Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/109

ASSEMBLING AND WELCOME. 8 1 that beautiful parable of the good Samaritan which we all ought to follow. We know that the good Samaritan rendered assistance to a dying man and bandaged his wounds. The Samaritan was his enemy in religion and in faith, his enemy in nationality, and his enemy even in social life. That is the model that we all ought to follow. I trust that we shall all leave this hall animated by a greater love for one another; for love knows no distinction of faith. Christ the Lord is our model, I say. We cannot, like our divine Saviour, give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and walking to the lame and strength to the para- lyzed limbs; wc cannot work the miracles which Christ wrought; but there are other miracles far more beneficial to ourselves that we are all in the measure of our lives capable of working, and those are the miracles of charity, of mercy, and of love to our fellow-man. Let no man say that he cannot serve his brother. Let no man say "Am I my brother's keeper ?" That was the language of Cain, and I say to you all here to-day, no matter what may be your faith, that you are and you ought each to be your brother's keeper. Where should we Christians be to day if Christ the Lord had said, " Am I my brother's keeper ?" We should be all walking in darkness and in the shadow of death ; and if to-day we enjoy in this great and beneHcent land of ours blessings beyond compari- son, we owe it to Christ who redeemed us all. Therefore, let us thank God for the blessings he has bestowed upon us. Never do we perform an act so pleasing to God as when we extend the right hand of fellow- ship and of practical love to a suffering member. Never do we approach nearer to our Model than when we cause the sunlight of heaven to beam upon a darkened soul ; never do we prove ourselves more worthy to be called the children of God our Father than when we cause the flowers of joy and of gladness to grow up in the hearts that were dark and dreary and barren and desolate before. For, as the apostle has well said, " Religion pure and undeflled before God and the Father is this, to visit the orphan and the fatherless and the widow in their tribulations, and to keep one's self unspotted from this world." It was with large acknowledgments of the services of women in the work of organizing the Religious Congresses, that President Bonney introduced the Chairman of the Women's Committee of Organization, the Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, D.D., to add words of welcome in behalf of women. SPEECH OF REV. AUGUSTA J. CHAPIN, D.D. [After speaking of the unique dignity of this assembly, amid the many congresses on many special themes, and of the claims of this to a universal human interest. Miss Chapin proceeded with great felicity to speak of its singular opportuneness, especially in regard to women's share in it. 6