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THE WORLD'S RESPONSE. 57 effort was not successful. But Bishop Nicholas, of San Fran- cisco, representing the Russian Church, who was in Chicago at the opening of the Parliament, met with the delegates and deeply regretted that his church duties called him from the city. Among the Buddhists of Japan who did much to make the Parliament thoroughly representative should be mentioned the Rt. Rev. Zitsuzen Ashitsu, who employed the magazine which he edits in advocating the wisdom of Buddhist coopera- tion. The editor of the Hindu, of Madras, contributed several notable articles, by which the plans of the Parliament were made known in India. On the eleventh of August, 1893, the General Committee sent out a request for Universal Prayer in which it was said : For the first time in history a Congress of Universal Religion will be assembled. We recognize with devout thanksgiving the gracious Divine Providence which is bringing men into closer and more fraternal relation- ship, and which at the end of the nineteenth century makes such an assem- bly possible. An occasion of such peculiar interest and importance has attracted world-wide attention, and it is thought by the General Committee having charge of these Congresses that it should be signalized throughout the world by religious recognition, in prayer, meditation, and public teaching. It is suggested that on one day in September the religious teachers of the world call public attention to this first great effort of mankind to realize their common religious fraternity. And this request is earnestly proffered and sent out to all those who believe in a divine order in the governance of the world, and who work and wait for the kingdom of God on earth, that during the month of September, 1893, at some special time and place of worship, devout supplication should be made that this historic meeting of the children of one heavenly Father may be blessed to the glory of his name, to the advance of spiritual enlightenment, to the promotion of peace and good will among the nations and races, and to the deepening and widening of the sense of universal human brotherhood. This request was given wide circulation,^and in many pul- pits the great Parliament was considered in its probable bear- ings on the religious welfare of mankind. What has been sketched thus far will give a faint outline of the multiplied labors devolved upon the Chairman and his Secretaries from May 1891 to September 1893. The tentative