World Parliament of Religions Scrapbook 003

              #003 World Parliament of Religions Scrapbook, p. 117

"love of the world" may have little in common
with the idea of the Apostle John, yet have we
not here an affinity with the affirmation of
Christianity, that "the things which are seen
are temporal; but the things which are not seen
are eteral" (2 Cor. iv., 18); that "the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof" (I John ii.,
18); though the Christian completion of that
verse—"but he that doeth the will of God abid-
eth forever"—marks the fundamental defect of
pantheistic India and its striking contrast to the
gospel.
For the God of Hindooism is a pure intelligence
a thinker; not a sovereign will as in Islam, nor
the Lord of light and right as in Parseeism, still
less havihg and paternal or providential charac-
ter. Nothing is created by his power, but all is
evolved by emanation, from the one eternal
entity, like sparks from fire. No commands come 
from such a being, but all things flow from
him as light from the sun, or thoughts
from a musing man. Hence, while between
God and the worshiper there is the most direct
affinity, which may become identity, there ex-
ists no bond of sympathy, no active and intelli- 
gent co-operation, and no quickening power
being exercised on the human will, and in the
formation of character, the fatal and fatalistic
weakness of Hindoo life appears, which endersr
the gospel appeal so often powerful; the lost
sense of practical moral distinction, of the re-
quirements of conscience, of any necessary con-
nection between thought and action, convictions
and conduct, of divine authority over the soul, of
personal responsibility, of the duty of the soul
to love and honor God, and to love one's neigh-
bor as one's self.
         Truth Through Idolatry.
Idolatry itself, foolish and degrading as it is,
seeks to realize to the senses what otherwise is
only an idea; it witnesses, as all great errors do,
to a great truth; and it is only by distinctly rec-
ognizing and liberating the truth that underlies 
the error, and of which the error is the counter-
part, that the error can be successfully combated
and slain. Every error will live as long and
only as long as its share of truth remains un-
recognized. Adapting words that Archdeacon
Hare wrote of Dr. Arnold "we must be
iconoclasts, at once zealous and fearless in de-
molishing the reigning idols, and at the same
time animated with a reverent love for the ideas
that the idols carnalize and stifle." Idolatry is
a strong human, protest against pantheism,
which denies the personality of God, and athe-
ism, which denies God altogether; it testifies to
the natural craving of the heart to have before it 
some manifestation of the unseen—to behold a 
humanized God. It is not, at the bottom, an 
effort to get away from God, but to bring God
near. 
Once more. The idea of the need of sacrificial
acts, "the first and primary rites"—eucharistic,
sacramental, and propitiary—bearing the closest
parallelism to the provisions of the Mosaic
economy and prompted by a sense of personal
unworthiness, guilt, and misery—that life is to
be forfeited to the divine protector—is ingrained
in the whole system of Vedic Hindooism. A sense
of original corruption has been felt by all classes
of Hindoos, as indicated in the prayer:
I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful.
Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Hari, the remover of
sin.
The first man, after the deluge, whom the
Hindoos called Manu and the Hebrews Noah, of-
fered a burnt offering. No literature, not even
the Jewish, contains so many words relating to
sacrifice as Sanskrit. The land has been sat-
urated with blood.
      Antiquity of Sacrifices.
The secret of this great importance attached
to sacrifice is to be found in the remarkable fact
that the authorship of the institution is at-
tributed to "Creation's Lord" himself and its
date is reckoned as coeval with the creation.
The idea exists in the three chief Vedas and in
the Brahmunas and Upanishads that Prajapati,
"the lord and supporters of his creatures"—the
Purusha (primeval male)—begotten before the
world, becoming half immortal and half mortal
in a body fit for sacrifice, offered himself for the
devas (emancipated mortals) and for the benefit
of the world; thereby making all subsequent
sacrifice a reflection or figure of himself. The
ideal of the Verdic Prajapati, mortal and yet 
divine, himself both priest and victim, who
by death overcame death, has long since
been lost in India. Among the many
gods of the Hindoo pantheon none has
ever come forward to claim the vacant 
throne once reverenced by Indian rishis. No 
other than the Jesus of the Gospels—"the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world"—has
ever appeared to fulfill this primitive idea of re-
demption by the efficacy of sacrifice; and when
this Christian truth is preached it ought not to
sound strange to Indian ears. An eminent Hindoo
preacher has said that no one can be a true Hin- 
doo without being a true Christian.
