what a vital subject is this for consideration in these times, when the frequency of divorce in this land of progress is be- coming alarming — threatening, as it does, the very foundation of so- ciety 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 other- wise. Individuals are virtuous or otherwise as the home from which TT««,^f>,^ 1 -1 r • 1 1 r • TT • Mometne they come is the seat of virtue or the den of vice. Hence, the home is Foandation of 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 hoof which stamps out every vestige of home life. What do the people think of the record for the twenty years prior to i886 (the latest complete statistics) of 328,716 divorces in the United States? Over 328,000 homes destroyed and eliminated forever as com- ponent factors in civilization. But this is not the worst. In 1867 there were 9,937. In 1886 there were 25,535 divorces, an increase of yi per cent — an increase more than twice as great as the growth in population, and representing a ratio to marriage of as high as one to nine. To the person whose daily paper brings in glowing headlines the story of marital infelicity told to the public in the divorce courts of the country, it is needless to say that the number of divorces have not decreased since 1886. How long can society stand this drain upon its resources? How long can the patriotic American people 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 inno- cent 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 are attracted to their borders hundreds, aye, thousands of divorce seekers, not only from our own land, but g4d fHE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF kEUGION^. inviting, from foreign lands its decaying nobility, whose lives are such that in their own country the courts will not grant them relief? And is it not a serious condition when a new state will be boldly put forth as the Mecca of dissatisfied husbands and wives, in order that they may spend their money in procuring a divorce within its borders, that their wealth may add to the general prosperity? God help the state whose material progress is based upon the money spent by non-resident applicants for legal separation from husband or wife. The provisions of the different states regarding divorce and the causes for which the same may be granted are greatly at variance. So that those who cannot establish a case in the state of their residence can readily acquire a residence in some other state, and thus reach the desired end. The want of uniformit)^ in our laws upon this subject is the cause for much of the fraud perpetrated and the perjury com- mitted in establishing a residence and furnishing the necessary proofs in order to obtain a decree. If we look for the causes which produce the deplorable condition existing, we find that they are legion; but far above all other causes we find divorce itself breeding divorce and we find public sentiment upholding, or at least permitting, existing conditions. What is the remedy? As a first step, strike from the statute books all of the provisions permitting divorce for inadequate causes. Re- Remedy for quire that all petitioners for divorce be bona fide residents of the state ivorce. -j^ which the action is commenced for a period of at least two years preceding the application. Require personal service, unless the peti- tioner can show by competent evidence that such service is impossible; and when service is made by publication, the defendant should have a reasonable time, even after the decree, in which to apply for a rehear- ing. These changes should come from the legislature. But what is needed even more than legislation, is a proper administration of the laws. It is bad enough that a legislature should permit persons who have resided in the state but a few months to seek relief in the courts, but it is scandalous to see a temporary residence, publicly known to be adopted for the sole purpose of procuring a divorce, treated with all judicial dignity as being a good faith residence required by the statute. These changes can be brought about only by the people them- selves, by creating and maintaining such a public sentiment as will force the legislatures and the courts to a fuller recognition of the over- whelming importance of this great question. Laws, to be effectual, must go hand in hand with public sentiment. Those that are not sus- tained by the approval of the masses of the people will fail of enforce- ment. Therefore, the crying need of the hour is a healthy, active, aggressive public sentiment. Public sentiment is the life current of society; it affects individual action in private life; it enters the jury box in our civil courts; it whispers to judges upon the bench; it stalks boldly into the halls of legislation, both state and national. Public opinion reaches the national conscience, and it is this conscience that THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 847 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 husband to support his wife and family. It is a sad commentary upon our legislation that in most of the states of the union a husband may desert his wife and family and refuse to aid in their support, provided he has no visible property subject to the process of the law. A law is needed which shall provide that such desertion is a crime and whereby such a man may be put to work under the supervision of the state and by which the proceeds of his labor may be applied to the support of his family. In nearly every state the inmates of the penitentiaries are earning money which goes into the state treasury. These earnings might, under proper legislation, be applied to the support of those dependent upon the person who earns the same. We 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 considerate regard for the duties which the husband and father owes to wife and children. The demand for this comes from the mothers of the land who labor hard from early morn until late at night to support starving chil- dren. It comes from the almshouses and orphan homes where may be found the cruelly deserted offspring of unpunished husbands. It comes from the insane asylums where minds, shattered by a load too great to bear, live in dismal misery. It comes from graves all over the land where weakened bodies and broken hearts have sought eternal rest The state should provide suitable hospitals, or places of reform, for drunkards. Treatment should be provided looking toward a cure, and where it is demonstrated that cure is impossible, they should be treated as wards of society and maintained under such control as would enable them not only to earn sufficient for their own support, but also to aid in the support of their families. I do not believe in paternalism in government, but if some of our ardent socialists would exert their energies in bringing government to a proper exercise oi 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 almshouses and jails were applied in an intelligent effort toward the prevention of crime, it would be better for humanity, and, as prevention is of greater importance than punishment, society should apply the remedies at the very base of good or evil for society, the family The integrity of the family should be firmly established, and everything that tends toward disintegration should be carefully guarded against. "The solidity and health of the social body,** says William E. 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 Duty of the Husband. Reform for Drunkards. Prevention of Crime. g48 ^'^^ tVdkLPS CONd^ESS OP MUCtOM^. "unit" of society, the American people are courting national danger by at least a tacit indorsement of existing divorce laws and their ad- ministration. To the thinking men and women of the time, this is the greatest social question of the age. Others there are which require attention, th^e^l^uTu^^e b^t they are in a certain sense temporary, or due to local causes. The Dimmed. 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 train- ing of a child should begin, replied: "A hundred years before he is born." We are laying the foundation of the education of children of the next century. We are creating the environments of future gener- ations. Will not this thought urge the people of this generation to eliminate everything that is a menace to society of the present 'or of the future? To cope with an evil so widespread requires the active co-opera- tion of men of all classes and all creeds, and, therefore, the Catholic church holds out her hands today to all men and women, regardless of race or creed, and implores their active united endeavors in behalf of Gyration £ ^ mighty reform in the divorce legislation of the country. Arouse a quired. healthy public sentiment which will fill the air with the voice of con- demnation of legalized polygamy. Let it enter our political conven- tions, go boldly into our legislative halls, seek the sanctums of our editorial writers, touch the hearts of judges on the bench, inspire the thoughtful, sincere men in the pulpit, and, above all, let it reach deep down into the hearts of the men and women, the husbands and wives of our land. Let a healthy Christian sentiment maintain the sanctity of marriage against the devastating inroads of materialism. The Late Rev. Bro. AzariaSc Xhe Religious Iraining of Children. Paper by the late BROTHER AZARIAS. Read by REV. JOHN F. MUL^ LANY, of Syracuse, N. Y. HE sincere members of all Christian denomina* tions hold religion to be an essential element of education. They are convinced that they would be guilty of a gross breach of duty were they to neglect this important element in the training of their children. And they are right. Consequently any system of education from which religious training is eliminated were in- adequate and incomplete and an injustice to the child receiving it. Education should de- velop the whole man. Intellect and heart, body and soul, should all be cultivated and fitted to act, each in its own sphere, with most effi- ciency. And so the inculcation of piety, rever- ence and religious doctrine is of more im- portance than training in athletic sports or mathematical studies, .vloreover, 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 points out the way by which he may best attain the end for which he was created. Now it is only religious teaching that can furnisfi man with this information, 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," says this philosopher, ''must be pro- foundly convinced that the gods are lords and rulers of all that exists; that all events depend upon their word and will, and that mankind is largely indebted to them." Christianity has in many respects changed man's point of view. The people of the ancient world made trees and flowers the habitation of gods and goddesses and earth-born spirits. Their conception of nature was pantheistic. Christianity threw a halo of tenderness and 851 Solution for fche Enigmr. of Life. ^52 fM^ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGION:^. 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 Saint Anthony tames the wild beasts of the forest; 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 Christian and was the Supreme tribunal that decided all doubts and regulated con- agan spect. science and conduct. Christianity reversed all this. It flashed the white light of revealed truth upon man's nature, lighting up its intri- cacies, giving deeper insight into the secret chambers of the human heart; it taught man his personal dignity and his sense of responsi- bility; it showed him the temporal and the eternal in their proper rela- tions; it brought home to him the infinite price of his soul, and thus led him up to a recognition of individual 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 educa- tion, there is a spirit that was not in the thought, the literature and the education of pagan people. We cannot rid ourselves of it. We cannot 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 very 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 Christian soul — the vital principle — that made that ideal an actuality In thought and external conduct they cannot rid themselves of that ideal. It is bred in the bone; it is part of themselves. Owing to the care and earnestness of our Chris- tian ancestors, who prized above all other goods and. gifts, the Christian training and the Christian lives of their children, our modern civiliza- tion, 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 deflect- ing human progress from its former course. Such speculations are safe. The work is done. The barbarian who despised Roman civil- ization and sought its destruction has been Christianized; his fierce nature has been curbed and tamed; he has been raised up into a plane of culture and refinement, and imbued with an ideal of life that no formative influence outside of Christianity could have given him. If there still crop out traces oi our heredity from the barbarian, and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 853 crime is rampant, this is no part of Christianity. It is rather in spite of Christian influence. Human nature at all times and under all cir- cumstances remains prone to evil. Civilization, considered in itself, only places more effective weapons in the hands of the criminal. It is a natural good, and as such is subject to the accidents of every natural good; therefore, to evil; therefore, to abuse; therefore, to crime. Civilization, then, possesses in itself certain elements of disintegration. But in Christianity there is a conservative force that resists all decay. Christian thought. Christian dogma and Christian morals never grow old, never lose their efficiency with the advance of any community in civilized life. Hence, the importance for the conservation of the Chris- tian family of impressing them on the young mind. John Stuart Mill is not of our opinion. To his mind the world 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, pYofessedly recognized, is that of obedience." In this patron- izing 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 sanc- tioned by it had contributed to the formation of European life and character, human affairs would have been in a worse condition than the)/ are now." (Essay on Liberty, page 94.) By the side of Mill's inadequate estimate of Christianity, let us place another from one who has cast from him the last shred of relig- Christianity ious dogmas. Mr. Lecky in a more enlightened spirit, bears witness to »? » Conserva- the perennial character of Christianity as a conservative force. He ^^^ °^^* says : "There is but one example of a religion which is not naturally weakened by civilization, and that example is Christianity. * * * But the great characteristic of Christianity, and the great moral proof of its divinity is, that it has been the main source of the moral develop- ment of Europe, and that it has discharged this office, not so much by an inclination of a system of ethics, however pure, as by the assimil- ating and attractive influence of a perfect ideal. The moral progress of mankind can never cease to be distinctively and intensely Christian, as long as it consists of a gradual approximation to the character of the Christian founder. There is, indeed, nothing more wonderful in the history of the human race than the way in which that ideal has traversed the lapse of ages, acquiring a new strength and beauty with each advance of civilization, and infusing its beneficent influence into every sphere of thought and action." (Rationalism in Europe, pp. 31, 312.) This is unstinted praise, here is, at least, one chapter of the world's history that Mr. Lecky has not misread. Thus is it, that even accord- ing to the testimony of those who are not of us, our modern civiliza- tion has in it a unique element, divine and imperishable in its nature, growing out of its contact with the Christ. That characterizing elc- 854 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. From the Cradle to the Grave. Sanctuary of a Good Home. ment, its life, its soul, is Christianity. Individuals may repudiate it, but as a people we are still proud to call ourselves Christians. We have not come to that pass at which we are ashamed of the cross in which St. Paul gloried. The teachings and practices of Christianity form an essential part of our education. They are intimately blended with our whole personal life. Christian influences must needs preside over every important act from the cradle to the grave. So the church thinks and she acts ac- cordingly. The newborn infant is consecrated with prayer and cere- monial to a Christian line of conduct when the saving waters of bap- tism are poured upon its head, and it is thus regenerated in Christ. The remains of the Christians are laid in the grave with prayer and ceremonial. At no time in the life of man does the church relax in her care of him. Least of all is she disposed to leave him to himself at that period, when he is most amenable to impression and when she can best lay hold upon his whole nature and mold it in the ideal that is solely hers. Therefore is the church ever jealous of any attempt on the part of secularism to stand between her and the child she has marked for her own with the sign of salvation through baptismal rites. She knows no compromise, she can entertain no compromise, she has no room for compromise, for she has no right to compromise or hes- itate for a moment when the salvation of the child is at sta'ke. 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 fac- tor. He will have none of it. He divides. all educational responsi- bility between the family and the state. He considers the professor competent to instruct in secular knowledge only. The family he re- gards as the true educator. True is it that the family is the great molder 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 any- thing and everything that is not religion. The refining and educating influence he means is the "eternally womanly" — das ewige weibliche — of Goethe. It is a sexual influence. It is a continuous appeal to the gallantry and chivalry of the boy nature. This and nothing more. Is it sufificient as an educational influence? Without other safe- guards the boy soon outgrows the deference and respect and awe that woman naturally inspires. That is, indeed, a superficial knowledge of THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 855 human nature which would reduce the chief factor of a child's educa- tion 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 willing 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 exceptional cases. What has M. Renan to say to the home in which the father is absorbed in making money and the mother is equally absorbed in spending that money in 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 pre- cept are deleterious to the growth of manly character? And then consider the sunless homes of the poor and the indigent, where the struggle for life is raging with all intensity; consider the home of the workingman, where the father is out from early morning to late at night, and the mother is weighed down with the cares and anxieties of a large family and drudging away all day long at household duties never done; to speak of home education and delicacy of conscience and growth of character among such families and under such condi- tions were a mockery But M. Renan has as happy a facility in ignor- ing 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 Moham- medans to be educated in the Christian religion, St. Thomas answered them thus: **In the days of Constantine and Theodosius Christian bishops, like saints Sylvester and Ambrose, would not neglect to ad- vise coercion for the education of the children of pagans were it not repugnant to natural justice. The child belongs to the father; the child ought, therefore, to remain under the parent's control." And Pius IX, in our own day, April 25, 1868, gave out the following instruc- tions: "We forbid non-Catholic pupils attendmg Catholic schools to be obliged to assist at mass or any other religious exercise. Let them be left to their own discretion." If the parent educates his child him- self, all well and good. School laws are not made for the parent who educates his own child. If he does not himself educate the child, it is for him to say who shall replace him in this important function. In making this decision the Christian parent is generally guided by the church. The church is pre-eminently a teaching power; that teaching power extending chiefly to the formation of character and the devel- opment of the supernatural man. Her Divine Founder said: "All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth; going, therefore, teach all nations " The church holds that of all periods in the life of man, Exceptional Cases. The State and Religious Training. 856 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Duty Parent of the The Sunday School. the period of childhood and youth, when the heart is plastic and char- acter is shaping, and formative influences leave an indelible impress, is the one in which religion can best mold conduct and best give color to thought; and, therefore, the church exhorts and encourages the Christian parent to make many and great sacrifices 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 contrary 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 sweet- ness 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 conscience is, and ever must be, unjust and destructive of the moral life of a people. — The Forum, March, i88y, 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 subjects 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, p. 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 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 under- mining the religion of Christ, while claiming for individuals the right to accept or reject all forms gf belief^ recognizes now, and far into the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 857 future, the necessity of a church for the majority of mankind. He who believed neither in a church nor a God, who would 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 cannot gather grapes from thorns. You cannot sow a lie and reap truth. Think of all that is meant by such statements as these. Can you imagine a commonwealth erected upon falsehood or deceit 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 hearts the seeds of pessimism and self-destruction. Then, there are those who, believing in religion and morality, still maintain in all sincerity that these things may be divorced in the schoolroom. Dr. Crosby says: "While I thus oppose the teaching of religion in our public schools I uphold the teaching of morality there. To say that religion and morality are one is an error. To say that religion is the only true Morality in basis of morality is true. But this does not prove that morality can- s^IckSs? not be taught without teaching religion." It proves nothing else. The distinction between religion and morality is fundamental. But, be it remembered, that we are now dealing with Christian children, having Christian fathers and mothers who are desirous of making those children thoroughly Christian. Now, you cannot mold a Christian soul upon a purely ethical train- ing. In practice you cannot separate religion from morality. A code of ethics will classify one's passions, one's vices, one's virtues, one's moral habits and tendencies; but it is quite unable to show how pas- sion may be overcome or virtue acquired. It is only from the revela- tion of Christianity that we learn the cause of our innate 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 de- ceive ourselves. The morality that is taught apart from religious truth and religious sanction is a delusion. The history of rationalism is strewn with the wrecks of intellectual pride. These men illustrate the revolt of reason against religion. M. Ernest Renan is a case in point. A simple Catholic youth, holding his articles of faith, all the truths taught by the Catholic church, he enters upon a course of studies for the Catholic priesthood. He prays 858 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, devoutly with his companions of the seminaries of Issy and St. Sul- pice; he receives the sacraments with them; he follows all the spiritual exercises with them; and yet a day comes when he finds that he has lost the faith and is no longer a believer in the revealed religion. Whence comes this to be so? The truths of religion are, many of them, distinct from natural truths; they are above natural truths, and yet they are based upon them. Faith supposes reason. Now, M Renan has left us an amusing account of himself — M. Renan is amus- ing, or nothing — and therein we learn that .he began by sapping the natural foundations on which supernatural truth rests; he played fast and loose with philosophic truth, attempted to reconcile the most con- tradictory assumptions of Kant and Hegel and Schelling; he repudi- ated the primary principles of his reason, and so undermined its whole basis that it was no wonder to see the superstructure topple ov^n He, a boy of twenty, with very little strength of intellect, but with an overweening ambition that supplied all other deficiencies, sat in judg- ment upon all things in heaven and upon earth, especially upon the religion which he had professed and for the ministry in which he was preparing himself. From that moment the Christian religion ceased to be for him an active principle. He no longer believed in the truths of Christianity. While conforming to its external practices, the warmth and the life of it had vanished, and his active brain, having nothing else to feed upon, made of his religion a mere intellectual exercise, and finally a marketable commodity, the means by which to create unto himself a name. He placed religious truth on the same footing with natural science and tested both by the same methods. Naturally, truths that are deductive, based upon authority beyond the scope of reason, vanish into thin air when one attempts to analyze them as one would the ingredients of salt and water. They are effective only when received with reverence, submission and implicit faith. In this manner did Renan's faith disappear before his intellectual pride. "■ In a scientific age," says Cardinal Newman, "there will natur- ally be a parade of what is called natural theology, a widespread pro- fession of the Unitarian creed, an impatience of mystery and a skepti- CuSSfe^Vn^d ^^^"^ about miracles." Now, if this intellectual temper is to be looked Reiigioa 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 relig- ious practices have been banished is simply preparing a generation of atheists and agnostics. There is a large grain of truth in the remark of Renan, that if humanity was intelligent and nothing else it would be atheistic. And yet this man, whose views I find shadowy, shifting, panoramic and unreal, this maker of clever phrases, would promote nothing but intellectual culture, soul culture. " They are," he says, "not simple ornaments; they are things no less sacred than religion. * * * Intellectual culture is pre-eminently holy. * * * It is our religion." ("La Reforme," pp. 309, 310.) Renan holds this cult- ure sacred, because he hopes thereby to make men atheistic. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 859 What has secularism in any of its phases to do with the saving of souls or the fear of hell, or the doctrine of original sin, grace and re- demption, or the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, or with spiritual life, or the reign of the kingdom of God in human hearts? This is a world ignored or denied altogether by secularism It has no place for the lesson that the cross comes before the crown, that men must sorrow before they can rejoice, that pain is frequently to be chosen before pleasure, that the flesh and the spirit are to be mortified, "that passions are to be resisted and man must struggle against his in- ferior nature to the death. The Christian parent and the Chris- tian church are convinced that it is only by placing the Christian yoke upon the child in its tender years that the child will afterward grow up to manhood or womanhood finding that yoke agreeable — for the Di- vine 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 Christian life a heaven upon earth. This is why Christian parents make so many sacrifices to secure their children a Christian education. This is why you find, the world over, men and women religious teachers — immolating their lives, their comforts, their homes, their talents, their energies, that they may cause Christian virtues to blossom in the hearts of the little ones confided to them. This is why, in the city of New York alone, we are witnesses, this very year, of not less than fifty-four thousand Catholic children, in the whole state not less than one hundred and fifty thousand and in the United States nearly eight hundred thousand attending our parish schools at 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 prerogatives in the matter of education. She cannot for a single moment lose sight of the super- natural destiny of man and of her mission to guide him from the age of reason toward the attainment of that destiny. We know not how forcibly we have presented the plea for the religious training of children, but we know that we have sought* to a p • i give no mere individual impressions, but the profound convictions with Boon which Christian parents act when insisting upon giving their children a Christian education. Therefore, sincere Christians, whether Cath- olic, Lutheran, Baptist or Episcopalian, be they named what they may, can never bring themselves to look on with unconcern at any system of education that is calculated to rob their children of the priceless boon of their Christian inheritance- Prizing their souls more than ~ their bodies, they would rather see them dead than that their souls should be pinched and starved for want of the life-giving food that comes of Christian revelation. Therefore it is, that they cannot for a moment tolerate their children in an atmosphere of secularism from which Christian prayer and Christian practices have been banished. Plea for Xol^ration, Address by REV. DR. HENRY M. FIELD, of the New York Evangelist. A Magnificent Spirit. AM glad to say only one word to express the joy that I 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, I was brought up in the straitest sect of the Pharisees, believing there was no good outside of our own little pale. I know, when ;^ I J I was a child, it was a serious question with me ^^ ) ' whether democracts could be saved ! I am happy to have arrived at a belief that they can be saved, though as by fire ! Well, then, when I went across the ocean I thought a Roman Catholic was a terrible person. But when I came to know the Roman Catholics, I found that I was a very poor specimen of Christianity beside the Sisters of Charity whom I saw, and the noble Brothers devoted to every good Christian and benevolent office. Only a few weeks ago I was in Africa, and there made the acquaintance of some of the White Fathers designated by Cardinal Lavigerie to carry the Gospel into the center of Africa. What devotion is there we can hardly parallel. I knew that some of them — the first that were sent out — had been killed on the desert; and yet at Carthage I said to one of the White Fathers, ''Are you willing to go into all those dangers?" "Yes!" said he. "When?" "Tomorrow!" was his reply. Such a spirit is, magnificent, and wherever we see it, in any part of the world, in any church, we admire and honor it. Ah! but those followers of the False Prophet, surely they have no religion! So I said until I had been in Constantinople and in other cities of the East, where I heard, at sunrise and sunset, the call for 800 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 861 prayer from the minaret, and saw the devotion of the Moslems, whose white turbans flashed in the sunlight like the wings of doves as they swept by me, going to the house of prayer. I was told by one of the White Fathers about the observances of the Mohammedans. He said to me: "Do you know this is the first day of Ramadan, the Moham- medan Lent? They observe their Lent a great deal better than 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 outside the pale of Religion; that they are not regarded by the Great Father as His children . In Bombay I felt a great respect for the Parsees, when I saw them uncovering their heads at the rising and setting of the sun, in homage to the great source of life and light. So in the other Religions of the East. Underneath all we find reverence for the great Supreme Power, Reverence fo? a desire to love and worship and honor Him. Of the defects of those prei^^owM? Religions I will not speak. There are enough to talk of them, but this I do say here and in this presence, 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 the world. Prof. Richard T. Ely, University of Wisconsin. (Christianity as a Social porce, Paper by PROF. RICHARD T. ELY, of the University of Wisconsin. HRISTIANITY is a social force above every- thing else. Its social character is a distinguish- ing feature of Christianity. Other religions are also social forces, but it strikes me that in the degree to which Christianity carries its social nature we have one of its essential peculiari- ties. He who would understand Christianity must begin with a consideration of Judaism. While, as a general principle, this is admitted by all, it is overlooked by many in their treat- ment of the social doctrines of Christianity. Judaism was a social force which worked chiefly within national boundaries, and its 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 poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say. Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain." This prayer of Agur is simply an expression of a national ideal 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 the yearning cry of the nation for righteous social relations. The Jewish law, differing from the Roman code of the Western World, was not chiefly negative and repressive, but positive and constructive. It perpetually 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 righteousness which did not include a brotherly aim as but filthy rags. All the legislation of Moses had in view the development of a national 863 Bulwark t«» the Weak. 864 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, brotherhood, and as a means for the accomplishment of this end, it aimed to prevent the separation of Israel into widely separated social classes. Economic extremes in conditions were dreaded, and to pro- duce equality of opportunity was the desire of every true Hebrew leader. Facilities for the development of the faculties of all naturally followed from the faithful application of the fundamental principles of the Mosaic legislation. At the same time, the Hebrew commonwealth was never designed to be a pure democracy. An aristocratic element was favored, because it was endeavored to secure the leadership of the wise and gifted, and obedience to this leadership was enjoined on all. Sedition and rebellion were regarded as crimes. Equality of all in faculties and in fitness for government were absurdities not entertained. The time is too limited to allow a description of the fundamental social institutions in the ideal Hebrew commonwealth, and it can scarcely be necessary, as they will occur to all. The provisions relat- Landandln- fng to land and interest were, perhaps, the most important features of terest. the social legislation of Moses. The land belonged to the Almighty, and it was held by the children of Israel under strictly limited tenure. It was a trust designed to afford provision for each family. It could, by no means, be monopolized without an infraction of. the fundamental law, and such a thing as modern speculation in land violated the con- ditions of the land tenure. The purpose of the land was to furnish a subsistence and to promote the acquisition of a competence, but by no means of a great fortune. The laws regulating interest were even more radical. Interest was not forbidden by Moses because he failed to understand the tru- isms iterated and reiterated by the Manchester men, who fancy them- selves far wiser than this greatest of legislators, but because the receipt of interest would have militated against the fundamental social pur- poses which Moses desired to accomplish. It is, of course, conceded that conditions were different at that time, and that capital in the modern sense hardly existed. But altogether apart from this, it is true that Moses wished property to be used for mutual helpfulness. Loans were to be made to assist a brother, and not for the sake of gain. **Thou shalt open thine hand wide to thy brother, to thy poor and thy needy in thy land." At least two things were evidently-dreaded in the -taking of interest — the growth of inequality among them and the op- portunity it afforded for economic gain without direct personal exer- tion. The regulations concerning slavery were also aimed at these dangers, and in them we find the enunciation of the truth that private property exists for social purposes. The institution of slavery was relatively mild among the Hebrews, and provision was made for the release of the Hebrew bondman and bondwoman after a brief period of service. The foreigner was excluded from this brotherhood, and even when kind treatment of the stranger is enjoined, he, after all, is • regarded as one separated from the range of complete ethical obliga- tion. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS Jesus 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 Erery Man* other hand, to extend to universality the benefits of the social law of B«>ti»er. Moses. And it was of this law that he said not one jot or tittle should pass away until all should be fulfilled. Jesus did not proclaim Himself the Son of Abraham, which would have implied national brotherhood, but the Son of man, which implied brotherhood as wide as humanity. He was not, first of all, an Israelite, but a man. Who was the neigh- bor? is a question answered in the parable of the Good Samaritan, which enforces the lesson that any and every man, whenever and wherever found, is a brother. Christianity, then, as a social force, seeks to universalize the socio- economic institutions of the Jews. But it must be remembered in this connection that it is the letter that killeth, but the spirit which giveth life. The exact law of Moses respecting land and interest, for exam- ple, cannot be reproduced in modern society. But all who profess allegiance to Christ must endeavor to universalize their spirit. The church is a universal anti-poverty society, or she is false to her founder. It is hoped that I will not be misunderstood in saying that she also stands for anti-millionairism, because extremes 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 galleries signify public uses of that which is essen- tially public in its nature. As asocial force, Christianity favors private frugality and generous public expenditures. We may express all this and something more in the statement that Christianity means social solidarity, or it means nothing. When the founder of Christianity said he was the Son of man, he at the same time proclaimed social solidarity. Social solidarity means the recognition of the identity of all human interests, and, truly understood, it promotes the identifica- tion of one's self with humanity. Fullness of life in every department must be sought in human society. Wealth, art, music, literature, relig- ion, even language itself, are all social products. What Christianity teaches in this respect social science, rightly understood, teaches also. Isolated life means material poverty and the absence of intellectual achievements. Man becomes great only when humanity moves within him. Art is great only when it is an expression of the social life. Masterpieces of art were exposed on the highways of a nation able to appreciate them. Literature makes epochs when in a writer the national life pulsates and through him the nation speaks. Morality finds its source and its sanction in society and it is re-enforced by the commands of the Almighty. Individualism, as ordinarily understood, is anti-Christian, because 55 Individualism. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. it means social isolation and disintegration. Individual liberty, as frequently proclaimed, means the right of one man to injure others to the full extent of his capacity and resources. The claim to this liberty (which is not liberty at all in the true sense of the word) is anti-Chris- tian. Individual salvation, in the strictest sense of the word, is an im- possibility, because it implies a denial of that which is fundamental in Christianity. Christianity has been distinguished in the world's Parliament of Religions into true and false — and this is well. There is false Chris- tianity, which may be termed anti-Christ — for if there is any anti- Christ it is this — which has brought reproach on the name of Chris- tianity itself. It is this false Christianity which fails to recognize the needs of others and centers itself on individual salvation, neglecting what the apostle James called "pure and undefiled religion," namely, ministration to one's fellows. The social life of this land of ours would proclaim the value of Christianity, if it could in its true sense be called a Christian land. But we cannot be called such a land. We do not attempt to carry out the principles of fraternity, and any claim that we do is mere ignorance or pretense-7hypocrisy of the kind con- demned by Christ in the strongest language. It does not avail us to make long prayers while we neglect widows and orphans in need. He who did this in the time of Christ violated the principles of national brotherhood. He who does so now, violates the principles of univer- sal brotherhood. Shall a land be called Christian which slaughters human beings needlessly by the thousand rather than introduce improvements in railway transportation, simply because they cost money? That is exalting material things above human beings. Shall a city like Chi- cago be called Christian, maintaining its grade crossings and killing innocent persons by the hundred, yearly, simply because it would cost money to elevate its railway tracks? To make the claim for our country that it is a Christian land, is a cruel wrong to Christianity. If we were animated by the spirit of Christianity, we would do away, at the earliest moment, with such abuses as these and others which daily, in factory and workshop, maim and mutilate men, women and children. It is only necessary to be honest with ourselves in order to answer questions which arise in this connection. If any one individual before me knew that he himself, or his mother, we will say, would be horribly mutilated or crushed to death in case some needed improvement in an industrial establishment or on a railway were not introduced within six months, how he would bestir himself to have these improvements introduced! But we complacently fold our hands because some one else, or perhaps the mother of some one else, will suffer a horrible death. Thousands will die needlessly a cruel death within the next six months. Who will be those thousands? Christianity as a social force stands for progress. It has been a characteristic of religions to give minute directions for the formation of the social life of a nation. These minute directions and detailed THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 867 specifications have, doubtless, in many instances promoted brother- hood, for the time being at least, but not providing for changes they stands for Pro- have later retarded progress. As Christ established a universal brother- ^^^' hood He could not, even for any one time, promulgate a social code, and still less could He prescribe 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 prog- ress. He encouraged patience and long suffering along with tireless effort and dauntless courage. Christianity carries with it, in the true sense of the word, an aristocracy. Rulership was recognized and obe- dience to constituted authority taught as a Christian duty. But, on the other hand, all kings and rulers of men were taught that they held their offices from God as a sacred trust. We all know the parable of the talents and its interpretation is clear. AH mental and physical strength and all material resources are to be used not for one's self, but for the promotion of the welfare of all humanity. Inequalities in attain- ment were implicitly recognized, but inequality was thus to be made an instrument of progress. Ignorance finds support in the wisdom of the v/ise; strength is debtor to w^eakness. We can imagine Christ among us today, pointing, as of old, to our great temples, and warning us that the time will come when one stone of them shall not rest upon another. We can imagine Christ "WoeUntoyou pointing to our grad'e crossings, and to our link and pin couplers, Hypocntes. ' covered with the blood of mutilated brakemen, and crying out to ue: "Woe unto you, hypocrites, ye do these things, and for a pretense make long prayers." We can also imagine Him summoning before our vision the thousands who have lost their limbs in needless indus- trial accidents, and pointing to the hospitals to relieve them and the charities to furnish them with artificial limbs, and again uttering His terrible maledictions: "Woe unto you, hypocrites!" We can also imagine Him in His scathing denunciations, and heart-searching ser- mons, opening our eyes to our social iniquities and shortcomings, and calling to mind the judgment to come, in which reward or pehalty shall be visited upon us, either as we have, or have not, ministered to those who needed our ministrations — the hungry, the naked, the prisoner and the captive. The reward: "Come ye blessed of my Father, inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto Me;" the penalty: "Inasmuch as ye have not done it unto the least of these, depart from Me." Rev. James M. Cleary, Minneaoolis. Xhe (ghurch and Labor. iddress by REV. JAMES M. CLEARY, of Minneapolis. T this moment the condition of the working population is the question .of the hour, and 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 advantage to themselves and the common- wealth was trod by their fathers before them." Thus speaks Pope Leo XIII, in his great treatise on labor. This illustrious character, whom Divine Providence has chosen to direct the destinies of the Catholic church during these closing years of the nineteenth century, clearly compre- hends the conditions and the needs of this active age on which he will have deeply impressed the influence of his genius. The head of the Catholic church throughout the world, true to his divine mission, is concerned not only about man's eternal wel- fare and humanity's home beyond the grave, but his luminous mind and his generous heart surrender their best and most devoted ener- gies in the interest of human happiness while this temporal life may last. The church of Jesus Christ is in the world to continue till time shall be no more the divine work which Christ Himself began. "He went about doing good." He dried the tears of human anguish. He healed the wounds of breaking hearts. He comforted the sorrowful, cured the sick, fed the famishing multitude, and forever sanctified human toil by earning His daily food at manual labor. He was the true apostle of humanity, He, the humanitarian, who forgot no human need while directing the aspirations of immortal souls to their eternal home. He answered the most anxious questions of the human soul, ibut he was not indifferent to the needs of the body. His sublime philosophy solves the most intricate intellectual problems, and in I daily, practical life, the principles on which His religion is framed, ' provide for every human need and safeguard every human right. The 869 Provision fo? Every Human Need. 870 THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Lifting the Lowly. Up Haman Dig- nity. church which Christ founded has never made the mistake of interest ing itself only in man's spiritual or moral welfare, and of forgetting his physical needs. When the church began its glorious work of ameliorating the con- dition of mankind, of lifting up the lowly, and of planting the seed of living hope in human hearts which black despair had saddened, its first duty was to remind man of his true dignity and worth. Paganism, which then prevailed in the world, made gods of the emperors and erected temples of a degraded worship in honor of some of the most depraved monsters who have dishonored our common humanity, by the loathsomeness of their vicious lives. Human dignity was an unknovv^n term. The unhappy victims of human depravity had been "given up to a reprobate sense." God's image in the human soul had been forgotten and man was honored or feared according to the posi- tion he held or the power he might exercise, and not because of his manhood, God's noblest work. The philosophers and sages of pagan- ism proved themselves incapable of finding a remedy for this deplora- ble condition of human society. In fact, they must accept the censure which mankind has passed upon them, and the verdict of a brighter and truer civilization condemns these leaders of pagan thought for their contempt of humanity. Plato advocated the murder of innocent children. Seneca com- mended the suicide, and other pagan philosophers and moralists the commission of any crime that might bring profit or temporary advan- tage. Virtue was not a reality, simply a convenience, in the estimation of the wisest among pagans. The church began at once to assert the dignity of the individual and to re-establish in human society true principles of human rights. " No man may outrage with impunity that human dignity which God Himself treats with reverence, nor stand in the way of that higher life which is the preparation for the eternal life of heaven." This is the teaching of Pope Leo in our age of Christian civilization, and the same was the teaching of Peter at Rome and Paul at C®rinth. '* It is certain," says Cardinal Manning, " that in the measure in which these truths pervade the minds of a people, in that measure they are elevated, refined and independent. In the measure in which they are lost, a people becomes animal, gross and intractable, or, it may be, slavish." "To consent to any treatment which is calculated to defeat the end and purpose of his being, is beyond man's right. He cannot give up his soul to servitude; for it is not man's own rights which are here in question, but the rights of God." This teaching of Leo in the nineteenth century consoled and ennobled the lowly at Christianity's dawn, so that the slave in bondage could say to the proudest patrician of Rome: "My life belongs to you, and so does all else that ends with life — time, health, vigor, body and breath. All this you have bought with your gold, and it has become your property. But I still hold as my own what no emperor's wealth can purchase, no chains of slavery fetter, no limit of life contain — a soul." The hitherto despised THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 871 and ill-treated slave, with heart throbbing under the power of Christian emotions could now, in the comforting hope of immortality, appeal to the intelligent judgment of the cultured pagan, " whether a poor slave, who holds an unquenchable consciousness of possessing within her a spiritual and living intelligence, whose measure of existence is immor- tality, whose only true place of dwelling is above the skies, whose only rightful prototype is the Deity, can hold herself inferior in moral dignity, or lower in sphere of thought, than one who, however gifted, owns that she claims no higher destiny, recognizes in herself no sub- limer end, than what awaits the pretty irrational songsters, that beat without hope of liberty against the gilded bars of their cage." The first duty incumbent on the Christian teacher was to make known the dignity and to establish the inalienable rights of man. It became religion's mission to guide the human soul, to defend its rights, to guard its liberties, to teach its exalted worth, to show forth its immortal life and lead it to its eternal home. Religion thus, while proclaiming God's praises and paying fitting homage to man's Cre- ator, became at the same time humanity's greatest benefactor. It sought not only to lead man to heaven, but studied with devoted zeal the best and truest interests of man on earth. The earth and the full- ness thereof was God's bountiful gift to man. The religion of God's only begotten Son would fail in its mission to man if it did not apply every sublime force at its comrriand in aiding humanity to enjoy the Creator's bounteous gifts, lavished upon the world with impartial beneficence. God created men free and equal. God stamped upon all alike the impress of His own face. God made no distinctions of rich No iJisUnc, or poor, of bond or free, of proud or lowly, but is the loving, gener- or^Poo?. ous Father of all His creatures. These maxims sent forth by the fish- ermen of Galilee were destined to go sounding down the ages, to over- turn the tottering temples of paganism, to dissipate the vapid subtil- ties of a servile pagan philosophy and to establish on an enduring foundation the universal brotherhood of man. Hence this religion gave birth to charity for the fallen, to love for the enemy, to pity foi the unfortunate, to sympathy for the wretched, to kindness for the poor, to true compassion for humanity's ills. It was ambitious without effrontery, covetous without avarice, zealous without fanaticism; obe- dient but not servile, gentle but never cringing, austere but not cruel, a conqueror but, never a tyrant; at home in the hut of misery as well as in the palace of luxury, in the wigwam of the savage or in the abode of kings — wherever there was a man. The task of asserting the dignity of man was but one of the solemn duties that confronted the new religion at its birth. It found the chil- dren of toil, who formed the majority in pagan society, slaves in bond- age to a harsh, disdainful, cruel and heartless minority. Labor was in chains. Labor had no rights that capital considered itself in any way bound to respect. Masters were granted power over life and limb, and the unhappy slave dared not even assert a claim to any right or pre- rogative in common with his master. "God has ordained," wrote St, Force of Ideas. 872 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Augu«tine, "that reasoning creatures, made according to His own imag^i shall rule only over creatures devoid of reason. He has not established the dominion of man over man, but of man over the brute." And this teaching of the immortal bishop of Hippo was but the re-echoing of the voice of the earlier apostles, the universal sentiment of the Christian church, and the only bright beam of hope or of glad- ness that, for centuries, enslaved labor had seen through its tears. The slaves outnumbered the freemen. The church could not advocate the total abolition of slavery without completely overturning the state of society and creating social anarchy. The sudden emancipation of millions of men, who had tasted only the bitterness of servitude, and who were inspired only by feelings of hatred and vengeance against an inhuman system that had debased and despised them, would have convulsed the world. The church, wiser than pagan philosphy, knew how to confer a blessing on humanity and a benefit on labor without injustice or social revolution. "She knew how to regenerate society, but not in rivers of blood." "The first thing that Christianity did for slaves was to destroy the errors which opposed, not only their universal emancipation, but even the improvement of their condition; that is, the first force which she employed in the attack was, according to her custom, the force of ideas." After having heard the oracles of paganism inventing doctrines to degrade still more the unhappy slaves, how the aching hearts of op- pressed humanity must have throbbed with exultant and conflicting emotions as the teachings of St. Paul became music to their ears. "You are all one in Christ Jesus." "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free." The church could never forget the sublime lesson which the great apostle gave when writing to Philemon, the wealthy citizen of Colosse, and interceding in favor of a fugitive slave named Onesimus, whom he had converted in prison at Rome, and sent back to his master to be received "no more as a slave but as a most dear brother." The constant and uniform teaching of this human equality could not fail to improve the unhappy condition of the slave. The laws of the church, regulating the marriage bond and inspiring reverence for the home and family ties, further protected the children of the slave and saved from hopeless servitude countless victims of "man's inhumanity to man." This fact must not be forgotten, that the sublime task entrusted to the church to perform was the social and moral elevation of man. The church, faithful to its duty, could not hazard the accomplishment of its purpose by a rash attempt at temporary advantage. The mission of the church was to save the world, and all mankind was the object of its anxious solicitude and care. This observation is, perhaps, neces- sary as a reply to those who, unmindful of the spirit of the age, the customs and ideas of men, when the church began its marvelous work, are prone to censure religion for not having more promptly accom- plished the total abolition of slavery. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 873 "If, at the present time, after eighteen centuries, when ideas have beet^i corrected, manners softened, laws ameliorated; when nations and governments have been taught by experience; when so many public establishments for the relief of indigence have been founded; when so many systems have been tried for the division of labor; when riches are distributed in a more equitable manner; if it is still so difficult to prevent a great number of men from becoming the victims of dreadful misery, if that is the terrible evil which, like a fatal nightmare, tor- ments society and threatens its future, what would have been the effect of a universal emancipation, at the beginning of Christianity, at a time ^ when slaves were not considered by the law as persons but as things; when their conjugal union was not looked upon as a marriage; when their children were property, and subject to the same rules as the progeny of animals; when, in fine, the unhappy slave was ill-treated, tormented, sold or put to death, according to the caprices of his mas- Gradual ter!" (Balmes.) Liberty, priceless boon that it is, would cease to Emancipatioiu benefit men if the means of subsistence were wanting. Man, above ali other blessings, requires first wherewith to liv.e, and it was imperative that universal emancipation be the result of gradual progress upward to be a lasting benefit to men and nations long accustomed to the degradation and wretched dependence of vile servitude. The man who tills the soil must learn to know how to care for the fruits of his labor, if he will reap the full benefit of his personal independence and freedom. To the church and to it alone belongs the undying glory of finally wiping out the curse of slavery among Christian nations, and on the brow of Pope Alexander III friends and even enemies of the church unite in placing the garland of undying fame for utterly abol- ishing, as far as lay in his power, the curse of slavery from human society. "If men have recovered their rights, it is chiefly to Pope Alexander that they are indebted for it," writes Voltaire, no partial friend to the papacy Thus, as the ages went on, slavery melted into serfdom and serfdom into freedom in spite of the stubborn resistance of heartless cupidity. In the glorious sunlight of this nineteenth century it has been our happy privilege to behold the perfect attainment of human freedom. When in 1888, our sovereign pontiff, Leo XIII, was celebrating the golden jubilee of his priesthood, and men from all nations came bearing their gifts in honor oT the illustrious head of the Catholic church, this noble hearted friend of his fellowmen declared that among all the gifts laid at his feet none were so welcome as the proclamation of the distinguished Christian emperor, Dom Pedro, emancipating all the slaves in Brazil. 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 led a hitherto hopeless multitude from the dis- mal gloom of slavery to the cheering brightness of the liberty of the children of God, bravely defended the rights and the privileges of her emancipated children. " The church has guarded with religious care 56 874 THE V/ORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Inheritance of the Poor. Rights o f Wage-Earners. the inheritance of the poor." The poor are the special charge of the church. Every living soul is in God's immediate care, the rich as well as the poor; there is no distinction of class or privilege with Him. Every soul, whether refined or rude, is in His keeping. But with an especial care He watches over those who "eat bread in the sweat of their brow." None need the Divine Comforter more than the weary children of toil, and none need and have received the sympathy of the church as they do. The church entered the arena to bravely battle for the weak against the strong, at a time when brute force had won the admiration and awe of a dissolving society. Principles of right and of justice were scoffed at, in a state of society where the worship of Mercury the robber, and of Venus the wanton, captivated the minds and the hearts of men. In his exhaustive encyclical on the condition of labor, Leo XHI lays down the principle that the workman's wages is not a problem to be solved by the pitiless arithmetic of avaricious greed. The wage-earner has rights which he cannot surrender, and which no man can take from him, for he is an intelligent, responsible being owing homage to God and duties to human society. His recompense, then, for his daily toil cannot be measured by a heartless standard of supply and demand, or a cruel code of inhuman economics, for man is not a money-making machine, but a citizen of earth and an heir to the kingdom of heaven. He has a right of which no man has the power to deprive him, "to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness." Every man has a God-given right to live in decency and comfort. God created the earth for man's use and enjoyment on his way to his endur- ing home. God created plenty for all His children, and it is His de- sire that none of His creatures shall faint by the way or go hungry to their homes. The church protects the rights of property and private ownership, but not so as to deprive the poor and dependent of the actual necessities of a frugal existence. The memory of Pope Leo XHI will live among men for his personal worth, his exceptional intellectual gifts and his religious fervor and stainless purity of character. But above all else he will be remembered, as he desires to be, as the workingman's friend, the de- fender of labor. His definition of a minimum wage, as "sufficient to enable a man to maintain himself, his wife and his children" in decent frugality, shows how clearly the great religious leader of over two hundred and fifty millions of faithful believers understands the rights of individuals and the best interests of human society. "Homeless men are reckless." The homes of the people are the safeguards of national stability. Religion sanctifies domestic life by sustaining the inviolability of the marriage bond and by constantly reminding fathers and mothers of their first and holiest duty to their offspring, the duty of leading them to learn the love of God and the love of the neighbor. Hence the duties of the wife and mother should retain her at her own hearthstone in the midst of her children, that she may reign as queen of a true Christian home, no matter how humble. Family duties must THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 875 be neglected and home comforts and happiness denied to the toilers, when the wife and mother is forced from her home to aid in providing the support of the family in the factory or mill. Just wages paid to the breadwinner of the family would enable him to sufficiently pro- vide for wife and children, and send from every loom in the world mothers back to their homes to devote their first, their highest and holiest care to the nurture and training of their children. Labor has a right to freedom; labor has also a right to protect its own independence and liberty. Hence, labor unions 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 pleading of our own Cardinal Gibbons for the cause of or- ganized labor at the see of Peter. In organization there is strength, but labor must use its power for its own protection, not for invading gS^edLabon the rights of others. The strike, or refusal of united labor to work, is a declaration of war, for it seriously disturbs many human activities. It is justifiable only, and should be resorted to only when all other means have failed, when every other expedient has been exhausted, and can be defended only on the plea that the workman is treated un- justly by organized capital. . -^ --- - - - Religion's duty is to teach the rich the responsibilities of wealth and the poor respect for order and law. The security of capital against the discontent and envy of labor is the best security also for the ^ResDonsibii- workingman. When capital becomes timid and shrinks from the haz- ities of Wealth, ard of investment, labor soon feels the pangs of hunger and the dread specter of want casts its dismal shadow over rnany an humble home. Religion is the only influence that has been able to subdue the pride and the passions of men, to refine the manners and guide the conduct of human society, so that rich and poor alike, mindful of their common destiny, respect each other's rights, their mutual de- pendence and the rights of their common Father *in heaven. The religious teachers and guides who apply the principles of the "Sermon on the Mount" to the everyday affairs of men, and lead humanity up- ward to a better and nobler realization of God's compassion for the weary ones of earth, will merit the undying gratitude of men and heaven's choicest rewards. Xhe (Relation Between f^eligion and (Conduct. Paper by PROF. C. H. TOY, of Harvard University, The Purest Religion T the present time the external relation be- tween conduct and religion is an intimate one. All religious ministers and manuals are also instructors in ethics; our sacred books and our pulpits alike emphasize conduct. This has been the case in human history a long time, but not always. In the very early times, in the childhood of the race, if we may judge from existing savage life from the earliest records of civilized peoples, religion and morality occupied quite separate spheres, which rarely or never touched each other. The God was approached and propitiated by methods known to the purest, by magic formulas which had no more to do with conduct than the word by which Aladdin controlled the slaves of the lamp. But the intermingling of moral and religious ideas has been par allel with the growth of society. One test of the elevation of religion, in some respects the best test, is the closeness of its reliance with morality. This, is equivalent to saying that religion and morality stand hand in hand on the same stratum of civilization; it is in gen- eral the highest culture that has the purest religion. The union between the two elements of life is further strengthened by the fact that religion has given powerful sanctions to morality. By a natural process of thought men have always identified their moral concep- tions with the will of the Deity, and ethical rules have been supported by theories of divine rewards and punishments. The subject of our inquiry is to discover, if possible, the precise relation between the religions and the ethical sides of our nature, in order that each may have due recognition and best perform its func- tions in human development. The necessary harmonious co-operation 876 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 877 of the two can be secured only by doing justice to both, by allowing neither to usurp the place of the other. Our thesis, then, may be expressed as follows: Morality is com- plementary to religion, or it is the independent establishment of the laws of conduct which help to furnish the content of the unrefined religious ideal. Religion, properly speaking, has no thought contem., Morality Com. it is merely a sentiment, an attitude of soul toward an idea, the idea of ^^R^g^ iJ2^ *** an extra human power. The religious sentiment does not know what is the ethical character of its object till it has learned it from human life. Morality is the human reflection of divine goodness, produced by the same human endowments whence springs the sentiment of relation to God. Or, to state the case more fully, the content of the conception of God is the perfect ideal in truth, beauty and goodness, as given by science, aesthetics and ethics. Let us look at certain facts in man's moral religious history which appear ot illustrate our part of this thesis. First, it may be noted that, in the ancient world, about the same grade of morality, theoretical and practical, was attained by all the great nations. The great teachers in Egypt, China, India, Persia, Pal- estine and Greece show remarkable unanimity in the rules of conduct which they lay down. The common life of the people was about the same in all lands. Whatever the status, a member in a given class in one country is not to be distinguished on the ethical side from his con- freres elsewhere. Judean and Persian prophets, Chinese and Greek sages, when they are called on to act, 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 regulating commerce and general social rela- tions were scarcely different throughout the ancient civilized world, if we compare similar periods and circles. David acts toward his ene- mies very much as does one of the Homeric chieftains or one of the heroes of the Mahabharata. The internal politics and court life of Judea reminds us of the parallel history of China, India and Egypt. The prevarication of Jeremiah and the trickery of Jacob may be com- pared with the wiles of Odysseus and with double-dealing the world over. Instances of beautiful 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 whole to the increasing refinement and the increasing recognition of the value of the individual. The position of woman was not materially different in the different peoples. Not- withstanding 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 devel- 878 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Pure Moral CodeB. opment was independent of the particular form of religion. Under monotheism, dualism and polytheism, whether human or zoomorphic images of the deity were fashioned or no images at all, with varying methods of sacrifice and widely different conceptions of the future life, the moral life of man went its way and was practically the same every- where. Another fact of the ancient world is that the ethical life stands in no direct ratio with the religiousness of a people or a circle. While ancient life was in general deeply religious, full of recognition of the deity, there were several great moral movements which were character- ized by an almost complete ignoring of the divine element in human thought. These are Confucianism, Buddhism and Stoicism, and Epi- cureanism. Whatever we may think of the philosophic soundness of these systems, it is undisputed that their moral codes were pure and that they exerted a deep and lasting influence on ancient life. They all arose in the midst of polytheistic systems, against which they were a protest, and they attained a moral height and created a type of life to the level of which society has not yet reached. We may set the phenomenon over against the picture of kindliness and honesty 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 com- munity; instead of which they oftener fostered barbarity and vice. The Knights Templar, the guardians of what was esteemed the most sacred spot in the world, came to be, if report does not belie them, shining examples of all the vices. Medieval Rome was a hotbed of corruption. Protestants and Catholics alike burned heretics. The English Puritans of the seventeenth century were the most religious and the most barbarous and unscrupulous of men. In our day the same evil spirit sometimes disfigures our political assem- blies, and appears sometimes also in our religious bodies. Trades 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. 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 leal Moral am owner, there can be no such thing as dishonesty. Thus, in a family, a father cannot be dishonest toward the children absolutely dependent upon him. Further, the idea of property is at first physical, non-moral, involving the mere notion of possession. A dog or a savage has a bone. He thinks of it simply as some- thing good, as the means of supplying a want. Another dog or savage snatches it. What is the feeling of the original possessor? Simply that he has lost a good thing, and that he desires to get it back. If he fails to recover it his judgment of the situation is twofold; he says to himself that he has suffered loss, and that the invader is an enemy of his well-being. In all this there is nothing ethical; but the success- ful marauder in his turn suffers similar loss, and makes similar reflec- tion. When this has happened a number of times, the difference between the brute and the man begins to show itself. The former keeps up the struggle from one generation to another without ceasing; the latter reflects on the situation. The savage after awhile acquires permanent property, a bow and arrow, the loss of which involves not merely a momentary but a per- manent failure of resources. He perceives that he secures the greatest good for himself by an understanding with his fellows which assumes to each the use of his own possessions. As social relations have be- Life. come more numerous, the advantage of such an arrangement becomes more and more evident, and the respect for the property of others be- comes an established rule of the community. The moral sentiment now makes it apparent, at first dim and untrustworthy, but gathering strength with every advance in reflection and intelligence, until finally the rule of life is embodied in the law, **Thou shalt not st^al." From this point the progress is steady, with the growing estimate of the worth of the individual, and the increasing dependence of mem- bers of the community on one another, the rights of property are more clearly defined, and there is a greater disposition to punish the invasion of these rights. Recognition of the property rights becomes a duty, but always under the condition that gave it birth, namely, the well-being of the community. So soon as it appears that this right stands in the way of general property, it ceases to exist. Society, for example, does not hesitate to seize the property of an enemy in war, or to confiscate the property of its own citizens by fines or taxes. Or, in another direction, we do not hesitate to take what is not our own if we have reason to believe that it will not injure the possessor, and if 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 contrary to fact in certain cases, as, to enemies in war, to maniacs, in fiction and in jest. The statement of a novelist that a knight called Ivanhoe followed King Richard to Palestine, the declaration of the poet that the waves ran mountain high, the asser- tion of Tallyrand that language is meant to conceal thought, though all contrary to fact, are not injurious, for they deceive nobody, and the obligation of truthfulness results from its bearing on our well be- ing. Under certain circumstances a man may conceal his opinion without offense to his conscience, namely, when he is convinced that such concealment will work no harm. The Rule of 880 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. But there are two situations in which concealment is violation of truthfulness — when a man from his position is expected to speak and his silence will be misleading, and when, being a public teacher in science, art, or religion, he uses phrases which he knows to be under- stood by his audience 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 one's self. This is an illustration of how the clever recognition of the dignity of the individual refines our conceptions of duty. The same law of growth governs the history of 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 con- ditions 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 gen- eralization from the facts of experience. The consciousness of one's own personality and its needs leads to the recognition of the other TheStandard personalities and their claims. Thus the best ethical thinkers of the of Good. world have in different lands come to the identification of one's self 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 preciously 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 experience 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 ex- perience 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 sur- face to be mutually antagonistic, 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 individuality, and therefore to rights and perfection only in society. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 88X tice. At the same time the content of justice is determined by social rela- tions. 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 de- termined everything. There is nothing higher than this. Love can MercyaName do no more than recognize the rights of every being, for to do more for Higher Jus- would be wrong. Mercy is only a name for a higher thought of jus- tice; it is the recognition of the fact that under the circumstances the delinquent deserves something different from that which rough justice, or what passes for justice, has meted out to him. Finally, a great motive for right living is supplied by experience; namely, the hope of worldly well-being or salvation. Enlightened ob- servation more and more shows that happiness attends virtue. This is not to be set aside as merely refined selfishness. It may take that shape in its cruder forms in what is called the "Poor Richard" system of morality. But it is properly that regard for self-development which all the highest schemes of life recognize as a fundamental and neces- sary principle. It is contained in the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount and in the ethical systems of Plato, Zeno and Kant, and it is not inconsistent with the purest unselfishness. 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 of happiness. Religion, the sense of relation to the extra-human power of the universe, introduces us to a new social complex. In morality the par- ties are man and man; in religion, man and God. In our moral rela- tions with a person or government there are two classes of influence to be considered — the moral power of the personality, and a restraining or impelling power of a physical control over us. The second of these is what we call sanctions, with rewards and punishments. These, again, are of two sorts, internal or organic, and external or inorganic, and it is only the first thought that can be called moral. Thus let us suppose that it is better for a college student, physic- ally and intellectually, not to study after midnight, and that he does stop work at that hour. Whether this is a moral process depends on the consideration which has formed his habit. If he has himself, through observation of his life and that of others, reached the coticlu- sion that late study is injurious, and has therefore avoided it, or if he has on reflection followed the advice of others as probably wise, he has acted as a moral being; but if his conduct has been determined solely by his fear of mcurring penalties, or by his hope of securing rewards held out by college rules, it is non-moral. In the sphere of religion the two sorts of sanction are what we call natural and supernatural. The laws of nature may be considered to be laws of God and the natural penalties and rewards of life to be divine sanctions. Obedience to these laws is a moral act, because it involves control of self in the interest of organic development. But super- natural sanctions are inorganic and non-moral, since they do not appeal to a rational self-control. He who is honest merely to escape punish- ment or receive reward fixed by external law is not honest at all. But ANewSociia Complex. Sanctions. 882 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. he who observes the laws of health or of honesty because he perceives that they are necessary to the well-being of the world is also religious if he recognizes these laws as the ordination of God. When religious sanctions are spoken of, it is commonly the super- natural sort that is meant. It is an interesting question how far the belief in these is now morally effective. That it has at various times been influential cannot be doubted, In the ancient world and in medi- Reiigious eval Europe the deity was believed to intervene supernaturally in this life tor the protection of mnocence and the punishment of wicked- ness; but this belief appears to be vanishing and cannot be called an effective moral force at the present day. Men think of reward and punishment as belonging to the future, and this connection is probably of some weight. Yet its practical importance is much diminished by the distance and the dimness of the day of reckoning. The average man has too little imagination to realize the remote future. At the critical moment it is usually passion or the present advantage that controls action. It is also true that the supernatural side of the belief in future retribution is passing away; it is becoming more and more the convic- tion of the religious world that the future life must be morally the continuation and consequence of the present. This must be esteemed a great gain — it tends to banish the mechanical and emphasize the ethical 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 themselves obligatory on the world of men, but they acquire a universal character only when we femember that human nature itself is an effluence of the divine, and that human experience is the divine self-revelation. Further, the consciousness of the divine presence should be the most potent factor in man's moral life. The thought of the ultimate basis of life, incomprehensible in His essence, yet known through His self-outputting in the world as the ideal of right, as a comrade of man in moral life, shall be, if received into the soul as a living, everyday fact, such a purifying and uplifting influence as no merely human rela- tionship has ever engendered. In the presence of such a communion, would not moral evil be powerless overman? 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. T^he j^ssentials of Religion. Paper by REV. ALFRED W. MOMERIE, D. D., of London, England, There is E WHO have attended the sessions of these congresses have, I think, learned one great lesson, viz., that there is a unity of religion underlying the di- versity of religions, and that the im- portant work before us is not so much o make men accept one or the other of the various religions of the world as to induce them to accept religion in a broad and universal sense. This lesson which we have learned here, we shall, I hope, teach elsewhere, so that, from the Hall of Columbus as a center, it will spread, and spread, and spread, until it at last reaches the furthermost limits of the inhabitable globe. a story told of a man of a theolog- ical sect of Great Britain, in the extreme North of Scotland, whose special pride was that they were the sole possessors of the true religion. But there was a gradual falMng away from their ranks until there were few of them left. A gentleman called upon an old lady one day and inquired as to the progress of that re- ligion. She told him that about all there was left of the once flourish- ing community was "myself and Jock" (meaning her husband), "and I am not so very sure of Jock," she added. My own views at one time very much coincided with the old lady's. I remember one day, when a boy, I had occasion to spend several hours with a liberal-minded clergyman. We talked of many things and of many people, and among others of Kingsley. I had been brought up in an Evangelical school. My friend held a high opinion of the great canon's works. I said "Yes, I suppose Kingsley was a good man, but he had no religion." The clergyman quietly replied, "What is religion?" Now, will you allow me today to ask that question? What is religion? The majority think it is a pleasant ceremony for use in a church. I don't much blame 883 What is Re- ligion? 884 THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, them, for it is the clergymen who are responsible mainly for the big- otry 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 flame. 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 parish 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 he 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 dis- cover whether there are any subjects in regard to which the great re- ligious leaders of the world differ. Let me read you two or three extracts. The first words are taken from the old Hebrew prophets: " To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me ? saith the Lord. I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of he goats. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; your new moons and Sabbath I cannot away with. Cease to do evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." Zoroaster preached the doctrine that the one thing needful was to do right. All good thoughts, words and works lead to Paradise. All Zoroaster and evil thouffhts, words and works to hell. Confucius was so anxious to fix men s attention on their duty that he would enter mto no meta- physical speculation regarding the problem of immortality. When questioned about it he replied: "I do not as yet know what life is. How can I understand death?" The whole duty of man, he said, might be summed up in the word reciprocity. We must refrain from injuring others, as we would that they should refrain from injuring us. Gautama taught that every man has to work out his salvation for him- self, without the mediation of a priest. On one occasion, when he met a sacrificial procession, he explained to his followers that it was idle to shed the blood of bulls and goats, that all they needed was change of Gaatama. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 885 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 cleanse the heart, 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 spread abroad the law thoughtout and revealed by me, that this pu- rity of mine may last long and be perpetuated for the good and hap- piness of multitudes." To the same effect spoke Christ: "Not every- one that sayeth unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father." Mohammed again taught the selfsame doctrine of justification by work: " It is not the flesh and blood ye sacrificed; it is your piety, which is acceptable to God. * * * Woe to them that make a show of piety and refuse to help the needy. It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces in prayer toward the East or toward the West, but righteousness is of those who perform the covenants which they have covenanted." This was the teaching of the great religious teachers of the world. But these old forms of religion are hardly now recognizable. You have only to read Davies' " Book on Buddhism" and the great poem Piety 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 sub- stance of the Father, or only similar.*' They fought like tigers over the definition of the very Prince of Peace. Later on Christendom was literally rent asunder over the question of " Whether the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father to the Son" (whatever that may mean). And my own church, the Church of England, has been, and still is, in danger of disruption from the question of vestments — and clothes. Now, these metaphysical subleties, these questions of millinery, were started by theologians. They may be useful or not, that is a matter of opinion, but they had nothing whatever to do with religion as religion was understood by the greatest teachers; the true religion which the world has had. That is a fact which all the great religious Dogmas not THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Good Conduct is Religion. 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 morality. Some people have a great contempt for morality, and I am not surprised at it. They are accustomed to call men moral who re- strain themselves from murder and manage just to steer clear of the divorce court. That kind of morality is a contemptible thing. That is iic. real morality. We should understand by morality all-around good conduct; conduct that is governed only by love, and in that true sense there is no such thing as mere morality; in that true sense moral- ity involves religion. Don't misunderstand me; I am far from denying the importance of an explicit recognition of God. It is of very great importance. It affords us an explanation, a hopeful explanation, of the mysteries of existence which nothing else can supply. But explicit recognition of God is not the beginning of religion. That is not the first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. " If a man love not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God, whom he hath not seen?" Nor is an explicit recognition of God the essence of religion. Who shall define the essence of religion? If a man say that he loves God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. It is by love of man alone that religion can be manifested. The love of man is the essence of religion. Re- ligion may be lacking in metaphysical completness; it may be lacking in original consistency; it may be lacking in aesthetical development; it may be lacking in almost everything; yet, if lacking in brotherly love it would be mockery and a sham. The essential thing is in right conduct; therefore it follows that there must be implicit recognition of God. I tell you there is a strange JJeg are Lovers surprise awaiting some of us in the great hereafter. We shall discover that many so-called atheists are, after all, more religious than ourselves. He who worships, though he know it not, peace be on the intention of his thought, devout beyond the meaning of his will. The whole thing has been summed up once and forever in Leigh Hunt's beautiful story of " Abou Ben Adhem." Lovers o f \Yh^t Christianity W^ls \Yrought for /^merica. Paper by DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D. D., of New York. OD be praised for this Congress of Religions. Never before has Christianity, the only true religion, been brought into such close, open and decisive contrast with the other religions of the world. This is, indeed, the Lord's con- troversy. The altars are built, the bullocks slain, the prayers offered, and the nations stand beholding. Now, then, the God that answer- eth by fire, let Him be God! The Christian religion makes an exclusive claim. It is not first among equals, but the , ..x...x.,^_^^^^^^ only one. Upon that arrogant claim it stands I |9|Bi9m ^^ falls. The one trust which it holds in com- mon with all other religions is the being of God. Its differentiating truth is God mani- fested in flesh, as it is written: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- lieveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." By that truth Christianity is separated from all other religions by an infinite and bridgeless gulf. If that be false Christianity is as foundationless as the stuff that dreams are made of; if that be true Christianity stands solitary and alone as the religion that has power to save. We believe in God, but in that God alone who once became flesh and dwelt among us. Christ 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 gov- ernment and the best average man. All religions must submit to that criterion. By their fruits ye shall know them. Daniel Webster said: "I have been able to hold my own in controversy with mere theo- logians, but there is one thing that silences me. I have an old uncle, 887 Christianity Exclusive. 888 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. John Colby, up among the New Hampshire hills, whose simple Chris- tian life puts all my arguments to shame." This is indeed the crucial test. The God that answereth by fire — the fire that burns up impurity and selfishness — let Him be God! A like result is obtained when a frank comparison is instituted be- . tween Christian and non-Christian nations. It is enough to say that, without a solitary exception, the most highly civilized and humanized nations are such as lie within the sunlit circle of Christendom. For our present purpose, however, we must concentrate our thought upon America, the youngest of the sisterhood, a mere infant of days. Ours is distinctly a Christian nation. President Dwight, of the Columbia Law school, than whom there is no more competent author- ity in these premises, says: "It is well settled by decision of the courts of various states that Christianity is a part of our common law." We need not, however, fall back upon the rulings of courts and legislatures. The history of America gives proof on every page that the Gospel of the crucified Nazarene is interwoven with our entire national fabric. If it be objected that the name of God is not in our national sym- Am^ilicon! ^^^^ ^^ auswcr: Would that it were there; but its omission is of little stitution. practical moment so long as God Himself can be shown to rule in the genius of our government, in its management of civil affairs and in the life and character of the people. In humble recognition of the divine favor this claim is fearlessly made. The Discovery. At the very outset we trace the hand of Provi- dence in the discovery of this land. All things, in the divine economy, occur in fullness of time. Up and down along the coast of this western world cruised many a bold mariner; but the terra incognita was wait- ing for its hour. When all the burdened lands were groaning for deliverance from their surplus populations, the hour struck; the hour struck, and God's man appeared, bearing in his hand the red-cross banner. The cruise of Columbus was a missionary enterprise. The conquest of America was a conquest for Christ. It would be interesting to conjecture what 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 glanc- ing at the successive migrations hitherward one is reminded of that old time Pentecost, when strangers came from everywhere, Parthians, Medesand Elamites, Greeks, Arabians and dwellers in Mesopotamia, all seeking the place of worship. It is 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 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 889 religious oppression. The influence of their sturdy devotion to truth and righteousness has been a potent influence among us. Aye, call it holy ground, The spot where first they trod, They left unstained what there they found. Freedom to worship God. The people of America are a distinct people; a 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 l6nger so. The Anglo-Saxon element in our population is relatively slight. The mingling of many bloods has produced a new ethnic product, which can be aptly designated only as American. The process of as- similation still goes on. The seas are dotted with ships from every quarter of the globe bringing the poor and weary and disappointed, eager to renew their hopes and rebuild their fortunes in the land which gives an ungrudging welcome to the oppressed of all nations. And surely this is not without the gracious ken and purpose of God. The bridge of an ocean steamer affords a standpoint from which, looking down into the steerage, one may behold at a glance the most serious problems of American politics. Here is our hope and here is America*» our danger — the source of our national strength and of our utmost Hopeand Dan- weakness. The best and worst are gathered here — youth and vigor in *^^* quest of golden opportunities; poverty and decrepitude fleeing from the ills they have had to others that they know not of. In view of the possibilities thus suggested we should indeed be at our wits* ends were it not for our confidence in the God who has made and preserved us as a nation. In Him we trust. It is a fact of prime importance, furnishing, perhaps, a key to the problem, that, with scarcely an exception, the dominant races of his- tory have been of mixed blood, such as the Germans, the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. Proceeding from this fact, Herbert Spencer has ventured to express the hope that out of our conglomerate population may be evolved in process of time the ultimate ideal man. If so, however it must be brought about through the assimilating power of human equality, which has its reason in our filial relations with God. In other words, religion furnishes the only guaranty of our national wel- fare and prosperity. At a critical period in the history of France a member of the Corps Legislatif arose and said: "Fellow citizens, I offer this resolution: * There is no God.' " The cry was caught up and echoed by the popu- lace: " No God ! No God!" It was shouted by the surging mobs along the streets. God was violently disowned and His ordinances tumultuously swept away. A woman of the demi-monde was carried in triumphal procession to Notre Dame and enthroned as Goddess of Reason. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity glared meanwhile in grim satire from the dead walls. That night the reign of terror began, and the gutters of Paris ran red with blood. One such experiment will §90 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, answer for all time. It was a true word that Mirabeau uttered: " God is as necessary as freedom to the welfare of a popular government." The whole world has learned that freedom is an empty sound if truth and duty have no part in it. Therefore, we are wont to say in a broad but real sense ours is a Christian nation. The heterogeneous multitude have come hither to rest beneath the aegis of the great truth which Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed when with His face toward the West, he stretched forth His pierced hands as if to 'gather all the scat- tered peoples unto Him. '' I, if I be lifted up," said He, " will draw all men unto Me." : The life blood of popular government is equality. In this lies Brothwh Jod.^ ^ the rationale of individual and civil freedom. But equality is only an- other name for the brotherhood of man, and the brotherhood of man is an empty phrase unless it finds its original grounds and premise in the Fatherhood of God. The.earliest formulation of this principle is in the preamble of our Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are born free and equal and with certain inalienable rights. Between the lines of that virile pronouncement one may easily read St. Paul's manifesto to the Athenian philosophers: "God hath made of one blood all na- tions of men for to dwell upon the face of the earth." God, the All- Father, revealing His impartial love in the cross, becomes the great leveler of caste. In the light of His countenance, shining from Gol- gotha, the mountains are brought low and the valleys are exalted. Back of Runnymede and the Reformation is the voice of the divine oracle. The accursed tree is the Charter Oak of popular rights. This is distinctly a religious principle. Wherever a constitutional government has ignored its birthright, to-wit, the Fatherhood of God, expressing itself in the brotherhood of man, through the Gospel of that only-begotten Son who is Brother of all — it has had but a brief and troubled life. Republicanism is anarchy with a latent reign of terror in it, unless this truth is at its center, shining like God's face through the mist and darkness of chaos. A common birth is the sure ground.of mutual respect. All advantageous conditions go for naught. The rank is but the guinea's stamp; The man's the gowd. No man can trace a prouder lineage than the believer in a true democracy, for he is " the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God." In pursuance of this underlying fact of the divine paternity our laws are intended to be so framed as to give no man an advantage over his fellow. The jurisprudence of America is essentially Biblical. It gets its form arid spirit from the Decalogue on the one hand, the Sermon on the Mount on the other, and the character of Jesus as the living exponent of both. Thus the republic, to the very breath in its nos- trils, is Christian. Its ideal is suggested by its earliest name, San Sal- vador. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 891 A free republic, where beneath the sway Of mild and equal laws, framed by themselves. One people dwell and own no lord save God. Institutions. If we turn now to the distinctive institutions of our ^^^^ ^ho country we shall find them, with scarcely an exception, bearing the ^^J!!^'^ sign manual of Christ. ^ First of all, the American home. Where all men are sovereigns, all houses are palaces. The hut becomes a cottage where there is no feudal mansion. There are lands where homes are merely dormitories and refectories; where social clubs and gardens supplant the higher functions of domestic life. But the American lives at his home. It is his castle and his paradise. The humblest toiler when his day's work is over makes it his El Dorado. His wee bit ingle blinking bonnilie, His clean hearthstane, his thrifty wifie's smile. The lisping infant prattling on his knee, Do a' his weary carking cares beguile And make him quite forget his labor and his toil. The heart of domestic life is the sanctity of wedlock as a divine ordinance. It may be noted that in lands where God and the Bible are reverenced, wife and mother and home are sacred words. The in- fluence of religion may be but an imperceptible factor in the peace and happiness of many homes; yet the Gospel is their roof tree, and their purest happiness is but a breath from the garden before that home at Nazareth, where the mother of all mothers ministered to her Divine Child. The next of our American institutions which finds its sanction in religion is the public school. The distinctive feature of our national system of education is civil control. This is in the necessity of the case. As every American child is a sovereign in his own right, born to his apportionate share of the government, it is primarily important that he should be educated for his place. Longfellow says: There is a poor blind Samson in this land, Shorn of his strength and bound with bands of steel Who may in some grim revel raise his hand, And shake the pillars of the commonweal. The blind Samson of America is enfranchised ignorance. It was in wise apprehension of this danger that our Puritan forefathers required every fifty families to hire a pedagogue and every hundred families to build a schoolhouse. The teaching of religion was com- pulsory in these early schools, but, as a rule, under such conditions as abated all danger of denominational bias. There were no Godless Schools. Indeed it may be seriously questioned whether at this stage of Christian civilization there can be any such thing as a God- less school. Remove the Bible from the curriculum if you will, you cannot eliminate God from history and science. His name shines from the current pages of our text books like the sun, reflected from the heavens on a starry night. 