# The World's Parliament of Religions/Chapter 1

PART FIRST.
THE HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAN FOR A PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS.
DR. Horace Bushnell, that profound and original thinker of New England, has said, that "It is only Religion, the great bond of love and duty to God, that makes any existence valuable or even tolerable."
In the Columbian Exposition of 1893, for the first time on such an occasion, Religion has had due preeminence. Since faith in a Divine Power to whom men believe they owe service and worship has been like the sun, a life-giving and fructifying potency in man's intellectual and moral development; since Religion lies back of Hindu literature with its marvelous and mystic developments; of European Art, whether in the form of Grecian statues or Gothic cathedrals; and of American liberty and the recent uprisings of men in behalf of a juster social condition; and since it is as clear as the light that the Religion of Christ has led to many of the chief and noblest developments of our modern civilization, it did not appear that Religion any more than Education, Art or Electricity should be excluded from the Columbian Exposition.
But Religion, like the white light of Heaven, has been broken into many-colored fragments by the prisms of men. One of the objects of the Parliament of Religions has been to change this many-colored radiance back into the white light of heavenly truth. ​ "Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be, They are but broken lights of Thee; And Thou, O Lord, art more than they."
It early became evident that the Columbian Exposition was to be the most comprehensive and brilliant display of man's material progress which the ages have known. More than fifty nations were soon actively enlisted in the preparations for the great Festival of Peace.
Its approach caused a stir in the studios of Paris and Munich, and on the pasture grounds of far-off Australia, among the Esquimaux of the icy north and the skilled artisans of Delhi and Damascus.
The workshops of Sheffield, Geneva and Moscow, and the marble quarries of Italy, the ostrich farms of Cape Colony and the mines of Brazil, speedily knew of its coming.
And should not man's intellectual and moral progress be adequately set forth amid these material splendors? Why should the ivory hunters in the forests of Africa and the ivory cutters in the thronged cities of Japan and China, the silk weavers of Lyons and the shawl makers of Cashmere, the designers of Kensington, the lace weavers of Brussels and the Indian tribes of South America, the cannon founders of Germany, the silver miners of Mexico, the ship makers of the Clyde and the canoe builders of the Mackenzie River be invited to a World's Exposition, and the representatives of those higher forces which had made civilization be excluded?
It was objected, by one representative of the Christian faith, that Religion is such in its nature that it cannot be exhibited. But surely, the answer was made, the great part which Religion has had in human history can be impressively told, its achievements can be narrated, its vast influence over art, ethics, education, government, can be set forth, its present condition can be indicated, its wide-reaching missionary activities can be eloquently described, and, perhaps, best of all, the spirit of mutual love, of cosmopolitan fraternity, can be disclosed and largely augmented. ​ The architectural nobleness of the Fair soon became known to the nations. The ample site on the shore of Lake Michigan was transformed into a scene of more than Venetian loveliness. The buildings, planned by the leading American architects, which shelter not only the riches of the soil, the sea and the mine, but also the industries and machineries and inventions of the world, which are crowded with the jeweled and silken marvels of Europe and Asia and the floral wonders of the Amazon and of the forests of New Zealand, were made still more beautiful by the pomp of the decorator's art and the triumphs of the sculptor's genius.
But has not Religion built temples more beautiful, spacious and imposing, and far more enduring, than those gorgeous palaces of the "Dream City" which will soon fade away?
A series of Congresses covering the chief departments of knowledge was soon provided for by the wise and far-seeing managers of the World's Fair.
It became evident that multitudes would be eager to hear the representative leaders of human thought, and to meet the experts, the famous teachers and preachers, whose words had become a part of their nobler lives.
It was believed that these conventions and the world-wide fraternities of scholars, historians, physicians, reformers, artists and divines which were to be formed, would surely give an enduring luster to the Columbian Anniversary.
But the event which that anniversary celebrated carried the mind back to an era of persecution and of abysmal separations between the Christian and non-Christian peoples.
Many felt that Religion was an element of perpetual discord, which should not be thrust in amid the magnificent harmonies of a fraternal assembly of the nations. It was said that there could be no Congress of Religions without engendering the animosities which have embittered much of man's past history.
On the other hand, it was felt that the tendencies of mod​ern civilization were toward unity. Some came to feel that a Parliament of Religions was the necessity of the age.
They called attention to the fact that Europe's Eastern question, that Asiatic aggrandizement and African colonization, had brought together rival nations and rival races to divide the spoils of war.
