World Parliament of Religions Scrapbook 003

              #003 World Parliament of Religions Scrapbook, p. 042

their view, there could be no solution of these
questions without the presence of Christian-
ity as an active factor. Other scholars went
on to analyze the methods of applying these
principles to existing conditions.
The individual merchant, although a Chris-
tian, cannot exist without selling sanded sugar
and cotton "all-wool" clothing, if his com-
petitors do the same, declared one doctor of
divinity. The spirit of cooperation and un-
selfishness must reach all men, or a majority
of them, before reform on a practical scale is 
possible.
Prof. Peabody of Harvard University read
a thoughtful and profound paper which
seemed to breathe the very spirit of Chris-
tianity as applied to everyday life. In it he
elaborated the relations between labor and
capital as religion looks at them, and en-
deavored to prove that Christianity was a
necessary factor in working out the problem.
Prof. Henderson of the Chicago University
read a scholarly paper on much the same lines
which developed also much the same general
ideas. The audience showed itself in touch
with both speakers by frequent and hearty
applause. In a similar line was the able pa-
per prepared by Charles F. Donnelly of Bos-
ton on "The Catholic Church and the Desti-
tute Poor." It was read by Bishop Keane of
Washington, who took occasion to interject
some remarks explaining with much force his
idea of the relation petween the church and
the down-trodden half of humanity.
The Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer of Provi-
dence made an address on "Religion and the
Erring and Criminal Classes," showing how
the principles of fraternity and charity which
the church teaches have gradually resulted in
changing the methods of dealing with wrong-
doers. She showed that at the present time
the efforts of all civilized communities are
centered on an attempt rather to reform
rather than to punish the criminal. The
Rev. Father Cleary of Minneapolis set
forth at great length and with much
power the attitude of the Catholic
Church toward the laboring class of the pop-
ulation. He set it down to the credit of that
church that first of all it had done away with
slavery throughout the world, and that now
when all men are freemen it was insisting
that they should be treated as freemen. The 
church, he said, will not be satisfied until
such relations between labor and capital shall
exist as will make it unnecessary for the
women of the household to toil in order to
keep the wolf from the door.
The proceedings of the day furnish a reason-
ably complete and thorough study of the atti-
tude of religion, Christianity in particular,
on the great social questions which are now 
demanding solution. 
It was noticeable that when Mohammed 
Webb was presented to the parliament to 
speak on "Islam and Social Conditions" 
yesterday afternoon the Rev. Joseph
Cook and almost every one of the evangelical
Protestant clergymen who have heretofore
occupied seats on the platform were absent,
the Rev, Dr. Barrows, the Chairman, was 
not at his post, though it does not
necessarily follow that he staid away
because he did not approve of Webb's defense
of polygamy. There was an immense audience
present, however, and there was a feeling in
the air that the violent demonstration of 
Wednesday might be repeated when the
proselyting Mohammedan began to talk, 
With a great, deal of tact Webb avoided all 
reference to polygamy until he had first dis- 
armed his audience by declaring that no man 
ought to judge of a religion until he knew the
truth about it. Then he went on to deny in 
the most emphatic and solemn manner that 
instead of polygamy being one of the institu-
tions of Islam, it was in fact practically pro-
hibited by the Holy Koran.
   IT WILL PURIFY THE MODERN WORLD.
Prof. Peabody Speaks on Christianity and
Social Question at Morning Meeting.
Dr. Barrows looked out over an undiminished
audience when he called the Parliament
of Religions to order yesterday morning.
After the Rev. Dr. Pentecost had led the audi-
ence in repeating the Lord's Prayer Dr. Bar-
rows said: 
Requests having been presented that in some 
way lists of the best books on religion be pre-
pared and announced before this parliament, I 
venture to ask the following persons to consti- 
tute committees to prepare a list of fifty or more 
of the best books on Christianity from an evan-
gelical point and other points of view. I would
also name a committee representing what are
usually called the liberal churches to send me
another list of books which they would recom-
mend:
Committee of Protestant Evangelical Chris-
tians—The Rev. F. A. Noble, D. D., Chairman;
the Rev. George Dana Boardman, D. D.; the Rev.
Frank M. Bristol, D. D.; Prof. E. S. Goodspeed,
the Rev. Joseph Cook, the Rev. S. J. McPherson,
D. D.; Dr. George E. Post, the Rt. Rev. T. W.
Dudley, D. D., and the Rev. Jame S. Dennis,
D. D.
Committee of Catholic Christians—The Rt.-
Rev. John J. Keane, Chairman; Prof. Thomas
O'Gorman, Prof. Thomas Dwight, the Rt.-Rev.
Mgr. Seton, Martin J. Wade.
Committee of Liberal Churches—The Rev.
Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Chairman; the Rev.
Edward Everett Hale, Protap Chunder Mozoom-
dar, Prof. F. G. Peabody, Dr. Emil G. Hirsch,
Prof. C. H. Toy, the Rev. Samuel J. Barrows,
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe.