892 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Observe, however, it is not proposed to alienate religion from national affairs. On the contrary, by their mutual interdependence the wise and effective influence of each upon the other must be greatly enlarged. It could not be otherwise. True religion is all pervasive; it touches life at every point in its circumference, physically and intel- lectually, socially and politically, every way. As the atmosphere presses upon the human body with a force of fifteen pounds to the square inch of surface, so religion presses upon the body politic, and all the more if it be free as air. The establishment as usually found rep- resents not religion in a larger sense but only a small denominational part of it. What right has a sect to grow fat at the expense of the great body of religionists? Every farthing taken from the national exchequer to foster an establishmeut of this sort is a wrong against the public conscience. The just attitude of the government toward all religious bodies whose tenets do not contravene its welfare, is impartial sufferance and Government protection. Church and state are co-ordinate powers, each supplement- SSSaU^Rer^I ^"^ ^"^ upholding the other and both alike ordained of God. It is, ione. ' 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 church recognizes the function of the civil administration as the. impartial champion of the religious rights of all. In this view of the inter-relation of the church and states lies the function of all moral legislation. The Sabbath law, for example, is defended on the ground of the individual right to rest and worship without disturbance. By the recognition of thic principle the influ- ence of the churches is enlisted in civil reform. Under it has grown up the organized charities which cover the land. The church with- holds her grasp from the public treasury; the state confiscates no ecclesiastical holdings. The humblest body of believers is secure in its rights. The government is bound to defend it in the exercise of its religion, however peculiar, so long as this is not in contravention of the fundamental principle of the state or dangerous to its welfare. This is involved in the very thought of religious freedom. And these are the boundaries of the American establishment which, when realized, must furnish forth, as we believe, the theocracy of the Golden Age, the Commonwealth of God. Thus we close where we began, with Christianity at the center. Christ, the great leveler, is King over all. The cross, the great evan- gelizer, throws its luminous shadow over courts and legislatures, homes, workshops and schoolhouses, from the lakes to the gulf, from Sandy Hook to the Golden Gate. San Salvador is our country's name. Land of the Saviour may it ever be! Religious D^ty to the N^g^o, Paper by MRS. FANNY B. WILLIAMS, of Chicago. HE strength and weakness of the Christian re- ligion as believed, preached and practiced in the United States, is aptly illustrated in its in- fluence as a civilizing and educational force among the colored people of this country. The negro was brought to this country by Chris- tians, for the use of Christians, and he has ever since been treated, estimated and gauged by what are called Christian ideas of right and wrong. The negro has been in America so long and has been so completely isolated from everything that is foreign to American notions, as to what is compatible with Christianity, that he may be fittingly said to be entirely the pro- duct of Christian influences. The vices and virtues of the American negro are the same in kind and degree as those of the men and women from whom he has been learning, by precept and example, all that he knows of God and of humanity. The fetiches and crudities of the dark continent have long since ceased to be a part of his life and character, he is by every mark, impulse and aspiration an American Christian, and to the American church belongs the credit and responsibility of all that he is and is to be as a man and citizen of this republic. Religion, like every other force in America, was first used as an instrument and servant of slavery. All attempts to Christianize the negro were limited by the important fact that he was property of a valuable and peculiar sort, and that the property value must not be dis- turbed, even if his soul were lost. If Christianity could make the negro docile, domestic and less an independent and fighting savage, let it be preached to that extent and no further. Do not open the Bible too wide. Such was the false, pernicious and demoralizing Gospel preached to the American slave for two hundred years. But, bad as this teach- ing was, it was scarcely so demoralizing as the Christian ideals held up for the negro's emulation. When mothers saw their babes sold by 893 The Negro a Product o f Christian I n flaence. 894 ^'-^^ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Christians on the auction block in order to raise money to send mis- sionaries to foreign lands; when black Christians saw white Christians openly do everything forbidden in the Decalogue; when, indeed, they saw, as no one else could see, hypocrisy in all things triumphant everywhere, is it not remarkable if such people have any religious sense of the purities of Christianity? People who are impatient of the moral progress of the colored people certainly are ignorant as to how far talse teachings and vicious examples tended to dull the moral senses of the race. As it is there is much to be unlearned as well as to be learned. Th9 Negro That there is something higher and better in the Christian religion Docie. than rewards and punishments is a new lesson to thousands of colored people who are still worshiping under the old dispensation of the slave Bib'e. But it is not an easy task to unlearn religious conceptions. "Servants, obey your masters," was preached and enforced by all the cruel instrumentalities of slavery, and by its influence the colored peo- ple were made the most valued slaves in the world. The people who in y\frica resisted with terrible courage all invasions of the white races became through Christianity the most docile and defenseless of serv- ants. Knowing full well that the religion offered to the negro was first stripped of moral instructions and suggestions, there are thousands of white church members even who charge, or are ready to believe, that the colored people are a race of moral reprobates. Fortunately the negro's career in America is radiant with evidence showing that he has always known the difference between courage and lawlessness of all forms, and anarchy in this country is not of negro origin nor a part of his history. There was a notable period in the history of this country when the moral force of the negro character was tested to an extraordinary extent and. he was not found wanting. When the country was torn asunder by the passions of civil war, and everybody thirsted for blood and revenge in every violent form, when to ravage and kill was the all- controlling passion of the hour, the negro's opportunity for retribution was ripe and at hand. The men who degraded the race and were risking everything to continue that degradation, left their widows, their daughters, their mothers, wealth and all the precious 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 responsi- bility. Nowhere in Christendom has such nobleness of heart and moral fortitude been exampled among any people; and a recollection of the negro's conduct under this extraordinary test should save the race from the charge of being lacking in moral instincts. There is yet another notable example of the moral heroism of the colored American in spite of his lack of real religious instruction. The African Methodist Episcopal church, with its million members, vast property in churches, schools, academies, publications and learned THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 895 men and women, is an enduring monument to the righteous protest of Christians to establish the mean sentiment of caste in religion and do- grade us to a footstool position at the shrine of Christian worship. The colored churches of all denominations in this country are not evi- dences of our unfitness for religious equality, but they are so many evidences of the negro's religious heroism and self respect, that would not brook the canting assertion of mastery and superiority of .those who could see the negro only as a slave, whether on earth or in heaven. There is another and brighter side to the question as to how fai ^ Brighter the Christian religion has helped the colored people of America to Side, realize their positions as citizens of this proud republic. Enough has already been said to show that the colored American, in spite of all the downward forces that have environed him, must have been sus- ceptible to the higher influences of the false teachings thereof. Though the Bible was not an open book to the negro before emanci- pation, thousands of the enslaved men and women of the negro race learned more than was taught to them. Thousands of them realized the deeper meanings, the sweeter consolations and the spiritual awakenings that are a part of the religious experiences of all Chris- tians. These thousands were the nucleus out of which was to grow the correct religious life of the millions. In justification of the church it must be said that there has always been a goodly number of heroic men and saintly women who believed in the manhood and womanhood of the negro race, and at all times gave the benefit of the best religious teachings of the times. The colored people gladly acknowledge that, since emancipation, the churches of the country have almost redeemed themselves from their former sin of complicity with slavery. The churches saw these people come into the domain of citizen- ship stripped of all possessions, unfurnished with intelligence, untrained in the school of self-sacrifice and moral restraint, with no way out of the wilderness of their ignorance of all things, and no lead- ership. They saw these people with no homes or household organiza- r^^ Negro's tions, no social order, no churches, no schools, and in the midst of Outfit Megre. people who, by training and instinct, could not recognize the man- hood of the race. They saw the government give these people the certificate of freedom and citizenship without telling them what it meant. They saw politicians count these people as «o many votes, and laughed at them when pleading for schools of learning for their children. They saw all the great business and industrial organizations of the country ignoring these people as having any possible relationship to the producing and consuming forces of the nation. They saw the whole white population looking with distrust and contempt upon these men and women, new and untried in the responsibilities of civil life. While the colored people of America were thus friendless and without status of any kind, the Christian churches came instantly, heroically 896 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. and powerfully to the rescue. They began at once not only to create a sentiment favorable to the uprising of these people, but began the all-important work of building schools and churches. 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 covered the hills of the South with agencies of regenera- tion of the white and black slaves of the South. The churches have vied with each other in their zeal for good work in spreading the Gospel of intelligence. Going into states that knew nothing of public school systems they have created a passion for education among both races. States that have been hostile to the idea of universal intelligence and that at one time made it a criminal offense to teach black men and women to read and write, have, under the blessed influence of the mis- sionary work of the churches, been wonderfully converted and are now making appropriations for the education of colored children 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 education among us. That the whole South should com- mit itself to the principle that the colored people have a right to be educated is an immense acquisition to the cause of popular education. We are grateful to the American church for this significant change of sentiment, as we are grateful to it for making our cause and needs popular at the fireside of thousands of the best homes in the country. The moral force that vouched for the expenditure of nearly ;^40,ooo,ooo, WhatParther Voluntarily given for educational and church work in the South during Can Religion the last twenty-five years, is splendid testimony of the interest felt by the American people in the cause of the intellectual and moral de- velopment of the negro race. Bearing in mind all this good work done by the churches since emancipation, it is proper to ask, what can religion further do for the colored people? This question is itself significant of the important fact that colored people are beginning to think for themselves and to feel restive and conscious of every limita- tion to their development. At the risk of underestimating church work m the South I must say that religion in its more blessed influences, in its wider and higher reaches of good in humanity, has made less progress in refining the life and character of the white and colored people of the South than the activity of the church interests of the South would warrant us in believing. That there is more profession than religion, more so-called church work than religious zeal, is characteristic of the American people generally, and of the southern people particularly. More religion and less church may be accepted as a general an- swer to the question, " What can religion further do to advance the condition of the colored people of the South?" It is not difficult to specify wherein church interests have failed and wherein religion THE WORLD'S CONCRESS OP RELIGIONS. g97 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 advancement of our condition is more hindered by a large part of the ministry intrusted with leader- ship than by any other single cause. Only men of moral and mental force, of a patriotic regard for the relationship of the two races, can be of real service as ministers in the South. Less theology and more of human brotherhood, less declama- tion and more common sense and love for truth, must be the qualifica- tions of the new ministry that shall yet save the race from the evils of false teachings. With this new and better ministry will come the reign - of that religion which ministers to the heart and gives to all our soul functions an impulse to righteousness. The tendency of creeds and doctrine to obscure religion, to make complex that which is elemental and simple, to suggest partisanship and doubt in that which is uni- versal and certain, has seriously hindered the moral progress of the colored people of this country. The home and social life of these people is in urgent need of the purifying power of religion. We do not yet sufficiently appreciate the The Negro's fact that the heart of every social evil and disorder among the colored le^^Heip.*'* people, especially of the rural South, is the lack of those inherent moral potencies of home and family that are the well-springs of all the good in human society. In nothing was slavery so savage and so relentless as in its at- tempted destruction of the family instincts of the negro race in Amer- ica. Individuals, not families; shelters, not homes; herding, not mar- riages, were the cardinal sins in that system of horrors. Who can ever express in song or story the pathetic history of this race of unfortunate people when freedom came, groping about for their scattered off- spring with only instinct to guide them, trying to knit together the broken ties of family kinship? It was right at this point of rehabili- tation of the home life of these people that the philanthropic efforts of America should have begun. It was right here that religion in its hu- manitarian tendencies of love, in its moral direction and purifying force, was most needed, and still is most needed. Every preacher and every teacher in the South will tell us that preaching from the pulpit and teaching in the schoolhouse is but half done so long as the homes aro uninstructed in that practical religion that can make pure and sacred every relationship it touches of man, woman and child. Religion should not leave these people alone to learn from birds and beasts those blessed meanings of marriage, motherhood and fam- ily. Religion should not utter itself only once or twice a week through a minister fiom a pulpit, but should open every cabin door and get im- mediate contact with those who have not yet learned to translate into terms of conduct the promptings of religion. 57 Xhe Catholic Qhurch and the N^S^o Race, Address by REV. J. R. SLATTERY, of Baltimore, Md. Nature Against Slavery. ^^^^ N the eyes of the Catholic church the negro is "^ ,A^^^ a man. Her teaching is that through Christ ^JT^KKbIS there is established a brotherly bond between man and man, people and people. 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 female." From these Christian principles it follows that there can be no slave, save him who is in bondage to sin, for as Leo X. declared, "Not the Christian religion only, but nature itself cries out against slavery." Our Christian advantages flow^ from our spiritual birth and adop- tion into the family of God. It is from truth that comes our 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 intercommunion of faith should have also an intercommunion of charity. Christians vied with each other in manumitting their slaves; the church itself having ordered it to be proposed to Christians as a proper legacy in their wills. Bishops even, Ambrose, Augustine, Hilary and countless others, melted down the consecrated gold and silver, alienated the gifts and ornaments of their basilicas, in order to redeem slaves. Two orders were established in the church for the redemption of slaves — the Or- ders of the Most Holy Trinity and of Our Lady of Mercy. Furthermore, by restoring free labor, which had died out under Roman Caesarism and Roman slavery, the church raised the dignity of 898 • THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 809 the workman and struck at the same time the deathknell of slavery. After the rise of negro slavery in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Catholic church applied her great principles of the natural unity of the human race and the same supernatural destiny to that infamous trafific. Urban VIII., Benedict 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 accountable 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, thereby 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 minis- Tho Equality ters of marriage are the contracting parties; now none but persons can Kace!^^ Negro be ministers of the sacrament. Hence, in blessing the marriage of the negro slaves, the holy church recognized their manhood and external liberty. It may be well, however, to emphasize the position of the Catho- lic church still more. She asserts the unity of the race. The negro, then, is of the race of Adam, created by the same God, redeemed by the same Saviour, and destined to the same heaven as the white man. In matters of morality she makes no difference. The Decalogue of Moses obliges blacks as well as whites; the precepts of Sunday wor- ship, 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 worship, the same communion, the same promises, the same privileges, the same hopes. A pen picture may describe the negroes as numbering eight to nine millions; 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; 900 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. The Human tlace One. they willingly listen to the word of God; their hearts burn for the better gifts. They are hard working; patiently 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 it and to hack it and to shape it, till finally there came forth from it the fault- less angel in marble which his prophet eyes had seen in it. A similar block of marble is the negro; far harder to work upon 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, hopeful, for it rests principally 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 super- natural destiny of our common humanity: One Jesus Christ, one church, one life of probation, 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 ad- mirably 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 natural. From the first sin came all evils, and especially this perversity 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 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. Qhristianity and the Social Question. Paper by PROF. F. G. PEABODY, of Harvard University. HE 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 distinct- ness 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, q^^io'J,?*''^ its inequalities of condition, its industrial conflicts, its dreams 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 sense 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 degree, natural conditions, not to be changed, but simply to be endured. Now, with a great suddenness, 901 The Social era 902. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, there has spread through all the civilized countries a startling gospel of discontent, a new restlessness, a new conception of 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, sometimes into very tragic ones, but such questions have at least two redeeming traits which make the age devoted to them a fortunate age. They are very large questions. Some epochs in history have been devoted to questions which were very near but very small — such as questions of personal culture or taste, and some to questions which were very large, but very remote — such as the contro- versies which once rent Christendom as to the interior nature of the Not Our- Godhead, but, for the present, we are happily freed both from small- seiveabut 0th- ness and remoteness. We are called to think, chiefly, not of ourselves, but of others, and that gives us a large subject, and we are called to think of others as bound up with us in the social order — that gives us a near subject. 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, in which it is invigorating and wholesome to live. It has many of the characteristics of the time when Jesus of Nazareth, reading the signs of His own age, opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me be- cause He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bound, to 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 preach 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 pro- gress, an acceptable year in which to live and to learn. But now, as we thus observe the signs of the times, a further question presses upon us. What has religion to say to this problem of the modern ag-e? What has Christianity to do with these things? What is the attitude of Christ's disciples toward these varied pro- grammes of reform? And, as we face this question, there opens up before us, first of all, two ways in which Christians have often tried to answer it; or, to speak more accurately, have often avoided the answering of it and shirked the real issue in the case. On the one hand, the Christian may try to dismiss the question from his mind. **Why," he may ask himself, "should such worldly problems as wealth and poverty, capital and labor, intrude themselves THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 903 .iito the sacredness 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 Elay, but of the market and the mill. Often enough have Christians pursued this policy as to worldly affairs. Often enough has the language of religion been kept clean of the phrases of the street, and worship has seemed to become more sacred thereby. But the inevitable reaction has to come from such a view. If the Christian church is to have no interest in the social dis- p,, , _ ,^ tresses and problems of the time, then those who are most concerned dififerent. with such distresses and problems will have no interest in the Christian church. The simple fact which we have to face today is this, that the working classes have, as a rule, practically abandoned the churches and left them to be the resorts of the prosperous; and the simple reason for this desertion is the neutrality of the churches toward the social problems of the time. This personal method of Jesus has been taken up into the history of the world. The new value of the individual has become the key of modern thought. A new brotherhood, a new philanthropy, sprang Vaioe of the from this root of the worth of even the humblest soul. The Protest- ^ ^^^ ^^ ' ant Reformation was an appeal to the individual reason. Modern philosophy, modern jurisprudence, all alike have accustomed us to this sense of the individual as the center of concern. "The move- ment of progressive societies," says Sir Henry Main in his "Ancient Law," "has been uniform in one respect. The individual is steadily 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 prob- lem of society. It seems to confirm Christians in their neutrality to- ward 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 significance 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 indi- vidual in the organic life of the social world. "We are members one of another," "We are one body in Christ," "No man liveth or dieth to himself" — so runs the Christian conception of the common life; and in this organic relationship the individual finds the meaning and worth of his own isolated self. What is this conception in Christ's pwn 904 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, language? It is his marvelous ideal of what he calls "the kingdom ot God," that perfected world of humanity in which, as in a perfect body, each part should be sound and whole, and thus the body be complete. How Jesus looked and prayed for this coming of a better v/orld! 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, as servants look for a reckoning after years of duty done; it may come suddenly, as virgins wake and meet the bridegroom. However and wherever this Christian commonwealth, this king- dom of God, arrives, then and there only will the hopes of Jesus be fulfilled. "Thy kingdom come" is the central prayer of the disciple of uA-ofi^"^^^®'® Christ. What does this mean, then, as to Christ's thought of societv? Docial Order. -^ .,, 1,1 - t ^ tt-^-i^, ,/t 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 was just that enlarged and con- solidated life of man which many modern dreams repeat, where all the conflicts of selfishness should be outgrown, and there should be one kingdom and one king; one motive, that of love; one unity, that of the Spirit; one law, that of liberty. Was ever socialistic prophet of a revolutionary society more daring or sanguine, or, to practical minds, more impracticable than this visionary Jesus with His assurance of a coming kingdom of God. But how can it be, we go on to ask once more, that the same teacher can teach such opposite truths? How can Christ appeal thus to the single soul and yet hope thus for the kingdom? How can He be at once the great individualist and the great socialist of history? Are we confronted with an inconsistency in Christ's doctrine of human life? On the contrary, we reach here the very essence of the Gospel in its relation to human needs. The two teachings, that of the individual and that of the social order, that of the part and that of the whole, are not exclusive of each other or opposed to each other, but are essential parts of the one law of Christ. Why is the individual soul of such inestimable value? Because of its essential part in the organic social life. And why is the king- dom of God set before each individual? To free him from all narrow- ness and selfishness of aim. Think of those great words of Jesus, spoken as He looked back on His completed work: " For their sakes, I sanctify Myself." " For their sakes " — that is the sense of the com- mon life working as a motive beyond all personal desire, even for holi ness itself. " I sanctify Myself" — that is the way in which the com- mon life is to be saved. The individual is the means; the kingdom of God is 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 WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 905 the most visionary of socialists. His first appeal is personal: "Sanctify thyself." His second call is the common life: "For their sakes" — and the end and the means together make the motto of a Christian life — "For their sakes I sanctify Myself." Such is Christ in His deal- ing with the social question. He does not ignore the social problems of any age, but He approaches them always at their personal ends. With unfailing sagacity He declines to be drawn into special questions of legislation or programmes of reform. Changes of government are not for Him to make. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." The precise form of the coming Kingdom is not for Him to define. *'To sit on My right hand is not Mine to give." It is in vain to claim Jesus Christ as the expounder of any social panacea. He simply brings all such schemes and dreams to the test of a universal principle, the principle of sanctifying one's self for oth- ers' sakes, the twofold principle of the infinite worth of the individual and the infinite hope of a kingdom of God; and of every plan and work which is proposed for social welfare, Christ says: "Let it begin with the individual — his character, his liberty, his enlargement of life — and then out of this individual sanctification will grow the better social world." Such, I say, is Jesus Christ in His relation to human society. And now, having unfolded before ourselves the principle of His teaching, let us go on to see its practical application to the questions which con- cern the modern world. Here is the Christian, facing the modern so- cial order, and asking himself how its serious issues and plans are to be met. How pressing, how burning are these questions which thus sur- round us, and in some of them each of 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 perils, both to the persons in- volved and to the welfare of us all. There is the problem of the em- ployer and the problem of the employed, each with its responsibil- ity, its irritations and its threats. And then, growing out of all these conflicts and equalities of the time, there are the dreams of some trans- formed future, when there shall be no rich and no poor, no employer and no employed, but all shall find the peace and leisure which now seem, to all almost alike, denied. How baffling and perplexing, how tragic and hopeless often appear such questions to the student of the time. How varied are the panaceas proposed, and how bitter the dis- putes. What has Christ, let us ask in the first place, to say to the prob- lem of poverty? What is the Christian's way of dealing with the poor? Christian charity meets a drunken woman in the streets, as 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 unconscious woman to bed, warms some soup, leaves her to sleep, and then from day to day visits the home until for very love's sake the better life is found and the devil of drink cast out by the new affec- 58 Reform B e gins ut Home. Christian Re- form. 906 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. tion. 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 teaching 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 Self-Help. trained into personal power, individual capacity, self help. Thus, true Christian charity is the one with the last principle of scientific char- ity. It is the transforming of a helpless dependent into a self-respect- ing 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, "hop- ing 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 looked at some sign of the time, that there 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 today. 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 We^th^^^ ^^ said: '* How hardly shall they who have riches enter into the king- dom." But, in reality, this 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 deceitfulness of riches," as He said, " choke the word 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 borne by the rich. The person who proposes to maintain simplicity and sympathy, responsibility and highmindedness, in the midst of the wealth and luxury of the modern times, is under- taking 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 Christianization 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 oppor- tunities for the services of wealth, and never before, thank God, did so many rich men hold their wealth as a trust for whose use they owe responsibility to their God. Christ Calls THE WOkLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, Wt 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 take so well. If wealth will not do its duty, then Christ sweeps it aside as a hindrance of the coming kingdom, as He did with that young man who had great possessions. But if the rich will but meet the rare opportunity which the new times afford, then Christ stands for the right of each part in the welfare of the whole. Christ calls the rich, that is, to say, to the extraordinary privilege and happiness of the wise uses of wealth for the common good. theRich. Wealth is like any other gift of God to you, like your health, or your intellectual powers, or your force of character; indeed, it is often the result of these other gifts, and the same responsibility goes with all. They are all blessings which, selfishly used, become the curses of life. Your bodily strength 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 twofold doc- trines of society. And now take the same teaching into the larger world of our modern industrial affairs. - How does Christ enter into the economic problems of modern life? How does He deal with the relations of 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 cor- porations are pitted against each other and where the great generals get the glory and the private soldiers do the fighting and suffer the loss? Such is the first look of the business world, a mere field of battle. And yet I suppose that if Jesus Christ could come again into the modern world He would at once recognize that the great present op- portunity for bearing witness to Him was in the midst of this battle- field of modern industrial life. There are three ways with which you may deal with such problems as the business world of today 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 spirit of many a communistic colony, calling men away from all the struggle of the world to seclusion and simplicity. It is a beautiful dream, this of retreat from all the strain of life, and yet it 908 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, is none the less a retreat. It is not fighting the battle of life, but it is Monasticism running away. It does not solve the problem of the modern world; it Runs Away. leaves it for other people 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 to 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 Christian 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 still he feels the joy of business effort, and in the strain of business competition he has to give ten hours a day to things which on Sunday he condemns, and so his life is hopelessly divided. He can be a Chris- tian only half, much less than half, the time. His religion and his business are enemies. The world he has to live in is not God's world. There is a third way to take the world of business. It is to believe in it; to take it as the test of Christian life in the modern age. It is not all clean or beautiful, but it has the capacity of being shaped to worthy and useful ends. It is as when a potter bends over his lump of clay and finds it a shapeless mass that soils the hands which work it, yet knows that his work is not to wash his hands of it, but to take it just as it is and work out the shapes of beauty and use which are possible within the limits of the clay. So the Christian takes the bus- iness world. In this warfare of industry, which looks so shapeless and unpromising, the Christian sees the possibilities of service. It is ^ The Chris- not vcry clean or beautiful, but it can be shaped and molded into an tiansTask. instrument of the higher life. That is the Christian's task in the business world. Christ comes into the business world of today and, seeking the man who wants to be His disciple, says to him: "This world of affairs is not to be abandoned, or yet to be feared; it is to be redeemed. En- ter into it. 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 les- sening 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 business men to show. Individualism means self-culture, self-interest, self-development. Socialism means self-sacrifice, self-forgetfulness, the public good. Christ means both. Cultivate yourself, He says, make the most ' of THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 909 yourself, enrich yourself, and then take it all and make it the instru- .„ „ ment of self-sacrifice. Give the perfect developed self to the perfect of c&istf^^^^ common good. The only permanent socialism must be based on per- fected individualism. The kingdom of God is not to come of itself; it is to come through the collective consecration of individual souls. Such, I suppose, is the message which Christ has been from the beginning trying to explain to this world. Over and over again the world has been stirred by great plans of external change, political, legislative or social plans, and always Christ has stood for internal change, the reformation of the community through the regeneration of its individuals. So stands Christ today. To every outward plan which is honest. He says: **Go on and God speed you with all your en- deavors for equality, liberty, fraternity; but be sure of this, that no permanent change will rule the lives of men until men's hearts are changed to meet it." You may accomplish the whole programme of a revolutionized society, but it will be neither a permanent nor a hap- py order until you have better men to use it. The kingdom begins within. The wedding garment makes ready for the wedding feast. My friends, it is time that the modern world heard once more, with new emphasis, this doctrine of Christ, which is so old that to many modern minds it may seem almost new. We are beset by 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 unpict- uresque 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 fom."^ life of the individual flows the stream of the world. It is like some mighty river flowing through our midst which we want to use for daily drink, but which is charged with poison and turLid with refuse. How shall we cleanse this flowing stream? Try to filter it as it sweeps by with its full current; but the task is prodigious, the impurity is persist- ent, the pollutions keep sweeping down on us from the sources of the stream. And then the wise engineer seeks those remote sources them- selves. He cleanses each little brook, each secret spring, each pasture bank, and then from those guarded sources the great river bears down purity and health to the great world below. So the method of Christ purifies the modern world. It seeks the sources of life in the individ- ual 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 refeshed. Entrance to the Temple of Thotmes III. f^eligion and the Erring and Criminal Qlasses. .Paper by REV. ANNA G. SPENCER. HE words " erring" and '• criminal " while they nave a constant meaning, have also a variable application. That is to say, sin and crime are always understood to be departures, of lesser or greater degree, by §Ln individual from the accepted moral standard of his time and peo- ple. Since, however, moral standards change with changing social conditions and intellect- ual conceptions,the act thought sinful or judged criminal in one period by one nation may be deemed innocent or even noble in another era and place. The contrast, for example, be- tween the ancient Greek and Jewish customs and legal codes in respect to child-life are a striking proof that the differing moral standard of two races lead to this widely different con- ception of sin and crime. To the Jew, who defined the state in terms Different D©- of morals, one of the chief duties of mankind was to replenish and finitions of multiply the people of the earth, and hence every act which tended toward the lessening of population, whether committed before or after the birth of a 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 quaajity of its citizens was the chief concern, and therefore they commenoed, 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 whenever the population of a city threatened to exceed the limits which would secure pecuniary ease and comfort to all the free people of that community. The element of time in its influence upon moral standards, and thus upon the definition of vice and crime, is as conspicuously shown 9X1 912 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Moral Obli gation Un- changeable. in the history ot 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 captured 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 unex- ampled heinousness of American slavery consisted in the fact that it was the most monstrous anachronism of moral history. Vice, sin and crime are then, always and everywhere, acts done by the one against the common moral sense of the many, as that sense is expressed in social custom or code of law. This moral consensus, itself, however, is but a part of the 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 constitutes right action are as numerous as the distinct types of social relation. This Sense of moral obligation, which is the root of all personal and social ethics, is a part of religion's own being; that is, if religion be defined, as in this parliament it has supreme right to be, in its largest terms. So defined religion is the conscious response of the human being to those universal 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 obedient to the high- est law of right perceived; it has been emotionally the yearning of the human heart to feel at one with the central Heart of all life, and to picture that idea in worship and in art. Accepting this definition of religion, we find that the sense of obli- gation to do the seen right, whatever that may chance at any given time and place to be, that sense of moral obligation which is the es- sential root of all ethical development and v/hich 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. R^^^f*°Eth- '^^^ student finds it hard to accept even so excellent a guide as Mr. ic8. Lecky when he separates primitive religion so entirely from morals as in his analysis of pagan religion and civilization. For Coulange has shown us how the ancestor-worship of Greece and Rome built up the great city life of those nations, and was the root from which grew the social customs of their dual civilization. It was only when the ethnic religions of the pagan world were dying, that they ceased to have in- fluence over the moral life of the people. Religion has often indeed been called upon to give a divine sane- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 913 tion to actions already done from pressure of social exigencies or mis- takes; but, looked at critically, these exigencies will often prove but the reflex or resulting tendency of the religious ideas of the people. As, for instance, the suttee of India was not suggested in the early Vedas, whose spirit would indeed condemn it. On the contrary, the Hindu Scriptures recommending the burning of widows on their hus- band's funeral pyre were written after this, and assisted and encour- aged, suicide of widows had become a common fact. But the child mar- riages and the ill treatment and suffering 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 re- lation is that of a subtle and interior element in varying moral defini- tions. Ancestor worship 's the moral side of the religion of people The Moral who are in the early patriaichal order of society; and hence the prim- ngfon.^* ^^' 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 provision 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. Prisons were private in those days, places in which the offender languished or died in secret excepting some important member of anenemy's family who was held for hostage. As the patriarchal order of society began to enlarge and differen- tiate into the two departments of church and state, there began to be a division of evil-doing into two sorts, namely, ecclesiastical offenses, or sins against the religious ideal, and civil crimes, or sins against the public well-being, as defined by a legal code or a well-known custom. In this process religion played a great accompanying part, for it was only as the family gods began to enlarge into those of the city, and even the common god of many allied cities, thus weaken- ing the bond of ancestor worship, that the state Vv^as born. And it was only as the religious ideal separated from a distinct locality and assumed a more spiritual significance that the church was born. As the ideal of religion began to include a sense of relation to uni- versal powers, with which not only one family alone, but all human- ity, was connected, the individual sense of moral obligation was directed toward the state instead of, as formerly, solely toward the kindred of blood relationship. The sharpest contrast between the ancient and the modern treat- ment of the criminal and vicious lies in this, that in the old civili- zation the offender was at the mercy of the hasty and individual judgment of his superior and ruler, while in modern civilization the meanest and worst of evil-doers has the protection of a recognized code of law which is based upon the agreement of many minds and 914 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 chur.h took the place of the local family altar. The history of modern penology is so much a par', of the social and moral history of the leading Christian nations that it must be traced almost exclusively in Christendom. And this is so not, as some think, because Christian ethics are alone sufficiently advanced to apply the doctrine of human brotherhood to the signer and the criminal. Other than Christian teachers — the noble Stoic:^, the gen- tie Buddhists, the duty-loving Confucians and other strivers after Erring. ^"^ Truth and Right— have taught that the mightiest and the best of humankind owe duty most sacred toward the feeblest and the v/orst. But our western civilization has attained most completely of any the new order of society, in w^"iich the individual, not the family, is the social unit. And therefore it is our civilization which must first work out the problem 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 penology 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 Graeco-Roman civilization by medie- val Christianity. In Rome's cosmopolitan life many different relig- ions were allowed to thrive, and the priests and 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 consensus of many nations in what is called the "Law of Nature." This was ob- tained by selecting the rules of conduct and social usages common to all the important nations represented in the empire, 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 the community at large, and offenses against individual per- sons. An offense against the state was punished by a single act of the state, a sentence against the offender, usually of death or expatriation. The offense against the individual person was earlier subject for jurisprudence proper; in other words, for the assignment of a recog- nized punishment to 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 corresponding sum on every wound that could be in- flicted on his person, and for nearly every injury that could be done to his civil rights, honor or peace. The Roman ** Twelve Tables " al- lotted with equal care the money price of smaller thefts and other offenses against private person and estate. Thus was introduced the idea of money in connection with punishment, which in earlier times had been almost solely corporeal. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 915 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 separated 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 punishment of graver offenses. This established the public prison in addition to, and often in place of, the private dungeons of the family. The prison, 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 punishment that the prison in the older 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 crimimal class. When the Christian church ascended the throne of the Caesars there was no immediate change in the methods of punishment although gradually 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 polit- ical sense almost exclusively by the individual judgment of the reigning family head, who could punish almost unrestrainedly accord- ing to his will. The Christian church in the meantime defined the criminal and erring in an ecclesiastical sense by its own standards and punished them in its own as secret places of torture, and by a will as unrestrained. The to us almost incredible rights of the feudal lord over his vassals and his villian'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 inquisi- tion 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. When the 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 siaand the resulting human treatment of the criminal and Primitive Prisons Few. Christian Re- forms Gradaal. 916 THE WORLD'S CjNGRES'S OF RELIGIONS, erring classes. Modern progress in penology is marked by seven dis- tincf steps, namely: Seven steps First. The establishment of the rights of all free-born men to a fSrm'"'^'' ^' trial by law. Second. The abolition of slavery which brought all men under aegis of one legal code. Third. The substitution of the penalty of imprisonment for varied forms of physical torture, and the limitation of the death penalty to a smaller number of crimes and those more generally condemned by all men. Fourth. The recognition of national responsibility toward of- fenders, by which each state accepts the task of controlling and caring for its own criminals instead of transporting them outside its bounds. Fifth. The acceptance of the principle that even a convicted criminal has rights, rights to decent and humane treatment which social custom must regard. Sixth. The inauguration of a system of classification not only of offenses as more or less heinous, but of offenders as more or less guilty according to circumstances. Seventh. The beginning of experimental efforts in industrial and educational directions toward the reformation of the criminal and erring; that is, their making over into an accepted model of citi- zenship. In Massachusetts Bay Colony, where no one could vote who was not a free householder and a member of the church, all ecclesiastical offenses were punished by the magistrates as regularly and often more severely than those crimes which were specially committed against the state. The religious life of Protestant New England was therefore for many generations organically bound up with the definitions and ^ p administration of its penal and correctional codes. And it is instruct- andthe Pii- ive to note the fact that the difference between the harshness of the grims. Puritans and their laws and the more humane statutes of the Plym- outh Pilgrims was exactly matched by the difference between the religious bigotry of the former and the remarkable toleration and breadth of the latter in church, creed and idea. The radical changes in the treatment of the criminal and err- ing classes which mark so conspicuously the last forty years — changes which have revolutionized this branch of social relation — all proceed, whether consciously or not, from one fundamental principle, namely, that every man and every woman, however criminal and erring, is still a man and a woman, a legitimate member of the human family, with in- alienable rights to protection and justice; who must, indeed, be iso- lated from the rest of the world, for society's sake and perhaps for his own; who must be taught the majesty of the law and subjected to moral discipline, but who is entitled to the best possible chance for moral improvement. ^m prom a Christian Point of \/\ew, Paper by REV. THOMAS S. BYRNE, D. D., of Cincinnati, Ohio. R. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I stand here as a representative of an ancient faith and a venerable church, upon whose altars the sun never sets, to lay before you in plain words the teach- ing of that church concerning man and his relations to his God — a subject as- suredly of supreme importance to us all, whether for our peace in this world, or our happiness in the next. Man, according to Catholic teach- ing, 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 likeness. He is dowered 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 endow- ments, the higher their cultivation, the broader his knowledge, the more ample and penetrating his intellectual swing and reach, the deeper and more exhausting will be the sense of a purpose unfilled, of unsatisfied yearning and baffled hope. Splendid intellectual gifts and exceptional mental training; moral refinement, culture and wealth; social pre- cravin eminence and commanding political power; great civic achievements, the Soul, and the most coveted prizes of fortune— all these but serve to accentu- ate and render more sensitively acute those wasting longings and that fruitless reaching out after an object that will satisfy the cravings of the soul and satiate the hunger of the heart. He makes his own the words of disappointment and bitterness uttered by the ancient king: *' I heaped together for myself silver and gold and the wealth of kings and provinces. And whatever my eyes desired I refused them not, Very Rev, Thomas S. Byrne, Cincinnati, the:, WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 919 and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure. But I saw in all things vanity and vexation of spirit, and nothing was lasting under the sun. "And thus his mind opens to the hopelessness of his efforts and to the utter inadequacy of himself and all things visible to bring him happiness and peace." Like St. Augustine of old, exhausted, disappointed, almost hoping against hope, he is forced to lift his heart to God and say: "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart is restless until it finds peace in Thee." Man may cry, " Peace, peace, when there is no peace," nor can there be until the capacities of the soul are filled by an object so excellent and so perfect that its posses- sion will give complete contentment in this world and the promise of the vision of glory in the next. And if the capacities and aspirations of the soul, its imperative demands and unsatisfied desires; its hopes and longings, are not to be gratified and an object supplied them either in this world or in the next, or rather partially in this lite and fully in the life to come, of such magnitude and power, of such transcendent beauty and incomparable perfection, as to fill the intellect with knowing, the heart with loving, and hush, in the tranquil serenity of complete possession, the clamorous cravings of the soul, then is man, in spite of his splendid gifts and royal prerogatives, literally and emphatically the most imperfect and stunted being in all visible creation; for then will man, and man alone, of all objects in the visible universe, fail to fulfill the purpose for which by nature he is designed and for which his every aspiration is almost an articulate prayer. 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 confidently look forward to the surpassing joy of a High Des- living forever in the smile of God and in the ecstasy of His love. That ^^^y- such conviction, however, and confident hope have never been reached, and cannot 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 questionings of the soul, dispel its mists, and tranquilize its misgivings, abundantly prove. It is beyond expression sad to read the history of religious sys- tems, laboriously thought out by man in his pride, by which he has sought to make, not man to the likeness of God, but God ta the like- ness of man. The religious history of the world is filled with the narratives of wrecked systems, as proudly and confidently launched in their day as are equally pretentious systems in our own, and these, like their prototypes, buffeted by wind and wave, are as surely des- tined to vanish in the sea or to strew the shore. Man will be religious. It is a necessity and law of his being, and if he cannot 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 grisat bishop of Hippo, and the prayer to which he gave utterance has ever been the universal cry of the heart of man — to know one's self, to know God. God and self 920 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, are the two cardinal objects of man's knowledge to which all his intel- lectual efforts converge and upon which they terminate. Once reason has dawned on him and the mind opens and expands to the signifi- cance and deep meaning of all he sees around about him, to the order and beauty, the variety and splendor, and the lavish profusion of vis- ible blessings, a knowledge of which is borne in upon him by eye and ear, and every avenue of sense, he asks himself and nmst askhimself the question: Whence all tnese strange surroundings bearing upon them the marks and 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 go- ing? 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 de- pendent upon and the product of the digestive organs and a com- plex system of nerves with functions centering in the brain? I have been urging the inadequacy of all created things to satisfy the cravings or meet the exigencies of the nature of man, and the con- sequent need of a supernatural purpose and object to complete the life Supernatural of the soul and fill its aptitudes and powers. The supernatural ele- Mau™*''^* ^^ ment in man is precisely what the world is losing sight of in its eager and absorbing pursuit of what gratifies sense and brings to the natural man an exhilarating, insidious, and evanescent enjoyment; and with- out the supernatural there can be no adequate explanation of man's existence here on earth, no interpretation of life that will 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 cannot be overestimated. It lies at the very root of religion, and any error or shadow of error here vitiates and distorts the entire cycle 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. To arrive at a knowledge of man in his primitive state, and of his prerogatives of nature and grace, it will be necessary to study him in revelation and as he has been restored, lifted up to his former estate and re-established in his privileges by our Lord Jesus Christ. From what has been given back we can determine what had been taken away, since his renewal in Christ is, within certain limitations, a resto- ration to his primal condition. According to Catholic teaching, the first man was created in the image and likeness of God. " Let us make man to our image and likeness," are the words that record the Divine purpose, as expressed by God Himself. And the record goes on to say that " God formed man of the slime of the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul," thus making a clear distinction between body and soul, the former having THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 921 been formed of the slime of the earth and the latter immediately created by God and breathed into the inanimate clay, and by its pres- ence illuminating the countenance and every feature with the glow and radiance of life, and making the eye resplendent with the light and intelligence of the rational, thinking, loving soul that looked out from it. This is, in brief, a statement, according to Catholic teaching, of the origin of man, and no theory yet advanced has been able satis- factorily to account for his existence in any other way. It has never been, nor can it be, scientifically established, that man is the product and most perfect result of evolution. Apart from the antecedent and intrinsic difficulty of the production from inorganic matter of an in- telligent, thinking principle with the power of seizing and compre- hending, analyzing and comparing truths wholly immaterial, ideal and intellectual, and passing judgment upon them and their manifold and varied relations one to another — apart, I say, from so stupendous a difficulty standing at the very threshold of the inquiry — the facts upon which science professes to rely for its inductions and conclusions to establish such a theory are confessedly either wholly wanting, or altogether inadequate. And until such facts are produced, of which there is no assuring promise for the future from the experience of the past, we may be permitted to accept what we hold to be the Di- vine record of the origin of man, and to profess a belief which has been the tradition of every race and people from the beginning until now, and which we see no reason to doubt will continue to be so until the end. And it is precisely the fact that the soul has been created by God, and is not the product of inorganic or any other form of matter, that gives it its dignity and puts upon it the seal and the glory of the Dimity of Divine likeness. It is an active, energizing, thinking spirit, created the Soul, for the body yet capable of an existence wholly independent of matter, constituting man a rational being and giving him pre-eminence and sovereignty "over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts and every creeping thing that moveth upon the earth;" a spirit whose highest power and most splendid endowment are thought and intelligence. There is a second endowment or faculty of the soul which consti- tutes it in the likeness of God and necessary in man to the exercise of his sovereignty over inferior creation. He has the great and perilous prerogative of freedom of choice between good and evil. Nay, so untrammeled is he in the exercise of this gift that he can, if he will, lift his hand against the very God who called him into being. When God placed Adam in Paradise He commanded him not to eat of the fruit of the tree that was in the midst of the garden, and He warned him that on the day he did eat of it he should die the death, thus wit- nessing to the power of free will in the first man, by laying upon him a precept and attaching a penalty to its violation. We have, there- fore, the testimony of God Himself to the existence of the power of free choice in the head of the human race. Moreover, free will is jm- 922 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, plied in the very notion of a spiritual soul; for just as the intellect in its operations is not fettered by sense, but views objects that are borne in upon it first in one light and then in another — in their concrete existence, in their abstract definitions, and in all their multitudinous relations — so also is free will, being like the intellect a power of the soul, above and beyond the limitations and the bondage of sense. Nay, more, free will is the very condition of all morality whatsoever. It lies at the basis of civic virtue and social purity, of domestic peace and the sanctities of home. If this were not true, then would words of eulogy extolling the virtues and achievements of great men be meaningless verbiage, our courts of justice an elaborate farce, and our prison system a colossal tyranny. By intellect and will, by knowledge and the power of free choice, man rises to a sublime dignity and to the likeness of an Allwise and Provident God. We say of everything around about us, of the tiny blade of grass of the field and the majestic tree of the forest, of the falling apple and the sidereal systems moving in space, that all are manifestations of design and intelligent purpose, because they are under the dominion of law, work toward a definite end, and subserve a higher purpose. The power of apprehending and understanding the relations between cause and effect, of adapting and adjusting means to an end, is, if not the very definition of intelligence King Over ^^^ ^^'^^ will, at least their adequate description. And in this man is Created Things like unto God, Whose presence, shut out from us by the veil of the ^t *■^ — T?„^v, .-11 • • 1 • 1 11' 11 11-11 visible universe, is luminously revealed in the laws by which that uni- verse 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, such the dignity and pre-eminence of man. He is set as >. very king over the created things of earth, yet responsible for the use of them to the God who gave him so royal a supremacy. A third natural attribute of the soul, which constitutes it in the likeness of God, is its immortality. It shall never see death. The body will go back to the earth whence it came, but the spirit will return to the God Who gave it, says the Holy Ghost. And this is what we should antecedently expect and conclude from the nature of the soul and its aspirations. Simple in its essence, it cannot perish of itself by disintegration; nor can it be destroyed except by the Creator Who called it into being. But this He will net do, for, as I have said. He has imbedded in it high hopes and divine aspirations; a conscious- ness of a capacity for better things; a hunger for knowledge nothing created can satiate; a yearning for an object adequate to fill the great void of the heart and worthy its best love. All these unsatisfied crav- ings of the soul must be stifled and extinguished if it be not immortal, and a notable exception be made to the ordinary dealings of Provi- dence as we see them revealed on every side of us. Every thing in the universe fulfills its purpose in its appointed time and place, and moves by fixed laws to the end which by its nature it is designed to re^.ch, And is it to be said that thq soul alone, the very flower and of the Earth. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 923 perfection of the creation about us, shall never reach the high destiny to which, in virtue of its transcendent powers and almost divine pre- rogatives, it is urged and impelled by a law as unvarying and imperative as that which draws the needle to the pole or holds the earth in its orbit? No, the constant and unfailing traditions of the families of men, whether living in the light of God's countenance or walking in the shadow of death, is an abiding and ubiquitous witness that an All- wise Providence has made the belief in the immortality of the soul a part of the primitive revelation of nature and heritage of all mankind. He has put into the soul beliefs and hopes, aspirations and tendencies, which, were the soul not immortal, would be wholly without explana- tion and destitute of any adequate, rational purpose. 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 superadded perfection. He was, as the Council of Trent says, "holy and just," or pleasing to God. This supernatural perfec- tion is called, and is, in matter of fact, sanctifying grace, which made ™*^®^ Adam's likeness to God fuller, more perfect and transcending than any natural gift, no matter how excellent, 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 arc told by St. Paul that as one man by his offense wrought the condemnation of all, sordid our Lord by His justice work the justifi cation of all. What Adam forfeited Christ regained. What Christ regained, St. Paul tells us, is the privilege of being the sons of 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. Again, St. John says: "We know that when He shall appear we shall be like to Him, because we shall see Him as he is;" that is, we shall enjoy the beatific vision, to which therefore Adam, in virtue of original jus- tice, had a claim, and which he might have attained had he been loyal and abided in humility and the friendship of God. The condition of man in Paradise has been described as one of "original justice," by which is meant not only that man was free from natural impulse or tendency contrary to God and His law, but that he lived in closest union with Him. This privilege was the free gift of God. It was in no way due to mart's nature or implied in it, or necessary to its integ- rity. It was a gift over and above man's nature, which he could not secure by any effort of his own. It lifted him above human nature, and made him, through giace, a participator in the divine. It was a supernatural gift of the divine grace and condescension superadded to the natural endowments of man. That man was so lifted up into a serener atmosphere and a diviner lifc; and made in a sense Godlike, is r 924 TI/E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 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 Pantheism 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; where- a rd*^ (JathoiS ^^' Catholic thcology teaches that the participation of the divine na- Theoiogy. ture, through grace, is in nowise due to man, is no part of the integ- rity 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. Besides the higher life of sanctifying grace, Adam enjoyed other privileges and immunities called preternatural. He received an in- fused gift of knowledge and understanding, and his heart was filled with wisdom in both the natural and supernatural orders. He was exempt from the solicitations of concupiscence. His animal passions and lower impulses were under the control and guidance of reason and obedient to its dictates and suggestions. The reason itself, being the expression of God's law in the soul, yielded a ready and joyous obedience to its Author. There was in him no insubordination or tur- bulence of the passions, no pride of intellect. All was peace and har- mony, and a joyful acquiescence in the will of God. He had no ex- perience of what St. Paul calls the law of the members, warring against the law of the spirit. And over and above the Jiarmony between the lower faculties and the higher powers of the soul, and between these again and the law of God, he enjoyed an immunity from death and from the evils and ills that afflict mankind. Such, then, substantially, is the meaning of Catholics when they say that Adam was created and constituted in the image and likeness of God. He had, to use the words of the late Cardinal Manning, three perfections: "First, he was perfect in body and soul. Second, he had the higher perfection of the Holy Spirit dwelling in his heart, whereby his soul was ordered and sanctified, and the passions were held in per- fect subjection to the reason and will. Thirdly, he had a perfection arising from the higher perfection, namely, immortality in body. and perfect integrity in soul. So that he had three perfections: a natural perfection of body and soul; a supernatural perfection by the indwell- ing of the Holy Ghost; and a preternatural perfection of immortality — and all these by one act of disobedience he lost." Adam, though richly endowed by nature and grace, and privileged to enjoy the friendship of God, had nevertheless to prove himself worthy of so large and so signal a grant of divine favor by acknowl- edging the supremacy of his Maker and his own condition of subjec- tion. In spite of the harmony that reigned in his nature through special divine prerogative, and the subduing influence and sweet at- traction of grace; in spite of the tokens and promises of a life un- touched by the hand of death, and of the ecstasy of living in the friend- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 925 ship of God — in spite of all these gifts and the confident hope of their continuance, his freedom of will was not on that account diminished in power or limited in scope, and he was free to retain or reject the blessings he enjoyed. But if he would remain in possession of them he must be honest enough and hun*ible enough — for humility is but honesty and truth — to recognize that they were the free, spontaneous gift of God, and that he was but the handiwork of his Maker. His endowments of nature and prerogatives of grace were so many and so transcending that unless he abided in humility there was dan- ger of his losing sight of the fact that he owed them all to another. He was like what we hear of the scions of great houses, who, coming by birth into the heritage of abundant wealth, exceptional privileges and historic and honored name, fail to keep in mind that the vast ad- vantages they enjoy and the eminence and distinction that give luster to their blood, are not due to their own merits, but to the talents, virt- ues and splendid achievements of great ancestors. 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 acknowledg- ment, by which He reserved His right. His very generosity and good- ness, which should have filled the heart of Adam with an unceasing song of praise and thanksgiving, and an abiding memory of his sur- passing privileges, seemed, if I may use the word, a temptation to his Adam on Trial, weakness, in spite of the many stays and supports by which his will was steadied and strengthened. Forgetting his lowly estate and un- mindful of his blessings, he wantonly transgressed the light command that had been laid upon him as a test of his fidelity and gratitude. And so man's first sin was committed, and the human race, in its head, was cut off from the friendship of God and cast out from an inherit- ance of countless benedictions. Original justice was forfeited, and to it as its opposite,, succeeded original sin, which thereby became the heritage of all mankind. The transgression of the law in Adam was our sin. We 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 sense of that word. These terms denote the state to which Adam's sin reduced his children. The act by which sin was committed is one thing; but the state, to which man is reduced by the commission of that sin is quite another. The one was transitory in character; the other is per- manent, and man is rightly/called a sinner as long as he abides in a state which is the consequence of sin. Adam, by his act of disobedi- ence, turned from God and forfeited his supernatural prerogative of sanctifying grace, and his posterity in consequence is born into the state of deprivation or original sin, which was the penalty of his offense. Excepting then the Blessed Virgin, who by special privilege, and because of her high office, had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, all the children of Adam are under the dis- ability of his transgression. He was the head of the human family, 92'*^ THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. ar^d in him was contained the whole human race. This is the^mean- ing of St. Paul when he says that one man's offense wrought the con- oemnation of all. And again: "As by one man sin entered into the- worldi and by sin death, so death passed upon all mankind, in whom all have sinned." Man, as has been said, had three perfections — his natural perfection as man, his supernatural perfection of sanctifying grace, and his preternatural perfection of immunity from concu- piscence, from bodily ills and death. The last two were lost. In con- cupiscence and the conflicting laws of the higher and lower nature man still bears about him the memorial and the consequences of the primal sin. Adam, by that one act of disobedience, and in him his entire posterity, fell from his high eminence to the level and condition of the natural man. Nay, more, his intellectual powers became en- feebled and his will infirm once the elevating influence and co-opera- tion of a diviner and higher life no longer illuminated and sustained them. In a word, he was stripped of his pre-eminent privileges and disinherited of the promises of his Father. He had committed an act of treason, and through it wrought cut spiritual attainder. 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 Forfeitof the P^^^ ^^ ^^^ nature, to which as man he had no right or claim, and which Supernatural he could not regain by any power of his own. Yet it must not be sup- '^ ®' posed that man's nature was by such loss corrupted or poisoned in its root. His intellect was still intact in all its natural powers, though less luminous, less penetrating and more liable to error because of the absence or the supernatural light that had been put out in the soul. His will was vacillating and unsteady, yet free and potent to choose between right and wrong, good and evil. The will was not, as one of the reformers asserted, a dumb beast, the slave and sport of any rider, malicious or benevolent, who might leap into the saddle. Neither was man's nature essentially vitiated or changed, so that from generous wine it became acid vinegar, as another reformer put it. The effect of original sin was simply the deprivation of God's grace and the con- sequences which such deprivation implied. He possessed, tiirough the free gift of God, what was above his nature and beyond its limits, what conferred upon him supernatural dignity and eminence, and all this he lost by original sin. He was incapable, in his fallen state, of making reparation for his offense or of recovering sanctifying grace. God might have left man in this condition of exile with the evidences and tokens upon him of high lineage and noble descent, yet disinher- ited and stripped of his supernatural gifts and with only the hope of such reward as his natural virtues might merit. 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, "wherewith He loved us when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together in THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 027 Christ, by whose grace you are saved." Again, God could have waived His right to a satisfaction irivolving 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. The distance between God and man is simply infinite. To bring together these two extremes, severed by sin, in the bonds of love; to devise a method of atonement by which finite man should offer adequate reparation for sin to an in- finite God, was a work worthy of Divine wisdom, omnipotence and love. 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 Personality the bonds of indissoluble union. The divine nature assumed the hu- ^^ Christ, man in all its plentitude and powers, and of these two natures by a mysterious union, analagous to that which exists between body and soul, and technically called by theologians hypostatic, resulted the one personality of Christ, the acts of whose human nature had an infinite worth, inasmuch as they were the acts of a Person who was God. 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 Per- son, and the Person who suffered was divine. By this mystery of love the right of man to enter again into his forfeited inheritance was pur- chased. In Christ the heavenly harmony of our nature was restored. As He was the fullness of revelation, being, as St. John says, ''the Word made flesh," so was He the pattern Man. He was the New Adam. In Him the race of man was born again, and through Him men, one by one, may gain the prerogatives of grace and friendship of which Adam was stripped. I say, ''one by one," for the fruits of Christ's redemption have to be applied to men individually, internally communicated to the soul and made one's own. As Adam, had he re- mained faithful, would have transmitted to his posterity individually his preternatural and supernatural prerogatives and blessings, so also Christ, the Second Adam and our Spiritual Head, by an economy es- tablished by Himself, confers spiritual sonship and supernatural life on men, one by one. The grace of redemption is the fountain of life eternal, of which every man may freely drink if he will, but no man's will is constrained, and the divine bounty is forced on no one. And this supernatural life of grace is, I repeat, literally made one's own, and is an inherent and an intrinsic quality of the soul, constituting it in the image of God and restoring in it the divine likeness and the harmony and beauty of heaven. Men must be born into this mysterious and higher life. "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," are the words of Christ Himself lay- ing down the condition of its attainment. To share the fruits of re- demption, then, man must have a new birth through water and the Holy Ghost, in fact, if possible, but' if not, at least in will and desire; and if a new birth then a new life, and therefore new capacities and powers, new hopes and aspirations, new instincts and cravings. The 92S THE WORLD'S CONCRESS OP RELIGIONS. life into which man enters by this mysterious and heavenly birth is the life of the spirit of which St. Paul tells us so much, and hence his whole being is spiritualized and lifted to a supernatural plane. His soul is cleansed of all sin; his intellect acquires a clearer and a larger knowledge and a surer and steadier grasp of truth; his will is more firm and stable; his heart is purified; his affections and emotions are chastened; and, if true to his privileges and to himself, he lives verily in an atmosphere of truth, strength, purity and peace. The grace of God is around about us all. It encompasses us as an atmosphere. It is as warm as the sun and as luminous as light. The universe is a reflection of the presence of God. Every man born into the world has the natural law of God written in his heart and speaking a language of warning and menace in his conscience. The reason rightly exercised, can read the presence of God in the works of His Free Will the hand, SO that every soul has an illumination through reason and con- WiU of Christ, science and the visible universe, revealing the existence of an over- ruling Providence. Moreover, the Holy Ghost speaks without ceasing in the soul of every man born into the world, leading him to know God and to believe in Him, to love Him and to serve Him. But all who are saved must accept the blessing with the full and perfect freedom of their own will. Grace is ready at hand to fill the reason with light and the will with trust and the heart with love, and to bear man up among the wearing trials and harassing warfare of life; but grace will not force man's will or constrain his freedom. The free use of such graces, together with the grace of prayer, is never denied or impossible to any man, so that there is no soul who does not receive sufficient grace to be saved if he is docile to the voice of conscience and obedi- ent to the suggestions of the Holy Ghost. And as each new light conveys a new truth to the soul it carries with it an added responsi- bility and a momentous obligation to follow whither the Holy Spirit leadeth. These graces, which are given to all men, do not, however, prop- erly constitute man in the supernatural life. What may be called the specific form and efficient cause of such life, and its sustaining principle, is sanctifying grace; and this, except in special cases in which God deals with souls in ways secret from us, is conveyed to man through, the sacraments or sacred rites established by Christ Himself. Christ, of His own free will and divine condescension, wrought the re- demption of the human race, and He is, therefore, free to convey its fruits to man in any way He in His wisdom sees fit. The primary and sovereign rule of belief and practice in all things pertaining to the economy of God with man is, the Catholic holds, the will of Christ, and not what seems fitting, or best, or most reasonable to us. The will of Christ, once it is known, must be the supreme rule and guide. Hence, relying on the words of Christ and His apostles, and on the living voice and universal and unbroken tradition of the church from the beginning, the Catholic says that Christ instituted certain specific ', rites, now called sacraments, as means and instruments to convey the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 929 fruits of redemption to the soul; that the initial sacrament, by which the supernatural life is born in man, is baptism; and that this life is nourished, increased and perfected by the indwelling 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 sacraments and the aids they supply, according to the dispositions, the needs and the condi- tions of men and of society. Through this supernatural gift man takes on a new nature and begins a new life. The theological virtues of faith, hope and charity are infused into his soul. The etfect of these virtues is analagous to what takes place in man by a repetition of acts. Man acquires skill of hand and eye, facility and precision in any art or handicraft, by constant and assiduous practice, so that what was once difficult and irksome comes to be done with ease and pleasure. It is a second nature, just as one writes and speaks correctly though he takes no thought of the laws which govern the arrangement and con- struction of language. Something analagous takes place in the soul in- to which the virtues of faith, hope and charity have been infused by baptism. They give the mind a supernatural bent, a love of Divine truth, a realization of the objects of faith, a ready acceptance of reve- lation and the commandments of God, a firm hope in His promises, a manly yet childlike and ardent affection for the person of Christ and His blessed mother, and a zeal for all that concerns His glory and the honor of His name. When the innocence and beauty of the Divine life conferred in baptism have never been lost or extinguished by mortal sin and rarely sullied by deliberate venial faults — a privilege granted to the fidelity of some saints — in such a soul there is an approach to the peace and harmony that reigned in the soul of Adam before his fall. Reason, illuminated by faith, goes before the will as a light in its path; the will is docile and obedient to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost; an atmosphere of grace pervades the soul, and concupiscence and the lower passions are dominated by its presence; gladness inundates the heart and the conscience enjoys a peace that is not of this world. But this life, so precious and so full of promise, so elevating, ennobling and refining, giving so luminous an interpretation of man and his surroundings, 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 light and darkness. The presence of sin is the extinction of the spiritual life. In the moment mortal sin a?^^-* *^^ enters the soul through deliberate consent of the will the indwelling Grace.^ yi^g 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 in- spired 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. 59 930 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, It is clear, then, that the Catholic idea of man is this: That he is instinctively supernatural in his capacities and powers, his aptitudes and cravings, his aspirations and aims*, and that he was so constituted from the beginning; that no created object can fill the void of his heart or still the cry of his soul; that he cannot work out his evident destiny, or accomplish the purpose of his creation without being grafted into the Spiritual Vine, which is Christ, and drawing from it the sap and the sustenance of his spiritual existence. To the Catholic the supernatural is the true and only adequate interpretation of man's life; to him thoughts, words and actions have a supernatural and momentous sig- nificance, the knowledge and will of the agent being the measure of their malice or merit. To him they have no real value for eternal life unless they are in conformity with the law of God, luminous in his in- tellect, written in his heart and articulate in his conscience. His whole being is encompassed by the supernatural and by a sense of responsi- bility to his Creator and God. He believes that the intellect, if not taught of God, through the living and magisterial voice of the church, the pillar and ground of the truth, will cease to be a light and a guide to the will, and being once perverted will be the cause and source of countless errors of judgment and practical life. To him Divine truth and a Divinely appointed teacher are a first principle, and the most extravagant and illogical aberration of the human mind is this: That whereas in art, in business and in all the practical concerns of life man is guided by the application of scientific and fixed principles to prac- tical pursuits and ends, in religion alone, by which man professes to A First Prin- know God and serve Him and to order his whole being according to ^'^^ ®* His law, he refuses to accept its Divine Author as a teacher, to submit his intellect to the immutable principles of revealed truth, or to give God the homage and service of his highest and most Godlike endow- ment. He professes to repudiate dogma or the eternal principles of religion and Divine truth, upon which all morals must in the last anal- ysis necessarily be based; for without God as a lawgiver there is no power to constrain the conscience of man, and, if not, then neither is there moral law nor sanction for human conduct. This, as I said, is to the Catholic the mOst irrational and illogical aberration of the human mind. As well might an architect, inspired by a benevolent purpose to benefit his fellowmen, and with the best intention to carry his pur- pose into execution, design Brooklyn bridge without a knowledge of the principles of mathematics; or a mechanic, impelled by motives equally laudable, build the majestic structure without adhering to the plans and specifications laid down for his guidance. To the Catholic, the acceptance of God as a Divine teacher, and a belief in His revela- tion, 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 custo- dian 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 tg his least, as well as his most, significant action. And next, as a cqH' THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 931 sequence of faith and the body of truth it contains, come the com- mandments of God, or those rules of conduct which guide and direct him in justice and truth, and in his manifold duties and varied relations to God and man. And then, to follow the logical order, comes grace, in which every man born into this world lives and moves; which en- compasses him as an atmosphere; which God gives in amplest measure to every man who sincerely wishes to be converted 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 Eternal Father by a bond as intimate as is possible between the Creator and His creature. By this rule, says the Catholic, shall man live; by this shall he be judged. Xhe Ultimate Religion. Paper by BISHOP JOHN J. KEANE, of Washington, D. C. T 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 mem- ory 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 pres- ence 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 God of Love, to inspire ammosity, hatred, which is of the evil one; sweet to tie again bonds of affec- tion, 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 treas- ury 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 possession 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 definitions of what religion really is. Viewed in all its aspects, we have seen how true is the old definition that religion means the union of man with God. This, we have seen, is the great goal toward which all aim, whether walking in the fullness of the light or groping in the dimness of the twilight. 933 Brotherhood. The Hnman Family a Unity 934 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Religion Two Sidet. has Cannot Do Witiiout God. 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 attainment of that great end, the union of man with God. Any system not having that for its aim may be a philosophy, but cannot be a religion. And, therefore, again, we have clearly recognized that religion, in itself and in the system for its attainment, necessarily implies two sides, two constitutive elements — the human and the divine, man's side to God's side, in the union and in the way or means to it. The human side of it, the craving, the need, the aspiration, is, as here testified, universal among men. And this is a demonstration that the Author of our nature is not wanting as to His side; that the essential religiousness of man is not a meaningless freak of nature; that the craving is not a Tantalus in man's heart meant only for his delusion and torture. This parliament has thus been a weighty blow to atheism, to deism, to antagonism, to naturalism, to mere humanism. While the utterances of these various philosophies have been listened to with courteous patience, and charity, yet its whole meaning and has been to the contrary; the whole drift of its practical conclusion has been that man and the world never could, and in the nature of things never can, do without God; and so it is a blessing. From this standpoint, therefore, on which our feet are so plainly and firmly planted by this 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 have heard the verdict of human society in all its ranks and conditions, the verdict of those who have most intelligently and most disinterestedly studied the problem of the improvement of human conditions, that only the wisdom and power of religion can solve the mighty social problems of the future, and that, in proportion as the world advances toward the perfection of self-government, the need of religion, as a balance-power in every human life, and in the relations of man with man and of nation with nation, becomes more and more imperative. Next we must ask, Shall the future tendency of religion be to greater unity, or to greater diversity? This parliament has brought out in clear light the old familiar truth that religion has a twofold aim: the improvement of the individual and, through that, the improvement of society and of the race; that it must, therefore, have in its system of organization and its methods of action a twofold tendency and plan; on the one side to what might THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 935 How to At- tain to Reli- gious Unity. be called religious individualism; on the other side what may be termed religious socialism or solidarity; on the one side, adequate provision for the dealings of God with the individual soul; on the other, provision for the order, the harmony, the unity, which is always a characteristic of the works of God, and which is equally the aim of wisdom in human things, for " Order is heaven's first law." The parliament has also shown, that if it may be truly alleged that there have been times when solidarity pressed too heavily on in- dividualism, at present the tendency is to an extreme of individualism threatening to fill the world more and more with religious confusion and distract the minds of men with religious contradictions. But on what basis, what method, is religious unity to be attained or approached? Is it to be by a process of elimination, or by a proc- ess of synthesis? Is it to be by laying aside all disputed elements, no matter how manifestly true and beautiful and useful, so as to reach at last the simplest form of religious assertion, the protoplasm of the religious organism? Or, on the contrary, is it to be by the acceptance of all that is manifestly true, and good, and useful, of all that is mani- festly from the heart of God as well as from the heart of humanity, so as to attain to the developed and perfected organism of religion? To answer this momentous question wisely, let us glance at analogies. First, in regard to human knowledge, we are, and must be, willing to go down to the level of uninformed or imperfectly informed minds, not, however, to make that the intellectual level of all, but in order that from that low level we may lead up to the higher and higher levels which knowledge has reached. In like manner, as to civilization, we 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 cell, but only in order that we may trace the process of differentiation, of accretion, of de- velopment by which higher and higher forms of organization lead to the highest. In the light, therefore, of all the facts here placed before us, let us ask to what result gradual development will lead us? In the first place, this comparison of all the principal religions of the world has demonstrated that the only worthy and admissible idea of God is that of monotheism. It has shown that polytheism in all its forms is only a rude degeneration. It has proved that pantheism sibie'view of in all its modifications, obliterating as it does the personality both of ^^^ God and of man, is no religion at all, and therefore inadmissible as such; that it cannot even be admitted as a philosophy, since its very first postulates are metaphysial 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 enjoy- ment that they had no thought for poor man, and nothing to say to him for his instruction, and no care to bestow on him for his welfare. the Monotheism Only Po8- 936 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. It has shown that the god of agnosticism is only the god of the Epi- cureans dressed up in modern garb, and that he cares nothing for hu- manity, but leaves it in the dark; humanity cares nothing for him and is willing to leave him to his unknowableness. As the first step in the solid assent of the true religion is belief in the one living God, so the second must be the belief that the great Father has taught His chil- dren what they need to know and what they need to be in order to attain their destiny; that is, belief in divine revelation. Again the parliament has shown that all the attempts of the tribes of earth to recall and set forth God's teaching, all their endeavors to tell of the means provided by the Almighty God for uniting man with Himself, logically and historically lead up to and culminate in Jesus the^oSy^Trae Christ. The world, longing for the truth, points to Him who brings its Religion. fuUness. The world's sad wail over the wretchedness of sin points not to despairing escape from the thralls of humanity — a promise of escape which is only an impossibility and a delusion — but to humanity's cleans- ing and uplifting and restoration in His redemption. The world's craving for union with the divine finds its archetypal glorious realiza- tion in His incarnation; and to a share in that wondrous union all are called as branches of the mystical vine, members of the mystical body, which lifts humanity above its natural state and pours into it the ife of love. Therefore 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 Jeens Christ a Symbol, but a personal reality. He is not a vag:ue, shadowy person- a Personal Re- i-/ i • f i- 4.- i • • u u- j u- tt aiity. ality, leaving only a dim, vague, mystical impression behind him; He is a clear and definite personality, with a clear and definite teaching as to truth, clear and definite command as to duty, clear and definite ordaining as to the means by which God's life is imparted to man, and by which man receives it, corresponds to it, and advances toward perfection. The wondrous message He sent "to every creature," proclaiming as it had never been proclaimed before the value and the rights of each individual soul, the sublimest individualism the world had ever heard of. And then, with the heavenly balance and equilibrium which brings all individualities into order and harmony and unity, He calls all to be sheep of one fold, branches of one vine, members of one body, in which all, while members of the head, are also "members one of another," in which is the fulfillment of His own sublime prayer and prophecy: "That all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that they may be made perfect in one." Thus He makes His church a perfect society, both human and divine; on its human side, the most perfect multiplicity in unity, and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 937 unity in multiplicity, the most perfect socialism and solidarity that the world could ever know; on its divine side, the instrumentality devised by the Saviour of the world for imparting, maintaining and perfecting The Church the action of the divine life in each soul; in its entirety, "the body of ^j^JJ^ ^ '^^^ Christ," as the apostle declares it, a body, a vine, both divine and human, a living organism, imparting the life of God to humanity. This is the way in which the church of Christ is presented to us by the apostles and by our Lord Himself. It is a concrete individuality, as distinct and unmistakable as Himself. It is no mere aggregation, no mere cooperation or confederation of distinct bodies; it is an organic unity, it is the body of Christ, our means of being engrafted in Him and sharing in His life. This is unmistakably His provision for the sanctification of the world; will anyone venture to devise a substitute for it? Will any- one, in the face of this clear and imperative teaching of our Lord, assert that any separated branch may choose to live apart by itself, or that any aggregation of separated branches may do instead of the organic duty of the vine, of the body? Men of impetuous earnestness have embodied good and noble ideas in separate organizations of their own. They were right in the ideas; they were wrong in the separation. On the human side of the church of Christ, as there will always be, as there always has been, room for improvement; room for the elimination of human evils, since our Lord has given no promise of human impeccability; room for the admission and application of every human excellence, room for the employment and the ordering of every human energy in every work that is for God's glory and man's welfare; room, not only for individual twigs, but for strong, majestic branches and limbs innumerable; but all in the organic unity of the one vine, the one body. For, on the divine side, there can be "no change nor shadow of alteration," and the living organism of the vine, of the body must ever maintain its in- dividual identity, just as a living human being, though ever subject to life's vicissitudes, is ever the same identical self. Jesus Christ is the ultimate center of religion. He has declared that His one organic church is equally ultimate. Because I believe Him, here must be my stand forever. 