They recalled that America, under the inspiration and guidance of a far-seeing statesman, the late Mr. Blaine, had held her Pan-American Congress and sought the commercial advantage of the conferring states. It was deemed the natural outcome of the spirit of the Prince of Peace, that his followers should seek to bring men together in a wider brotherhood than had been achieved by diplomacy, commerce or national selfishness.
In the spring of 1891 the General Committee on Religious Congresses of the World's Congress Auxiliary was appointed by President Charles C. Bonney, who had been foremost in originating and most active in promoting these world-conventions. The Rev. L. P. Mercer was a zealous and scholarly minister of the New Church (Swedenborgian). Mr. J. W. Plummer was an active member of the Society of Friends. Rev. J. Berger belonged to the German Methodist Church; Rev. John Z. Torgersen to the Norwegian Lutheran Church, and Rev. M. Ranseen to the Swedish Lutheran Church. The Rt. Rev. Charles Edward Cheney, D.D., was one of the founders and prominent leaders of the Reformed Episcopal Church. The Rev. Jenkin Lloyd-Jones was a well-known writer and an active worker among the advanced Unitarians. Rev. Dr. A. J. Canfield was the eloquent pastor of St. Paul's Universalist Church, Chicago. Dr. E. G. Hirsch was the minister of Sinai Temple and the learned Professor of Rabbinic Literature in the University of Chicago. Rev. Dr. Frank M. Bristol was one of the most eloquent Methodists of the North-
HON. CHARLES CARROLL BONNEY.
"WHAT MEN DEEMED IMPOSSIBLE, GOD HAS FINALLY WROUGHT. THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD HAVE ACTUALLY MET IN A GREAT AND IMPOSING ASSEMBLY; THEY HAVE CONFERRED TOGETHER ON THE VITAL QUESTIONS OF LIFE AND IMMORTALITY IN A FRANK AND FRIENDLY SPIRIT, AND NOW THEY PART IN PEACE, WITH MANY WARM EXPRESSIONS OF MUTUAL AFFECTION AND RESPECT."
of the Central Church of Chicago, an independent organization of Christians, and had achieved wide celebrity in literary circles. The Chairman of. the Committee, the Rev. John Henry Barrows, D.D., was the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago.
Urged to provide plans for religious meetings in connection with the World's Fair, the Committee at once perceived that the religious world, in its historic developments, and not any one section of that world, should be invited to make some representation. The spirit of most generous brotherhood moved them in giving out their invitations and making their arrangements for the Parliament of Religions.
The Committee began their work with the impression that nothing like a Parliament of Religions had ever assembled before. So far as they knew at the beginning, it had never been dreamed of; but Mr. H. Dharmapala, of Calcutta, General Secretary of the Maha-Bodhi Society, who spoke for the Southern Buddhist Church of Ceylon at the Parliament, wrote:
I rejoice to see that the best intellects of the day have all approved of your grand scheme, which, if carried out, w^ill be the noblest and proudest achievement in history, and the crowning work of the nineteenth century. Twenty centuries ago, just such a congress was held in India by the great Buddhist Emperor, Asoka, in the city of Pataliputra, modern Patna, and the noblest lessons of tolerance therein enunciated were embodied in lithic records and implanted in the four quarters of his extensive empire. Here is one extract: "King Piyadasi honors all forms of religious faith . . . and enjoins reverence for one's own faith and no reviling or injury for that of others. Let the reverence be shown in such a manner as is suited to the difference of belief. . . . For he who in some way honors his own religion, and reviles that of others . . . throws difficulties in the way of his own religion; this, his conduct, cannot be right."
Dr. Martin, President of the Imperial University of Peking, reported that the idea of such a congress had often appeared in fiction and in poetry. One writer from Bohemia claimed ​that the plan was suggested three centuries ago by the great John Comenius. More than twenty years ago the Free Religious Association of Boston conceived the idea that such a meeting should be gathered whenever practicable.
President W. F. Warren, of the Boston University, wrote:
I am glad to know that the World's Religions are to be represented at the World's Fair. Were they to be omitted, the sense of incompleteness would be painful. Even a museum of idols and objects used in ceremonial worship would attract beyond any other museum. Models and illustrations of the great temples of the world and of the world's history would be in a high degree instructive. Add to these things the living word of living teachers, and the whole world may well pause to listen.
