World Parliament of Religions Scrapbook 003

              #003 World Parliament of Religions Scrapbook, p. 124

[handwritten] Sept. 16.
    BLAVATSKY IS HERE,
  Not in Body, but in Spirit, at the
    Theosophical Congress.
   CREEDS AND TENETS.
Compared at the World's Parlia-
    ment of Religions.
    UNITY SEEN IN THEM ALL.
  Able Address Delivered by Mrs.
    Laura Ormiston. Chant.
  Fifth Day's Sessions Crowded as Ever
   —Doings of the Various De-
       nominations.
To-day's programme:
Parliament of Religions, Hall of Columbus,
Forenoon—Addresses: "Truthfulness of Holy
Scripture," Rev. Charles A. Briggs, D. D.;
"The Catholic Church and the Holy Scrip-
tures," Rt. Rev. Monsignore Seton, Newark;
"The Greatness and Influence of Moses, the
Jewish Law-giver," Rabbi G. Gotthiel; "The
Need of a Wider Conception of Revelation,"
Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, of Oxford;
"Christianity as Interpreted by Literature,"
Rev. Theodore T. Hunger, D. D.
Afternoon—"Study of the Sacred Books of the
World as Literature," Professor M. S.
Terry, D. . D.; "Influence of the Hebrew
Scriptures," Dr. Alexander Kohut, New
York; "Character and Degree of the Inspira-
tion of the Christian Scriptures," Rev.
Frank Sewall; prize essay on Taoism.
Evening—"The Outlook for Judaism," Miss Jo-
sephine Lazarus; "Jewish Contributions to
Civilization," Professor D. G. Lyon, Har-
vard university; "Relations of the Catholic
Church to the Bible," Archbishop Ireland.
Denominational Congresses—10 a. m.—Hall of
Washington, presentation of the Unitarian
church; hall 20, New Jerusalem Church Con-
gress; hall 31, Seventh Day Baptist Church
Congress: hall 9, Theosophical Congress. 2
p. m.—Hall of Washington, presentation of
the Unitarian church; New Church temple,
New Jeusalem Church Congress, hall 31,
Seventh Day Baptist Church Congress. 8
p. m.—Hall 20, New Jerusalem Church Con-
gress; hall 31, Seventh Day Baptist Church
Congress; Hall of Washington, presentation
of theosophy.
There was no diminution in the num-
bers that thronged the Art institute yes-
terday and sought admittance either to the
great Parliament of Religions or one or
other of the many denominational con-
gresses.
The parliament is still the great at-
traction, but it had a new competitor yes-
terday in the Theosophical Congress, which
opened at 10 o'clock in hall 7 with an audi-
ence that was squeezed together like
packed sardines. It was a picturesque
audience, too, femininity composing the
bigger part of it, and at such a mystical
gathering it was a very practical
kind of femininity. The women were
dressed in their gaudiest colored
gowns and jauntiest hats, and they didn't
at all mind being crushed. Some of them
who could not get inside were entertained
in the corridors by the knots of doubting
Thomases that were being dealt with by the
professors of the mystic faith. Some of the
doubters were hard thinkers and it was dif-
ficult to convince them that they would be
reincarnated and pass through half a
dozen stages of existence before arriving at
perfection. A Catholic priest after hearing
of the thousands of years it takes a human
soul to find the truth frankly told his in-
formant that he found a shorter cut to the
truth in the New Testament.
   Leading Theosophists There.
On the platform the leading lights of
theosophy were seated. Mrs. Annie Besant,
formerly the partner and co-laborer
with the late Charles Bradlaugh, in his
free thought and humanitarian efforts, and
now the successor of Mme. Blavatsky,
graced the stage with her presence. To
many she was half hidden behind the dis-
play of roses that adorned the desk. W.
Q. Judge was there, and so was Professor
G. N. Chakravarti, the scholarly Brahman
from India. And, according to the theory
of the theosophists, the spirit of Mme.
Blavatsky herself must have been some-
where about the building to guide the or-
ganization of which she was the founder and
beloved high priestess. Most of the peo-
ple who attended came out of curiosity, but
nevertheless it was a big day for the theos-
ophists, and they were justly entitled to
all the glory they had on the occasion.
There was another overflow meeting yes-
terday morning from the parliament, which
was held in hall 3, and the audience was as
large as the room permitted. It was given
to the discussion of scientific and historic
aspects of religion, and the session was
one of the most interesting that has been
held outside the general sessions.
There is an architectural defect in Wash-
ington and Columbus halls that is being
felt more and more as these great gather-
ings continue. There is only one main en-
trance to floor and gallery, and when the
doors are opened between the reading of
papers two streams of humanity meet each
other in the entrance and there is a dead-
lock. Neither are the seating and usher-
ing arrangements so perfect as they might
be. With a little more systematic distri-
bution of the visitors and delegates the
crowding might be minimized.
        Interest Increases.
Columbus hall was filled early yesterday
with an expectant audience. They expected
good addresses from Professor C. S. Goodspeed,
President Washburn, Constantinople;
Professor Theele, Leyden university, and
one or two papers by Oriental delegates,
and they were not disappointed, Mrs.
Laura Ormiston Chant, who was not on the
programme, was introduced, and she deliv-
ered off hand an admirable address. Dr.
John Henry Barrows, presided in the
morning, and started off the sixth day's
proceedings." The session was opened as
usual with the Lord's prayer, after, which
the programme as announced for the morn-
ing was carried out.
        DEAD RELIGIONS.
