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74 HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT. they believe it. I appeal to the representatives of the non-Christian faiths, and ask you if Christianity suffers in your eyes fiwai iiaving called this Par- liament of Religions? «Do you believe that its l.>eneficent work in the world will be one whit lessened ? On the contrary, you agree with the great mass of Christian scholars in America in believing that Christendom may proudly hold up this Congress of the P'aiths as a torch of truth and of love w hich may prove the morning star of the twentieth century. There is a true and noble sense in which America is a Christian nation, since Christianity is recognized by the supreme court, by the courts of the several states, by executive ofificers, by general national acceptance and observance as the prevailing religion of our people. This does not mean, of course, that the church and state are united. In America they are separated, and in this land the widest spir- itual and intellectual freedom is realized. Justice Ameer Ali, of Calcutta, whose absence we lament to-day, has expressed the opinion that only in this western republic would such a congress as this have been undertaken and achieved. I do not forget — I am glad to remember — that devout Jews, lovers of humanity, have cooperated with us in this Parliament ; that these men and women representing the most wonderful of all races and the most persistent of all religions, who have come w'th good cause to appreciate the spiritual freedom of the United States of America — that these friends, some of whom are willing to call themselves Old Testament Christians, as I am willing to call myself a New Testament Jew, have zealously and powerfully cooperated in this good work. But the world calls us, and we call ourselves, a Chris- tian people. We believe in the gospels and in Him whom they set forth as "the light of the world," and Christian America, which owes so much to Columbus and Luther, to the Pilgrim Fathers and to John Wesley, which owes so much to the Christian church and the Christian college and the Christian school, welcomes to-day the earnest disciples of other faiths and the men of all faiths who, from many lands, have flocked to this jubilee of civilization. Cherishing the light which God has given us and eager to send this light everywhither, we do not believe that God, the eternal Spirit, has left himself without witness in non-Christian nations. There is a divine light enlightening every man. One accent of the Holy Ghost The heedless world has never lost. Professor Max Miiller, of Oxford, who has been a friend of our move- ment and has sent a contribution to this Parliament, has gathered together in his last volume a collection of prayers, Egyptian, Accadian, Babylonian, Vedic, Avestic, Chinese, Mohammedan and modern Hindu, which make it j)erfectly clear that the sun which shone over Bethlehem and Calvary has cast some celestial illumination and called forth some devout and holy