A few years ago President Warren preached a sermon wherein he imagined the assembling of a great convention in Tokyo, a conference of the religious leaders of the Eastern world, the Buddhist, Brahman, Parsee, Mohammedan, Taoist, Shintoist, and Confucian, met together to discuss the great problems of Faith, and to discover, if possible, the Perfect Religion. As the discussion proceeded they reached the conclusion that there could be only one perfect Religion, that the perfect Religion must reveal a perfect God, that it must assure man the greatest possible ultimate good, that it must bring God into the most loving and lovable relations with humanity, and that this could be achieved only by his taking upon himself a human form, and suffering for men. And it would have seemed that the convention was talking something ideal, something which had never been actualized, had not the last speaker, the Buddhist leader of Japan, related the story of his own long mental unrest, and how, on the day before, he had learned, through the teaching of a brother who had seen many lands, that God had really come to earth, had revealed himself through his Son, had furnished all the credentials needed by the eager intellect and the yearning heart, had centered and glorified in himself all the truths which Gautama had discovered beneath the Indian fig-tree, or Confucius in his long- wandering quest, and through the Cross reared on an Asian hill-top had offered deliverance from the guilt and love of sin, and had irradiated the sorrows and incompleteness of earth, ​with sure and golden promises of celestial peace and unwasting joy.
Early in June, 1891, the General Committee sent out to the world a Preliminary Address. They called attention to the creative and regulative power of Religion as a factor in human development. They expressed a desire for the cooperation of the representatives of all the great historic faiths; they believed that the time was ripe for new manifestations of human fraternity.
Humanity, though sundered by oceans and languages and widely diverse forms of Religion, was one in need if not altogether in hope.
The Address reviewed the fact that the literatures of the great historic faiths were more and more studied in the spirit of candor and brotherhood. Disclaiming any purpose to create a temper of indifferentism, the Committee urged that a friendly conference of eminent men, strong in their personal convictions, would be useful in showing what are the supreme truths, and what light Religion affords tc the great problems of the time.
The Committee said:
Believing that God is, and that he has not left himself without witness ; believing that the influence of Religion tends to advance the general welfare, and is the most vital force in the social order of every people, and convinced that of a truth God is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him, we affectionately invite the representatives of all faiths to aid us in presenting to the world, at the Exposition of 1893, the religious harmonies and unities of humanity, and also in showing forth the moral and spiritual agencies which are at the root of human progress. It is proposed to consider the foundations of religious Faith, to review the triumphs of Religion in all ages, to set forth the present state of Religion among the nations and its influence over Literature, Art, Commerce, Government and the Family Life, to indicate its power in promoting Temperance and Social Purity and its harmony with true Science, to show its dominance in the higher institutions of learning, to make prominent the value of the weekly rest-day on religious and other grounds, and to contribute to those forces which shall bring about the unity of the race in the worship of God and the service of of man. ​ "I dreamed That stone by stone I reared a sacred fane, A temple; neither Pagod, Mosque, nor Church, But loftier, simpler, always open-doored To every breath from Heaven; and Truth and Peace And Love and Justice came and dwelt therein."
These lines from "Akbar's Dream," one of Tennyson's latest poems, indicate how the Laureate, who regarded the proposal of a Parliament of Religions at Chicago as a noble idea, brooded much, in his last days, over the oneness of human need and spiritual aspiration after God. "Akbar's Dream" is a beautiful contribution to our apprehension of what Mr. Higginson means by the "sympathy of religions."
Tennyson quotes an inscription on a temple in Kashmir: "O God, in every temple I see people that see thee, and in every language I hear spoken, people praise thee."
Such was the spirit and such the beginning of the movement which has led to one of the chief events of the century. More than three thousand copies of the Preliminary Address were sent to the religious leaders of mankind in many lands. The spirit of the Christian bodies in America was largely favorable to the Committee's plans.
It has been no uncommon thing in this century for Catholic and Protestant, Christian and Jew, orthodox and non-orthodox, to confer and even work together along lines of moral reform, and when it was proposed to assemble in an ecumenical conference the representatives of all the great historic faiths, the Christian mind of the modern world was largely prepared to receive and adopt the new idea.
Under date of August 8, 1891, Mr. Gladstone, the distinguished statesman of that Empire which embraces among its subjects representatives of all religions, wrote as on the next page.
The venerable poet Whittier, who has since passed away from earth, wrote more than once of his deep interest in the coming Parliament. He said:
can think of nothing more impressive than such an assemblage of the representatives of all the children of our Heavenly Father, convened to tell each other what witness he has given them of himself, what light he has afforded them in the awful mysteries of life and death. In my eighty-fourth year, and in very feeble health, I can do but little in aid of this great work. May God bless thee in the noble work assigned thee.
REV. DR. H. ADLER, CHIEF RABBI OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
IT WAS DR. ADLER WHO SUGGESTED THE MOTTO ADOPTED BY THE PARLIAMENT: "HAVE WE NOT ALL ONE FATHER? HATH NOT ONE GOD CREATED US?"
