Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/89

THE WORLD'S RESPONSE. 6 1 light of day, and hopeful faith that the Spirit of God is still working mightily among the children of men, naturally made them friends of an effort to bring into amicable conference the religious leaders of mankind. The Chairman was confronted from the beginning with the question whether representatives of the non-Christian faiths could be induced to laj^ aside their fears and prejudices, leave their important work at home, and undertake long and expen- sive journeys to meet, in the heart of a Christian country, the ablest scholars of Christendom, masters of the English lan- guage, with which they themselves were sometimes not per- fectly familiar. Confidence in the fairness and courtesy with which non-Christian delegates would be received, together with the conviction that their coming was most earnestly desired — these were prerequisites and essentials to the possi- bility of a World's Religious Parliament. Missionaries in Japan urged the Committee to give the most courteous recep- tion to the Oriental delegates. No other thought had ever been entertained by the Committee, but as one of the Chair- man's addresses to a Christian convention, wherein he showed the Christian possibilities of the Parliament had disturbed some of the Buddhist priests of Japan, he hastened to assure them that the spirit of kindness and fraternity would prevail in the Parliament. As the Buddhist and Shintoist communi- ties in Japan were divided over the wisdom of attending the Religious Congress, much credit is due to the Japanese dele- gates who voluntarily undertook the journey which brought them to this memorable conference. And when on the third of September, in the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, the Buddhist delegation sat and reverently listened to a sermon on "' Christ the Wonderful," a discourse preceded by the baptism and reception of three Chinese converts, and followed by an impressive address from the Archbishop of Zante, it appeared as if the Parliament had already opened beneath the splendor of the Cross.