It is suggested that the books shall be repre-
sentative of these three departments, Evidences,
History, and Spiritual Classics.
I also request the representatives of the
ethnic or non-Christian faiths to send me each a
list of the best books in English relating to his
particular faith. I shall take great pleasure in
announcing these lists and giving them to the
press for publication.
Dr. Barrows then read the following letter:
New York, Sept. 10.—The Rev. John Henry
Barrows, D. D., Chicago—Reverend Sir: In the
lamentable state of political and religious per-
secution of our fellow-countrymen in Armenia,
while the unanimously chosen successor of St.
Gregory, the illuminator, still languishes in ex-
ile in Jerusalem, while Bishops and other clergy-
men were banished and imprisoned for their zeal
and fidelity to their church, and no prominent
clergyman was permitted to leave the country to
come to this land, you could not invite a worthier
representative to speak in behalf of the oppressed
church of Armenia than Prof. Minaz Teheraz, a
thorough student of the church and history of
Armenia, an intrepid champion of her national
and religious rights, the ex-Secretary of Patri-
archs Varjabedian and Khrimian and the
faithful interpreter of their faith, hope, and feel-
ing. It is no less consolation to us in our present
troubles to have such a delegate in the Parlia-
ment of Religions to speak for our beloved
church, one of the most ancient and most liberal
churches of Christianity, one always surrounded
by non-Christian tribes, persecuted for centuries,
and bearing always high the banner of the cross,
and testifying even today to the sincerity of her
faith and devotion by the blood of thousands of
martyrs.
The Philarmenic Association of America begs
you to accept the heartfelt thanks of the Armen-
ian colony in the United States for the courtesy
with which you have honored the representative
of the Church of Armenia and hopes that his
present mission, with your kindly assistance, will
bring into light the true spirit and the liberality
of the institutions of the Church of Armenia and
increase the number of sympathizers with
Christian Armenians in their present persecution
and suffering. Your faithful and obedient serv-
ant,     P. Matthews Ayvad, Secretary.
   I Will Restore Holy Places in India.
The following letter to the Chairman was
also read:
Shiba Park, Tokyo, September, 1893.—I do
not believe it totally uninteresting to give here a
short account of our Indo Busseki Kofuku Socie-
ty of Japan.
The object of this society is to restore and re-
establish the holy places of Buddhism in India,
and to send out a certain number of Japanese
priests to perform devotional exercises in each of
them, and promote the convenience of pilgrims
from Japan. These holy places are Buddha
Gaya, where Budda attained to the perfect en-
lightenment : Kapilavastu, where Buddha was
born; the Deer Park, where Buddha first
preached; and Kusinagara, where Budda entered
Nirvana.
Two thousand nine hundred and twenty years
ago—that is, 1,026 years before Christ—the
world-honored Prince Siddharta was born in the
palace of his father, King Suddhodana, in Kap-
ilavastu, the capital of the Kingdom Magadha. 
When he was 19 years old he began to lament
men's inevitable subjection to the various suffer- 
ings of sickness, old age, and death; and, dis- 
carding all his precious possessions and the
heirship to the kingdom, he went into a mount- 
ain jungle to seek by meditation and asceticism
the way of escape from these sufferings. After
spending six years there, and finding that the
way he seeks after was not in asceticism, he went
out from there and retired under the Bodhi tree
of Buddhism Gaya, where at last, by profound
meditation, he attained the supreme wisdom and
became Buddha.
The light of truth and mercy began to shine
from him over the whole world, and the way of
perfect emancipation was open for all human
beings, so that every one can bathe in his blessings
and walk in the way of enlightenment.
When the ancient King Asoka of Magadha was
converted into Buddhism he erected a large and
magnificent temple over the spot to show his
gratitude to the founder of his new religion.
But, sad to say, the fierce Mohammedans in-
vaded and laid waste the country, there being
no Buddhist to guard the temple, which posses-
sion fell into the hands of a Brahminist priest,
who chanced to come here and seize it.
It was early in the spring of 1891 that the Jap-
anese priest, the Rev. Shaku Kionen, in company
with Mr. H. Dharmapala. of Ceylon, visited this
holy ground. The great Buddha Gaya Temple
was carefully repaired and restored to its former
state by the British Government; but they could
not help being very much grieved to see it sub-
jected to much desecration in the hands of the
Brahminist Mahant, and communicated to us
their earnest desire to rescue it.
With warm sympathy for them, and thinking,
as Sir Edwin Arnold said, that it is not right for
Buddhist to leave the guardianship of the holy
center of Buddhist religion of grace to the hand
of a Brahminist priest, we organized this Indo Bus-
seki Kofuku Society in Japan to accomplish the
object before mentioned in cooperation with the
Maha Bodhi Society, organized by H. Dharma-
pala and other brothers in India. These are the
outlines of the origin and object of our Indo
Busseki Kofuku Society, and I believe our Buddha
Gaya movement will bring people of all Buddhist
countries into closer connection and bh instru-
mental in promoting the brotherhood among the
people of the whole world.
