The record-union., 1893-10-14
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From the Various Re,
ligiOus Newspapers
The Religious Thought of the Day es
Expressed In the sectarian Press
Some Matters of Interest TO Both
Ministers and Laymen.

ministers and Laymen.
Inc hrst effect of this Parliament of
religions" remarks the New York ont
took, must be to correct the opinions too
oiten entertained, and sometimes even
seduIously cultivated, that all forms of
religion but our own are mixture of ig-
norance and superstition. There is as
little ground for the Christian charge that
alI 1orelgn priests are self-seekers as for
the analogous Protestant charge against
all Roman Catholic priests, or for the
similar infidel charge against all Chris
tlan ministers. The ecclesiastic's coat is
no sure preventive of selfishness; the &C.
cIeslastlcal spectacles are no guarantee of
The truth. But whatever other impress
sion the various speakers at the Parlia-
ment OF Religions may have left on the
minds of their audiences, there is no
doubt that they left one of profound
spiritual earnestness. The Shinto priest.
the Buddhist philosopher, and the Ro-
man Catholic Archbishop were not one
whit less serious in their quest for truth
ana righteousness than the Protestant
theologian, These men were all chill
dren OF God, with the heart-hunger for
God, with their faces set towards God
and some message from God. For, to
the unprejudiced, scarcely less clear was
the lesson that each had some word to
utter which was worth hearing by the
others. The different faiths to which
men are conducted by their quest for
truth do not drive US to believe either
that there is no truth or that all faiths are
equally valuable expressions of it. There
h, dolt
SO large and the individual man so small
that 90 one man, no one race Of men, sees
it all.'
1.-THE Worlds Parliament of Religions
has no power of authoritative declara-
tlon," says the Interior (Pres.) of Chicago.
1t has not even INDUCED in regular de-
bate. Neither has it formulated any res
olutions on the important subjects that
occupied its attention. 1t has evolved no
new doctrines nor eXpunged any old
dogmas. 1t has not added another to the
many existing confessions of faith, nor
enrolled any new saints in the already
Overburdened calendar. What then may
we expect as its positive results? Though
In one respect its results may seem in
tangible, in others they are virtually in
calculable. Is ii nothing of consequence
that a certain visible embodiment has
been given of the great truth on which
the Parliament is based, the Faith
erhood of God and the brotherhood of
Man? 1t has lifted this truth into higher
and wider plane, and striven, not without
success, 20 give 1t practical effect. 1t is
an achievement Of vast significance to
unite even for a time in common aim
the most ancient as well as well as the
youngest of religious faiths, the most eX-
elusive and iQtolerant as well as the lax
est and most latitudinarian. The Religi-
Gus Parliament is one of the best modern
object lessons on toleration the world has
yet seen. Sectarian eXclusiVeneSs and
untimely bigotry have received a rebuke
that cannot successfully be withstood.
From many lands and from many creedS
the love Of God and of humanity has been
proclaimed with an emphasis that may
not be gainsaid.'
SIT is certainly an unprecedented phe-
nomenon," says the New York Church
man (P. E. that American Christians
are welcoming, for the nonce, as religious
instructors, the very people whom they
Seno missionaries across the oceans to
convert. What effect will this have on
missionary work? For one thing, it may
be expected to deepen mutual sympathy.
And nobody can benefit another without
sympathy. If Buddhists, Mohamme-
dams, and the rest, really believed that
American and English Christians were
everything which to them is most sacred,
1t is easy 20 see how utterly hopeless all
missionary work among them would be-
But If the people of this country are learn
ing more than they ever knew before
about these other religions the visitors
from far distant lands are learning more
than they knew before of the Christian
religion. The textbook of Christianity
IS, OF course, the Bible, but not even the
Bible, translated into foreign languages
and scattered broadcast, can tell what the
Christian religion is. That can be ascer-
tanned only by seeing the Bible trans
lated into life. Here, to be sure, Chris
tendon is, as yet, by no means a perfect
expounder of the New Testament. But
Christian civilization has very little to
learn from Buddhists or Mohammedans.
And the visitors from afar who converse
with Christians will certainly discover
that they are holding fast TO positive
truth. That is the reason why they want
to convert other people to their faith.'
'IIt is not only by way OF our sense OF
shame that Christianity viii be honored
and magnifed by this Parliament" says
the New York Evangelist (Pres.). IF
DR.. Momerie's brilliant epigram, All
religions are fundamentally more or less
true, and all religions are superhcially-
more or less false needs to be taken,
ton, it is none the less true that we are
learning from this Parliament that our
religion cannot be the perfect manifesto
ton of the relations of God and men, the
1awless sphere of truth, until it includes
the Orient as well as the Occident. It is
true, as Chakravarti, the Indian Theo-
sophist said, that the spirit of the West is
the scientific spirit, the spirit of the East
the contemplative, the one aiming at the
perfection of the outward life, the other
at the development of the inward. How
ever mistaken in some of his views of our
religion, he sees true and clear in per-
ceiving that the union between faith and
reason,' which would come by a we'd
din Netween the Orient and the Occi-
der needed for the perfect develop
me- that knowledge of our rela-
tioDs Sod and our duty to men which
is the essence of true religion. The large
tolerance of BrahminISm, which gave a
refuge to the prosecuted Jews of Had
rian's time and to prosecuted Zoroas-
trians OF later day, the deep apprehen-
sion of the word reciprocity which Con-
fucius taught. the compassion and toler-
ance of Buddhism, the deyout submission
to the will of God which is the very life
of the pious Moslem-al1 these are les
sons which Christians will be the better
for learning from these heathens. In the
4 -