But one of the saddest and most disastrous
facts of the India of to-day is that modern Brah-
manism, like modern Parseeism, is fast losing its
old ideas, relaxing its hold on the more spirit-
ual portions, the distinctive tenets of the ancient
faith. Happily, however, a reaction has set in,
mainly through the exertions of these scholars
and of the Arya Samaj; and the more thoughtful
minds are earnestly seeking to recover from
their sacred books some of the buried treasures
of the past.
        What the Bible Shows.
For ideas of a divine revelation—"Word of
God"—communicated directly to inspired sages
or rishis, according to a theory of inspiration
higher than that of any other religion in the
world, is perfectly familiar to Hindoos, and is,
indeed, universally entertained. Yet the con-
clusion reached is this, that a careful compar-
ison of religions brings out this striking contrast
between the Bible and all other scriptures; it
establishes its satisfying character in distinc-
tion from the seeking spirit of other faiths. The
Bible shows God in quest of man rather than
man in quest of God. It means the questions
raised in the philosophies of the East, and sup-
plies their only true solution.
The Vedas present "a shifting play of lights
and shadows; sometimes the light seems to
grow brighter, but the day never comes." For,
on examining them, we note a remarkable fact.
While they show that the spiritual needs and
aspirations of humanity are the same—the same
travail of the soul as it bears the burdens of ex-
istence—and contain many beautiful prayers
for mercy and help, we fail to find a single text
that purports to be a divine answer to prayer,
an explicit promise of divine forgiveness, an
expression of experienced peace and delight in
God, as the result of assured pardon and recon-
ciliation. There is no realization of ideas. The
Bible alone is the book of divine promise—the
revelation of the "exceeding riches of God's
grace"—shining with increasing brightness till
the dawn of perfect day. And for this reason it
is unique, not so much in its ideas, as in its
vitality; a living and regulating force, embodied
in a personal, historic Christ, and charged with
unfailing inspiration.
       HIGH PRIEST OF SHINTO.
  The Dignitary Heartily Received by the
       Appreciative Audience.
Dr. Barrows then presented the high
priest of Shinto, Reiichi Shibata, to the
audience. He was greeted with hearty
applause. After giving a sketch of his re-
ligion and its history, he said;
As our doctrines teach us, all animate and in-
animate things were born from one heavenly
Deity, and every one of them has its particular
mission; so we ought to love them all and also
to respect the various forms of religions in
the world. They are all based, I believe,
on the fundamental truth of religion:
the difference between them is only in
the outward form influenced by variety of
history, the disposition of the people, and the
physical conditions of the places where they
originated. As it is impracticable now to
combine them into one religion, the religionists
ought at least to conquer hostile feelings; to try
to find out the common truth which is hidden in
all forms of religious thought, and to unite
their strength in searching for the common
object of religions.
Lastly, there is one more thought that I wish
to offer here. While it is the will of Deity and
the aim of all religionists that all his beloved
children on the earth should enjoy peace and
comfort in one accord, many countries look still
with envy and hatred toward one another, and
appear to seek for opportunities of making war
under the slightest pretext, with no other
aim than of wringing out ransoms or
robbing a nation of its lands. Thus, regardless
of the abhorrence of the heavenly Deity, they
only inflict pain and calamity on innocent peo-
ple. Now and here my earnest wish is this, that
the time should come soon when all nations on
the earth will join their armies and navies
with one accord, guarding the world as
a whole, and thus prevent preposterous
wars with each other. They should also estab-
lish a supreme court in order to decide the case,
when a difference arises between them. In that
state no nation will receive unjust treatment
from another, and every nation and every indi-
vidual will be able to maintain their own rights
and enjoy the blessings of Providence.
There will thus ensue, at last, the universal
peace and tranquility which seem to be the final
object of the benevolent Deity.
For many years such has been my wish and
hope. In order to facilitate and realize this in 
the future I earnestly plead that every religion-
ist of the world may try to edify the nearest
people to devotion, to root out enmity between
nations, and to promote our common object.