60 Rev. John Z. Torgersen, Chicago. (Meraeber Genral CommittwO ri, The End of the Parliament. FTER eighteen days, on the evening of Sep- tember 27th, both the great halls, Washington and Columbus, were thronged. "Lead Kindly Light" was sung, and then the various speakers were introduced. The best portions of their addresses here follow. President Bonney presided. The Rev. Dr. Momerie, Church of Eng- land, London, after affirming that the parlia- ment was greater than the exposition, said: ** Here on the platform have sat as brethren the representatives of churches and sects which during by-gone centuries hated and cursed one another, and scarcely a word has fallen from any of us which could possibly give offense. If occasionally the old Adam did show itself, if occasionally 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. *' Citizens of Chicago, I congratulate you. If you show yourselves in other things as great as you have shown yourselves in regard to this parliament of religions, most assuredly the time will come when Chi- cago will be the first city in America, the first city in the world." Protup Chunder Mozoomdar, the eastern Indian leader of the Brahmo-Somaj: "The kingdom of heaven is, to my mind, a vast con- centric circle with various circumferences of doctrines, authorities and organizations from outer to inner, from inner to inner still, until heaven and earth become one. The outermost circle is belief in God and the love of man. In the tolerance, kindliness, good will, patience and wis- dom which has distinguished the work of this parliament, that outermost ^^^^^^ circle of the kingdom of heaven has been described. We have influenced vast numbers of men and women of all opinions, and the - 939 940 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Prince Wo 1- kousky. Pung Quang Yu. influence will spread and spread. So many human unities drawn within the magnetic circle of spiritual sympathy cannot but influence and widen the various denominations to which they belong. In the course of time those inner circles must widen also till the love of man and the love of God are perfected in one church, one God, one salvation." Prince Serge Wolkonsky, of Russia: "Should this congress have no other result than to teach us to judge our fellowman by his indi- vidual value, and not by the political opinions he may have of his country, I will express my gratitude to the congress not only in the name of those, your brothers, who are my countrymen, but in the name of those, our brothers, whom we so often revile because the political traditions of their country refuse the recognition of home rule; in the name of those of our fellowmen whose motherland stands on the neck of India; in the name of those, our brothers, whom we so often blame only because the government of their countries send rapacious armies on the western, southern and eastern coasts of Africa. I will express my gratitude to the congress in the name of those, my broth- ers, whom we often judge so wrongly because of the cruel treatment their government inflicts upon the children of the Chinese race. "I will congratulate the congress in the name of the whole world if those who have been here have learned that as long as politics and politicians exist there is no happiness possible on earth. I will con- gratulate the congress in the name of the whole humanity if those who have attended its sessions have realized that it is a crime to be aston- ished when we see that another human being is a man like ourselves." K. Hirai, Buddhist: "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 utmost cheers and deepest admiration. "By your kind hospitality we have forgotten that we are strang- ers, and we are very much attached to this city. To leave here makes us feel as if we were parting with our own sisters and brothers. When we think of our homeward journey we cannot help shedding tears. Farewell, ladies and gentlemen. The coW Winter is coming on and we earnestly wish that you may be in your good health. Farewell." Pung Quang Yu, Chinese Confucian. His address was read by Dr. J. H. Barrows, after reading which, he said: "This address, as has been prophesied, will wipe the infamous Geary law off the statute books." Quang Yu wrote: "It is unnecessary for me to touch upon the existing relations between the government of China and that of the United States. There is no doubt that the Chinese minister at Washington and the honorable Secretary of State are well able to deal with every question arising between the two countries, in a man- ner satisfactory and honorable to both. "As I am a delegate to the religious congresses, I cannot but feel THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 941 that all religious people are my friends. I have a favor to ask of all the religious people of America, that they will treat hereafter all my countrymen just as they have treated me. I shall be a hundred times more grateful to them for the kind treatment of my countrymen, than of me. I am sure that the Americans in China receive just such con- siderate treatment from the cultured people of China as I have re- ceived from you ** The majority of my countrymen in this country are honest and law-abiding. Christ teaches us that it is not enough to love one's brethren only. I am sure that all religious people will not think this request too extravagant. It is my sincere hope that no national differ- ences will ever interrupt the friendly relations between the two gov- ernments, and that the two peoples will equally enjoy the protection and blessing of heaven. I intend to leave this country shortly. I shall take great pleasure in reporting to my government the proceed- ings of this parliament upon my return. With this I desire to bid all my friends farewell." The Right Rev. R. Shibata, Japan, high priest of the Shinto sect: " This parliament of religion is the most remarkable event in history, ^- Shibata. 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 Shibata you like, but you like the immortal idea of universal fraternity and brother- hood. "And I thank you to let me speak to you about the relations ex- isting between your country and our own Japan, that country which was so sound asleep until a few years ago. Japan used to be regarded as a glorious sunrising land, but had it not been for Commodore Perry we might have been shut out from all the light of the material civili- zation of the present century. He, the kind-hearted representative of the United States of America, was the peaceful yet motive power which aroused Japan and placed her among the great nations of the earth. It was owing to him that we have advanced to our present con- dition of material, literary and political civilization. Japan is sepa- rated from America by an ocean five thousand miles in width, which the Japanese only a few years ago regarded as a great mysterious expanse. We cross over this ocean today and in a few days regard America as our nearest nation and Americans as our best neighbors. " What I wish to do is to assist you in carrying out the plan of form- ing the universal brotherhood under the one roof of truth. You know unity is power. I, who cannot speak any language but Japanese, may help you in crowning that grand project with success. To come here I had many obstacles to overcome, many struggles to make. You must not think I represent all Shintoism. I represent only my own Shinto sect. But who under the sun dare to except to the universal brotherhood, who dare to destroy universal fraternity? So long as the sun and moon continue to shine all friends of truth must be willing to fight courageously for this great principle. 942 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. George Candlin. *' I do not know that I shall have the honor of seeing you again in this life, but our souls have been so pleasantly united here that I hope they may again be united in the life hereafter. Now I pray that the eight million deities protecting the beautiful cherry-tree country of Japan may protect you and your government forever, and with this I bid you a most hearty good-by." The Rev. George T. Candlin, Methodist missionary to China: T. " Suffer one final word of counsel, unfit as I am to give it: * Be not dis- obedient unto the heavenly vision.' A very good missionary friend, one of the oldest missionaries in China, but trained in narrower ideas, has been much exercised about this parliament; he could not understand it, this motly gathering of so many religious tongues, but while he was half inclined to ascribe it to the folly of men, he devoutly believed it might be overruled by the wisdom of God. He remembered 'the Par- thians, and Medes, and Elamites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia,' and what a marvel, said he, if the Spirit of God should descend as He did on that ancient gathering and make it a latter-day Pentecost. I am bound to say he thought that was the last thing we should be prepared for. "But who shall say that spirit has not been out-poured? We see not the cloven tongues, we hear not the rushing of mighty winds; our accompaniments are the pufifing noise of locomotives, but on your beaming countenances and in your eager eyes, yes, and in pearly tears which held no bitterness, I have seen, methinks, the tokens of His pres- ence. Are our hearts afire with love to man; are our zeal and courage equal to our light; are we afraid of nothing in this holy cause? Then this is Pentecost and behind is the conversion of the world." H. Dharmapala, Ceylon, Buddhist: "This congress of religions Dharmapaia. has achieved a stupendous work in bringing before you the represen- tatives of the religions and philosophies of the East. The committee on religious congresses has realized the Utopian idea of the poet and the visionary. By the wonderful genius of two men, Mr. Bonney and Dr. Barrows, a beacon of light has been erected on the platform of the Chicago parliament of religions to guide the yearning souls after truth. " I, on behalf of the 475,000,000 of my co-religionists, followers of the gentle lord, Buddha Gautama, tender my affectionate regards to Dr. John Henry Barrows, a man of noble tolerance, of sweet disposi- tion, whose equal I could hardly find. "And you, my brothers and sisters, born in this land of freedom, you have learned from your brothers of the far East the presentations of the respective religious systems they follow. You have listened with commendable patience to the teachings of the all-merciful Buddha through his humble followers. During his earthly career of forty-five years he labored in emancipating the human mind from religious prejudices, and teaching a doctrine which has made Asia mild. By the patient and laborious researches of the men of science you are given to enjoy the fruits of a material civilization, but this THE WOkLD'^ CdNCkESS OP RRUCtOM^. U% civilization by itself finds no praise at the hands of the great naturalists of the day. " Learn to think without prejudice, to love all beings for love's sake, to express your convictions fearlessly, to lead a life of purity, and the sunlight of truth will illuminate you. If theology and dogma stand in your way in the search of truth put them aside. Be earnest and work out your own salvation with diligence, and the fruits of holi- ness will be yours." Prince Momolu Masaquoi, Vey Territory, Africa. " Members and Delegates to the Parliament of Religions: Permit me to express my hearty thanks to the chairman of this congress for the honor coh- ferred upon me personally by the privilege of representing Africa in this world's parliament of religions. " There is an important relationship which Africa sustains to this particular gathering. Nearly nineteen hundred years ago, at the great dawn of Christian morning, we saw benighted Africa opening her doors to the infant Saviour, Jesus Christ, afterward the founder of one of the greatest religions man ever embraced, and the teacher of the highest and noblest sentiments ever taught, whose teaching has resulted in the presence of this magnificent audience. "As J 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 wondered to myself, ' What shall the harvest be? ' "The very atmosphere seems pregnant with an indefinable, inex- pressible something; something too solemn for human utterance, which I dare not express. Previous to this gathering the greatest enmity ex- isted among the world's religions. Tonight — I dare not speak as one seeing visions or dreaming dreams — but this night it seems that the world's religions, instead of striking one against another, have come together in amicable deliberation and have created a more congenial spirit among themselves. May the coming together of these wise men result in the full realization of the general Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the consecration of souls to the service of God." The Rev. George Boardman, D. D., Philadelphia, Baptist: " Fathers of the contemplative East, sons of the executive V/est; be- hold how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. The New Jerusalem, the city of God, is descending, heaven, the phone; earth, the anti-phone, chanting the eternal hallelujah chorus." Rabbi Emil Hirsch, Jewish, Chicago: '' None could appreciate the possibilities of this parliament more deeply than we, the heirs of a past spanning the millennia and waiting with unbroken faith for the coming of the millennium. Millions of my co-religionists hoped that this convocation of the great synagogue would sound the deathknell of hatred and prejudice under which they suffer and have suffered these many years; and their hope has not been disappointed. From this place has blazed forth the fiery signal, telling the world as the Prince Masa- quoi. Dr. BoardmaD. 944 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Yivekananda. Virchand 'l^andhi. torches on Palestine's hills of old did the birth of a new month, as now of the dawn of the better day of a new love wide enough to em- brace all the children of men. " We, Jews, came to impart information and to get it. We have been richly rewarded for the small contribution we have made to the success of this ever memorable gathering. According to an old rab- binical injunction, friends should not part without some serious thought on some religious problem. We part and take hence all the deep thoughts here worded, and thus we may be sure that in us will come true the promise of the Talmud that wherever three come to- gether to study God's law the divine Shekinah is resting upon them. Thus let me bid you Godspeed in the old Jewish salutation of peace." Swami Vivekananda: "Much has been said on the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity would come by the triumph of any one of these religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, 'Brother, yours is an impossible hope.' Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid! Do I wish thai the Hindu or the Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid! "The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No! It becomes a plant; it developes after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water — converts them into plant substance and grows a plant. "Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the others and yet preserve its individuality and grow according to its own law of growth. "If the parliament of religions has shown anything to the world it is this, that it has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not tne exclusive possession of any one church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. "In the face of this evidence if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion would soon be written, in spite of their resistance, 'Help, and not fight,' 'Assimilation, and not destruction,' 'Harmony, peace, and not dissension.' " Virchand A. Gandhi, India, of the Jain sect: "If you will only per- mit a heathen to deliver his message of peace and love, I shall only ask you to look at the multifarous ideas presented to you in a liberal spirit and not with superstition and bigotry, as the seven blind men did in the elephant story. Once upon a time, in a great city, an ele- phant was brought with a circus; and the people had never seen an elephant before. There were seven blind men in the city who longed to know what kind of an animal it was, so they went together to the place where the elephant was kept. One of them placed his hands on THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 945 the ears, the other on the legs, the third on the tail of the elephant, and so on. When they were asked by the people what kind of an an- imal the elephant was, one of the blind men said: *Oh, to be sure, the elephant is like a big winnowing fan.' The other blind man said: *No, my dear sir, you are wrong; the elephant is more like a big round post.' The third: 'By Jove, you are quite mistaken, it is like a taper- ing stick.' The rest of them also gave their different opinions. The proprietor of the circus, who happened to be there, 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." Mrs. Charles Henrotin, vice-president of the woman's branch of the auxiliary, Chicago: "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 to careful attention. "As day by day the parliament has presented the result of the preliminary work of two years, it may have appeared to you an easy Mrs. Henrotin. 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 174. "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 position in the active government of the church, and to the question, if men will accord that position to her, my experience as that of the chairmen of the woman's committees warrants us in an- swering an emphatic yes. Her future in the western churches is in her own hands, and the men of the eastern churches will be em- boldened by the example of the western to return to their country, and bid our sisters of those distant lands to go and do likewise. "Woman has taken, literally, Christ's command to feed the hun- gry, and clothe the naked, heal the sick, and to minister unto those who are in need of such ministrations. As her influence and power in- crease so also will her zeal for good works. The experiment of an equal representation of men and woman in aparliament of religions has been made, and that it has not been a failure, I think, can be proved by that part taken by the women who have had the honor of being called to participate in this great gathering." The Rev. Frank Bristol, D. D. Dr. Bristol began his speech with Dr. Frank the following qnotation: ^^ "Then let us pray, that come it may. As come it will for a' that, That man to man the world o'er, Will brothers be and a' that." -• < 946 fii^ WORLD'S CONGMSS OF kELIGION^. *'The thorough gentlemen of the world have spoken in this parlia- ment of religions in support of religions that have made them thor- ough gentlemen. Tolerance, courtesy and brotherly love are the in- evitable and convincing results of the world's nearness to God, the common Father. "Infinite good and only good will come from this parliament. To all who have come from afar we are profoundly and eternally indebted. Some of them represent civilizations that were old when Romulus was founding Rome, whose philosophies and songs were ripe in wisdom and rich in rhythm before Homer sang his Iliad to the Greeks, and they have enlarged our ideas of our common humanity. They have brought, to us fragrant flowers from the gardens of eastern faiths, richer gems from the old mines of great philosophies, and we are richer tonight from their contributions of thought, and particularly from our contact with them in spirit. "Never was there such a bright and hopeful day for our common humanity along the lines of tolerance and universal brotherhood. And we shall find that by the words that these visitors have brought to us and by the influence they have exerted, they will be richly rewarded in the consciousness of having contributed to the mighty movement which holds in itself the promise of one Faith, one Lord, one Father, one Brotherhood. "A distinguished writer has said that it is always morn somewhere in the world. The time hastens when a greater thing will be said — 'tis always morn everywhere in the world. The darkness has passed, the day is at hand, and with it will come the greater humanity, the universal brotherhood." j^nkinLioyd The Rcv. Jcukin Lloyd Jones, Unitarian, Chicago: *Tt has often Jones. been said, and I have been among those who have been saying it, that we have been witnessing here in these last seventeen days what will not be given men now living again to see, but as these meetings have grown in power and accumulative spirit I have felt my doubts give way and I already 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 in the calms of the Pacific Ocean we may, in the city of Tokio, meet again in some great parliament, but I am not satisfied to stop in that half-way land, and so I have thought we must go further and meet in that great English dominion of India itself. At first I thought that Bombay might be a good place, or Calcutta a better place, but I have concluded to move that the next parliament of religions be held on the banks of the Ganges in the ancient city of Benares, where we can visit these brethren at their noblest headquarters. And when we go there we will do as they have done, leaving our heavy baggage behind, going in light marching order, carrying only the working principles that aer applicable in all lands. "Now, when shall that great parliament meet? It used to take a THE WOkLD'S CONC^RESS OF RELIGIONS. U1 long time to get around the world, but I believe that we are ready here tonight to move that we will usher in the twentieth century with a great parliament of religions in Benares." Pastor Fliedner, Spain: " From Spain, which discovered America, I tender a farewell greeting to those who have made America what it is today — to the sons and daughters of the Pilgrim fathers, who left their homes in England and Scotland, in Holland and Germany, and came to this country and here established liberty from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific shore — to them I say farewell. They brought liberty to America because they knew the fountain of liberty, even the liberator of mankind, the author of the brotherhood of man; yea, God manifest in the flesh, light of freedom shining into the darkness of slavery. Spain has been down-trodden for centuries by ecclesias- tical and political oppression, but now it has regained liberty, and is rejoicing in this new liberty, and, therefore, it is free in that freedom with which Christ makes all men free. God bless free America. Adios!" "The Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, D. D.: "The last seventeen days have seemed to many of us the fulfillment of a dream; nay, the fulfill- ment of a long cherished prophecy. The seers of ancient time fore- told a day when there should be concord, something like what v/e have seen, among elements 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 intellectually strengthened and spiritually uplifted. "The last moments of the great parliament are passing. We who welcomed now speed the parting guests. We are glad you came, Oh wise men of the East, with your wise words, your large, tolerant spirit, and your gentle ways. We have been glad to sit at your feet and learn of you in these things. We are glad to have seen you face to face and we shall count you henceforth more than ever our friends and co- workers in the great things of religion." Julia Ward Howe, Boston: " Dear friends, I wish I had brought you some great and supreme gift of wisdom. I have brought you a heart brimming with love and thankfulness for this crown of the ages, so blessed in itself and so full of a more blessed prophecy. But I did not expect to speak tonight. I will only give you two or three lines which very briefly relate a dream, a true dream that I had lately: "Before, I saw the hand divine Outstretched for human weal, Its judgments stern in righteousness, Its mercy swift to heal; And as I looked with hand to help The golden net outspread, To gather all we deem alive And all we mourn as dead; Pastor Flisd- ner Rev. Angasta J. Chapiu. Julia Ward Howe. 94$ THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. And as I mused a voice did say: " Ah, not a single mesh; This binds in harmony divine All spirit and all flesh." Bishop Arnett, of the African Methodist Episcopal church: "Ihave Bishop Amett. j^gygj. 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 toleration and fraternity, and shows what may or can be done when men assemble in the proper spirit. ** There was some apprehension on the part of some Christians as to the wisdom of a parliament of all the religions, but the result of this meeting vindicates the wisdom of such a gathering. It appears that the conception was a divine one rather than human, and the execution of the plan has been marvelous in its detail and in the harmony of its working, and reflects credit upon the chairman of the auxiliary, Mr. Bonney, and also on the Rev. J. H. Barrows — for there is no one who has attended these meeetings but really believes that Christianity has lost nothing in the discussion or comparison, but stands today in a light unknown in the past. The ten commandments, the Sermon on the Mount and the golden rule have not been superseded by any that has been presented by the various teachers of religion and philosophy; but our mountains are just as high and our doctrines are just as pure as before our meeting, and every man and woman has been confirmed in the faith once delivered to the saints. I believe that it will do good not only to the dominant race; but to the race that I represent it is a Godsend, and from this meeting we believe will go forth a sentiment that will righten a great many of our wrongs and lighten up the dark places, and assist in giving us that which we are now denied — the com- mon privileges of humanity; for we find that in this congress the majority of the people represented are of the darker races, which will taach the American people that color is not the standard of excellence or of degradation. But I trust that much good will come to all, and not only the Fatherhood of God be acknowledged, but the brotherhood of man." The Rt. Rev. Dr. Keane, rector of the Catholic university, Wash- Dr. Keane. jngton, D. C: "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 world-wide and perfect? Oh friends, let us pray for this. It is better for us to be one. If it were not better for us to be one than to be divided our Lord and God would not have prayed to His Father that we might all be one as He and the Father are one. Oh, let us pray for unity, and taking up the glorious strains we have listened to tonight, let us morning, noon and night cry out: 'Lead, kindly Light; lead from all gloom; lead from all darkness; lead from all imperfect light of human opinion; lead to the fullness of the Light.' "O glorious Prince of the King above! Lift up the gates! Take THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 949 away all barriers and all separations and let the King of Glory come to rule! He gave thanks to His Father that He was to be now glori- fied, and that the world was to be His kingdom. Oh, let us pray that that at last may be fulfilled. Lift up your gates, ye Prince. Let the King of Glory come in. Let Him take possession. Before Him may every human being bow. Woe to the man who would have an idea of his own, an ambition of his own, that he would put in the place of His royal supremacy! May He come. May He rule under His scepter of peace and love. May we all bow together, and may He reign forever and ever." Mr. Bonney read a stanza from a poem by Mr. Joseph Cook: " God in all faces shine, So make Thou all men Thine, Under one dome: Face to face, soul to soul, East to West, pole to pole. As the great ages roll. Be Thou our home! " In his closing address Chairman John Henry Barrows, D. D., -q^ Ban-owa said: "The closing hour of this parliament is one of congratulation, of tender sorrow, of triumphant hopefulness. God has been better to us by far than our fears, and no one has more occasion for gratitude than your chairman, that he has been upheld and comforted by your cordial cooperation,, by the prayers of a great host of God's noblest men and women, and by the consciousness of divine favor. "Men of Asia and Europe, we have been made glad by your com- ing and have been made wiser. I am happy that you have enjoyed our hospitalities. While floating one evening over the illumined waters of the "white city," Mr. Dharmapala said, with that smile which has won our hearts, "All the joys of heaven are in Chicago," and Dr. Momerie, with a characteristic mingling of enthusiasm and skepticism, replied: "I wish I were sure that all the joys of Chicago are to be in heaven." But surely there will be a multitude there whom no man can number out of every kindred and people and tongue, and in that perpetual parliament on high the people of God will be satisfied. "We have learned that truth is large and that there are more ways than one in God's providence by which men emerge out of darkness into the heavenly light. It was not along the line of any one sect or philosophy that Augustine and Origen, John Henry Newman and Dean Stanley, Jonathan Edwards and Channing, Henry Ward Beecher and Keshub Chunder Sen walked out into the light of the eternal. The great high wall of heaven is pierced by twelve portals, and we shall doubtless be surprised if we ever pass within those gates to find many there whom we did not expect to see. We certainly ought to cherish stronger hopes for those who are pure in deeds, even though living in the twilight of faith, than for selfish souls who rest down on a lifeless Christianity. 950 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. "I thank God for these friendships which we have knit with men and women beyond the sea, and I thank you for your sympathy and over- generous appreciation and for the constant help you have furnished in the midst of my multiplied duties. Christian America sends her greet- ings through you to all 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 universi- ties of Europe, and in the isles of all the seas, it is my prayer that non-Christian readers may in some measure discover what has been the 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 mem- ory must go unsaid. If any honor is due for this magnificent achieve- ment let it be given to the spirit of Christ which is the spirit of love in the hearts of those of many lands and faiths who have toiled for the high ends of this great meeting. May the blessing of Him who rules the storm and holds the ocean waves in His right hand, follow you, with the 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 antagonisms, and who, from the throne of His heavenly kingdom, directs the serene and un- wearied omnipotence of redeeming love — Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world." President Bonney's final words. "Worshipers of God and lovers B(^ly^^^^* 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 religious systems of the world in my youth, and have enjoyed an intimate association with leaders of many churches during my maturer years. I was thus led to believe that if the great religious faiths could be brought into relations of friendly intercourse, many points of sympathy and union would be found, and the coming unity of mankind in the love of . God and the service of man be greatly facilitated and advanced. Hence, when the occasion arose it was gladly welcomed and the effort more than willingly made. " What many men deemed impossible God has finally wrought. The religions of the world have met in a great and imposing assembly; they have conferred together on the vital questions of life and immor- tality in a frank and friendly spirit, and now they part in peace with many warm expressions of mutual affection and respect. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 951 "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 re- ligions to all parts of the world, will affect in some important degree all races of men, all forms of religion, and even all governments and social institutions. "The results of this influence will not only be apparent in external changes, but will manifest themselves in thought, feeling, expression, and the deeds of charity. Creeds and institutions may long remain unchanged in form, but a new spirit of light and peace will pervade them, for this congress of the world's religions is the most marvelous evidence yet given of the approaching fulfillment of the apocalyptic prophecy: Behold I make all things new! "The establishment of a universal fraternity of learning and virtue was early declared to be the ultimate aim of the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition. The Congress of Re- ligions has always been in anticipation what it is now in fact, the culmination of the World's Congress scheme. This hour, therefore, seems to me to be the most appropriate to announce that upon the conclusion of the world's congress series, as now arranged, a procla- mation of that fraternity will be issued to promote the continuation in all parts of the world of the great work in which the congresses of 1893 have been engaged. "And now farewell. A thousand congratulations and thanks for pareweU! the cooperation and aid of all who have contributed to the glorious results which we celebrate this night. Henceforth, the religions of the world will make war, not on each other, but on the giant evils that afflict mankind. Henceforth, let all throughout the 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!" Rabbi Hirsch led in the universal prayer, when Bishop Keane offered the last petition: " O Father in heaven, deign to look down upon Thy children and crown the work of this parliament with Thy paternal benediction. Grant, O Father of Lights, in whom there is no darkness, that the seeds of light planted in our hearts may grow unto the fullness of the light. Grant, O God of love, who hast said that " He that abideth in love abideth in Me," that the germs of love implanted in our hearts may grow into love that will link us inseparably with one another while linking us inseparably with Thee. Bless us> O God, and guide us all in the path that is before us. Make us faithful to all we have heard, and grant that we, through our devious ways may, through Thy boundless mercy, be brought at last together to love and praise Thee forever and ever. Amen." The great audience sang "America," and the greatest religious gathering of the ages was ended. Rev. M. C. Ranseen, Chicago. (Member General Committee.) riie Denominational Qongresses, GST of the different religious denomi- nations and organizations represented in the Parliament of Religions held congresses of their own of several days each, mainly in the smaller halls of the Art Institute, with a single Presenta- tion Day each in a larger hall. They began on August 27th and ended Octo- ber 15th, There were forty-one in all. The programmes were evidently prepar- ed with great care, and the papers in full, of any congress, would fill a volume. Each congress was welcomed by the president of the Auxiliary, Hon. C. C. Bonney, with an address, characterized by great tact, courtesy and ability, always admir- ably adapted to time, place and occasion. Brev- ity forbids the reproduction of the addresses here, and only allows this general reference to what ought to have been preserved in type in full. Most of the following reports and synopses were furnished by those who participated in the congresses, and they may therefore be regarded as official. Some of the denom- inations, as the Episcopal and the Presbyterian (the latter with the exception of one day. Presentation Day), and Calvinistic-Baptist, did not enter into the movement. But most of the churches made elabo rate preparations, and constructed excellent programmes, and executed them with thoroughness, so that their proceedings possessed great value and interest. It should be understood that stirring and inspiring hymns and other devotional exercises were interspersed through all the con- gresses, the report of which here is omitted for want of space. 953 Rabbi Joseph Stolz, Chicago. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 955 THE JEWISH CONGRESS. The Jewish Denominational Congress convened in the Memorial Art Palace, August 27th to 30th, and September 1 3th and 1 5th, under the auspices of the Union of American Hebrew congregations and the Cen- tral Conference of American rabbis. This was the first time in history that the Jews were granted such an opportunity to declare before the world publicly and fearlessly their fundamental doctrines, hopes and aims, their chief spiritual contributions to humanity, their atitude toward other religions, and the respect in which Judaism is still in- dispensable to the highest civilization. The eleven sessions were well attended. The essayists presented their subjects with learning, clear- ness, courage and love, and the enthusiasm born of conviction. It was a memorable occasion, an epoch-marking event, and noteworthy are the words ^vith which President Charles C. Bonney opened the first ses- sion in the Hall of Columbus: "The Providence of the God of Abra- ham, Isaac and Jacob, has so ordered the arrangements of the religious congresses under the auspices of the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition that the mother church from which The Mother all the Christian denominations trace their lineage, and which stands Church, in the history of mankind as the especial exponent of august and tri- umphant theism, has been called upon to open the religious congresses of 1893. But far more important and significant is the fact that this arrangement has been made, and this congress is now formally opened and welcomed by as ultra and ardent a Christian as the world con- tains. It is because I am a Christian, and the chairman of the general committee of organization of the religious congresses is a Christian, and a large majority of that committee are Christians, that this day deserves to stand gold-bordered in human history, as one of the signs that a new age of brotherhood and peace has truly come." The theology of Judaism was treated by Rabbi Isaac M.Wise, of Cin- cinnati, Ohio, who defined Judaism to be " the complex of Israel's relig- ious sentiments ratiocinated to conceptions in harmony with its Jeho- vistic God-cognition. The God-cognition always precedes the religious idea with its commandments and institutions. It is the principle, the first cause and touchstone for all religious knowledges, ordinances and institutions. All religious dogmas and practices must be legitimate conclusions from that principle. The law of laws is, "whatever is in my cognition of God is imperative in my religion; whatever is contrary to my cognition of God is irreligious and forbidden to me." Israel did not make its God; God made Himself known to Israel, and its entire religion grew out of this knowledge; whatever is not in harmony with it is error. Therefore is Israel's religion called "Veneration and Wor- ship of Jehovah" (Ps. xix, 10); its laws and institutions are divine in- asmuch, as they are the sequence of this antecedent; and its expound- ers maintain that this monotheism is the only dogma of Judaism. Its formula is ' The Eternal our God, the Eternal is one ' and its categoric imperative is * Ye shall walk after the Eternal your God.' This God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jaocb, the God enthroned in 956 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, Zion is not a tribal, or national, a local, or any special God. He is the one God revealed to Israel and known, worshiped and proclaimed by Israel only, the Creator, the Judge, the Possessor of heaven and earth, exalted above all time and space, the eternal, infinite, absolute, univer- sal and omnipresent God, supreme Love and Truth, the highest ideal of moral perfection. From this God, cognition follows the belief in a universal and special providence, the atonement of sins, the efficacy of divine worship, the freedom of the will, the accountability, the per- fectibility and the personal immortality of man. These are recorded in the national literature of the Hebrews and actualized in their history. Their truth or error is to be tested by an appeal to reason and Holy Writ." d^sm"^^^*^^' In another essay on the 'Ethics of Judaism,' delivered at the presentation. Rabbi Wise further explained that it is "the duty of man to strive continually to become Godlike, to come as near as possible to the highest ideal of disinterested goodness, love, mercy, justice, holiness and all the other virtues which the innate moral law urges and our God-cognition defines, as Scriptures declare: 'Walk before Me and become thou perfect' (Gen. xvii, i). 'Thou shalt become perfect with the Lord thy God" (Deut. xviii, 13). *Ye shall walk after the Lord your God ' (Deut. xiii, 5). According to Judaism, the moral law was not bestowed by God upon Israel only; it was not con- ditioned by any creed, faith, law or institution; it was the blessing God bestowed upon Adam (Gen. i, 28), the heritage of the entire human family, as Micah said (vi, 8): 'He hath told thee, O man, what is good,' and not O Israel, O Greek, O Roman.' Any person who con- scientiously regulates his volitions and actions to the best of his knowledge in obedience to this moral law is a righteous man, however different his doings may be from those ordained in the Law of Moses; and the rabbis of old declared that his reward would be eternal life. Yet to define the requirements of this moral law the Thora (Penta- teuch) was given to Israel, and with precision it explains what is good and right, true and beautiful in all human affairs, national, social and individual. It reveals to man the ideal of moral perfection and prompts him to rise in the moral scale toward this ideal, the Holy God. Still it is advisory only, there is no coercion, there can be none, for this same Thora teaches the principle of freedom and the duty of reason- ing, and that the moral value of any act is commensurate with its mo- tive, whereas coercion is an imposition, no inner motive at all, cer- tainly no virtue, whatever action it produces is morally indifferent. Ethics of the Talmud, by Prof. Moses Mielziner, described " that TaSud.^^^*^^ stupendous work which records the development of Judaism during nearly a thousand years after the close of the Bible, and maintained that Talmudical ethics is the ethics of the Bible enriched and devel- oped by the wisdom, observation and experience of the rabbis. The moral teachings in that famous book are eminently practical, and at the same time breathe a spirit of love and tolerance and lofty human- ity, as a few quotations will aptly illustrate: 'Without knowledge « '?. ^ 'W Rabbi_G.lGottheil, New York. 958 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. there is no true morality and piety.' 'Great is the dignity of labor; it honors man.' *He who does not teach his son a trade, neglects his parental duty.' 'The world rests on three things: justice, truth and peace.' 'Whatever would be hateful to thee, do not to thy neigh- bor; this is the law, all else is but commentary.' 'Let thy yea be in truth and thy nay be in truth.' 'Deception in words is as great a sin as deception in money matters.' 'He who turns away from works of love and charity turns away from God.' 'Works, of charity have more value than sacrifices; they are equal to the performance of all religious duties." ' Do not separate thyself from society.' 'Better is he who lives off the toil of his hand than he who indulges in idle piety.' 'He who lives without a wife is no perfect man.' 'If thou hast the means, enjoy life's innocent pleasures.' 'No one ought to afflict himself by unnecessary fasting.' 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, is the all-embracing principle of the divine law.' 'The duries of justice, veracity, peacefulness and charity are to be fulfilled toward the non- Jew as well as the Jew.' 'The pious and virtuous of all nations will go to heaven," i. e., man's salvation depends not on the acceptance of cer- tain articles of belief, nor on certain ceremonial observances, but on that which is the ultimate aim of religion, morality, purity of heart and holiness of life." The Doctrine of Immortality in Judaism, by Rabbi Joseph Stolz, Doctrine of of Chicago: Hemaintained that "man's personal immortality was always Immorteiity. an established belief in Israel. Throughout all his long history we search in vain for a period when this doctrine was not affirmed, be- lieved or defended by the Jew. The voluminous literature of Judaism is unanimous on the subject. It has the sanction of priest and prophet, bard and sage, rabbi and people. It is confirmed by precept and by ritual practice. Saul would never have asked the witch of Endor to conjure up the spirit of Samuel, nor would Moses have prohibited "in- quiring of familiar spirits and communing with the dead" had the peo- ple not believed in conscious existence after death. Were not a belief in immortality current the people would not have told of the dead children Elijah and Elisha reanimated by bringing the departed soul back into the lifeless body, nor would they have repeated the story that Elijah went alive into heaven. Hannah says, 'The Lord killeth and maketh alive;' Isaiah declares 'The dead shall live, my dead bod- ies shall rise;' Hozeaand Ezekiel refer to a national resurrection which implies the possibility of the individual's resurrection; and Psalms (i6, I7« 49» 73)» Proverbs (12, v. 28), Job (14, v. 13-15, 49, 26, 27), Ecclesi- asts (12, V. 7). Judaism did not stop with the last page of the Bible. Judaism is a religious force penetrating the ages, and no man, no book, no temple, no synod, no national catastrophe and no oppression could ever stem or destroy it. Its final word was not spoken when Malachi closed his lips, and there is more than a fly-leaf between the Old and the New Testaments. The interim is pregnant with development, and many an idea that was only embryological in the Old Testament period, there reached a fuller and more pronounced growth. Particularly ^■ Rabbi A. Moses, Louisville, K^, 960 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, is this the case with the immortality idea. The Wisdom of Solomon, the second and fourth Books of the Maccabees, the Book of Enoch, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs refer repeatedly to the hereafter. Josephus tells us that in the second century B. C. the doctrine of im- mortality was so prevalent that the three sects quarreled about it. Passages in the Targum, Midrash and Talmud, which are undeniably early traditions, the writings of Philo and Aristobul, the most ancient synagogal ritual, the oldest funeral services and funeral rites all fur- nish proof positive that a belief in immortality existed in Israel prior to the time of Jesus; yea, the very fact that Jesus and His apostles teach it in the very words of the Pharisees shows that it was from Israel that they derived this doctrine. Just as unanimous is the Jew- ish idea that ethics and worship must not be based on the selfish hope or dread of future reward or punishment. *Be not like servants that serve their master for the sake of the reward.' Undisputed is also the idea that this life and its duties are not to be shunned or slighted be- cause of the other life. Man has no right to separate himself from so- ciety and seek seclusion in deserts and caves in order to acquire immortality. * This world is the vestibule to the next. Every right- eous man will be rewarded according to his own merits.' Our life hereafter depends altogether upon our life here. What this fut- ure life is no one can describe. Maimonides sums it all up when he says: 'In the future world there is nothing corporal; everything is spiritual. There is no eating and no drinking, no standing and no sit- ting;' hence no local heaven or hell. P'uture joy is all spiritual joy, the happiness that comes from wisdom, and good deeds; future pain is all spiritual pain, the remorse for ignorance and wickendess. The joy is eternal, because goodness is eternal; the pain is temporal, be- cause 'God will not contend forever, neither will He retain His anger to eternity.' The Jews never taught the eternity of suffering and chas- tisement. They know naught or endless retributive suffering. An eternal hell-fire was alien to them. But 'the pious of all nations of the world will inherit future bliss,' whether they are Jews or non-Jews." TheFunction The Function o^ Prayer according to Jewish Doctrine, by Rabbi of Prayer. Isaac S. Moses, of Chicago: "Td v.nderstand the character of a relig- ion, one must study its prayers; to know the nature of a religious community, one must enter into the sacred precinct of their liturgy. Were today the history of Israel wiped out from the memory of men, were even the Bible to be obliterated from the literature of the world, the student of the science of comparative religion could reconstruct from a few pages of the Jewish prayer book the lofty faith of Israel, the grandeur of his moral teachings, and the main points of his historic career. What kind of men were they who would pray every morning: 'Be praised, O God, King of the world, who hast not made me a slave?' They certainly had no reference iz the poor "creature bought and sold like merchandise; for neither in old, nor in later Israel, was slavery so extensive, nor so abject as to call forth such a self-complacent bene- diction and during the long night of persecution the position of the Jew 61 Dr. M. Mielzner, Cincinnati, O. 962 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. - was such as not to compare favorably even with that of a slave. Yet would he pray with grateful devotion to his Maker and rejoice that he had not been made a slave. Truth, or the Torah, is the second great element in Jewish worship. Amidst all changes of fortune, in the face of direst distress, even in the agony of death, the Jew would look upon his lot as specially favored by God; thanking Him for the great boon of having received the burden of the Law. In this Law and in his obedience to it he beholds his chief distinction, or election, before all other nations. " The law, is however, but the outward expression and exemplifica- tion of the deeper truth which is the center and soul of Jewish thought and life, the existence of the One God. This truth is no mere theo- logical postulate; it is an ethical movement; for the declaration of the oneness of God necessarily produces the idea of the oneness of humanity, or the brotherhood of man. ' Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God ' and * thou shalt love thy fellowman as thyself,' are only two different forms of expressing the same thought. In this thought, lies the mission of Israel. " To freedom, law and truth, is added a fourth element of worship, love, love to God and love to man. Among no other class of people has the sentiment of love found such a rich expression as among the Jews; an expression not in words but in deeds. Filial love and rever- ence, honor and obedience, conjugal love and fidelity, brotherly love of^raeL^^^^*'^ ^^^ charity, are virtues to which the Jew has furnished the noblest illustration. From the depth of such a sentiment rose that portion of the service which, because of its importance is called 'The Prayer,' It is unique in form and sublime in its suggest! veness: * Praised be Thou our God, and God of our fathers," our fathers' God — this expres- sion is the noblest testimony to the tender and grateful heart of the Jew — ' Thou art great, mighty and awe-inspiring, O God Most High.' "The function of prayer is not to persuade God by our hymns and praises into granting us favors, but an opportunity for a man to learn to subject his will to the will of God; to strive after truth, to enrich his heart with love for humanity, to ennoble the soul with the long- ing after righteousness. They who are wont to decry the Jew as selfish, narrow, exclusive, should reflect upon this prayer: "*0 God, let the fear of Thee extend over all Thy works, and reverence for Thee fill all creatures, that they may all form one band and do Thy will with an upright heart, so that all manner of wicked- ness shall cease, and the dominion of the presumptuous shall be re- moved from the earth.' " Still more clearly is this idea of the brotherhood of all men ex- pressed in the concluding prayer of every service: ' It behooves us to render praise and thanksgiving unto the Creator of heaven and earth who has delivered us from the darkness of error and sent to us the light of His truth. Therefore we hope that all superstition will speedily pass away, all wickedness cease and the kingdom of Qod be established THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 963 on earth; then will the Lord be King over all the earth; on that day shall God be acknowledged One and His name be One.' " The modern, liberal Jew, who has discarded from his heart as well as his liturgy all longing for a national restoration, but considers his native or adopted land his Palestine, still feels the moral responsibility for the sins of all his brethren in faith, but this feeling does not carry with it the thought of divine punishment. According to Jewish con- ception, man is responsible only for his own sins; forgiveness of sin can be obtained only by thorough repentance. The Jewish worshiper feels ' there is no wall of separation between God and man.' In him lives the consciousness of being a child of God. "In all these prayers and supplications no reference is found to future punishment or reward; no dread of everlasting torment over- shadows the Jewish mind; no selfish longing for eternal pleasures is incentive to his repentance." The Historians of Judaism in the Nineteenth Century, by Rabbi E. Schreiber, of Toledo, Ohio: "The Jew started on his sad pilgrimage of the Middle Ages, but he was permitted to erect only tottering huts. What he built yesterday he had to tear down today. Yet, however short his stay in a country, he never neglected to till the spiritual soil and to sow spiritual seeds. Many historians of our century make the grave mistake of dwelling too much on the persecution and oppression of the Jews, and of not paying greater attention to the brighter side of the picture — that while the Jew was oppressed, the spirit of Judaism could not be suppressed. Too many historians make of our'history simply a vale of sorrow, a tragedy, a tear-stained romance. We do not care for the pity of the world; we challenge its admiration, ask for a just appreciation of the genius of Judaism, which was strong enough to endow the hunted Jew with the faculty of taking deep root even in the spirit and character of that country in which his lot was tem- porarily cast." The Share of the Jewish People in the Culture of the Various Nations and Ages, by Prof. Gotthard Deutsch, of Cincinnati, who elabo- rated, with much attention to details, the thought of the preceding speaker. "The Jews gave to the world the Bible, which has found its way into the thoughts, sentiments and institutions of all civilized men. Christianity, as it was developed during the first century, derived its doctrines, thoughts and forms of expression from rabbinical Judaism, and in this garb Judaism has conquered the civilized world. Even the original part of Christianity, the combination of the Logos with the Jewish national Messianic idea, was the result of Jewish-Alexandrian philosophy. The Jews were the carriers of Greek learning to Europe. They were the pioneers in Bible criticism. They furnished the weapons for the Protestant reformation, enriched philosophy with the thoughts of Spinoza and Mendelssohn, and occupy a prominent place in modern art, music, drama, literature, journalism, science, philosophy, history, exploration, statesmanship and finance." The Contribution of the J^ws to the Preservation of the Sciences Historians of Judaism. Jewish CQlt> ure. 964 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Friends of Science. Ethical Teachings. in the Middle Ages, by Rabbi Samuel Sale, of St. Louis, still further elaborates this theme: "The religion of the Jews contains no ideas that run counter to universal experience and common sense, and therefore it does not quail before the inexorable consequences of ex- act science. It has never set an interdict on free thought and always, admitted of the greatest possible latitude in the exercise of reason. It hails every discovery of the exact sciences, even the most startling, as the sublimest revelation, destined to break down the obstacles and partition walls of sectarian prejudice and superstition, and by leveling the artificial barriers which dogmatists have set up, to prepare the way for the ultimate realization of the grand ideal of its prophets, the fraternization of all men upon the solid basis of justice and love. The Jews were the first to raise Bible criticism to the dignity of an inde- pendent branch of research, without which the Protestant Reformation would not have been possible. Most of the rabbis of the Middle Ages were physicians, and until the end of the seventeenth century, medi- cine and the natural sciences had not parted company. There was no branch of inquiry that did not claim their attention and devotion, and so eager were they in search of knowledge that they traversed all countries to find it. The Christian schools of the Middle Ages resounded with the praises of a philosopher celebrated as one of the profoundest thinkers, whose views they feared to refute, and oftener adopted as their own, Avicebron, or Ibn Gabirol, the author of the 'Fountain of Life,' a Jew who was the first to give a lasting incentive and influence to the philosophic thought of the Middle Ages. Moses Maimonides, too, ex- ercised a powerful influence not only upon the medical philosophers, but also upon Leibnitz, Spinoza, Kant and Hegel. "The Jews have never been mere idle recipients of the liberal cult- ure of others, but they have always been eager and earnest co-workers in every realm and department of knowledge. If the Jews of the Mid- dle Ages have not been awarded sufficient recognition for the impor- tant part they have enacted in the enlargement and preservation of the sciences, it is due to the systematic and stupid attempts to suppress them and keep them and their religion in the background. The fail- ure to give them their full measure of desert is but another colossal exemplification of the willingness with which men forget their bene- factors. Synagogue and Church in their Mutual Relations, particularly in reference to the Ethical Teachings, by Rabbi K. Kohler, of New York: "The synagogue and church represent but the prismatic hues and shades, refractions of the same divine light of truth. Working in different directions and spheres they supplement and complete one another, while fulfilling the great providential mission of building up the kingdom of truth and righteousness on earth. Moses ben Maimon and Juda Halevi declared that both Jesus and Mohammed (church and mosque) are God's great apostles to the heathen, intrusted with the task of bringing the nations of the West and the Eastevernearerto God, S. C. Eldridge, San Antonio, Texas. %^ THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, the universal Father. The synagogue holds the key to the mysteries of the church, which is flesh of our flesh and spirit of our spirit. Jesus and His apostles were both in their life and teaching Jews. From the Jewish synagogue they caught the holy fire of inspiration to preach the coming of the kingdom of heaven, for which they had learned to pray, while sending up their daily incense of devotion to the- * Father in heaven.' "Jesus was a true son of the synagogue. There was no reason why He should antagonize the teachings of the synagogue any more than John the Baptist did. When asked what He took to be the foremost commandment. He began like any Jew with the ancient watchword, * Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,' and then He declared as the next one, * Love thy neighbor as thyself.' And from His own lips we have the declaration, ' Think not that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.' There was no reason for the Jewish people at large, nor for the leaders of the synagogue, to bear Him any grudge, or to hate the nobleist and most lofty-minded of all the teachers of Israel. It was the anti-Semitism of the second century church that cast the guilt upon the Jew and his religion. Jesus died a true Essene Jew, and the followers of Jesus were perfect Jews themselves. "The church, pointing to the temple ruins as the death warrant of ancient Israel, became aggressive; the synagogue was pushed into defensive, scattered and torn into shreds. The church became the oppressor, the Jew the martyr; the church the devouring wolf; Israel the lamb led to slaughter, the man of sorrow from whose wound the balm of healing was to flow for the nations. "There are three radical defects in the church. Salvation is made dependent on creed; to be a true follower of Christ life must be shaped after the pattern of the Sermon on the Mount, which means renouncing wife, wealth and comfort, offering no resistance to acts of injustice and forgetting the claims of home and country, state and society; and human gaze is shifted from this life to the life beyond the grave. Against these views the synagogue has ever protested, and in the great battle between Christian and Moslem, between faith and reason, the Jew stood all through the ages pointing to a higher justice, a broader love, ever waiting and working for the larger brotherhood of man. While standing in defense of his own disputed rights, the Jew helped, and still helps, in the final triumph of the cause, not of a single sect, or race, or class, but of humanity; in the establishing of freedom of thought and of conscience, in the unfolding of perfect man- hood, in the rearing of the kingdom of justice and love, in which all creeds and nationalities, all views and pursuits blend like the rainbow colors of the one bright light of the sun." Position of '^^^ Position of Woman among the Jews, by Rabbi Max PVoman. Landsbcrg, of Rochester, N. Y., " showed that the position assigned to woman in the Biblical J^istory of her creation, is expressed in THE WORLD'S CONGRESi^ Oh RELIGIONS, 967 Influence of Moses Men- delssohn. such an exalted manner that not only all conceptions af antiquity are put in the shade by it, but the highest civilization yet attained cannot conceive of a more sublime ideal. There is a perfect equality of man and woman; yea, the Bible does not say that woman, the physically weaker one, shall leave her father and mother and cling to her husband; but man, the physically stronger one, shall cling to his wife, who in a high condition of humanity is morally and ethically his superior. A wealth of sentiment so universally ascribed to modern ideas is contained in this ancient Hebrew thought. It furnishes the key-note for the exalted position of woman among the Jews, so strangely exceptional in practical equality, chastity, dignity, domestic affection, religious power and moral influence when compared with that of all the ancient and modern nations. Today Jewish woman has the same religious rights and obligations in the synagogue that man has, and she is a most powerful factor in the promotion of Jewish religious life and sentiment." The Development of Religious Ideas in Judaism since Moses Mendelssohn, by Rabbi G. Gottheil, of New York: ** Reformed Juda- ism did not begin as a revolt from ecclesiastical oppression; it was not a deflection from the creed on which the synagogue is built; it was life itself that demanded a reform. Problems deeper far and more vital soon came to the surface. The Israelite should not be placed in the dilemma of either foregoing the full enjoyment of his civil rights or forswearing his religion, but just as little should he profess doctrines or practice rites which he had ceased to believe in, or which conflicted with his own widened sentiments. *' The Bible, the Talmud and all the rabbinical enactments are the product of the genius of the Jews for religious life. They are for guidance, not for domination over the spirit. We are no longer answerable, because we hold to the Old Testament for everything the jSiafwn.™^^ book contains concerning the nature of God, or His providence, or His justice, or in regard to the soul, or our duties to men, or the rights of the Gentiles; we place them at their historical value. Neither can they hinder us from receiving light and inspiration from other sources. Under the influence of these reform principles, the following are the most notable changes that have come to pass: " First. The unity of God, that chief corner-stone of Judaism, is conceived of more in its inclusive than exclusive bearing; it is no longer, as it has been, a cause of separation and estrgjngement from people of other faiths, but the opposite, for seeking their fellowship and cooperation in all things good, true and right. The one Father in heaven enjoins upon us the obligation of seeking to bring all His human children into the bonds of a common brotherhood. "Second. The idea of a ' chosen people' has for us no other meaning than that of a people commissioned to do a certain work among men; it implies in our sense no inherent superiority of race or descent, least of all of preference and favoritism in heaven. The word that came from the Jewish mind thousands of years ago, *God 968 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, is no respecter of persons,' is not contravened by us either in our belief or in our prayers, or in our feelings toward non-Jews, and that other word from the same source, " Love thy neighbor as thyself," forbids us to countenance the least restriction of right or of duty based on a difference of race, station, culture or religion. " Third. Palestine is venerable to us as the ancient home of our race, the birthplace of our faith, the land where our seers saw visions and our bards sang their holy hymns; but it is no longer our country in the sense of ownership; that title appertains to the land of our birth or adoption. " Fourth. The worship of prayer and praise, and of the devout reading of the Scriptures, had already won the affections of the Jewish people a century and more before our common era, in the regions of the diaspora, long before that time. The people's meeting house or synagogue, that glorious creation of the rabbis, as Claude MontQfiore calls it, the venerable mother of every church or mosque on earth, of St. Peter in Rome as St. Paul in London and the Sadsh in India, be- came the real temple, and the pious and informed leader in devotion, the priest of the future. The adoption of the name 'temple' for our houses of prayer, in preference of ' synagogue,' is one of the land- marks of the new era. It is a public avowal, and, as it were, official declaration that our final separation from Palestine and Jerusalem has deprived us of nothing we cannot have wherever we gather together for the worship of the One and only true God and the study of His will. •' Fifth. The tragic question of the Messiah has ceased to be a question for us; it has been answered once for all, and in such wise that we have no controversy on that point with any creed or church. Has come, is to come, or to come again, all difference in time has be> come obsolete to us, by the adoption of the present tense: Messiah is coming, has been coming in all past ages; as one of the Talmudists distinctly taught, ' Messiah's days are from Adam until now.' '' Sixth. With this development of the Messianic idea came the change in the conception of Israel's dispersion. We deplore no more our dispersion, wish for no ingathering. Where God has scattered us, there also is His vineyard into which we are called as laborers." Judaism and the Modern State, by Rabbi David Philipson, of Judaism and Cincinnati, Ohio: " He affirmed that the Jews do not consider them- state. ^^^'"^ selves a nation, but a religious community which expects no Messiah, and desires not to return to Palestine. They are Jews in religion only, citizens of their Fatherland, whatever or wherever it maybe, in all that pertains to the public weal. Judaism discountenances the connection of church and state; each shall attend to its own. Judaism teaches its confessors that if any contingency should arise in which the religion would be in conflict with the state, the religion must take the second place, for we recognize no power within a power. The Jews are not a class standing apart, but their hearts and hopes are bound up with everything that conduces to civic advancement and their country's THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 969 honor and political triumphs. They recognize in all men brethren and pray for the speedy coming of the day when all the world over re- ligious differences will have no weight in political councils, when Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, Agnostic, as such, will not figure in the de- liberations of civil bodies anywhere, but only as men." Rabbi Joseph Silverman, of New York, spoke on " Popular Errors About the Jews;" Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, of Chicago, on ** Bible Criti- cism and Judaism " and '* The Ideals of Judaism;" Rabbi M. H. Harris, of New York, on " Reverence and Rationalism;" Rabbi L. Grossmann, of Detroit, on the "Altitude of Judaism to the Science of Comparative Religions;" Rabbi C. H. Levy, of Lancaster, on "Universal Ethics Ac- cording to ProfessorSteinthal;" Rabbi A. Moses, of Louisville, on" Who Is the Real Atheist?" and "Judaism a Religion, Not a Race;" Rabbi I. Schwab, of St. Joseph, Mo , on "A Review of the Messianic Idea of the Jews from the Earliest Times to the Rise of Christianity;" Rabbi A. Kohut, of New York, on the " Genius of the Talmud." How wonderful, a congress of Jews in the dying years of the nine- teenth century! Though oldest in time, smallest in number, with a ^ ^'^ea* Event record of trials that makes every feeling heart shudder; here were de- scendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob voicing enthusiastically in one • of the newest cities of a new continent, the truths the prophets uttered on the plains of the Jordan thousands of years ago. The old message . was on their lips, but still they were abreast of the times in all the vital issues of religion and morals; maintaining their distinctness and yet seeking the fellowship of all the others and pledging their hands and hearts to the best things all were working for; loyal to their old teachings and yet in the van with those accepting the latest established truths of science and philosophy. " Behold My servant, whom I uphold; My chosen in whom My soul delighteth. I have put My spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the nations. I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." JEWISH WOMEN'S CONGRESS. The first religious congress of Jewish women ever held in the history of the world convened at the Memorial Art Palace, September 4th to 7th, and was one of the most successful of all the congresses. The hall was always crowded to its fullest capacity. Intense enthusiasm pre- vailed throughout all the sessions. Like once on the shores of the Red Sea, this occasion again inspired the women of Israel, and they pre- sented the faith of their mothers with all the eloquence and earnest- ness born of conviction and the memory of the Jewish woman's devo- tion to her principles and loyal fidelity to her faith throughout eighteen centuries of the most trying circumstances that woman has ever had to confront. 62 070 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Bible Jewish \Voinen. Jewish Pro- phetesses. Miss Ray Frank, of Oakland, Cal., opened the congress with prayer, and Mrs. Henry Solomon, of Chicago, made the opening address, She " felt that in the parliament of religions, where women of all creeds were represented, the Jewish woman should have a place. •'In our 'Souvenir,' a collection of the traditional songs of our peo- ple, we pay our tribute to the work* and worth of those of our faith who have lived and suffered, making it possible for us to have our faith in this land of liberty. We pay our tribute to the traditions of the past, which were dear to our forefathers. However oppressed and unhappy they were, they sang these songs. They w^ere their staff and stay. From the Ghetto they resounded; they bound them to a spiritual plane which no walls could encompass. Chanting the prayers and singing the songs uplifted them so that they forgot their misery. And we in this land of liberty and prosperity, in this Columbian era, should not forget the deeper tones struck in days of adversity. " To those who are not of our faith, to many to whom we are bound by ties of love and friendship as strong as of faith, we bid a hearty welcome and invite them to take part in our discussions and to be frank with us. Perhaps in this wise we may overcome some of the inherited prejudices unfavorable to us, and if we cannot gain the sym- pathy, we may at least command respect." Miss Miriam Del Banco, of Chicago, followed with a sublime poem on the "White Day of Peace;" and then Mrs. Louise Mann- heimer, of Cincinnati, spoke on the "Jewish Women of Biblical and of Medieval Days to 15CX)." "The women of the Bible! What graceful forms imbued with all that is good and noble, surrounded by the wonderful beauty of oriental scenery, rise at these words out of the gray mist of the hoary past. "Among the multitude of types of maidenly loveliness, womanly beauty and matronly dignity, there are three groups which especially claim our attention and admiration. "The Mothers in Israel! There is no title of honor which through all the generations of the adherents of Mosaic law was more revered than this sweet, blessed name of 'mother,' a-nd rightly so, for what- watchful care, what tender devotion, what self-sacrificing love are expressed in the name by which Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel are dis- tinguished. "The most pronounced characteristics of the 'Mothers in Israel' are their devotion to the duties of home and the deep and tender love for their children. This our heirloom has ever beautified the tents of Jacob and the abodes of Israel. "The next group claiming attention is the group of 'Prophetesses in Israel.' In times of great events it is that the spirit of the Lord moves as it were on the wings of a mighty but voiceless storm. The responsive souls are touched by the waves of the heaving commotion — the others hear nothing and feel nothing. Miriam was the first among the women in Israel whose responsive soul was moved by the breath of the Lord. With timbrel in hand, she led forth the women at the Miss Ray Frank, Oakland, Cal. 972 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. shore of the Red Sea, and sang the song of triumph. 'Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.' "The growing intellectual and spiritual development of woman in Israel is well marked in Miriam, but with Deborah this development reaches a glorious culmination. • "Prophet, judge, leader in battle; poet and sacred singer, where in history do we see again all these various offices filled by one individ- ual, by a woman? And who was Deborah? Was she a princess, or the descendant of a high-priest, or the daughter of a man of high standing and so commanded authority? By no means. She was but the daughter of lowly parents and the wife of Lapidoth, a man not dis- tinguished by position or wealth." References were made to Huldah, the five daughters of Zeloph- chad, Abigail, Alexandra, and others. Closing, the writer said: "If we look for the most prominent trait among Jewish women of Biblical and medieval times, we find maiden or mother, prophetess or queen alike distinguished by a perfect trust in the Eternal." Mrs. Helen Kahn Weil, of Kansas City, continued the subject and spoke on " Jewish Women of Modern Days from 1500:" "Show me a great man — I will show you a great mother! Show me a Modern Jew- S^^^^ racc — I wiU show you an unending line of great mothers, ieh Women. ' In the chronicle of time, whose synonym is eternity, Israel, with Greece, stands out as one of the two great nations of the world. Each of these peoples had its special missionto humanity — one, the teaching of eternal beauty; the other, the propaganda of the one, true God, who is both spirit and beauty. In the annals of Greece we read of Tyrtaeus, the singer, whose inspiring songs aroused the Spartans to battle when all other means failed; in the tablets of Israel we read of the prophetess and poet, Deborah, who sat under the palm tree chant- ing martial hymns, whose theme was the glory of Jehovah, the one true God. "Perchance it may savor a little of heresy, this utterance of mine, that Israel pre-eminently endures as a symbol of woman's regenerative power; but proofs are not wanting to attest this assertion. "The greatest lawgiver who ever drew breath owed the possibility of his career to woman. Pharaoh's daughter, who found the little Moses in his wave-rocked cradle, and Miriam, the houri-eyed, sweet- voiced sister, whose triumphant songs inspired the wavering tribes of Israel to follow their chosen leader through the unknown dangers of the trackless desert, are further incarnations of this truth. All through the Old Testament, at the most crucial times, it is a Deborah, a Judith, an Esther upon whom the fate of their people revolve, and in more modern days it is the discerning eye of Clio, undimmed by the accre- tion of centuries, that still awards this salient place to the women of Israel. "In Spain, where the descendants of the House of David were given sufficient breathing time to devote themselves anew to the study of 2HE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 973 philosophy and poetry, there were women philosophers and poets; and afterward, when the direful day of expulsion came, it was the mothers, wives and sisters of these ill-fated refugees who bore them up in their hour of trial. "In the awful role of Jewish martyrology, woman does not stand a whit behind her brother in her willingness to suffer loss of home, for- tune and life for the sake of her holy religion. The tales told of these Jewish Martyrs delicately natured women, deliberately turning their backs upon the abodes that had sheltered their families for so many generations, clasp- ing their affrighted little ones to their breasts, and encouraging their husbands through their valorous examples, are a legion. "One df the most exquisite of the Old Testament idyls finds its repetition over and over again in these days. Many are the faithful Ruths refusing to be comforted, who say, in dauntless voices: 'Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge.' "Among the notable women of the sixteenth century, Benvenida Abarbanel assumes leading rank. Her husband was the son of him who vainly tendered his entire fortune to Ferdinand and Isabella in order that the impending edict against his people might be repealed. From this sire Samuel Abarbanel inherited the remarkable financial acumen that enabled him to speedily reconstruct the family fortunes. He and his wife deserve to be called the Moses and Judith Montefiore of the sixteenth century. "The Abarbanel mansion was a popular rendezvous, where culti- vated Christians and Jews loved to assemble. Chronicle tells us of one, John Albert Widmanstadt, a pupil of Reuchlin and a man of encyclo- pedic learning, seeking an abode there in order to further his advaixe- ment in Hebrew studies. "The name of Donna Gracia Mendes, with that of her daughter, Reyna, princess of Naxos, find frequent repetition in the literature of the period. Many are the books inscribed to them, and many are the songs sung in their praise. One of the first printing presses constructed in Turkey was erected by Reyna for the purpose of supplying a new and much-needed edition of the Talmud. "Toward the beginning of the seventeenth century the condition of the European Jews grew more and more intolerable. The Catholic reactionists, with the Jesuits at their head, were everywhere waging a relentless battle against light and learning. In Turkey, where for fifty years the Jews had maintained such honorable positions, a new spirit of persecution had set in. The Thirty Years War, dancing its dance of death through Germany, and the Cossack massacres in Poland, threat- ened an almost vandalic annihilation of all higher civilization. "In this wholesale immolation the Jew, ever the fated target for changing political conditions, was again the first victim. " Amidst the heterogeneous elements composing so large a com- munity as Venice, in Shakespeare's day, there may have been a Jessica, there may have been a Shylock, but authenticated record gives us no 974 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OJp- RELIGIONS, Better Days. Jewish Wom- «n Writers. trace of such characters. It tells us, however, of a new Hebrew-Italian school of poetry, among whose chief protagonists were two women, Deborah Ascarelli and Sara Copia Sullam. Of especial interest is the life of the latter. Beautiful and highly gifted, the possessor of an extra- ordinary mind, in which the genius of poetry and philosophy were equally blended, the writer of a treatise on the immortality of the soul, and the main figure in an episode in which a love-lorn and proselyting priest is the hero, and she, the steadfast and faithful Jewess the hero- ine, the story of Sara Copia Sullam is imbued with all the interest of a romantic tale of fiction. As the eighteenth century neared the zenith of its meridian, dim heraldings of better days began to penetrate the stifled atmosphere of the Ghetto. Here and there, amidst the sorely pressed multitude, a few faint glimmers of the speedily approaching renaissance made themselves perceptible after so many years of abject self-suppression, the Jews were again beginning to appreciate the glory of the indi- vidual and the glory of the race. His resuscitating influence pervaded every department of human existence, and a special testimonial to the living force of his example, is the fact, that never once, even in his own home, did Moses Mendelssohn descend from the pure ideals he considered should constitute the character of every normal child of God. His attitude toward women was ineffably beautiful. " Side by side on a perfect equality with their brothers, the Men- delssohn girls received the best education that was then procurable. Among the celebrated men and women who congregated at the phi- losopher's home, Dorothea, Rachaeland Henrietta Mendelssohn were deemed no small attraction. The eldest daughter, particularly, was noted for her logical and rigorous mentality. Of all the children of Moses Mendelssohn, Dorothea appears to have been the one who most inherited her father's gifts. "With the exception of a few Jewish houses, where Moses Men- delssohn's example was still pursued, no place where both sexes could equally exchange intellectual confidences had arisen. *'The Henrietta Herz is elected by many authorities the Madame Recamier, of Germany. Beautiful as a siren, the wife of a noted phys- ician and literateur, mistress of half a dozen varied languages, and the hostess of one of the most popular eighteenth century salons, the name of Henrietta Herz is an imperishable memory in the sociological an- nals of her country. Once Schleirmacher likened her to Ceres in token of the ability she possessed to generate among her acquaintances the best and noblest blossoms of human nature. " The blessings of the oppressed and afflicted, arising from all sides to honor the most humane of the centuries' benefactors, are indis- solubly associated with the memory of Judith, the wife of Sir Moses Montefiore. " At the head of the Jewish writers of this country is Emma Laz- arus. She and Heinrich Heine are the two greatest poets produced by the Hebrews in the present century. Between herself and her Mrs. Helen Kahn Weil, Kansas City. 976 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. German co-religionist there was much in common. Both were ladened by the irrepressible Welt Schmerz, of their nation, and both were Greeks as well as Hebrews. Incontestably it is this propinquity of spirit that elects Emma Lazarus the finest of Heinrich Heine's English translators. An imoerishable monument erected by her to the memory of the Passion of Israel, is the collection of prose poems entitled 'By the Waters of Babylon.' " Henrietta Szold, Annie Nathan Myer, Josephine Lazarus, Mary M. Cohen, Minnie D. Louis, Nina Morrais Cohen and Martha Mor- ton are only a few among the many of our countrywomen whose works perpetuate the undiminished intellectual glory of Hoary Headed Israel. ** If the measure of a nation's fame be the standard maintained by its women, then this congress of Jewish women, the first in its history, is a renewed pledge of the immortal possibilities of the Hebrew race." " Woman in the Synagogue" was the theme on which Miss Ray Frank, of Oakland, Cal., spoke. "Excepting in the Talmud, Sarah is not mentioned as possessing the inspirational power which made the prophets of old; yet, there is that chronicled of her which gives rise to the assumption that for a time at least she was the greatest of them all. For in Genesis, Chap, xxi, 12, is recorded the only in- stance of the Lord especially commanding one of His favorites to listen carefully to a woman, ' In all that Sarah may say unto thee, hearken unto her voice.' Evidently the Almighty deemed a woman both capable of understanding and advising. "The life of Hannah inculcates more deeply a lesson, which we women must learn, than that of any other of our sex mentioned in the Bible. Greatest and best among women is she who is a wise mother, for the children are the Lord's, the heirs of heaven. Blessed beyond all is she who by precept and example dedicates her offspring to the Eternal. She may be ordained rabbi, or be the president of a synagogue, but her noblest work, will be at home, her highest ideal a home. Our women living in a century and in a country which gives them every opportunity to improve are not making the most of themselves. " Sisters, our work in and for the synagogue lies in bringing to the temple the Samuels to fulfill the law. " If the synagogues are then deserted let it be because the homes ReiiSon."^^"^^ are filled, then we will be a nation of priests; edifices of worship will be everywhere. '• Influence of the Jewish Religion on the Home " was treated by Miss Mary Cohen of Philadelphia: "The idea with which the Jewish religion was planned was to so engraft it upon the home life that the two should be inseparably joined. The observances of the faith are so en- twined with the everyday atmosphere of the home as to make the Jewish religion and the family life one, a bond in sanctity. In this sense the synagogue is the home, and the home the synagogue. The Hebrew Pc**wiit is the priest or priestess of the family altar. There is no need, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 977 if there is a desire to worship the God of Israel, to visit the sanctuary; it is always right and appropriate to enter the House of God, but it is never indispensable for the performance of religious service. The prayers for the Sabbath eve, the prayers for the Sabbath day, for the fasts and festivals, can be as feelingly and efficiently rendered in the home as in the synagogue. The service on the first night of the Pass- over can undoubtedly be far better observed in the home than even in the sanctuary itself. *^ It was especially noticeable, in the times when the Jews were restricted to life in the Ghettos, that it was very difficult to see just where the religion ended and the home life began. I can never see, in the sometimes punctilious care with which some Hebrew women prepare their homes for the religious festivals, the ground for annoyance or ridicule which it seems to furnish to many critics; to me it presents a beautiful union between the religion and the home. " From the time when Sarah entertained the angels until today, the chain of kindly feeling toward the traveler or the visitor has never been broken; in fact, the well-to-do Hebrew woman holds it a privi- lege to share the fruits of the earth with anyone less favored, and knows that in so doing she is only obeying a divine behest: * And thou shalt rejoice with every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thy house, thou, with the Levite, and the stranger that is in the midst of thee.' " Husband and children in the Jewish home show to the wife and mother a profound affection, and hold her in the greatest honor. Jewish men are almost invariably domestic, valuing their homes as the union of material and spiritual good. "The influence of the Jewish religion in the home may well be treasured as the key-stone to the lasting happiness and usefulness of all the nations of the earth." •'The Influence of the Discovery of America on the Jews" was the theme on which Mrs. Pauline H. Rosenberg, of Allegheny, Pa., spoke as follows: "America, settled by all sects of people fleeing from religious America the intolerance and in search of a place where religious liberty and free- Synonym of dom of conscience might be enjoyed, could not long harbor bitter ^ppo^^^^^^^- antagonisms on the ground of religion. 'America is another name for opportunity. Her whole history appears like a last effort of Divine Providence on behalf of the human race.' From within her boundaries emanated the grand idea of freedom, such as the world had never heard of before. Here was the dreamed-of Utopia, the New Atlantis, the land of promise that opened up the Ghettos of the old world. " Among the workers of all classes in America we find Jews — artisans, tradesmen, merchants, scientists, literateurs, professors, doc- tors, advocates, diplomats, and philosophers, and those who have not attained extraordinary renown are happily amalgamated with the best and happiest nation on earth, exerting a restrictive influence upon extraneous oppressors of their creed, aiding to better the condition of THE WdkLD'S CONGR^S^ OP kkUGtOMS, Jewish Wom- ftn in Charity. Noblesse Oblige. mankind, and working out one of the problems of civilization — to live in friendship and peace, not antagonism, in love and not in hate, and in all questions absorbing the nation working hand-in-hand with the Christian, making a brotherhood of man, radiating an influence to all quarters of the globe; inviting to citizenship America's Jews, the descendants of foreign-born citizens, enjoying liberty, enlightenment and culture for a few generations, judging by past noble achievements, contain a bright promise of future possibilities." "Woman's Place in Charitable Work; What it is, and What it Should be," was the theme on which Mrs. Carrie S. Benjamin, of Den- ver, spoke as follows: "In the field of charity which is almost co-extensive with the field of human action, there is no one to dispute woman's rights, no male angel Gabriel standing with flaming sword at the gate saying: 'Thus far and no farther.' Here she can be a priestess to herself and to others. Had this field of woman's special fitness been cultivated with half the zeal that has been devoted to the so-called woman's cause in other directions, the fig tree had sprung up instead of the thistle. Did woman understand that this is her strength of which she cannot be shorn, as Samson of old, she would not be at the mercy of every Phil- istine who mocks at woman's rights and woman's sphere. "Woman's fitness for the work of charity is emphasized through- out the old Hebrew writings. As the needle to the pole, so should a true woman's heart turn to deeds of charity. If man's proper study is man, woman's proper study is charity. This is the work that lies nearest her and should be dearest to her. She herself was a gift of God's compassion for man, when God saw that it was not good for man to be alone. Hence she is an attribute itself of a divine charity. " Let woman's rights become woman's duties, and woman's suf- frage, humanity's sufferings, and let her remember that though she have the gift of prophecy, and understand all onomies and ologies and the mysteries of spheres and hemi, yea, demi-spheres, though she speak many languages with the tongues of men and of angels, though she be clothed in a splendor that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one unto her, if she have not charity, it profiteth her nothing." ** It seems conclusive that it is to woman that we must look as the invincible a^ent in this work. She is divinely appointed and innately fitted, and for the most part endowed with what is of essential value, leisure. To the unoccupied women the plea arises loudest. ' It is an old legend of just men — noblesse oblige — or superior ad- vantages bind you to larger generosities. Hence, the more gifted the woman, the more goods she is endowed with, the more leisure she possesses, the greater the demands on these resources. " Bentham's principle, * the greatest good to the greatest number,' is most true of charity. The benefits of the more fortunate must be bestowed on the less, or they convict themselves of unfitness to possess their advantages. Surely the graces of culture and wealth will not be Mrs. Henry Solomon, Chicago. 980 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Women as Wage-workers. Duty of Jew- ish Women. thrown away if exercised among the humblest and least cultured, for they need -it and must have it, or it will remain a blind force in the world, the lever of demagogues who preach anarchy and misname it progress. There is no culture so high, no refinement of wealth so ex- quisite, that it cannot find full play in the broadest field of humanity, and there shed a light which shall illumine surrounding gloom, and without which life is like one of the old landscapes in which the artist forgot to put the sunlight. If your fruits are gathered up in store- houses and barns they must decay and die. If your coin is put in chests and vaults, the moth and rust must corrupt and destroy it, "No matter what her walk in life may" be, woman can take up arms in the cause of charity. Whether she be on the highways or in the byways she can find ample scope for her energies in this work. Whether she walk in the day nurseries, through the kindergartens, in the industrial schools, out in the trades with the wage-earners, into the tenements, into the hospitals, out in the streets, into the homes of the poor or rich — 'the ways, they are many; the end, it is one.'" "Women as Wage- workers, with Special Reference to Directing Immigrants," by Miss Julia Richman, of New York, was the next paper. " She suggested that the Jewish women in every large city estab- lish a working women's bureau or agency on strictly business princi- ples. This is not to be a charity. Working women as a class ask no charity; as Mrs. Lowell states the case, 'Charity is the insult added to the injury done to the mass of the people by insufficient payment for work.' This bureau should be operated on the same general basis as teachers' or dramatic agencies, or even intelligence offices. Every candidate for a position of any nature under the head of woman's work must be properly registered, and must pay a small fee as soon as the bureau shall have furnished her with employment of the kind required. The bureau must place itself in communication with every field where- in women are employed, and must agree to furnish competent help of every kind upon demand. " The volunteer corps of agents to supply factory hands should be selected from many and varied sources. Wives and daughters of manu- facturers, forewomen in shops and capable working girls, who could gain a knowledge of conditions within factories and stores that might be withheld from the casual observer, should be largely represented. There should be a separate corps of agents to supply help to families, from governesses down to scullery maids, if necessary. Still another corps must take charge of special help, the dressmaker, the masseur, the skillful nurse, etc. " Do you realize how many thousands of dollars are annually ex- pended in a city like this or New York in fees at intelligence offices to secure, in most cases, thoroughly incapable domestic help? If we could establish in connection with this bureau a training school for servants, from which we could supply competent cooks, laundresses, nurse maids, waitresses, etc., tell me, you housekeepers who hear me, would there be any lack of dollars flowing from your pockets into Mrs. Louise Mannheimer, Cincinnati, Ohio. 982 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, ours? And this brings me to the most important point in my paper. How can any woman with feeling, look upon the hundreds of young girls living in squalid tenements (did I say living? it is barely exist- ing), bending over machines in crowded factories, surrounded in the evening by coarse if not occasionally evil influences, how can she, I say, seeing this, and feeling that in hundreds of families these same girls could find easier work, comfortable beds, good food and refined surroundings, how can she help passing judgment on some one that this condition prevails? What right has she to keep quiet when rais- •ing her voice in protest, may make a few women pause to think. She urged the establishment of training schools for servants, and made many practical suggestions. " The Jews of America, particularly the Jews of New York city, are, perhaps, the most charitable class of people in the whole world. Time, labor and money are given so freely in some directions. But charity is not always philanthropy, and we have reached a point in the devel- opment of various sociological problems which makes it imperative that philanthropy be placed above charity. The need of charity must disappear as we teach the rising generations how to improve their con- ditions." *' Charity as Taught by the Mosaic Law" was the subject discussed Mosaic Charity by Miss Eva L. Stern, of New York; Mrs. Minnie Louis, of New York, on " Mission Work Among the Unenlightened Jews," and Mrs. Laura Jacobson, of St. Louis, on " How Can Nations be Influenced to Protest or to Interfere in Cases of Persecution." The latter subject aroused intense interest, and the discussion became historical from the em- phatic manner in which Archbishop Ireland, Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Mrs. Celia Wooley and William J. Onahan denounced the present European persecution of the Jews. The last session was devoted to the subject of forming a national organization in response to the exhaustive paper and strong appeal of Miss Sadie American, of Chicago, who said: "The Jews needed no formal organization. They need it now; times have changed. In the larger, freer life which has been opened to them, the closeness of their union has been broken; their restrain- ing fetters loosed, the spirit of organization no longer animates their doings; in the reaction from the close band of a common fear there is danger that their interdependence will be forgotten, that in the spirit of sauve qui pent, which the law of self-preservation causes to show itself, some may forget that each is his brother's keeper, that every act done by any Jew casts its light or shade on every other Jew; there is danger of forgetting that so long as one Jew is oppressed or suffers because he is a Jew, so long are Jews bound together by chains of adamant which no straining can break, which none can escape; so long must they unite under one banner to break those chains, opposing might with might until the full triumph of truth and justice shall break them with a touch. " The Jewish wonian has shared the ideas and thoughts of the man, Needed nization THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 983 She has aided with heart and hand in his work; the assistance of her head has rarely been asked. Her real work has been confined to the home. There it is she has made her influence felt. To the Jew, moth- erhood was and is the highest, noblest type of womanhood. In the home the Jewish woman reigned as queen-; to her were left the per- formance of religious rites in the household. But the Jewish woman is interested in all that interests woman, is in perfect sympathy with the time; custom and tradition, however, and the misunderstanding, misconception and excluding prejudice of the world have militated against her showing this publicly. It is the bounden duty of the Jew- ish woman, on account of this misunderstanding of her true nature and interests, to make these manifest; it is her duty, as it is that of all Jews, to make prominent her qualities in conjunction, that they may cast in the shade her qualities in opposition. It is not enough that she be in sympathy with her time, she must be running hand and hand with it. " An organization must have a definite purpose. I can see, loom- ing up in the distance, purposes in plenty beckoning with fingers of golden light. " First and foremost, let our purpose be, to study the causes and conditions of this so-called separation; let us learn to know ourselves; then to knowledge let us add discernment and disinterestedness that PhUanthropy we may find the best and quickest way to obliterate dividing lines. theWatchword. Let us study our history and our literature, and their bearing on our character and position. Religion, true religion, with which every thought and action are connected, is in woman's hand, because the inward life, the home, is what she makes it; therefore, it is eminently fit that from her should come the impulse to study closer the under- lying principles of her religion. Let us look into their very heart in order that we may know exactly where we stand, that we may know them in every phase of their development. Let each and every one among us know that they make us one with all the world, that they hold the springs of all moral life, the living germ of all morality. Let us learn, that all may judge intelligently, that we may cling to the old faith, not because we were born into it, but because we are con- vinced that for us it is the only possible belief or act. Let us encourage a deeper study of that book, our book, which has been the bread of life to half the civilized world because it contained the story of the eternal springs of action of men, the records of nobility of soul and character, of faith and patience, integrity and bravery and high truth, those things which command men's admiration and emulation through all time. '* If our watchword be not charity, which has come to be almost synonymous with alms and leaves a sting behind, but philanthropy — love of our fellows, the sympathy which holds healing balm for all our wounds and in whose wake follows a doubled happiness, it will open for us numerous luminous ways to do our duty. •* It shall be abpve all, our purpose to create an exchange, where all 984 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. thinking women in Israel, standing on the common ground of their religious convictions, shall meet and enjoy and profit by each other's uncommon ideas and aims and plans, whence such ideas and plans and projects may be sent on a journey of success, impelled by the un- failing force of thinking, active women banded together to forward the cause of progress and social reform. Its meetings shall give free scope to the power that lies in the human voice and countenance, to the free and full personal contact which generates the electric spark of interest, of enthusiasm, of accomplishment; shall make place for and give free play to the exercise of that potent quality which we call personal magnetism, which draws adherents for a cause as the magnet does iron; shall encourage and sow the seed of that noble friendship and fellowship which will be a potent factor to obliterate all trace of the ignoble prejudice of class and caste, which, we must sadly admit, exists even among ourselves. THE COLUMBIAN CATHOLIC CONGRESS. The history of the Columbian Catholic congress dates back to 1889. In November of that year the first general Catholic congress of the United States was held in the city of Baltimore, on the occasion of the celebration commemorating the centennial anniversary of the establishment of the American hierarchy, i.e., the appointment of Rev. John Carroll to the See of Baltimore, the first bishop of the United States. It was toward the end of the proceedings when the Chicago delegation proposed to the assembly that the next or succeeding Catholic congress should be held in Chicago. Instantly objections were offered by several delegates from the eastern cities, and one cSSSSVi- o^ another opposing suggestion was made; finally, the opposition united in an amendment to the Chicago motion " that the next con- gress be convened in the city where the World's Fair shall be held." The controversy as to the site was then waging, with New York confidently in the front; hence the supporters of the amendment did not doubt the discomfiture of the Chicago delegation. They were promptly undeceived by Hon. W. J. Onahan, who smilingly announced that he cordially accepted the amendment since to his mind and his associates in the Chicago delegation the amendment implied the same thing as the original motion. He knew Chicago would secure the World's Fair! The resolution as amended was carried, but Mr. Ona- han and his associates were subjected to no little " chaffing " at the audacity of the proposal to take the next congress to Chicago. Hence, the Chicago Catholic congress was the outgrowth and the successor to the Baltimore Catholic congress of 1889. The programme of the congress elicited extended notice from Catholic and secular journals in every part of Europe and in other quarters of the world. His Holiness, Pope Leo XIH. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The chief topic for consideration was declared to be the "Social Question." This subject was made the text of Pope Leo XIII's cele- brated encylical, issued in 1891, bearing the title "On the Condition of Labor." The encylical constituted the chief text for the Catholic Con- gress, and it was already known that the Holy Father was much gratified and interested when He learned that it would occupy the foremost place in the deliberations of the Columbian Catholic congress at Chi- cago. The conditions under which the congress assembled, in the Columbian year, during the progress of the great World's Exposition, which commemorated the discovery of the New World by the re- nouned Catholic navigator, Christopher Columbus, rendered it nat- ural that the congress should devote the opening session to papers and addresses bearing on the facts and factors of the discovery, and pay a just tribute to the genius and faith of Columbus, as well as to the zeal and enthusiasm of the glorious Queen Isabella, by whose generosity and enlightened cooperation the expedition was made pos- sible. So, likewise, the results and consequences of the discovery and the position and condition of the church in the New World. These subjects were the text and theme of the papers read' at the first day's session, to which was naturally supplemented an important paper treating of "The Independence of the Holy See." = The social question was considered in its various phases according to the following subdivision of subjects: ;'i. The Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII. on the Condition of Labor. Discussed?''''" 2. ;The Rights of Labor; the Duty of Capital. 3. Pauperism and the- Remedy. 4. Public and Private Charities; How to Make Them More Effective and Beneficial. 5. Workmen's Societies and Societies for Young Men. 6. Life Insurance and Pension Funds for Wage- . workers. 7. Trade Combinations and Strikers. 8. Immigration and Colonization. 9. The Drink Plague. ! These subjects were still further subdivided, as will appear in the report of the proceedings which follows. The task of preparing the various papers was committed to Catholic writers of known ability, most, if not all, of whom were especially qualified by study and experi- ence for the task imposed upon them. The high character and literary ability of the papers was an ample and conclusive vindication of the wisdom shown in the selection made of the writers. The same is true of the special papers on "Catholic Education," " Woman's Work in Art and Literature," " The Catholic Summer School and the Reading Circles," "The Condition and Future of the Negro Race," " The Condition and Future of the Indian Tribes," etc. ' Monday, September 4th, was the day appointed for the meeting of the congress, the place the Hall of Columbus. As a fitting preparation for the important work of the week the delegates were invited to assist at a solemn high mass in St. Mary's Church, Wabash avenue. A brief appropriate sermon was preached by Rev. Chancellor Muldoon. The cardinal gave the blessing at the close of the mass. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGJONS, 987 The "Official Call," issued by the committee on organization, pro- vided for the following subjects: i. The Discovery of the New World. 2. Columbus; His Character and His Mission. 3. The Results and Con- sequences ' D Religion and Civilization of the Discovery. 4. The Mis- sionary Work of the Church in the New World. 5. The Influence of the Catholic Church on the Political, Civil, and Social Institutions of the United States. 6. Isabella, the Catholic. Division of the subject: i. The Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on the Condition of Labor. 2. The Rights of Labor; the Duty of Capital. 3. Pauperism and the Remedy. 4. Public and Private Charities; How to Make Them More Effective and Beneficial. 5. Workmen's Societies and societies for young men. 6. Life insurance and pension funds for Wage-workers. 7. Trade Combinations and Strikers. 8. Immigra- tion and Colonization. 9. The Drink Plague. 10. The Conditions and Future of the Indians in the United States. 1 1. The Conditions and Future of the Negro Race in the United States. 12. SuppienTentary questions: (i.) Catholic education in the United States. (2.) The in- dependence of the Holy See. The papers on the "Social Question," on "Catholic Education" and on "The Condition and Future of the Indian Tribes and of the Ne- gro Race," after being read in the congress, were then to be referred to "sections," or committees, where each subject should be again con- sidered in detail, but this part of the programme, for reasons detailed elsewhere, was not carried out. Section i. "The Condition of Labor." "The Rights of Labor — The Duties of Capital." Section 2. "Trade Combinations and Strikers." "Workingmen's Organizations." Section 3. "Poverty — the Cause and the Remedy." "Public and Private Charities." "Life Insurance and Pension Funds for Wage-workers." Section 4. "Intemperance — the Cause and the Cure." Section 5. "Woman's Work and Influence." Section 6. "Catholic Truth Society." Section 7. "Catholic Education." Section 8. "Condition of the Indian Tribes in the United States." "Condition of the Negro Race in the United States." Section 9. "Catholic Interests." At the conclusion of the solemn high mass the delegates pro- ceeded to the Art Institute building. The large hall was thronged in every part by a great mass of people assembled in eager desire to see the cardinal and other eminent church dignitaries and to witness the opening proceedings. After the organ, under the touch of a master's fingers, had poured forth the glorious chant of the "Te Deum," Mr. Onahan, on behalf of the committee on organization, called the congress to order and announced that His Grace Archbishop Feehan would deliver the address of welcome to the delegates. The archbishop's address was brief but feeling. He said among other things: "You have come to discuss some of the great questions and problems of life. None of the questions of our time are of more importance than those on the programme. You are to discuss the independence of the Holy See, the The Social Question. The Pro. gramme 988 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, question of Catholic education, and the great social questions as pro- pounded in the Pope's encyclical. You represent parishes, dioceses and great states, and fully ten milliors of members of the Catholic church." When Archbishop Feehan had concluded he introduced President Bonney, of the World's Congress Auxiliary, who gave an address of welcome. Vice-president T. B. Bryan spoke in the same strain and alluded to his visit to Rome and the Holy Father, and how enthusiastically the pope had promised his influence in favor of the great Exposition. Cardinal Gibbons was the next speaker. When his Eminence ad- vanced to the speakers' stand there was a burst of applause, which grew more and more enthusiastic, until the audience rose and stood for some time cheering, the ladies waving handkerchiefs. When at length the enthusiasm subsided the Cardinal said: " During the last four months millions of visitors have come from all parts of the United States, nay, from every quarter of the globe, to contemplate on the exposition grounds the wonderful works of man. They know not which to admire more — the colossal dimensions of the buildings, or their architectual beauty, or the treasures of art which they contain. The caskets and gems were well worthy of the nine- teenth century, worthy of the nations that brought them, worthy of the indomitable spirit of Chicago. Let us no longer call Chicago the Windy City, but instead the city of lofty inspirations. Let us no longer call Chicago Porkopolis. Let me christen her with another name. Chicago ia Let me call her Thaumatopolis, the city of wonders, the city of mir- matopoiiB.^"" acles. And I think that Dr. Davis (with his associates) may be called the Thaumaturgus of the Columbian Exposition enterprise. ** But while other visitors have come to contemplate with admira- tion the wonderful works of man, you are to consider what man can accomplish in the almost boundless possibilities of his spiritual and in- tellectual nature. You will take counsel together to consider the best means for promoting the religious and moral, the social and economic well-being of your fellow-citizens. " When I look into your earnest and intelligent faces, I am almost deterred from imparting to you any words of admonition. But you know well that we clergymen are in the habit of drifting unconsciously into the region of exhortation, just as financiers drift into the region of dollars and cents and figures. I may be pardoned, therefore, for giving you a word of advice. In all your discussions be ever mindful of the saying of St. Vincent Lerins: " In necessariis unitas, in dubiis lib ertatibus, in omnibus caritas." Happily for you, children of the church, you have nothing to discuss in matters of faith, for your faith is fixed and determined by the divine legislator, and we cannot improve on the creed of Him who is " the way, the truth and the life." " Let all your proceedings be marked by courtesy and charity, and by a spirit of Christian forbearance toward one another. Never de- scend to personalities. Many a delicious speech has lost its savor and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, been turned into gall because a few drops of vituperation had been in- jected into it. The edifice of moral and social improvement which you aim to build can never be erected on the ruins of charity. " God grant that our fondest anticipations of your labors may be realized, and that the invocatio^n today of the divine blessing, which is so full of hope, may be crowned at the end of your sessions by a Te Deum full of joy and gratitude for the success of this congress. " And as an earnest of this happy result I hold in my hand a letter that I received from the Holy Father, in which he blesses this congress. May his blessing and the blessing of God dominate this assembly. May it enlighten your minds and warm your hearts, and be a harbinger of peace and concord in all your deliberations." Mr. Onahan read the translation of the Pope's letter, which was as R^ad?Th?* follows: To Our Beloved Son James Gibbons by the Title of Sancta Pope's Letter. Maria in Trastevere, Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church, Arch- bishop of Baltimore. — " Beloved Son: Health and apostolic benediction. It has afforded us much satisfaction to be informed by you that in the coming month of September a large assembly of Catholic gentlemen will meet at Chicago, there to discuss matters of great interest and importance. Furthermore, we have been specially gratified by your devotion and regard for us in desiring as 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 congress aforesaid, and to the clergy and faithful committed to your care, we lovingly in the Lord impart our apostolic benedic- tion." Given at Rome at St. Peter's, the seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-three and of our Pon- tificate the sixteenth." Leo XHL Pope. The temporary organization of the congress, which was subse- quently made permanent, was then announced as follows: Chairman, Hon. Morgan J. O'Brien, of New York; Secretaries, Hon. Thomas C. Lawler, Prairie du Chien, Wis., Prof. James F. Edwards, Notre Dame, Ind., James F. O'Connor, St. Louis, Mo., John Mason Duffy, Chicago. In taking the chair. Judge O'Brien delivered a lengthy address, j^^ the substantial points of which are contained in the following sen- O'Brien Speake tences: '* Our country, therefore, is doubly dear to us. We were here at its first discovery; we participated in its struggle for civil and re- ligious liberty, and in turn have participated in its glories and enjoyed peace, security and happiness. It is more dear to us, because in this land above all others the old faith has fair play. The early discoverers of America, as well as our revolutionary forefathers, were imbued with strong religious principles, upon which alone virtue can be grounded, 990 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Archbishop Redwood. Monsignor Nugent. and this, added to their hardy and physical natures, laid the founda- tions and gave the impetus to that splendid civilization which is now the heritage of all. "While, therefore, glorying in our triumphs and proud of our wonderful development, we could not, if we would, fail to discover those dark and ominous clouds which hover over our national firma- ment and which are the inevitable forerunners of a violent storm. The presence of these clouds is not difficult to account for. The hardy and rugged virtue of our forefathers no longer exists, for the history of our country will show that the moral decadence of our peo- ple has kept rapid pace with the augmentation of our material pros- perity. " * * Over the halls of this congress, therefore, we will write the poet's words, so that all the ends we aim at shall be * Our God's, our Country's and Truth's.' " Following the address of the chairman, Mr. Onahan read letters from Monsignor Satolli, the apostolic delegate, and others. Archbishop Redwood, of New Zealand, was next introduced. He said he had come nine thousand miles to attend this congress and to see the glories of the World's Columbian Exposition, but his interest centered more particularly in the congress and the parliament of re- ligions which was to follow. He hoped to bring back to his people in New Zealand the wonderful lessons derived from these great events. Monsignor James Nugent, of Liverpool, the world-renowned apostle of temperance and charity, was presented as the representa- tive of the English hierarchy and the special delegate of Cardinal Vaughan, of Westminster. Monsignor Nugent had been a conspicuous figure in the previous Catholic congress in Baltimore and is well known in the United States. He was given an enthusiastic welcome by the delegates and the audience. He said in part: "When it was conceived of having a congress of English-speaking people he was one of the first who was consulted upon the matter. The first proposition was that it should be held in London, but he with his wonderful grasp of character knew that with our crippled ideas and habits this was the true field for the expression of the Catho- lic mind upon all those great social questions which are the very root not only of religion, but of the stability of society. It has been my lot to have worked with Cardinal Manning closely and intimately, and to have shared his confidence since the year 1853; and when I go back I shall be able, I trust, to place an immortelle upon his grave as the ex- pression, the Catholic expression, aye, the universal expression, of honor for the deep interest which he took in the people, irrespective of creed or nationality." After Monsignor Nugent's address the chair appointed the vari- ous committees on organization, etc., after which the regular order, the reading of the papers prepared for the congress was proceeded with: The first paper on i. "The Relations of the Catholic Church to the Social, -Civil and Political Institutions of the United States," by Francis Archbishop SatoUi, Papal Ablegate, 992 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Edgar H. Gans, Esq., Baltimore. 2. "The Missionary Work of the Church in the United States," by Rev. Walter Elliott, C. S. P., New York. 3. " Civil Government and the Catholic Citizen," by Walter George Smith, Esq., Philadelphia. 4. " The Independence of the Holy See," by Hon. Martin F. Morris, Washington, D. C. 5. "Colum- bus; His Mission and Character," by Richard H. Clarke, LL. D., New York. 6. "Isabella, The Catholic," by Mary J. Onahan, Chicago. 7. " Consequences and Results of the Discovery of the New World," by George Parsons Lathrop, LL. D., New London, Conn. The paper read by Edgar H. Gans, of Baltimore, was an able presentation of the view that the Catholic church is in no respect antagonistic to American principles, social, civil or religious, but, on the contrary, its prosperity is compatible with the truest and highest development of the country, both material and moral. " The fundamental idea of the American system of government is the sovereignty of the people. It is a government by the people and for the people. The halls of congress and of the state legislatures are filled, not with rulers, but with representatives of the people elected to carry out their ideas. The people themselves make and unmake ad- ministrations. Their policy ultimately becomes the policy of the government. They are in reality the rulers; the true sovereigns. They govern themselves. "Above all, the government cannot pass any law respecting the establishment of religion, nor interfere, in any way, with the liberty of every man to worship God in such manner as his conscience may dictate. The Catholic " This is the American system. The relations of the church are American ^n^ therefore discerned in her relations to the sovereign people; the in- Btitutione. fluence she exerts is over their minds and hearts, and she affects our national life by fashioning and directing their lives and conduct. " Instead of finding in the potent moral influence which the church exerts over the people anything hostile to American institutions, the candid inquirer will discover in her teaching and tendencies the strongest safeguards for their permanence and stability. " Government, according to the Catholic church, is ordained by God. The Catholic is loyal to the American government as the legitimately established government of this country, not because it is stronger than he. His principle of submission is not founded upon his idea of physical force, nor yet entirely upon his strong affection and patriotic predilection for its great principles. He is of necessity loyal because it is his conscientious duty. Patriotism is sublimated and be- comes a religious obligation. Is there anything un-American in this? Does this teaching not tend to make good citizens? " Among the many evils that afflict the body politic none is more deplorable than the frequency with which the will of the people is frustrated by frauds in elections. This has been the theme of statesmen and political moralists for years. All recognize it as the cancer which has been insiduously attacking the very life of THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 993 the nation, which must be eradicated and destroyed if we are to pre- serve our institutions in their integrity. ** Here, again, the church intervenes. According to the teaching of our learned doctors, the political sovereignty which is vested in a nation, under the ordinance of God, is vested so that it may be used for the public good. When the people exercise sovereign political power they exercise a power given to them by the Great Sovereign, in trust, and they are bound in conscience to perform the trust honestly and with fidelity. "Thus another fundamental political duty is transformed into a conscientious obligation. As no man can be disloyal to his govern- ment and be a good Catholic, so no man can be a good Catholic and pollute the ballot-box, or in any other way fraudulently frustrate the electoral of the people. Is this teaching un-American? " All the hostile criticism of the church in this connection rests upon an ignorance of the real nature of liberty. To many unreflect- American in ing persons the word liberty conveys no meaning except the absence stitutions Un- of restraint, the absence of any external power controlling the will.* "^^^• For them liberty means the right to follow their own wills and inclina- tions without let or hindrance. This, however, is the liberty of anarchy; it is not American liberty. We are free American citizens, but may we do as we like? May a man make a contract with me and break it with impunity? May he injure my property, infringe my rights or personal security, obstruct the conduct of my legitimate business, steal my goods, put a bullet through my brain, without be- coming a subject for the coercive discipline of the law of the land? " Men cannot live together without government, and government implies the restraining influence of law. " Therefore by the highest American authority, for the security of liberty, governments are instituted and constitutions ordained and es- tablished. Liberty cannot exist without the authority of government exercised under the forms of law. " Our American institutions are justly deemed the masterpiece of human contrivance for securing government which will rule only for the general good. It is in accomplishing precisely this result that the church uplifts and sustains the weak hands of men by her potent spiritual power. " The Catholic church has been the only consistent teacher and supporter of true liberty. In her spiritual empire over the souls of men she is a government instituted and established not by the people but by God Himself. She administers laws; but they are divine, not •human laws. Her children are protected from spiritual despotism; not by checks and balances of human contrivance, but by the sacred guaranty of the divine promise. " 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."* *' The Catholic church has been divinely commissioned to teach the truth; and in the possession of the truth her children alone have 63 994 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Un-American. the Church. true liberty. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.' With the church spiritual freedom, as well as civil liberty, is possible only with law and government. Th r th r " -^^ there anything un-American in this? Is it un-American to say Church, not that there is a sovereignty higher than the sovereignty of the people? Is it un-American to acknowledge subjection to God and to His gov- ernment? The American people are not, we think, prepared to admit that atheism, infidelity and irreligion are part and parcel of their institutions. " But from whatever point of view we examine our American insti- tutions we find them supported and sustained by the church. The declaration of independence declares that "All men are created equal," and we have endeavored to follow the spirit of this truth in the prac- tical workings of our government, by giving each man an equal voice in the conduct of affairs, by discouraging ranks and classes and by insisting upon perfect equality before the laws of the land. " But this democratic equality pales into insignificance before that Democracyin taught and practiced by the church. In her eyes all men are equal because they are sons of the same Father and joint heirs of the heav- enly treasure. Before her altars there is no precedence. The laborer on our streets has for companion the financial magnate; the lowly negro, once a slave in our southern clime, bows with reverential awe side by side with the refined chivalric scholar, once his master, and the Magdalen mingles her penitential tears with the chaste aspiration of the white-souled nun. No such real democracy can be found outside the Catholic church. ** And finally, let us consider another striking characteristic of our American life. We boast with proper pride of the equal opportunity which every citizen has of rising, by his own merit, to the highest position of political honor. Any poor boy in the land has the right to aspire to a seat in congress, to be vested with the judicial ermine or supreme honor, to occupy the chair once filled by Washington. There is nothing in the nature of our institutions which will make the fulfillment of his ambitious hopes impracticable. The brightest names in our history are the names of men who have sprung from an origin as lowly as his own. " Have we not in the church in America a most notable illustration of this equality? An humble American citizen is an august prince of the church. In him we have a living proof of all the principles for which we have been contending. He is a prince of the church; and yet, is he hostile to democracy? He is infused with the very quint- essence of the Catholic spirit; and yet, is he not the very incarnation of true Americanism? He knows full well the plentitude of his spirit- ual power, its high dignity, its wonderful authority; and yet, is he an enemy of American liberty? The whole country knows and acknowl- edges that within the entire confines of the republic there is no more ardent patriot, no more enthusiastic supporter of our American insti- tutions than the gentle, modest, illustrious James Gibbons, cardinal archbishop of Baltimore," Equality in the Catholic Cnnrch. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 995 " The Missionary Work of the Church in the United States " was the succeeding paper by the well known Paulist Father, Rev. Walter Elliott, of New York. In giving his view of the outlook for the extension and propagation of the Catholic faith within the United States, Father Elliott suggested: "Only make a parallel of Catholic principles and American funda- to be^Cathoiii^ mental ideas on human dignity, and you will perceive that we are up to the times and kindred to the nation. There can be little doubt that this republic shall be made Catholic if we love its people as God would have us. We are right, and we can prove it. I do not want to believe those prophets of ill-omen who tell us that we are shortly to find our- selves in the midst of a nation which has lost the knowledge of Jesus Christ as its redeemer, which knows no heaven or hell but the sorrows and joys of this fleeting life; but there is much to confirm that gloomy view. And what voice shall call them back from so dark a doom but the trumpet note of Catholic truth? Who should be foremost in print and on platform and in the intercourse of private life, pleading for Christ and offering His promises of eternal joy, if not Catholic bishops, priests and laity? '* The diffusion of Catholics among non-Catholics makes a personal and independent tone of Catholicity necessary in any case, but it also distributes missionaries everywhere, independent religious characters who can maintain the truth with the least possible external help. It is God's way. One by one men are born, become conscious of responsi- bility, die, are judged. One by one, and by personal influence, non- Catholics are made aware that they are wrong; and then one, and again another of their Catholic friends personally influence them to under- stand that Catholicity is right. " Councils have done much for religion, but men and women have done more, for they made the councils. There were great councils during the two hundred years before Trent, and with them and be- tween them matters grew worse. Why did Trent succeed? held amid wars, interrupted, almost disjointed. Because the right sort of men at last had come — popes, bishops, theologians. It was not new enact- ments that saved us, but new men — Ignatius and Philip Neri, Teresa and Francis de Sales and Vincent de Paul, and their like." ** The Relations of the Civil Government and the Catholic Citizen," civU Govern, was the third paper, by Walter George Smith, of Philadelphia. He cathoiSfcitu contended that: "The church and the state, as corporations or exter- zen. nal governing bodies, are indeed separate in their spheres, and the church does not absorb the state, nor does the state the church, but both are from God, and both work to the same ends, and when each is rightly understood there is no antithesis or antagonism between them. Men serve God in serving the state as directly as in serving the church. He who dies on the battlefield fighting for his country ranks with him who dies at the stake for his faith. Civic virtues are themselves religious virtues, or at least virtues without which there are are no religious virtues, since no man who loves not his brother does or can love God. 996 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. ** The state then does not proceed from the church, nor the church from the state. But as to the form of government the church has no dogma, In the language of Balmes, * the Roman pontiff acknowl- edges equally as his son the Catholic seated upon the bench of an American assembly and the most humble subject of the most powerful monarch. The Catholic religion is too prudent to descend upon any such ground. Like a tender mother speaking to her son, she says to him: 'Provided /ou depart not from my instructions do what you consider most prudent/ " ( Protestantism and Catholicity Compared," p. 357)- '* As has been said by Cardinal Gibbons: 'Our holy father, Leo XIII, in his luminous encyclical on the constitution of Christian states, declares that the church is not committed to any particular form of civil government; she adapts herself to all. She leaves all to the sacred leaven of the Gospel * * * in the congenial atmosphere of liberty; she blossoms as the rose.' (Quoted by PY Hecker — "The Church and the Age," p. loi.) Such being the doctrine of the church upon civil government, why should there be any doubt or distrust of American Catholics in the minds of their fellow citizens? So long as the theory of our repub- lican constitution is carried into practical operation there can be no clashing between the duties owed by the Catholic citizen to his church and to his state. The cry that he is bound by allegiance to a foreign government because he recognizes the Pope as the visible head of his church, is unfair and confusing. " No Catholic need be confused in his efforts to perform his duty to the state. The present age, as far as we can know, presents prob- lems for solution, more difficult than any that have preceded it, more difficult because history affords no precedents by which men may act upon them. Pvvils of social life have become so obvious and so dangerous that the best thought of all people is concentrated upon their consideration. Men of undoubted sincerity and of heroic cour- age, deceived by their own ardor and generous impulses and without guidance from spiritual authority, have not hesitated to advocate theo- Prevented"by rics of relief that involve the complete revolution of that order which the Church. ^^^ been accepted as second only to revelation. While the church teaches and has taught that the right of private ownership of property, while not directly of divine ordinance, is yet essential to the well ordered happiness of mankind, the so-called philosophers of the revo- lution advocate its unconditional abolition; while the church main- tains the doctrines of personal liberty and individualism, the tendency of the revolution is to absorb the individual in the state. The revolu- tion bases its arguments upon the assumption of a social contract and the perfect ability, if not the perfection of human nature/^r j^; the church looks upon government as a mediate ordinance of God, arising from the constitution of man, and human nature as imperfect, tainted with sin. The revolution insists that the popular will, and the popular will alone, is the supreme fount of justice." Revolution V, ^ Jb • •'^r fmM ' iv Mo:t Rev. John Ireland, Archbishop of St. Paul, Minn. 998 THE WORLDS CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, ColumbuB. Queen Isabel- la the Catholic. The succeeding papers of the day related to the personages and events connected with the discovery of the New World; that on "Columbus," by Dr. Richard H. Clarke, of New York, was a learned dissertation on the career and character of the illustrious Genoese de- signed to be a vindication of his character from the various charges and assaults made, especially by recent writers. Miss Mary J. Ona- han read a bright paper on ''Queen Isabella," which was highly praised. Miss Onahan had the honor of being the first woman to address a Catholic congress in the United States. The subjoined extract will best indicate the spirit of the paper: ** Woman's faith, called until proved, woman's credulity, once more rose triumphant, and Isabella has no fairer crown than that woven by her trusted and valiant admiral. *In the midst of the general incredulity,' wrote Columbus, 'the Almighty infused into the queen, my lady, the spirit of intelligence and energy, and whilst everyone was expatiating only on the inconvenience and cost, her highness, on the contrary, approved it, and gave it all the support in her power.' " Religious zeal had dictated the war against the Moors, religious zeal urged Isabella to sanction the seemingly hopeless voyage of Columbus, and when these voyages were crowned with success, her first solicitude was the welfare of the benighted and helpless natives. It was under her special protection that he set sail on his fourth voyage, from which Isabella did not live to see him return. " As a queen, Isabella attained the greatest glory; as a mother, she was called upon to endure the deepest sorrow. The anguish of a father's or mother's heart at the loss, the ruin of a loved child — that, indeed, must be something that only they who have felt it in all its anguish and all its bitterness can ever fathom. While her husband was engaged in his brilliant wars in Italy and the great captain, Gon- salvo de Cordova, was daily adding new glories to the crown of Spain; while the fame of that great prince of the church, Cardinal Ximenes, was spreading throughout Europe, Isabella's life clouded by domestic misfortune began gradually to decline. One after another her chil- dren had been taken from her by death and by misfortune worse than death. Her only son, Don John, died three months after his marriage. Her favorite daughter and namesake lived but a year after her nuptials with the King of Portugal, and their infant son, on whom were founded all the hopes of the succession, survived her but a few months. Isa- bella's second daughter, Joanna, married to Philip, Prince of the Netherlands, became insane, and there can be no sadder history than that of her youngest child, Donna Catalina, memorable in history as Catherine of Aragon. " These and other misfortunes clouded Isabella's years. When she felt the end to be not far distant, she made deliberate and careful dis- position of her affairs. Even on a bed of sickness she followed with interest the affairs of her kingdom, received distinguished foreigners and took part in the direction of her affairs. " ' 1 have come to Castile,' said Prosper Colonna on being presented THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 999 to King Ferdinand, * to behold the woman who from her sick bed rules the world.' " There was no interest in her kingdom, her colonies or her house- hold that she neglected. In her celebrated testament she provided munificently for charities, for marriage portions to poor girls, and for the redemption of Christian captives in Barbary. Patriotism and hu- manity breathed in its every line, she warned her successor to treat with gentleness and consideration the natives of the new world added to Spain; warned them also never to surrender the fortress of Gibraltar. ** ' By her dying words," says Prescott, ' she displayed the same re- spect for the rights and liberties of the nation that she had shown Eulogy through life, striving to secure the blessings of her benign administra- tion to the most distant and barbarous regions under her sway.' ** The woman whom life had not daunted, death could not dismay. On the 26th of November, 1501, Isabella the Catholic breathed her last, in the fifty-fourth year of her age and the thirtieth of her reign. " The queen and true woman she had proved herself through life, true queen and true woman she proved herself in death. The Catholic church is not ashamed of the ideal in womanhood that it presents — an ideal that it has upheld for centuries, an ideal that is still shining as a new risen star, serene and beautiful in the summer sky. The queenly scepter of Isabella was laid aside, the womanly frame had long since crumbled into dust, but the church of which she was so valiant a daughter, the church that crowns her with that fairest of her titles, is not dead. It lives." " The Consequences and Results of the Discovery of the New World," was the concluding paper of the first day's session, by Geo. Parsons LAthrop, of New London, Conn. He remarked: *' It is a good thing that all sects found outlet here and were ena- bled to carry on their battle to the fullest extent. It was a good thing that the Puritans should enter freely and have their way and fancy that they possessed the whole world. Spain, France and England — these three powers vied with each other in colonizing and trying to possess the New World, and especially this northern part of it. France and Spain were Catholic, and they rendered us the service of tinging the country deeply with their faith. England became anti-Catholic, and did her best to expunge the faith from this realm which came un- der her rule. Yet as history has resulted the church at last found her surest foothold in this country under the anti-Catholic dominion which had tried so hard to suppress her, and the church has attained here in a single century of freedom a growth never paralleled in modern his- tory. This was one of the most important results to religion of the discovery of America. "True liberty is what the church most inculcates, and what it most needs. It has found it at last in this country where at first its pros- pect of doing so seemed most unlikely. It is by such paradoxes that the divine power works, regardless of the self-interest or even the most selfish foresight and planning of men. The complete separation of Preecott'a Geo. Parsons Lathrop. 1000 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. MonfigDor SatoUi'ri A d dress. church from state, which exists here, has been an immense advantage to religion, and will continue to be so by assuring it of entire inde- pendence in the pursuit of its spiritual aims." The great event of the Congress was the appearance of Monsignor Satolli, the papal delegate, Tuesday forenoon, immediately the formal organization had been completed. When he entered the hall the assembled thousands burst into a storm of cheers; the ladies waved handkerchiefs. Indeed, rarely has a scene of such widespread enthu- siasm been witnessed in any public assemblage. It was a striking testimony of the respect and affection with which the papal delegate is regarded by his co-rcligionists, the Catholic public in the United States. Archbishop Ireland translated his speech into English: '* I beg leave to repeat, in unmusical tones, a few of the thoughts that his excellency, the most right reverend apostolic delegate, has presented to you in his own beautiful and musical Italian language. The delegate expresses his great delight to be this morning in the presence of the Catholic Columbian Congress. He begs leave to offer you the salutation of the great pontiff, Leo XIII. In the name of Leo he salutes the spiritual children of the church on this American conti- nent; in the name of Leo he salutes the great American Republic herself. " It is," he says, "a magnificent spectacle to see laymen, priests and bishops assembled here together to discuss the vital social problems which the modern conditions of humanity bring up before us. The advocates of error have their congresses. Why should not the friends and advocates of truth have their congresses? This congress assem- bled here today will, no doubt, be productive of rich and magnificent results. You have met to show that the church, while opening to men the treasures of heaven, offers also felicity on earth. As St. 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, con- centrations of great forces. Your object is to consider the social forces that God has provided, and to apply, as far as you can, to the special circumstances of your own time and country these great principles. " The great social forces are thought, will and action. In a congress you bring before you these three great forces. Thought finds its food TheGreatSo- ^^ truth; SO in all that you do, in all the practical conclusions that you formulate, you must bear in mind that they rnust 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. cial Forces. THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1001 Ham an Rea- son Inadequate ** 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 merciful." Blessed are they who know and feel that they don't live for themselves, whose hearts go out in sweetest mercy to all their fellows. History has proven that human reason alone does not solve the great social problems. These problems were spoken of in three pre-Christian times, and Aristotle and Plato dis- cussed them. But pre-Christian times gave us a world of slavery, when the multitude lived only for the benefit of the few. " Let us restore among men justice and charity. Let us teach men to be prompt ever to make sacrifice of self for the common good. This is the foundation of all social elevating movements; it is the foundation of your own congress. Now, all these great principles have been marked out in the most luminous lines in the encyclicals of the great pontiff, Leo XI IL We then study those 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 keys 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 payback all efforts, not merely tenfold, but a hundredfold; and this no one understands better than the im- mortal 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 ConstituSoBu 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." Following Monsignor Satolli's address. Count Francis de Kuef- stein, a distinguished Austrian nobleman well known in Rome, was introduced. He received a cordial reception and having returned thanks in English for the welcome, and expressed his pleasure at the privilege of being permitted to take part in this memorable congress, the count continued his address in French, in which language he said he could more fully express his sentiments. The great question of the congress, "The Social Question," was then taken up. The introductory address was delivered by Right Rev. Question John A. Watterson, bishop, of Columbus, Ohio. The address was one H The Bible and the American The Social 1002 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. of the most brilliant and thoughtful delivered during the congress. Indeed, it proved, as it was intended should be the case, the keynote of the subsequent discussion. Particularly acceptable to the vast gathering was the eloquent tribute which the bishop paid to the holy father for the masterly manner in which his famous encyclicals ex- pose the evils that beset modern society and suggest remedies for their removal. The bishop's declarations that the present glorious pontiff, by his personal dignity, his wisdom and his firmness, is teaching peo- ple that the Pope is a good thing in the world and for the world, and convincing all intellects that if society is to be saved from the fate that threatens it, its salvation must come from the Vatican, were among the most notable ones of the whole congress and were ap- plauded to the echo. The bishop said: ''Truth is the sap that gives the tree of society its blossoms, foliage and fruit; it is the generous blood, which coursing through the social body gives it life and energy and beauty unto all the ends for which it was established by Almighty God. And wherever truth is abandoned or disregarded, society must suffer; and society is suffering today, because, to a large extent, it has practically rejected the great fundamental principles of Christianity, and substituted mere material and selfish interest, as the moving and dominating force in the life of individuals and nations. Behold, then, why Leo XIII. is recalling to the intellects of men those great bed- rock truths, on which the health and life of nations and society de- pend. Leo XIII. like many of his illustrious predecessors in similar onhePop?^°^ conditions of men, is fulfilling his special mission by defending the masses of the people against the oppressions of avarice and injustice, and showing the shallowness and dangers of the social theories and mere philosophism of today, while at the same time upholding the rights of legitimate authority. ■ Instead of the old teachings, which give us such clear and precise views of our intellect, our passions, our will, our duties to ourselves, the family,, the state, the church, society and God, what have rationalists, materialists, socialists, and other mere humanitarians been offering to mankind? They have been de- livering natural reason itself to uncertainties the most poignant, and society to disorders, the inevitable consequence of a teaching without sound principles and therefore without true morality. By awakening the love of strong and wholesome principles in the hearts of men capable of understanding, by inviting attention to the duties as well as the rights of men and calling a return to those simple Christian truths, on which society was reformed by our Divine Redeemer, Leo XIII. has been doing a grand work, not only for the present but for every future generation. There is not a question vital to modern society that he has not touched and solved in his great encyclicals on Human Liberty, Political Power, The Christian Constitution of the State, the Duties of Citizens, and the Condition of Labor. By his depth of thought, the wisdom of his teachings, his close touch and his tender sympathy with the wants and interests of all humanity and the sagacity of the fears, which he expresses for the future of nations, his letters have won the admiration of the very enemies of Christianity. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1003 The Church *'It is within the lines traced out in the encyclicals of Leo XIII., and by the application of the remedies there suggested; it is by the cooperation of church and state, and the return of capital and labor to the basic law of evangelical love; it is by civil legislation, inspired by Christianity and directed to the good, not of one class only, but of all the people, that a better social condition is to be brought about. Nor can the Catholic church be ignored in this great work. On the contrary she is to be the most potent factor in reaching the consum- mation devoutly to be wished by all the lovers of their kind. And you. Catholic laymen and women, are to have an intelligent and act- ive part in the needed improvement of society. You are to help by the* Most Po- good example and in various other ways. Spread the encyclicals of ^ our Holy Father Leo XIII., not only among those of the household of the faith, but also among your brethren outside of the church. Make them known to those with whom you are brought into companionship in social and business life, and the seeds thus sown will have a happy fruitage. The church needs to organize Catholic workmen into safe and healthy associations; but whether it is better in the circumstances of our country to band them into Catholic associations under exclu- sive Catholic direction or to try to desecularize existing societies and infuse into them more of the spirit of Christianity, is a question that I leave to the deliberations of this congress. *' Teach the poor that while inequalities of condition always have existed and always will exist as long as human nature remains what human nature is, they are not on this account to be wanting in Chris- tian love for those who are more favored with material prosperity. They are to bear in mind the beautiful lesson of that wonderful Ser- mon on the Mount, in which our Saviour lays the foundation of the Christian system of society: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Wealth is not an absolute good, and therefore patience and resignation in the spirit of the Gospel are to be practiced, while at the same time the admonition of St. Paul must be heeded: "If any man will not work, i. e., if he be unwilling to work, let him not eat." Let all, rich and poor, be mindful of their duties to one another; and then if all will learn the lesson in practice as well as theory, Christianity shall again have occasion, as in the ages of faith, to exult in the triumph of her principles, and the world to exclaim as in ancient days: * Behold, how they love one another.' Upon this triumph of the future Leo XIII. will have his influence, and you, ladies and gentlemen, will have yours too, if you will be only true to your- selves and the great Christian responsibilities that rest upon you as citizens and Catholics." The encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., on "The Conditions of Labor," was treated in a carefully prepared exposition of the Pope's teaching on the subject by Hon. Judge Semple, of Alabama. The distinguished gentleman declared that: "The platform of Catholics on the conidtion of labor was announced by Leo XIII. in the encyclical * Rerum No- varum.' This paper seeks to gather a syllabus of leading social prin- Pope Encyclical o n Labor. 1004 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. ciples from that immortal document which called forth letters of thanks from the emperor of Germany and the president of the French repub- lic, and which shows the head of the church as the reverend counsellor of states, the father of Christians and the friend of the people. All agree and no one can deny that some remedy must be found, and quickly found, for the misery and wretchedness which press so heavily at this moment on the large majority of the very poor. But where is it to be found? Socialism steps forward and answers: ' I have found it; I am the redeemer of society. I will vest all property in the state. I will give it the sole administration, and it shall distribute to each ac- cording to his needs. Thus I will abolish poverty and bring back the golden age of universal equality.' " 'No', replies the holy father. 'Your project is at once futile, un- just and pernicious. It is futile, for if all goods must forever remain common, where is the workingman's hope of bettering his condition by industry and economy? Where is his liberty, his inalienable right to invest his wages permanently and profitably, to dispose freely of the fruit of his sweat?' " But, above all, it is emphatically unjust. Centralization of prop- erty in the state violates natural rights. The state cannot take away the right to acquire property, for this right is from God. " This natural right to acquire and hold property is manifested more clearly still in the rights and duties of the father of the family. What right more clear, what duty more sacred for the father than to provide for his offspring against the wretchedness of want in this mortal life? Yet by what other means can this sacred duty be fulfilled than by the acquisition and ownership of permanent property, to be transmitted by inheritance? " Socialism would introduce discord and confusion, dry up the very Ruinous? ^^™ sources of production and destroy the chief spur of genius, and its boasted equality would be an equality in wretchedness and misery and of universal enslavement to the state. Nothing could be more unjust or more disastrous than thus to deny man's natural rights, so manifest to our reason and so strongly confirmed by the morally universal consent of mankind, by the practice of all ages, by the sanction of positive human laws, by the divine law itself, which forbids us even to cast a covetous look on our neighbor's house or his field or anything that is his. Therefore socialism is manifestly futile, unjust and per- nicious, and cannot be the remedy which we seek. " How, then, shall we soften the asperities arising from the friction of labor and capital? For they are not naturally hostile, but friends. " The vicar of the Prince of Peace declares that this blessed result demands the harmonious cooperation of all the agencies involved, of the laborer and the capitalist, the rich and the poor, the state and private societies. But, he adds, that all their efforts will be vain with- out the aid of religion, with the principles which she brings forth from the Gospel. For, in the first place, religion, as the herald of God, t^ach^s m^n the duties of justice. It says to the workin^man: ' Per- TM^ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. lOOS form faithfully and scrupulously the labor which you have freely and fairly promised. Respect the person and property of your employer. Never resort to violence, even in representing your just rights. Above all, shun the company of men of evil principles, of men who delude you with vain hopes and lead you to disaster, denying the necessity of that painful labor which was imposed by our Maker and not done away with by our Blessed Redeemer, but only sweetened by His ex- ample, and grace and promises.' "The Son of God was Himself a poor man and a carpenter, and He made it plain to all ages by His example that dignity is in worth and forking Man. not in wealth, and He taught us that the only path to heaven is that stained by His bloody footprints. ** How, then, can society be cured in our day? By a return to a pure Christianity and submission to its health-giving precepts and practices. What are the counsels of the holy father to the state for the improvement of the condition of labor? The state is reminded that while it exists for the common good it has a special duty to the workingmen and to the poor. For they are the most numerous class and are so engrossed by their daily necessities as to have little leisure or capacity for the thoughtful and prudent consideration of their own spe- cial interests; while the capitalists and employers, fewer in number, strong in wealth and with an abundance of leisure, may spend their days and nights in scheming to add more and more to their gain, and striving to diminish yet more the share of the workingman in the prod- uct of his labor. The power of the state should be exerted in behalf of the weak to lighten their burdens by wise and wholesome adminis- tration, and by striving to secure to them a reasonable subsistence as the price of their toil and some provision for their necessities in time of hardship. This it may well do without suspicion of undue partiality for it comes to the help of the weak. *' The state may regulate the natural right to acquire property, but it has no authority to abolish it by the drain and exhaustion of excess- ive taxation. At present one of the greatest evils we endure is that society is too nearly divided into classes of the very rich and the very poor. One of these exercises the great power of wealth, it grasps all labor and all trade, it manipulates for its own profit all the sources of supply, and is always powerfully represented in the councils of the state. On the other side stand the sore and suffering multitude, always ready in their distress to listen to the extravagant promises of irresponsible advisers, and prone to violence. " It is also incumbent on the state to protect the workingman's p^^^ ^^* enjoyment of the Sunday rest; not to be devoted to vicious excess, but that he may forget, at least, for one day in the week, mere worldly cares, and turn his face and his thoughts upward to his Maker. For nothing is more conducive to the strength of the state than the moral- ity of her citizens, and true morality is always founded on religion. The workingman himself cannot agree to the servitude of his soul, and no one has a right to stand in the way of his enjoyment of that higher life which prepares him for the joys of heaven." 1006 TiiE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS, The Duties " '^^^ Dutics of Capital " was the subject of the paper by Rev. Dr. of Capital. William Barry, of Dorchester, England, defining the nature and proper uses of wealth. The writer says: ** The end or purpose of wealth is not simply the production of more wealth, nor is it the selfish enjoyment even of those who produce it. Man is a moral and religious being, and the industries which exhaust so large a part of his time, thought and labor should be carried out under the law which is supreme in con- science. To make, or increase, or distribute wealth is a social function. It is so because man was intended to live in society, because society does in fact acknowledge and secure his individual rights, and because no one of his single, unaided efforts could store up the accumulated resources to which these *' few rich people " are indebted for their ieisure and luxury. If, then, capital, by which I mean private prop- erty yielding a revenue, is to exist in a Christian commonwealth, it must fulfill its duties to the public. For it is a trust given to the indi- vidual on condition of his exercising the social function which corre- sponds to it, as a Christian ought. "Leo XIII. defines it to be a sin against justice when one man ap- propriates, whether in the shape of profit, or of tax, or of interest, the fruits of another man's industry without rendering him an equal return. He does not say that the return must be directly economical, but cer- tainly he does mean that there ought to be an adequate return of some sort. The rich man, therefore, whose riches are nothing else than the surplus fruits of his fellows' toil, is bound, first, to render a just human wage to the toiler, and, second, to so employ his wealth, which has been put into his hands as, on the whole to make the condition of those who toil, more advantageous to them than if private capital did not exist. " In other worr , private capital is an expedient, like constitutional government or ma . .lood suffrage, by which the great ends of society The End of ^^^ meant to be furthered. If it does this, it is justified; if it does not, Commerce. how Can it endure? The resources of civilization are earned by one set of men, and disposed of by another. I will not call that an in- iquitous arrangement. But it stands to reason that those who distribute are bound to do so for the good of the social organization, which they do, in fact, govern. " Therefore, as ' the end of all commerce ' is not ' individual gain,' so it Is righteousness, and not anarchic revolution, which insists on teaching capitalists their duties toward the organism which supports them. Let us reckon up some of these duties. " Negatively, capitalists have no right to interfere with the working- men's right to combine in the trades unions, and hence they cannot fairly require their workingmen to give up belonging to such associa- tions, nor can they make it the condition of a just contract. •* Again, they have no right to take advantage of this distress of humanbeingsby beating down the just price of labor; to do so is usury, and has been condemned times out of number by the Catholic author- ities. Most Rev. P. A. Feehan, Archbishop of Chicago, ** Nor must they lay upon their workmen inhuman tasks, whether as regards the length, quality or conditions of labor. And the whole leg- Duties of islation of factory acts; inspection and the protection of women and Capitalists children is in its idea as truly economic as it is Christian, and capitalists ought not to complain of it. Further, the lowest fair wage is one which although varying according to country, sex and time of life, will enable the worker to fulfill the ordinary duties of humanity, to keep God's law and to provide against sickness and old age. " It is the bounden duty of capitalists to allow their work people the Sunday rest. Corporations are as much under these obligations and bound to fulfill them as individuals. Work people cannot justly con- tract themselves out of these and similar rights. And every agree- ment to disregard them is so far null and void. " Again, it is elementary good sense, as well as law, that lying, cheat- ing and misrepresentation when they enter into the substance of a con- traot make it of no effect. And that he who has stolen, whether from the public or from private citizens, is bound to restore. And that the greater the robbery the greaterthesin. And that even a state is capa- ble of robbing its citizens collectively, as when it surrenders without a proper equivalent rights of way, or public lands, or the common right of market; and, in general, when it creates or suffers to grow up un- checked monopolies which take an undue share of the products of labor, and which violate the economic freedom of others. To make thieves restore their ill-gotten goods, to put down ' rings and corners,' to safeguard the health, morals and religious freedom of its citizens are duties incumbent on the state, especially when the majority of the peo- ple seem to be at the mercy of private capitalists. Nor can it be objected that these things constitute an ' intolerable interference with the rights of property,' for property never has any right to do wrong. ** AH this means, then, the imperative necessity of a constitution for capital. Religion furnishes the ideal, morality the grounds, and law and custom the methods upon which this mighty task is to be achieved. To make democracy a real thing is all one with limiting, defining and Christianizing the powers of those who wield at present according to their good pleasure, the material resources gathered by the thought, labor and perseverance of millions upon millions. " What, then, should the people do in this day of their political supremacy? Two things, I answer. They should insist, by custom Rights of and legislation, on making the contract between capitalist and work- Labor, ingman a just human bargain, on the lines so plainly drawn out by Leo XIII., in his encyclical. And they should defend by every fair means at their disposal, the rights of public property, which is, in fact, their property, not permitting it to be sold, or squandered, or stolen away, under pretense that the individual who is going to get rich by appropriating it has acquired a legal claim upon that which, in such absolute fashion, never could legally have been made over to him. "If all this amounts to no less than reforming your legislatures, then in God's name set about reforming them, root and branch. And fM£ WORLDS (^OjS/CA£S^ OP kELlGiONS. 1009 if a mandate to your executive is required, shall it never be forthcom- ing? Is not the responsibility of a free citizen something which he Heither can nor ought to give to another? Your political freedom should bring with it economic justice. There is little meaning else in that Declaration of Independence which is written upon American hearts. •* Our hope is that the Christian democracy of America will, by peaceful and appropriate legislation, put an end to these things which have lasted too long. It seems to me, in an especial way, the duty of Christian teachers, be they laymen or ecclesiastics, to hasten that wished for consummation, and to show that the Gospel in which they believe is indeed a law of liberty, the condition of the highest form of government, and as fraternal as it is just." Dr. Barry's paper was supplemented by two others on different phases of the question of the ''Rights of Labor" and the "Duties of Capital" by Edward Osgood Brown and John Gibbons, both well known Chicago attorneys. "Poverty, the Cause and the Remedy," enlisted thoughtful papers from Thomas Dwight, M. D., of Boston, and M. T. Elder, of New Orleans. Dr. Dwight's paper was a strong presentation of the in- creasing evil of pauperism, and in it the writer sought to solve the problem — how to meet and remedy the need; he said: "As rational beings, undertaking a serious work, it is for us first deliberately to apply our reason to the matter, to study it as we should study any commercial enterprise in which we were about to embark, any sci^tific question which we hoped to solve. Instinctive charity *s good. We have a kindly feeling for Goldsmith's village preacher _ in his dealings with the poor: 'Careless their merits or their faults to scan His pity gave ere charity bega.^;' but charity guided by reason is something higher. " Pauperism and poverty are not the same. Every poor man is not a pauper. The pauper is one who habitually lives in a state of destitu- TheCauseand tion, without recognized means of support, without purpose or hope of S®™^ ***' bettering his condition. Of course there are paupers of all grades. Of course this species is not always easily recognized. There are transitional forms. The poor man, falling under discouragement, is not far removed from the pauper who, as yet is not quite hopeless. At the other extreme the pilfering pauper merges by degrees into the habitual criminal. I should hesitate to class as paupers those who near the close of an industrious life fall into destitution. But in spite of uncommon instances the pauper is, on the whole, a fairly distinct type. "The pauper is essentially a degraded type. If the degradation could be stopped the type would die out. It is far easier to save a man, still more to save a child from becoming a pauper than to reform the deformed individual. We must, therefore, consider both preven- tion and cure. Practically, as will soon appear, the two processes are 1010 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. hardly distinct. The difference is only in the greater difficulty, humanely speaking, in the hopelessness of saving the confirmed pauper. The latter has no correct notions about anything. Society seems in league against him. Law is but an engine of oppression. Nothing but the doctrines of Christianity can give him light on the inequality of things here below. That his burdens should become bearable they must be seen in the light of the supernatural. He must learn the brotherhood of man." Public and " Public and Private Charities " were treated in a series of papers by P^iyate Chari- Chas. A. Wingcrtcr, M. D., Wheeling, W. Va.; Thomas F. Ring, Bos- ton; Richard R. Elliott, Detroit, and " Workingmen's Organizations and Societies for Young Men," by Rev. Francis Maguire, of Albany^ N. Y., and Warren E. Mosher, of Youngstown, Ohio. The paper by Col. Robert M. Douglas, of Greensboro, N. C, son of the famous Senator Douglas, the "" little giant" of ante-war renown, was on the subject of " Trade Combinations and Strikes," one of the most delicate subjects before the congress. Colonel Douglas dealt chiefly with the powers exercised by corporations and the abuse thereof. He pointed out with singular clearness the authority of Congress and the states to control and regulate corporations through the exercise of the power of taxation. " So make and enforce the laws," was his conclu- sion, " that everyone throughout this broad land shall feel and know that there is no one so rich and so powerful as to be beyond or above the avenging arm of the law, and none so poor and humble as to be beneath its completest protection." The same subject was treated by Frank J. Sheridan, of Dubuque, from the standpoint of association and arbitration. Great interest attached to the treatment of the question of ** In- temperance; the Evil and the Remedy," which was considered by Rev. James M. Cleary, of Minneapolis, the well known temperance apostle. Father Cleary's address was a ringing denunciation of the plague of intemperance. He said: *• There exists a lamentable apathy among our Catholic people in our beloved country today concerning this dreadful evil. Catholic Remedy for public opinion is not outspoken and vigorous as it should be against mperance. ^^ saloon and the drink curse. While great improvement has taken place, there is still a crying need for action among our Catholic people. During the past twenty-one years the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America has done noble and heroic work in the cause of sobriety and public decency. But with our ten millions of Catholics, this grand association should number instead of sixty thousand, six hundred thousand members. " The church, by the united voices of our bishops assembled in the third plenary council of Baltimore, warns its members against the dangers of the drink habit and the temptations of the saloon. The same council warns our Catholic people against the business of saloon- keeping as ' an unbecoming way of making a living.' A man cannot be a good Catholic, a loyal follower of the teachings of the church of TME WORLD'S CONGkESS OF RELIGIONS, 1011 this country and be a good friend of the saloon. Much less can a Catholic be a saloonkeeper and a dutiful child of the church. ** The debasing, brutalizing influence of excessive drinking, and saloon environments falls upon the laboring class of our people with more disastrous effect than upon those better favored by fortune. The dreadful vice of intemperance has made frightful havoc among our hard working Catholic people. What else but this spendthrift vice could afflict a large portion of our people with poverty so hopeless as to be like an incurable disease, a people to whom countless millions are yearly paid? What else huddles so many of them into the swarm- ing tenement houses? I make no odious comparison between the intemperance of the wealthy and the intemperance of the poor. But the poor are greater sufferers, and hence enlist our deeper sympathy when intemperance blights their lives, for in addition to the heartache and sorrow which the vice entails equally upon rich and poor, it adds the horrors of penury, beggary and hopeless degradation to the lives of the children of toil." The papers on "Religious Orders of Women and Their Work," and orders of on "Woman in the Middle Ages," by F. M. Edselas and Anna T. Women. Sadlier, names well known in current Catholic literature, were devoted to the different phases of woman's work in the church and in the world. The following extracts will give the reader a fair idea of the spirit of the paper on "Woman in the Middle Ages." "The great success attending Sisters' work, with means so limited, is unquestionably due to the admirable system that marks the plan of each founder, as meeting the special ends in view. With wisely directed foresight the various rules and constitutions enter into minutest as well as most essential details. Each department has its special staff of officers and aids directly responsible to the superior for efficiency. An interchange of officers from time to time is of mutual advantage; latent talent thus brought out adds to the general good of the commu- nity. Convent life is a wonderful developer. No delicately sensitized plate of the photographer ever evoked more marvelous effects. Out of an embryo sister, seemingly inefficient every way, a shrewd novice mistress and wise superior will develop a true woman fitted for many and varied duties. " The great question of religion or no religion, God or no God, in our school system, agitating, dividing and colliding our educational leaders, here finds its solution in the Sisters' work. The grand motive urging, driving them on is that the life of Christ in its fullness and beauty, in its strength and sanctity, and in its sublime perfection as far as possible, may be first implanted and then wrought out of those who otherwise might know little of Christianity beyond a few formulas and a code of morals shaped too often by human ideas and interests. In- deed, there can be no more interesting study for the theorist and the reformer, the optimist and the pessimist, the conservative and the liberal than the origin, growth and marvelous results of their work. In noting the lines taken by different orders, this fact may well be Gotl God Gchoolg. o r in No the 1(312 ftiE WOkWS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.. Cloister Life. Medieval Households. emphasized as a clew to their success, that in singleness of aim and purity of intention, all unite in the one endeavor of making the world better, wiser and happier through their efforts; thus do they help on the federation of the human race, that glorious ideal of today to be merged into a more glorious reality of tomorrow." Miss Sadlier's paper, which was read by Mrs. P. J. Healy, of Chi- cago, proved to be an exceedingly interesting portrayal of Life in the Cloister and in the Home during the Middle Ages. •'The nun played such a part in the drama of medieval life as to raise woman to the climax of her power. The nun was a chief factor in procuring the emancipation of women and proclaiming her equality, in a Christian sense, with man, by giving her a separate, individual ex- istence. Immured in her cloister, the nun exercised a protective influ- ence over the wife and mother and caused them to be reverenced on account of the possibilities of heroic virtue which she displayed. To the rudest warrior she was 'a thing enskied and ensainted.' In short, by her ideal of consecrated virginity, the church secured the elevation of woman. ** The Anglo-Saxon cloisters were thronged with nuns of the blood royal, Ethelburga, the first royal widow to enter religion; Etheldreda, of the strange romantic story; Elfreda, who aided Wilfrid in his strug- gle to fix the Roman discipline upon the Celts; Earcontha, Domneva, Eanpleda, Ermenburga, Hereswida, Eadburga, Wereburga, Ermen- ilda and Sexburga were all nuns of royal birth; in one instance three generations, grandmother, mother and daughter, met in the cloister. Some were widows, some had, by permission, separated from their husbands, some had entered religion in early youth, being in the forci- ble Saxon word, veritable ' Gode-Brydes,' — ' Brides of God.' " The picture of life in the Irish and English schools in those early ages is interesting: *Tn Ireland, land of saints and scholars, where learning at the darkest periods found asylum, St. Bridget, of the royal house of Lein- ster, exercised much the same patriarchal sway over men and women as Hilda at Whitby. Many poetic legends cluster about that spot dedicated to virtue and learning, and for a thousand years after Bridget's death a lamp burnt at her tomb; 'that bright lamp which burned at Kildare's holy fane.' "The medieval households are, in the main, beautiful pictures of Catholic life. There, * at the fireside of the heart, feeding its flame,' woman's true place, the mistress of the family shone. Wise, intelli- gent, loving and beloved, respecting and respected, she was troubled by no theories of female suffrage or equal rights or divided skirts. Her own rights, thanks to the church, were too secure, her duties too sacred; a helpful wife, a conscientious mother. 'Happy the ages,' cries Digby, ' when men had holy mothers.' She trained sons to fill high places, and daughters to vigorous practical utility, and she gained the love of her servants. Every woman in those days was made acquainted with every detail of household duty. With high-born ^ost Rev. P. J. Rjran, Archbishop of Philadelphia, 1014 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, women the duties were simply wider and more onerous. She had to know medicines and surgery and church music and embroidery, as she was fitted to exercise the splendid hospitality of the times with that exquisite courtesy to strangers which was a rigid social law. But she had to sew and spin and cook and keep a time apart for reading. Spinning was a favorite occupation, by the way, of all classes of medieval women. Dante represents the women of Florence as spin- ning 'as they listened to old tales of Troy, Fiesole and Rome.' ** Charity toward the poor, the suffering, the afflicted, was eminently characteristic of medieval women. Always munificent, their charity chose a thousand tender and delicate modes of manifesting itself, see- ing even in the mendicant the person of Jesus Christ. Mary, the mother of God, was the fir^t great cause of the elevation of women. Divinely fair and holy, ever present to the medieval mind, she taught man to reverence, and women to deserve reverence. She appeared upon the pennons of knights or in their war cries, particularly if their cause were holy. Upon her they framed their ideal. The maiden in the cloister, with her consecrated teacher, placed Mary's image in miniatures or illuminations. The lady of the castle, with her bondswomen, uttered the transcendent prayer, ' Hail full of grace.' The wandering glee women, or the serf fresh from toil, bent the knee at Mary's wayside shrine. Even the gypsies in their midnight celebration of Christmas joined with the generations in calling her blessed. " Everywhere that ideal, divinely human, before which all mere earthly perfection fades. Therefore, any summary of the women of the Middle Ages must be faulty, even as a matter of philosophical or ethical inquiry, which ignores the omnipresenLand almost omnipotent influence of Mary, mother of God." Papers on "Life Insurance and Pension Funds for Wage-workers," by Prof. John P. Lauth, of Chicago, and E. M. Sharon, of Daven- port, Iowa, were devoted to the details of societies already operating on these lines; as also to the method in vogue at this time in Germany to carry out the last named feature. The subject of "Immigration and Colonization," which constituted Immigration an integral part of the problem of the social question, was considered and coioniza- -^^ ^ ^^^-^3 ^^ papers by Rev. Michael Callaghan, N. Y.; Dr. August Kaiser, Detroit; Rev. J. L. Andreis, Baltimore; M. T. Elder, New Orleans. The different phases of the immigration question were pre- sented according to national lines in the various papers; that of Father Callaghan, who is in charge of the admirable refuge at Castle Garden for immigrant girls, being devoted mainly to immigration from Ire- land, past and present; that of Dr. Kaiser to a history of the German contingent, and Rev. Father Andreis to a vindication of the much abused Italian moiety of the great immigrant army. The sensation of the congress was the paper by Miss Elder, of New Orleans, on "Colonization," which was a decidedly pessimistic view of the con- dition and prospects of the Catholic church in the United States. The writer insisted that great and even ^ngrmous losses had resulted THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1015 from the neglect to encourage the settlement of Catholics on the land. As she expressed it: "Many are the ways for accounting for this loss. My explanation is the seemingly far-fetched one of neglect of coloni- zation and immigration; in other words, neglect of the rural class." And she continues: "The best class of Catholic immigrants are those who come here from agricultural districts, whether of Europe or of Canada. This is conceded by everyone who knows anything of the subj- ect. The fate of these rural immigrants is one of two kinds — they remain in the cities or they go into the country. Remaining in the cities they be- come, as the last plenary council of Baltimore expressly declares, the slaves of monopolies and combines, the slaves of poverty and, worse still, the slaves of vice and drunkenness. In saying this, I am but re- peating the statements of the assembled bishops and archbishops of the United States. Going into the country, there, far from priests and sacraments, those immigrants prosper materially perhaps, but spirit- ually they starve. It is most natural then that their descendants, fed only by Protestantism, become exemplary Baptists, Methodists, Camp- bellites, etc. Hundreds and thousands of our noblest Catholic names are now borne by well-to-do Protestants in the country, or lately from there. Thus it is that in these whole United States (southern Louisi- ana excepted) we have no Catholic peasantry, no Catholic rural class, either peasantry or gentry, no Catholic agriculturists of any kind. My contention is, that we have no hold upon the agricultural masses, and that this fact accounts for many of our deficiencies." Hon. H. J. Spaunhorst, of St. Louis, made an effective plea for Catholic society organizations, especially those that should continue the feature of benevolence and mutual insurance. Father Vattman, the chaplain of Fort Sheridan, indicated a ripe field for Catholic activity and agitation when he told the delegates that there ought to be many more Catholic chaplains in our army than at present, and the same statement holds good of the navy. Further- more, there is no better time than the present for the agitation of this subject, for President Cleveland has shown himself disposed to deal fairly in such matters, and his influence would go a good ways toward securing a reform of the existing inequality of representation. Charles H. Butler, of Washington, voiced American Catholic sentiment when he declared that it was a matter of regret that the Catholic church did not take earlier steps for missionary work among the negroes of the South. The reason why it did not do this was, of course, the inability of the bishops, who had not priests at their dis- posal for the work. Had such missionary labor been undertaken earlier it is certain, as Mr. Butler declared, that the overwhelming majority of our Afro-American population would now be Catholic. •' Woman and Mammon." One of the most interesting papers presented to the congress was that contributed by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, America's famous novel- ist. '* Woman and Mammon " was the subject chosen by Mrs. Lathrop, and her essay was a portrayal in words of beauty of the ideal woman Catholic Im- mig^rants. More Catholic Chaplains Needed. Woman and Mammon. 1016 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Appeal t o President Cleveland. Archbishop Ireland's Ad- dress. and a scathing denunciation of the woman whose service was the service of mammon. Mrs. Lathrop's paper was loudly applauded. " For Peace Among Nations." A memorial was adopted by the congress inviting the rulers of all nations to settle international dis- putes by arbitration. The memorial to the president of the United States said: '* We, in cooperation with other Christian bodies, humbly memo- rialize you, as the guardian of your people, in behalf of peaceful arbi- tration as a means of settling questions that arise between nations. The spectacle that is presented of Christian nations facing each other with heavy armaments, ready upon provocation to go to war and settle their differences by bloodshed or conquests, is, to say the least, a blot upon the fair name of Christians. We cannot contemplate without the deepest sorrow the horrors of war, involving the reckless sacrifice of human life that should be held sacred; bitter distress in many households, the destruction of valuable property, the hindering of education and religion, and a general demoralizing of the people. "■ We are encouraged to urge this cause upon your consideration by the fact that much has already been accomplished; as, for example,^ by the arbitration of Geneva in the Alabama case and by the delib-' erations of the American conference at Washington, not to mention other important cases. It will be a happy day for the world when all international disputes find peaceful solutions, and this we earnestly seek." The announcement that Archbishop Ireland would speak at one of the evening sessions of the congress served to draw an immense audi- ence. The archbishop's address was characteristically strong, elo- quent and patriotic. He said: " There are Catholics — few of them, thank God — who dare at times to criticise our manifestations of patriotism, calling these manifesta- tions, as one lately has dared, travesties upon real patriotism, I be- lieve those men speak from their own souls. There is no patriotism in their souls, and they cannot see that there is patriotism in the souls of others. Why should we not be loud in our manifestations of pa- triotism? We love what is great and good; therefore we love the republic. " And let me counsel you to be always enthusiastically patriotic, and let it be known throughout the whole country that Catholics are, as I said, if possible, more patriotic than other fellow-citizens, so that we show to the whole country what are the lessons of our faith. We show to the whole country that in the hands of none others, in the hearts of none others, are the liberties and the institutions of the re- public of the United States safer. This, then, is our motto: "The Gos- pel in one hand and the constitution of the United States in the other." " But a word on the Catholic Congress itself. It is held to bring out before the people the meaning of the encyclical of Leo XIII. on the social question. The Gospel of Christ is summed up by the Lord Himself in these words; ' Love Gpd with all thy heart and soul and THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1017 thy neighbor as thyself.* Christianity puts before us the two objects of our love. A religion which would confine our affections to God Himself would not be divine; it would not be a religion of the Gospel; God would not be satisfied with it. " Precisely because we love Him we must love all that He loves, and love, therefore, our fellowman. Nor would it be sufficient to love the spiritual good of the neighbor, we must also love the temporal good; we must love him in soul and body; we must love him for the life to come and the life that now is. The Gospel is throughout a great book of holy social work for men. " It was God's intention that there should be a sufficiency for all, and it is the duty of each and every one to see that God's intentions are realized. God's will is that those who have an abundance of good things for themselves think of those who are in want, think of them as brothers and sisters of the same family; and when they refuse this universal charity they lie in their prayers when they look up to the skies and say, * Our Father who art in heaven.' "This is the true Gospel of Christ; this is the true teaching of the Catholic church. Today the world, alas! is drifting away from its ^eTrueGos- Christian moorings. It is our duty to mark before all eyes the path of peace and blessedness, to spread before the nations the divine treas- ures in the bosom of the church. Are you going to convert the world by argument? By no means. Argument convinces the mind; it does not move the soul. The age, moreover, is tired of argument. The age has told us the evidence it demands, and I admire the good sense of the age. "The age says to us: You profess to be the church of the Gospel. Give us the Gospel in daily life; we judge the tree by its fruits. And in so saying it accepts our own challenge. The age is an age of humanity. It has caught up the lofty aspirations of the Christian soul in its great love for humanity, in the very profession of this love. The age demands charity, love for all of every language, every race and every color; love of man as he came forth from the hands of his Creator. Our country is filled with good works, charities of all kinds. Asylums are built for the poor and the blind and the mute and the imbecile. The American state is essentially in its instincts and aspira- tions Catholic. Let us, then, take hold of these instincts and aspira- tions and show that they have all been born of the Gospel, that they have all been perpetuated by our church in the past. "The encyclical on the condition of labor is timely. This is what IS needed — Catholic social work — social work to be done by all bishops, priests, nuns and women, and here precisely are our present efforts. Catholics have been half inclined in the past to perform their social duties through representati\;es. It will not do to leave all this work for the priests and the sisters and the religeuse. Catholic laymen have been too quiet in the past. The Catholic laity have an individual duty in all these social questions, in all the works of humanity and of charity. In these matters we should not be afraid, as some have 1018 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. seemed to be, to cooperate with all who are doing good, whether they are just our kind of people or not, whether they be Catholics or not. The Catholic " ^^ say this is a glorious church of ours — as, indeed, she is — and a Glorious yet a fearfully large proportion of those so-called saloons are held by Catholics, and what a fearfully large proportion who lose in them their souls are children of the church! Here is work for all; here is work into which we should put all our religion, all our social and polit- ical energies, until our country is freed from these dreadful evils. We think we are good Catholics so long as our own private lives are not contrary to the law of God, but we have grave responsibilities besides this in our social relations and in our political life, and Catholics who vote for bad laws, who vote not for the suppression of great social evils, contradict the God of purity and holiness, contradict the Gospel of Christ and murder souls." "The Independence of the Holy See," by Hon. Martin F. Morris, of Washington, was an able paper: He said: " It is very true, how- independence ever, that to the pontificate of Hildebrand of Sienna or Pope Gregory See.* ^ ° ^ VII., we are to refer the formal establishment of the temporal power of the popes, inasmuch as to that time we are to refer the culmination of the feudal system in Europe and the first great victory of Christian civilization over it under the auspices of the Roman pontiffs. The contest between feudalism and civilization, beginning with the over- throw of the Roman empire of the West, A. D. 472, was a long and bitter one. It had lasted over a thousand years when the discovery of America enabled the world to insure the ultimate overthrow of the system. "The feudal system was at its height when Hildebrand became pope in A, D. 1073. Henry IV., of the house of Franconia, an able and unprincipled man, was then emperor of Germany (A. D. 1056-1106), and as such the virtual head of the system. A violent contest broke out between the pope and the emperor. Henry sought to determine it by an appeal to the brute force of arms. He crossed the Alps, in- vaded Italy and marched upon Rome with a view of deposing the pope and procuring the election of a pontiff more in accord with his wishes. Suddenly, Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, appeared in arms against him and resisted his advance. Robert Guiscard hastened from Naples with his Normans to protect the city of Rome. Europe was aroused to a sense of danger. Rebellions broke out in Germany itself. Henry's army melted away. Matilda skillfully foiled all his movements, and the discomfited and baffled monarch at last was compelled to come to terms with the pontiff. In their famous interview at the Castle of Canossa, A. D. 1079, the independence of the church from feudal restraint and the triumph of Christian civilization over feudal barbarism were definitely secured. " No dispassionate and impartial student of history can now fail to recognize the benefit that accrued to our civilization from the exist- ence of the papacy. It was the papacy and the papacy alone that saved Europe from the grinding despotism of the feudal system. From (/) 1020 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Rome an In- dependent City. Plan for Ar- bitrating Be- tween Capital and Labor. the brigandage and licentiousness which that system was so well cal- culated to perpetuate, humanity found its only refuge in the po\v~:- that was represented by the papacy. The independence of the pa- pacy secured the independence of the church and the ultimate tri- umph of all that the qhurch represented and was to Europe — religion, morality, science, literature, female virtue and the sanctity of the home. '* He concludes: Rome was not necessary for the united Italy. Rome has become the capital of the world; we would not have it dis- graced into becoming the capital of a petty European monarchy, Rome has not now, even if it ever had, any strategic, political or com- mercial value as the capital of an Italian monarchy or of an Italian republic, or of an Italian confederation of any kind. Italy would be as strong without it as with it; stronger, indeed, without it, because there would then no longer be the friction of the religious sentiment that must continue to struggle against the existing conditions, and that must necessarily succeed sooner or later in modifying those con- ditions. Rome should be a great free city,' the great free city of the world, the holy city and the religious capital of all the nations — not a mere competitor of London or Berlin or Vienna, but once again the city of the soul. The world will be the gainer by securing anew che independence of the Holy See." Frank J. Sheridan, from the diocese of Dubuque, for \\c estab- lishment of an organization to be known as the Catholic Association of the United States for the Promotion of Industrial Conciliation and Voluntary Arbitration, suggested a plan for the gradual abolition of strikes, lockouts and boycots as remedies for the adjustment of the grievances arising between employers and wage-earners, and the sub- stitution therefor of a policy of conciliation and arbitration to be carried out in a wise and systematic manner. The aims of the association shall be carried out under the direction of a national board, which shall be composed of two laymen from each diocese in the United States, who shall be chosen in the first instance by the delegates of each diocese to the Catholic Columbian congress at Chicago, and thereafter in such a manner as may be provided. The archbishops and bishops of the United States shall, ex-officio, be members of the na- tional board. The national board shall elect a president, secretary and such other officers as may be necessary. It shall also enact such bylaws for the government of the association as it may deem proper. It shall bring all the weight of its influence and prestige to bear in the formation of subordinate local parish boards, and active coop- erating with the parish priests, and the earnest, thoughtful and influ- ential wage-earners and employers of each congregation in the forma- tion of such local boards, and thus create a grand national organization of Catholic men; intelligent of purpose, and with influences permeat- ing all classes of society, bring about an era of good will. While conciliation and the arbitration of labor difficulties are the Catholic THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS 1021 ends aimed at by this association, it shall not, either as a local or a na- tional body, constitute itself an official or semi-official board of arbi- tration. The very essence and successful workings of our policy lie in the voluntary selection of the arbitrators in each case, by the em- ployers on the one hand and the employed on the other. The efforts of the association will be employed solely in bringing such a condition of affairs about. **The Catholic Women." The part taken by women in the Con- gress was by no means unimportant. Several of the most important and valuable papers were prepared by women. The second day Katherine E. Conway, of Boston, read a paper on "The Catholic Sum- mer School and the Reading Circles," a subject of wide interest to the Catholic public. " Woman's Work in Art" was treated by Eliza Allen Starr. It was worthy of the author of " Pilgrims and Shrines " and those other art books which are standard among us today. " Woman's Work in Literature " followed, by Eleanor C. Donnelly, of Philadelphia, sister of Hon. Ignatius Donnelly, the well-known Women"inLit^ Shakesperian iconoclast and "populist." Miss Donnelly said: ''Ger- ®'^*°*** many had produced her sacred poet and dramatist, the Benedictine, Dame Hrosvitha; Italy, her Catherine of Siena, her Caterina Adorni, her Vittoria Colonna. Spain had given birth to the mystical Teresa Ahumada (better known as Saint Teresa of Jesus), and the eldest daughter of the church rejoiced in the brilliant glory reflected on her by the works of Marie de France, Marie de Gourney, Madame Guyon, Madame de Sevigne and Madame Deshouilliere. "Prior to the Augustan age of English literature there were few inducements, few opportunities, for secular women to enter the arena of letters. Men barely tolerated their literary sisters, or cauterized them, if successful, with sneers and satires." In giving a summary of existing conditions as to woman's work in literature Miss Donnelly said: "While England points with pride to Adelaide Proctor, Lady Fullerton, Lady Herbert, Mary Howitt, Alice Neynell, Emily Bowles and Mother Theodosia Drane, Ireland to Rose MulhoUand, Julia Kavanagh, Kathleen O'Meara, Cecilia Caddell, Ellen Downing, Katherine Tynan and Mrs. Cashel-Hoey, France to Eugenie de Guerin and Mrs. Craven, Germany to Countess Hahn-Hahn, Spain to Cecilia Bohl de Faberand Italy to Maria Brunnamonti, Amer- ica enshines in her Catholic heart of hearts the names of Anna Hanson Dorsey, Elizabeth Allen Starr, Margaret Sullivan, Christian Reed. Louise Guiney, Katherine Conway, Sara Trainer Smith, Agnes Rep- plier, Mary Elizabeth Blake, Harriet Skidmore, Ella Dorsey, the gifted Sadliers (mother and daughters), Ellen Ford, Mary Josephine Onahan, Helen and Grace Smith the cloistered singers, Mercedes and Mother Austin Carroll, and a 'host of others who blend their sweet voices in the grand cantata of Columbian Catholic literature." Succeeding the papers by Catholic women writers followed an ac- count of the methods and work of the "Catholic Truth Society," by William F. Markae, of St. Paul. 1022 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The Race. Negro The Tribes. The history of the origin and propagation of the great organiza- tion of Catholic laymen, known as the "Society of St. Vincent de Paul," was detailed by Joseph A. Kernan, of New York. This association is the most widespread and the most effective of the numerous Catholic societies that deal with the relief of the poor. It was founded in Paris about the year 1830, by Frederic Ozanam, a zealous young Catholic layman. Conferences of this society are es- tablished in well nigh every city in this country, as well as in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Its mission is good works; its motto, "Charity." It recognizes no distinctions as to class, race or religion, but dispenses alms and aid equally to all. It is regarded among Catholics as the ideal Catholic society for laymen. " Societies for Young Men," by Warren E. Mosher, Youngstown, Ohio, appealed especially to the ardor and enthusiasm of the young men and the young women. He invoked a new spirit of chivalry to found, as it were, a new order for the youth of today, in order to em- ploy the energies and enlist the enthusiasm of the young in useful and generous works. " The Condition and Future of the Negro Race in the United States," was the subject of an elaborate paper by Rev. John R. Slattery, president of an ecclesiastical seminary in Baltimore for the training of colored students. This was supplemented by a vigorous paper by Charles H. Butler, of Washington, D. C, on the same subject. There was a large delegation of colored Catholics present during the reading of Mr. Butler's paper, and his views were received with great enthusiasm by all present. Mr. Butler is himself a negro and is employed in the treasury department, Washington. "The Condition and Future of the Indian Tribes in the United States," was the subject of an address by Bishop McGabrick, of Duluth. He entered fully into the history of the so-called " Indian question," and cited freely from government reports and other sources to show the injustice which has characterized our dealings with the Indians, and the unfairness, not to say cruelty, with which the government has often treated the Catholic Indians. The right reverend bishop gave the following statistics: In 1891 the total Indian population was given as 249,273, and of these 80,891 were Catholics. In the statistics of 1876 there were enu- merated two hundred and sixty different tribes in the United States, amounting to about 300,000 Indians. Five tribes, civilized, the Cherokee, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Semi- Indian noles and Creeks, have a trust fund of ^8,008,525.99, with an annual interest of ^413,790.11, while thirty other tribes have about $16,000,000 for their henefit. This fund, if well managed and properly disbursed, would be a great assistance to the Indians, but the commissioners, clerks, inspectors, supervisors, agents, boss farmers, physicians, teach- ers and all the rest of the multitude to whom the Indian is so valuable take to themselves a very large percentage of the fund belonging to these poor people. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1023 The number of these reservations and agencies increased up to 1870, when General Grant inaugurated the Indian peace policy. Of the seventy agencies under this new system eight were assigned to the Catholic church. In other agencies where the large number of the Indians were Catholics their demands for a Catholic priest were ignored, and they were handed over body and soul to those who were in many cases hostile to Catholicity. The Catholic bureau of Indian missions informs us that the col- lections taken up for mission work among the negroes and Indians were as follows: 1887, ;^8i,898.oi; 1888, ;^76,i75.3o; 1889, ^69,637.68; 1890, $70,461.87; 1891, $63,386.84; 1892, $68,395.67. Bigotry, the jealousy of sects and the pronounced hostility of thor,e who made the Indians their prey, have often retarded the work of Catholic missionaries, but the grand fact remains that what the world's civilizing power can never achieve, the Gospel from the mouth of the missionary has done successfully. Friday, September 8th, was given up to a series of papers on "Catholic Education," as follows: I. "Catholic Higher Education," Rt. Rev. John J. Keane, D. D. Rector Catholic University of America. 2. " The Needs of Catholic Colleges," Maurice Francis Egan, LL. D., University- of Notre Dame. 3. "The Catholic School System," Brother Azarias, Manhattan Col- lege. 4. " Catholic High Schools," Rev. John T. Murphy, C. S. Sp., Holy Ghost College, Pittsburg. 5. " Alumnae Associations in Con- vent Schools," Elizabeth A. Cronyn, Buffalo, N. Y. 6. " The Catholic Educational Exhibit," Brother Ambrose. Bishop Keane's address was an eloquent appeal for " Higher Ed ucation." He carried the sympathies of his audience from the start, catholic Ed- Dr. Egan's paper on the " Needs of Catholic Colleges" was brave, ucation. vigorous and timely. "The Catholic School System," by Brother Azarias, and "Catholic High School System," by Rev. John T. Murphy, of Holy Ghost Col- lege, Pittsburg, Pa. He thought it quite feasible to establish and support a free Catholic high school in every important center. Elizabeth A. Cronyn, of Buffalo, pleaded for "Alumnae Associa- tions in Convent Schools," and the day's session was concluded by an address on "the Catholic Educational Exhibit," delivered by Brother Ambrose, of De La Salle Institute, Chicago. The concluding session of the congress was held Saturday, Sep- •ii')er 9th. Cardinal Gibbons, several of the archbishops, many uioiiops and the distinguished foreign guests occupied the platform. Resolutions were adopted. The Pope has conferred an honorary title on Mr. Onahan, in con- sideration of his great success in arranging one of the most remarkable Church meetings ever held. It was decided that a committee to devise a system of arbitration between capital and labor should be appointed by the cardinal, chair- man and secretary. A committee consisting of the same members will determine when and where the next congress shall be held. 1024 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, The Influence of the Catholic Congress. The Catholic Message. Cardinal Gibbons gave the closing address: "The voice of the congress has succeeded in dissipating prejudices and in removing many misunderstandings in regard to the teachings and practices of the church of God. First of all, as was right to do, the voice issu- ing from this hall has proclaimed the necessity of honoring and glori- fying God. It has been a voice in behalf of God and of religion. Next to religion our love for our country should be predominant, and therefore, we have recently heard a resolution offered and adopted attesting the love and affection which we have for our country and for our political institutions. This congress has also proclaimed the necessity of good government, and it has told us that there can be no good government without law and order, that there can be no law without authority, there can be no authority without justice, there can be no justice without religion, there can be no religion without God. *' I need not say that the voice of this congress has also gone forth in vindication of the rights of labor and also of its obligations. We have spoken in the cause of humanity and the cause of the toiling masses, and we have been told that every honest labor in this country is honorable. Ever since Jesus Christ, our Saviour, worked in a carpenter shop, at Nazareth, He has shed a halo around the workshop and He has made labor honorable. "This congress has also spoken during its sessions and by its reso- lutions in the cause of Christian education. It has spoken of the importance and the great necessity of Catholic education. At the same time let it not be understood that while we are advocating Catholic education we are opposed to secular education. The whole history of the church speaks the contrary. There can be no conflict between secular and religious knowledge. Religious and secular knowledge, like Mary and Martha, are sisters, because they are the children of the same God. Secular knowledge, like Martha, is busy about the things of this world, while religious knowledge, like Mary, is found kneeling at the feet of her Lord." Finally. — A Message from the Columbian Catholic Congress. There is the Catholic world and the non-Catholic world. Between them has rolled the ocean of prejudice, a dark ocean. Hearts that ought to have come nearer to each other, hearts that God made like each other, eyes that if they only looked into each other and through them down into the hearts would have brought them together. It is the mission of the Catholic congress to bring these two worlds nearer, to make men understand each other more fully, and this mission you have to act out, first of all by appreciating the great truth that the non-Catholic world is not opposed to the Catholic world at all, but to something which it thinks is the Catholic world. The very doctrines on which this animosity is formed are doctrines that we reject as emphatically, as constantly, as indignantly as the non-Catholic world could reject them. Therefore, we only ask to be known. Archbishop Ryan. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1025 THE LUTHERAN CONGRESSES. The Lutherans, in an introductory address by Rev. L. M. Heilman, D. D., of Chicago, expressed a special pleasure in having accepted the courteous invitation to participate in the world's first great Religious Parliament. Their kinship with the Reformation of the Sixteenth Cent- ury influenced them in the belief that there was a peculiar propriety in holding such a congress by the Church of the Reformation, on soil " discovered by Christopher Columbus. Columbus and Luther were contemporaries and providential co-workers, only differing in this, that while the one discovered a new continent the other provided for it the coimnbnsand elements of liberty. When Columbus was making his famous Amer- Luther, ican voyages, which were destined to revolutionize the sciences of geography, commerce and civil government, Martin Luther, at Eisen- ach, Magdeburg and Erfurt, was storing his mind with that liberal education and with those principles of individual liberty of judgment which disenthralled Europe and eventually gave the land of Columbus its unparalleled civil liberty, and the greatest republic the world ever saw. When the distinguished voyager and discoverer was in chains, and even died in ignominy through the superstition and ingratitude of those who encouraged and commissioned him to his daring task, the celebrated Augustinian, by his personal struggles after liberty and peace, in his monastery, was breaking for himself and the world superstition's chains forged through ages. " The efforts of the reformer moved on by the side of and over methods of tyranny and persecution which crushed similar attempts. Within one week of no time when Mohammed's rule overthrew the freedom of the Mameluke power of Egypt, Luther nailed upon the castle church of Witte-nberg those theses, the echo of whose hamr^er- .sound struck the long-silent chord of freedom in all Europe. And at the time when such men as Francis L, Henry VI IL and Charles V. held •the scepter of the great nations, and on the very day when Cortez eVtyT conquered Montezuma 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 said, "was the great point from which the whole subsequent history of civilization takes its rise." These eventc laid the corner-stone of our civil lib- erty, which Lutherans hail as a product of their father's principles, and which they, therefore, are pleased to celebrate in this Columbian anniversary. It was through the inspiration and universal awakening wrought by the Reformation principle of the inalienable right of private judgment, that this land of Columbus was colonized by the various evangelical branches of Christendom which reared this republic. ** Under these principles, too, a hardy conservative class of Lutheran citizens was created which from 162 1 to the period of national in- dependence, in toil of forests, mines, fields, and in the culture of home and moral and spiritual character, and then on the field fighting for liberty's cause by a large share of service north and south, were an emphatic and positive agency in securing existence and worth to our 65 Lather's Prin- ciples the Cor- ner Stone of American Lib- 1026 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Lutheran Loyalty. Latheranism a Historv nation. Adding to their century and a half of virtues in the colonies, they have numbered in millions, at least a tenth of the American pop- ulation, and in learning, literature and popular and classic education have always had ''brightest lights" as well as they have borne the bur- den of honest industry and homely occupation. Whole companies, and regiments even, of their people have shared the rigors as also the glory of war for their American nation. It was principally they who performed the "brilliant feat" at Trenton, across the Delaware, and at their feet the arms of Cornwallis at Yorktown were laid down. Do, then, Lutherans believe too much when they say that the Columbian discovery has reached its present renowned results, so worthy of our gigantic Exposition, through the movements of the Reformation and through no small aid rendered by the immediate sons of the Reforma- tion?" On the first day of the Parliament proper, September i ith, the Gen- eral Synod opened its congresses of two days. But already on the 2d the General Council, and on the 3d the Missouri Synod had their Presentation and Congresses. The Lutheran women of various synods had their congresses during the 14th and 15th. The gatherings on the evening of the nth and during the 3d were very large, the latter hav- ingifiUed both Columbus and Washington Halls with over six thou- sand people. There were some chorus choirs of hundreds which sang to the echo various anthems, and especially Luther's battle hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is our God." In these four congresses, covering six days, a wide field of topics was traversed. ; " The Place of the Lutheran Church in History" was discussed by Prof. E. J. Wolf, D. D., of Gettysburg, Pa. He maintained that '' with the Lutheran Church as the first army that waged successful war with Rome, modern history had its birth. The papacy had been as- sailed again and again only to emerge from every contest mightier and prouder and wickeder than before, its foes crushed beneath an iron heel, its subjects, including kings and bishops as well as the masses, prostrate and helpless at its feet. There never was such a despotism as that of the Roman hierarchy. There never was an earthly power so absolute, so near omnipotent. It was the supreme tem- poral and spiritual authority; it held in subjection men's bodies and their souls; it was sovereign over reason and over conscience; it held in subjection the most powerful monarch as well as the slave, divested of every vestige of freedom. * * * 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 and its fulminations are answered with defiance, and its yoke falls from the neck of millions. *' How was this revolution of the Sixteenth Century effected, and how was the collossal power of Rome broken? A company of earnest believers had experienced that salvation is a free gift, that Christ atoned for all actual sins of men, and that the sinner is justified by faith alone. They found this to be the doctrine of Scripture, and then began to preach it and teach it, sing it and live it everywhere. The Rev. Lee M. Heilman, D. D., Chicago. 1028 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Latheranism the Keynote of the Keforma- tion. f: Lutheran History. result was the vanishing of spiritual darkness before the rising sun. ***** " Other communions in opposition to Rome came into being, and with largely the same ideas, but not simultaneously. No other church can claim to be a twin sister to the Lutheran. Zwingli was indeed at work as early as Luther, denouncing some crying corruptions, but the historian can easily premise what would have become of his religio- political reforms had it not been for the impulse which came from Wittenberg. " It was two years after the presentation of the Augsburg confes- sion when Calvin espoused the principles of the Reformation, and fifteen years, therefore, after posting the ninety-five theses. " The Lutheran Confession says Doctor Schaff 'struck the keynote to the other evangelical confessions.' " This church is the great mediating power between ancient and modern Christianity. She struck her roots deep into the past and enriched her strength by the soil of the church in every age between Luther's and that of the apostles. The scholastic development of doctrine, so far as it did not turn away from the Gospel; the incom- parable store of chants and creeds and prayers and hymns, which the faith and piety of centuries had accumulated, eliminating only what was impure — all these the Lutheran church sought to preserve and retain as far as practicable. Her liturgy is substantially the ' outline and structure of the service of the western church for a thousand years.' Her conservatism has made the Lutheran church the bulwark of civil liberty. She broke the spell of Rome, and she wrought on the conscience of rulers in behalf of the rights and needs of their subjects. She established popular education, she inculcated individual responsi- bility, she taught men they were God's children, she inspired men to appeal from the earthly oppressor to the heavenly avenger, and so rulers learned the power of their subjects and rtjckoned not only with them, but with the One v/hose authorit}' was feared more than their own. The Lutheran church thus stands in history as the upholder and guardian of civil order, and is the inspirer of those political ideas which secure human rights under every form of civil polity." The "Brief Sketch of the Lutheran Church in the United States" was assigned to Dr. H. W. Roth, of Chicago. ** Lutherans have been in this country since 162 1 or 1622, when they came with their Dutch countrymen. In 1636 came the Swedes to Delaware, and for half a century, with a translation of Luther's Catechism, the first book in the red man's language, they taught the Gospel of peace to the savage, and so mediated actually between the Indian and William Penn a half- century later. The Germans came in large accessions during the fiery persecutions of the Thirty Years War, in 17 10 and later. The present Lutheran population of this country is more than seven millions, or about an eighth of the entire population." 'The Essential Qualifications of Luther for His Work as THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1029 Reformer" was the theme of an address by Prof. R. F. Weidner, Chicago. " Many merely English-speaking have had access to criti- cisms on the 'Table Talk' of Luther, or some of the many other of his published ' sayings,' and have no opportunity to know the sub- stantial and meritorious character of his real work. Luther was more than a courageous man. Standing at the Erfurt University as the most brilliant in mind, and later on laying hold on truth which revo- lutionized the world and its theology, was an index to the genius of the man. The physical endurance, the mental acumen, the great nature of soul, the constant diligence and the profound piety of the man, made him the great reformer raised up of God." " Higher Criticism and the Lutheran Church " was discussed by Prof. S. F. Breckenridge, D. D., Springfield, Ohio. " The Lutheran church regards the Bible or, as her theologians love to name it, the Word of God, as the final arbiter of all questions of faith and morals. While they recognized a human element in the sacred writings and the necessary imperfections due to it, they maintained that they are a revelation from God through the instrumentality of men who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The con- fessions of the Lutheran church upon the authority of the Scriptures declare, they 'alone will remain as the sole judge, rule and standard,' according to which, as the only touchstone, all doctrines shall and must be understood and judged whether they be good or evil, right or wrong. Although the Lutheran church, especially in Ger- many, suffered much from the rationalistic times of Semler to those of Strauss and F. C. Baur, the old faith survives in the hearts and lives of the mass of the people and their pastors. The uniform doctrine of Lutheran professors in America has been that the Scriptures are the Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and morals. The higher critics hold that the story of creation as related in Genesis is without historical foundation. It is the production in a monotheistic setting of an Assyro-Babylonian myth to account for the visible universe. The story of paradise and the fall of man has a like origin, and was invented to account for the existence of evil. The story of the tower of Babel is an attempt to account in a " pic- torial manner for the diversity of speech." Upon this method nearly all history can be made void. The church, too, can afford to wait until the critics are agreed among themselves and until their conclusions, which have shifted like sandy foundations, for years unsteady and unsettled, until they have reached a final stage, before Christian teachers consider a reconstruction of the accepted theology. "A Standing or Falling Church, viz., Justification by F'aith," was the theme of an address by Prof. F. Pieper, of St. Louis. "By justification we understand the remission of sins. Since Christ has already perfectly acquired forgiveness of sins for all men, and since this forgiveness is offered and exhibited to men through the means of grace, to-wit, the Gospel and the sacraments, the only means on our part of obtaining forgiveness of sins and salvation is that faith which accepts Lnther*8Qaal- ifications. " Lntheranism and the Higher CriticiBm. Justification by Faith. 1030 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Lntheran Edacation. N o Church and 8tate. of the promise of God. All works and worthiness of our own are en- tirely excluded as a means of obtaining remission of sins or justifi- cation. The Lutheran church teaches a doctrine of election, but rejects that of a limited atonement and of the pretention or predesti- nation to death." Prof. F. A. Schmidt, D. D., of Minneapolis, Minn., treated the same theme in a scholarly manner. " Best Gifts of the Father to the Church," by the Rev. Dr. C. Jen- sen, of Brecklum, Germany, was declared to be " a devout Scriptural and intelligent ministry." "The Deaconess Work of the Lutheran Church," by Dr. G. U. Wenner, of New York: "Luther had recommended and wished for deaconesses as Chrysostom had in Constantinople. The modern dea- coness work began in 1836, at Kaiserswerth-on-the-Rhine, under the Lutheran pastor, Fliedner. Long before Luther's time this office had, through the system of nunneries, fallen into disuse. The office is a a divine ministry, to be exercised in leading souls to Christ. The afflicted, the unfortunate, the poor, in all conditions of life, are to be cared for by the teaching and comforting power of woman. Vows are not taken to prevent any from abandoning the work. The sisters con- nected with the General Conference of Kaiserswerth in 1861 were 1,197, in twenty-seven houses and two fields of labor. In 1891 there were 8,478 sisters, in sixty-three houses and 2,774 stations. A few of these only are in America, a few in each of the countries of Sweden, Nor- way, Denmark and England, but the greatest number are in Germany, and of the sixty-three houses about fifty-seven are Lutheran. The General Synod has now several young ladies in training at Kaiserswerth to promote the work in this country." '* Education" was treated by Prof. E. F. Bartholomew, Rock Island, 111., who ably urged the necessity of concentrating efforts into larger institutions, and hold up a high standard of training. The Lutheran church of this country has ten young ladies' seminaries, forty-two academies, twenty-six theological seminaries and thirty-two colleges, besides sixty-six orphan homes and asylums. Prof. H. Sauer, of Fort Wayne, Ind., maintained that "we love our country, and, therefore, love our parochial schools." There is peril in educating youth in mere secular studies, and omitting the knowledge of the things which develop the larger, truer manhood and womanhood. It may be said that about three hundred thousand En- glish-speaking American Lutheran communicants have no parochial schools. "The Church Should be Entirely Free from State and State from Church Control," by Prof. A. Crull, of Fort Wayne, Ind.: This was Luther's sentiment, for he employed rulers only as he did shoe- makers and others, as belonging to the common priesthood, to do Christian work. " Fifty Years of Sound Lutheranism " was the claim Prof. A. Gaebner, of St. Louis, made for the Missouri Synod. While they re- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1031 " The Press in dress by Rev. V. L. have usually each States are fifty-five enteen Norwegian, gard members of other churches as children of God, they yet, for forcible reasons, hold that "Lutheran pulpits are for Lutheran minis- ters only, and Lutheran altars for Lutheran communicants only." They especially emphasize the power and rights of the laity in the conduct of church government, giving the people the equal power with pastors to select and ordain men to the sacred office. To make the laity intelligent for their work, doctrinal subjects are discussed in their synodical meetings and the young are thoroughly catechised in the teachings of the Scriptures. "The Rite of Confirmation and the Work of Catechisation," Rev. J. N. Kildahl, of Chicago, said were human methods used to rear up laity and youth to be intelligent and devoted members of the church. The instructions imparted are meant to deepen the Christian life and to bring forth in the young the fruits of regeneration. Confirmation is simply a human form of admitting the baptized into public fellowship with the church, and assuming the vows of baptism openly for them- selves. the Lutheran Church " was the subject of an ad- Conrad, D. D., of Philadelphia. The periodicals a peculiar reason for existence. In the United English Lutheran journals, fifty-one German, sev- sixteen Swedish, four Danish, three Finnish, one Icelandic, one French and six Hungarian. There are besides twenty publication houses. "People of the Reformation on This Side and That of the Sea," by the celebrated Dr. Stoecker, former Court Preacher in Berlin. As one who now labors for the masses of the people in the capital city of Germany he could speak as an authority upon how progress is made in the work of home missions, with the criticism that " Germany is now seeking after too many new things." '• Sights, Scenes and Life Among Scandinavian Peoples," was a lecture illustrated by original stereopticon pictures, by Rev. Dr. M. W. Hamma, of Baltimore, who gave an account of the beauty of the country and especially of the " Midnight Sun," and portrayed also the character of the people in their daily life, in home and society, as also of their sincerity and purity in religious Lutheran life. All felt that such a people need no missionaries sent among them. They them- selves send missionaries to foreign fields. In Iceland where all are Lutherans, it was related that there is not a fallen woman in the coun- try, and the young people before being received into the church by confirmation are taught to conduct family devotions. On "The Mission of the Lutheran Church in America," Rev. E. K. Bell, of Cincinnati, Ohio, said that the Saxon who had conquered Rome and England was here to effect his mission for the civil and religious condition of this country. The mission of the Lutheran church here is assuming surprising proportions. Thinking people are realizing the vastness of the field, the unrivaled opportunity, the limit- less resources of the Lutheran church, and the pressing needs in The Lutheran PreM. Scandinavian Scenes. 1032 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. assuming the responsibilities laid on this communion. The church which binds itself either by language or nationality to any particular class may flourish for a time, but its decline is certain and its power will pass away. The Lutheran church aims to take the world for Christ. "The Home Mission Field," presented by Rev. S. B. Barnitz, D. D., Western Secretary of the Board of Home Missions. He has seen the church of the Reformation in the northwest save counties and states and territories from Romanism and rum. It was Lutheran legislators which saved South Dakota from the curse of the lottery scheme. "Lutherans in all Lands," as shown by Rev. J. N. Lenker, have a kingdom on which the sun never sets. In Germany there are 16,000 ministers, 22,500 churches, 29,300,000 baptized members, 61,000 parochial schools, and 6,731 deaconesses; in Denmark, 1,700 ministers, 1,900 churches, 2,030,000 baptized members, 3,100 paro- chial schools, and 171 deaconesses; in Norway, 869 ministers, 960 churches, 2,010,000 baptized members; in Sweden, 2,541 ministers, 2,514 churches, 4,764,000 baptized members. Total in Europe, in- cluding Greece, England, Scotland, Holland, Switzerland, and others, 24,416 ministers, 32,897 churches, 45,370,308 baptized members, 89,764 parochial schools, 7,702 deaconesses. In Asia there are 252 minis- ters, 169 churches, 114,350 baptized members, 756 parochial schools and 42 deaconesses; in Africa, 328 ministers, 256 churches, 100,863 baptized members, 714 parochial schools and 44 deaconesses; in Oceanica, 168 ministers, 410 churches, 137,294 members and 180 schools; in South America, 62 ministers, 90 churches, 115,545 mem- bers, 90 schools; in Greenland, United States, Canada and the West Indies, 5,120 ministers, 9,135 churches, 7,012,500 members, 2,513 schools and 65 deaconesses. The grand total in the world shows 30,346 ministers, 42,877 churches, 52,850,660 baptized members, 94,017 parochial schools and 7,853 deaconesses. THE LUTHERAN WOMEN'S CONGRESS. This Congress convened September 14th, in the Hall of Washing- ton, Mrs. J. Mellander, of Chicago, presiding. Mrs. Charles Henrotin, the Vice-President of the Woman's Branch of the Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition, gave the address of welcome. Mrs. A. V. Hamma, of Baltimore, Md., followed with the greeting of the Lutheran Women of America to the Lutheran Women of all Women? lands where the Lutheran doctrine is set forth. She addressed the women of Germany, ** where Lutheranism was born, where it is the state church, where the people in all ranks of life, from the peasant to the imperial family worship their Maker in the same manner, where one may go from the depths of the forest to the banks of the Rhine and find the people with one accord singing the chorals of the old historic THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1033 church; the women of Scandinavia, the land of the midnight sun, where also the Lutheran is the reigning religion; from the mountains to the Fjods they know of but one manner in which to worship. It is a matter of thankfulness that the Norwegians, the Swedes and the Danes are a part of the Lutheran church. The people of Hungary, a million of whom struggle under trials allowed by the emperor; of Ice- land, the country of avalanches, volcanoes and hot springs where nature seems to have conspired to drive humanity from her ice-bound coast; of India, which is now awakening from her lethargy and realizing the importance of the Christian religion." Mrs. Hamma also urged definite action in forming a league for the union of all Lutheran women. This greeting was responded to by Mrs. Alfred Spiess, of Ger- many; Mrs. Artur Leffler, of Sweden; Mrs. Th. Dahl, of Norway; Mrs. Nic Beck Meyer, of Denmark; Mrs. Sigrid Magnusson, of Ice- land, and Dr. Anna S. Kugler, of India. /'The Future of the Lutheran Church; Its Youth, "by Mrs. Beegle, of Atchison, Kan. Mrs. Beegle emphasized the importance of inter- esting the younger members in the actual church work. Luther, as a child, went about singing carols and encouraged singing among children; following that example it seemed appropriate to introduce a choir of children, which sang one of the carols which he had written for his son, Hans. ''Woman's Influence on Church and Home," was the concluding paper of the evening, by Mrs. Nellie Blessing Eyster, of San Francisco, Cal. Mrs. Eyster handled the topic with great skill, enumerating the various ways in which the mother may control and direct in her own family the tendencies which she is anxious to develop; and in church life by her influence and example guide others in the straight and narrow path. Thd following morning the congress convened in Hall VI. Each synod having its own synodical body organized for the purpose of doing missionary work, it was deemed advisable to devote one session to this topic, Mrs. E. S. Prince, of Springfield, Ohio, taking up the work of the General Synod and telling of the efficient work done in assisting the struggling missions to reach an independent basis. The work of the other synods is carried on in a very similar manner. Miss Mary Swenson, of Chicago, read a paper on The Work of the Augustana Synod, Miss Laura Sherer, of Marion, Va., on the United Synod of the south, and Mrs. Th. Dahl, of Stoughton, Wis., on The United Nor- wegian Church. The afternoon session was devoted to the topic of "Deaconess Work." This work, having been originated by a German Lutheran, has been carried on successfully for several years, so the topic was full of inter- est. Miss Tillie Benzon, of Chicago, read a paper written by Miss Emma Endlich, of Reading, Pa., describing the work in its fullest details, from its inception until the present time, telling how these devoted women sacrificed comforts and even necessities of life to min- ister to those in want and sorrow. In this country there are eleven 66 Woman's In- fluenc*. Deaconess Work. Woman i n Dhr Work. 1^034 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, deaconess institutions with four mother houses, as the training schools are called, and from which the deaconesses are sent to other places. A paper on Norwegian Deaconess Work, written by Professor Sverdrup, was read by Miss Emma Johnson, of Chicago. It treated the Norwegian part of this noble work. Sister Elizabeth Fedde, of Brooklyn, N. Y., the first Norwegian deaconess in this country, was present and accepted the invitation to say a few words to the audience; she thrilled her hearers by her graphic description of the work, how at times in the early part of their existence they knew not where the supplies for the next day were to come from. Friends have been won for the cause since that, and the movement is no longer obliged to struggle for its existence. The session closed with a discussion, in which many participated, on the subject of the formation of a union or league of all Lutheran women. In the evening a poem written by Rev. Dr. W. H. Luckenbach, entitled "Woman in Christian Work," and dedicated to the Lutheran c'hTiTtian Women's Congress Committee, was read by Mrs. J. B. Badgely, of Middleburg, N. Y. A paper followed on the subject of ''Women in Sunday-school Work," by Mrs. Emma B. SchoU, of Baltimore, Md. Mrs. SchoU thought women to be the ideal Sunday-school workers; that instinct seemed so strongly developed, it was possible for them to decide the necessities of each individual case at once and proceed in a manner which would produce the desired result. The speaker of the evening, Dr. A. S. Kugler, of Guntoor, India, was then introduced. Dr. Kugler has been a missionary of the Lutheran church in India for twelve years, having been graduated by the Penn- sylvania Medical College. She is well able to minister to the physical in addition to the mental needs of the natives. The religious beliefs and superstitions which the people still hold sacred, do much toward making the life of the Hindu women the most wretched on earth. A widow is held responsible for the death of her husband, and if she is permitted to exist, it is only to lead the life of the most miserable of slaves. In case of illness, medical attendance has been denied the women, as men are not allowed to enter their apartments, and it is only in comparatively recent years that women understanding medicine have gone out to the work. The crying need at present is a hospital, and for this purpose, money is now being collected. Dr. Kugler illustrated her talk with specimens of work done by the native pupils in the Guntoor and Rajah mundry schools, which were especially interesting, coming such a distance from children of whom we expect so little. Resolutions were adopted to form a National Lutheran Woman's League. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1035 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH CONGRESS. The presentation of the Presbyterian Church at the World's Par- liament of Religions was made at the Presbyterian Congress held on the 17th of September. The first session of the congress was opened at 2:30 P.M., in the Hall of Washington (Art Institute), by the Rev John L. Withrow, D. D., pastor of the Third Presbyterian church, Chicago, president of the congress. Dr. Withrow said, among other things: ** If one were to judge Presbyterians by the display they make on public occasions, he might come to the conclusion that they are not an active people. But this would be a mistake. Presbyterians are pre-eminently a people of deeds rather than words. They have always been forward in every cause requiring self-sacrificing effort in the ad- vancement of the Kingdom of Christ. They are conservative in their beliefs, progressive in their methods, and broad or catholic in their spirit. Sometimes we are represented as narrow and bigoted; there is nothing farther from the truth. We do not require of our church members subscription to any creed or confession. The simple and sin- gle condition of membership is faith in Jesus Christ as the personal Saviour of the believer. Any believer in Christ is entitled to enter and is admitted into the church. The Westminster Confession is sub- scribed to only by officers, or ministers and elders, and they are only required to subscribe to it as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Bible. Thus we give the largest freedom to everybody that enters into our ministry. The Presbyterian church is slow to take notice of departures from its standards and long suffering toward offenders. It is only very rarely, and when the man she deals with shows a particularly stubborn or ugly disposition, that she lays her hand on him and asks him to desist or deprives him of standing. But when roused, the Presbyterian church is tenacious and persistent. It believes in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. The men whom it has reared have been men of action and strength, men of pur- pose and character. It is a delight to serve her, and the Master through her. It is a privilege to testify for her." Dr. Withrow then introduced the speakers of the afternoon ses- sion and they participated in the following order: "Presbyterian History," by the Rev. Andrew C. Zenos, D. D., Professor of Biblical and Ecclesiastical History in the McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago. The contents of the paper were, in substance, as follows: " Presbyterianism is distinguished from other forms of evangelical Christianity, in the first place, by its polity and then by its system of doctrine; the latter is historically associated with it, but is not logically inseparable from it. Presbyterianism has ex- isted and may exist dissociated from the Calvinistic system of doc- trine. With reference to its form of government, Presbyterianism claims that it is to be found in the New Testament. It is to be found, not as the exclusive system of the New Testament, for the New Testa- ment contains teaching regarding polity only in solution; in order to precipitate thjs teaching and have it crystallize it is necessary to infuse Dr. Withrow on Preebyteri' Presbjterian History. 1036 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. into the solution the element of human wisdom. All forms of church polity are results of the mixture of the divine teaching and the human wisdom, that adapts it to actual and differing conditions. In other words, Presbyterianism bases itself on the theory that the New Testa- ment furnishes the foundations of practical church government, and on these foundations many structures may be erected, but none that will better fit the foundations or carry out their architectural sugges- tions. Upon this understanding of it Presbyterianism does not need to trace its history back to the apostolic age through the Waldensees, Origin of Pres- ^^^ Culdccs, or any other historic forms or peoples. When asked for byterianism. its historic origin in its present well-defined form, it points back to the period of the Reformation when, under the stress of animated contro- versy, scholars and churchmen went to the Bible to find just what was taught in it. And that appeal to the fountain of all authority, and arbiter of all questions for the Protestant, resulted in the enunciation of the great principles, that Christ is the Head of the church, that the church is one body, that it is endowed with authority over its mem- bers, that this authority must be exercised through representatives, that these representatives as representing the same authority must be equal, and finally, that the church as a whole should govern its parts leading to a system of graded judicatories. "These principles were reached not at once, but gradually; not by a single individual, but by different students of the Word in different local centers. In the course of controversy the system has been some- times called the Genevan and assigned to Calvin as its framer. If such assertions mean that Calvin was its most illustrious exponent during the age of the reformers they may pass unchallenged; but if they mean that the system was elaborated or invented by Calvin for the first time they are not true. Long before Calvin Zwingli had organized the Swiss Reformation on Presbyterian principles. It was adopted in Holland and associated there, after a remarkable struggle, with the doctrinal system, which has ever since remained almost indis- solubly interwoven with it. *Tn Great Britain it found special favor in Scotland. Here the idea of the covenant as a constructive principle in society was already familiar, and with its democratic tendency it prepared the way for Presbyterianism. The system was formally adopted in 1560 in an inchoate form; the starting point was the general assembly and pres- byteries were the weekly meetings of ministers. Little by little it as- sumed more and more definiteness. In England its first appearance was notunder auspicious circumstances. Political influencesandconditions were against it. The rulers of the state, having wrested the control of the church from the hands of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, were not willing to surrender it into the hands of the people. But popular ideas steadily gained, and, in spite of all that the Stuarts could do to keep the reigns of government in their own hands, the tide in favor of popular government, both in the state and in the church, was dest'ined tQ overwhelm them, In 1640 the long parliament met ^nd was con- Prof. A. C. Zenos, D. D., Chicago. 1038 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The Puritans trolled by the Puritans. But the Puritans were a mixed class, includ- » Mixed Class, ingmoderate Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Independents. Though the strength of these elements was not formally tested, from the be- ginning the Presbyterians were in the majority. But the dissensions among the Puritans prevented the adoption of any of its forms perma- nently. Byappointmentof the Long Parliament an assembly of divines met at Westminster in 1643, to revise the Thirty-nine Articles and pro- vide a form of government for the English church. This assembly found little difficulty in formulating a Confession of Faith, which it was led to do by circumstances instead of revising the Articles. But the task of devising a plan of government proved a far more difficult task. It was the desire of the majority that all should agree on this point. It would have been a comparatively easy matter to coerce as small a minority as the Independents and Erastians combined consti- tuted, but the Presbyterians hoped and worked for unanimity. They believed in the soundness of their principles and in the efficacy of free discussion in bringing about the result they desired to reach. Thus it came to pass that much time was consumed in long, diffuse repetitious and ultimately fruitless debates over the minutest details of the ques- tion of polity. Meanwhile the Independents, under Cromwell, came to the ascendancy in the political sphere and Presbyterianism received a fatal blow in England. " Yet while it was thus effectually checkmated in England a new Presbyterian- field was opened for it in the New World. Already before the acces- Worid.*^^^*^ sion of Cromwell to power, many had ventured to cross the ocean in search of a place where they might exercise religious freedom un- molested. Through the seventeenth century the stream of emigration continued. And as in its origin so in its transplantation from the Old World into the New, Presbyterianism was not controlled or directed by one man or one center. It came not from one region, but from well-nigh every country where it had found adherents. The French Huguenot, the German and Dutch Reformed, the Scotch Covenanter and the English Puritan planted their colonies and set up their institu- tions on these shores. Until the beginning of the eighteenth century these elements worked together. Then those that used the English language in their services of worship moved for a more compact organization. In this they found a most efficient leader in the inde- fatigable Francis Makemie. The first presbytery was organized in Philadelphia in 1705. This step led to a new impulse and growth, and a decade had scarcely passed before it was followed by the organiza- tion of the first synod. This was in 1716. In 1729 the synod passed the adopting act, making the Westminster confession the authorita- tive creed of the church. Thus after a quarter of a century of ex- istence without a creed the church had a standard. Subscription was required to the essentials only. But even thus those in the church who had come from New England were not entirely satisfied. Two parties therefore began to appear. One for the strict and one for the loose interpretation of the constitution. The question of the THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1039 educational qualifications of the ministry began to be discussed about the same time in consequence of the revivals led by the Tennents and the increased demand for ministers. These discussions led to the rupture of 1746 between the "old" and the *'new sides," But the differences between these sides were not essential and in 1758 the breach was healed. Then came a season of growth, and the organiza- tion of the church was completed in 1788 with the meeting of the first general assembly. The question of the education of the ministry was destined to reappear, ana this time lead to the more permanent division between what has been known as the Cumberland Presby- terians and the mother church. In 1801 a " plan of union" was agreed upon between the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians for the more effectual carrying out of the missionary enterprises of both denominations. While this measure inured to the benefit of Presby- terianism numerically, it also resulted in the lowering of the standards to such an extent that many conservatives became alarmed. The difference between the parties grew until definite efforts were made to settle the question in the trials of Albert Barnes and Lyman Beecher. In these trials the party favoring the looser interpretation of the standards prevailed; but the opposite party continued gaining, and in 1837 took action which led to the disruption of the old and new schools. The reunion of 1870 brought these two schools together, but meanwhile the war of the rebellion caused another division that still remains." *• Presbyterianism has been reproached for these disruptions. While the spirit of disunion is not to be justified, it must be recognized, on the other hand, that disruption under given circumstances is unavoid- able, and if the unity, peace and purity of the church are the objects to be aimed at by its organization, the Presbyterian church may be forgiven if in the effort to secure the last it has not always succeeded in preserving the other two. But it is not true that the existence of disruption in its history is an evidence of the lack of catholicity in it. Rather may it be safely said that whenever the reunion of Christendom is effected Presbyterianism will be found in the forefront of those who have labored the most zealously for it." *' Presbyterian Doctrine," by the Rev. Timothy G. Darling, D. D., Professor of Systematic Theology in Auburn Seminary, Auburn, N. Y. The gist of this paper was as follows: ''The chief peculiarity of Presbyterianism is its definite system of doctrine. It stands for the principle that the knowledge of the truth must precede and condition the Christian life. Faith is nothing without something definite as its object. The realization of the ideals given in the Scriptures can only take place to the extent that these ideals are understood and held as convictions. The doctrinal standards of Presbyterianism are definite, positive and systematic. It does not encourage the view that truths held separately are complete or effective; but that they undoubtedly are when carefully correlated and associated with one another in a con- sistent scheme. It proceeds therefore, on the assumption that the Scriptures contain a system of doctrine* Plan of Union. Presbyterian Doctrine 1040 THE WOkLb'S CONGRESS OE EELIGIONS. *' This system has a center and a circumference, parts and mem- bers. The cental place in it is occupied by God Himself. The corner- stone of it is the sovereignty of God. God holds and controls the universe absolutely and effectively and from eternity. He does not go about either in inherent or self-imposed impotency depending for the next move on the action of limited changeable creatures. "The place of man in the system is that of a creature made in the image of God but fallen into utter ruin and needing restoration to his former condition. Man, however, has not the power in himself to lift himself out of his fallen condition. His state is described as spiritual death. If he shall live again it must be by a process of resurrection; but this process is from outside not from within. Regeneration is thus independent of man's own activity. " Man is saved because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is an expiation of sin and a propitiation of God. The question whether this expiation or atonement is limited or unlimited should have no place in a system; it is an atonement not to man but to God. The invitation should be extended to all to accept this atonement and be saved. As God's purpose cannot be thwarted, those who are regenerated and have received God's grace persist in it to the end." The Rev. David Schley Schaff, D. D., pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian church, of Jacksonville, 111., read a paper on "Presbyteri- anism and Education," as follows in substance: "Christianity and education are inseparable. Throughout the whole history of the Christian church this alliance has been noticeable. Especially at the time of the Reformation, however, did the essential character of this alliance shine forth. The fundamental principles of the Reformers required them to lay stress on the education of each Christian. The study of the Bible by the individual could not be insisted on without education. "Presbyterianism, more intensely than either generic Christianity Prwbfttrian- or the Protestant form of it, is allied to education. First, it is adapted by its peculiarities to foster education. Ihis adaptation is to be seen first of all in the emphasis it lays on the sermon. The exposition of the Word is the principal part of its public worship. The minister is chiefly a preacher and teacher; the sermon is a discourse of instruc- tion, not a harangue; its object is to train the mind so that it can grasp and use the truth as given in the Scriptures. The worship of the church does not appeal to the aesthetic faculty or to the emotions as do those of some other denominations, but to the intellect. "Second, this adaptation is to be seen in its doctrinal system. The Calvinistic pulpit has been characterized by doctrinal preaching. The creed and catechisms of Presbyterians are intellectual systems. To understand them the membership of the church needs intelligence. The Westminster standards, though somewhat too severe and cold in their conception and expression and minute in detail, are admirably adapted to stimulate thought. They also require a certain amount of cultivation in order to be understood and accepted. And these creeds grc meant to be used by the people. i«m aad Eda MtittQ. W^ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF kELlGiONS, l04l Third, this adaptation is seen in the stress laid by Presbyteri- anism on the activity of the laity in the management of church affairs. It finds in the New Testament directly or by implication principles which lay on the layman, a part of the burden of the government and discipline of the church. To do his work well in this regard the lay- man must equip himself for it. This is also true of his position in church judicatories, such as the session, the presbytery, the classis, the synod and the general assembly. "Fourth, this adaptation is seen again in the emphasis laid on a personal acquaintance with the Scriptures. In the Bible is sound authority. The ultimate court of appeal is the Bible not any of the judicatories of the church. But each individual must reach this court for himself. It is to be supposed that the Presbyterian church holds, and will hold to the inerrancy of the Bible even in matters of non- essential nature, such as geographical and historical details. But whatever difference of opinion there may be on this point the Script- ures are undoubtedly the infallible rule of faith and practice to every loyal Presbyterian, and the church demands their acceptance. The Bible, however, from its variety of content and comprehensiveness of scope, is in itself the means of a liberal education to the one that makes good use of it. "Secondly, in its actual history Presbyterianism has proved itself TheFriendof the friend of education. The Calvinistic system in New England may Education, be considered the source of inspiration for the large and useful educa- tional work of that section. Presbyterianism as a distinct form of Calvinism founded the Log College in 1746, which, under the names of the College of New Jersey and Princeton College, has had such a brilliant history. It was here that some of the ablest and most emi- nent divines of the church have labored, such as Jonathan Dickinson, Jonathan Edwards, Witherspoon and a host of others down to the Alexanders and the Hodges and Dr. James McCosh, not to speak of any now living and in office. The first theological seminary in America was founded by the Reformed church in New York city, in 1804; then came Andover, then Rutgers in 1810, then Princeton in 1812, then Lane, Auburn, Union, McCormick, Xenia, Allegheny, Columbia, Hamp- den Sidney, Lancaster and others representing different types of the Reformed faith. "Finally, the Presbyterian church makes provision for education through all its organized agencies. Through its Board of Foreign Missions it plants schools and colleges in foreign countries. The work of its Home Missionary Board consists partly in founding and foster- ing schools in the new regions of this land. Its Board of Freedmen cares for the education of the colored population. It has a special board, whose object is to aid needy young men through their aca- demic, collegiate and seminary course on their way to the ministry. It has another, whose sole object it is to assist to self-support newly founded institutions of learning. " In every way possible, therefore, it puts the cause of education 1042 THE WOkLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. rian- , Presb: , ism a Missioi ary Religion. PreHbyterian Beouion. on high ground. It believes that a sound and well-trained mind is the best possible preparation for a full and free spiritual life." The evening session of the congress was held by invitation of the Parliament of Religions in connection with the Parliament in the Hall of Columbus. The first paper was read by the Rev. Herman D. Jenkins, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Sioux City, Iowa. The substance of the paper was as follows: ** American Pres- byterianism has been always animated by the missionary spirit. It was started not for the purpose of founding a sect but of evangelizing the colonists. It was a movement not to oppose any other church but to advance, not to divide but to multiply. The Presbyterian Church in America thus moved toward the needs of men. It made its home in the pioneer's cabin; its house of worship it built in the clearing. It grew with the growth of the nation. Each wave of growth carried with it the Presbyterian form of Christianity. Thus at present Pres- byterianism is preached in more than twenty languages throughout the land and everywhere it finds a home. It is not limited to the East or to the West. In New Jersey four per cent, of the population accept it and the same proportion in the Indian Territory. Its home mission- ary activity is most zealous and widespread. In consequence it has grown much faster than the population of the country. While the lat- ter has been multiplied sevenfold during the last hundred years, Pres- byterianism has grown fortyfold. Evidently God has blessed it as a missionary church. *' Its foreign missionary work is not less remarkable for extent and results. It has nearly seventeen hundred missionaries in the foreign field, besides seven thousand native workers. It has gathered one hundred and fifty thousand members into its communion and over three quarters of a million of adherents. The growth of the church has been more rapid in the foreign field than at home. At home the growth has been within the last ten years at the rate of thirty-nine per cent.; abroad it has been one hundred and nineteen per cent. Be- sides these results there remain the results that cannot be put into figures, of work through schools, hospitals and printing presses. " This survey must have its practical lesson. Evangelism is the cure of sectarianism. The needs of such a vastly ramified work must be taken into account in all future efforts to modify the standards. Missionary enterprises enrich the church with a practical theology. We need not a new theology, but the adaptation of the old to the needs and exigencies of evangelism." ** Presbyterian Reunion" was the last of the papers read. It was by Principal George Monro Grant, of Kingston, Ont., and is as follows: "At this Congress every church is called upon to review its history, to state its distinctive principles and to ask whether it has sufficient vital- ity to adapt these to changed conditions of time, country and society; in a word, whether it has a moral right to continue as a separate organ- ization, and if it has, why it does not present an unbroken front and give a united testimony to an assembled world. The principles of ^ THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGION^. 1043 church constitute the law of its being. They may be obscured for a time, but if the principles be true they will reassert themselves. They are the only bases on which a reunion can be effected. The church must be broad enough to include all who are faithful to its basic prin- ciples, and strong enough to put up with varieties of opinion not in- consistent with its life. " Going back, then, to the Reformation to discover the principles of Presbyterianism, we find that, first, the reformers were men of faith, and the essence of their faith was the Gospel. They believed that God had revealed Himself to Israel as a God of redeeming love, by ways, methods and means suited to the childhood and youth of the world, and that this revelation culminated in Christ and His Gospel. As the revelation was recorded in Holy Scriptures they counted these beyond all price, and they studied them under all the lights of their time with all the fearlessness of men of science who may doubt their own powers but never doubt the truth of God. The first principle, then, of the Presbyterian church, is that the church must be evangelical, and the good news which it preaches must be that which is contained in the Word of God. " Second, the reformers were churchmen. They did not believe that the individual religious sentiment expressed the whole religious nature of men and that the term 'visible church' was erroneous. They believed that the Lord founded a society or church, gave to it Himself as Supreme Lawgiver and Head, gave an initiatory rite and an out- ward bond of union, a definite portion of time for public worship and special service, along with injunctions, aims, promises and penalties that a society requires for its guidance and which are now Scripturally fixed for all time. " Third, the reformers believed in publicly confessing their creed, or setting it forth in formal statements from time to time. These con- Teetimony.Not fessions were testimonies, not tests. A faith in the Gospel made them ^'r®*^- comparatively indifferent to formulas. What was originally a testi- mony has since been made a test. It is the greatest error and mis- fortune that the flower of the soul of one generation has been con- verted by a strange alchemy into an iron bond for future generations. " Fourth, the reformers asserted the democratic principle and em- bodied it in representative legislatures and courts, to express the will and preserve the unity of the church. They discovered the individual and gave him his rightful place in the church and in society. They taught that man as man entered into union with God by a spiritual act, and that every man who did so was a king, a priest and a prophet. I need scarcely point out how far we have departed in practice from this principle. We have made our church government aristocratic. The laity are wholly unrepresented in our church courts, except in as far as it may be said that all the members are laymen, because we have abolished the medieval distinction of clergy and laity. " I have sketched the principles that must be accepted as the basis of any future union: The evangelical principle, the church principle, The Creed ism. 1644 THE WORLD'S CONGkESS OF RELfGtOMS. the national and confessional principle, and the democratic principle. Are we now prepared to act upon these principles frankly and unre- servedly? If so, it seems to me that the circumstances in which we meet give us a wider horizon and a wider outlook than Presbyterian reunion, though that might come first. '* We have been proud of our Christianity instead of allowing it Presbyteri^.'^ ^^ crucify US. So, have we not been proud of our Presbyterianism in- stead of allowing it to purify and enlarge our vision and fit us for serv- ice and sacrifice in our own day and land, along the lines on which Luther, Calvin and Knox labored, until God called them to Himself? We have thus made Presbyterianism a sect, forgetting that Knox's prayer was, ' Lord, give me Scotland or I die.' God heard and answered his cry. Should not your prayer be, 'Lord, give us this great and goodly land, as dear to our souls as Scotland was to Knox.' Remember that we shall never commend the church to the people, unless we have faith in the living Head of the church; unless we believe with Ignatius that where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church, and with Robert Hall, 'He that is good enough for Christ is good enough for me.' Alas, our churches have not thought so; therefore, our history is on the whole a melancholy record. The ablest expounder of the New Testament that I heard when a student in Scotland was Morrison, the founder of the Evangelical Union. Him the United Presbyterian church cast out. The holiest man I ever knew was John McLeod Campbell, whose work on the 'Atonement' is the most valuable con- tribution to the great subject thatthe Nineteenth Century has produced. Him the Church of Scotland cast out. The most brilliant scholar I ever met, the man who could have done the church greater service than any other English writer in the field of historical criticism, where service is most needed, was Robertson Smith. Him the Free Church of Scotland cast out from his chair. Of course, these churches are ashamed of themselves now, but think of what they lost, think of what Christ lost by their sin, and if, wheresuch vast interests are concerned, we may think of individuals, think of the unspeakable crucifixion of soul that was inflicted on the victims. It would ill become me to suggest that you do not do these things better in the United States. Yet, with- out adverting to recent cases where the ashes of controversy are not, I may be pardoned for saying that the church which cut off at one stroke the presbytery of New Brunswick, and subsequently those who formed the great Cumberland Presbyterian church, and which cut off at another stroke four synods without a trial, need not hesitate to fall on its knees with the rest of us and cry, 'we have sinned.* Fathers and Brethren, God give us the grace to repent, and strength from this time forth to go and do otherwise." THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1045 THE CONGREGATIONAL CONGRESS. When the first suggestion came, as a thought from God, of a World's Congress to be held in connection with the World's Columbian Expo- sition, especially of a vast group and series of religious congresses, no one responded more quickly, or with a deeper enthusiasm, than did leading members of the Congregational denomination. The Par- liament of Religions was only one part of the World's Religious Con- gress. Half its meaning, and more than half its value, would have been wanting, had it not been for the multitude of other great relig- ious and missionary congresses which preceded attended and fol- lowed the Parliament. The genesis of Congregationalism was in England; its first exodus to the New World was from Holland, and it was the " Mayflower", which bore to Plymouth Rock this choicest and fruitfulest seed-corn of all American immigration, religious, civil and educational. Congregation- alism stands for the Evangelical faith, a regenerate life, and a principle of church government; the church polity is that of a pure democracy, under the one Lord and Master. Historically, Congregationalism was the pure outcome of the Reformation, and was a return, straight and immediate, to the sole authority of the Word of God. In all matters of the religious life and church control its loyalty to Christ alone makes it disown ** the authority of pope, prelate, prince, or parliament." congregation- The acceptance of the supreme authority of God, as revealed in His aUsm. Word and in Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, is the fundamental thought, All doctrine, all motives, all rules of the Christian life are subjected to this test. But, along with this independency of the local church, Con- gregationalism holds to the idea of the fellowship of the churches. As to the fittest methods of church fellowship, on the basis of the freedom and spiritual equality of the several churches, there has been a good deal of experimentation. If it took courage to dare to h^ free, it has required an equal degree of courage, while insisting upon freedom, to dare to enter upon terms of fellowship, mutual trust, council and co- operation. The present system of "councils" and of "associations," local, state and national, and at length international, came about only by degrees. The existing combination of the immediateness of each one's accountability to God, of the independency of each local church of all outside human authority, and with this an organized system of church-fellowship, has been an achievement, the victory of a long- growing "sanctified common sense." So that that which not long ago seemed to the fathers impossible has now come to appear axiomatic and altogether natural. Congregationalists do not consider themselves better than other Christians, whatever their ecclesiastical name, and they are apt to affirm with all emphasis that "one is our Master, and all we are breth- ren." If they do not say much about "organic union" and the "re- union of Christendom," it is because they care infinitely more about the vital and the actual than the merely formal union, that ought every- where cmd with ^11 distinctness to be recognized of ^11 who ar^ really 1046 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. one in spirit and life with Christ. It is for this reason that Congrega- tionalists found such occasion for rejoicing and for hope in that great Parliament of Man, with its more than one hundred and fifty distinct congresses, that will always make the year 1893 so signally historic. And it is for the same reason that they rejoiced most of all in that sublime procession and grouping of the World's Religious Con- gresses, of which the Parliament of Religions was indeed the most novel, the most picturesque and imposing, and perhaps the most significant part. Any fair statement and story of what Congregationalists had to do in helping to make these congresses what they were, could hardly fail to be of interest to intelligent religionists of every name. And, firstly, it may be noted that the man who, after President C. C. Bonney, had most to do in originating, creating and carrying through to such victorious success the Parliament of Religions, Rev. John Henry Barrows, D. D., though now pastor of a Presbyterian church, was by birth, education and training, in all his earlier ideals, traditions and ministry, a Congregationalist — "ten years a Presbyterian; two hun- dred and fifty years a Congregationalist." And taking the congresses all through, no other single denomination was so largely represented as the Congregational, as will be seen by a careful study of the various Congregation- Programmes. Of the Congregationalists who took leading part in the aiists in the parliament of religions were: Dr. F. A. Noble, a member of the general ongress. committee and who frequently assisted Dr. Barrows in presiding; Rev. Maurice Phillips, Madras, India, who read a paper on Primitive Hindu Religion and Primitive Revelation; Joseph Cook, Certainties in Religion; Dr. Lyman Abbott, Religion Essentially Characteristic of Humanity; President George Washburne, Robert College, Constanti- nople, Points of Contact between Christianity and Mohammedanism; Dr. T. T. Munger, Christianity as Interpreted by Literature; Dr. Samuel Dike, the Christian View of Marriage; Rev. Mrs. Annis F. Eastman, The Influence of Religion on Woman; Prof. George P. Fisher, Yale University, Christianity a- Religion of Facts; Rev. J. T. Yokoi, Japan, Christianity as Understood by a Japanese; Prof. Waldo S. Pratt, Religion and Music; Dr. James Brand, Christian Evangeliza- tion as one of the Working Forces of our American Christianity; President Kosaki, of the Doshisha, Japan, Christianity as Verified by Experience; Evangelist B. Fay Mills, Christ the Saviour of the World; Dr. Washington Gladden, Christianity as a Social Force; President W. A. P. Martin, Imperial College, Peking, International Obligations to China; Dr. G. F. Pentecost, Present Outlook for Religion; Dr. Francis E. Clark, Christianity as Seen by a Voyager Around the World; Dr. H. Blodgett, Why Chinese Christians Should Unite in Using the Term, "Tien-chu" for God; Rev. R. A. Hume, What are the Points of Contact and Contrast Between Christian and Hindu Thought, and Editor W. T. Stead, on The Civic Church. In the Congress of the Religious Press, four leading Congregational journals were represented, the Advance of Chicago, the Congregation- Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., Chicago. 1048 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Congregation- aliets in Mis- eions. The Pilgrim Fathers. alist of Boston, and the Independent and Christian Union of New York. Among the papers presented were those by Dr. Simeon Gilbert, of the ^^^fz^^^z^;^, chairman of the committee; Rev. Howard A. Bridgman, of the Congregationalist ; Joseph Cook; Rev. F. Herbert Stead, Lon- don; Miss H. A. Farrand, of the Advance, and others. In other con- gresses papers were read or addresses made by Miss Jane Addams, of the Hull house, Mrs. Joseph Cook, Gen. O. O. Howard, Gen. C. H. Howard and others. In the World's Missionary Congress, Congregationalists were represented by Rev. Dr. Walter M. Barrows, chairman of the General Missionary Congress, and by Mrs. F. W. Fisk, chairman of the Wo- man's missionary congress; also by the following speakers: Dr. Gra- ham Taylor, Dr. Samuel H. Virgin, Professor Kozaki (Japan), Dr. H. M. Scott, Dr. Francis E. Clark, Dr. A. N. Hitchcock, Dr. George Washburn, Rev. J. L/, Barton (Turkey), Rev. W. Elliot Griffis, Rev. Gilbert Reed (China)%nd Dwight L. Moody; also by Miss Mary C. Collins, Mrs. Moses Smith, Mrs. Flora A. Regal, Mrs. C. H. Daniells, Rev. G. Frederick Wright and Edna Dean Proctor. The Congregational Church Congress convened in the Hall of Columbus, September loth, the day just preceding the opening of the Parliament of Religions. This congress had the honor of being the fit- ting preface and prelude to the parliament, which was convened the following day. As each denomination was privileged to make a "presentation" of its distinctive methods of church government and religious tenets, its history and claims upon the attention of mankind, so the representa tives of the church which in this country traces its ancestry to the Pil- grims and the Puritans of New England, made their opening day, also the "presentation day," showing alike the principles and purposes of Congregationalism, and tracing its history and the growth of its influ- ence from the birth of the Congregational idea down to the present day. Dr. Willard Scott, chairman of the committee, presided. Other members of the committee were Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., Rev. J. G. Johnson, D. D., W. E. Hale, E. W. Blatchford and William E. Poole, LL. D. President Bonney, opening the congress, with the in- telligence, justness of thought and felicity of expression which char- acterized all his addresses on similar occasions, said that, next to October 22, 1492, on the scroll of the world's glories, December 21, 1620, should be inscribed; for, since the " Santa Maria" bore Columbus to the New World, no more important voyage had been made by any ship than that of which the " Mayflower" bore the Pilgrim fathers to the landing place of Plymouth Rock. This ship brought to the New World little in the form of material wealth, but it was richly laden with the seeds of liberty and justice, which, sowed in the fruitful American soil, had produced during the succeeding generations such harvests of civil and religious liberty as had not been surpassed by those gathered elsewhere in all the world. Wherever throughout the great republic the children of the Pilgrim and the Puritan had gone, flowers of the Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D. D., Cambridge, Mass. 1050 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. highest culture had sprung up in their footsteps. Wherever they had made their homes, cultivated farms or builded towns, the highest do- mestic virtues had been conspicuous; piety, peace and good order had flourished, and education, both for the people and in its higher forms, had been a dominant power. The Congregational church, he said, represented the town meeting in civil government, and the free con- gregation in the church. The town meeting was the nursery of the republic, and the chureh, which is its spiritual life and guide, was the means by which the providence of God had elevated this primary council of the people for the purpose of good government, from a sordid strife for leadership to an almost sacred college of preparation for the highest duties of Christian citizenship. Thus the Congrega- tional church occupied a peculiarly exalted and influential place in American history. In a brief response. Dr. Scott glanced at the suc- cessive stages of religious thought, oriental and occidental, which had led the way to the movement that issued in Congregationalism. The oriental mind, he said, was a good listener, but not such a good thinker. It was therefore left to the European to discover man's na- ture as God made him. He began by looking inward rather than out- ward, and this study of the constitution of man resulted in a system of ethics or religious philosophy. The next step was the translating of this philosophy into the language of the people. In America there was yet another step in the religious movement peculiar to our coun- try and institutions. What we want now is to translate this system of religious philosophy into human behavior and live the things we have heard. The Puritan and the Pilgrim of today is he who is living for the social emancipation of the world. ** First Things in Congregationalism." Prof. Williston Walker, of Hartford Theological Seminary, in a strong, scholarly paper, outlined what may be termed the evolution of Congregationalism; its origin in i^^^oSigl! England, its partial organization in Holland, its divinely guided voy- tionaiism. age to America in the ''Mayflower," its early history in New England, and its subsequent development. If any type of church government deserved to be called American it was Congregationalism. Its for- mative influence had been felt in a greater or less degree by all the religious bodies that occupied this land. It had modified other sys- tems of church government, making them vastly different from what they are on European soil; while, if its adherents in name were not the most numerous of the tribes of our American Israel, no Christian body equaled the Congregational in services to education and to those interests which make for the intellectual well-being of our nation. If the Puritans gave us the love of education, the executive force and the business ability which have marked the descendants of New England parentage throughout our land, the Separatists gave us Congrational- ism. The task which they accomplished was the Congregationalizing of American Puritanisms. "The Congregational Idea." Prof. Mary A. Jordan, of Smith College, Northampton, Mass., set forth its elementary characteristics Prof. Williston Walker, Hartford, Conn. 1052 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The Congre- gational Idea. Congregation- alism of To- day with penetration and justness of thought, emphasizing especially the demand it makes for a definitely and continually thoughtful quality in the religious life. It tolerates no free-and-easy way of settling one's religious accounts, and favors no easy-going liberality. It cannot be content with fog and moonshine. The history of Congregationalism, she declared, makes it, of natural right, the most thoughtful of churches. Indeed, without constant, aggressive, discriminating, intel- lectual activity, the Congregational church had no reason for being. Robert Browne, Harrison, Greenwold, Barrowe, Ainsworth, John Rob- inson, John Goodwin and John Milton — if they did not stop to assert j:he duty of religious thought, it was because they were so terribly in earnest in securing the means by which to make it possible. Church fellowship, that amounts to anything, could not exist in an intellectual vacuum. By every requirement of loyalty and consistency, the Con- gregationalist should be, in his theology, as in everything else, a stu- dent, a thinker. Reform belongs inevitably to his programme. God must be served by the intellect as well as with the heart. Congrega- tionalism demands, today as always, a virile, intellectual religion. It was in perfect accord with the Congregational idea when Phillips Brooks declared that, "Worse than any blunder or mistake which any man can make in his religious thinking, is the abandonment of religious thought altogether and the consignment of the infinite interests of man to the mere region of feeling and emotion; it really ought to be out of our best thinking power that our deepest love is born." In this gen- eration, of all the world has known, it is not safe to neglect the intel- lectual element in our religious life. The ideal of the Christian democracy of today demands the intellectual vigor and enterprise of the Puritan as well as that humane, that divine passion for humanity which makes each one ready to put the best that he has at the disposal of all, for the advantage not of self but of the great congregation. " The Congregationalism of Today." Dr. Henry A. Stimson, of New York, said: " In taking our place in the Parliament of Religions, we announce to the world that Congregationalism exists; there had been generations of Congregationalists who hardly knew they were such, so remarkable had been their denominational unselfishness. They had little thought of pushing the denomination, and much of forwarding the kingdom of Christ. Where, he asked, is there a parallel to the disinterested labors of two centuries of Congregationalists in found- ing colleges and academies for all the land without a thought of self- aggrandizement? They extend across the continent from Bowdoin in Maine to Pomona in California — open to all, never Congregational in any restricted or sectarian sense, but Congregational in parentage and dependence for their daily support. We believe that the church is the body of Christ. We need no priest, no clergy, no bishop, no eldership to mediate or to secure for us access to the Lord. Therefore it is permitted to us also to claim that, as a denomination, 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." Jlev. Henry A. Stinson, New York. 1054 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, British and American Con- gregationalists The West and South. Other Papers. " The Relation? of British and American Congregationalists." The Rev. Hugh Pedley, of Winnepeg, said: " In England there is a great brotherhood of the churches known as Independent or Congregational, a brotherhood that takes in about four thousand churches. In America there is another brotherhood of about five thousand churches bearing the same name. Both of these represent practically the same demo- cratic conception of the church of Christ. Each has had and has today pulpits that are molding human thought in the wider circles; each o^f these has a litemture worthy of the deepest respect; each of these has its institutions of learning; each has its history written large in the chronicles and still larger in the character of the nations in which its lot has been cast. Three words, he said, might be used to describe the relations between the two great bodies. These are: Kindliness, curiosity and criticism. There is kindliness. No one could doubt that who attended the meetings of the International Congrega- tional Council two years ago. There is curiosity, too, and curiosity is the virtuous side of ignorance. We are not curious where we know. There is, he frankly admitted, a fairly massive amount of ignorance in Britain about American Congregationalism. In order that the two great churches in England and America might draw more closely together, he suggested three uniting agencies. Some form of inter- national journalism that should acquaint each with the doings of the other, international councils and international colleges." " What Congregationalism had done in the West and South." Dr. A. F. Sherrill, of Georgia, said: This was thought to be too large a theme for any twenty minutes. To trace the all-pervasive work and influence of those two glorious agencies, the American Missionary So- ciety in the West, continually westward from the famous " Byram river" to the Pacific, and the American Missionary Association in the South,, founding and sustaining universities, colleges, normal and other schools for the colored people all over the South, beginning in this even before |the war had closed— all this would be to trace a great deal of the finest and most fruitful history of our country during the past half centur^. Yet larger was the inspiring task of Dr. Judson Smith, Secretary of the American Board, Boston, to tell how in the worldwide mission- ary enterprise Congregationalism had Opened the Nations. In the treatment of this magnificent theme it was shown how, through the American Board of Missions — the oldest foreign missionary society in America — there had been planted the new centers of light and civ- ilization in almost every part of the world. Enough had already been done to show how it is that the union of all nations is to come about, and that " parliament of man " which is the dream of prophet, poet and philanthropist. The subject of Dr. Alexander McKenzie's brill- iant address was, "Congregationalism and the World," and that of Dr. F. W. Gunsaulus's paper, which he was too ill to read, was " Puritan- ism in Eloquence and Literature." Altogether, inadequate though it was, this combined " Presenta- Rev. Frank Gunsaulus, D. D., Chicago, 1056 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, tion of Congregationalism " was enough to make it evident that, among all the Christian forces and agencies that are continually drawing into closer, juster, more generous relations to each other in the one en- deavor to actualize the kingdom of Christ in all the world, the Congre- gational church will merit some recognized and not unhonored place. " The Woman's Congregational Congress." Plainly, there is some- thing in the Congregational spirit and idea that is mightily fascinating and inspiring to Christian women, a kind of spiritual yeast in "the three measures of meal." The idea of the spiritual democracy, so vital and distinctive in Congregationalism, could not long be kept exclu- sively for the men. If right and good for men, it must be alike good and right for the women, also, in the churches, in the home, in the school. Accordingly, it was no accident that the women's part in the Congregational Congress assumed such large proportions and rose so grandly to the occasion. Its six sessions, September i ith to 14th, were Congregation Crowded with papers and addresses, poems, hymns and song. Splen- aiiet Women, did enterprise had been shown in the careful preparations for it. Mrs. George Sherwood, chairman of the committee, and Mrs. Roxana Beecher Preuszner, with others, arranged a scheme of topics singularly well prepared. The papers had evidently been written with exceed- ing carefulness, as though each one realized deeply what was due to so great an occasion. To say that they evinced marked elevation and enlightenment of thought, and admirable power in the setting forth of their thought, would be only to say what goes without the saying; for in the matter of education and intellectual culture the women in these days are having opened to them almost every advantage which the schools can offer, and every opportunity and incentive for the doing to the utmost their part in the joint work of lighting up the darkness and lessening the sorrows of mankind near and far, the world over. And if in this Congregational congress the women appear to have had the lion's share, it at any rate was no fault of theirs. They merited only commendation and gratefulness for all that they set out to do and did. The papers, published together in a volume, as they ought to be, along with .the other papers presented by Congregational women at the other .numerous Congresses during the summer, would make a book of extraordinary interest and usefulness. It is a matter of regret that there is room here only to name the topics; but even these will show how wide and rich was the scope of history and of thought which was covered and illuminated by them. The Relation of Religion to Woman Historically Considered, Rev. Mrs. Annis F. Eastman, New York; The Pilgrim and Puritan Idea, Mrs. A. E. Arnold, Illinois; Hymn for the Children of the Pil- grims, Mrs. James Gibson Johnson, Chicago; The Puritan Mothers, Mrs. Moses Smith, Illinois; The Influence of the Pilgrim and Puritan Heredity in American Religious Thought, Mrs. Jane G. Austin, Mas- sachusetts; The True Democracy of Congregationalism, Rev. Miss Juniata Breckenridge, New York; What Christianity has done for Woman, Mrs, Ethan Curtis, New York; Scope of Woman's Work ia Mrs. C. H. Taintor, Chicago. 67 1058 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, the Church, Mrs. Elvira B. Cobleigh, Washington; Poem, Miss Emily Gilmore Alden, Illinois; Women as Teachers in the Congregational Church, Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, California; Women at the Outposts of Congregationalism, Mrs. Elizabeth Emerson Humphrey, Illinois; The Mayflower as a Symbol of Faith, Mrs. Ella Beecher Gittings, Colo- rado; The Christian Home in its Relation to the State, Mrs. E. H. Merrell, Wisconsin; to the Church, Mrs. Joseph Ward, South Dakota; Contribators to the Labor Problem, Miss Jane Addams, Chicago; to Social Life, Rev. totheCongress ^^^^ ^ Moreland, Illinois; The Growing Independence of Woman, and the Home, Mrs. George H. Ide, Wisconsin; The Church and the Children, Mrs. Julia Holmes Boynton, Massachusetts; Congregational- ism in New Countries, Mrs. Louise J. Bevan, Australia; The Modern Pilgrim Woman, Miss H. A. Farrand, of the Advance ; Silhouettes of the Women of an Old Congregational Family, Mrs. Roxana Beecher Preuszner, Chicago; Woman and the Bible, Mrs. Edgar Wylie, Illinois; On the Frontier, Miss Mary C. Collins, North Dakota; Poem, Miss Ella G. Ives, Massachusetts; Settlements for Women Workers, Mrs. Rebecca H. Cheetham, London; Christian Educational Work in the New West, Miss Millie A. Hand, Wisconsin; Hymn, Mrs. G. B. Will- cox, Chicago; A Bit of History Concerning the Higher Education of Women, Miss Harriet N. Haskell, Illinois; Women and the Social Life of the Church, Rev. Miss Jeannette Olmstead, Ohio; What Congrega- tional Women have done for the Colored Race, Mrs. G. W. Moore, Tennessee; Gospel Generosity, Mrs. Kate Upson Clark, New York; Hymn, Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster, New York; Women in the Making of the Newer States, Mrs. C. H. Taintor, Chicago; Aims of the York- shire Woman's Guild of Christian Service, Mrs. Ella S. Armitage, England; Sacred Singers of our Church, Mrs. M. B. Norton, Vermont; Our Churches, Our Colleges, Mrs. A. A. F. Johnston, Ohio; Congrega- tional Women as Pioneers in Foreign Missions, Mrs. Sarah S. C. Angell, Michigan; Hymn, The New Womanhood, Mrs. Merrill E. Gates, Massachusetts, and Summons of the Coming Century to the Women of Today, Mrs. Martha J. Bradley, Illinois. The Philoso- phy of Method- ism, METHODIST EPISCOPAL CONGRESS. This great body was represented by an able corps of representa- tives, who occupied from September 25th to 30th, inclusive. Presen- tation Day was Tuesday, the 26th, in the Hall of Columbus. The sub- stance of the papers here follows: " The Philosophy of the Methodist Doctrine." The Rev. M. S. Ter- ry, D. D., Evanston, 111.: There is no written creed in the Methodist church, but a *' common consensus of fundamental doctrine, so well understood and cherished by the great body of our people that no min- ister or layman can noticeably make any considerable departure from it without speedy detection. Wesley's Fifty-three Sermons, 1771, in Mrs. George Sherwood, Chicago. 1060 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The Epworth Leagae. Methodist :'olity. Social lemB. Prob- four volumes, is ' the most authoritative form of Methodist doctrine.* These, along with his * Notes on the New Testament,' constitute the theological standards which are formally recognized in the * Deed of Declaration,' and in the trust deeds of all the Wesleyan chapels of England. By common consent these have been accepted for a hun- dred years as containing the substance of doctrine everywhere held." Dr. Terry defined these dogmas under three heads : I. " In their practical character, as answering to the needs and longings of man's religious nature. II. In their successful conflict with opposing systems, especially with Calvinism. III. In their adaptation to the catholic spirit of the modern Christian world." " The Epworth League ; Its Principles, Ideas, Methods and Possibilities." — The Rev. William Ingraham Haven, Boston, Mass.: " The Epworth League rests upon two principles : One, that there is a peculiar period of life called youth, with its noticeable characteristics ; the other, that this is the period for bringing one's powers into obedience to a cultured and sanctified will." * * It " would give to every youth the shield of England's prince which bears the simple legend, ' I serve.* We believe that soul alone is blest who lives his life for the good of others; that such a life sanctifies wealth and gives peace to him who is poor." •' Polity of Methodism." The Rev. Jacob Todd, D. D., Philadelphia, Pa.: " Methodism has twenty-nine organizations. The class-meeting is ' the primordial cell of organic Methodism.' Then comes the society, then the quarterly conference, then the district conference, then the annual conference, last of all the general conference. The peculiarities of Methodism are ( I ) the class-meeting, ( 2 ) probation, ( 3 ) local preachers, ( 4 ) itinerancy, ( 5 ) general superintendency." "Ladies' Aid Societies." Mrs. Jennie Fowler Willing: "This society is all the odds and ends of woman's organized effort to help along in church work. It bought, or built, and furnished the parsonage. It bothered its motherly head over the broken dishes, leaky tubs and crippled chairs in that same patient home. It cushioned the church pews. It did everything, from binding up the broken toe of a beggar baby to topping out the church steeple — everything that nobody else wanted to do, for which nobody gets any thanks — work that is never toasted, feted, or exploited. Its work is like that of the patient, all-burden-bearing mother, little thought of till it is gone, and then it is tremendously missed." " Methodism and Social Problems." The Rev. David H.Wheeler, D. D. LL. D.: " Methodism preaches a Gospel for individual men. It shares, with all the other evangelistic bodies, an intense belief in the value of the individual soul. It shares with the great body of patri- otic Americans the intense belief that all rights are individual rights; that it is the business of government to safeguard individual rights; that there cannot be any other rights. Methodism cannot approach any plan for improving the world as a question about masses or classes. As Christians, we believe in single and responsible souls. As Rev. J. O. Peck, D. D., New York. 1062 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. The Method- ist Statas. Revivals. citizens, we believe in the common rights, just as we believe in the common redemption, for every single soul in the nation. The 'mourn- er's bench' is the bridge over which each soul must pass from sin, whether from the masses or the classes." " The Status of Methodism." The Rev. H. K. Carroll, D. D., of the New York Indepe?ide?it : " The Methodist body became an independent body in this country in 1784. At the beginning it had only its vital faith, its burning zeal to spread the Gospel, its simple but novel meth- ods of work, and its power, born of the baptism of the Spirit, to reach the hearts, touch the consciences and transform the lives of the com- mon people. The common people heard the Methodist preacher gladly, and crowded Methodist altars, filled Methodist class-books, and multiplied Methodist churches. ** It is the glory of Methodism that it won its membership, not from other churches, but from the unconcerned, unconverted multitude. "At the present time all branches of Methodism have 51,489 socie- ties, according to the census of 1890. No other denomination or de- nominational family has a number equaling one-fourth of the Meth- odist total, except the Presbyterian, which returns 13,476. The Roman Catholic and other Catholic bodies stand next below the Presbyterian, with 10,276. The total of all bodies is 165,177. It would, therefore, appear that those accredited to the Methodist family constitute nearly one-third of all the societies of all denominations in the United States. Methodists constitute somewhat less than twenty-three per cent, of all communicants of all denominations, and nearly thirty-three per cent, of all Protestant communicants. In other words, nearly every fourth communicant is a Methodist, and among Protestants every third." "Revivals." The Rev. F. C. Iglehart, D. D., New York city: " Revival is from re vivo, to live again. Revivals are good or bad. They must necessarily be occasional, but they are instrumentalities used by the Holy Spirit, in conversion." Public meetings, Bible read- ings, prayer, music and the will of the sinner were mentioned as agen- cies in the work. " The Holy Spirit may be willing, the pastor and the members may be willing, there may be preaching, praying, singing, and yet the sinner may, and often does, refuse to come to the Saviour. It is quite popular, nowadays, not only for the enemies, but the friends, of Christ to apologize for sinners and publicly abuse the church be- cause the unconverted are not brought into the fold. This course is as mistaken in policy as it is bad in principle. The avarice of Ju- das was more powerful than the love of Christ. The logic of these abusers of the church would blame Christ for not saving Judas, and the apostles for not holding a prayer-meeting and believing in his conversion. The church is not perfect. She comes far short of her duty. But whatever good has been done, she has done; whatever souls have been saved, she has brought to Christ." " Methodist Colleges and Universities." Henry Wade Rogers, D. D., Evanston, 111.: " Prior to 1768 there was not a Methodist church in THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1063 Colleges and Univcrsitiee. Methodist America. In 17871116 first Methodist college was opened. In 1892 there were fifty-four; value of their property and endowments, less their debts, $19,366,196; number of instructors, 1,276, and the number of students, 21,903. The value of the property and endowments, less the debts, belonging to all its educational institutions, $26,022,392, while che number of institutions was 195, instructors, 2,343 and students, 40,026." Dr. Rogers advocated " rallying the strength of Methodism to the support and upbuilding of our most promising existing universities, to the end that they be enabled to occupy as commanding a position in the educational world as is commensurate with the dignity of the Methodist Episcopal church." " Methodist Journalism." The Rev. David H. Moore, D. D., editor _ Western Christian Advocate: "John Wesley began to print Methodism Joarnanam.' when he was in his seventy-fifth year. The first American Methodist periodical was the Western Christian Monitor^ in Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1816. Since then the periodical press has been a powerful ally of Methodism. Of a truth this is Mercury's age, not Mars. The inkpot is more to be feared than the powder horn; steel pens than Damascus blades; revolving presses than machine guns. Every other means of influence is aggregated in the press. It informs, educates, amuses, rouses, rules. Distance nor depth can elude its searchlight. No other Church has so many papers, seventy five, almost one-seventh of the total number of religious papers — 553 — in the United States. In ^893 the circulation of the ofificial papers was one paper for every nine and seven-tenths members of our church. The quality of our papers should be improved; the many should be consolidated into few, and they must be cheapened in price; every pastor should be an active agent, and thus the quality and circulation of the press would be increased." Dr. Moore frankly pointed out some of the defects of the church journalism. It is timid, apprehensive, shrinks from Biblical criticism; has not enough of the modern spirit. " The modern spirit is Christian. Christ is coming into society to redeem it with processes and methods never used before, and we do not clearly discover His coming. He is regnant in the thought, activities and life of society. The spirit of the age is Christian; that is, it believes in Christ, not always recognizing His Deity, but signally loyal to Him. If the spirit of the age could be personalized and utter its creed, it would say: " If Jesus Christ is a man, And only a man, I say That of all mankind I cleave to Him,- And to Him will cleave alway. If Jesus Christ is God, And the only God, I swear will follow Him through heaven and hell, The earth, the sea, the air." "This remarkable trend of the age toward Christ should be more 1064 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, clearly discerned by Methodist Journalism, and therefore more heartily nurtured and developed." ** Mission of the Epworth League." The Rev. J.W. Bashford, D. D., L^i^°M^ president Ohio Wesleyan University: "This organization started in 8ion. ° ^^' Cleveland, Ohio, May 15,1889. It represented an all-round Christian life. It sought, in the language of its noble founder, Bishop Vincent, 'for more Bible knowledge, more literary culture, more personal purity, and more practical service.' Also, 'to seek the blessing of heart-purity as taught in the Holy Scriptures, to abstain from all questionable amuse- ments, to study the Bible each day, and to give daily thought and effort to the salvation of souls.' They sought for Christian coopera- tion. They desired to transform the young people of Methodism from a mob into an army. Its motto, ' Look up and lift up,' was adopted from a happy speech made by Bishop Vincent." Defining the purposes of the organization. Dr. Bashford said: "Personal culture, crowned by communion with God and resulting in Christlike characters, is the first duty of Epworth Leaguers." " Missionary Training Schools." Miss M. S. Gibson, Principal Scar- ritt Bible and Training School: " The origin of the wonderful organi- zation at Kaiserswerth by Pastor Fliedner is well known to all branches of the church of Christ. Kaiserswerth is the autotype of the modern training school, and its work and workers are an inspir- ation to the whole church. * * * " In our American Methodism there are five training schools in the Methodist Episcopal church, and one in the Methodist Episcopal church south, the latter by the special authorization of the General Conference. Of these three are in connection with deaconesses work, while admitting other students; the others are distinctively mission- ary. "The Bible is, of course, the central text-book; other departments are: The history of the Christian church; the evidences of Christianity and a study of comparative religions; the missionary fields, including statistics and the manners, customs, religious systems and needs of heathendom; domestic economy, daily practice in housework, prepara- tion of work for industrial schools; practical training in city mission work by house-to-house visitation among the neglected classes; visit- ing prisons, hospitals and reformatories under the direction of mature Christian workers; conduct of meetings for women and children; lectures on elementary medicine and study of nursing, preparation of food and general care of the sick; also, a complete course of study and practical experience in hospital work for students desiring to become trained nurses; training in teaching in Sunday-school normal lessons, and giving Bible readings; physical culture; sacred music, vocal and instrumental; bookkeeping; temperance, viewed from the physical and moral standpoints; lectures by missionaries, preachers and philan- thropists on subjects profitable to Christian workers. These schools furnish to students a comfortable Christian home during years of train- ing, wherein they are cared for physically, mentally and spiritually." THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1065 Naming and Describing the Institutions in different parts of the country, Miss Gibson said: "The work must commend itself to the best judgment of every one of our Lord's servants who would hasten the coming of His kingdom on earth!" " Deaconess Work in the Methodist Episcopal Church." Mrs. Lucy Ryder Meyer, Chicago: "This movement began in Chicago in 1885. It is independent of ecclesiastical associations. The first Deaconess Home was established in Chicago in 1887. In 1888 a home was founded in Cincinnati, and in 1889 one in Minneapo- lis and one in New York. Others followed in rapid succession. The characteristics by which deaconesses may be known are six. Dea- conesses are (i) trained, (2) unsalaried but supported, (3) volunteers, (4) costumed, (5) living mostly in communites called homes, (6) au- thorized by the church. Na woman can become a visiting deaconess — for two classes of workers are well recognized among us, the visiting or evangelistic, and the nurse deaconess — who has not spent the greater part of one year in the study of the Bible, sacred history, methods of work, and Methodist doctrine, while a second year of probation is given to practical work with a course of reading. The nurse deaconess must receive a careful theoretical and practical training extending over a period of two years in connection with some reputable hospital, in ad- dition to some Biblical study. There are at present eleven hospitals under Methodist Episcopal management in the United States. Of these, the splendid Brooklyn hospital was the first in the field. The hospital at Portland, Ore., was the second, but Wesley [in Chicago, established at first as a deaconess hospital, followed hard after it. Christ hospital at Cincinnati, the deaconess hospitals at Denver, Omaha, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Saginaw and St. Louis, and the Philadelphia Methodist Episcopal hospital, complete the list. Of these eleven hospitals eight are now under the care of deaconess nurses." "Contributions of Methodism to Literature." The Rev. W. F. Whitlock,D.D., Delaware, Ohio: The essayist declared that "( i) Method- ism has furnished a literature of substantial and permanent value, (2) a symmetrical, well-balanced literature, (3)a literature for the people, (4) a literature of power, (5) a catholic literature, that (6) has advo- cated moral reforms. It (i) has concentrated at the cross, (2) pro- moted church organization and work, (3) antidoted pernicious litera- ture, and (4) unified the tone and spirit of the church. It has been able and useful. The church has now the largest religious publishing houses in the world. They are established in the great commercial and radiating centers of the country. They have twelve thousand pro- prietors, distributed all over the field, who act as agents; they have al- ready a patronage, capital and income that enable them to command the services of the ablest pens, and to issue books and periodicals at prices that will render them accessible to all. The church was never so well prepared to meet the injunction of Wesley — to make cheap prices and sustain them by large sales. The service demanded is two- fold — first, to our own people; second, to the country at large." Deaoonees Work. liethodiBt Literatare. 