Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/204

176 HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT. been living in a larger world of faith and hope. Little things have been diminishing, and great things have been growing greater. We have been profoundly convinced of the non-essential character of the non-essentials, and of the essential character of the essentials. Perhaps some have been surprised to learn how true it is that God has not left himself without a wit- ness in any nation, among any people. We have been convinced as never before that, in the language of Edmund Burke, " Man is a religious animal, and religion is the greatest thing man is thinking about," for religion adds the evidence to assure us that man universally aspires to the divine, for religion is in itself a people's deepest, most pathetic sigh, " O, that I knew where I might find him." That sigh, that aspiration, in whatever articulation it may clothe itself, must henceforth be respected by all thoughtful men. It has often been said that one-half of the world knows not how the other half lives, nay, nor how the other half thinks, believes, and prays, and worships. It is time we knew enough about each other not to misunderstand, not to misrepresent each other. Charles Kingsley finely said: "True religion will make a man a more thorough gentleman than all the courts of Europe." The thorough gentlemen of the world have spoken in this Parliament of Religions in support of religions that have made them thorough gentle- men. Tolerance, courtesy, and brotherly love are the inevitable and con- vincing results of the world's nearness to God, the common Father. Infinite good and only good will come from this Parliament. To all who have come from afar we are profoundly and eternally indebted. Some of them represent civilizations that were old when Romulus was founding Rome, whose philosophies and songs were ripe in wisdom and rich in rhythm before Homer sang his Iliad to the Greeks, and they have enlarged our ideas of our common humanity. They have brought to us fragrant flowers from the gardens of Eastern faiths, rich gems from the old mines of great philosophers, and we are richer to-night from their contributions of thought and particularly from our contact with them in spirit. Never was there such a bright and hopeful day for our common humanity along the lines of tolerance and universal brotherhood. And we shall find that by the words that these visitors have brought to us, and by the influence they have exerted, they will be richly rewarded in the con- sciousness of having contributed to the mighty movement which holds in itself the promise of one Faith, one Lord, one Father, one Brotherhood. A very distinguished writer has said. It is always morn somewhere in the world. The time hastens when a greater thing will be said — 'tis always morn everywhere in the world. The darkness has past, the day is at hand, and with it will come the greater humanity, the universal brotherhood. President Bonney next introduced the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd- Jones, Secretary of the Parliament. Mr. Jones said :