Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-24
WORLD DESIRES
UNITY IN FAITH
UNIVERSAL RELIGION MAY BE-
COME REALITY
Cosmopolitan Spirit of Idea Appeals
to Thoughtful Men, Says the
Rev. William Horace
Day

1.-THE topic of a racial brotherhood
burns in waiting souls in all parts of the
Christian world" said the Rev. William
Horace Day, d. D., pastor of the First
Congregational church, in his sermon
yesterday. On the text, HE made of
one every nation of men," Acts 1926,
he continued:
I'm 1898 DR.. and Mrs. Barrows went
to India. At Calcutta, the political and
intellectual center of India, great re-
ception was given them. The Hindu
prince, the Maharajah Bahadur Sir
Jotindara Mohun Tagore, K. C. S. l., in
Vited to his palace the representatives.
of the Hindu, Mohammedan, Jain,
Parsi, Buddhist, Brahma and Christian
community. 1t was an occasion as
unique as the maharajah's lengthy
name These men were drawn together
because DR.. Barrows had come to dis
cuss the question, is Christianity fitted
to become the world religion? They
too, had dreamed st. Paups dream of
racial unity and were. willing to listen
when one came to speak on the uni
versal religion. The same interest is
felt in our hearts.
Comparative Religion
MANY Christians have believed that
comparative religion shows the expec-
tation that our faith will supersede
OLneTS Is DuI uulIl6lllSGnL
and to afford the necessary foundation
for anniversary brotherhood 1t will be
necessary to bring together that which
is common to all existing religions.
Why not attempt, they say, to develop
a new and splendid hybrid by cross fer
tilization of faiths? The breadth and
cosmopolitan spirit of such an idea ap-
peals to every thoughtful man.
LAS the commercial and scholarly
world has tried to devise a universal
language why not attempt such a
syncretism in religion? The hope of OBJ
tanning a universal faith in this way
has been evaporating like the early
mist. Syncretism can combine, but
only life can assimilate. The new uni
versal religion must be a growing tree,
not a woodpile of sticks from dead trees.
1t must have roothS extending far out
in all directions in the rich past and
branches ever spreading till they cast
their cooling shadows over the further
most fevered need of humanity.
Advance of Christianity
1.-THE new faith must be found in the
most vital of living religion. Is Chris
tianity fitted to supersede other faiths -?
The clearest discussion of this subject
l have recently seen was in the Hib-
bard Journal from the pen of our own
Prof. Buckham. Because of its power
of assimilation it is becoming universal.
our religion is like a tree with it's roots
reaching down through Judaism into
the ancient faith of the Semitic peoples
and through Israel's contact with Per
STA during the days of captivity into
the faith of Iran.
"After 1900 years of testing during
which his religion has been put in COM
petition with that of every other peo-
pie, we came back to fuller realiZa-
ton of the imperative obligation that is
laid upon us to recognize the glorious
fact that a universal humanity can find
its unity--its brotherhood-only as it
Yields allegiance to the universal faith,
and furthermore, that to us has been
committed the extending of that faith
until all shall be drawn to him who was
lifted up upon the cross, gloritied in
death and is the risen Lord of man
kind"