1066 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Theological Schools. Yonng People " Methodism and her Theological Schools." The Rev. Geo. L. Cur- tis, D. D., De Pauw, Ind.: The author gave a history of the primitive " school of the prophets " in the early days of Methodism, and passed to describe the advantages of the Modern Divinity School in the up- building of the Methodist church. It was bitterly opposed at the first, but now: 'Tn the Methodist Episcopal church are seventeen theo- logical institutions, with a property of ^663,636, an endowment of ;^i,557,466, teachers, seventy-two, and 863 students in 1891. From the first there have been over four thousand eight hundred en- rolled in these schools. Besides these in some of our colleges there are departments for instruction in many of the special studies required of the preacher. These schools of theology are for the English speak- ing ministry, the pure Scandinavian, the African or Freedmen of the United States, the celestials of Asia, the Hindu learned in his subtle philosophy, the German and the Italian, These schools originated in ne- cessity, each school has an individual history; there is remarkable uni- formity in the several curriculums; their studies bear on the mental and moral culture of students, and fit them forthe work of saving souls; they qualify men for heroic self-sacrifice; yet they are not supported as they should be, though severely criticised, and no doubt defective, they are yet doing a grand work." "Sunday schools." The Rev. Frank Crane: The Methodist Sun- day-school has a threefold function: 1. To train the children of Christian homes. 2. To teach adults the truths of the Bible. 3. To gather and instruct the children of non-Christian homes. Under the third head Mr. Crane said: "How needful is such work as this only a pen of fire could tell. No chapter of the wretched story of city pauperism and crime is more tear-compelling than this of the children. To one for whom childhood has always seemed the purest idyl this side of heaven the revelation of the fearful condition of the child in. the crowded tenements of the great city is appalling. Visit their squalid dwellings. Think of babies nurtured there. Hell, not 'heaven, lies about them in their infancy.' 'They are damned into the world.' Lust is their father, brutality their mother, vice their teacher, filth their companion, drunken crime their ambition, hunger their inspiration, and drunkenness their heaven." " Methodism and her Young People; Sunday-schools." The Rev. A. S. Embree, M. A., Topeka, Kan.: "The Sunday-school was at first the simple scheme of a benevolent priest to gather the waifs from the street and impart to them some rudimentary knowledge. A little farther on an effort to teach something of truth and duty. Finally, as in our day and country, a vast system, bringing to its aid the powers of the printing press, the highest scholarship, the personal attention of an army of men and women who carry to the work commendable equipment of mind and heart. Today we have, in round numbers, thirty thousand schools, more than three hundred thousand officers and tqachers, and of pupils a number equal to one-twenty-eighth of ouf Rev. Ferdinand Iglehardt, D. D., New Yorl^, 1068 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Women Edacation. Mothodiet Doctrines. entire population. It is common to refer to the Sabbath-school as the nursery of the church. I would like to put all possible emphasis upon the thought which that expression naturally conveys. It is to my mind the nursery, the only nursery that remains to Christendom; and the future of present day religious organizations depends now as never before upon the religious development of the race while yet in its childhood." •'Women in Methodist Education." Prof. Susanna M. D. Fry, Ph. D., St. Paul, Minn.: ''What traveler does not bring a memento from the grave of John Wesley? But who crosses a step beyond to Bunhill-fields to the grave of Susanna, upon whose new stone stands the legend, 'The mother of nineteen children?' Susanna Wesley has been called by high authority the 'founder and legislator of Meth- odism.' Why not add educator? She was president and faculty of a good classical home school where social usages, morals and religion, Latin and Greek, were taught; and from which at least two boys were graduated who made their mark in the world. "John Wesley founded schools and the women helped him, just as they should. Lady Maxwell gave him ;^500 with which to open his celebrated Kingswood school, and ;^300 more to pay debts which had accumulated. Mrs. Elizabeth Garrett founded Garrett Biblical Insti- tute by a gift of ;^i 50,000, in 1853, and it seems to some anomalous, that although founded by a woman, the school has never extended a formal invitation to women to enter its walls. Mrs. Garrett's gift was the largest ever given for education in the new world up to 1853, by man or woman, except that of Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia. Six- teen Methodist colleges report gifts from women amounting to ^^714,500. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society supports 353 day schools, forty boarding schools, orphanages, English boarding schools, and thirteen training schools. The total number of pupils in schools is set down at thirteen thousand one hundred and thirty-five, and the number of women under instruction as thirty-one thousand two hundred. The Woman's Home Missionary Society carries on distinctively educational work in two of its departments. Methodism founded in 1834, at Macon, Ga., the first woman's college in America." " Peculiarities of Methodist Doctrines." The Rev. Thomas B. Neely, D.D., LL. D., Philadelphia, Pa.: "John Wesley and his father were educated Church of England ministers. The son had no intention of organizing a new church, but his doctrine of justification by faith caused his practical rejection from the Episcopal church. " This doctrine of a free and full salvation by faith is at the founda- tion of what are called peculiarly Methodist doctrines. In one sense this was not a new doctrine. Wesley taught the philosophical doc- trine of the freedom of the human will, a dogma now accepted by the leading philosophers. This is the key to Methodist doctrine. Then came the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit to those who are regen- erated. After this came the doctrine of Christian perfection. He magnified the most important practical doctrines and put little stress THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE REUGIONS. 1069 upon those which belonged to the realm of metaphysics or mere spec- ulation. Wesley put more emphasis on Christian character than he did on mere dogma, though he believed in creeds as well as deeds. Following his example Methodism has always been broad and at the same time evangelical. As one has said, some churches have tried to preserve their spirituality by their orthodoxy, but Methodism has preserved its orthodoxy by its spirituality. Methodism is orthodox but liberal. It is liberal but orthodox. Methodism is the evangelical broad church with a broad and simple creed; making more of spiritual life than of theological disputations, but at the same time tenaciously holding the truth as it is in Christ Jesus." **The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Sunday-school." The Sunday- Robert H. Dougherty, Ph. D.: 'The Sunday-school was one of the first ^^°**^- instrumentalities employed by Methodists. When, in 1781, Robert Raikes, in the true spirit of Christ, bearing on his heart the heavy mis- ery of the neglected children of Gloucester, asked, 'What can we do for these wretches?' he was answered by a Methodist young woman: 'Let us teach them to read, and take them to church.' Mr. Wesley promptly adopted the Sunday-school idea, as, indeed, he adopted every good idea he could find. In 1786 the first Methodist bishop, Francis Asbury, established the first Sunday-school of any denomina- tion on our continent. Through several periods of development the Sunday-school movement has passed to the present: The exploration of the Bible is the discovery and exploration of the human soul. The discovery of a child is a process to be slowly pursued during long years. Every kind caress, every rude rebuff, every experience of man's falsity, every lesson learned in school, every precious Bible text com- mitted to memory, every teacher's smile, every newspaper taken up and read, every person that meets the slowly developing infant soul, every force that is brought to bear on any side of his character, as an investigating or stimulating force — is a pioneer, a discoverer, an ex- plorer of the deep recesses of the human heart." "Woman's Foreign Mission Work." Mrs. Emily Huntington Mil- Foreign Mis- ler: "Woman's independent work in foreign missions dates back sioi^Work. but twenty-four years, yet it may be questioned whether a new era in missionary conquest should not be symbolized by the woman with a lamp. Years of toil and sacrifice and devotion had indeed opened the way; prejudice had been, in a manner, conquered; the power of the Gospel to redeem had been demonstrated; but the work of church and school had been perpetually undone by the heathen mother in the heathen home. Permanent advance was scarcely possible until woman lighted her candle and began to sweep and to search in the darkened house for that lost treasure buried so long in the dust that its precious- ness was forgotten. The work she set herself was to supplement that already undertaken, by carrying Christianizing influences into the homes closed to all other teachers, to secure the children through the years when they were plastic to influence; to train and educate wives and mothers — one might almost say to create a new womanhood, so impossible to heathenism seemed its very conception. ♦ * ♦ 107d fHE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGION^. ^'This comprehensive plan now includes a working force of 5,66j organizations and 147,080 individuals, through whom, in steadily in- creasing amounts, a sum has been collected which will aggregate by the end of the current year at least ^3,000,000." "The Freedman's Aid and Southern Education Society." The Rev. J. W. Hamilton, D. D.: "After the war the country had secured The Freedman. g, race of freedmen — a nation of free men. The North was the nation, the storehouses were here. The South was one vast Aceldama. The southern soldiers must go back to live among the dead. The North alone must reconstruct the laws and determine the destiny of the na- tion. It was the sentiments of the North that had prevailed, and must go South; this had been settled by force of arms. But it was more than the sword that was supreme. It was Plymouth Rock. It was the Sermon on the Mount. But the truth had only prevailed by force; it must now prevail by love. The freedman's movement was at first unsectarian, but when at length it was found best to prosecute the work in denominational directions, the other denominations withdrew from the general organization before the Methodists withdrew. It was then that the members of the Methodist Episcopal church, who were members of the existing undenominational societies, issued a call for the convention to meet in Cincinnati, August 7, 1866, to organize the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal church. This branch is at work in all parts of the South, endeavoring to make freed- men Christian freemen." "The Educational Work of Methodism." The Rev. C. H. Payne, D. D., LL. D.: "Sound learning and fervid piety" has been the aim of the Methodist church since John Wesley founded the famous Kingswood school in 1748, and Cokesbury college was opened in 1787. There are now in the Methodist Episcopal church, seventeen theological institutions, fifty-seven colleges, sixty-one classical semi- naries and seventy-seven foreign mission schools — 197 in all, with forty- one thousand students and an endowment of twenty-six million dollars." " The Missionary Work of Methodism." The Rev. J. O. Peck, D. D. : "The work of missions is the supreme object of divine interest in our world, and the only end to be conserved by infinite thought, labor Missionary ^^^ \oYQ. Missions is the whole of Christianity. From center to Work. circumference our holy religion is nothing but a mission of Christ and His church, for the salvation of all mankind. This is the philosophy of the kingdom of heaven. The Methodist church in its origin was itself a missionary movement of the eighteenth century against the dead formalism of the Established Church and the almost lifelessness of non-conformity in England. Its first missionary work was to reach the lost and neglected millions of that land, and also to revive evan- gelical religion and formulate a preachable theology in the denomina- tions of two continents. It has been a missionary of evangelical zeal, and God-honoring doctrines to Christian pupils everywhere. The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal church alone has at THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS, 1071 least four thousand missionary workers in the foreign work and five thousand in home missions. This society raised last year for foreign missions alone Si, 041, 393, which is the largest sum contributed for that work in 1892 by any denomination in America. The annual contribu- tion of all Methodism for missions is over ;^3,ooo,ooo. The members and probationers of heathen converts in all Methodism are over three hundred thousand. The representatives of Hinduism and Buddhism, frescoing the nakedness of their effete religion, may come to the World's Parliament of Religions, and suggest, with the indorsement of the liberals who renounce evangelical Christianity and the liberal press that sought to strike down our Christian Sabbath, that perhaps the final religion of the world would be a compromise, a composite of all religions. Out upon such vapidity! Christianity with a super- natural Christ, a supernatural revelation, and a supernatural life in the heart of her millions, witnessing to her divine origin and saving and cleansing power; with her banners farther advanced than ever before; with her augmenting legions more victorious than ever, has no com- promise to make with heathenism! It is the final religion." " Our Colleges and Universities." The Rev. Bradford P. Raymond, Middletown, Conn.: The first half century of Methodism was one of " unsuccessful beginnings and discouraging suspensions." But, Mr. Raymond said: "We may enter the twentieth century with pardon- able pride over the work we have done in the last one hundred years. And with confidence may we provide for better work in every depart- ment of research, believing that the Christian ideal of manhood will rule us in the future as in the past. We are working now with forces like those which uplift the continents." " A Columbian View of Methodist Church Extension." The Rev. church Ex. A. J. Kynett, D. D., LL, D. He said: "At the end of the first quarter tension, of the second century of our denominational history, our branch of the Christian church has upon its rolls two and one-half million mem- bers, twenty-four thousand churches, and Si30,ooo,0(X) of church prop- erty; more than doubling our membership and the number of our churches and multiplying their value more than three times. If this republic, which the world calls great, has anything in it worthy of the admiration of mankind, it is because it is the outgrowth of Chris- tian faith and supreme devotion to religious liberty." " The Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society." The Rev. Geo. K. Morris, D. D., Cincinnati, Ohio: "In the fall of 1862 was formed the * Contraband Relief Society,' whose object was to meet the pressing wants of the escaping slaves who had been declared con- traband of war. The Western Freedmen's Aid Commission was formed by those who, looking into the future, clearly saw that some- thing must be done to provide for the education of the F'reedmen. Looking back over something less than a third of a century, we can- not but rejoice at the great work already accomplished. Over three millions of dollars have been spent. The school property secured is valued at nearly two millions. Tens of thousands of men and women Church Exten- sion. 1073 TM£ WOkLD\<; CONCkMS OP MLtGtOMS. have been helped upward and cheered onward in a path of blessed light. If we consider the present conditions in contrast with those prevailing in 1866, what cause do we find for gratitude to Almighty God! The money-cost does not sufficiently represent the value of the schools maintained by this society. There they stand, monuments of the thoughtful liberality of God's noble sons and daughters, and prophecies of the glory yet to be revealed to the millions who dwelt long in the land of darkness and of tears." "The Modern Methodist College." The Rev. P. D. John, D. D., De Pauw, Ind.: " In spite of the strictures upon denominational col- leges by a certain class of educators, these institutions have demon- strated their right to exist. The Methodist college has come to stay, and it should have all the equipment that the best universities pos- sess in order to compete with them in the work of education." *' Church Extension on the Frontier." The Rev. H. K. Hines, D. D., Portland, Ore. After an eloquent statement of the great work of the Church Extension Society, Dr. Hines said: "God put this world into man's hands, into our hands, to renew, cultivate, subdue and trans- figure it. He put the timber on the hills, the iron in the mountain, the silver in its veins, and the gold in its mines, and gave them over to us to square and polish, to mill and forge, to dig and coin. He never built a church. He never launched a ship. ' We are laborers together with God 'in making and completing such a world as He would have our humanity to occupy at last. His part is done; ours is going slowly on. When the deserts are irrigated into harvests and /ineyards, when the now untilled plains are meadowed with verdure and starred with roses, when desolations are populated into vast cities, and moral wastes are everywhere sweetened by the healthful flow of the river of the water of life, and time's grand ultimate has dawned into its immortality of perfection, what we have done and said here, and what our friends have done and said yonder and everywhere, will be seen to have been some pillar or some beauty in the temple of God's eternal praise. As through all the harmonies in music one always hears in great tones a wondrous melody, so, in all our work, we always touch the greater work of Him who is both our inspiration and our completeness; and to whose brow at last we shall bring the royal dia- dem, " 'And crown Him Lord of all.' " "Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church." Mrs. R. S. Rust. Mrs. Rust described at length the work of this useful organization in the South West, cities and in other direc- tions, and said: "If the church in America is to be a power for the evangelization of the world, its latent energies must be developed, and its forces properly conserved. Women constitute two-thirds of the church membership, and are, therefore, numerically, an element of strength; yet the additional number of workers that they furnish for the field is not the most important advantage. The great advantage is that they bring an entirely new influence into the world of effort; Miss Frances E. Willard, Evanston, 111. 1074 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Deaconesses. Methodist Journalism. a quiet, unseen and pervading influence, the result of combined pa- tience and strength, more potent even, than what is gained by mere numbers and display. It is an encouraging fact that the value of organized efforts of women in Christian and philanthropic work is be- coming more fully appreciated." " Methodist Deaconesses in England." Miss Dora Stephenson (Sis- ter Dora), London, England: '' A Christian deaconess is a consecrated /woman working on principle and system for the glory of God in the salvation of man, and making that her one business. The idea of a deaconess comes down from the earliest days of Christianity. In the Epistles mention is made of widows and virgins who were set apart to the work of the church, and from the writings of the early fathers it was evident that the deaconess was accounted a regular officer in the church. In the church of Constantinople alone we read of forty -dea- conesses being employed. George Eliot has drawn for us a wonderful picture of the great Stradivarius in his workshop at Cremona. There the king of violin makers stands exultant,. yet humbled by the wonder of his handiwork, and in a burst of ecstasy exclaims as he gazes at the great instrument his hands have formed: 'Tis God gives skill, But not without men's hands. He could not make ' Antonio Stradivari's violins : Without Antonio.* ' " The words startle us, shock us even, yet surely there is a deep truth lying underneath. God chooses to uplift humanity by the min- istry of His children." ** Methodist Journalism." The Rev. Charles Parkhurst, D. D., Zion's Herald. Describing the growth of Methodist journalism and referring to the fact of denominational proprietorship. Dr. Parkhurst alluded to lack of comprehensiveness, lack of independency, lack of modernness, inadequate support, and lack of leadership, as defects of the church press. But he complimented its ability: "Let a thoughtful and candid Methodist group the papers of the leading denominations and com- pare them with those of his own church, and he will have no occasion for chagrin. ^%Olar Advocates have, in all their history, been interesting and able." ' Francis E.Willard. — Unable to attend the congress, Mrs. Lucy Rider Meyer read the following letter from Miss Willard: "Among the many invitations that have come to me within the past yearj in connection with the congresses at the Columbian Expo- sition, none has been more cherished than that of my own beloved sisters in the church of my choice. I felt confident that I should have the pleasure of joining in the love-feast appointed for September and bearing my testimony in the general class-meeting of our worldwide sisterhood, but the discipline (of physical fatigue) has been so con- strued as to rule me out of your blessed general conference, although you had chosen me as a delegate in due form. This will, however, I hope, prove to me to be a means of grace, and I shall sing in spirit THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS. 1075 tvith many another loyal-hearted Methodist woman who, for similar reasons, is debarred from giving in her experience on that occasion. ' Come on my partners in distress! ' and closing my musical soliloquy with our favorite ' Oh! that will be joyful, when we meet to part no more! ' "By way of compensation for my disappointment in mingling heart and voice with you in the happy assembly of Methodist disciples, I was privileged to enjoy a most tender and beautiful reception at the City Road chapel, London, some months ago, from our brothers and sisters of the Wesleyan church in the dear old mother country. It was the fulfillment of many a dream to stand in John Wesley's pulpit and speak of what the Lord had done for my soul through the gener- ous and helpful ministry of our communion and fellowship, and I have never stood in the midst of an audience more sympathetic and responsive. "Some rare relics of our Saint Susannah, mother of the Wesleys, were presented to me, which I should have been glad to bring to the Methodist Women's Congress in Chicago. I have also visited (as I had the privilege of doing for the first time in a quarter of a centiiry)^ in the Lincoln college in Oxford the room in which the "Holy Club"^ was organized. A pulpit is in this college from which Wesley was wont Frances E. to 'improve his gift' from time to time, when he was here after his Wiiiard. graduation. Ascending its steps, and entering its hallowed precincts, I prophesied in true Methodistic fashion to a small audience, consist- ing of my traveling companions, Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith and her son, to the effect that within twenty-five years Methodist women would find that every separating wall had fallen flat between them and the full privileges and powers of the church they love, and which they have helped to make what it is today, the greatest denomination in the greatest of republics. Artificial barriers are everywhere becoming undermined; soul is asserting itself above sex, and mental and spiritual powers being made the only final criterion of value. Let everybody do that to which he or she feels called, if that calling is to do good; this is rapidly becoming the dictum of Old as well as of New England, the keynote of which was struck, as I am proud and grateful to remem- ber, in what was once called the far, but now the forceful. West. "May the blessing of God be upon every woman who casts in her lot with you at your blessed feast of tabernacles, whether she be a foreign missionary woman, a home missionary woman, a white ribbon woman, or that greater and better being which combines all three, and may the anointing power come upon each and all in pentecostal meas- ure, is the fervent wish and prayer of your loyal and affectionate sister." Frances E. Willard. Rt.-Rev. Samuel Fallows, D. D., Chicago. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1077 THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH CONGRESS. The Rt. Rev. Charles Edward Cheney, D. D., of Chicago, pre- sided on Presentation Day, September 14th, and papers were presented on The Historical Position of the Church, by Dr. Cheney; its Dis- tinctive Principles, by the Rev. Benjamin T. Noakes, D. D., of Cleve- land, Ohio; its Minor Problems, by Mrs. Lucie Brotherson Tyng, of Peoria, 111., and its Outlook and Opportunities, by Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows, D. D., of Chicago, who says in the course of his address: " By the Anglo-Saxon race, in the Nineteenth Century, in the United States of America, and largely in the city of Chicago, was the movement inaugurated which led to the founding of the Reformed Episcopal Church. " The creed of this church is not a cast-iron frame to cramp, but is like that elastic portion of a living organism, the finely textured skin, which contains but does not compress the human body. *• It can state every article of that creed in the very language of Holy Scripture itself, and thus it rests upon the pure teaching of God as its one immovable foundation, and not upon the shifting, contra- dictory and erroneous commandments of men. The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the basis of the church's belief. It has therefore brought the one hemisphere of truth, embracing the su- preme sovereignty of God, into unison with the other hemisphere of truth, embracing the inviolate freedom of the will of man, in one rounded sphere; the teachings of philosophy, experience and the in- fallible Word. " President Patton, of Princeton, once said: ' Everyman, when he prays is a Calvinist, and when he preaches, an Arminian.* This church brings the Calvinist and the Arminian side by side, with heart beating over against heart, and says to each ' Preach in concert, in love, and in power, of the Holy Ghost, this dual truth: Work out your own sal- vation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.' ** In that sphere of truth it holds firmly with the Jew, the unbroken unity of God, with the Unitarian the oneness of the Divine Being and the complete humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ; with the Swedenbor- gian the Supreme Deity of Him, who was God manifest in the flesh, and with the primitive church, ' concluding the same,' out of the ulti- mate oracles of truth it holds to the threeness in one of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and thus offers in the divine Trinity ' the fullness of.life, salvation and comfort for man.' "It has carefully provided that it shall not have within itself any hierarchs to lord it over God's heritage. The General Council, which is the creation of the clergy and laity of the church, has the supreme authority in the ratification of the election, and in the consecration of its bishops, and these bishops are ever to be held simply as first among their equals, the presbyters. ** And above the bishops, as above all else in the church, that Gen- eral Council rises as the representative of the entire communion, befpre whose legislation and decisions ajl must bpw. Bishop Fal- lows Defines Reformed Gpiscopals. 1078 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Reformed Episcopal Principles. " Woman, with man, has here been accorded her rightful privileges, and brings her counsel and vote to the parish meeting. This church is flexible in its polity. It is endeavoring to adapt its methods to each unfolding period of time. It will sacrifice neither measures nor men to the unyielding rigor of an ecclesiastical system. Denying that any special form of church government is an absolutely divine appoint- ment and yet prizing its historical episcopate, it will be pliant in every form of its outward economy, that by all means it may save some. The vital truth for which the Congregationalist contends, the virtual independence of the local church, is secured in the system which this church has adopted. All communicants and stated contributors of lawful age have their voice in the election of the local officers of the church; and all such communicants a voice in the election of the representatives of the church in the General Council. The one great feature in the progress of mankind has, therefore, been fully recognized — that of individuation. ** But parish is bound to parish, even as town to town, and county to county in the state, and as each sovereign and independent state is bound to state in the glory and union of the United States; and thus the church has recognized the other great factor of human progress — that of organization. " Individuation and organization, these grand elements in the prog- ress of mankind, I venture to say are nowhere so completely manifest in a church organization as in the Reformed Episcopal church. Thus by its environment, its doctrines, its polity, its broad Christian fra- ternity, the Reformed Episcopal church, the last born and so the best born, is prepared to meet the problems which confront society today, and help bring about a practical unity of the various branches of the church of Christ." THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH CONGRESS. This body convened on the nth of September. Rev. A. J. Can- field, D. D., gave an address of welcome, followed by Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, D. D., to which responses were made by Rev. Amus Crum, D, D., and Mrs. M. Louise Thomas. The papers were as follows: " Universalism a System, not a Single Dogma." Rev. Stephen Crane, D. D., of Earlville, 111. Dr. Crane said: " Every system ASystem.not of theology has one basal idea, one central and fundamental prin- ogma. ciple, that gives unity and consistency to the whole system. Every doctrine is based upon and framed into right relations with this all-controlling principle. The basal idea of Universalism is the love of God. It postulates an infinite, active benevolence as the foun- dation of all. It puts a boundless love at the heart of things, and with this love it makes all things harmonize, and in the light of it seeks to interpret all things." * * * After showing that sin is the result of man's wrong choice, and is therefore no impeachment of I^^v. B. T. Noak^s, D. D., Cleveland, Ohio. 1080 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Punishment Disciplinary. Divine Om- nipotence and Homan Agency God's character, he said "that having chosen the wrong, man still had the power to choose the right, and that God can so educate him as to induce that choice. But Universal ism is not a system of 'Natural- ism.' It has room and a place for Christianity. It recognizes the work and mission of Christ. It does not, however, see in His mission any effort to change the character of God or reverse the moral order of the world. Christianity is not a reconstruction, but a revelation of what is. It shows us the Father; it does not change the character of the Father. * * But in so much as Christianity is a new spiritual or moral force in the world, it is not in opposition to any such force already in the world. It does not seek to reverse the natural order of things. It is supernatural but not ' unnatural.' It does not oppose nature; it adds itself to nature. The only thing it opposes is sin, and this be- cause sin is unnatural. The sinner is out of and not in the natural order; therefore, Christianity opposes him and seeks to bring him back into the natural order." "Punishment; Disciplinary; The Atonement; Reconciliation; Life a School." The Rev. Elmer H. Capen, D. D., president of Tufts College, Massachusetts. He said: " Universalism revolts from the theory that punishment is to vindicate God, or execute wrath and vengeance upon man. It is inflicted on account neither of the injured innocence nor the anger of God. It has its place in a great plan which contem- plates not the destruction but the perfection of humanity. * * The moral universe is viewed in the form of a spiritual household — one family on earth and in heaven. God is the Father. Man is the child. But one motive is possible in this holy relation. That motive is love. The aim of punishment is twofold. It is first corrective, designed to cause the sinner to halt and turn about in the way he is going. It is also stimulative, seeking to create a new purpose and lead to repent- ance, so causing the sinner, not only to abandon his sin, but to enter humbly, cheerfully and affectionately into the service of God." This view gives a clear perception of the function of Jesus Christ. "He is a mediator, a highway over which God could come to humanity and make His abode with them, the tender and reconciling friend, taking men by the hand and leading them into the presence of a just and merciful Father." " Divine Omnipotence and Human Free Agency in the Problem of Salvation." Rev. C. Ellwood Nash, D. D., of Brooklyn, N. Y. Premis- ing that the omnipotence of God cannot be shown from the teachings of science or philosophy, but only from the Scriptures, he states that "all Christian sects make it the primary postulate of Christian theism. It is limited only by the nature of things. Omnipotence is not a mere store of energy, mere quantity or quality of force. It is itself rather a product of the harmonies of the divine nature, from whose every attribute and function it collects its generous toll. It possesses full information, agrees perfectly with the constitution of things, is impelled by infinite love for men, has an infinite passion for righteous- ness. Consider the omnipotence of an absolute, unconquerable will- Hi ^^s*- ^f Rev. John Wesley Hanson, Chicago. 10^2 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. power, an all engrossing, immitigable purpose! Think what the pale shadow of this in men has done and estimate what it must effect in the Eternal." The speaker proceeded to discuss the points: (i) if om- nipotent, God must be having His own way; (2), if any soul is lost as God is omnipotent it must be because He is unwilling to save it; (3), all God's attributes lay His power under the necessity of securing to each soul the highest possible good. Replying to the objection that human nature opposes God's purpose, and that God has confined the possibil- ity of securing salvation to this life. Dr. Nash showed that man's freedom of will interposes no insurmountable obstacle to God's omni- potent will, also free, and he closed by saying, " The offense of Uni- versalism is that it ** Dare not fix with mete and bound The love and power of God." It declares: "'He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the mhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers.' God must win; man also will win, and come off more than conqueror through the conquest of God, even over himself." "■ Universal Holiness and Happiness the Final Result of God's The Final Government." Rev. John Coleman Adams, D. D., Brooklyn, N. Y. Eiesuit. This paper was one of the ablest read to the congress, but it was so dovetailed as to render quotation very difficult. A passage or two will enable the reader to judge its quality. After defining and illustrating the law that all motion is along the line of least resistance. Dr. Adams said: "Within and without the soul, in the nature of man and the nature of things outside him, the line of least resistance is in the direction of goodness, the fulfillment of the soul's true life, conformity to the divine will and purpose. 'AH a man's inner nature protests against the deflections of sin. We resist our ownselves, or rather we have all our own moral organization against us when we do evil. Sin is the violation of our own natures, and when we do violence to those natures there is a great outcry from within. Looking into the soul alone, we find that 'the way of the transgressor is hard.' His own nature is a constant resistance and hindrance to the sinner. The re- sistance which man's soul makes to every fresh indulgence in evil, the unrest of the passions, the pangs of remorse, the still more bitter tor- ment of evil dispositions whose satiety brings still insatiate cravings — all attest the fact that his moral nature is organized so as to make the line of least resistance run in the direction of righteousness." Tracing through the Scriptures the prophecy of the final end of evil and the triumph of universal good the essayist closed by saying: " History is prophecy. The future is writ in the past. The record of our race shows one long, unremitting conflict, from the dreary lowlands where the human race began to the fair plains where now it builds the cities of its pride. But it is a running battle toward peace, purity and per- fection. Man has fought his way to the higher life. All his upward struggle has pointed to a time when good shall triumph over evil, holi- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1083 ness prevail over sin, and the final victory rest in very truth with the cohorts of God." * * * " The Harmony of the Divine Attributes." Rev. Edgar Leavitt,. Santa Cruz, Cal. This paper elaborately reviewed the positions of those who teach that mercy and justice in God are antagonistic; that **a God all mercy" would be "a God unjust," and from a wide variety of considerations established the position that all the divine attributes are phases of divine love. He said: " The divine attributes then are The Divine all in harmony with one another; they need no reconciliation for they monizedr^"" are not unreconciled, except to the misunderstanding of man, and are incapable of becoming so. The conflict which men think they dis- cern is only apparent, not real, like the conflicts which the ancients thought they saw in nature, and which they thought required many conflicting gods to account for them. Modern science reduces nature's apparent conflicts under unitary law, thus corroborating the mono- theistic teaching of Hebrew-Christian revelation. So will, thought and faith, the study of our experience and the Scriptures, harmonize and unify all the divine attributes in this central and essential one of love, and show that St. John made no partial or one-sided statement when he said; ' God is love.' Since ' God is love,' love must have pur- posed, planned, directed, foreseen and foreordained final universal holiness, because anything less than this would be inconsistent with the divine love and with its infinitude; and since * love never faileth,' God cannot fail in the finally perfect consummation of His plan." "The Intrinsic Worth of Man." Rev. Everett Levi Rexford, D. D., Roxbury, Mass. "The value of man is shown in the symmetrical culture of his faculties, disclosing in human life the image and the grace of God." * * Illustrating his theme by specifying the great men who had, as Kepler said: "thought the thoughts of God after Him," Dr. Rexford concluded: "In all great characters we read the. larger fulfillment of the common prophecies that are written in the nature of God's children everywhere. In Jesus of Nazareth we see the fulfill- ment of those august prophecies written in the spiritual nature of man- kind. Following the paths of His ascent we reach the borders of the imperishable realities, and there in those vast altitudes, amidst the fadeless splendors of an unwasting life, man discloses his transcendent worth by lifting to his regal brow the radiant crown of his own immor- tality." " Universalism the Doctrine of the Bible." Rev. Alonzo Ames Miner, D.D., LL. D., Boston, Mass. Regarding the Bible as author- ity. Dr. Miner proceeded to quote its testimony in behalf of universal salvation. The principal texts quoted were Ps.cxxxlx, 1-12; Isa. xxxv, 1,2; xlv, 22-24; Iv, 10, 11; Ixv, 17. 18; Rev. xxi, 1-6; Heb. ii, 14-15; Ps. ii, 7, 8; Isa. xlii, 1-4; Daniel vii, 13-14; Luke iv, 16-21; John xvii, 1-4; Romans viii, 20, 21; viii, 37-39; i Cor. xv, 24-28; 47-48; Phil, ii, 9-1 1; Heb. viii, 8-12; Ps. xix, 7-11. He showed the application of his cita- tions. He said: "Let us turn now to another point of view, anew and the most important aspect of the question. The Bible is given to ^ Man's Intrin- sic Worth. BibleUni versalism. 1084 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. man for the accomplishment of a moral work; not simply to foretell, but to secure his salvation. The divine agent in the accomplishment of this work is our Lord Jesus Christ. We may expect, therefore, to find the pulse of God's purpose in Christ throughout all the Scriptures. He is, in the divine purpose, a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was given all power in heaven and on earth for the accom- plishment of His mission. Up to this time the government of God, which primarily was outward and visible, had been gradually deepen- ing in its spirituality until Christ, the culmination of God's spirit in man, was revealed to the world. He thus becomes an object lesson to the children of men, as perfect a representation of God among men as it is possible to present; hence. He is fitly termed 'the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person.' Holding this place it is hardly possible that there should not be (i) prophetic allusions to Him through all the ages; hardly possible that these allu- sions (2) should not correspond in breadth and significance to the representations that Christ Himself makes touching His agency and ultimate success, and hardly possible (3) that the commentary thereon given us by His holy apostles should not present a like breadth and significance, thus making the Bible to be Christo-centric and har- monious." Ranging through the Bible, the venerable doctor, hard upon four score years, yet with great facility and ability, advocated the theory to which he had devoted his life. His closing words were: "Thus have we seen that the Bible is its own justification. It teaches us the divine immanence. As a record of God's government, and of the inspiration of His servants, it is a revelation of His charac- ter. His attributes, His will. His purpose, His ordinations. In both the Old Testament and New there shine out prophecies justifying the declaration that God is love; that He is good unto all, and that His tender mercies are over all His works; that through the general record of God's government runs the golden thread of God's purpose of uni- versal redemption in Christ. The breadth and universality (i) of the prophecies concerning Him; (2) of His own exposition of His minis- try, and (3) of the apostolic commentary thereon, exhibit a unity of doctrine which shows the one divine mind behind all the ages. We have seen also that the character of the divine government, the proper exposition of the rhetoric of retribution, and the inherent and spiritual nature of the divine rewards and punishments are perfectly concurrent with the breadth, fullness and glory of Christ's success in the ultimate salvation of the whole world." " Universal Restoration; the Doctrine of the First Five Centuries." Univemiism Rev. John Wesley Hanson, D. D. This paper traced the teachings Faith. ""^^ ^^^ of Primitive Christianity on human destiny from the days of the apostles, and quoted from the Sibylline Oracles (A. D. 80-150), Clem- ent of Alexandria (A. D. 180-220), Origen (A. D. 186-254), Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428), Titus of Bostra (A. D. 338-378), Gregory of Nyssa (A. D. 329-370), and his sister Macrina, and many others. It Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Sawyer, College Hill, Moss. 1086 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, was shown that from A. D. 220-400 there were but four theological schools in which young men were prepared for the Christian ministry in all the world, and all four inculcated universal restoration. Clement and Origen, who were the first to define the generally accepted doctrines of the church, were quoted, and also Dietelmair, who says: "Univer- salism in the fourth century drove its roots down deeply alike in the east and the west, and had very many defenders;" and Gieseler, "The belief in the inalienable power of amendment in all rational creatures, and the limited duration of future punishment, was general, even in the west and among the opponents of Origen;" and Doederlein, " The more highly distinguished in Christian antiquity any one was for learning, so much the more did he cherish and defend the hope of future torment sometime ending." After a large number of quotations from the early fathers of the church, the author quoted the Rev, Thomas Allin, Episcopalian, who says in a recent volume: **In that famousageof the world's history, * * * Universalism seems to have been the creed of the majority of Christians in the east and west alike; perhaps, even of a large majority, * * * and in the roll of its teachers, * * * were * * * most of the greatest names of the greatest age of primitive Christianity;" and Dr. Edward Beecher, Presbyterian, "Beyond all doubt, in the age of Origen and his scholars, and in the times of Theodore of Mopsuestia (A. D. 200 to A. D, 420), the weight of learned and influential ecclesiastics was on the side of universal resto- ration." The paper closed: "Nothing can be more evident to the careful reader of the early history of our religion than that the anni- hilation of sin and evil, and the universal elevation of the human fam- ily to holiness and happiness, was the primitive doctrine of the Chris- tian church. Our distinguishing doctrine is not, therefore, as many suppose, a new one; it is the revival of an old one. It is a return to the positions of Clement, of Alexandria, seventeen hundred years ago. It is the rejuvenation, the restoration, the renaissance, the re-birth of Christianity." " The Obscuration of Universalism in the Early Church and Middle Ages." Thomas J. Sawyer, D. D., Tufts College, Mass. In accounting for the eclipse into which the doctrine of restoration entered from the ofj^unrversai" sixth century onward. Dr. Sawyer alluded to the edicts of the Emperor Justinian (A. D. 544-553) condemning it, and tracing the persecutions of Origen (A. D. 186-254), he quoted Dr. Schaff as saying: "The condemnation of Origen struck a death blow to theological science in the Greek church, and left it to stiffen gradually into a mechanical traditionalism and formalism." " And in this condition it has remained ever since. The same author pronounces Origen ' the most learned and ablest divine of the ante-Nicene period, the Plato or Schleier- macher of the Greek church,' and thinks * even the errors of such men more useful than the merely traditional orthodoxy of unthinking men, because they come from an honest search after truth and provoke new investigation.' " That Universalism was condemned by the Emperor Justinian in Obscuration THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1087 an imperial edict, not, however, ratified by a council of the church, is a fact well established. The emperor was an earnest Christian in his way, no doubt, but anxious to rule the church as well as the state, and to do both by imperial authority. As described by the historians, he was often ruled by his wife, and she was often ruled by some crafty priests, who as frequently sought their own interests as those of the church. But the good emperor thought himself the church's nursing father and had no doubt that he was able to settle all questions in theology as well as those of state." The words of the emperor's edict are as follows: 'If anyone says or holds that the punishment of the demons, and of ungodly men is temporal, that is, that after a certain time it will come to an end, and there will be a restoration of the demons and ungodly men, let him be anathema.' "But it is not in the realm of thought chiefly that we are to seek the causes of that obscuration of Universalism which marked the Middle Ages. There were a hundred unfriendly influences in the political condition of Christendom and the general state of society In the breaking up of the unwieldy mass of the Roman Empire, in the incursions of barbarous nations, in the absorption and imperfect assimilation of pagans, with their ignorance and superstitions, it is one of the miracles of history that anything of Christianity was finally left." "The Bible; Inspiration and Revelation." Rev. George H. inspiration Emerson, D. D., Boston, Mass. This essay was an attempt to eluci- and Revelation date the confession of faith of the denomination, that the Bible "contains a revelation from God," a "revelation in a sense quite unlike that in which other books may have been said to reveal His will and purpose." Plenary, verbal inspiration, was not claimed. "The thought of the Bible, not its literary record;" "the spiritual substance, not the literary form," is inspired. The paper rejected the theory that the entire Bible is the Word of God on the one hand, and on the other that all books and persons are inspired as really as were the authors of the Scriptures. There is "a commanding peculiarity in the inspiration that is distinctively Biblical." "The quality of inspiration must be largely affected by the special nature of the truth it affirms and makes clear." Even after the concession that the influence which moved Shakespeare in the creation of "Hamlet" was in its "root," its primi- tive substance, " identical with that which stirred Paul to write the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, how dissimilar is the inspiration as it acts on, and is re-acted upon by the subject-matter of that chapter, from the quality it assumed when it produced the solil- oquy. Exalted and even sublime as are elect passages in the great drama, we pass from them to elect passages in the writings of the apostle who counted it a joy to suffer stripes in allegiance to a divine Master. We suddenly, and with something of shock, find ourselves lifted into a new estate — in truth, a new world. Had Shakespeare at- tempted anything like the tone which pervades the Epistle to the Galatians, we should have pronounced him a lunatic; his subject-matter would not have accounted for it; no subject-matter proper to the dra- 1088 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Man's Intel- lectj Affection, Aspiration. The Idea Salvation. of matic art can make other than incongruous a tone and unction and manner of authority which are as natural to the apostle as the atmos- phere to the lungs. A relentless psychology may compel us to regard Shakespearian and Pauline inspirations as similar at the fountain, but words fail in any attempt to describe their difference in the stream. * * * Alike in popular and in critical thought, revelation is the correlate of inspiration. One may be called the vehicle, and the other the matter conveyed." The substance of this essay was that the doctrines, principles contained in the Bible, are inspired truth, that the Book contains a revelation of truth, to guide mankind to duty, holi- ness, happiness. " Man, Intellect, Affection, Aspiration," was treated by Rev. J. Smith Dodge, of Stamford, Conn. It was shown that the intellect, aspirations and sentiments of man imply a common destiny of good for the race. " When the researches of physical science were in their infancy they consisted mainly in ascertaining and grasping the facts of nature; but the human mind has long since busied itself with a broader survey, trying to enlarge the groups of its knowledge, to bring them into relation with each other and to feel after some vast arrange- ment which shall unite the whole physical universe in one. Elaborat- ing these fruitful thoughts the conclusion of the writer was reached that while the intellect, the aspirations and the sentiments do not con- stitute, they fairly represent, the spiritual constitution of man. And since we have found that each increasingly demands some scheme of human well-being which shall include the entire race, while each is met by a corresponding capacity of human development, we may con- clude that the divine wisdom which created and rules mankind has in this way made known the end toward which it works, the universal blessedness of man." "The Universalist Idea of Salvation." Rev. Charles H. Eaton, D. D., New York city. "Anselm, the saintly archbishop of Canterbury, anticipated the Universalist idea of salvation when he said, T would rather be in hell without a fault than in heaven with one.' The modern conception of salvation does not emphasize locality, but character. It does not deal with place and time, but with qualities of mind and heart that are independent of place and time. In other words, salvation is a state and a process." This thought was elaborated at length. " The test of salvation is simple and effective. We are not compelled to throw ourselves into the future. We are to ask plain and everyday questions: What is a man's speech? Is it honest and reverent? What are his conduct and spirit? The measure of worth is evident. ' By their fruits ye shall know them.' We are not living good lives because we are saved, but we are saved because we are living good lives." What is the relation of Christ to salvation? "He exhibits in His life complete harmony of the human and the divine, and teaches us how we may at the same time live in peace with God and in helpful and happy relations with our fellows. He reconciled the demands of Rev. Dr. A. A. Miner, LL. D., Boston, Mass. 1090 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Criticism. time and eternity, and in the midst of the doubts and confusions of life, shows how we may nourish an abiding hope and create a sym- metrical character." But He was more than historical and ethical. "Salvation, the Universalist declares, is not confined to this life, Repentance is the door of salvation. Repentance, however, is possi- ble .on this or the other side of the line of death. Death has no significance whatever so far as the essential processes of sal- vation are concerned. As we lay down the burdens of earth we take up the obligations of heaven. Relieved of the body of flesh, its weaknesses and the temptations that inhere in it, but, not- withstanding, the same human beings that walked the ways of earth. Not only does the soul remain the same, subject to the impulses, the restraints, the hopes and opportunities of the law of God, but every- where in this life and every other life we are under the dominion of the same power and love. Wherever and whenever a soul turns to God, forgiveness and help will be granted. The sun shines at one end of the covered bridge we call death. Does it not shine at the other end as well?" Salvation is a moral, religious, spiritual process moving man's highest faculties and thus producing character, which will ultimately be attained by all souls. " The Higher Criticism." Rev. Massena Goodrich, Pawtucket, R. I. The Higher Defining the "higher criticism" the essay stated that his branch of the '"■ ' ~ Christian church- is in full sympathy with its purposes and accepts its conclusions. " But its assumptions we do not concede. In so far as the higher criticism bases its conclusions on the impossibility of miracles, it assumes what no man is bound to concede. God is in nature and in providence, and the tokens of His might are so mani- fest in heaven above and earth beneajih, that no man can rightly under- take to set limits to His power. If He has seen at any time that a wondrous display of His energy will rebuke human arrogance or con- ceit, and wring from the tongue the ejaculation, *My Lord and my God,' it may be a sufficient reason for His baring His arm. But the ascertained dates and facts of authorship of the books of the Bible our church welcomes, as it does all truth." "The Attitude of the Universalist Church Towards Science." Attitude To- Rcv. I. M. Atwood, D. D., St. Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y. "The attitude is one of interest, sympathy and expectation. It has no hostility of feeling whatever. The attitude of the Universalist church is still one of interest, sympathy, expectation. While, if the term be construed in its narrower and usual sense, as concerned with observa- tion and experiment in the study of physical nature, the formula which expresses the attitude of the Universalist church toward it would not have to be changed." * * * He welcomed the growing friendliness between science and theol- ogy, and rejoiced that the branch of the church he represented had ever looked with confidence on the achievements of science, sure that the author of both science and Christianity would secure their perfect harmony. "The real difficulty is, that no one knows what true relig- ward Science. Rev. J. S. Cantwell, D, D., Chicago. 10^^ THE WORLt)'^ CONGkESS OF RELIGIONS. ion is or true science. Religion as accepted and expounded, and sci- ence as apprehended and taught, are both faulty and incomplete. The dissonances between systems thus imperfect are likely due to the fact that neither has yet struck the true note. In any attempt to bring the two into accord Vv^ are embarrassed by the want of a standard pitch. If we take our key from religion, which variety shall 'A^e select? And whichever we select, we shall not dare to assume that it is without a flaw or a quaver. If we start from science, its name is yet legion and its voices jangled. Neither has yet found absolute and final expres- sion. If, then, we brought them to a forced and momentary harmony it would be only to find them breaking into discord again with the very first movement of progress in either. * * * God is, and every man is God's spiritual child, and the final meaning of the cosmos, as well as of the human soul, is moral. This is what all searchers shall at last find out. And in that eon, near or remote, all paths of real knowledge shall be seen to lead the inquirer to Him in whom all live and move and have their being.'-' " Denominational Organization and Polity; The Position of Women in the Church; Sunday-school Work." Hon. Hosea W. Parker, Clare- mont, N. H. After describing the origin of the Universalist Church Organization in America, and defining its polity as a modified Congregationalism, and Polity. resembling the American government — a representative democracy, purely republican — perfected in 1866, he stated that its General Con- vention is only one distinct body, it has all the functions of a legisla- tive, executive and judicial government. Of the women in the church he said: " The women of the Univer- salist church represent, in an eminent degree, the advance thought in liberal theology at the present time. In every branch of this church we find them foremost in its varied work. * * As Christian thought has advanced, the relations of women to all of the progressive movements in human society are better understood and appreciated. We find them today in our colleges, as students and professors, and in all the callings and professions of life, but in no place is she doing better or more efficient work than in the Universalist church. The divinity schools of our church have opened wide their doors, and the young women are fast coming forward to prepare themselves as Christian teachers and preachers. "As early as 18 16 a Sabbath-school was formed in Philadelphia, and in 1817 a school was instituted in Boston. In 1819 there was a school in Stoughton, Mass., one in Gloucester in 1820, and one in Providence, R. I., in 1 82 1. From 1830 to 1840 a large number were established in New England, also in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Sabbath-school is and has been an important factor in religious work, in connection with the Universalist church. It has its publications and its libraries wherever the Universalist doctrines are preached or taught." " Love the Basis of Education." Prof. N. White, Ph. D., Lom- bard University, Galesburg, 111. The theme was elucidated with great THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1093 Unity of Forces. force. "The recognition of love, as the supreme principle and inter- B^jg'^of ^j&l preter of human life, must awaken new energies in the service of man. cation. Love knows nothing of the law's delay, no failure of purpose, no exhaustion of strength. This must be so since love gives us the clue to the divine purpose and every experience of life is seen to be a stage in the divine ordering of our life. We press on, for every act of service establishes new and closer relations between us and God. As life interpreted by love unfolds itself before us, it becomes charged with new and deeper meaning, since that meaning is expressed to us in terms of love, and the worth of true love when once felt is never questioned nor denied. This earthly life when interpreted by love rises and expands more and more to the proportions of the heavenly." "Science Indicates the Unity ot Forces; Hence the Unity of Final Cause; Manifested in the Progress of Knowledge; Industrial, Commer- cial and International Relationships also Indicate the Brotherhood of Man." Rev. Edwin Chapin Sweetser, D. D., Philadelphia, Pa. After showing that nature was never so well understood as now, and that, whereas, its phenomena had for ages been supposed to be caused by conflicting forces, the search-lights of modern science are revealing the fact that man was the ultimate purpose of the solar system of which our earth is a part, he said: * * * " Among all of the wonderful discoveries which science has made in modern times there is none more profound than that of the correla- tion and conservation of forces, and none more far-reaching in what it implies with reference to the destiny of mankind. * * * it allows but one creator, one ruler, one governor, one source of all energy, one great first cause, of whom and through whom and to whom are all things." In the outlying world epitomized by the exposition, and the more civilized man becomes the more noticeably will be seen the oneness of the race. And illustrating his theme in many ways, Dr. Sweetser con- cluded thus: "Equally, then, by these teachings of nature which indicate that, from the beginning, the Author of the human race has designed its ultimate perfection, and by those which indicate the unity which binds its members together, we are led to the conclusion that it can have but one destiny, a destiny befitting its heavenly origin, a destiny worthy of the children of God. That destiny will not be accomplished until all shall have come to a perfect manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." "The Woman's Centenary Association." Mrs. Cordelia A. Quinby, woman's Augusta, Me. The address fully described the origin, history and work Centenary As. of this national body of Universalist women, organized in 1870, at """'"* which time a permanent fund of ;S35,000 was established. It has planted and maintained a mission in Glasgow, Scotland, has fostered missionary interests in various parts of this country; has issued sixty- eight tracts and circulated more than five million pages all over the world, besides many thousands of volumes of books and pamphlets* h^s collected and disbursed for church work more than $250,000. Bociation. 1094 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, The Japan- sse Mission. Woman's Home sions. Mis- War, Peace, National Hon- or. " Foreign Missionary Work: The Japanese Mission." Rev. George Landor Perin, D. D., Tokio, Japan. Dr. Perin's address was a vigorous vindication of foreign missions, and of the necessity, utility and success of the Universalist Japanese Mission, organized A. D. 1890. In the course of his paper he inquired: " Who should be sent as mis- sionaries to tell men of God if not those who from the first made the Universal Fatherhood of God central in their prayers and in their teach- ings? * * A Universalist without the missionary spirit is a contra- diction in terms. Such a one suggests the idea of partial Universalism. To the true Universalist there is no Jew and no Gentile, no bond and no free, no favored race and no favorite spot in vv^hich to work." He declared the motive of the Japanese Mission to be to give the Gospel to Asia, for the blessing of the Orient; its aim to convert men to the Christian life; its method to educate native ministers, and he had found the results fully justified the enterprise. In the course of his address he said: "There is no place on earth where ultra-orthodoxy has less influence than in Japan. Until within a few years past there have been none but orthodox missions in this country; and yet it is entirely within the facts to say that the native leaders of Christian thought are more liberal than the liberal Congregationalists of Amer- ica. It is simply impossible that extreme orthodox doctrines shall ever control the Christian thought of this country. If this shall ever become a Christian nation, as I confidently believe it will, it will only be through the preaching of a simple Christianity, freed from theolog- ical difficulties, in which the love of God for all men stands out clearly as the central message." * * * ** Woman's State Missionary Organizations." Mrs. M. R. M. Wal- lace, Chicago, 111. Mrs. Wallace referred to the state associations of women organized in the various states, and described their work for their church, ''helping struggling churches;" "caring for the parish poor;" "sustaining Sunday-schools where no church exists;" "liqui- dating the church debt," etc. She said: "The strong point in these organizations is the fact that the women have more time and patience for the 'little beginnings' that would perplex and puzzle the stale boards which labor in the larger fields and on a grander scale; and like gleaners they will make use of the grain left behind by the busy harvesters. They are more willing to begin with a small outlook, toiling on with more zeal and hopefulness for the final culmination of their prayers. Their faith never falters, though the way be long and the days dark. They quietly and steadily march along saying, 'the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' When a church is finally forced to close its doors, as sometimes happens, experience shows 'tis a woman's hand that holds the key, waiting and. watching for the day of better things." " War, Peace and National Honor." Rev. Henry Blanchard, D. D. Portland, Me. Admitting that war is incidental to the lower stages of man's development, he contended that too much honor has been given to war and warriors, and while some wars have been noble Mrs. M. R. M. Wallace, Chicago. 1096 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Crime and PonishAMit. Christian Ethics. and honorable to one side, he urged that peace is the goal toward which all things should tend. He insisted that the evil of war should be inculcated in our schools and colleges, but held that the great panacea is in our religion, which puts a new meaning in ** national honor," which means national service. His closing words were: " In such an hour, it is meet that we should feel, as never before, the solidarity of mankind, and long for and work for the federation of nations. The great gun of Krupp's manufactory is in its place in yonder fair. It tells what man has been able to do in creating instru- ments for man's destruction. But there, also, is the gigantic search- light with its 200,000,000 candle power, showing what man has done to use the wondrous agent we call electricity, to illumine darkness and fog and storm. That is a fitter symbol of the coming times than the gigantic gun. On one of Louis XIV.'s cannon were the words, * The argument of kings.' Our search-light shall declare it is the argument of the people. The time is coming when we shall have no need of cannon. The time will never be on earth when we shall have no need of light. Invention amazes; arts increase; the twentieth century will reap great results from the marvelous achievements of the last twenty years. Invention, arts, I solemnly believe, will make useless bayonets and sword and cannon, but light, more light, in material form, will only symbolize the light which thought shall give to the great prob- lems of society. If all the electric thoughts of this last decade of the Nineteenth Century could blaze out in light, as does the great search- light yonder, it would show us the path of the future upon which we are advancing — the path, growing brighter and brighter unto the perfect day, wherein shall be made real the vision that has forever haunted prophet and poet of * peace on earth, good will to men,' — the day when war shall be no more; and that nation shall be greatest which best serves the world." '"Crime; Capital Punishment; Intemperance." Rev. Olympia Brown Willis, Racine, Wis. " A large part of the misery of the world," said the speaker, " results from crime. It does not result from Eve's transgression, nor are there two opposing forces at work striving to rule the earth. Human society is unfinished." The acts of men are largely experimental. The criminal is a man, a child of God, astray; **an experimenter who has blundered, his own worst enemy. He ap- peals to our sympathy, while his conduct calls for our condemnation." How should a Christian government treat him? Retribution belongs to God, and government should have but two purposes in punishing — the protection of society and the rescue of the criminal. The death penalty does not lessen crime, nor cruel punishments decrease it. Prisons should be schools; man's punishment should be like God's, medicinal. " Christian Ethics." Rev. A. N. Alcott, Elgin, 111., asked: " Can Christianity be made a living, working, realized religion in daily human affairs? Can men succeed and strictly practice it? Questions of the- ological doctrine are at present as nothing to the world in comparison THE WORLD' S^ CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1097 to the importance of this question: Is Christian ethics, as a path to success, workable in business and politics?" Mr. Alcott declared him- self affirmatively. He quoted (i ) the precepts and examples in the New Testament in proof; (2) the common law; (3) the oneness of humanity — human society is a unit, and (4) the verdict of time. He insisted that experience shows that honor, honesty, in the long run, succeeds — in business, politics, everywhere. Among many striking illustrations he referred to our own national history, and said: "The reaction of the unethical on society to its vast injury is forcibly illus- trated in both business and politics, at one and the same time, by the institution of slavery at the South. Thousands of men were success- fully kidnapped, their toil was successfully enforced. Chains were successfully imposed on millions. But not only was this success a constant social and agricultural curse during its continuance, but the unethical industry at length produced rebellion, came near ruining a nation, cost North and South billions of dollars, more money than the slaves ever earned; cost, moreover, thousands and thousands of lives, the agony and tears of eight million homes, the strain of a four years' civil war, and left a blight on soil and on hearts and minds in the land of the orange blossom that has not yet spent its withering and baneful force. Was this unethical business, this unethical politics a success, measured by the yard-stick of time?" "The Contribution of Universalism to the World's Faith," by The Ck)ntri- Rev. James M. Pullman, D. D., of Lynn, Mass., was the last paper versaiismto presented. Dr. Pullman named five great thoughts which his denom- p^^thy^^^*^'** ination had given to religion: (i) Faith in man; (2) faith in the beneficence of evil; (3) the organic and spiritual unity of the race; (4) the interminableness of man's progress; (5) eternal hope. The concluding words were: *• A gulf of deepest mystery surrounds this island-earth on which we dwell. We must build within ourselves the bridge of faith, which alone can span the wide abyss. Let me illustrate what I mean by the figure of the cantilever bridge. A cantilever is a bracket. A canti- lever bridge is a double or balanced bracket. When the gulf to be spanned has a reachable bottom, we can build our piers upon it, lay the beams of our bridge over them, and so cross the chasm. Where the gulf is too deep, or the waters too swift for this, we can erect solid towers on both shores, swing our suspension bridge between them and so cross. But the gulf which surrounds us here is unfath- omable; it has no reachable bottom, and no visible further shore. Our only resource is the cantilever. We must build our solid pier of fact on our own side of the gulf, start our truss-work from the top of that, and then we can build out over the abyss just as far as we build the balancing worth and faith inland in our own souls. By all the laws of spirit, the unseen Bridge-builder on the further shore will build toward us as far and as fast as we build toward Him. The stronger and more out-reaching our hope, the sooner will the junction be formed between man's desires and his Maker's purposes. The only 1098 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Universalism I care anything about, is that which builds the bridge of eternal hope over the gulf of sin and darkness, and makes God acces- sible to the lost soul and straying feet of the weakest and worst of men." The Theolog- ical Method Movements in Foreign Lands. THE UNITARIAN CHURCH CONGRESS. The proceedings of this Congress were very elaborate and compre- hensive, covering the historical, doctrinal and ethical positions occu- pied by the Unitarians. The sessions continued from September i6th to the 23d. Distinguished scholars and divines contributed to the interest of the Congress; among them the Rev. Theodore Williams, of New York, discussed the Representative Men; the Rev. M. St. C. Wright, of New York, "The Theological Method of the Movement;" the Rev. T. R. Slicer, of Buffalo, traced the history of the Unitarian idea from the Sermon on the Mount to the Nicene creed (A. D. 325). He declared that "the absolute being of God remained untouched through the growing centuries by the growing claims of Christ. No father of the church, for three centuries after Christ, lost sight of the subordi- nation of Christ to God, or claimed Him to be otherwise than a repre- sentative of the Father. The rank growth of dogma began in the Third century. The Holy Ghost was not given a place as the Third Person of God until the Eighth century. The true, original Unitarians were the Jews of the First 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 early Christians." The Christian church deteriorated from the Third century until a mistake was regarded as a crime and an im- puted error fatal. "The Church of the Spirit" was treated by Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, and papers were read by Revs. Augustus M. Lord; F. G. Peabody, D. D., of Cambridge ; Horatio Stebbins, D. D., of San Francisco, and S. R. Calthrop, of Syracuse, N. Y. "The Unitarian Movement in Foreign Lands" was treated by Pro- fessor Gordon, of Manchester, England; the Rev. F. W. M. Hugen- holtz, of Grand Rapids, who described the status in Poland, Italy and the Netherlands; Professor Bonet-Maury, the situation in Switzerland and France, where Channing is held to be a prophet, and he predicted that the time is coming when the Calvinistic churches of France will be liberal. A lively address was given by Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant, of England, who said "there are three steps in religion, (1) soap and water, (2) plenty to eat, and (3) good clothing." Smiles and laughter hasten the journey. Rev. Dr. J. H. Allen gave an historical sketch of Unitarianism during the pre-transcendental period, from 1800 to 1835, when it existed only in and around Boston. The Rev. Geo. H. Batchelor de- clared that its characteristic is still transcendental, inasmuch as Emer- Rev. Robert Collyer, New York. 1100 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Historical. Man the Last Link in Evo- lution. Great Unitar- ians. son was its great exponent. Reason and right as revealed in man's mental and moral constitution is man's ultimate authority. The Rev. John C. Learned, of St. Louis, declared that the principles of Emerson and Parker still characterize the denomination. He said: "The impulse given by Parker 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 the 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." The Revs. Messrs. Hornbrooke, Crooker, Crothers, Simmons and Savage unfolded the Unitarian doctrines; man's knowledge of religious truth results from his own experience; Jesus, **an ascending man;" an immanent God revealed " in law which is love, and love which is. law;" man, ** the last link in evolution," still containing some of the elements of the beast, but moving upward, and working them out; and in the words of Dr. Savage, the instincts of the soul and psychological science give the warrant of life eternal. Specimen expressions of opinion may be taken from the papers read. Professor Toy, of Harvard University, declared that all Uni- tarians accept the results of the higher criticism; the Rev. Dr. Thayer, of Cincinnati, said, "there is no partial revelation;" the Rev. Dr. Crosskey, of England, rejected all miraculous interference with the laws of nature, and regarded every event in outward nature and in the history of man as resulting fiom evolution, and held all rites, cere- monies and ordinances as subordinate to obedience of the laws of God. The names of Channing, Margaret Fuller, Alcott, Dwight, Eliza- beth Peabody, Emerson, Ripley, Whipple, Hedge, Ticknor, Lowell, Prescott, Palfrey, Motley, Bancroft, Everett, Sumner, Curtis, Bryant, Longfellow, Holmes, Samuel G. Howe, Dorothea Dix, Mary Carpen- ter, Dr. Bellows and others were referred to as among those who had adorned the Unitarian annals. Prof. F. G. Peabody described the philanthropic genius and work of his church. Rev. A. P. Putnam, D. D., sent a paper describing the poets who had sung the broad faith of the liberal church. The statistics of the denomination were given by Rev. Grindall Reynolds, Secretary of the Unitarian Association; W. H. Lyon, secre- tary of the National Conference, and Rev. F. L. Hosmer, Secretary of the Western Conference. Also, the condition of the Unity clubs. Young People's Guilds and other subsidiary organizations was given. The American Unitarian Association reported " two hundred and fifty Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Chicago. (Secretary General Committee.) 1102 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS, Unitarian Vromise. or three hundred and fifty churches, with a missionary income of ;^40,ooo a year." The topic of the last session was the " Unitarian Promise." The Rev. Ida C. Hultin presided, and addresses were made by Revs. Ed- ward Everett Hale and Caroline J. Bartlett; also a paper from the Rev. W. C. Gannett was read by proxy. He urged growth inwardly; union with all liberal faiths, and that the Unitarian church aim chiefly to be a church of the Holy Spirit. An interesting woman's meeting was held, in which four valuable papers were presented on '* Woman's Theological Emancipation." Judaism was represented by Miss Mary M. Cohen, of Philadelphia; Universalism by Mrs. Jane L. Patterson, of Boston; the Free Religion- ists by Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, of Boston, and Unitarianism by Rev. Marion Murdock, of Cleveland. The papers of this congress, if gathered into a volume, would be be a choice contribution to the literature of religious thought. African Methodists. Momolu Massaquoi. THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CONGRESS. The General Conference appointed the following board of man- agers: Bishop B. F. Lee, D. D., LL. D., Bishop Jas. A. Handy, D. D., Rev. T. B. Calwell, Rev. J. H. Armstrong, D. D. (treasurer), and Bishop B. W. Arnett was made general manager and representative to all religious congresses, and also chairman of committee on programmes. The first meeting was the missionary congress of the A. M. E, church, which convened September 19, 1893, ^t 10 a. m., in room VIH. in the Art Palace, Bishop H. M. Turner, D. D., presiding. An address was delivered by Dr. Wm. B. Derrick, secretary of missions, who gave an account of the missionary work of our church in Hayti, San Do- mingo, Bermuda, Demarara, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Dr. D. H. Williams and Bishop H. M. Turner delivered addresses during the day. On Wednesday, September 20th, Bishop B. W. Arnett presided and addresses were delivered by Bishop Tanner and John M. Hender- son. The missionary congress was well attended and able addresses were delivered by Prince Momolu Massaquoi and Dr. Morte, of Africa. On Thursday night the citizens of Chicago gave a reception in Bethel church to the members of the A. M. P2. congress. Bishop A. W. Wayman presided, and addresses were delivered by Rev. D. A. Graham, R. E. Moore and J. D. Bryant. S. Lang Williams delivered an address in behalf of the citizens of Chicago and Bishop Grant re- sponded in behalf of the bishops, and Dr. L. J. Coppins in behalf of the general ofificers of the church. Also the members of Quinn Chapel, Bethel church, and St. Stephen's church, gave a banquet, at which representatives from every state of the Union were present, and Earticipated; it was the largest reunion of African Methodists ever eld. The Late Bishop Daniel A. Payne, D. D., LL. P, 1104 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS Meaning o f the Congress. Dr. Mercer's Good Words. The congress formally opened in Washington Hall on Friday, September 22d, at lo A. m. Rev. J. W. Beckett, D. D., of Baltimore, conducted a praise service, after which Bishop Abram Grant offered prayer. Bishop B. W. Arnett introduced C. C. Bonney, president of the religious Congress Auxiliary, who, in the course of his address, said: "Man at last takes his position in the world as man; for man con- sists of character and virtue and intelligence and deeds. Whatever may be the appearance of the man, whatever may be his external garb or the color of his skin, if his mind be not ennobled with intelligence he is not man. •' The meaning of this African Congress, which is broader than your denomination, which assumes a significance greater than any denomina- tion could hold — the significance of this meeting to all the world is greater than can readily be comprehended. Africa in America is the hope of Africa throughout the whole world. Every sorrow which your race has suffered in my country, every agony you have endured, every privation you have suffered, you are now being repaid and shall yet be repaid a millionfold by the blessings which shall follow you. It is not the first or only instance in which the hand of Providence has been seen in sorrow and afifliction. All the history of the world is full of such examples as this, but yours seems to me one of peculiar con- gratulation and glory. "One other thought I think I ought to express. It is the tribute of the other races of mankind appropriately given on this occasion to the deep religious character of the African race. To them faith and hope and prayer and supplication are as natural as to take the food which the kind hand of Providence gives to sustain the bodily life. Ko more touching chapter in the history of the African race can be found than that which will record the religious experiences of that race in America." Prince Wolkonsky, of Russia, responded to a call in a few words. Mrs. Isabella Hooker, sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, said: " I am proud to come with you; I am proud to sit close to you, and I want to say to you that the dear sister sitting at home there, her soul gone on, if she could be herewith you it would be the pleasure of her life. But she speaks through me to say to you that all that you have done and are now doing verifies the ideal of you that she presented in that 'Uncle Tom.' " The Rev. L. P. Mercer, of Chicago, was called upon, and re- sponded: *T want to reafifirm to you what my brother has said in your behalf in his words of welcome. I want the privilege of saying to you a thousandfold more, if I can pack it into a word or two. I want to say to you, brethren of the colored race, that the teacher from whom I have learned almost all I know, the only wise God our Saviour Jesus Christ, has taught me that the Africans are best beloved because they love to be called obedient and come with wide open hearts and teach- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1105 able minds to learn of the only wise God, and they are affectionate, patient and helpful, net only one to another, but to all who hold it to be the glory of the angelic life that each shall have his joy and delight in the service of all the rest; and I love the colored people, not of Africa, whom I don't know, but of America, whom I have known." Rt. Rev. D. A. Payne, of Wilberforce, Ohio, president, presiding, said : "The Christian mind and the Christian church are always ascending higher and higher in its ideas of God and man. We hope that in the papers that will be read today and tomorrow and the next day we shall have such utterances from these dear brethren, who have written out their thoughts and gone down to the depths of their religious ideas, as will show to this community and to the world the very spirit and nature of the African Methodist Episcopal church." Bishop Payne was followed by a paper entitled: "Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church," Dr. Haady's by Rt. Rev. James A. Handy, D. D. Among other things Dr. ^^p®'* Handy said: "In the year 1766 Phillip Embry organized a class of Methodists in the city of New York. One of them was a negro woman. Robert Strawbridge, at Baltimore, Md., the same year, organized a class of twelve persons, one of whom was a negro woman. We have been in the Methodist church ever since our admission by Embry and Strawbridge, over 127 years. * * * African Methodism had its birth in an age of rigid opposition to Christian fellowship before or at the common communion table of the Lord; every inch of ground or position of the colored members among the Protestant denominations was fiercely contested. Nevertheless, we continued in Lovely lane, Strawbridge Alley, Baltimore and old St. George's street, Philadel- phia, until April, 1816, when in solemn convention, assembled under the protection of Almighty God and the justice of our cause, we or- ganized the African Methodist church. "The African Methodist Episcopal church is one of the agents at work to restore the earth to its pristine and primeval purity. African Methodism from its incipiency demanded and today demands a higher form of courage and endurance, discipline and order. It is a Method- ist Episcopal church, not a Congregational, iiora Presbyterian church; it is a church governed and superintended by bishops, who are elected and ordained to the work of the episcopacy, v/ith general, annual and quarterly conferences. "God has blessed and prospered the work put in operation by the *Heroic Fifteen,* Allen, Hill and their associates. The less than three thousand communicants of 1816 are today five hundred thousand; the eleven preachers who met in the convention seventy-seven years ago are today represented by fifteen thousand itinerant and local preachers. "Our Sunday-schools contain 408,176 scholars and teachers. We have 5,710 church buildings, 1,037 parsonages, five colleges, twenty school-houses, one publishing house, one department of finance, four Episcopal residences. We have a total of 6,757 buildings with a valu- ation of $8,309,622. Our mission work in Africa embraces two annual 70 1106 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. conferences, one within the Liberian republic, the other at Sierra Leone, west Africa. More than forty teachers and preachers are employed and several schools are daily opened throughout the year for educa- tional and industrial training. In the West Indies — Bermuda, Hayti and San Domingo our missions are in a flourishing condition. thJ^AfVican " The mission of the African Methodist Episcopal church, as her Methodists. name indicates, is to the weaker races, first, to glorify God by lifting them to a higher plane morally, religiously, intellectually and indus- triously. Second. To stand as a broad Christian protest against caste in the church, in the pew, at the altar, in the pulpit, at the sacramental table, giving to all the opportunity to grow and to develop into full, grand manhood and womanhood; putting into active operation the moral and religious forces of our blessed Methodism, forming an alliance of Christian thought, Christian work. Christian love with our darker kinsmen of Central and South America; then with our united intelligence made strong by our Methodism, with faith in God, and with our brothers of the Lesser and Greater Antilles marching under this banner — onward — onward, to the land of our ancestors, we will preach the Gospel of a free, full and common salvation to the millions of our brethren there! " "The Philosophy of the Episcopacy of the African Methodist .Episcopal Church" was treated by the Rev. J. Embry, D. D., busi- ness manager of publishing department. He said: "The American Methodist Episcopal church is a legitimate branch of the Methodist family, and doctrinally it is at one with them all. In her ecclesiastical frame she adopts the theory of episcopacy as the administrative agency. In this she stands abreast with all episcopal bodies, and believes that she has the primitive episcopate, and feels sure that het bishops are as high as the highest. She dismisses the idea of apos- tolic succession, but still insists that the office is of sufficient dignity and responsibility to warrant a separate ordination by the imposition of hands." "What are the Demands of the Hour?" was discussed by Bishop B. T. Tanner, D. D. First. "We are to recognize the supremacy of law. We have passed through that stage of a people's life and develop- ment when luck, chance or good fortune may be supposed to rule, a sort of go-as-you-please race through life. Second. We must appre- ciate our individual responsibility. For the church and race have passed through the era when others were responsible for them. In the past we could truthfully lay our poverty, our ignorance, and even a large share of our immorality at the door of others. Not so now. We, our- selves, are responsible for our ignorance, poverty and immorality, and not another. Third. As a church we must appreciate our responsi- bility. The age demands that the church shall look after the spiritual condition of the people, the education of the children; that the ministry and the church shall instruct the people on the most intelli- gent lines, and shall require each member to perform his whole duty to himself, to his family, to his country and to his God." Demands of the Hour. Rev. J. H. Armstrong, D. D. 1108 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. "The Religious Press, its Power and Influence," by the Rev. H. T. Johnson, A. M., D. D., Ph. D. Dr. Johnson said that so far-reaching is the press in its scope, so lofty in its mission, so telling in its operations on individuals and society at large, such a designation as that which says it is the fourth estate in the realm or republic is a fit and well merited tribute. To the distributing center of this intelligence and power the nation owes its perpetuation and life. In comparing the religious and secular press he used the following language: "From this engine of power and illumination the individual, fam- ily, society, church and nation owe their perpetuity and well-being. As to strength of morals, justice of administration, soundness of dogma, excellence of purpose and grandeur of constitution it is the salt of the earth and the light of the world." "The Heroines of Methodism Before the War," by Bishop Wesley Heroines Be- J- Gaines, D. D., paid a glowing tribute to the pioneer women of the loretheWar. church and State, and Said: "Without their aid and cooperation the greatest works of the past would have been failures." He named among the heroines of the race and church Phillis Wheatly, the poetess; Francis L. Harper, the authoress; Mrs. Richard Allen, Mrs. Mary Campbell, Mrs. Fanny Coppin, and others who were the pillars of the church in its infancy. He said that "although people think . that they are suffering now, still the darkness before the war was much greater. All honor to the heroines of Methodism before the war! Too much cannot be said of their piety, love and devotion. May their names be written high upon the Lamb's Book of Life." "The Literature and the Authors of the A. M. E. Church," by the Rev. L. J. Coppin. "It is marvelous when we consider that this work of founding a denomination was begun without money, education, of social prestige. In the words of our revered senior bishop: 'Poor and lowly, an outcast, and despised of men, it feebly entered into being, but with a manifest destiny of greatness which has been developing for over three quarters of a century.' The day-star of freedom for the race had not cast its first ray of light beyond the horizon of oppres- sion; in many portions of our country it was regarded as a crime for persons of African descent to learn to read a book, to say nothing of making books. The founders of African Methodism did not make any false pretensions to learning. They were unlettered men, and they knew it. Their great leader was as modest as he was pious, But while these men were unlettered, they had character, common sense and a great cause. Only seventy-seven years have passed since the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal church, and I am asked to write of her literature and authors. With much gratitude and hope, may we not exclaim: ' What hath God wrought?' "During the first fifty years of African Methodist effort but little writing was done. The autobiography of Richard Allen, published in 1833, seventeen years after the organization of the church, is brief and unpretentious. It is the record of his life, experience and Gospel l^bprs, to which is appended the rise and progress of the African THE WOkLtyS COMGktlS^ OP RELtGtONS. \m African Methodist Methodist Episcopal church. No doctrines are promulgated, no egotism is displayed. It is simply a plain statement of facts, such as should have been given to the church by its founders. The first oflfi- cial item that we have looking toward bookmaking is that which re- cords the election of a book steward at the annual conference held in Baltimore in 1818. The first historical item, showing any practical re- sults, is the report of Rev. Joseph M. Carr, who, as general book stew- Books, ard, reported in 1835 ^^^^ he had published one thousand disciplines, one thousand hymn books and two thousand annual conference min- utes. Two years later the conference decreed the publication of a quarterly magazine, which may be styled the American Methodist Episcopal Review in embryo. As text books for our young men who are preparing for the ministry, and as associate books for reading, we have fourteen written by African Methodist authors. They are as follows: *'Church Polity, D. A. Payne; Apology for African Methodism, B. T. Tanner; Semi-Centenary of African Methodism, D. A. Payne; Way- man on the Discipline, A. W. Wayman; Turner's Catechism, A. M. Turner; Life of Richard Allen, auto-biography; Outlines of History, B. T. Tanner;. Genesis Re-read, T. G. Steward; Methodist Polity, H. M. Turner; Forty Years' Recollection, A. W. Wayman; Seventy Years' Recollections, D. A. Payne; Digest of Christian Theology, J. C. Em- bry; Divine Logos, H. T. Johnson; Relation of Baptized Children to the Church, L.J. Coppin. "On my library shelves there are fifty-four bound volumes, and a still larger number of pamphlets by colored men. These volumes have been gathered indiscriminately from time to time. A classifica- tion of them revealed the fact that forty-five out of fifty-four are by African Methodist authors. A further classification shows that most of the works are historical and biographical; others are on science, classics, theology, poetry and social questions. Some are upon mis- cellaneous subjects, as for instance the A. M. E. Budget, six volumes, by Bishop B. W. Arnett." "The Triumphs of Liberty." The thirtieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln was cele- brated in Columbus Hall, September 22, 1893, ^^ ^ P- m. The meeting was held under the auspices of the Parliament of Religions. The audience was composed of about five thousand persons, from all parts of the world. After the preliminary exercises Professor O'Gorman, of the Washington Catholic University, read the paper of Father J. R. Slattery, of Baltimore, "The Catholic Church and the Negro Race." At the conclusion of the paper Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett, D. D., delivered an address on " Christianity and the Negro." J. Madison Bell, of Toledo, read a poem. Bishop B. W. Arnett, acted as master of ceremonies, and delivered an address upon "The Triumphs of Liberty." The day's services closed by singing "The Battle Hymn." On Saturday, September 23d, the congress convened at 10 A. M., in Triumphs of Liberty. 