Judged by the tenor of the Preliminary Address of the General Committee on Religious Congresses in connection with the Exposition of 1893, I deem the movement you are engaged in promoting worthy of all encouragement and praise. Assuredly a Congress of eminent men gathered together to declare, as your address sets forth, "what they have to offer or suggest for the world's betterment, what light Religion has to throw on the labor problems, the educational questions, and the perplexing social conditions of our times," cannot but result in good to our common country. I rejoice, accordingly, to learn that the project for a Religious Congress in Chicago, in 1893, has already won the sympathies and enlisted the active cooperation of those in the front rank of human thought and progress, even in other lands than ours. If conducted with moderation and good will, such a Congress may result, by the blessing of Divine Providence, in benefits more far-reaching than the most sanguine could dare hope for.
Responses began to pour in, largely favorable, from the representatives of Christian missions in other lands. President George Washburn, D.D., of Robert College, Constantinople, wrote:
I sympathize with the spirit of your circular, and I have no doubt that such a Congress, meeting in the right spirit, would impress the world with the fact that there is unity in religion, broader and deeper than has ever been generally recognized. I am more and more impressed with the thought every year, as I am brought into close contact with so many different faiths, that there is a God to whom we are responsible for our actions, that to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God is essentially the foundation of all Religion. The Holy Spirit leads men of the most diverse faiths to the knowledge of our common Father.
The Rev. J. C. R. Ewing, D.D., a missionary of the Presbyterian Board in India, Professor of Theology in one of its seminaries, the President of the Lahore Christian College, a Fellow of the University of the Punjab and Moderator of the Synod of India for 1891, wrote:
When news of the proposal to have such a Congress of Religions first reached us on this side of the earth, I experienced some misgivings through fear lest the faith we loved and the Saviour we preached might seem to us to be dishonored. Further acquaintance with your plans and with the central object of all that is being done has largely, if not entirely, removed such misgivings, and I am glad to be able to heartily approve the plan, and shall cheerfully do all in my power in this corner of the earth to aid you. ​ The Honorable Ali Bilgrami, Director General of Mines to His Highness the Nizam's Government, Deccan, India, wrote:
To my mind, the very conception of a Parliament of Religions, an assembly of the representatives of all the world's religions, to be held alongside of the greatest of World's Fairs, the bringing together at one time and in one place of the material and moral needs of mankind, is in itself a sign of the times in which we live, and is worthy of the great nation from which it emanates.
The Committee discovered, to their delight and somewhat to their amazement, that the religious world and the world of scholarship were becoming more and more deeply interested in the proposed Congress of Religions. The great strength of support was doubtless given from a variety of considerations. There were those who favored it because of the aid it would bring to the study of comparative religion. Prof. Max Muller's interest was doubtless largely derived from this consideration. Many favored the Parliament from the profound conviction that it would show forth the superiority and the sufficiency of some particular form of Christianity. Others favored it from the feeling that their own religion had been misunderstood, and that they had cherished important truths which others would do well to heed.
Multitudes of the more progressive and broader-minded men championed the Parliament from the feeling that they, as Christians, might wisely and rightly show a more brotherly spirit towards the representatives of other faiths. Furthermore, the Parliament received the allegiance of many because they were assured that this conference would have a tendency to draw Christians more closely together.
On the 25th of February, 1892, the General Committee sent out their first report, which was widely copied, and which led to a large and continuous increase of general interest in the movement.
The Catholic Archbishops of America, at their meeting in New York in November, 1892, took action approving the participation of the Catholic Church i the Parliament, and ​appointed the Right Rev. John J. Keane, the able and liberal-minded Rector of the Catholic University of America in Washington, to arrange with the General Committee for the proper and adequate presentation of the Catholic doctrine on the questions coming before the Parliament.
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND
Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul, wrote, on accepting a membership in the Advisory Council:
I promise my active coöperarlon in the work. The conception of such a religious assembly seems almost like an inspiration.
In communicating the action of the Board of Archbishops, Bishop Keane wrote:
I ask leave to add the expression of my profound conviction that the project is an admirable one, and that it ought to receive the encouragement of all who really love truth and charity and who wish to further their reign among mankind. It is only by a friendly and brotherly comparison of convictions that reasonable men can ever come to an agreement about the ​all-important truths which are the foundation of religion, and that an end can be put to the religious divisions and antagonisms which are a grief to our Father in Heaven. Such an assemblage of intelligent and conscientious men, presenting their religious convictions without minimizing, without acrimony, without controversy, with love of truth and humanity, will be an honorable event in the history of religion and cannot fail to accomplish much good.