  What of Value They Have Bequeathed to
        the Creeds of To-day.
The first address announced for the 
morning session was that of Professor 
George S. Goodspeed, who occupies the 
chair of comparative religion in the Uni-
versity of Chicago. The learned professor
said:
The form in which the theme assigned to me is
Stated is suggestive. It implies that the re-
ligions of the world are not isolated or inde-
pendent. They are related to one another, and
so related that their attitude is not one of hos-
tility. Even the dead religions have left be-
quests to the living.
The subject also implies that these bequests
are positive. It is not worth our while to con-
sider the topic if we are convinced beforehand
that the dead religions have left behind them
only "bones and a bad odor." We are invited
to recognize the fact that a knowledge of them
serves a somewhat higher purpose than "to
point a moral and adorn a tale;" to see in them 
stages in the religious history of humanity, and 
to acknowledge that a study of them is impor-
tant, yes, indispensable, to adequate under-
standing of present systems. If they have some-
times seemed to show "what fools these mor-
tals be" when they seek after God, they also in-
dicate how he has made man for himself and how
human hearts are restless till they rest in him.
Though dead they yet speak and among their
words are some which form a part of our inher-
itance of truth. These dead religions may be
roughly summed up in seven groups:
1. Prehistoric cults, which remain only as
they have been taken up into more developed
systems, and the faiths of half-civilized peoples,
like those of Central America and Peru.
2. The dead religions of Semitic antiquity—
that is, those of Phoenicia and Syria, of Baby-
lonia and Assyria. 
3. The religion of Egypt. 
4. The religions of Celtic heathendom.
5. The religions of Teutonic heathendom.
6. The religion of Greece.
7. The religion of Rome.
       Three General Divisions.
It would be manifestly impossible in the
brief limits of this paper adequately to present
the material which these seven groups offer to-
ward the discussion of this question. Even with
a selection of the most important systems the
material is too extensive. Our effort, therefore,
will be directed not toward "a presentation of
the material exhaustively or otherwise, but
merely toward a suggestion of the possible ways
in which the achievements of these "dead" sys-
tems may contribute to a knowledge of the liv-
ing religions, and of religious facts in general,
with some illustrations from the immense field
which the above groups cover.
There are three general lines along which the
dead religions may be questioned as to their
contributions to the living: 
1. What are the leading religious ideas
around which they have centered or which they
have most fully illustrated?
2. What are their actual material contribu-
tions, of ideas or usages, to other systems?
3. In the history of their development, decay,
and death, how do they afford instruction, stim-
ulus, or warning?
1. All religious systems represent some fun-
damental truth or elements of truth.
They center about some eternal idea. Other-
wise they would have no claims upon hu-
manity and gain no lasting acceptance with men.
The religions of antiquity are no exceptions to
this principle. They have emphasized certain
phases of the religious sentiment; grasped cer-
tain elements of the divine nature; elucidated
certain sides of the problem of existence, before
which man cries out after God. It is not neces-
sary to repeat that these truths and clear per-
ceptions are often mingled with false views
and pressed to extravagant and harmful lengths.
But progress through the ages has been made,
in spite of these errors, by means of the funda-
mental elements of truth to which the very er-
rors bear witness. These are the bequests of the
dead religions to the world. They enrich the sum
total of right thoughts, noble aspirations, worthy
purposes. When patient and analytic study of
the facts of religious history has borne in upon
one the validity of the principle of development
in this field, these religions appear as parts of
the complex whole, and the truths they embody
enter into the sphere of religious knowledge as
elements in its ever-increasing store.
           Egypt and Assyria.
And not merely as units in the whole are these
truths part of the possession of living faiths,
but since that whole is a development in a real
sense they enter into the ground work of exist-
ing religions. We do not deny that present life
would not be what it is if Egypt and Assyria had
not played their part in history—so corrolated
is all history. Can we then deny that present
religion would not be what it is without their
religions? An idea once wrought out and ap-
plied in social life becomes not only a part of
the world's truth, but also a basis for larger in- 
sight and wider application. Thus the great 
and fruitful principles which these dead faiths 
embodied and enunciated have been handed 
down by them to be absorbed, into larger and 
higher faiths, whose superiority they them-
selves have had a share in making possible, 
How important and stimulating, therefore, is an 
investigation of them.
An illustration may be drawn from the relig-
ions of two ancient nations, Egypt and Baby- 
Ionia, which gave two highly influential re- 
ligious ideas to the world. There is the religion 
of Egypt, that land of contradiction and mys- 
tery, where men thought deep things, yet wor- 
shiped cats and cranes; were the most joyous 
of creatures, and yet seem to have devoted 
themselves to building tombs; explored many
fields of natural science and practical art, yet 
give us as the height of their achievements a
human mummy. One central religious notion of
Egypt was the nearness of the divine. It was
closely connected with a fundamental social
idea of the Egyptians. The man of
Egypt never looked outside of his own
land without disdain. It contained for him the
fullness of all that heart could wish. He was
a thoroughly contented and joyous creature and
the favorite picture which he formed of the
future life was only that of another Egypt like
the present. What caused him the most thought
was how to maintain the conditions of the pres-
ent in the passage through the vale of death.
The body, for example, indispensable to the
present, was equally required in the future and 
must be preserved. Thus it came to pass that
the Egyptian, happiest and most contented of
all men in his life, has left behind him tombs,
mummies and the book of the dead. Now in this
favored land the Egyptian must have his gods.
Deity must be near at hand. What was nearer
than his presence and manifestation in the
animal life, most characteristic of each district?