1110 THk WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELMlON:§. Hall VIII. The attendance was large; a number of interesting papers were read. The Sunday services consisted of preaching in the various churches, both at morning and at night. In the afternoons were the women's mass-meetings in the three churches. At Quinn chapel Mrs., Wayman presided, and addresses were delivered; at Bethel church, Mrs. Arnett presided; addresses were delivered by Bishop D. A. Payne, and Mrs. L. M. Montfort the oriental lecturer upon the ** Women of the East;" at St. Stephens church, Mrs. Tanner presided, and addresses were delivered by Mrs. Sarah Jane Woodson Early and Mrs. Laudonia Williams. Bishop A. Walters, of the American Methodist Episcopal Zion church, preached a sermon on " Our Sister Churches, or Unity in Spirit, Without Uniformity in Service." On Monday morning, at lO A. m., in Hall III. the Congress assembled, Bishop H. M. Turner presiding. Addresses were delivered by Bishop Grant, Professor Council and others. Monday night the Congress convened in Washington Hall, Bishop B. T. Tanner in the chair. Thousands of persons came out to hear the addresses and songs. Hon. Frederick Douglass and others spoke. The meeting closed in a glow of enthusiasm. Tuesday in Hall HI. the Congress reconvened. Bishop Wayman presiding. Able papers on religious and educational subjects were presented and discussed. On Tuesday the closing meeting was held, Bishop Wayman pre- siding. The attendance was very large. Addresses complimentary to the "management of the congress" were delivered. The congress voted a gold medal to Bishop Arnett for his services during the Parliament of Religions. The Congress closed by singing " God be With You Till we Meet Again." "How may Elementary Education be Promoted to Meet the Wants of the Negro in Rural Districts" was discussed by Mrs. Lau- donia Williams, principal of public schools in Indianapolis, She named among the wants instruction, discipline and training, such as shall secure the harmonious development of all the faculties, the perfecting of all the capacities, and the development of the mind toward truth. * * * If the child's senses are to be cultivated, it must be done methodically. * * * AH forms of systematic knowledge have elements reaching down and back to the very beginning of the child's conscious existence, and they will distribute themselves through every period of his life. * * * Mental and manual training should go hand in hand; it is just as desirable that youths be taught "to do" as to "think," and this must be done if the aim be the development of power to discharge the duty to family, church and state. Heroes Be "The Heroes before the War" was the topic of Bishop H. M. Turner's paper. He said: 'T would like to review the work of Bishops Quinn and Watters, and also the career of Bishop D. A. Payne, sitting on the platform, the oldest Methodist bishop on the globe, and I would not be surprised if he is the oldest bishop on the globe anyway; the pioneer of an educated ministry, who has done more for the edu- Rev, S. T. Mitchell, Wilberforce, Ohio, Pres. Wilberforce University. an f//£ Wd&Lb'S tdkcMss 6P MLldlONS. Pioaeer Builders. The Races. cation of his race than any man today who treads this earth; whose name will blaze upon the pages of history forever, and as long as merit shall be valued and labor and sacrifice and words full of gems of thought stir and actuate, shall be honored and revered by n.'en." "The Pioneer Builders" was the theme of Bishop Abram Grant, D. D. He said he would "point you a black soldier, a statesman, side by side with George Washington, Toussaint L'Ouverture, the states- man, soldier, martyr and the father of Haytian independence. If you were to ask me for the pioneer builders I would refer you to the man who saw the age in which we live, over thirty years ago; who said that we must build lighthouses all along the shore — intellectual lighthouses, institutions of learning in every state must be built, then would I point to you our senior bishop, Daniel A. Payne, who stood alone. For years, very few of his church, very few of his own race would come with him; but with faith in God, he founded Wilberforce, and clung to it, and today as a result of his fidelity, we have forty institutions of learning dotting our land. As he looks over the fields of the past he can truthfully say, 'I came, I saw, I conquered.' " " The Mission of the African Methodism to the Darker Races " Darker was a paper by Rev. W. B. Derrick, D. D., secretary of missions of the African Methodist Episcopal church. " The African Methodist Epis- copal church is the most powerful as well as the most effective relig- ious organization for the moral, mental and spiritual development that is to be found on the face of the globe among the darker races; looked to as she is as the great spiritual source from which the sons and daughters who are classified among the African and East Indian are to receive light. . Her leading object is the general interest of the dark man. Reasonings and opinions of different shades and bearings have indeed been expressed as the result of experience and continuous observation, expressing an earnest desire for the welfare of the human race, and especially of those who bear the impress of Africa. "The course of events with regard to Africa has brought, by ex- traordinary means and circumstances, the clearest and strongest proof of a divine rule in human affairs that was ever made visible to mor- tals. The removing of the gross darkness which covers that land of precious memories; the driving away the clouds, which seem to hang as a dark curtain; the restoration of its past grandeur; that land where Abraham sojourned, where Jacob lived and died, where Joseph was exalted, Moses born; that land which furnished an asylum to Mary and Joseph, in which the infant Jesus was sheltered from the avenger's hand; that land, the home of Pharaoh, the land of Nimrod; that land in which Egypt is found, the great source from which sprang ancient arts and sciences; that land of the pyramids, where the palms, the pome- granates, the myrtle, where frankincense and myrrh and all that is precious of earth's products are to be found; that country of which prophets wrote, saying aloud: 'Out of Egypt have I called my son,' Her four hundred millions, black in complexion, shut out from the li^ht of Gospel truth, must and shall hear the Gospel story; there A£' HoQ. Frederick Douglas, Washington, D. C« 1114 TME WORLD'S C0J^GkE33 OE RELIGIONS. rican Methodism has a mission, and that mission is to that people who are today bowing to gods of wood and stone. It will be clearly seen that this church organization must remain as an independent body, which will enable it to better develop those true principles which can alone secure the complete remodeling, and a permanently established relig- ious property in dark and benighted Africa." "The Possible and Probable Relation of the American Negro to the African Continent P'rom a Christian Standpoint" was next read by Rev. T. W. Henderson, D. D., who, in speaking of the future of Africa, said: "With the future of Africa the American negro is destined to have much to do. In the past his share has been small, but in the future it is to be great. May it not be that the Great Creator means that the very cruelty here permitted shall eventuate in so turning the mind of the American negro toward his fatherland as to eventuate in his playing a great part in the civilization of that wonderful land?" " For two centuries and a half we have had some opportunity of participating in the civilization of this land, and it is but reasonable to conclude that the great body of the race who have not enjoyed equal opportunities with us should nevertheless share in the benefits to be derived from the knowledge we have gained by being here. In some way or other, our Maker is to bring good out of the evil that has been our lot in this land of cruel bondage." The Ideal in "The Ideal in Education" was presented by B. VV. Arnett, Jr., A. Vli-ir»o rirf^T* ^„^ •♦• alii r» ii •■♦ ^ ' r* • '•/' B. "It is impossible by graftmg or blendmg or modification to pro- duce an ideal system of education which is not clearly an assimilation and utilization of the principles of the leading states of antiquity, the schools and universities of the Middle Ages and of the renaissance. * * * The prime aim of the ideal of our modernized educational life is ethical, the development of character; and its system is the spirit which gives equally to the child of the humblest and veriest peasant and of the multi-millionaire, by co-ordination, the content of a complete education." "The Finances of Our Church," by Dr. J. H. Armstrong: "The first eight years of our present system ^195,971.88 were collected for general purposes, and ^58,791.56 were paid to support superannuated preachers, widows and orphans of itinerant ministers." He further stated "that from 1880 to 1887 the second eight years, ^404,267.40 were collected, showing that in the first year the average per year was ;^24,496.48, while for the second eight years it was $50,523.42. During the last eight years the widows and orphans received $161,706.96, or $20,213.37 per year. , The income from 1888 to 1892 was $391,622.36. While these figures look large, yet it is less than 16 cents per year for each member of the A. M. E. church." The Rev. C. T. Shaffen, M. D., D. D., secretary of church exten- sion, declared that "the Christian church, which is the public confession of our faith in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, is a standing, silent, but awful protest against vice of all kinds, against the profanation of the holy Sabbath, against drunkenness, skepticism, infidelity and Education. r '^1 E3HM^f^K^lH|HH^^^H|||^' iH ^ Mrs. S. J. Early, Nashville, Tenn. 1116 THE WORLD'S C0NCR2SS OE RELIGIONS, agnosticism. It is a perpetual memorial of Jesus Christ and the redemption of a fallen world, through his atoning blood, shed upon Calvary; and as steward to whom God has intrusted His gold and silver we ought to see that every town, village, hamlet and set- tlement is blessed with a Christian church, where the pure Word of God shall be preached, and the Holy Sacrament be administered." "An Intelligent Ministry, a Benevolent Pew, the Generating The Ministry Powcr of Reform," by J. P. Shorter, A. M., LL. D., Wilberforce and the Pew. University. "Yes, the leading thought of the world is to under- stand better — more intelligence. What mean all these congresses, these parliaments? There could have been a Columbian Exposition all of sight, but not in this our day. When men see they want to hear, and when they hear they want to understand — intelligere!' "The Negro Prisoners in the South" was discussed by Rev. W. H. Mixon, of Alabama. He said: "In 1890 there were 97,175 prisoners of all ages and grades in the United States; that 24,277 were colored." He also stated that a large percentage of convictions in the South were on account of color more than on account of crime. "It is my opinion that we, as ministers, have not done our full duty to the pris- oners in the South. We have not visited them as it is our duty to do. We should mold public sentiment in favor of establishing reformatory institutions for lighter crimes, and for younger criminals, and as min- isters of the Lord Jesus Christ it is our duty to visit the prisoner in his cell and to see that he has been brought to a knowledge of the Gospel. The A. M. E. church must wake up to this as she has to all reforms which have for their object the bettering of the condition o^ the negro." " The Music of Our Fathers" was by Rev. Evans Tyree. Old Church "The Old Church and The New," by Rev. D. A. Graham, pastoi and New. ^f Bethel A. M. E. church, Chicago. The speaker compared the old buildings with the new, the old services with the new services, the old music with the new music. " The old time music touched the soul, the new pleases the ear; the old church was built of solid timber; con- victions were deep; conversions were clear and the lines of demarka- tion between Christian and sinner were plainly drawn. Old tim.e Christians worshiped God in spirit and in truth; the new worship Him according to fashion. The old time people sang for themselves and worshiped God; now they pay a choir to sing music that nobody knows and that nobody can sing. The new church has advanced into the non essentials of the worship of God, but not into the essentials. The sermons have more science, but less Christ." Extract from Dr. J. T. Jennifer's speech: "Africa needs this vin- dication; that continent has its part in God's economy, and its people are His children. We hope your united wisdom and work may help to blaze the way through the wilderness of conjecture, query and con- troversy, regarding the negro's future destiny, and that your delibera- tions may result in indicating his contribution to the development and progress of mankind. The reliable data of facts in relation to Africa H. T. Johnson^ Editor Christian Recprder^ Philadelphia^ Pi^, 1118 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Temperance. AddreBB of Frederick Douglass. and her people, which you have brought with you to place before the bar of public opinion, will do much for Africa and her people." "The Church and Temperance Reform and Especially Scientific Temperance Instruction in Schools and Colleges" was the subject of a paper by Jno. R. Scott, B. D., President of Edward Watters College, Jacksonville, Fla., who said, among other things: "It might seem strange to the unbeliever, that Christianity has done little to sup- press intemperance, and that even in this city there is one saloon for every one hundred and sixty inhabitants; but, as we look over the history of the -world, we find that Christianity has been working and building up an influence against intemperance. Not more than a gen- eration ago it was considered no disgrace to patronize a saloon. Through the first half of the present century no work was attempted, no labor done without the 'jug of whisky.' Christianity and Chris- tian teaching has changed all this. The man who now becomes in- toxicated loses the respect of his fellowman, and the man who sells intoxicating drinks is not only banished from society, but carries with him his wife, no matter how good she may be, his children and his household." "The Theological Seminary; its Place in the Education of the Negro," was by Dr. John G. Mitchell, Dean of Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio. Dr. Mitchell said: "The Theological Seminary is God's training school, in which those whom he has called to preach the Gospel are qualified for their high vocation. "Christ, through the Holy Spirit is the great teacher in the Theo- logical Seminary. He fills every chair. If there is a seminary on the globe labeled Theological without, in which Christ does not teach, it is labeled within, Anti-Christ. The great function of the Theological Seminary is to flood the world with celestial light, to lift man into a purer, nobler and higher life, is to lift him from earth to heaven." " The Relation of the Pulpit to the Pew" was a paper read by Rev. John M. Henderson, Detroit, Mich. He said, among other things: " The ministry as an institute of the church holds a sacred and divinely appointed relationship. The Scriptures appoint four sacred institutes. Sabbath as a sacred day, the sanctuary as a sacred place, the ordained means of grace as a sacred worship, and the ministry as a sacred class or order in and through whose spiritual service the Sab- bath, the sanctuary, and the means of grace are made available and useful to Christians." "The function of ministry is twofold: on the one hand it is to in- struct the church in the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel, and to give her the blessings of sound, firm and beneficial government, and to aid and guide in the administration both of charity and fellowship; on the other hand, to proclaim to the world the faith of the church, to diffuse the Gospel and to extend its sway." "The Place of Richard Allen in History," by Hon. Frederick Douglas. "Among the remarkable men of African descent, who lived in the earlier years of this republic, whose names have fpund deserved THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1119 recognition in American annals, there is not one who is likely to be remembered longer, or whose memory will be more sacredly cherished by coming generations of colored Americans, than Richard Allen, a citizen of Philadelphia, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal church of America. Already this man has become an ideal character, and his name has been invested with a sanctity which has seldom been accorded to that of any man this side of the apostolic age. At the simple mention of the name of Richard Allen, the heart of a great religious organization is stirred with the highest and holiest sentiments. Of him it may be truly said that, 'though being dead, he yet speak- . eth.' His audience are the reverent souls of millions of his race, and his influence on the destiny of his people will continue as long as the great church he founded shall endure. "To measure men and deeds correctly, we must measure them not by our times, but by the times in which they had their being. The Atlantic is as broad and stormy today as when Columbus crossed it. The distance between New York and San Francisco is the same as forty years ago. But both the sea and the continent are more easily crossed today than when Columbus crossed the one and Fremont crossed the other. "The black man's horizon was without a star. He stood without the pale alike of church and state. He was a child without a father, a man without a country, a denizen without citizenship, and without popular sympathy; a common prey to insult and outrage from all white men mean enough to take advantage of his weakness and destitution, to abuse and insult him. The black man who could stand up for his rights in the face of such odds had the courage of a hero and the con- stancy of a martyr. And such a man was Richard Allen." "The Race Problem; What it is; Its Solution," by Prof. W. H. pTheRac* Council, president Normal school, Normal, Ala.: " If our thoughts '" ""^ be the thoughts of men, then we are men. If our speech be the speech of men then we are men. If our deeds be the deeds of men, then we are men regardless of classifications born of prejudice. The negro has complied with every condition of civilization His strong, black arms have hewn down the forests of the South, laid off her broad fields, founded her magnificent cities, opened up her mighty rivers, filled their banks with industries which join in unison to their music as they flow on to the great ocean, He is not wanting in patriotism, for he has beaten back the enemies of his country more than once. His ability is acknowledged in all avenues of art, science, literature, industry, and billions of wealth for the South, and millions on millions in his own right, tell the story of his thrift and frugality. His hospitality has no limit. He gives the white man at all times and in all places the best. Call it hospitality or call it what you please, still it is to his credit. His fidelity is the foundation of the broadest virtue of the South. He defended and held as sacred as the Word of God itself the honor of innocent and help- less white women and children committed to his charge, while his master was away trying to rivet the chains tighter upon him." Problem. 1120 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, perance. *' Christian Cooperation Essential to Race Education," was a paper by Prof. H. T. Keeling, A. M., president Paul Quinn College, Waco, Texas. " The Genesis of the Work of Christian Education," was a paper by Rev. W. D. Johnson, D. D., secretary of education. "What Can the Church -do to Provide Land for the Landless and Homes for the Homeless?" by Hon. L T. Montgomery, president of J. P. Campbell College, Vicksburg, Miss., was an interesting document. Home and "The Relation of the Home and Christian Temperance," by Mrs. n«ran?«.''^^°'' Sarah Jane Woodson Early, A. M. "A wise and beneficent God has instituted the family relation for the happiness and propagation of the race, and has taught man to construct a home where he may nourish and educate his offspring and make it the center of his care and hap- piness, and thus become of all places the most sacred and cherished in his heart of hearts. These are the reasons why the home needs espe- cial protection from the influences which would destroy its happiness or counteract its teachings. We have inherited from our fathers v/hat is denominated a government of the people, with its chief corner- stone a trinity of blessings, the home, the school and the church. Under this government has grown up the greatest republic the world has ever known, in which probably more than in any other land under the sun every individual comes nearest having a fair chance in the race of life. The perpetuity of this government with all its grand in- stitutions depends upon the capacity of its citizens for self-govern- ment. But much depends on the early training of the people, and as the home is prior to the school or the church, in it is laid the founda- tion for the building up of all those great and noble principles which constitute a free and happy people. The home is the safeguard of the nation. It is the nursery in which only can be grown manly men and noble women. In the home are planted and fostered the most fruitful germs of all future interests. The teachings and practices of home life are mere durable than all others, and will be remembered when all others are forgotten." "Our Country's Defenders in Camp, at Sea, in School and in Prison; What Can We do for Them?" by Rev. W. H. Yeocum_, D. D, The total number of colored soldiers was 173,079, of whom 68,871 were killed in battle, besides those who died in hospitals. And those loyal, brave and patriotic black defenders of our country, without citizenship and without a flag, upon two hundred and forty- nine battlefields pur- chased for themselves their freedom, their manhood and citizenship, although a part of them were offered only $'/ per month, which they manfully refused to accept, while their white comrades were receiving ^13 per month, and their clothing. " Many colored soldiers distinguished themselves on the field of battle as the bravest of the brave. In every camp, on every forced- march, on the drill-ground, in the manual of arms, on dress-parade, and on every battlefield the negro always proved himself ? man, to the wonder and surprise of their whit? officers. Colored De- fenders of the Country. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1121 '* Secretary Stanton was in a state of ecstasy over the behavior of the colored troops at Petersburg, an unusual thing for him. In his dispatch on this battle, he said: 'The hardest of fighting was done stantoncnthe by the black troops; the forts they stormed were the worst of all.' Colored Troops After the affair was over, General Smith went to thank, and tell them he was proud of their courage and dash. He says: ' They cannot be excelled as soldiers, and hereafter he would send tliem in a difficult place as readily as the best white soldiers.' Another officer who was with them on the field, says: *The problem is solved; the negro is a man, a soldier, a hero.' General Blunt speaks of the colored troops at the battle of Honey Springs; he says: 'The negroes were too much for the enemy, and let me say here, that I never sav/ such fighting as was done by that negro regiment. They fought like veterans, with a coolness and valor that is unsurpassed. They preserved their line per feet throughout the whole engagement, and although in the hottest of the fight, they never once faltered. Too much praise cannot be awarded them for their gallantry.' " CONGRESS OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (HICKSITE). The branch of ** Friends," known by or recognizing the title at the head of this article, appeared in the Parliament of Religions in one ses- sion in the Hall of Washington, September 19th, by an address before the General Parliament, in the Hall of Columbus, September 23d, by Aaron M. Powell, and by a denominational congress of three sessions, the morning of the 19th, in the new Church Temple; the 20th, in Hall VH. of the Art Palace, and the 21st, in Hall HI. Careful prepara- tion had been made for the Congress during the year prior to the time of assembling by a committee consisting of a central organization of Friends in Chicago, and an advisory council of members of the society in the seven yearly meetings embracing the membership of this organi- zation. The important session of the afternoon of the 19th in the parlia- ment was devoted to the purpose of a presentation of the faith of the society through a paper prepared by Howard M. Jenkins, of Philadel- phia, wherein it was shown that the distinctive and all-important tenet of the body is the doctrine of "The Inner Light;" "The Divine Im- manence;" "The Light Within." This principle of faith means noth- ing more nor less than the belief in the ever-continuing operation of the divine illumination upon the soul of each of God's children, de- pending in its influence upon the willingness to receive the light of truth revealed. It means more than a passive receptiveness. The faithful Friend may not only hear the voice of God in his soul, but he must obey if he is a consistent follower of his profession. It is thus the Friend has become known for integrity and strictness of bearing iind a pioneer in the reforms inaugurated since the birth of the society, Faith of tbe Society of Frieudi*. 1122 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. two and a half centuries ago. Its chief principle is the Christ Rule in Daily Life. Desiring the guidance of the Divine Spirit which was in The Christ Jesus, and embracing, from the force of His example and through Rule. inward convincement, the infinite truth He illustrated and taught, Friends see in it the ideal of a religious life, and have striven to make real His teachings, the Spirit, not the letter; reality, not form; love, not hatred; brotherly kmdness, not oppression; moderation, not excess; simplicity, not ostentation; sincerity, not pretense; truth, not deceit; economy, not waste; and out of their sincere, if unperfected, endeavor to guide their daily acts by these Christian rules, have logi- cally and directly come their " testimonies," and most, if not all, of their " peculiarities." "The faithful listener to the inspeaking word of God must be fore- most in every good and righteous cause. George Fox, the founder of the society, very early recognized the equality of woman, and was instrumental in giving her a place in every concern and interest that the world has only partially come to know and respond to at the close of the Nineteenth Century. Elizabeth Powell Bond, of Swarthmore College, ably showed this prompt recognition in a paper on " The Position of Woman in the Society." "The Mission Work of the Society" was presented by Joseph J. Janney, of Baltimore. " The influence in this embraces many of the , most important fields in philanthropic labors. Friends had scarcely organized ere they established among themselves as the right rule of action the principle of the peaceable settlement of all difficulties by arbitration — a principle that has grown in importance until it has be- come a recognized power in the settlement of international difficulties. The Society of Friends was not united by any general organization before 1675, and yet the principle appeared in a testimony of the founder in 1679, and was incorporated in the first book of discipline published in 1692. In his work of self-examination the Friend was quick to recognize the principle of oppression and moral depravity, and hence his early stand against the wrongs inflicted upon the Indian and negro. In the history of the former in this country the stand of Friends has been uniform in meting out equal and exact justice. As early as 1688 their testimony against the condition of negro slavery began to be proclaimed, and, though a hundred years elapsed before the weight of the society began to be generally declared in behalf of the slave, there was no halting until the position taken became the rule of practice. Members could not remain in good standing and hold slaves. Intemperance, the vice and inhumanity of our prisons, claimed their early interest and care." "Education" was treated by Dr. Edward H. Magill, ex-president of Swarthmore College. Having presented an exhaustive history of this work among Friends, evincing an interest in the subject coincident with their rise, he showed in conclusion the marked peculiarities in their system: " First. With the Friend education was a training of the soul in religious knowledge, as well as culture of the mind. Second, This Jonathan W, Plummet, Chicago. 1124 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, EJacation. ^ training was for all classes, rich and poor; and their care made all pro- visions that the latter class might freely enjoy the advantage of an ed- ucation. Third. Education with the Friend made no distinction of sex. Schools were provided for all, though the principle of mixed classes was a process of evolution. Fourth. In their recognition of the importance of the training they were in advance of the communi- ties in moving to prepare those who should assume the duty of teach- ing. And, fifth, their aim has ever been to make the training practical and useful rather than ornamental." ''Robert S. Haviland, of Chappaqua, N. Y., in a paper on " Coop- erative Labor," and Aaron M. Powell, in an address on the 23d, on "The Grounds of Sympathy Among Religions," expressed the readi- ness of Friends to join in this age of advanced thought and higher conception of common brotherhood in the work of combating that which is commonly recognized as evil. During the session of the 20th, the needs and relations of the younger members were earnestly considered, the topic being intro- duced by papers presented by Isaac Roberts, of Pennsylvania, and Edgar M. Zavitz, of Ontario. The one all-absorbing thought in the mind of the Friend marked this day's proceedings — the need of indi- vidual faithfulness to the light within. While organizations and out- ward influences may act as helps, we must direct the young to this one, all-important principle of obedience. At the closing session on the 21st, the subject of The Relation of Spiritual Devotion to Moral Progress was presented by papers from Anna M. Starr, of Richmond, Ind., and William M. Jackson, of New York city. The leading thought of the papers was that the cultiva- Devotionand ^^^^ ^^ moral and spiritual natures must go hand in hand. The love Moral Progress of humanity comes first in order, and being absent, there can be no love of God. *' He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen." This must not imply an indifference to worship. The very foundation of the Quaker faith demands a constant, consistent and reverential walk with God; but this close relationship enforces the need of conscientious, loving devo- tion to the moral welfare of all mankind. " The congress closed with a period of devotional exercises after the usual manner of Friends, reverential silence, supplication and brief appeals from prominent members, that we might go to our homes taking the lessons of this wonderful parliament, and especially the growing thought of the conimon brotherhood of man." Anna M. Starr, Richmond, Ind. 1126 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS, Friends' sion. Founded o n teauhingsof Christ. FRIENDS' CHURCH CONGRESS (ORTHODOX). This Congress was held in the afternoon of September 22d (sixth day, ninth month), in the Hall of Washington. It was presided over by W. B. Wickenham, of Chicago. " Our Church and Its Mission," by James Wood, of Mt. Kisco, N. Y., showed that the key of the position of the Religious Society of Friends as a separate branch of the church is the great truth taught Mis- by our Saviour when He said: "If a man love Me he will keep My words; and My Father will love him and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him." " I will pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you." "This," the speaker said, "is the most exalting truth ever announced to man as pertaining to his existence in this life. He who fails to know and realize it, comes infinitely short of the glory God offers to him here. "The founders of the Religious Society of Friends, in laying this corner-stone of a separate branch of the church, fully accepted the foundation truths of Christianity. These were assumed as the common heritage of Christian believers and fully recognized as the basis of all organized Christian bodies. They assume as matters not to be ques- tioned all the teachings of Christ, all that belonged to the cross and the tomb of Calvary and the triumphs of the resurrection; all that be- longed to the glories of the Ascension day and all that belongs to the presence of Christ at the right hand of God — His mediation and in- tercession. Faith in the crucified Saviour must precede faith in the ascended, living Saviour. All this was assured and they went to the church and to the world with the message that the historic part of Christianity only produced its fruitage when the kingdom of Christ was established in the soul, with the living King Himself, abiding and reigning there. This message was gladly received by multitudes and its truth, so long lost sight of, became a mighty power. "The high-priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the priesthood of all believers, who offer spiritual sacrifices and have free access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ without the intervention of any human instrumentality whatsoever, lies next to the corner-stone of distinctive Quakerism. As there is nowhere in the New Testament any recognition of classes or orders in the church, no division of be- lievers into clergy and laity, no mention of any profession having any peculiar privileges or special authority, so Friends have never recog- nized any such." On the subject of philanthropic work done by the Quakers, he said: " The earliest formal protest against the system of slavery in modern times was made by Friends near Philadelphia in 1688. The uoted Pastorius was among the number. That movement was fol- lowed by official action in the various Yearly Meetings on this conti' THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1127 ncnt, until finally Friends were the first body of Christians in the land not one of whose members owned a slave. From Pastorius to Whit- tier the protest against slavery never ceased." After setting forth the special mission of the Society, in which it was shown that it tended rather to spiritual matters than the world, the paper concludes: •' Apart from her doctrines, her history and her situation pecu- liarly fit her for the position referred to. She has wronged no one. She has never attacked any denomination. As a little Switzerland, insignificant and harmless, peacefully abides among her towering mountains and commands the respect and kind consideration of the mighty nations of Europe, armed for each other's destruction, so it may be that the Society of Friends, one of the best of all the tribes, because of her harmlessness and the impregnability of her position in divine truth, may become, in God's providence, the gathering place of the mighty hosts who profess the name of Christ." "Our Origin and History," by Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, of Lon- don, England, was the next paper. It was read by Timothy Nicholson, of Richmond, Ind. It stated, in part: "The Society of Friends, as is well known, arose in England origin of the about the middle of the seventeenth century. Many severe laws, Society, originally enacted tor the suppression of popery, remained upon the English statute book, which even during the commonwealth, and much more after the restoration of Charles II. were relentlessly directed against those, who, like the early Friends, whilst opposed to popery, were conscientiously restrained from public profession of religion in accordance with the ritual and ceremonial generally recognized. Thus the history of the Society of Friends, during the first forty years of its existence, is a record of cruel persecution, and of patient suffering. Several of its principal leaders died in loathsome dungeons, whilst many others not only suffered grievous imprisonment, but took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance. In the year 1662 there were at one time more than four thousand two hundred Friends in prison in England alone." (Sewell's History, vol. 2, p. i.) "Church Organization," by Calvin W. Pritchard, of Kokomo, Ind. After reciting that the organization of the Friends was not the result of a previously matured system, but was a development as needs ap- peared, showed that the system of meetings for church discipline, es- tablished in England before the close of the seventeenth century, has since been followed by Friends in all countries. "The Yearly Meeting," it says, "is a legislative body; it makes laws for the regulation of churches and members, has a general over- sight of all the great activities of the church, is the court of highest appeal, and has jurisdiction over all the Quarterly Meetings and the churches that compose them. The Quarterly Meeting is composed of several Monthly Meetings, for conference between churches, and is a convenient channel of communication between the Yearly Meeting 112S TM£: WORLD' ^ CONGRESS OP RElIClONS. and its subordinate branches. The Monthly Meeting is the executive body of the church'. Through it members are received and dismissed, ministers are recorded, all the important officers of the church are appointed, and the instructions of the Yearly and Quarterly Meetings, and all the important activities of the church are carried out. When a Monthly Meeting is composed of two or more churches, each separate congregation is organized into a Preparative Meeting, which has charge of its own local affairs, and gives preparatory attention to such subjects as should go to the Monthly Meeting." There are now 135 Quarterly and 477 Monthly Meetings with 1,174 churches in Great Britain and America. " The church government is thoroughly democratic. Every mem- ber, male and- female, old and young, has a seat in all the meetings and a voice in all the deliberations, and men and women alike are eligible to all the offices, including the Gospel ministry. From nearly the close of the seventeenth century until recent years men and women Chirch Gov- sat in separate sessions for transacting business. Each sex had lines ocrSfc!^ ^^^' peculiarly its own, but all matters relating to membership, or concern- ing the general interests of the church, required the concurrent action of both bodies. The experience our sisters have gained in these meetings has done much to fit them for the places of service they now occupy with ability and true womanly grace in the Gospel ministry and the work of Christian benevolence and reform. In some of the Yearly Meetings, and many subordinate meetings, men and women now do business in joint session. Divine service precedes all business meet- ings, the congregations being often large and the ministry very searching. "Friends believe that the call and qualification for tie ministry are from the Lord. Young men and wom^en, who apprehend they aie called to preach, are expected to exercise their gifts in public speak- ing at meetings for divine worship, many services affording them good opportunity to do so. Godliness of life and the impress of divine power giv^e one a place in preaching the word independent of literary acquirements. Many ministers who have wielded great influence and brought many souls to Christ have been unlearned men. And yet Friends are mindful that the highest culture consecrated to God greatly increases the power and efficiency of the messenger of the Cross." The paper concluded with statistics of membership and evangel- ization. The other papers of the congress were as follows: ** The Position of Woman Among Friends," Anna B. Thomas, Balti- more, Md. Paper read by Charlotte Vickers, Chicago, 111. "Missions, Home and Foreign," Josephine M. Parker, Carthage, Ind. Paper read by Gertrude Hill, Chicago, 111. "The Philosophy of Quakerism," Thomas Newlin, Newberg, Ore. Paper read by Dr. Sylvester Newlin, Indianapolis, Ind. Calvin W. Pritchard, Kokomo, Ind. 1130 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Cumberland Presbyterian- ism. Origin and Progress of the Denomination. THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH CONGRESS. The assembling of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church Con- gress, in connection with the great Parliament of Religions, was an event of great denominational interest and importance. It brought the church, as a distinctive branch of the great Presbyterian house- hold, before the world in a more pronounced manner than any other kindred event in its history, and afforded better opportunity for com- paring and contrasting its history, doctrines and genius with those of other religious bodies than could have been accomplished by any other means. This congress was among the best attended, and most interesting in its proceedings, of the many congresses held on this memorable occasion in the city of Chicago. The president. Rev. Hugh Spencer Williams, pastor of the First Cumberland Presbyterian church of Chicago, called the Congress to order on Wednesday morning, September 27th, and requested the Rev. L. D. Hendricks to conduct the devotional services. The president, in his opening address, discoursed on the Parliament of Religions audits accompanying congresses as the miracle of modern times, saying : " This gathering of the representatives of the great religious systems of the world in one place, for the purpose of holding a peaceful parliament to compare and contrast these great systems of religions, is a thing unheard of in the history of the world; a thing never dreamed of; a conception impossible under any conditions other than those created by the triumphal reign of the all-conquering Christ, 'The Prince of Peace.'" This great Parliament and its con- stellation of congresses may well be termed "The miracle of modern times," the crowning glory of the nineteenth century, and the inspir- ing prophecy of what the future is going to be. We rejoice as Cum- berland Presbyterians that we are here convened, and contribute our mite toward making this august event in the history of religious prog- ress the immortal monument that it is, of what God hath wrought in developing the minds and broadening the sympathies of His people through His spirit, so as to make such a gathering possible as has brought the representatives of the religions of the world here at this." Then followed a paper on '*The Origin and Progress of the Cumber- land Presbyterian Church, by Rev. J. G. White, D. D., of Stanford, III." The name is the result of dividing one of the large presbyteries in the bounds of the old synod of Kentucky into two, assigning one to the terri- tory called the Cumberland country, and giving the name to the presby- tery occupying this section. In the year 1800 a great revival of religion prevailed with great power through that country. This revival found both warm supporters and bitter opposers among the ministers of the Kentucky synod. The revival party, as it was called by the anti- revival party, were for the most part members of the Cumberland Presbytery, and were soon called by the people Cumberland Presby- terians, The controversy between these two factions in the synod soon became bitter, and the revival party was accused of preaching docrines contrary to the Confession of Faith, especially God's decrees, Rtv. ... ■^. v.- ::.s, Ciucago. im The WoktD's congress of kEL/cioM^, Extent of the Denomination. Doctrines and Genius of the Denomination. election and foreordination, asserting that these brethren were preach- ing that God loved all men, and that Christ died, not for the elect only, but for all the world. This was the entering wedge of division, and the ultimate cause of separation. This Cumberland Presbytery was dissolved by the synod, and on the 4th of February, 18 10, was reorganized at the house of the Rev. Samuel McAdow, in Dixon County, Tennessee, and consisted of three ordained ministers, and the original name still adhered to them. This, in brief, is the history of the origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Its progress has been remarkable. It has grown in eighty-three years from this small beginning of three ministers into a denomination of three thousand ministers, and about the same number of congregations, with nearly two hundred thousand members in full communion. It covers a large belt of territory, reaching from Princeton, N. J., to Puget Sound, owns and operates a large and prosperous publishing house in Nashville, Tenn., and is remarkably well equipped for so young a denomination with colleges and universities. It lias also been busy and prosperous in missionary enterprises, both in our own country and in foreign lands." Then followed: "The Doctrines and Genius of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church," by D. M. Harris, D. D., of St. Louis, Mo., editor of the St. Louis Observer: The distinctive doctrines which separate and distinguish us from the mother church, and other branches of the Presbyterian family, were clearly set forth, as the following extracts from this able paper will show: "All Cumberland Presbyterians hold that the provisions of salva- tion are co-extensive with the ruin of the fall; herein we differ from other Presbyterian churches, or, rather, from their standards;" Again, as to the decrees of God, he said: "Therefore, Cumberland Presby- terians reject the doctrine that God has decreed that some men and angels are predestinated unto eternal life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. We cut loose from all those doctrines of fatality so dishonoring to God, and so benumbing and paralyzing to man. Our philosophy, as well as our theology, compels us to the conclusion that man is a free moral agent, moral because free. These doctrines were the real cause of the separation between the mother church and her young daughter, the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and are today the only real distinction between them. " The genius or characteristics of the church were shown to be Presbyterian of the purest and simplest type." We hold that Presbyterianism is not Calvinism, or any other doctrinalism, but distinguishes one form of government from another, from sacerdotalism or priestcraft on the one hand, and from individualism on the other, so we, though differing in doctrine from other Presbyterian churches, are nevertheless Presbyterians, that is the form of government under which we live and work as a com- munity of believers in Christ. But the Cumberland Presbyterian church has certain peculiarities, or characteristics, which seem to make it more of an American institution than her sister branches of the Presbyterian family. First, like th^ country in which it was born, THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1133 it is especially tolerant. While holding firmly to the essentials of Christian doctrine, it grants large liberties to its ministers and teachers of theology in the fields of research; it is a noted fact that there never has been a minister tried for heresy in the history of the denomina- tion. Second, its cohesiveness is a characteristic worthy of note, which is shown by the fact that, although the late war swept that part of the country where our church was strongest, and thus unavoidably placed members in battle against each other on many a battlefield, and although the war leveled our churches, colleges and institutions to the ground, yet it left our beloved church intact. No sooner was the war over than the Cumberland Presbyterians from both sides of Mason and Dixon's line were again meeting in fraternal intercourse in the church courts. The war divided tamilies and other churches, but failed to sever the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Third, it is peculiarly evangelistic and missionary in its spirit." The next address was "The Institutions of Learning of the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church," by the Rev. E. D. Pearson, D. D., of Louisiana, Mo. This paper revealed the previous fact that "while the church was yet young and had been to a great extent an evangelistic and missionary church, she had not neglected her duty of plant- ing and fostering her educational institutions. To the contrary, she set about building schools and colleges as early as the first decade of her history, and has kept pace with her growth in providing means for the proper education of the youth, and it is safe to say that the progress made during the last twenty years in this direction compares favorably with that of any other denomination in the land. Cumberland University, located at Lebanon, Tenn., has given more promment bar- risters, eminent jurists, statesmen and pulpit orators to the middle southern states than any other institution of its kind in that region, and ranks with the leading universities of the land. Waynesburg Col- lege, Lincoln University, Missouri Valley College and Trinity Univer- sity are all prominent among the institutions of learning throughout the country. Our theological seminary, as a department of the Cum- berland University, is rendering a noble service to the church. "The cheering words of Doctor Pearson rejoiced the hearts of all present and inspired us with holy pride, while standing among the leading denominational congresses and the representativesof the vast religious systems of the world that we belonged to, a division of the Lord's hosts, worthy of a place among the princes of His people. It is truly marvelous, the work the church has accomplished along the educa- tional lines, besides rebuilding nearly all her churches, which were demolished during the war, and establishing our cause in so many new states and territories. "The Lord hath done great things for us, and it is marvelous in our eyes." "The Mission of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church." The Rev. C. H. Bell, D. t)., of St. Louis, Mo., President of the Board of Missions of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, said: "The first mission of the Cumberland Presbyterian church had b^en, from the beginning, to Inetitntions of the Denomina- tioD The Mission of fhe Denom- ination. 1134 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. promote revivals of genuine religion. The church was born in a great revival, and she seems to have retained the spirit ever since, and has continued to be to an eminent degree an evangelistic church. The seasons for large ingatherings seem to be looked for by the pastors and official boards of the church throughout the denomination every year. Second. It seemed to be a special mission of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to modify the theology taught in the Presbyterian standards. This she certainly has done to a remarkable degree. She has evolved a system of theology that is neither hyper Calvinism, nor Arminianism. The scriptural middle ground between the two has been possessed. The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man have found a large place in her revised creed. • And through her own system of theology, her evangelical and spiritual preaching, she has brought such pressure on the austere doctrines of Calvinism, that while regaining the standards of the Presbyterian church, they are almost never prea.ched from her pulpits. And it is safe to predict that not another decade shall have passed before the mother church will have revised her symbols, and mother and daughter brought to see eye to eye. Third. It is a part of her special mission to break down sectarian walls of prejudice, and bigotry, and bring together the Prot- estant forces into practical union and fellowship. Her influence and UniontheOb- example among the missions of Japan, more than that of any other ject9f the De- denomination, helped to bring about the happy union of the Protest- ants m that country, and it looks as it in the providence of God, it might be the happy medium ground, upon which all branches of the Presbyterian church may meet and again unite their mighty forces, and thus hasten the coming of the universal kingdom of our Christ.'* At the close of the Congress, words of cheer were brought from Japan by our returned woman missionary, Mrs. Drennan and her native helper. Mrs. Drennan has spent ten years of her life in Japan, and has made a wonderful record as a worker in that interesting country. The Rev. Dr. Darby, of Evansville, Ind., and Rev. Dr. Russell, of Alabama, were also listened to with great interest by the Congress. nomination. THE ADVENTIST CHRISTIAN CHURCH CONGRESS. Origiii and History of Ad- ventism. of the local committee The sessions were held The Rev. D. R. Mansfield was chairman and the Rev. Mrs. E. S. Mansfield, secretary, in Hall VII. "The Origin and History" of this church is given by Mrs. E. S. Mansfield. "The Advent Christian Church takes its name from a belief in the second personal return of Christ to this world. The early Christian writers speak of it as an awaited event; but during the middle centu- ries but little prominence was given it. The Nineteenth Century wit- nessed a revival of this subject, when a wave of prophetic research swept over various parts of Europe, Asia and Am^ricci almost simul- Rev. D. R. Mansfield, Chicago. 1136 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. taneously. The proclamation, 'Behold, He cometh with clouds,' and that speedily, sounded fron:i thousands of pulpits all over the land. Dr. Joseph Wolf, a converted Jew, became convinced from careful prophetic study that Christ would soon come. He began to preach it in England in 1821, and from there he went to Asia and through the oriental countries, preaching to all classes for twelve years. A great interest was awakened in the east, and in 1826 fifty young men, clergy and lay, met in Albury, England, for the purpose of studying the prophetic Scriptures. Among them were William Cunninghame, Ed- ward Irving and John Cuming. These meetings continued five years and the results were published in three volumes, entitled 'Dialogues on Prophecy.' About the same time many in America became greatly absorbed in the study of prophecy. Among them, William Miller, a sturdy farmer, a Deist, became thoroughly converted to Christ, and being a profound student of profane history, he was immediately at- tracted to the study of prophecy as contained in the books of Daniel and John. Becoming convinced that the Gospel age would soon close, and burdened with the subject, he commenced to preach in 1833, and thousands flocked to hear him. Mr. Miller's connection was with the Baptist church- "With Mr. Miller's labors commenced the first general awakening of the churches in America on this subject. It is estimated that one tliousand ministers of churches were led to preach Christ's immediate coming, besides the many who came from farm, workshop, mill and merchandise, imbued with this judgment message; while those who engaged in it were mightily transformed, sanctified, and qualified for Christian work as never before. '*With a following estimated at two hundred thousand it is not strange that many of emotional and sensational minds should cause fanaticism or undue excitement to largely prevail, greatly to the injury of the cause they sought to maintain. " Regardless of press misrepresentation, and the trying ordeal and tests which followed, and the dropping off of high-tide adherents, a goodly number of trustworthy men and women remained steadfast and true to their convictions. From this beginning has developed what is known as the Advent Christian Church. With the blessing of God on their unceasing toil their numbers have greatly increased, and they have gradually learned the importance of organized and united effort. They have no formulated creed, but accept of certain leading truths which give them their identity, and upon which, by common consent, they all unite, leaving a wide margin for difference in opinion upon minor points. A minority favor a definite declaration of faith, but the majority adhere strictly to their accepted church, covenant, which enjoins 'Taking the Bible as the only rule of faith, and practice, and church discipline,' making Christian character the only test of fel- lowship." FiveDistinct "There are at least five distinct branches of Adventists, each with Branches. ^heir separate organizations and publishing interests. All^ however, Rev. A. H. Sibley, Haverhill, Mass. 72 1138 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. hold to the one doctrine which has made them a people^ and believe in the second personal coming of Christ as an event not far distant. Having stated this, we shall speak only of the leading branch which this Congress represents, known as the 'Advent Christian Association and General Conference of America.' "In this connection there are four publishing societies with houses located in Maine, Massachusetts, Illinois and California, besides several individual enterprises of greater or less importance. From these are issued three prominent weekly papers, several monthlies, books, pamphlets, tracts, magazines and Sunday-school supplies. It is said that more than fifty millions of publications bearing upon special subjects of faith have been sent out through the press. This people and their message to the world, now on a Scripture basis, are being pub^ lished worldwide; and there are doubtless as many of their faith con- nected with other denominations of both clergy and lay as are at present identified under the name Adventist. Associated with this people a class of ministers and laity, faithful, devoted and earnest, as are to be found elsewhere, are engaged in the work. " A belief in God as the creator of all things, faith in His Son Jesus Christ, as the only Saviour for all classes of men, repentance, birth of the spirit, reform, sanctification through the word of truth, holiness of heart, purity in life, are tenets taught and enforced as indispensable to Christian success here, and to a preparation for eternal life in the world to come. In addition to these sentiments, which are in common with other sects, are some important Bible doctrines which form the distinguishing features of the faith of this people. Women are recognized and admitted to all conferences as delegates and ministers, and receive license papers as such upon real merit. A number have been regularly ordained; this, however, is not universal, but optional with the local conferences that receive them into membership. They are strong and pronounced in favor of temperance, and would indorse some prohibitory act in favor of the extermination of the entire liquor traffic." Distinctive The distinctive doctrines of adventual faith are set forth in the Doctrines. form of cssays, read as their presentation papers in the World's Parlia- ment of Religions, under the following topics: 1. " Basis of Faith," Rev. W. J. Hobbs, Minneapolis, Minn. 2. "The Kingdom of God," Rev. J. W. Davis, Bridgeport, Conn. 3. " Conditional Immortality," Rev. Miles Grant, Boston, Mass. 4. "The Resurrection," Rev. A. W. Sibley, Mendota, 111. 5. "Extinction of Evil," Rev. William Sheldon, Brodhead, Wis. 6. " Restitution — Paradise," Rev. Mrs. E.S.Mansfield, Chicago, 111. 7. " Proximity," Rev. A. J. Wheeler, Concord, N. H. " Basis of Faith," the first paper, showed that the prophets of the Old Testament announce the first and second advent of Christ, and that their divinely inspired words were literally fulfilled in His first coming. None but a divine being, Jesus Christ, meets the require- ments of prophecy, and He literally fulfilled them. And it is just as cer- tain that their prophecies will be fulfilled in His future coming. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1139 " If God so literally fulfilled His word at the first advent of Christ, in His birth, life, death and resurrection, and His covenant with the Hebrew nation, why not believe He will as literally fulfill His word relative to His second advent, and the promises under the New Cove- nant made with all nations as set forth in the New Testament? The apostles proclaimed to Jew and Greek the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and predicated the hope of the race upon it, if we are. to take their tes- timony in its literal sense. The hope of seeing Jesus and being made like Him has been styled * the blessed hope,' and has been the com- fort of the church in all ages." The third paper, " Conditional Immortality," by the Rev. Miles Grant, was a learned document, bristling with proofs of his contention that the Bible " uniformly teaches that only the righteous will live eternally, and, therefore, comes the necessary conclusion that Condi- tional Immortality is a Bible doctrine." The fourth essay on ** Resurrection," by the Rev. A. W. Sibley, of Mendota, 111., made the following points: " First. The doctrine of a corporeal resurrection of all the dead is clearly referred to and directly taught in the Old and New Testament scriptures. " Second. In the New Testament the resurrection of the dead is The Resum ascribed to Christ Himself as being the agent by which it is wrought. *^tion. (John V, 2i; i Cor. xv, 22; Rev. xxii, 11.) "Third. All the dead will be raised indiscriminately to receive judgment according to their works, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, 'unto the resurrec- tion of damnation.' (John v, 21-29; i Cor. xv, 22; Rev. xx, 11.) " Fourth. The resurrection will take place at the * last day,' by which is meant the close of the present world. (John vi, 40; ix, 24; I Thess. iv, 15.) " Fifth. The great event is represented as being ushered in by the sound of a trumpet, a representation borrowed probably from the Jewish practice of convening assemblies by sound of a trumpet, (i Cor. XV, 52; I Thess. iv, 16.) '* Sixth. The resurrection of Christ was a pledge, a pattern, an assurance of the physical resurrection of the sainted dead. " Seventh. The immortality, eternal life and all the future bles- sings of the righteous dead are dependent on the corporeal resurrection of Christ from the dead, (i Cor. xv, 17, 18.) " There is no event of which mention is made in the sacred oracles, nor that has ever occurred in human history with which are associated such tremendous consequences as that of the anastasis of the dead. The eternal life, with all of its environments, will then be reached, and a • forever with the Lord ' experienced. " Then will the united voices of the redeemed as the sound of many waters resound to earth's remotest bounds in songs of triumph and shouts of victory, victory, victory, and all heaven and earth respond, Amen." 1140 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. Proximity. Extinction of Evil. The paper on " Proximity," by the Rev. A. J. Wheeler, was an elab- orate argument, based on sacred and secular history and Scripture, to prove that the advent of Christ is near. The uppermost and constant thought pervading the essay was, "The time is short." ''Extinction of Evil," by the Rev. William Sheldon, took the ground that evil is to be extinguished by a stroke of divine power, at the end of the Gospel armistice, by utterly exterminating evil-doers, includ- ing the devil himself; for Christ has arranged that "through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." (Hev. ii, 14.) After citing the testimony of Scripture on the subject; he closed by saying: "This carries us beyond the chronology of the hell taught in the Bible to a time when evil is forever extinct, only the good being left; and then the redeemed world will joyfully resound the praise of Jehovah forevermore, not a sinner being left alive to in- terrupt the sacred harmony by his plaintive wails or horrid blasphe- mies. Only praise will be heard when saints only shall be left alive." The secretary says: "The harmony visible in all the papers of the day cannot fail to elicit notice. First, that Christ will come per- sonally and literally at the close of the Gospel Dispensation; second, that His coming will precede the resurrection of the dead and the es- tablishment of His kingdom upon the earth; third, that the resurrec- tion will precede the general judgment day, which God hath ap- pointed; fourth, that the judgment must precede rewards and punish- ment; fifth, that when evil-doers and evil angels are cut off and de- stroyed, the earth will be restored to a state of original perfection, ai^r the future Eden of the redeemed, and be filled with the glory of the God." THE SEVENTH DAY BAPTIST CONGRESS. The Seventh-day Baptist Congress was held in one of the halls of the Art Institute, during the i6th and 17th of September. The pre- siding officer was Prof. William A. Rogers, of Colby University, Waterville, Me., and Prof. Edwin Shaw, of Milton College, Milton, Wis., was secretary. "Although this denomination has existed in this country for more than two centuries, many who attended the Parlia- ment of Religions had not learned the significance of the term Seventh- day Baptists, and much interest was manifest to know how they differ from the Baptist denomination. For those who may not follow this account to the end, we remark that Seventh-day Baptists are essen- The Sabbath tially like other Baptists and might dwell with them in unity but for Question. the fact that they observe the seventh day of the week (Saturday) as Sabbath, and regard it as the only Sabbath that is recognized in the sacred Scriptures, either the Old or New Testament. They f challenge any one to prove that there is any warrant for the observ- ance of Sunday in the commands of God, or the example of Christ or His apostles. They hold that Christ and the apostles kept the Fourth , , „ Seventh Day Baptists. RE^ LESTErC 'ranZ;^'?;.™"- ^^°'- =■'""' SHAW. Secre.ary. Milton. Wb. REV. !■--» C^R-ooL,„. Ch,cago. r,v. Booth C D.v.s. AUred Centre.' N. yi b. Wv Maxson. 1142 . THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. commandment, as well as the other nine, thus proving that it belongs to the moral and not to the ceremonial law. They agree with most Protestants that the moral law is of perpetual obligation, and can see no reason for keeping a day not recognized by it. If the day of the Sabbath has been changed there ought to be some positive statement of such change in the New Testament, and no such statement, or even implication, can be found. Pressed by failure to find a warrant for Sunday keeping, some writers take the ground that the law, as given in the Decalogue, is not binding on Christians, thus disposing of the Sabbath, and then claim the restoration of the other nine command- ments, they being * written in the heart.' Why the fourth should be an exception does not appear. If it be true that the fourth command- ment has become void, then there is surely no obligation to keep the first day of the week by virtue of the * change of day ' theory. This, then, is the dilemma in which Sunday-keepers are involved. Either the moral law, as given in the Decalogue, is binding or it is not. If it is not binding, any transfer to the first day of the week is impossible, for no such obligation exists. But if it has not been set aside it binds all men to keep God's commands, both in spirit and in letter. Either horn of the above dilemma is fatal to Sunday-keeping. Therefore, Sev- enth-day Baptists reject the claims of Sunday, because they do not rest upon the Word of God, and because no amount of obligation to regard Sunday, if it existed, could remove the obligation to obey God and to follow the example of Christ in keeping the Sabbath. The first day of the week is mentioned in the Bible but eight times, and five of these references are to one and the same day — the day on which Christ's resurrection was made known to His disciples. The Bible never connects the observance of any day with His resurrection. It never draws any comparison between the * work of creation and the work of redemption,' nor attempts the impossible task of saying which of the two infinite works is 'the greater.' All these assumptions have been made by men to support a practice which has no foundation in the New Testament, nor in the example of Christ. The opening address, *' The Limitations of Christian Fellowship," was delivered by Professor Rogers, President of the Congress: on^hrTstTa^n "Diversity of opinion is so common in the world it must be the FeUowship. result, in part, of the natural organization of the human mind. In the recognition of a spiritual truth more than the unaided powers of the human mind are necessary to its perception. It is natural for those who think alike in religious matters to organize in one body. It is no proscription of any to restrict the organization to those of like faith. Yet Christian comity should and may prevail among those of different, and yet positive, convictions. The proper aim of religious organization is the application of fundamental principles of the Gos- pel to our daily. life. Seventh-day Baptists can do more good in the world by remaining a separate organization than if they were merged in the Baptist denomination." The Rev. Steven Burdick, of West Hallock, 111., preached from Limitations THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1143 the following text: John xi, 2i. "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God." Theme, ''Loyalty to Truth." " Faithfulness to Our Cause," by the Rev. Booth C. Davis, of Al- fred Centre, N. Y., was the next paper. A sermon was preached by Rev. E. M. Dunn, of Milton, Wis. Text, Acts xxiv, i6. Theme, "The Education of the Conscience in Christian Culture." " Contradictions in the Sunday Arguments " by Nathan Wardner, D. D., of Milton Junction, Wis., a " convert to the Sabbath," for many years a Seventh-day Baptist missionary in China. He ar- rayed the contradictions which appear in the reasons given for observ- ing Sunday; the Puritan theory of unabrogated law, and the popular theory of abrogated law; of "church authority" and individual author- ity; of a specific first day of the week, and of no day in particular, etc., etc. He argued that these mutually destructive contradictions arise because men have departed from the plain and unifying law of God; a house thus divided cannot stand. " The Sabbath of the Future," by Rev. L. C. Rogers, Professor of History and Economy in Alfred University, Alfred Centre, N. Y., inter- preted the prophecies, especially those of Isaiah, as showing the final and full restoration of the seventh day as the only and universal Sab- bath at no distant period. The following papers were presented in a symposium on practical evangelical work: "Where Set the Battle, in City or Country," the Rev. Lester C. Randolph, Chicago; "How to Keep the Spirit of Evangelism in the People," the Rev. E. A. Witter, Albion, Wis.; "How to Use Students in This Work," the Rev. G. M. Cottrell, Nortonville, Kan.; "The Element of Personal Work in Evangelism," the Rev. Frank E. Peterson, New Market, N. J.; "How to Use the Business Men," W. H. Ingham, Milton, Wis. Mr. Randolph urged that the battle be forced in both city and country; neither district can be saved without the other. Mr. Witter recommended simple and personal addresses couched in terms of kindness and sympathy. Show that your work for the Master is a sincere work. Mr. Cottrell thought that the Christian Endeavor societies should be made evangelistic, and that evangelical work and Bible study should be carried into regions inaccessible to church privileges. Mr. Peterson said that religion is not a creed, but a life; that it must be propagated by personal contact. Man general- izes, but God particularizes. The best fruit is hand picked. Mr. In- gham advocated the use of business tact, zeal and perseverance in God's service. He magnified the importance of the layman's work. These papers were by young men, who are practical "Evangelists," whose experience enables them to speak understandingly and enthusi- astically on the various themes given. " Review of Our Mission Work," by the Rev. O. U. Whitford, D. D., gave the history of both the home and foreign operations, from the beginning of the present century. Dr. Whitford showed that the Yarioas Papers Review of Mission Work. 1144 THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Review of Tract Work. Growth of Seventh-Day Baptists. mission work has engaged the attention of the Seventh-day Baptists through all their history. At the present time they are prosecuting the home work in about twenty different states, enlarging that work year by year. The Sabbath reform work of the American Sabbath Tract society is closely associated with home missions, and new fields are opened by that work faster than the missionary society can fill them. The foreign work at Shanghai, China, was begun about fifty 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 and tract distribution, etc.; the second in- cludes both day schools and boarding schools for boys and for girls; the third includes private practice and extensive dispensary and hos- pital departments. The " Missionary Session," as a whole, especially the various de- tails given in Secretary Whitford's paper, impressed the listener with the fact that, according to their numbers, and through a history of more than two centuries in America, the Seventh-day Baptists have been, and now are, among the foremost in the work of evangelical missions. " Review of Our Tract Work," by Rev. L. E. Livermore, editor of the Sabbath Recorder, gave a history of the publishing interests of the Seventh-day Baptists. Mr. Livermore's paper was supplemented by remarks from A. H. Lewis, D. D., Plainfield, N. J., editor of the Sabbath Outlook, who emphasized the idea that history is an organic unity; that great truths like the Sabbath cannot die; that Seventh-day Baptists have been kept under God, to act an important part in the present agi- tation concerning the Sabbath and the Sunday. The Presentation session of the Seventh-day Baptists was held in the large Hall of Washington on Sunday morning, September 17th. " The Growth of Our Churches in America," by William C. Whit- ford, D. D., president of Milton College, showed that the denomina- tion now has one hundred churches, one hundred and ten active min- isters, and about ten thousand church members, and that it has had a history of two hundred and twenty-two years in this country. He said: " Our churches do not lose heart in the prolonged and unequal struggle of Sabbath reform. It is not alone our cause; it belongs to our Master, and the final acceptance of His revealed truth by His followers and the gainsaying world is absolutely certain. We believe that as nature in any of its operations seems to care less for the quan- tities than the intensity of the forces brought into requisition, so God, in the prosecution of this Sabbath work, does not so much count on the multitude of men as He does on the quality of their spirit and their endeavors, the sincerity consecration, and intelligent service of those who gain admission into His presence and desire to be obedient to His will." "Our Work for Education" was by Edwin H. Lewis, Ph. D., of the University of Chicago. THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1145 " Our Attitude on the Sabbath Question" was the last paper, and was by the Rev. A. H. Lewis, D. D., of Plainfield, N. J. He said: "The closing decade of this century marks an important epoch of transition touching the Sabbath question. Two prominent streams of influence have aided in hastening the epoch: One the widespread advocacy of the claims of the Sabbath (Saturday), as against the claims of Sunday; the other, the rapid decline of regard for Sunday and the inability of Sunday legislation, municipal, state, or national, to check this growing disregard. We oppose the whole system of Sunday legislation, because it is forbidden by the nature and purposes of Christ's kingdom, as enunciated by Him. It had no existence in earlier Christianity, apostolic or sub-apostolic. It was the product of pagan influence. The first Sunday law, 321 A. D., had not the slight- est trace of Christianity, in word or in spirit. It was issued by the emperor as high-priest ex officio of an empire, in which all religious laws and ceremonies were state regulations. It spoke only of the ' venerable Day of the Sun.' It was in all respects at one with the prevailing legislation concerning the other pagan festivals. If it be granted, for the sake of illustration, that Sunday is sacred under the Fourth commandment, and ought to be kept in place of the Sabbath, the reasons for rejecting Sunday laws are much intensified. The his- tory of Sunday laws proves this, without exception. The civil power from the time of Cromwell's parliament to the United States Congress of 1892 has struggled in vain to save the failing fortunes of this Sun- day engendered by Puritan and Roman Catholic compromise. We mourn over the growing Sabbathlessness in the church and in the world. We deplore the errors which have produced it and the evils which attend it. But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that, in attempting to avoid the claims of the Sabbath, Christian men have cre- ated the influences which have so nearly destroyed Sunday. When the church compromises with the law of God until it is rendered nuga- tory, and appeals to the civil law to support its errors, such results as are at hand cannot be avoided. We appeal to Christians and ask that the Sabbath question be wholly relegated to the realm of religion and conscience, and to the arbitrament of the Bible. Settle it in God's court, not in Caesar's." Attitude on the Sabbath Qaestion. THE CONGRESS OF THE EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. The Presentation was held on September 19th, in the Hall of Washington. President C. C. Bonney, of the World's Fair Auxiliary opened the session with an address, and the Rev. G. C. Knobel, as Chairman, made an address of response and welcome. Thereupon fol- lowed addresses upon the History, Doctrine and Polity of the Evangel- ical Association. I. "The History of the Evangelical Association." Rev. S. P. Spreng, Cleveland, Ohio.: Jacob Albright, under God the founder of A^aCCn!*^ 1146 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. this denomination, was born in 1759, and converted about 1790. A few years later he began to preach. In 1800 he organized three con- gregations in eastern Pennsylvania. In 1803 the first General Council was held. In 1807 the first Annual Conference was organized, and in 18 16 the first General Conference. The Evangelical Association is a distinctively American product, the result of American religious con- ditions as they existed at the time of Mr. Albright's ministerial labors. He was born and reared in America, and the same is to be noted of all the early leaders. During the first half century the activity of the Association was confined to the United States and Canada. She was called of God to meet the pressing needs of the German-speaking population of this country, especially of the thousands of Germans in Pennsylvania, by quickening spiritual life and emphasizing the impor- tance of vital Godliness among them and others. Albright and his co- laborers felt called to do for these what the Wesleyan and other mis- sionaries were doing for the English-speaking population. He and his assistants preached repentance, and insisted upon the experience of conversion through the energy of the Holy Spirit as the only true beginning of a spiritual life. Although not converted in the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, he would have found a congenial home in it if that church had seen an open field for work in the German language. As it did not, his path led him into an independent course after a brief membership in that communion. He created no schism. He had no quarrel with any church. He preached no new doctrine. He simply entered an open field not occupied by others; and a separate denom- ination, although not planned by him, was the necessary outcome of his success; but it did not take permanent shape until after his death, in 1808." *' When, later, the necessity arose, services were held in the English language as well as the German. At the present time at least one- third of her membership worships in the English language, while most of the ministers understand both languages. This church is repre- sented on three continents — America, Europe and Asia. The mem- bership numbers 145,829; ministers, 1,327; church edifices, 2,119; parsonages, 722; Sunday-schools, 2,222; scholars, 167,000; annual con- ferences, 25. " The denominational publishinghouse is located at Cleveland, Ohio, and is valued at over half a million dollars. The leading college is at Naperville, 111., with a theological department called Union Biblical Institute. A large orphan home is supported at Flat Rock, Ohio. There is a prosperous branch publishing house at Stuttgart, Germany, and theological training schools at Reutlingen, Germany, and Tokio, Japan. Der Christliche Botschafter (German official organ) has a circu- lation of nearly twenty thousand, and the Evangelical Messenger (En- glish official organ), ten thousand. Her Sunday-school and missionary work is extended, and in a most prosperous condition." Doctrines of " The Doctrine of the Evangelical Association," by Bishop J. J. ^^Stfoi°^ Esher, of Chicago, was a paper setting forth the tenets of the church. Rev. S. P. Spreng. Bishop Breyfogel. Bishop J. J. Esher, Chairman Committee ol Organization. Mrs. G. C. Knobel, Rev. G. C. Knobel, Secy. Chairman Woman's Committee. Chairman Presentation Meetings. 1148 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, The Organic Structure. under the following heads: — Doctrine Concerning God; the Creation; Providence ; the Angels; Man ; the Fall of Man ; Redemption and the Re- deemer; the Holy Ghost; the Christian Church and the Means of Grace; the Order and Way of Salvation; the Christian Life; the Last Things. "The Polity of the Evangelical Association," by Bishop S. C. Breyfogel, Reading, Pa. The Evangelical Association is neither hierarchical nor congregational in its polity, but aims at the golden mean between these extremes. " I. The Organic Structure. The authoritative rule in the church is the Word of God.- Her book of discipline contains the fundamental law. Two orders are recognized in her ministry, "deacons" and "elders." In the official duty and authority of her ministry there is a gradation of offices; the " preacher in charge," the "presiding elder" and the "bishop," the latter being authorized to make the annual appointment of the preachers. There are three conferences; the quarterly, the annual, and the general, only the last of these having legislative powers. There is no lay representation in the annual and general con- ferences; but the quarterly conference, exercising authority over most of the matters pertaining to the home charge, consists in the main of lay members. " 2. The Genius of the Church. The following characteristics TheGenius are to be noted in the individuality of this denomination: (a) The system of the itinerancy, securing a distribution of gifts and a diversity of service among all the churches, and cultivating a spirit of unity be- tween the ministry and membership, as also between the different congregations, (b) The simplicity of her spirit. No encouragement is given to elaborate forms of worship, imposing ceremonies or archi- tecture. Her very simplicity constitutes her grandeur, (c) Her economy is intensely practical, preferring the shortest way for the realization of her great purpose, and yet instinctively avoiding all irreverent and vulgar methods. (d) Thoroughness of character. Superficiality of religious experience and Christian life is repugnant to the spirit of the denomination. Her stern sense of right, and hos- tility toward shams of every kind, is associated with a loving spirit of condescension and mercy to the erring. Her love of pure doctrine is equaled by her love of pure life, (e) Aggressiveness of spirit. There thrills through the church the spirit of conquest for Christ, Her innate energy prompts to the occupancy of new fields at home and abroad. The wheels of her machinery are made to go. Her spirit i gives birth to new institutions, new modes of organization and im- proved methods of work, as the progress of Christianity requires." The Denominational Congress was held in hall VH., September 19th to the 2ist. Addresses were delivered upon the following subjects — Educational: The Relation of the Evangelical Association to the Cause of Education, President H. J. Kiekhoefer, Northwestern College, Naperville, 111.; The Need of an Educated Ministry, Prof. S. L. Umbach, Union Biblical Institute, Naperville, 111. Missionary: Our Home Mission Work, Bishop William Horn, Cleveland, Ohio; Our Mission THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1149 Work in Europe, Rev. G. Gaehr, Cleveland, Ohio; Our Mission Work in Japan, Bishop J. J. Esher, Chicago. At the Woman's Meeting Mrs. G. C. Knobel, presided and made the address of welcome. Letters of greeting were read from Mrs. I. Knapp, Elberfeld, Germany, and Mrs. F. W. Voegelein, Tokio, Japan. Papers were read on the following subjects: The Heroines of the Evangelical Association, Mrs. Kate Klinefelter Bowman, Des Moines, Iowa; The Deaconess Movement in Our Church, Mrs, Jacobea Gaehr, Cleveland, Ohio; Mothers' Work in Our Church, Mrs. H. C. Smith, Naperville, 111.; Missionary and Temperance Work for the Women of Our Church, Mrs. E. M. Spreng, Akron, Ohio. At the Reform Meeting Rev. J. C. Hornberger, editor of The Liv- ing Epistle and Sunday-school literature, Cleveland, Ohio, made an address on the Evangelical Association and Moral Reform, which was followed by shorter addresses by Revs. C. F. Erffmeyer, Abilene, Kan., W. A. Leopold, Allentown, Pa., and C. C. Pfund, Des Moines, Iowa. On Young People's Alliance Day, Rev. C. A. Thomas, the presi- dent of the Alliance and editor of the Eva?igelical Mazagine and Sun- day-school literature, Cleveland, Ohio., made the opening address, and further addresses were delivered on the following subjects: Twentieth Century Responsibilities — How to Meet Them, Rev. J. B. Kanaga, Marion, Ohio, with shorter addresses by Messrs. E. B. Esher, Chicago, and H. G. Johnson, Reading, Pa.; Our Young People and the Institutions of Our Church, Rev. G. C. Knobel, Chicago, with shorter addresses by Bishop W. Horn, Cleveland, Ohio, and Prof. H. F. Kletz- ing, Naperville, III.; Denominational Young People's Societies, Revs. W. H. Messerschmidt, Naperville, III., and George Husser, Chicago; The Spiritual Element in the Young People's Alliance, Rev. M. L. Wing, Berlin, Ont., with shorter addresses by Bishop S. C. Breyfogel, Reading, Pa., and Rev. J. Alber, Washington, III.; Practical Sugges- tions for Alliance Workers, Rev. J. C. Hornberger, Cleveland, Ohio, Corresponding Secretary of the Alliance; The Young Men of Our Country — Their Perils and Possibilities, Rev. S. J. Gamertsfelder, assistant editor of the Evangelical Messenger, Cleveland, Ohio, with shorter addresses by Revs. H. I. Bittner, Portland, Ore., and George Johnson, Buchanan, Mich. The music throughout, excepting the Woman's meeting, was in charge of Mr. J. L. Lehman, of the Salem church choir. Twelfth and Union streets, Chicago, supported by a union choir from the several churches of the denomination in and about the city of Chicago. Woman's Meeting. Young Peo- ple's Day, OFFICERS AND DELEGATES TO THE CONGRESS OF WALES AND THE INTERNATIONAL EISTEDDFOD. Rev. Rowland Williams (Hwfa MOn). Samuel Job, President. ' Rev. H. 0. Rowlands, D. D. Wm. C. Roberts, D. D., LL. D. Pkof. W. Apmadoc, Secretary. Rev. Ellis Roberts, Chairman. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1151 THE CONGRESS OF WALES. AND THE INTERNATIONAL EISTEDDFOD. Never in the history of the Welsh people of the United States- was there such a gathering as was seen in Chicago the first week in September, 1893. Representatives, not only from every state and ter- ritory of the Union, but also from Great Britain, Canada and Aus- tralia were present. Rev. Rowland Williams (Hwfa Mon) of Llang- allen. North Wales; Rev, Evan Rees (Dyfed), Cardiff, South Wales, represented the pulpit, and the Rhondda Glee Society, and Penrhyn Glee Society — 50 male voices respectively — represented the musical culture of the principality. The first session of the Welsh Congress was held in the Memorial Art Palace, at M A. m., September 3d, the Rev R. Trogwy Evans, of Chicago, presiding. The chief address of the session was made by Rev. R. Williams (Hwfa Mon). The second session was held at I p. m., at the First Methodist Epis- copal Church, and presided over by the Rev. Ellis Roberts, Chicago. In a large measure this session was a religious and musical re-unionof Welsh people of all sections of the church brought together from all parts of the world. Addresses were made by Rev. David Harris, D. D., Rev. H. O. Rowlands, D. D., Rev. J. Wynne Jones, Prof. John P. Jones and Rev. D. J. Phillips, of Chicago; Rev. W. W. Jones and Dr. Williams, of Nebraska; Hwfa Mon, and others. The evening session, held at the same church, was presided over by Rev. Dr. Harris. Addresses were made by the Rev. W. Fawcett, D. D., of Chicago; Rev. Miss Rosina Davies, of South Wales, and the Rev. R. Williams of North Wales. The official programme of the Parliament of Religions announced the three following papers prepared in connection with the Welsh congress: "The Early British Church," by the Rev. D. Parker Morgan, D. D., New York; "The Religious Char- acteristics of the Welsh People," by the Rev. H. O. Rowlands, D. D., Chicago; "The Effects of the Protestant Reformation on Wales," by the Rev. John Evans (Eglwysbach), Cardiff, South Wales. The following extracts are from a paper by one of the foremost preachers of Wales, the Rev. John Evans: " 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 in the history of Protestantism. * * * * " The Welsh people, and probably all the Celtic races of Britain, had received their Christianity from some other source than papal Rome. This fact has an important bearing on the subject of this paper, and presents Wales in a direct contrast to England with refer- ence to the Protestant Reformation. Originally, the English people were benighted pagans. This was their sad condition when Augustine and his monks were sent from Rome, in 597. He found them totally ignorant of Christianity, and was commissioned by Pope Gregory to enlighten and convert them. Augustine was a Roman Catholic mis- Congress of Wales The Earlv British Church 1152 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, sionary, and when the Anglo-Saxons were converted under his minis- • try they simply accepted the popish, corrupt form of the Christian religion. This was the only form of it that was first taught them, and they heard nothing else concerning Christianity for six hundred years, when Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, appeared. ** The effect of Wycliffe's awakening was partly felt in Wales also, especially on the borders of England. John of Kentchurch became a Lollard; Sir John Oldcastle, afterward Lord Cobham, and Walter Brute partook of the same spirit. These men and a few less illustrious comrades were excellent Christians, and preached against the preten- sions of Rome, denouncing the dogma of transubstantiation, opposing indulgences and every other priestly craft that endangered the salva- tion of the people. But the effects of their efforts did not penetrate far into the interior of the principality at any time, and at their death the whole nation plunged itself into a state of unbroken indifference TheDarkness ^^^ ^^ X^diSt a ccutury. The thick darkness of popery covered the of Popery. land like the shadow of death. This was the deplorable condition of Wales when the trumpet blast of the Reformation was heard in Eng- land, about the year 1540. In fact, there was no preparation leading up toward an outbreak in the Welsh mind. The Reformation, so called, was only an outward change thrust suddenly upon the people by the fitful will of the reigning monarch. *'At the same time, it is right to add that the conclusion of the whole matter is this: That Protestantism, especially in its spiritual blessings, was not established in Wales to a great extent or with great force for nearly a century after its rise in England. Wales was isolated and far from the center of influence. Great movements in London and Oxford often exhausted themselves before they reached the inhabitants of this distant country. The Reformation only touched its outskirts at first, and took a long time to travel over the whole district. And 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 dis- avow their adherence to Rome. Even during the reign of Elizabeth this was the case. *' So that, while the Protestant Reformation was an outside change forced upon the people by the king at first and taken up by ofificial laymen, while it only touched the outskirts of the principality by its spiritual influence, and that only for a time, and left the country gen- erally almost for a century in dangers and sin, yet it was a great bless- ing to Wales. It delivered the country at once from the tyranny of the pope; it led up gradually to the rendering of the Scriptures into the vernacular; it prepared the way for the rise of non-conformity and culminated in the outbreak of the Methodist revival. The Protestant Reformation gave Wales an open Bible and a religious liberty that we had not possessed before. The effect of the Reformation on Wales has been good from the beginning, although for a long time it was limited in its extent and shallow in its hold upon the people. It contained THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1153 the seeds of subsequent harvests, and became the reluctant herald of a coming millennium." A notable feature of the three sessions was the excellent and often plaintive congregational music, the respective four parts being evenly represented by the different choral societies that were in the city to take part during the following week days in the most exciting choral contests that probably ever took place in this or any other country. The International Eisteddfod of the World's Fair was pronounced by the Chicago press to be the most successful and interesting festival held at the Exposition. The religious congress of the Welsh people had its continuation in the choral and bardic exercises of their ancient and unique festival. Here the religious life of the Cambrian Kelts exhib- ited itself in a very marked degree. The subject of the chief alliter- ative poem (Adwl) was "Jesus of Nazareth," and the greatest genius among living Welsh poets. Rev. Evan Rees (Dyfed), of Cardiff, South Wales, won the prize for the best poem on that subject, namely, $500, a gold medal and the Bardic chair — the highest bardic honor of the nation. The choral selections for the chief contest, and for the largest prize ever offered — $5,000, again brought to the front, in the presence of an audience of over eight thousand, that filled every seat and aisle of Festival Hall, the religious intensity of the Welsh people. "Mor o Gan Yw Cymru i Gyd," Wales is a sea of song. As long as its musical language lasts, and as long as its love of song wakes the echoes on hill and in dale, the religious fervor of Wales will never die, and the intense religious and patriotic associations of centuries can never be blotted out. During the sessions eloquent addresses were made by Rev. W. C. Roberts, D. D., of New York, late president of Lake Forest University; Rev. D. Parker Morgan, of New York; Hon. David Richards, of Knoxville, Tenn.; Hon. R. T. Morgan, of Oshkosh, Wis : Hon. Samuel Job, Pullman, III.; Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones and Rev. H.O. Rowlands, D. D., of Chicago; Judge H. M. Edwards, of Scranton, Pa.; Rev. T. Cynonfardd Edwards, D. D.,of Kingston, Pa.; Rev. Fred Evans, D. D., of Milwaukee; Mrs. Potter Palmer, of Chicago, and others. The Eistedd- fod. CONGRESS OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. This Congress occupied two days, the 13th and 14th of Sep- tember. The first session was held in the Hall of Washington, Rev. Dr. T. P. Haley, of Kansas City, Mo., presiding. In his presenta- tion speech Mr. Bonney paid a very high compliment to the Disciples for their work along the lines of Christian unity the past fifty years. The latest statistics in the hand of the national secretary of the Dis- ciples' Home Missionary society give this people a membership of nearly one million, with six thousand ministers and nine tnousand congregations. According to the United States census reports of 1890, 16 The Disci- pies of Chribt. 1154 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. they are growing more rapidly than any other religious body; in ten years they increased eighty-three per cent, as against fifty-seven on the part of their closest rival. It is, therefore, refreshing to know that such a body of people is in hearty sympathy with all the great advance movements of the age, and that for this congress they selected some of their very strongest representatives, whose addresses have been pronounced by their own people as among the ablest ever heard in the councils of the church. There were eight of them, enough to fill a volume; but in the space allowed only brief synopses, with occasional excerpts from each, can be given. Following happy introductory remarks by Dr. Haley, came the first address, "The Church of Christ in the First Century," by Regent H. W. Everest, of the Illinois Normal University, Carbondale. He said: "The highest use of the great Columbian Exposition is to be found not in its industrial, national and international results, but in its dem- onstration of man's value, of his value as he stands in nature's vast Machinery Hall and lays his hand on all physical forces; of his value as the arbiter of his own social and moral destiny; of his value in the sight of God." Dr. Everest spoke of the first century of the church as its heroic age; and being under the immediate supervision of the Holy Spirit it became the example most worthy of imitation in all ages to come, both as regards doctrine and life. **The inspired record of this cent- ury," said he, ** is the only source of authority in religious matters. Everything must be measured and approved or disapproved by the divine standard of the New Testament. If creed and dogma, if sacra- ment and ritual do not agree with these Scriptures, it is because there is no light in them. Episcopacy and papacy alike are unsupported pretensions. The chain of succession lies in broken fragments which cannot be welded, nor is it linked to the throne of Christ. No man or class of men has been authorized and inspired to interpret the New Testament for the rest of the world. That is no revelation which re- quires another revelation. Thought is eternally free, and neither men • nor devils can put it in chains. In the first century all Christians were kings and priests unto God. We do not read of the ' Right Reverend John Mark 'or of * Cardinal Timothy,' nor of 'Arch-Bishop Titus.' There was no ecclesiasticism then, no speculative theology." " Christian Union," by the Rev. F. D. Power, pastor of the Garfield Christian Memorial Church Washington, D. C.,and pastor of President Garfield, Union. Came next: "Christian Union," said he, " is the one high, clear note of this latter half of the nineteenth century. The need of it is press- ing, the desire for it deep, the prayer for it fervent, the plea for it powerful beyond anything that marks our present day Christianity. Nobody now thanks God for sects. The flowing tide is with union; the ebb with divisions." The speaker referred to the original unity of the church, and deplored existing divisions. He spoke of selfishness, competition, envy, hate, error, confusion, slander, distrust, weakness, waste, disintegration, and death as a hellish brood of sectarianism, Rev. W. F. Black, Chicago. 1156 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. and asked: "Why may not the church be one today as in the apos- tolic age? And what can be done to remove the sin and manifold evils of division, and to promote a closer and more effective coopera- tion in evangelizing the world?" In reply he said: " Two things are indispensably necessary — a loyal recognition to the fullest Scriptural extent on the part of all believers of the authority of Jesus Christ, and of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." "The Church of the Future" was the third address delivered by the Rev. Dr. W. T. Moore, of London, England. Mr. Moore is widely known as the editor of the Christian Commonzvealth, one of the most influential religious papers in Great Britain. The address was more than twelve thousand words in length, but being very interesting in Loth its matter and manner of presentation, was received with intense interest. "The future is hope's paradise," began the doctor, "the past is full of disappointment, and in nothing is this disappointment more distinctly realized than in the achievements of the post- Apostolic church. It is impossible for any student of church history to be satis- fied with what the historic church has accomplished. In view of what the past has been, it is not surprising that many are turning their faces to the future and anxiously looking for the realization of the church which has so far existed in the world only as an ideal." Proceeding, the speaker drew a sharp distinction between the church of history and the church of the New Testament. He said it is true that one extreme begets another, but it is not true that one extreme justifies another. The church of the future will believe something definite and recognize the importance of right thinking. That something definite will not be merely a system of theology, however perfectly wrought out; it will be belief in Christ. In the future Christians shall not only walk together, but they shall meet together, worship together and work together. In the past there has been entirely too much isolation, too little conference, and by far too little cooperation. Denominational- ism is bad enough, but sectarianism is even worse. The former may exist without the latter, but neither can exist without injury to the cause of Christ. When the church has reached its highest develop- ment (and this will be its congressive period), then such a religious congress as the one in which we are taking part will be regarded as a normal sign of our religious development. This will bring a new era of brotherhood, a new era of consecrated service, and a new era of peace." Bible An- Wednesday evening the second session of the congress was held thropoiogy. ' in Hall XXVI., Prof. W. F. Black, of Chicago, presiding. The paper was "Biblical Anthropology — the Key to some Religious Problems," by the Rev, J. H. Garrison. Basing his remarks on Genesis i, 26, 27, the speaker said, " Perhaps the symbol or character that would most fitly represent this age is the interrogation point. It is an age of profound questioning of everything in the heavens above and in the earth beneath. The three great questions of this age, and of theages, are: I. What is man? What kind of a being is he? 2d. Who Rev. H. W. Everest, Carbondale, 111. 1158 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. is Christ and the God whom He reveals? 3. What salvation or des- tiny has He prepared for man? The man that is not interested in questions gives proof of partial, or total, obscuration of that these which is distinctive of our human nature — its rational and moral faculties. It is proof of the superiority of the Bible to all othei books in the world that it is the only book that furnishes satisfactory answers to these great questions." With these thoughts as a key, Mr. Garrison proceeded to discuss the possibility of the incarnation, the motive of the incarnation, the necessity of the incarnation and soteri- ology, or the nature and scope of the salvation promised to man in the Gospel, concluding with a vision of man in his redeemed state and completed development. " Christianity the Only Solution of the Problems of the Age " was the subject of the first address on Thursday morning by Prof. B. .J Radford, of Eureka, 111., editor of the Christian Standard, of Cincin- nati, Ohio. The speaker proceeded to make good his claim by showing that Christianity was as necessary for man's higher intel- lectual as for his moral and spiritual development. " It is a singular fact," said he, ** that outside of the influence of Christianity, as shown by the late M. de Candolle in a survey of the science and scientists of the last two centuries, there is none of that high intellectual progress of which we boast, and that within the sphere of this influence progress and high achievement are observed most where that influence is greatest. During the last two centuries the majority of leaders in scientific thought have been clergymen or the sons of clergymen. The development of the species runs parallel with the individual. In intellectual development there are four distinct stages : i . That in which the mind busies itself with the world of space. 2. That in which the phenomena are grouped and studied by likenesses and contrasts. 