St. Paul daily globe., 1895-05-13
EHE NEW PASTOR OF WESLEY
CHURCH SPEAKS OF THE
WORLDS FAITHS.
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS
AT THE WORLDS FAIR IS RE-
AND MASTERLY SERMON.
AT THE NEW SWEDISH TEMPLE
Imposing Ceremonies Attending
the Laying of the Corner
Stone 80

Wesley church listened TO ltS new
pastor, Rev. Matt S. Hughes, for the
first time yesterday, and he created
very favorable impression. The church
was well filled in the morning and in
the evening as well. Mr.. Hughes is
a powerful speaker, and, while grace
full and pleasing in manner and voice,
he is forcible and convincing. He is
man of slender build and very young
in appearance, but his sermons evi-
dence careful preparation, earnest
thought and wise selection. Last
evening he preached on the '.sTest of
Religion" taking for his text Second
Timothy, ill.,, Z, Ever learning and
never able to come to a knowledge or
the truth" He began by referring to
the worlds parliament of religious
during the worlds fair, 1.-The most I'M
portant religious event that ever
transpired in the Western hemis-
phere, and an event luminous in the
history of the human race"
He said that the most sensational
event of that parliament was the ad-
dress of the Buddhist priest who, IN
the middle Of his talk, asked how
many of the audience had ever read
the life of Buddha, and only five hands
out of that vast crowd were raised, and
the Buddhist, in scorn and contempt,
rebuked the Christian and sneeered
at him for sending missionaries to
convert them, crying 'How dare you
Judge us?" That incident was caught
with avidity by the press and hera ded
as a point well scored by the Buddhist
against Christianity, and some lib
eral ministers said that a. few more
such points would sever the spinal
cord Of Christianity. Those who had
been struck SO forcibly by the crafty
remark of the Buddhist were such as
never see the heart of things, but look
upon the surface. This spirit is by
no means new in the world. Tom
Paine expressed the same thing in
his cage of Reason. - Paine, Volney and
others have maintained that, since so
many books claimed to be the word
of God existed, it was an impossible
ity for man to choose nationally the
revealed will of the Divine Being.
Others say that all creeds must be
thoroughly studied and carefully COM
pared or no rational choice can be
made. But this is not so, for Chris
tianity appeals at once to mans
rational nature, to his rational mind,
to his moral sense and to his common
sense.
When one considers how many
creeds have propagated a belief in
some. different idea concerning God
and the future life, at first thought it
may seem that Paine was right when
he declared that no rational choice
could be made, between the religions.
Now the question arises, "How are we
to know in a satisfactory way what
is the true religion?' How are we
common people to know? Is there
test? or must we ever be learning and
never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth throughout this mortal
life? If there is one religion that has
in it the good of all other religions
without the alloy it would seem that
God would give to men a test that
WOdtd DC dilu oIliSly lilS'
Is there such test? Yes, there is
test. 1t is a simple test; it is a reason
able test; test that is always thor
oughly just, thoroughly satisfactory,
thoroughly logical, and absolutely
certain. So simple and so sure is this
test that it is difficult for a man to
make a mistake. This test was given
by the Blessed Master Himself when
He said, in all kindness and love,
"By their fruits ye shall know themv'
Wendell Phillips was not a prejudiced
churchman, but he spoke wisely indeed
when he thus summed up the con-
ditions of the religions of the world:
1.-The answer to Turkey is, the Koran
is Turkey; the answer to Confucian-
ism is China; the answer to Buddhism
is India, and the answer of Christian
ity is the Protestant civilization Of
Europe and America" t'By their
fruits ye shall know them,'' said the
Master, and all the fruits of all the
religions are written in the book of
human life, and the most blind and
illiterate of the sons of men can read
unerringly the lesson of the ages
taught by human life concerning the
religions of the world. That Budd-
hist at the Parliament of Religions
was silenced by a Christian minister
by being asked the condition of the
inhabitants in the realm of his relig-
ion. The vice and corruptness of the
Orient is not in spite of the religion
but because of the religion, while the
vice in a Christian civilization is not
fostered by Christianity but exists in
spite of it's efforts. One good thing to
remember in connection with that
Parliament of Religions is that those
who represented the heather relig-
ions there were not fair representa-
tives of the people of their religion
They were mostly educated in
Christian colleges, and most of them
spoke the English language" he
said. '"The vices of their religions were
hidden beneath the brilliant garb of
fiorid rhetoric and eloquent sophistry.
They put the good side out. And an
other good thing to remember is that
these religions were represented In
two different ways at Chicago. They
were represented in one way by edu-
Gated preachers on the platform of
the worlds parliament of religions;
liey were represented D0It6r In the
Midway Plaisance, which I consider
was the best place ever saw in.
which to make comparative study
of religion. 1t was great place to
study the religions of the world, for
there was a great range of religious
belief represented there. Let us re-
member this as we read from time to
time the undue glorification of the
heather religions in our magazines.
want to make one point tonight.
You are always to make a distinction
between theology and religion. Theol-
ogy is theory; religion is a practice:
theology is a science, religion is an
art; theology manifests itself in books
and controversies, religion manifests
Itself in daily life and work; theology
tells what we think of God, religion
is as much of God as we have in our
lives. Never confound these two:
some people have an eloquent, good.
orthodox theology and not enough re-
Ilg1on to sugar-coat their theology"
READY fO WrnSfIQ