ern civilization were toward unity. Some came to feel that a Parliament of Religions was the necessity of the age.
They called attention to the fact that Europe's Eastern question, that Asiatic aggrandizement and African colonization, had brought together rival nations and rival races to divide the spoils of war.
They recalled that America, under the inspiration and guidance of a far-seeing statesman, the late Mr. Blaine, had held her Pan-American Congress and sought the commercial advantage of the conferring states. It was deemed the natural outcome of the spirit of the Prince of Peace, that his followers should seek to bring men together in a wider brotherhood than had been achieved by diplomacy, commerce or national selfishness.
In the spring of 1891 the General Committee on Religious Congresses of the World's Congress Auxiliary was appointed by President Charles C. Bonney, who had been foremost in originating and most active in promoting these world-conventions. The Rev. L. P. Mercer was a zealous and scholarly minister of the New Church (Swedenborgian). Mr. J. W. Plummer was an active member of the Society of Friends. Rev. J. Berger belonged to the German Methodist Church; Rev. John Z. Torgersen to the Norwegian Lutheran Church, and Rev. M. Ranseen to the Swedish Lutheran Church. The Rt. Rev. Charles Edward Cheney, D.D., was one of the founders and prominent leaders of the Reformed Episcopal Church. The Rev. Jenkin Lloyd-Jones was a well-known writer and an active worker among the advanced Unitarians. Rev. Dr. A. J. Canfield was the eloquent pastor of St. Paul's Universalist Church, Chicago. Dr. E. G. Hirsch was the minister of Sinai Temple and the learned Professor of Rabbinic Literature in the University of Chicago. Rev. Dr. Frank M. Bristol was one of the most eloquent Methodists of the North- west. Rev. William M. Lawrence, D.D., the pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Chicago, was far-famed as a successful preacher. Rev. Dr. F. A. Noble, of Union Park Congregational Church, was one of the prominent leaders of his