3. That in which the mind takes hold of the more hidden asso- ciational threads of cause and effect. 4. That in which the mind is not satisfied with the half explanation of things which the scientific setting forth of causes affords; when the doctrine of beginnings must be supplemented and complemented by the doctrine of ends; when the genetic lines which have been traced backward until they have converged in the great Efficient Cause must be traced forward until they converge in the great Final Cause." The speaker outlined these stages as far as they have appeared in the intellectual evolution of the race, and in conclusion urged that Christianity be allowed to have its perfect growth, for " in Christian philosophy, going on to perfection is growing on to perfection." The Church " The Church and the Masses," was the theme of the sixth address and the Masses, by Hon. W. D. Owen, of Indiana. He said that "one of the charges against Socrates was that he corrupted the Athenian youth by teach- ing them a disrespect for the gods. But he did not teach them a dis- respect for virtue, or truth, or religion, and he was the greatest bless- ing Athens ever had, till Paul got to Mars Hill to tell the best of them that they were too superstitious. Athens was not suffering from infi- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1159 delity, but from too much religion. Superstition is religion gone mad. They had not learned that the history of the race has been an inclined plane. Men have been going up all the time. The temple is at the top, and the top is God's White City!" Mr. Owen expressed his ardent faith in the church as the friend of humanity, declaring that it is the greatness of the church that it makes the largest offer ever made to man, an offer that goes farther, addresses more faculties, satisfies more aspirations, and promises more assistance than any other. If there is such a thing as the philosophy of history, its grandest fact is the influence of the Bible on the character of man. In the coming century it v/ill be necessary for the church to disclose the human side of Christianity as never before." "The Creed that Needs no Revision." by President E. V. ZoUars, thlt'^Ne^d^no of Hiram College, Ohio, was the seventh address. **We hold," said Revision, he, "that there is an all-embracing dominant creed that needs no revision, under the influence of which the best human conditions are realized, the highest character developed, and the happiest destiny secured." The several characteristics of this creed the scholarly president enumerated as follows: First. It possesses universality. A class creed would never do. Second. It is simple, coming down to the level of the humblest mind. Third. It is profound, satisfying the most grasping and comprehensive mind. Fourth. It has vitality — is a living, growing reality, meeting man at every point of his upward progress with satisfying power. Fifth. It is life-giving and practi- cal. Sixth. It serves as a sufficient bond of fellowship between all Christian hearts. Seventh. It furnishe"^ a model for imitation. Eighth. It is an incarnation of God. Ninth. It is of such a nature that every man can readily translate it into his own language without loss. Tenth. It is a full and complete revelation of the glory of God. Eleventh. It is perfect, and incapable of improvement as an objective reality. What, and where is this creed? Necessarily the demands cut us off from all human sources. They are so broad that only Jesus the Christ can satisfy them, and He is indeed the creed that needs no revision. The general acceptance of this creed would produce a feeling of rest- fulness and confidence, deprive infidelity of its most powerful weapon, make the modern pulpit apostolic, marry in divorceless union faith and action, destroy the apparent necessity for all other creeds, oblit- erate all artificial and arbitrary distinctions that dishonor and degrade our common humanity, and unite the children of God in the strong bond of universal Christian fellowship." "The Promise of Christian Union in the Signs of the Times," by the Rev. B. B. Taylor, D. D., of the Church of Disciples, New York city, was the eighth and closing address delivered. In speaking of Christian union he said he desired " to place the emphasis on the word ' Christian, for it is not denominational union that is needed so much today as " Christian union — union in Christ, union on Christ, union around Christ, union under Christ! In secular affairs the tendency is toward union, and the tone of present day sermons indicates approach- 1160 THE WORLD'S CdNGR£:SS OP RELIGIONS, ing union in Christ. Disciples say the way to the reunion of Christen- dom is by a return in faith and in practice, in letter and in spirit, in doctrine and in ordinance, to the religion of Jesus as He gave it to men — the religion of Christ as it is described in the New Testament. Among the prominent signs of union enumerated by the doctor were the Parliament of Religions, the International Sunday-school con- ventions and lesson series, the Young Peoples' Society of Christian Endeavor, the Brotherhood of Christian Unity, and last, but not least. Disciples of Christ, are coming to understand themselves better. Thus closed the Congress of this people, a people that rejoices in every good word and work, and longs with one impulse for the coming of that better day so forcibly promised in this great series of meetings — the .like of which the world has never seen before — the Parliament and Con- gresses of Religions — the day for which the Great Master prayed so fervently, in which His followers might be one, and in which the world might believe that He was sent of God. This body began its existence under the lead of the Rev. Thomas Campbell, who, in 1809, began his labors in Pennsylvania. THE CONGRESS OF MISSIONS. This remarkable gathering had three daily sessions for eight days, beginning on September 28th, in* the Hall of Columbus. Missionaries and the friends of missions from all parts of the world were in attend- ance. The Rev. Walter Manning Barrows, D. D., presided. After an ^ address of welcome by President Bonney, Dr. Barrows responded. In Missions. the course of his address he said: "It is true that Charles Dickens once said contemptuously: *Of what use are missionaries? They leave the countries which they visit far worse than they found them.' Such remarks, however, are seldom heard in our day. Dickens made one exception, however, to his general statement, and that single ex- ception was that great and glorious missionary whom we all reverence and admire, David Livingstone, who penetrated the jungles of darkest Africa. Livingstone was a great and noble man, of wonderful attain- ments and perseverance; a man whom no dangers could intimidate, no hardships defeat, in his march to spread the belief of Christianity among the heathen and pagan tribes of the dark continent. But David Livingstone was only the noble representative of a noble band of martyrs. And the monument erected in his memory is a monument also to all of the unknown heroes who have died in the cause of Christ and humanity. This Congress of Religions would never be complete if provision had not been made for a Congress of Missionaries. We gather here to discuss the best ways to spread the Gospel. Each of us can gain many points from our brother's experience. But the world will never be Christianized by a church divided into a hundred sects and creeds, torn into fragments by internal dissensions, ex- Prof. H. M. Scott, President Chicago Hebrew Mission. 1162 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. hausted with bitter fights between one another. The church must be a common unit to do its God-appointed work. It must stand together in one brotherhood, in one cause for the good of one humanity." Papers were read on ** Denominational Comity and Cooperation," by the Rev. George W. Knox, D. D., Tokio, Japan; '* Cooperation Ap- plied; Practical Methods," by the Rev. Edwin M. Bliss, New York; " The True Aim and Methods of Missionary Work," by the Rev. George Washburne, D. D., of Constantinople; " Native Agencies the Chief Hope of National Evangelization," by the Rev. J. T. Gracey, D. D.; "Educational Agencies in Missions," by the Rev. William Miller, of Madras, India; "Missionary Societies; Their Place and Function in the Church," by the Rev. Alvirus N. Hitchcok, Ph. D., Chicago; "Environment of the Native Convert; Caste, Polygamy and Other Hereditary Customs," by the Rev. C. P. Hard, of India; "A Geograph- ical Survey," by the Rev. George Smith, LL. D., Edinburgh; "Obstacles to P'oreign Missionary Success," by the Rev. H. C. Hayden, D. D., LL. D., Cleveland, Ohio; " Reflex Influence of Foreign Missions," by the Rev. F. F. EUinwood, D. D., of New York; "Citizen Rights of Missionaries," by the Rev. W. Elliott Grifiis, D. D., Ithaca, N. Y.; "The Responsibilities of Christian Governments as to Human Rights," by Gen. B. R. Cowan, Cincinnati, Ohio; "Christian Government and the Opium Traffic," the Rev. S. T. Baldwin, D. D., of New York; "Science and Missions," by Prof. G. F.Wright; "The Century of Modern Mis- sions; a Prophecy of Final Triumphs," by Joseph Cook, of Boston. Reports from the field were very numerous and encouraging: Africa, Bishop William Taylor, Prince Momolu Massaquoi, Miss Mary G. Burdette; Aborigines in America, Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota; the Rev. E. R. Young, of Canada; Miss Mary C. Collins, Mrs. Amelia S. Quinton; China, the Revs. Geo. T. Candlin, Gilbert Reid; France, the Rev. Charles Faithful, Miss de Broen; India, the Rev. Geo. F. Pentecost, D. D.; Japan, President Kozaki; Mexico, the Rev. J. M. Green; Ottoman Empire, the Revs. H. H. Jessup, D. D., Geo. E. Port, D. D., James S. Dennis, D. D.; Siam, the Rev. Dr. McGilvary; South America, the Rev. Thomas B. Wood, LL. D.; Spain, the Rev. Fritz Fliedner. Valuable reports were given from Bible Societies, and Home Missions, and other cooperative agencies. The final addresses were by Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D., of Detroit, on "Thy Kingdom Come," and Mr. Dwight L. Moody, on "The Power of the Spirit." In the course of a stirring address by the Rev. Dr. Frank Bristol, of Chi- cago, he said: " It is useless to talk of saving the heathen abroad, if we do not save those at home. If we cannot save Chicago, we cannot Calcutta; Save Chicago, "unless you can save San Francisco, you cannot save Bombay. We plant our altars among the silks and satins, and not amidst the rags of Chicago. We plant them among homes whose tables groan with every luxury, and we do not plant them in the midst of homes that are empty, where little children are pinched with want and hunger. Go over THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1163 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 under dry-goods boxes. These boys are growing up to be voters and, in a few years, they will be settling political ques- tions, not only for Chicago, but for the United States. God help us and open our eyes to see the field we have right here in our midst in Chicago. Here we have forty thousand Bohemians, more than are in the city of Prague; we have seventeen thousand Italians, and very little is being dene 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." An International Missionary conference was chosen to arrange for united missionary effort, consisting of: Chairman, Dr. Walter Man- ning Barrows, D. D., of Chicago, Presbyterian; Dr. James B. Angell, of Michigan, Congregational; Archdeacon Mackay Smith, D. D., of Washington, Protestant Episcopal; Bishop Charles E. Cheney, of Chicago, Reformed Episcopal; Dr. Luther F. Townsend, of Boston, Methodist Episcopal; Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, Baptist; Dr. John Brown, of Bedford, England, Congregational; Dr. Oswald, of Chicago, Evangelical Lutheran; the Rev. J. Lummenbell, D. D., of Lewisburg, Pa., Christian; the Rev. David J. Burrill,D. D., of New York, Reformed Church of America. Dr. Hayden's paper on "Obstacles" named those indigenous to the countries where the Gospel is preached; those indigenous to human nature; unfamiliar languages; hostile foreign governments; but the most damaging are those within the evangelizing force, indifference and even hostility toward missions; sectarian differences among mis- sionaries; and greatest of all, "defective faith, defective loyalty, defect- ive apprehension of and sympathy with the divine plans and purposes." He said: "I am, myself, much more deeply impressed with the significance of the obstacles which are to be met within the evangel- izing force-^the church, herself, inclusive of her missionaries. The morals of the army, its chivalric loyalty to the captain of salvation, its enthusiasm, its grasp of the situation, its sympathy with the heart and purpose of God as toward all men — these things are of utmost conse- quence. Failing along these lines, the church hopelessly obstructs her own way. *• It is certainly quite possible that we have done scant justice to the messages of other faiths, and so have failed to utilize them as step- ping-stones to the larger, freer, complete faith of our Christianity. They are probably not wholly of the devil, and instruments of impos- outeckS.*"^ tors, as once we were too ready to believe, but they tell us how, in all ages, men have been feeling after God, if haply they might find Him; — they broaden our conception of the meaning of the Master's word — this is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; and emphasize the witness of the Spirit that in every age and nation there have been true "seekers after God." If this be true, its generous recog- 1164 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, nition will certainly work as well in modern as it did in apostolic times. It is also quite possible that westerners, taking the Gospel to orientals, have been too strenuous in insisting upon a western cast of thought and church life for eastern peoples. If so, this is surely a hin- drance. *' Is there any reason to suppose that an occidental people, even after so long a time, has found out the only mode of ex[ ression which the true life of the church may adopt? Is it not fairly presumable that orientals may come at the faith of Christ and the sacred books, themselves of oriental origin, in a somewhat different, and possibly, even a better apprehension than an occidental mind? At any rate, may not the informing spirit and word be wisely left to a larger liberty than has ever yet been thought expedient in determining, not only the inner life, but the outward expression of that life? And is it not more than possible, is it not highly probable, that thus a freer course would be given to the Gospel among many intelligent peoples, say, of Asia? May not a tenacity for our own forms of worship, church polity and creed statements be a serious obstacle put by the missionary himself, or by the church that sends him, in the way of the progress of the Gospel? *' But chiefly and with emphasis, it is a lesson ever thrust before our eyes, never fully learned, that, defective faith, defective loyalty, defective apprehension of and sympathy with the divine plans and ' purposes, are the only really great hindrances in the way of the world's conquest — the greatest embarrassments to the leaders of the Lord's hosts. It was so in Moses' time. The great kings of Judah; the great prophets of Israel and Judah; the Christ, Himself, found it so. *' The glory of the Gospel is its breadth of purpose. The appeal ofthe (?o?peL^ ^° ^ world-wide humanity commands our admiration. A kingdom all- embracing, in which all kindreds, tongues and peoples have a place, is an inspiring vision. The mission of Christianity to the race is as grand as it can be. How it fires the heart and touches the face of Isaiah, to sketch those glowing pictures whose colors fade not though the centuries pass over them; nor are they thrown into shadow by the brightness of the Gospel day." Gen. Cowen, after an able and elaborate argument said: " My conclusion then is that the laws of a properly constituted govern- ment will be simply responsive to the law of humanity; that their warp and woof will conform to the basal laws of our mental and moral constitution. Our only reliable protection from oppression is in our right to look beyond the letter of the written law, to that diviner work the law of our being. In proportion as we neglect to invoke that protection when need is, we are traitors to our kind in our blind submission to the powers that be, for 'Man is more than constitutions; better rot beneath the sod Than be true to church and state, while we are doubly false to God. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1165 "The responsibility of government as to human rights, then, is declaratory and protective. It simply lets a man alone to work out his own happiness in the protected development of his own capacity and the guaranteed exercise of his own faculties, which I take it is all that the most pronounced advocate of human rights can reasonably demand. "That our systems of government are yet incomplete should not discourage effort. The retrospect is especially inspiring. Those sub- lime heights whereby our great historical epochs are indicated— Sinai, Thermopylae and Marathon, Bethlehem, Runnymede, Wittenberg, Geneva, Oxford, Yorktown and Appomattox — stand as perpetual memorials of the superiority of justice and moral power and holy enthusiasm, over mere political intrigue and human ambition, as battle winners. " The recognition of the power of this moral sentiment, however, fixes and emphasizes the personal responsibility of the citizen for the denial, or limitation of human rights. It is the citizen alone who can be punished fof neglect of duty. The state cannot be reached. Under the homely dialect of Hosea Bigelow, Professor Lowell hid this pro- found truth: ' Gov'ment ain't to answer for it, God'll send the bill to you.' Individual effort and the influence of social and religious organ- izations operating independently of civil duties, have lifted the world into the light far more than have organized governments and written laws. The higher law is the only law that binds the heart and con- science,'. and by its reaction upon the national life governments live. 'How small, of all that human hearts endure. That part which laws or kings can cause or cure."* Dr. Roberts, on the " Problems of our Scattered Population and their Probable Solution," said: "The first great problem that confronts the church and state at the present time is that of immigration. The number of persons that land annually on our shores is beginning to create uneasiness in the minds of our best men. It rose, in 1886, to the enormous figure of eight hundred thousand souls, and fell only a very little below that during the year endinr^ with June of this year. Scattered 'T^i 1 • i 1 .• r ,1 • 1 11 "opulation ihe annual accessions to our population trom this source alone would Problems, make a city nearly as large as Brooklyn, or a state with a larger pop- ulation than that of Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Delaware, North and South Dakota, Vermont, Rhode Island, Washington, New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado or Maine. If all the immigrants who have landed on our shores during the last ten years were put in the state of Pennsylvania, they would make within 11,401 as large a pop- ulation as that of that commonwealth, which, according to the last census, is 5,258,014. "This tide of immigration has not only been increasing in volume but growing worse in quality. If it were made up, as in former years, 1166 THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, of people from the British Isles, Holland, Germany, France and north- ern Europe, the increase in number would probably excite no special alarm. For multitudes of them spoke our language, professed the Christian religion, admired our civil and social mstitutions, revered our Bible and respected our Sabbath. They came to us in order to be of us. But those who flock hither in these days are entirely differ- ent in character and purpose. They are largely Jews from Russia, Italians from the Sicilies, Bohemians, many of whom are of the baser sort, Poles long taught to dislike every kind of regularly constituted government, Hungarians looked upon as revolutionists, Armenians, Greeks and Bulgarians who have had the best elements of their nature stamped out by the iron heel of Turkey, British trade-unionists, French socialists, Austrian nihilists, German anarchists and idol worshipers from China, India and the islands of the sea. " Even this is not the worst feature of the immigration problem. * There are,' says a United States commissioner, ' from eighty to one hundred discharged prisoners' aid societies in Great Britain and Ire- land, to the care and custody of one of which every discharged pris- oner is committed. When discharged, the government pays to the society from £2 to ;£6, the money which the prisoner is supposed to have earned during his confinement, and these sums are increased by the society with which the prisoner on leave, if a felon, is gener- ously assisted to the United States, if he can be persuaded to go; and he is generally only too glad to go and leave behind him his trouble- some record." An officer who had the best facilities for knowing, made an estimate for me,' adds the same United States commissioner, * of the number of all the felonious criminals imprisoned in Scotland who were assisted to emigrate to the United States, and his estimate was that one-half of them went to the United States by the assistance of the discharged prisoners' aid societies.' This is not confined to the United Kingdom, but evidences of the same practice have been dis- covered in Germany and other lands. The United States consul at Bremen writes: * Criminals and paupers have, to my knowledge, been shipped to the United Sates by the benevolent societies whose leader in one case has been a government officer.' Europe is making our couP/try a dumping ground for her refuse. *' The political and religious views of multitudes of these immi- Enemies of grants remain the same after they come to us. A few quotations from DioRopubhc. papei-s ^eii known and extensively read by the different nationalities named will suffice to show that we are at this moment standing on a threatening volcano. A blasphemous sheet entitled the Freiheit de- clares that 'authority and state are all carved out of the same piece of wood,' and relegates both to the tender mercies of the devil. The same paper says: * The revolutionist is the irreconcilable enemy of the world, and, if he continues to live in it, it is only that he may thereby more certainly destroy it. He knows only one science, namely, de- struction. For this purpose he studies day and night. For him, every- thing is moral which favors the triumph of the revolution; everything ' THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1167 is immoral and criminal which hinders it. Day and night may he cher- ish only one thought, only one purpose, namely, inexorable destruc- tion. Whilst he pursues this purpose without rest, and in cold blood, he must be ready to die, and equally ready to kill everyone with his own hands who hinders him in the attainment of this purpose.' An- other paper called Truth, published on our Pacific coast, says: 'When the laboring men understand that the heaven which they are promised hereafter is but a mirage, they will knock at the door of the wealthy robber with a musket in hand, and will demand, now, their share of the goods of this life.' Another cries, * War to the palace, peace to the cottage, and death to luxurious idleness. We have no moment to waste. Arm! I say, to the teeth! for the revolution is upon us.* The papers in which these sentiments appear are read in thousands of our German, Bohemian, Polish and Scandinavian homes. Is it strange, then, that we should begin to see, already, some of the fruits of such teachings in revolutionary speeches, lawless outbreaks and anarchical rebellions in Chicago and elsewhere? Many of the men who seek to destroy society and overturn our most cherished institutions, *cometo us,' says Dr. Hulbert, * having neither money enough to pay their passage, nor learning enough to write their names, nor virtue enough to prize their liberties, nor manhood enough to use their opportuni- ties. These are the people who desecrate our Sabbaths, who corrupt our elections, who misrule our cities, who foment our strikes, who ap- peal to bludgeons, the torch, dynamite, social and political revo- lution.' " The solution of this problem must be the joint work of the church and the state. The latter should restrict immigration to those only who promise to become law-abiding, industrious and desirable citi- zens; compel their children to attend the public schools where they may learn what the privileges' and duties of American citizens are; deny the elective franchise to all who have not a sufficient knowledge of our language and political issues to cast an intelligent vote; and to suppress with a strong arm all disloyal demonstrations as not only absurd, but supremely wicked in a country governed by its own peo- ple." Dr. Roberts treated the evangelization of the Indians, Mormon- ism, and the alarming growth of our cities. On the last topic, he said: " For many years there has been a rush of people, both native and Centers of foreign, to our great centers of population. This is a serious menace ^^P'^a^on. of our best interests. The cities seem to possess a peculiar attrpjtion to, our foreign fellow-citizens. 'Our fifty principal cities contain,' according to Dr. Strong, '39.3 per cent, of our entire German popula- tion, and 45.8 per cent, of the Irish. Our ten largest cities contain only nine per cent of the entire population, but 23 per cent, of the foreign. Whilst a little less than one-third of the people of the United States are foreign by birth or parentage, 62 per cent, of the citizens of Cincin- nati are foreign, 69 per cent, of Cleveland, 70 per cent, of Boston, 88 per cept. of New York, and 91 per cent, of Chicago." 1168 THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, " The effect of this is the introduction into our centers of mental . activity and civilization of a large infusion of customs which are exotics on this soil, and destructive of our morals and simple habits; the opening on the corner of nearly every street and alley of the bril- liantly lighted liquor saloon, whose pauperizing power and demoraliz- ing influence on the old and the young alike cannot be computed; the planting in every ward of low theatres and gambling dens in which characters are ruined and fortunes lost; the fitting up of garrets and cellars where murderers and assassins may meet and forge their weap- ons of burglary and death; the opening of halls in which treason is hatched and incubated until it brings forth anarchy and treason; the erection of club houses where the unprincipled politician makes up his slate for nominating conventions, his plans for the distribution of offices and his bargains for votes; the building of palaces in which is crowded everything that dazzles the eye and tempts the appetite; and the springing up of numberless dens of poverty and wretchedness. If this is allowed to continue, we need no prophet to foretell some of its blighting effects upon the fairest and the most highly favored portions of our country. The withdrawal from the active business of the farmingcommunity and of the country villages will make society less attractive and property less valuable. Mortgages will multiply, sheriffs' sales will increase and everything that has a market value will tumble. Business will go to the large places; to the detriment, if not to the destruction, of the small towns and villages. This decrease in the population of the country will tend in the near future to isolate those that remain, so that they will deteriorate physically, morally and religiously. We have an example of this in the mountain whites of North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. From the large number among them of such names as McDowell, McClean, McCurdy and McManus it is believed that they were originally of Scotch and Scotch- of^s?ruo?e3 I'^'ish origin. But, being widely scattered and living for many years Populations. beyond the great currents of travel, they have sunk almost into bar- barism. Their present condition is acknowledged not to be due to their antecedents, but to their isolation. "Like conditions," says Dr. Strong, "have produced like results in many other parts of the world, and would prove as operative in Massachusetts and New York as in eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama. Indeed," he adds, 'T know of a town in one of the older New England states where such conditions have obtained for several generations and produced precisely the same results — the same large families of twelve or fifteen members, the same illiteracy, the same ignorance of the Christian religion, the same vices, the same marriage and divorce without refer- ence to the laws of God or man, which characterize the mountain whites of the south." Shall this be allowed to become the general condition of our rural districts? I am unable to name the persons or the bodies that are to solve this problem. For no practical solution of it occurs to me at the present time. I can only call the attention of my hearers to its importance, that efforts may soon be made to find the true solution. A. THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1169 THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON SUNDAY REST. Among the latest of the World's Fair Congresses was the Congress on Sunday rest, held the last three days of September. International it was, not only because representatives from foreign countries appeared upon its list of officers and among its speakers, but also because it is one of a series of congresses upon this subject which have been held mostly in Europe, and which have been international in character. The Congress was arranged for by a committee, of which the Rev. W. W. Atterbury, D. D., secretary for many years of the New York Sabbath Committee, was the chairman. At the opening session the Hon. C. C. Bonney, president of the World's Congress Auxiliary, made a brief address of welcome, in which he declared that the Sunday Rest movement made for the abolition of Sunday Beet, a vast oppressive system of human slavery. The weekly rest is the vital condition of true civil and religious liberty everywhere, and is necessary to the fair distribution of the opportunities and fruits of labor among the wage-earners. Mr. Bonney then introduced as officers of the con- gress: Maj.-Gen. O. O. Howard, U. S. A., president; the Hon. James R. Doolittle, ex-United States senator; Henry Wade Rogers, LL. D., president of the Northwestern university; the Rt. Rev. Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul; Mrs. Charles Henrotin,of the Woman's Branch of the Congress Auxiliary, and the Hon. John Charlton, M. P., Canada, as vice-presidents of the congress, and the Rev. John P. Hale as its sec- retary. General Howard, in taking the chair, expressed his early and con- stant convictions of the value of a Sabbath day for each man and for all men, and his sympathy with the movement to give the blessings of H Sunday rest to all God's children. After a prayer by the venerable Robert W. Patterson, D.D., of Chi- fago, Dr. Atterbury, on behalf of the committee of arrangements, briefly reviewed the history of the movement in Europe and this coun- 1 ry. Communications were presented from Count Bernstorff, delegate from Germany, who had unexpectedly been called home by the death of his mother; from the Glasgow Workingmen's Lord's Day Rest As- sociation; from the International Federation of Geneva, and from va- rious associations for Sunday rest in England, the Netherlands and America. M. Leon Say sent a personal letter, and introduced M. de Velmorin, of Paris, as a delegate to the congress. He and Chevalier Matteo Prochet, of Italy, made brief addresses, giving some account of the movement for Sunday rest in their respective countries. Com- munications were also read from Samuel Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor; E. P. Sargent, of the Locomotive Firemen's Brotherhood, and the officers of other labor organizations, expressing cooperation and sympathy. The argument for the universal observance of a weekly rest day was approached upon the side of man's physical necessities. It is essential to the maintenance of bodily and mental vigor. Dr. T. B. Lyon, medical superintendent of the Bloomingdale asylum, New York, 74 1170 THE WORLD'S CONOkESS OF RELIGIONS, pointed out in a suggestive paper that medicine is now largely direct- Physical ing its efforts to promote healthy conditions by giving men power to Day. " ** ®® resist the attacks of the micro-organisms which have been generally recognized as among the chief causes of disease. Since immunity from germ disease is largely in proportion to the vigor of the individual, it is of immense importance to secure favorable hygienic conditions, among which periodic rest is most important. He quoted numerous testimonies from recent medical authorities in Europe to show the dire effects of uninterrupted labor in lowering the vitality and impairing the power of resisting disease. He showed the direct bearing of these facts upon the liability to mental disorders which have been greatly increas- , ing among us of late. Institutions for the insane all over the world are filled with people to whom the stress of life has come with a weight too much for their frail nature, beneath which they have broken. The . physician may not from his professional standpoint say what particular day may be observed as a day of rest. He may only insist upon the great necessity of periodic intermission of labor. In the same general line was the address of Dr. N. S. Davis, of Chicago, former president of the International Medical Association. A large and intelligent audience gathered at the session at which the legal bearings of the problem were discussed. Judge Doolittle presided, and he and President H. W. Rogers both spoke. The princi- pal paper was by William Allen Butler, LL. D., of New York, who discussed in an able and exhaustive manner our Sunday laws, their grounds and limitation. He fairly met the objections which in various directions have been brought against our American Sunday legislation. While the root of the weekly rest as an institution is found not so much in natural law as in moral obligation, its incorporation into the gen- eral order of society is a result of civilization, aided by Christianity, both combining to give to its support the consent of the community and establishing it as an institution favorable, if not indispensable, to the physical, moral and social needs of mankind. It is therefore alike the province and duty of the government to maintain it for the public use and enjoyment. Sunday laws are properly maintained as civil regulations governing men as members of society. Obedience to such laws is properly claimed and enforced. The vital principle which gives strength and stability to the world's day of rest, at once the pledge and guaranty of its perpetuity and its beneficient power, is the faith of humanity that it is a gift of God. Papers were read by Major-General Howard and from ex-Post- master-General Wanamaker, presenting the laws and regulations gov- erning the public service, especially the army and the postoffice de- partment, with reference to Sunday labor, and comparing the usages of the British postoffice service. The social and moral bearings of the subject were presented in several papers and addresses, some oi them by women. M. Prunier, secretary of the French Association for Sunday Observance, showed how the moral condition of the man of the family is elevated by the right use of Sunday. Rev. John P. Hale, D. D., Chicago. 1172 THE WOkLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, The session in which most of the women s papers were read was presided over by Mrs. Henrotin. Alice L. Woodbridge, secretary of Needs of the Working Women's Society, of New York, pleaded the cause of Working Wo- womcn in factories, stores and domestic service. She urged that thousands of these workers were deprived of their Sunday rest, or were so overworked during the week that they were unable to use Sunday when it was given them for its highest uses. She dealt largely with the question of child labor, and stated that in the United States alone in 1880 there were 1,118,356 children between the ages of ten and six- teen, employed in mines, factories and stores. Three-fourths of the yarn manufactured in this country is spun by children under sixteen, while in the tobacco factories and sweating shops children as young as six were often employed. These views were enforced by Mrs. Florence Kelley, Illinois inspector of factories. There is great need . of a quick public sentiment that will protect working people against unreasonable hours of labor, as well as preserve their Sundays for improvement and rest. Miss Jane Addams, of the Hull House, Chicago, spoke of the necessity of weekly relief from incessant toil, and Mrs. J. H. Knowles, of Newark, N. J., presented a beautiful picture of Sunday in the home, and, the effect of such home training upon the public life of our country. The largest amount of time given to any branch of the subject was devoted to the Economic and Industrial Relations of Sunday Rest. George E. McNeill, the Boston labor advocate, made an earnest plea for a workman's weekly rest, basing his argument both on econ- omic and ethical considerations. Then followed a series of able re- ports on the results of Sunday rest in various industries in this country and Europe. Two of these were from Messrs. Gibon, of Paris, and Baumgartner, of Rouen, giving results of experiments in Sunday closing in some of the iron and glass furnaces and mines of France. In most of these it was found to result in a distinct profit to the man- ufacturer, insuring better work from men who had but six days of labor a week. M. Deluz, of the French International Federation, who has per- haps had more to do with the progress of the cause on the continent of Europe than any other living man, reported the striking results which have been obtained in France, Germany, Austria and Switzer- land, within a recent period for the relief of large classes of wage- earners from the burden of uninterrupted toil, while as yet the work menUnFrance seems only to have begun. Mr. Hill, who for many years has been the secretary of the Workingmen's Sunday Rest Association, of Eng- land, reported the features of the contest in Great Britain to maintain the ground which has long been held against the influences which .in- sidiously are invading the weekly rest in that country. Thomas Weir, who has large practical experience in the management of silver and other mines in the west, reported some striking facts from certain mines in the state of Washington. Similar testimony as to oil indus- tries was presented by W. J. Young, vice-president of one of the largest oil-producing companies in the country. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1173 In a carefully prepared paper, Mr, E. C. Beach, of the freight de- partment of the Pennsylvania railway, who has long given special at- tention to the subject, presented from the side of the railway man- agers the recognized evils of Sunday labor, and at the same time the difficulties in the way of further restricting it. The principal practical difficulty in the way of restricting Sunday traffic he declared to be the public demand for that traffic. He presented responses in answer to a circular letter of inquiry, received from railways operating Ii8,000 miles out of a total railway mileage of 196,000. These replies showed a disposition on the part of the railway managers to restrict Sunday traffic to the lowest practicable limit; but make an exception of live stock and perishable freight, and certain mail and passenger express trains. In criticism of the positions taken in this paper, L. S. Coffin, for- merly member of the State Board of Railway Commissioners of Iowa, and who appeared before the congress as the authorized representative of various orders of railway employes with an aggregate of nearly one hundred thousand members, presented the employes' side of the ques- tion. He argued that it would be a gain to all classes in the community if Sunday work were almost entirely suspended on the railways. There was no real necessity for it. By the use of refrigerator cars the necessity of Sunday trains for perishable freight was obviated. In the instance of live stock, it would be an actual gain for the shipper to take the stock from the cars on a long run for a day's feeding and rest. It was the profit to the roads, not the necessities of the case, that caused Sunday traffic. There should be federal legislation to stop the trans- portation of Sunday mails' and to restrict through traffic under the provisions of the inter-state commerce regulations. The religious side of the question was presented with great ability TheReUgious and from various points of view. Cardinal Gibbons gave the view of the Roman Catholic church in a broad and fair-minded paper. The Lutheran view was presented in a paper by Professor Spaeth, of Phila- delphia, and by Dr. L. M. Heilman, of Chicago. The common Evan- gelical view was presented by Dr. Atterbury, and the Jewish side of the question was set forth by Rabbi J3. Felsenthal, of Chicago. He showed that the Jewish Sabbath, both in ancient and modern times, was far from being that narrow and burdensome institution which it was so often regarded, that it had endowed that people with strength to with- stand the almost unceasing and pitiless attempts to exterminate their race and religion. It had blessed and dignified their family life. The laws of our American states ought to protect every congregation assembled on their Sabbath for divine worship, in a church or a chapel, or a synagogue or mosque, or any other place, against being disturbed in their worship; and they can and ought to guarantee to each person in our land, even to the poorest, one day of perfect rest in each week of seven consecutive days. All further legislation is unnecessary and would be un-American. In a discriminating paper Rev. W. R. Huntington, D. D., of Grace 1174 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Perils Men- acing Sunday Rest. church, New York, traced the perils which menace Sunday rest. The history of Sabbath associations in this country was presented by the ^ev. G. S. Mott, D. D., and a thoughtful and suggestive paper from Rev. W. J. A. Stewart, of Rochester, N. Y., set forth the relations of Sunday observance to the individual religious life. Brief and eloquent addresses were also made by Drs. Arthur Little and Joseph Cook, of Boston; E. P. Goodwin, P. S. Henson, and F. M. Bristol, of Chicago, and others. The closing address was made by Archbishop Ireland. He regarded the weakening of our reverence for the Sabbath as a princi- pal cause of the frequent infringements upon its observance. Chris- tians should remember that every weakening of Sunday tends to its total obliteration. We are making our citizens pure money-making machines. We are too anxious to be rich, too willing to sacrifice to that end every tradition, and to reduce men to the level of the beasts. An immense mass meeting was held Sunday afternoon under the auspices of the Chicago Clerks' Sunday Association, marshaled by Mr. W. J. H. Niestadt, and was addressed by speakers of the Con- gress and others. It was announced that a petition signed by eighty thousand clerks and many store keepers, asking for a city ordinance to forbid Sunday retail selling, would soon be sent to the Chicago Common Council. It was not within the province of the Congress to pass resolutions or inaugurate new movements. The permanent results of the meeting will be secured by the circulation of the papers and addresses, which are published by James H. Earle, of Boston, and by the closer sympathy which this Congress fostered, between the various forces which are seeking to secure the observance of Sunday as a day of rest and im- provement. The Congress brought together Protestan.ts and Catholics, wage-earners and capitalists, reformers and conservatives, lawyers, doctors and philanthropists, upon a common platform. It urged upon the attention of the nation the importance of the movement to secure a weekly day of rest for the world's toilers; and upon Christian men of all names their common task in laying upon the minds and hearts of all classes the duty so to use this day of privilege as will promote the spiritual and intellectual, as well as the physical well-being of society. Christian Science. THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS. An audience of over four thousand people completely filled the Hall of Washington on September 20th, and many others were unable to gain admission. The Congress was conducted by the "National Christian Scientist Association," and was presided over by the presi- dent, Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy. Delegates were present from all parts of the country. President Bonney, who gave the address of welcome, 5aid that no more striking manifestation of Divine Providence in hu- Rev. Alfred Farlow, Kansas City, Mo. 1176 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, man affairs has come in recent years than that shown in the raising up of the body of people known as the Christian Scientists who were called to declare and emphasize the real harmony between religion and science, and to restore the waning faith of many in the verities of the sacred Scriptures. Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy, president of the " National Christian Scientist Association," delivered an opening address. He said: *'The ages have had their prophets who foresaw and foretold. The world has had its revelators and discoverers, and by them the downtrodden Dn ^,J- F- and oppressed have been bidden to rise and go forth from the thraldom ^^ ^ of evil into the liberty of the sons of God! Through these prophets and discoverers the light of revelation has reached the dark places of earth; ignorance has been forced to yield to intelligence, and the physical, moral and spiritual status of mortals has been improved. * * * Jesus proved His words by His deeds, and His life was a con- stant demonstration of the principle He taught thereby, giving evi- dence that He was the one sent of God to do His work among men, for their example. His work was destructive of sin, sickness and death. " In America has sprung up the " Great Light," again conceived and brought forth by woman, who has made it possible for all men to come to it and be freed from sin, disease and death, the enslavement of per- sonal material sense, and be renewed in the likeness of the Spirit, God. This greater light is Scientifically Christian or Christian Science, a re- ligion 'with signs following.' Wise ones are being guided to it and when found it is seen to be of heavenly origin, begotten of the Father, His voice of love to men. That it is of God is proven by the hundreds of thousands of hopeless invalids who have been raised to health by its saving principle, and by the many who have been lifted from the misery of sin and its consequences into a knowledge of and obedience to God. "This is an epoch in the history and progress of Christian Science. Our beloved cause and leader have been accorded a more deserving place in history. Many misconceptions which have obscured the real sense of science from the people are disappearing and its holy, benefi- cent mission is being manifested to sick and stricken humanity. People who are searching for the truth are turning more generally to Christian Science because it reveals the natural law and power of God, available to mortals here and now, as a saviour from sickness and sin. As a denomination of Christians our growth has been rapid and wide- spread and now presents in a large degree all the external aspects of useful and successful operation." A paper by Mrs. Eddy was read by Judge S. J. Hanna, editor of the Christian Science Journal, and addresses were made by the Revs. D. A. Easton, A. E. Stetson, J. F. Linscott, E. M. Buswell, I. M. Stewart, and Mesdames R. B. Ewing, A. M. Knott and Messrs. E. P. Bates, A. Farlow, Gen. E. N. Bates and Judge S J. Hanna. The papers read are partially presented in the following synopses THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1177 which to some extent set forth the religious beliefs of the Christian Scientists and the nature of their work. Christian Science was discovered and founded by Reverend Mrs. Mary Mary Baker Eddy, who was born in the town of Bow, N. H. She Thought^"^^'^ established the "First Church of Christ (Scientist)" in Boston, and the MassachusettsMetaphysical College, at which several thousand students were taught the principle of Christian Science mind healing. In her work "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures;" the sole text book of Christian Science, the author says; "No analogy exists between the vague hypothesis of Agnosticism, Pantheism, Theosophy, Spirit- ualism or Millenarianism, and the demonstrable Truths of Christian Science." In this book, the author has also explained the nature of her discovery, including the Principle of Christian Science and the rules for demonstration. It is in the discernment of the real nature and infinity of Spirit, and its absolute non-relationship to matter that the originality, truth and efficacy of Christian Science consists, and it is this which confers upon it the distinction of a great discovery. Not that Truth included in the scientific statement is new, for its presentation is by way of discovery not of creation; but because it is a new discernment and apprehension in the human consciousness of. things which are eternal, and this is the greatest joy, wonderment and glory that can ever, by any possible means, appear unto us, the revelation and true knowledge of God. Nearly all men believe in God. They at least believe in a being or power or force which they call God. But who or what God is or whether He is personal or impersonal, corporeal or incorporeal are questions concerning which there is great diversity of opinion, and little scientific or demonstrable understanding. The majority of re- ligious people would say that God is personal without any definite opinion as to what personality, as applied to infinite God, means. The great need of the world today is, " to know Him whom to know is life eternal," and this need is not met by the substitution of human opinion, dogma and beliefs. Man knows nothing of himself without this knowledge, for he is made in the image and likeness of chri8ti£m**Sd* God. But eye hath not seen Him and material sense cannot give us e^^^e- any information concerning the character, attributes or substance of the Infinife One. The material sense tells us nothing of natural sci- ence, so-called, except the material phenomena. If we are confined to these senses, we are as jgnorant of true Science as we are of God. We must learn of God, not through any material sense, but through spiritual sense, which alone is and must be our guide. Human intel- lect and the philosophy of mortal man have exhausted themselves in the vain and futile attempt to fathom the mysteries of the Infinite. Christian Science, as the words imply, means the knowledge of Christ, or the knowledge of what Jesus taught. This Science is as old and changeless as God Himself, but interpreted as it is, by our text-book, "Science and Health," we are led along by it, step by step, toward and into the knowledge of Him " in whom we live and move and have our 1178 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, being." It gives us a new understanding and clearer view of the Scriptures which we receive as the Word of God and upon which all Scientists rest. The definitions of God as found in the Methodist Episcopal Article of Faith, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and our text-book, "Sci- ence and Health," page 556, incontrovertibly establishes God as All, as "Infinite Principle, eternal Individuality, Supreme Personality, incor- poreal Being, without body, parts or passions." Upon this common definitional platform we are content to stand, and to the contempla- tion of this God we invite all nations, peoples, kindred and tongues. The Scientific Statement of Being on page 452 of " Science and Health," gives this primary postulate of Christian Science. There is no life, substance or intelligence in matter. All is Mind. If it be a fact that all is Mind it precludes the possibility of the existence of matter as an integral part of the universe. All agree that Mind is Intelligence. There can be no intelligence apart from Mind. Mind or Intelligence must be Life. Non-intelligent Life is an impossibility. It is admitted that matter is not intelligent; but while this is admitted, it is maintained that it is substance and contains life. It is not generally maintained that it is Life. The attempted distinction is that it contains life. If it were true that it contained life, but was not itself life, it would follow as a necessary logical conclusion that the non- intelligent can contain the intelligent. Is this possible? If only that which is intelligent, or intelligence is Life, it follows by equally inevit- able logic that the non-intelligent is Lifeless. If matter contains Life it must be true that matter is the base of Life. If mankind is the off- spring of matter — matter being non-intelligent — inert matter must be the parent of mankind. Like can only produce like. Then only Life can produce Life. Hence, if matter is the base of Life, matter must be Life. Is there any escape from this conclusion? If material atoms are intelligent and are the base of life, then matter must be the creator of all forms of life, and thus matter would be God. Can we imagine a grosser pantheism than this? Were this true, mortal man would be the only man, and man would be the child of dead matter rather than the child of the living God. As Christian Scientists we look for the origin of Life in the living God, rather than in dead matter. We accept the Scriptural definition The Origin of His character and refer all Life to Him. The Bible distinctly declares Him to be Spirit. If He is Spirit He cannot be matter, either in whole or in part. It declares Him to be Love. If He is Love He must be Mind. Mindless Love is not conceivable. Nor can Love be lifeless matter. It declares Him to be Truth. Can there be Mindless Truth; or, can matter be defined as Truth? It declares Him to be all and in all; that He fills all space; that He is infinite, eternal, everlast- ing. If He is these and is Spirit, where in infinity shall be found that which is opposite to or apart from Him? All revelation teaches that God is Spirit, not cognizable to material sense. Is matter, therefore, like unto Him? Spirit is eternal. Can, of Life THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1179 therefore, anything that is material and finite emanate from or return to eternal Spirit? Christian Science separates clearly, distinctly and entirely between Spiiit and matter, Divine Mind and carnal mind. Truth and all evil. This new statement of Truth comes not to destroy, but to fulfill every jot and little of the law, and to fill full of significance and power all the "glad tidings" of "the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ" in both the letter and the spirit. It d'spels mystery by removing ignorance and misconception regarding that which was always true, but not rightly apprehended in human consciousness. If there is perfect and un- changeable Truth, that must be the Infinite wisdom, the Deific con- sciousness. Then what Deity kpows must be exact, demonstrable Truth, Divine Science, or true knowledge of God, and nothing contrary thereto can be true. When men fully comprehend this it will be seen that the universal God can only be worshiped through one universal religion, or common understanding of Him and His laws. Christian Science is a universal religion, with a universal Principle and capable of a universal practice. Its origin is God, Infinite Mind. Infinite Mind is expressed in the Christ. The Christ was never born, but was manifest through the human Jesus. Jesus is the pattern for a true humanhood. He was, as Christ Jesus, a manifestation of God. He knew that Mind was God. This makes His teaching a study of the Mind that was in Christ Jesus. Jesus did the will of omniscient God, and said, 'T and my Father are One.'' The Mind which created and governed Jesus was the Divine Mind. The Apostle writes, "Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Mortals have a very degraded sense of Mind. The medley of opinions and erroneous and sinful thoughts which encumber human consciousness are neither Mind nor evidence thereof. It is simply a falsity; it is foolishness with God; it is evil, and cannot, by any process now or hereafter, be transformed into Truth. Error must be cast out and utterly destroyed before indi- vidual consciousness shall be in the likeness of God. Jesus' message was from God, and His message was His theology. This theology is Divine Science, and antidotes all human theologies. All that mortals will ever know of Truth they will know as Jesus knew it, by demonstration, revelation or reflection from the infinite Mind. The study of His teachings is a Science. Our great Master said, "If any man shall do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." Scientific Theology is not from the human Jesus, but from God. It can all be stated in one sermon, but takes eternity in which to completely demonstrate it. The state- ments of its letter are of the human intellect, but when reason and affection are moved by divine love the message is from God, and the messenger is sent from God. His theology as set forth in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is being practiced by more than one hundred thousand of His loving disciples today. There is this one possibility for mankind through the practice of 1180 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. the scientific theology of Jesus as taught and practiced by the students of the Scriptures and " Science and Health." It crowns every man with the love of the Messiah, makes him a theocrat, a God- crowned citizen. It is a practical Christianity. We recognize all that is true, honest and pure in all the world's religions, yet all suggest this most excellent way of demonstrating God's power among men. Better the understanding to heal the slightest malady strictly on the basis of God as the Principle of Science, than all the material Knowl- edge of the world. How to stu- There is one study of universal interest, and that is man. How is dyMan. he to be Studied? Experience replies, from the testimony given by the five senses; and yet such knowledge is at best only relative, and can never reveal the absolute facts of being. We are told in the Bible that, " man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He Cometh forth like a flower and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." This relates only to the physical. When we come to the moral, the idea of freedom is thought and de- clared to be impossible of realization. This mortal man is by his own confession a prisoner in a house of clay, struggling to realize some- thing, he knows not what; the seemingly helpless victim of sickness, sin and sometimes unmerited misfortune. And is this man? Nature as we know her has no answer; human reason says I know no other; but above the discords of the senses, Divine Science lifts up its voice as the sound of many waters, and in the name of Almighty God declares that this is not man; and revelation coincides with this declaration and affirms that man is the image and likeness of God. The ideal brotherhood of man is that state in which the individual loves and serves God supremely, and loves all mankind with a perfect love. This is the only state that can bring peace, and to reach it each one must do an individual work. Left to their own resources, mortals are in constant strife, socially, politically and religiously. Each individual has an opinion as to what is needed to afford harmony and satisfaction, but because of conflicting minds many, and the great variety of abnormal, carnal tastes, there is little agreement. The Divine Mind can and does supply all things. A knowledge of this fact changes our desires and affections. If we learn to avail ourselves of God's supply, there will be plenty for all, and no occasion for disappointment, contention or want. There will be no occasion for strife as to who shall be greatest; for we may all be great, even the perfect likeness of a perfect parent. There will be no strife as to who will have the greatest possessions for we will all receive in perfect fullness from God Himself. There will be no conflicting opinions for all will see alike. The very moment mortals touch in unison upon the right, there is an agreem-ent, harmony prevails and discord ceases. We must each be in harmony with Truth itself, then we will be in harmony with each other. A material government with sufficient variety of provisions to THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1181 meet the demands of a world of individuals with various abnormal desires, is an absolute impossibility. Such a government would neces- sitate myriads of conflicting laws, and would be utterly impractical. It is more practical that each individual be conformed to the standard of right, than that we devise a government that is adaptable to mortals in all their various conditions. The Rev. Mary Baker Eddy has given, in her boolj "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," an ample explanationof the cause Rev. Mary b. of disease and the method of scientific healing. Jesus' followers ^' eighteen hundred years ago demonstrated that the principle He taught was scientific and therefore practicable. The healing of the sick by Jesus, according to the infinite will and purpose of God, was neither supernatural nor miraculous. Nothing that is done in obedience to God can be unnatural. Christian Science is the revelation of the Science of the Christ mission, and shows that this mission is a complete, perfect illustration of the only way in which mortals can overcome the world and the evils of every kind that are unlike God, and therefore contrary to God, and that separate man in belief from Him. It shows that the healing of the sick is a natural phenomenon of "Scientific Christianity" or the understanding of Jesus' teachings. This declaration is confirmed by the fact that, as his followers perceive and understand the real significance of His work, they are able to man- ifest that knowledge by healing disease. The healing of the sick in compliance with the teachings and command of Jesus was the natural phenomenon of primitive Christianity. It was never regarded by Jesus or His followers as being miraculous or spectacular or as the local intermittent action of God's will for the limited benefit of a few people or for a brief period of time. Jesus said: "Preach the Gospel" and "Heal the sick," and He promised that, "These signs shall follow them that believe; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." Christian Scientists understand and are demonstrating that this command and promise are for all time and all mankind. Christian Science healing is wholly unlike what is called "Faith Cure" or "Prayer Cure." It is not the operation of a supposed fluctu- „ Christian ating capricious interposition of God, but in accord with His infinite ing!"^^ law. Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am," referring clearly to the universal and infinite nature of the Christ Mind that preaches the Gos- pel, heals the sick, raises the dead and casts out evils. Jesus came to do the will of the Father and destroy the works of the devil. He destroyed fear, sorrow and suffering. Even death was met and overcome by Him. He expressed God's will in healing the sick and reforming the sinner. If we w^ill study the Gospels with special reference to this sub- ject, it will be found that the "healing of multitudes" was a continuous work with Him. He said, "I am the way!" and "Follow thou Me!" 1182 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REllClOMS, and when humanity awakens to the great Truth that has been revealed to this age, it will know that this mandate was not outside of the uni- versal, divine order. If it was ever good to heal the sick as Jesus and the early Christians did, through the power of an impartial God, it is good now, for God is infinite. If the way of salvation includes the healing of the sick, may we not lose the way and limit the possibili- ties of salvatioij by assuming that we cannot follow in this way or that obedience to this explicit command is sacrilegious? The reasons for accepting the Christian Science statement of the resurrection of Jesus are: First, because in common with the greater part of Christendom it teaches that the historical record of the resur- rection is trustworthy. There are those who call themselves Christians, who say that the resurrection story is a myth. But they think, also, that all the miracles are myths, and reject all the supernatural element in the Bible. Christian Science has nothing in common with this line of thought. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," written by Rev. Mary B. G. Eddy, the discoverer, founder and leader of Christian Science, which, with the Bible is the sole text-book, teaches unequivo- cally the historical accuracy of the resurrection. Secondly, Christian Science teaches explicitly that all of the experiences of Jesus from the time He was placed in the tomb to the time that he emerged from it, occurred on this plane of thought, and that the body with which He came forth from the tomb was identically the same body that was put in the tomb. Thirdly, Christian Science teaches that Jesus' resurrection differed only in degree, not in kind, from Jesus' other miracles. They were all designed to prove that Spirit is All-powerful and matter power- less. Fourthly, the resurrection and all the other so-called miracles rection^^^°^" ^^^ divinely natural rather than supernatural. When Jesus came forth from the tomb it was not because He had supernatural assistance. He was only asserting a great fact of man's being, viz., that man cannot die. He was demonstrating His birthright as a Son of God. He proved that the law of man's nature was Life, and that death was a false claimant. Those who maintain that the resurrection and Jesus' other demonstrations over matter were exceptional assertions of God's power, and that they interfered with the natural order of things, are forced to admit, that sin, disease and death are natural and that Life, Truth and Love are abnormal. Admitting the reality of evil, they have to admit that there is another power than God, viz., a god of evil, who at present at least shares God's throne. They also have to account for the origin of evil, and how can that be done without impugning the benevolence of God? This line of thought leads also to the asser- tion that man is not entirely a child of God, that he is in part a child of the devil. These admissions are paralyzing to spiritual growth, and lead us away from the simplicity of Jesus' Gospel into a never ending maze of human speculation. THE WORLD' ^ CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 118S Fifthly, we can have part in Jesus' resurrection now and here, by obedience to the law of Spirit and denial of the seeming law of matter. According to "Science and Health," the central thought and efficiency of the resurrection was not the mere rising of a physical body from a material grave. The Bible records other instances of physical resur- rection; but as factors in the Christian life, they are not to be compared with the resurrection of Jesus. And even as to the physical resurrec- tion of Jesus, it may be said, that a zealous belief in it may be consistent with an un-Christian life. It is evident then, that if we would know the secret of the transforming power of the doctrine of Jesus' resurrection, r^^ Reaur. we must look elsewhere than at its physical and material aspects, jection of This doctrine was very prominent in the Apostles' preaching. They seemed to realize that to this they owed in a large measure the spirit- ualization of their thought, their control over the lusts of the flesh and worldly ambitions, their solid assurance of the great facts of Life, Truth, and Love, and deliverance from the beliefs of sin, disease and death. The ultimate and ideal of Christian Science is to overcome death in the same way that Jesus did, and when we follow His life perfectly we shall do it. We do not claim that Christian Scientists have at present sufficient spiritual realization to demonstrate over the claim of death as Jesus did, but we do claim that we are using Jesus' method success- fully in destroying the claims of disease and sin; and in all reverence we maintain that that same method faithfully adhered to will enable us, at some time, to demonstrate over the claim of death as Jesus did. He said that His followers could do all the works that He did and greater, and we rest confidently on this promise. Christian Science is presented before the world today, the happy suppliant for recognition of its claim to be what its name implies, both Christian and Scientific; it voices an imperative demand that these two be made one henceforth in faith and practice, for otherwise there is no satisfactory proof, no final evidence of the validity of the claims of either. In no other way than through actual demonstration of Truth can mortals learn whether they are obeying God, or their opinions about Him. Faith not buttressed by demonstration is always in danger of changing to skepticisrh. It is always possible to change one belief for another, the belief in immortality for the belief in annihilation; but a demonstrated knowledge of God is planted on a rock and cannot be moved. The message of Christian Science to the world is, that in propor- tion as it is understood and demonstrated, the mysteries of religious theories and conjecture will be effaced; man's true relation to God will be revealed; sickness and sin will be extinct; "man's inhumanity to man" will disappear and he will "awake in the likeness of God (good) and be satisfied." .0/ 1 i % x^ %' s / Rev. L. P. Mercer, Chicago. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1185 THE NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH CONGRESS. This congress was of deep interest to the disciples of Sweden- borg. It was well attended during the five days of its sessions. The proceedings were participated in by the Revs. James Reed, Massachu- setts; Thomas A. King, Illinois; John Presland, London, England; Frank Sewell, Washington; L. H. Tafel,Ohio; G. N. Smith, Michigan; John Goddard, Ohio; S. S. Seward, New York; C. J. N. Manby, Sweden, James Speis, England; T. F.Wright, Ph. D., Massachusetts; Thomas Child, England; C. L. AUbut, Canada; A. F. Frost, Michigan; W. H. Hinkley, Massachusetts; Fedor Gorwitz, Switzerland; Adolph Roeder; New Jersey; John Worcester, Massachusetts; J.J. Thornton, Canada; J. C Ager, New York; S. C. Eby, Illinois; P. B. Cabell, Delaware; C. H. Mann, New York; J. K. Smyth, Massachusetts, and other members of the denomination. The Rev. Dr. L. P. Mercer, who presided, de- clared that he believed that Christ had accomplished His second ad- vent in opening the spiritual sense and divine meaning of the written Word, through Emanuel Swedenborg, and that the New Church stands for a new revelation from the Lord, "The New Church," he said, " is as wide as human need, and as universal and impartial as divine love." Miss A. E. Scammon welcomed the women of the church. Papers were presented as follows: "One Lord, One Church, with its Successive Ages," the Rev. Frank Sewall, Washington, D. C; "The Church Before Christianity," the Rev. G. N. Smith, Michigan; "The Church of the First Advent," the Rev. J. Reed, of Massachusetts; "The Church of the Second Advent," the Rev. L. H. Tafel; "The Catholic Spirit of the New Church," the Rev. Thomas A. King, Chi- cago. "The Doctrine of the Lord" was treated by the Rev. John God- dard, Ohio; "Redemption," the Rev. J. Presland, England; "Salvation," the Rev. S. S. Seward, New York; "The Future Life," the Rev. H. C. Dunham, Kansas; the "Science of Correspondences," the Rev. John Worcester, Massachusetts; "The Opened Word in Relation to the Gen- tile Nations," the Rev. A. Roeder, New Jersey, and other topics CONGRESS OF RELIGIOUS UNITY. The friends of universal religious unity held an interesting session, Among those present were Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, of Evanston, 111., Lydia H. Talbot, Mrs. Mary Fisk, of Denver, Nama Sima Chari, of India, Swami Vivekananda and the Rev. C. E. Hulbert, of Detroit. The creed adopted was: "Recognizing the unity of interest in the human family, we welcome the light from every source and earnestly desire td constantly grow in the knowledge of truth and the spirit of love, and to manifest the same in helpful service." 75 1186 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, Religioas Liberty. The Baptists Have Not Pro- moted Unity. EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE CONGRESS. Little more than a programme can be given of the proceedings of this organization which occupied the Hall of Columbus from October 8th to the 15th, including two Sundays, with three sessions daily, attended by large congregations. Freedom, union, cooperation and conversion were the keynotes. Addresses on Religious Liberty were made by Bishop Charles H. Fowler, D. D., James H. King, D. D., and Hon. J.L. M. Curry, LL. D.; On The Condition of Protestant Christendom, by the Rev. H. B. Macartney, the Rev. George Monro Grant, D. D., Prof. Jean C. Bracq, Count Andreas Von Bern, Lord Kinnaird, the Rev. Comm. Prochet, D. D., Col. R. Roosmale Nepoen, the Rev. M. Falk Gjertsen and Prof. Edouard Naville; On Christian Union and Cooperation, by President W. De W. Hvde, D. D., the Revs. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D., A. Cleveland Coxe, D' D., LL. D., James McCosh, D. D., LL. D., Philip Schaff, D D., LL. D., Josiah Strong, D. D., and Mr. A. j. Arnold, secretary of the British Alliance; On Church and Sociological Ques- tions, the Revs. John C. Flaville, Kerr B. Tupper, D. D., Russell H. Conwell, D. D., Prof. C. R. Henderson, D. D., W. S. Rainsford, D. D., Mrs. Lucy Ryder Meyer, Miss Grace H. Dodge, Mr. James L. Houghteling, Miss Jane Addams, the Rev. Willard Parsons, and Mr. Alfred T. White. President Hyde said: "A city is better off for variety in its churches when it can afford it, but the attempt to get up variety of this kind in a country town is ruinous. Have we any right to spend money providing country towns with these ecclesiastical luxuries because these towns cannot support them themselves? Yet that is what we have been doing for years, and in consequence we find every- where in these communities empty churches, half-paid ministers, divided forces, wasted strength and scattered resources. Statistics show us many things in this connection. There are eighteen towns in Maine, with an average population of 244, and yet these eighteen towns have 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 cooperation in church extension is a duty from every point of life. We owe it first to the contributors who support home missions; second, to our devoted missionaries; third, to the people we seek to evangelize; fourth, to Christ and the truth of Christianity." Dr. Williams admitted that " the Baptists have not made the contribution to church unity that they ought to have made. The trouble was that they had forgotten the due co-ordination of the truths for which they believe themselves to stand. They had emphasized too much the lines of denominational demarkation, such as the close- communion principle and baptism by immersion, rather than the general principles of Christianity. There should be greater and more earnest cooperation among the denominations. Let every man pursue the truth as God gives him to see the truth, but let him never forget that the very first thing he has to do is to make more Christian?," Rev Dr. F. A. Noble, Chicago. ^Memljer General ConnnitUc) Rev. Prof, David Swing, Chicago. (Vice-President General Committee.) THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1187 Rev. Dr. Clark observed: " Congregationalists arc more than willing; they are ready and eager to cooperate with Christians of every name in church extension or, if need be, in church extinction. Show us anywhere in the wide field that a Congregational church has unjustly crowded upon its neighbors, and whatever can be done to withdraw it will be done. Prove to us in fair and mutual conference that our presence in any community is a cause of weakness or division, and that our retirement will strengthen the interests that remain, and we will esteem it our first duty to retire." The work of the Alliance was divided into departments, thus, Evangelistic, Reformatory, Educational, Social and Miscellaneous, and each department was subdivided and each topic assigned. Thus — A Working Church, Dr. Kerr B. Tupper; Evening Congregation, the Rev. John C. Flaville, etc. The programme was broad, comprehensive, practical and full of the Christian spirit and purpose. It was one of the notable gatherings of the century. YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION CONGRESS. This congress was held October 7th, presided over by Mrs. J. V. Farwell, Jr. Lord Kinnaird, as president of the British Young Women's Christian Association, spoke at length of the allied branches of the British association. Mrs. Joseph Cook was unable to remain in Chicago to present her paper on " Young Women as Agents in the Evangelization of the World," and it was read by Prof. Louise M. Hodgkins, of Wellesley College. Mr. J. H. Elliott gave a most straightforward and convincing address. His topic was, " The Opportunities for Work for Young Women in Our Great Cities." Mr. R. C. Morse, General Secretary of the International Young Men's Christian Association, and Mr. Robert Weidinsall, their first traveling secretary, both gave most hearty in- dorsements of this parallel work for young women. Mr. Gaylord, recently secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association in Paris, spoke of the deep necessity for a similar and aggressive movement for the young women of France. Miss R. F. Morse and Miss Effie K. Price spoke during the different sessions of the actual work accom- plished by the associations, and among other things gave the following information of the birth and work of the Young Women's Christian Association: The Secretary states that "The Young Women's Christian Associa- tion points to the year 1872 as the date of its birth, and to a prayer- meeting in a little college in the state of Illinois as its birthplace. Out of this prayer meeting there grew the first Young Women's Chris- tian Association. Other colleges heard of this organization. Other associations came into existence and, naturally enough, there came to Youn^ Wo- men in Cities. Yonng Wo- men's Christ- ian Association 1188 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. be a desire for an intercollegiate bond. A little later there came to be, top, a desire for an interstate bond, and out of this grew what is now known as the International Committee of Young Women's Chris- tian Associations, a body composed of thirty-three women, having its headquarters in Chicago and with the majority of its members resi- dents of Chicago. It is the province of this committee to study the work of Young Women's Christian Associations throughout the United States and the Dominion of Canada; to plan for the organiza- tion of new associations, and to watch and direct the growth of asso- ciations already organized. It is its duty to study the philosophy of the work as a whole; to guard its ideals; to preserve, in short, in all its work, a distinct unity of plan, of purpose, of aim. This it does by the dissemination of association literature upon different phases of asso- ciation work, by the publication of a monthly organ called the Evangel, by conventions, by secretarial visitation and by summer con- ferences. Brief as has been the existence of the international com- mittee, its work has grown so rapidly and so powerfully that it covers in its territory of affiliation fifty-four associations in cities and two hundred and fifty-eight associations in colleges, the city associations having a membership of ten thousand young women and the college associations having a membership of ten thousand. The constitution of the Young Women's Christian Association says that the object of this organization is to develop young women Association. ^ along four lines — the physical, the social, the intellectual and the spiritual. In a city association the development of young women . physically means that the association shall have a gymnasium, with every equipment of gymnasium work; that it shall have also a physical director who shall be a master of the science which she teaches and who shall be more than this, an earnest, magnetic, consecrated Christian woman. The development socially means in a city association that there shall be provided a pure, uplifting, wholesome, and, at the same time, thoroughly happy social life. This means, then, that the asso- ciation shall have a delightful parlor; that it shall have a beautiful reading room; that it shall have a commodious and cheery lunch room, and that there shall be provided from time to time delightful enter- tainments of a social as well as intellectual character. The develop- ment intellectually means that there shall be in the city association educational classes comprising in their curricula not only the simplest branches, but, if there be need or request for them, the most abstract and difficult ones. It means that there shall be provided instruction in millinery, in dressmaking, in cooking, in stenography and in type- writing, classes in English grammar and arithmetic, others in French and German, university extension courses of lectures, indeed, every opportunity for young women to secure for themselves knowledge which shall open to them not only new avenues of usefulness, but, too, new avenues of enjoyment and culture. The improvement of the spiritual condition of young women is named in the constitution as the fourth department of our work, Al- THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1189 though there are classes in inductive Bible study, Bible training classes and Gospel meetings for young women, yet if the association fulfills entirely its purpose it must reach young women through every department of its work to bring them ultimately to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. EVOLUTIONIST CONGRESS. On September 28th and 29th, the Evolutionists commanded great interest. The opening address, "The Progress of Evolutionary Thought," was by Benjamin F. Underwood, of Illinois, and other papers were read, as follows: " Future Civilization," by Dr. James A. Skilton; " Beastliness of Civilization; Evolution the Only Remedy," by Gail Hamilton; "A Sketch of the Astronomer, Richard A. Proctor," by his daughter, Mary Proctor; "The Marvel of Heredity and its Meaning," by Rev. John C. Kimball, of Hartford, Conn.; "The Relativity of Knowledge; Spen- cer's Unknowable," by Benjamin F. Underwood. " The Evolution of the Modern Family," by Mrs. Florence G. Buckstaff, of Wisconsin; " Evolution as Applied to Disease in the Progress of Social Develop- ment," by Bayard Holmes, M. D., of Illinois. " Relations of the Feelings," by Dr. Herman Gasser; " Constructive Forms of Intuition," by Dr. John E. Purdoni of Dublin, Ireland; "Psychology in its Re- lation to Ethics," by Harvey C. Alvord, of South Dakota; "Con- structive Power of Evolution," by Franklin H. Head; "The Evo- lution of the Muscular Fiber," by Dr. Martin L. Holbrook; "The Weissman's Theory Reviewed," by Edwin Montgomery. Gail Hamilton said: "Evolution agrees exactly with Augustine g^u Hamiii and Jonathan Edwards as to the wickedness of the world. The differ- ton's ideas, ence simply is that the Edwards men come down from a saintly plane, and the evolutionists go up from a beastly plane to explain it. But in the beastliness of civilization, using the word beastliness definitely and not descriptively, lies our hope of the future. Science is the true interpreter of salvation. Modern science has reduced the Augus- tine imagination to an absurdity; has expressed the sweet juices of truth from the Hebrew drama, and has organized the Greek imagina- tion into a demonstrable probability. Evolution is not proved, may never be proved, but it fits the facts as no other theory has ever done, and is infinite in encouragement for the human race." Great interest was created by the reading of a paper sent by Herbert Spencer, on " Social Evolution and Social Duty." Mr. Spencer says: "At a congress which has for its chief purpose to advance ethics and politics by diffusing evolutionary ideas, it seems especially needful to dissipate a current misconception respecting the relation in which we stand individually toward the process of social evolution. Errors of a certain class may be grouped as errors of the uncultured, but there are errors of another class which characterize the cultured, implying, as they do, a large amount of knowledge with a good deal 1190 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, of thought, but yet, with thought not commensurate with the knowl edge. The errors I refer to are of this class: "The conception of evolution at large, as it exists in those who are aware that evolution includes much more than ' natural selection,* in- volves the belief that from beginning to end it goes on irresistibly and unconsciously. The concentration of nebulae into stars and the forma- tion of solar systems are desermined entirely by certain properties of the matter previously diffused. Planets which were once gaseous, then liquid, and finally covered by their crusts, gradually undergo geological transformations in virtue of mechanical and chemical processes. "Similarly, too, when we pass to organic bodies — plant and animal. Enabled to develop individually, as they are, by environing forces, and enabled to develop as species by processes which continue to adapt and readapt them to their changing environments, they are made to fit themselves to their respective lives, and, along certain lines, to reach higher lives, purely by the involved play of forces of which they are unconscious. The conception of evolution at large, thus far cor- rect, is by some extended to that highest form of evolution exhibited in societies. It is supposed that societies, too, passively evolve apart from any conscious agency; and the inference is that, according to the evolutionary doctrine, it is needless for individuals to have any care about progress, since progress will take care of itself. Hence the as- sertion that ' evolution erected into the paramount law of man's moral and social life becomes a paralyzing and immoral fatalism.' " Here comes the error. Everyone may see that throughout the lower forms of evolution the process goes on only because the various units concerned — molecules of matter in some cases, and members of a species in another — respectively manifest their natures. It would be absurd to expect that inorganic evolution would continue if molecules ceased to attract or combine, and it would be absurd to suppose that organic evolution would continue if the instincts and appetites of indi- viduals of each species were wholly or even partially suspended. " No less absurd is it to expect that social evolution will go on apart from the normal activeties, bodily and mental, of the component indi- viduals, apart from their desire and sentiments, and those actions which they prompt. It is true that much social evolution is achieved without any intention on the part of citizens to achieve it, and even without the consciousness that they are achieving it. The entire in- dustrial organization, in all its marvelous complexity, has arisen from the pursuit by each person of his own interests, subject to certain re- straints imposed by the incorporated society; and by this same spon- taneous action have arisen also the multitudinous appliances of industry, science, and art, from the flint knives up to automatic print- ing machines; from sledges up to locomotives — a fact which might teach politicians that there are at work far more potent social agencies than those which they control. " But now observe that just as these astonishing results of social evolution, under one of its aspects, could never have arisen if men's latiun. THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, 1191 egoistic activities had been absent, so in the absence of their altruistic activities there could never have arisen and cannot further arise certain higher results of social evolution. Just as the egoistic feelings are the gpci-a Evo needful factors in the one case, so the altruistic feelings are the need- ful factors in the other, and whoever supposes the theory of evolution to imply that advanced forms of social life will be reached, even if the sympathetic promptings of individuals cease to operate, does not understand what the theory is. *' A simple analogy will make the matter clear. All admit that we have certain desires which insure the maintenance of the race, that the instincts which prompt to the marital relation and afterward sub- serve the parental relation make it certain that, without any injunction or compulsion, each generation will produce the next. Now suppose someone argued that since, in the order of nature, continuance of the species was thus provided for, no one need do anything toward further- ing the process by marrying. What should we think of his logic; what should we think of his expectation that the effect would be pro- duced when the causes of it were suspended? '* Yet, absurd as he would be, he could not be more absurd than the one who supposed that the higher phases of social evolution would come without the activity of those sympathetic feelings in men which are the factors of them; or, rather, he would not be more absurd than one who supposed that this is implied by the doctrine of evolution. ** The error results from failing to see that the citizen has to regard himself at once subjectively and objectively — subjectively, as possess- ing sympathetic sentiments (which are themselves the products of evolution); objectively, as one among many social units having like sentiments, by the combined operation of which certain social effects are produced. He has to to look on himself individually as a being moved by emotions which prompt philanthropic actions, while, as a member of society, he has to look on himself as an agent through whom these emotions work out improvements in social life. So far, then, is the theory of evolution from implying a * paralyzing and im- moral fata!ism,' 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 of them is i^bligatory upon each citizen." 1192 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS. UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST CONGRESS. On September 14th this body assembled and held but one morn- United ing session, in the Hall of Washington, Bishop J. Weaver presiding, irethren. Papers were read as follows: " The Origin of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ," by the Rev. A. W. Drury, D. D.; "The Polity of the Church," by Bishop J. S. Mills, D. D., Ph. D.; ''The Doctrines of the Church," by the Rev. J. W. Etter, D. D.; "The Educational Work of the Church," by President T. J. Sanders, Ph. D.; " The Mission and its Claims Upon the Denomination," by the Rev. Wm. McKee; " The Sunday-school Work of the Church," by the Rev. J. A. Wilier, D. D. Ph. D.; "The Church and Questions of Moral Reform," by the Rev. I. L. Kephart, D. D. Resolutions were adopted expressive of appro- bation of the World's Parliament of Religions. The attendance was large in proportion to the size of the denomination. KING'S DAUGHTERS' CONGRESS. An interesting presentation of this excellent association was addressed by several of the prominent workers in its behalf. " Inter- national Board of Women's Christian Association " was given by Mrs. Howard Ingham; "The Religious Mission of the Order of King's Daughters and Sons," by Mrs. Isabella C. Davis; " Bible Class Work of Women's Christian Associations," by Miss Clarence Beebe. Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickinson also spoke. GERMAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH CONGRESS. The presentation of this body was on September 24th and 25th. Addresses were made on "The Faith and Distinguishing Character- istics of the Evangelical Synod of North America," by Rev. J. K. Zimmerman, of Louisville; "What the Evangelical Church Has Done for Mankind," by Rev. J. G. Kircher, of Chicago; "Our Mission in India," by Rev. Julius Lohr, of Bisrampur, India. Also addresses were made by the Revs. J. Lueder, D. Irion, Paul L. Menzel, E. Otto, H. Wolf, J. Pister and F. Holke. The American branch of this church originated in 1840, in Missouri, and it has grown to eight hundred ministers and nine hundred and sixty congregations. It is an earnest, devoted people. The world's CoNGkEss of religions. 19S THE THEOSOPHISTS' CONGRESS. This body was presided over by George E. Wright, of Chicago. The leading spirit was Mrs. Annie Besant, of England, and the distin- guished and picturesque East Indians, Dharmapala and Chakravarti, were marked figures. Incisive and always well-received words were frequent from William Q. Judge, of New York. Prof. C. H. Chakra- varti, of Allahabad, defined Theosophy in a complete statement, as far as definition is possible. He said, however, that only long discipline and contemplation and study of the Scriptures in the East would enable anyone to understand its lofty transcendentalism. He declared it only necessary to insist on its sublime doctrine of brotherhood, as a scien- tific tenet, and that all creatures came from one source and return to whence they came, which are really its only essential truths. He added that all animals are journeying toward man's estate. Dharma- pala, Chakravarti, Mrs. Mercy M. Thirds, of Chicago; Dr. Jerome A. Anderson, of San Francisco; Mrs. F. Henrietta MuUer, of London; Dr. J. D. Buck and others, took part in the proceedings. Theosophy was pronounced to be in harmony with science, and the foundation of the Old and New Testaments, and that air Scriptures contain truths, and that all saviors are Christs. Great stress was laid on the doctrine of reincarnations and the lavv of Karma. Theoeopdy. BUDDHIST CONGRESS. A brilliant spectacle was seen on the evening of September 26th, when Buddhism had its presentation and its gorgeously appareled advocates were grouped on the platform. The Rev. Dr. Momerie, of London, presided, and Y. Naguchi made the address of welcome, in the course of which he said: "I cannot think that this congress of the various faiths of the world has been a mere show of different races, but it has done a grand work, by which the different faiths of the globe come and will continue to embrace one another in a cordial fraternity; and if our oriental thought shall give an additional tint to the material civilization of America and increase her natural beauty and grace, we shall be greatly satisfied." Shaku Soyen, Zitsuzen Ashitzu, Kinza Riuge Hirai and the always popular Vivekananda gave addresses, the last named the closing one. He said: "I am not a Buddhist, as you have heard, and yet I am. If China, or Japan, or Ceylon follow the teachings of the Great Master, India worships Him as God incarnate on earth. You have 1194 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 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 disciples. 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 with this difference: The Jews rejected Jesus Christ, nay, crucified Him, and the Hindu has exalted Shakamuni to the seat of divinity and worships him. "The religion of the Hindus is divided into two parts, the cere- monial and the spiritual. The spiritual portion is especially studied Caste is a So- by the monks. In that there is no caste. A man from the highest ciai Bistinc- caste and a man from the lowest may become a monk in India, and ^^' the two castes become equal. In religion there is no caste; caste is simply a social condition. Shakamuni himself was a monk, and to his glory he had the 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 conceive the idea of proselyting. " The great glory of the master lay in his wonderful sympathy for everybody, especially for the ignorant and poor. Some of his disci- ples were Brahmans. When Buddha was teaching, Sanskrit was no more the spoken language in India. It was then only in the books of the learned. Some of Buddha's Brahman disciples wanted to translate his teachings into Sanskrit, but he steadily told them, 'I am for the poor, for the people; let me speak in the tongue of the people.' And so to this day the great bulk of his teachings are in the vernacular of that day in India." Addressing the picturesque group of Buddhists on the platform, he said: "We cannot live without you, nor you without us. Then believe that separation was shown to us, that you cannot stand without the brain and philosophy of the Brahman, nor we without your heart. This separation between the Buddhist and the Brahman is the cause of the downfall of India. That is why India is populated by three hun- dred millions of beggars, and that is why India has been the slave of conquerors for the last one thousand years. Let us, then, join the wonderful intellect of the Brahman with the heart, the noble soul, the wonderful humanizing power of the great Master." FREE RELIGIONISTS' CONGRESS. This was a small gathering. It held but tv*^o sessions. President Rev. Wm J. Potter; Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Francis Ell- ingwood Abbot, the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Rabbi Hirsch, the Rev. Minot J. Savage, and Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, discussed " The Free THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 1195 Religious Association as the Expounder of the Natural History of Religion," " Unity in Religion " and •* The Scientific Method in the Study of Religion." YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION CONGRESS. This useful organization held a session on October 6th. The pre siding officer described its purpose to be "to make the best men in the class-room, on the bench, in the home and at the ballot box." It was shown that 450 American colleges and 30,000 students are identified with it, 4nd that night schools and university extension work are accomplivhing immense good. Addresses were given by the presi- dent, John M. Coulter, of Lake Forest; E. S. Shuey, of Dayton, Ohio; E. L. Wishard, C. M. Hobbs, Luther Gulich, M. D.; A. A. Stagg- Lord Kinnaird, of England, and Cephas Brainerd. ETHICAL CULTURE CONGRESS. At the meeting of the Ethical Culturists, Prof. Felix Adler, the founder of the society; S. Burns Weston, of Philadelphia; Prof. Paul Shorey, of the Chicago University; Stanton Coit, of London; George C. Rosenblatt, of New York; Joseph W. Earrnt, of Chicago, and Frank Tobey, participated. A letter was read from Professor Foerster, of Berlin. The topics treated were: '*Helps to Moral Life from Greek and Roman Literature;" "The Practical Work of the Neighborhood Guild," etc. It was stated that it is the province of ethical science to adopt all that is good in all religions, and that religionists of all modes of thinking can approve the purposes of the Ethical Society and should encourage it. SWEDISH EVANGELICAL MISSION COVENANT. Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant in America; Presentation. This meeting was in the Hall of Washington, September 25th. Papers Swedish were read by Rev. N. Frykman, vice-president of the Mission Cove- EvangeHcaL nant ("The History of the Free Evangelical Mission Movement in Sweden and America") and by Prof. D. Nyvall, president of the Swedish Evangelical Mission College and Seminary; Rev. Otto Hog- felvt, secretary of the Mission church, and Rev. E. Skogsbergh, of Minneapolis, Minn. This body originated in Sweden about a half- century ago. It numbers in Sweden one hundred and thirty thousand members and fifty thousand in America. It has no fixed creed, but works for the promotion of Evangelical Christianity. Its basis is church life. 1196 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS, l^EFORMED CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. Reformed Church of the United States; Presentation. Thursday. September 2ist, the Reformed church gathered its representatives in the Hall of Washington. Rev. Ambrose M.Schmidt, of Pittsburg, was the chairman. The first topic was "The Reformed Church and Her Creed," which was read by Rev. Wm. Rupp, D. D., of Pittsburg, Pa. The other speakers were Rev. Joseph H. Dubbs on "The Progress of the Century;" Rev. Dr. T. G. Appel, D. D., on "The Progress of Theology;" Rev. Dr. Edward R. Eschbach, of Frederick, Md., on "Practical and Benevolent Operation of the Reformed church,"and J. A. Peters, D. D., on "The Literary and Theological Institutions of the Reformed church in America." Dr. Rupp declared that the Reformed church is both conservative and progressive, having the true historical sense, and yet looking to the future. When there shall be an Ameri- can church, the Reformed church will be at the front. Dr. Appel said the theology of his church, in its spirit at least, is independent and distinctive. Christ is its center. Dr. Peters gave the statistics of his church as nineteen literary institutions, with ;^700,ooo, and one hun- dred instructors and sixteen hundred students. Dr. Eschbach's paper gave the home missions as 137, with 140 congregations and 9,210 com- municants. Foreign missions: — eight missionaries, twelve churches, thirty-two preaching stations, 1842 native communicants. The Re- formed church was organized in Lancaster, Pa., April 27, 1793. It has now nine hundred ministers and two hundred and fifteen thousand communicants. It occupies the most advanced ground in favor of Christian union, and felt entirely at home in the World's Parliament cf Religions. !"'! 14 DAY USE . RETURN TO DESK FKOM WHICH BORROWED ,^^ LOAN DEPT. Renewed books are subject ,o immed^tere^lL ) %PH^^ -emew-fi^- ■^ " 1935 Uo FEBUm- LD 2lA-50m 3,'62 (C70^7slO)47bB Umversii., Berk^ T'^r/c^^* a: A ^^itt GENERAL LIBRARY U.C. BERKELEY ^m CM'