                        S. Horiuchi, Secretary.
      Enroll in Christian Unity.
Theodore F. Seward of New York then pre-
sented the claim of the Brotherhood of Chris-
tian Unity upon the parliament. He said it
had been in existence but a few years, but in
that time it had received the indorsement of
many of the most prominent men in all faiths,
among them the poet Whittier. He read the
following letter, which has been circulated
among the delegates: 
Chicago, September, 1893.—We, the under-
signed, feeling it desirable to crystallize and as far
as possible to perpetuate the remarkable spirit of
unity which has characterized the world's Parlia-
ment of Religions, and being deterred by the
widely varied beliefs therein represented from
offering a formulated expression of views, here-
with give, as individuals, our approval of the for-
mula of the Brotherhood of Christian Unity as a
suitable bond with which to begin the federation
of the world upon a Christian basis. The formula
is as follows: 
For the purpose of uniting with all who desire
to serve God and their fellow men under the in-
spiration of the life and teachings of Jesus
Christ I hereby enroll myself as a member of the
Brotherhood of Christian Unity.
Dr. John Henry Barrows, Presbyterian.
Dr. George Dana Boardman, Baptist.
Dr. Lyman Abbott, Congregationalist.
Dr. Alfred W. Momerie, London, Church of
England.
Dr. Edward Everett Hale, Unitarian.
Charles C. Bonney, New Church.
J. W. Plummer, Friend.
Bishop J. H. Vincent, Methodist.
Frances E. Willard, President W. C. T. U.
Dr. Hiram W. Thomas, Independent.
Miss Jeanne Sorabji, Bombay, Church of En-
gland.
Minas Tcheraz, King's College, London, Ar-
menian.
Bishop J. S. Mills, United Brethren.
Dr. W. F. Black, Christian.
Laura Ormiston Chant, London, Independ-
ent.
Dr. Charles H. Eaton, Universalist.
Dr. Paulus Moort, Monrovia, Liberia,
Episcopal.
Capt. Allen Allensworth, Fort Bayard, N.
M., United States Chaplain.
Prince Momolu Massaquoi, Vey Territory,
Liberia, Episcopal.
Dr. Carl von Bergen, Stockholm, Sweden,
Independent Lutheran.
Bishop B. W. Arnett, African Methodist
Episcopal.
Dr. Floyd Tomkins, Episcopal.
Mrs. Charles Henrotin.
Mrs. Potter Palmer.
       Test Is a Test of Work.
Dr. Barrows then presented Thomas Wentworth
Higginson, who spoke as follows:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I should
not dare to come before you again after the kind-
ness with which you listened to me the other day
but for the fact that my immediate departure
from Chicago will save me from the effects of
your natural indignation and turn it fully upon
your Chairman, whose shoulders have already to
take care of so much. [Laughter and applause.]
I wish to call your attention to the fact that this
is a turning point in the history of this Parlia-
ment of Religions. Up to this time we have de-
voted ourselves almost wholly to speculation and
abstract ideas. Today, as you see by your pro-
gram, we turn to the actual facts of life and the
social questions which press upon us so tre-
mendously.
Those of you who have gone up in the Ferris
wheel may remember very well that when you
got about 100 feet from the earth you began to
have an uncomfortable sensation of having got
higher than your natural position, and you al-
most wished for a moment that you had given
your place to that other man who was so anxious
to step in before you. But as you rose higher and
higher this feeling passed away, and when you
got to the very top there came a blissful moment
when, though you were as high as you could get
in the air, you saw that you were not alone in the
air. For the first time you saw that
you had comrades, and the top of the next
car on the right and the top of the next car on
the left gave you a sense of safety almost as
if you were back on mother earth. It
is no matter who might be in those
cars. There might be the Rev. Joseph
Cook in the car on the right, and Mahomet and
his seventeen wives in the car on the left. You
cannot see any of them, so you did not suffer
from their presence. At any rate you were as far
as you could conveniently get. You had human
beings on either sidein as much danger as you
were, and presently, with the blessing of Provi-
dence, you got back to mother earth again. O,
that descent to mother earth! Do you remember
how mother earth seemed to rise to meet you?
How every steeple seemed sticking up in the air,
how every high building came presently within
your vision, and how you would bless the
Moedhdhin as he called the noon time prayer in
the mosque, if he happened to do it at that time?
Gradually, step by step, you settled down into
actual life again, and you are glad even if you
have the somewhat shady society of the Midway
Plaisance. [Laughter and applause].
That is the way we are coming back to earth
today. We are entering on the study of social
reform. You remember, perhaps, that story of
the Scotch candidate for the ministry who was
being examined by one of the sternest of the
presbyters, or whatever they call them. Every
one of his examiners stood firm in favor of justi-