Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/128

100 HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT. beneath this thickness of material luxury, a secret and mystic aspiration to something spiritual. I can see that even you are getting tired of your steam, of your elec- tricity, and the thousand different material comforts that follow these two great powers. I can see that there is a feeling of despondency coming even here — that matter, pursued however vigorously, can be only to the death of all, and it is only through the clear atmosphere of spirituality that you can mount up to the regions of peace and harmony. In the West, therefore, you have developed this material tendency. In the East we have developed a great deal of the spiritual tendency ; but even in this West, as I travel from place to place, from New York to Cincinnati, and from Cincin- nati to Chicago, I have observed an ever increasing readiness of people to assimilate spiritual ideas, regardless of the source from which they emanate. This, ladies and gentlemen, I consider a most significant sign of the future, because through this and through the mists of prejudice that still hang on the horizon, will be consummated the great event of the future, the union of the East and West. In introducing Rev. Alfred Williams Momerie, D.D., of London, England, Dr. Barrows made an allusion to Gladstone, which was greeted with a storm of applause. Dr. Barrows, continuing, said that one of the letters he had received in reply to his invitations was from the late Lord Tennyson, and that it was a letter that gave him great satisfaction. The Parliament of Religion, he added, has a number of eminent friends in Great Britain, and he believed if that great and noble man, the Archbishop of Canterbury, were here, his frown upon the Parliament would not be so severe as he had made it. Dr. Momerie, after this introduction, addressed the meeting as follows : SPEECH OF DR. MOMERIE. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, — One of your humorists, Artemus Ward, has said, " I am always happiest when I am silent," and so am I, friends. I shall not trespass on your attention more than two minutes. But there are three things which I feel that I must say. First, I must tender my most sincere thanks to you for the honor which you have done me in inviting me to come here, and also for the many words and deeds of welcome with which I have been greeted ever since I came. Secondly, I feel bound to say that there is one thing which, to me personally, casts a gloom over the brightness of the day, and that is the absence of my own archbishop. I am always bound to speak with all respect of my ecclesiastical superior, and, personally, I have the highest regard for him. He has been very kind