Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1906-03-03
PRAYER OF A "HEATHEN"
An Incident of the Chicago Parlta-
ment of Religions.


The recent death of Protap Chunder
Mozoomdar brings to mind an incident
occurring at the parliament of religions
in Chicago twelve years ago, which
more than anything else l have seen
or heard Of him manifested his won
derful spiritual power. In the formal
exercises of the parliament care was
taken to exclude all criticism Of the so
called heather religions and all efforts
TO prOSelyte their adhereD :, though
now and then such speakers rs Joseph
Cook and George PentecOst could not
resist the temptation to violate all cour-
tesies and "go for them face to face
on the common platform.
But besides the formal meetings of
the parliament, presided over by its
officers, multitude of subsidiaH gath
erings were held by the dilfereS, Chris
tian denominations, among them morn
ing prayer meetings. over which the
general officers had no control At one
of these prayer meetings, quite numer-
ously attended by representatives of
the mont Christian faiths, the spirit Of
proselytiSm was let loose. The new
Corners were prayed for as souls lost In
pagan darkness and eXhorted by speak
c. after speaker to forsake their hea-
then superstitionS, come to Jesus and
be saved from eternal death by being
washed in the blood of crucitied Re-
deemer. 1t was all doubtless well In
tended, but an exhibition Of the mis-
siOnary zeal Of Christianity In its worst
form, and some of us wearing the
Christian name could not but be pain
ed and ashamed at its occurrence.
Near the close of the meeting. after
specially denunciatory harangue, Mo-
zOOmdar arose simply to offer prayer
and with the first balf dozen words the
entire atmosphere was changed. There
was no allusion to anything which had
been said, no petitions in behalf Of
narrow minded Christian brethren
and some of us have had experience Of
the wounds that can be inflicted by
pray ClS III Ouk DNntlll Nv NtoN VI ONoNo
words on his cross, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they
do" but simply a great spiritual ma
ture lifting the whole assembly above
all narrow, dividing, controversial diff
ferenceS into the very presence Of the
Eternal One himself No art could have
devised q more effectual answer to
what had been said against heather
religion, no wit or logic has put its
defenders more to shame or more pal
IAbly in the wrong. but the best of 1t
was the feeling it produced that there
was no art about it, nothing but the
natural OutpOuring Of the man, and
that its hearers were made to forget to
be ashamed, and we, sympathizers with
him, made to forget any eXultation
over them-forget everything but that
we were being lifted into the Joy Of a
worship and into the beauty of a world
such as the most Christian Of us had
never experienced before and never till
then known to exist.
liz pray Il W dS NNl SuOAl l, anu NhOh
1t was ended there was no hymn sung,
no benediction pronounced, no other
voice that could break into the unutter
able peace it left on all souls, and
without ever the usual buzz of CONVEX
sation, but with shining eyes, the meet
ing dissolved into the outside world.
An orthodox lady who was present said
that hitherto she had always attended
missionary meetings and put
her quarter of dollar into the contri-
button box to send religion to the hea
then, - hereafter she should devote
h. mo-cy to getting some heather to
core here and show us Christians
what religion really is.-John G. Kim
ball in Christian Register.