During the reading of the paper of the
high priest of Japan the author stood
quietly and dignified in his silken robes,
bowing graciously in response to the fre-
quent outbursts of applause.
At the close of the reading tremendous
applause shook the great auditorium,
scores of Christians who had been charmed
with the sentiments of the sometimes called
heathen teacher clustered around the foot
of the platform to shake the hands of the
Japanese thinker. Hundreds from the
gallery waved their congratulations, which
the priest recognized by extending to the
people his hand and smiling pleasantly.
          EVENING MEETING.
  Throngs of People Crowd Into the Hall of
          Columbus.
There was no diminution in the numbers
who clamored for admission to the even-
ing session. The first paper was that of 
Rev. Father Elliott, of the Order of Paulists,
who spoke in part as follows on the
subject, "The Supreme End and Office of
Religion:"
The end and office of religion is to direct the
aspirations of the soul toward an infinite good
and to secure a perfect fruition. Man's longs for
perfect wisdom, love, and joy are not aberra-
tions of the intelligence or morbid con-
ditions of any kind; they are not
purely subjective, blind reachings forth
toward nothing. They are most real life, ex-
cited into activity by the infinite reality of
the Supreme Being, the most loving God, calling
his creature to union with himself. In studying
the office of religion we therefore engage in the
investigation of the highest order of facts, and
weigh and measure the most precious products
of human conduct—man's endeavors to approach
his ideal condition.
The supreme end of religion is not emancipa-
tion, but regeneration. As among the Romans,
when a citizen emancipated his slave he by that
act conferred citizenship on him, so the pardon
of sin by Christ is not only remission, but also
adoption among the sons of God.
The expiation of sin is the removal of an
obstacle to our union to God. Nothing hinders
the progress of guileless or repentant souls, even
their peace of mind, more than prevalent mis-
conceptions on this point. Freed from sin many
fall under the delusion that all is done; not to
commit sin is assumed to be the end of religion.
In reality pardon is but the initialwork of grace,
and even pardon is not possible without the gift
of love. The sufferings of Christ, as well as
whatever is of a penitential influence in his re-
ligion, is not in the nature of merely paying a
penalty, but is chiefly an offering of love.
The process on man's part of union with God
is free and loving acceptance of all his invita-
tions, inner and outer, natural and revealed, or-
ganic and personal.
Obedience generates conformity, but love has
a fecundity which generates every virtue, for it
alone is wholly unitive. The highest boast of
obedience is that it is the first born love. As
the humanity said of the divinity, "I go to the
Father, because the Father is greater than I,"
so obedience says of love, "I go to my parent
virtue, for love is greater than I."
Hence not the least fault we find with the re-
ligious separation for the last 300 years is that
it has unduly accentuated the sovereignty of God.
      Rev. Philip Moxon.
Rev. Philip Moxon was introduced and
presented his "Argument for Immor-
tality," and among other things said:
It is impossible, of course, within the limits of
this brief paper even to state the entire argu-
ment for the immortality of man. The most
that I can hope to do is to indicate those main
lines of reasoning which appeal to the average
intelligent mind as confirmatory of a belief in
immortality already existent. Three or four
considerations should be noticed at the outset:
First, it is doubtful whether any reasoning on
this subject would be intelligible to man if he
did not have precedent by at least a capacity for 
immortality. However we may define it, there
is that in man's nature which makes him suscep-
tible to the tremendous idea of everlasting ex- 
istence. It would seem as if only a deathless 
being, in the midst of a world in which 
all forms of life perceptible by his senses 
are born and die in endless succession, could
think of himself as capable of surviving this
universal order. The capacity to raise and
discuss the question of immortality has there-
fore implications that radically difference man
from all the creatures about him. Just as he
could not think of virtue without a capacity for
virtue, so he could not think of immortality
without at least a capacity for that which he
thinks.
A second preliminary consideration is that im¬
mortality is inseparably bound up with theism.
Theism makes immortality rational. Atheism
makes it incredible, if not unthinkable. The
highest form of the belief in immortality in-
evitably roots itself in and is part of the soul's
belief in God.
A third consideration is that a scientific proof
of immortality is at present impossible in the
ordinary sense of the phrase, "scientific proof."