CHAPTER III.
THE ASSEMBLING OF THE PARLIAMENT—WORDS OF
WELCOME AND FELLOWSHIP.
AFTER these more than two years of toilsome preparation, it was not without anxiety, but at the same time with high hope and faith, that the day and hour were awaited which were to witness the inauguration of the Parliament of Religions.
It would have been unworthy of the moral dignity, the serious purpose of the occasion, if there had been any attempt at mere pageantry. And yet, considered merely as a spectacle, the gathering upon the platform of the Hall of Columbus, on that Monday morning, of representatives of the religious hopes and beliefs of twelve hundred millions of the human race was not without an impressive beauty. It is safest, in recalling the impressions of that memorable hour, to trust the well considered words of an eye-witness who was affected by no deep personal concern in the doings of the day.
Long before the appointed hour the building swarmed with delegates and visitors, and the Hall of Columbus was crowded with four thousand eager listeners from all parts of the country and foreign lands. At 10 o'clock there marched down the aisle arm in arm, the representatives of a dozen world-faiths, beneath the waving flags of many nations, and amid the enthusiastic cheering of the vast audience. The platform at this juncture presented a most picturesque and impressive spectacle. In the center, clad in scarlet robes and seated in a high chair of state, was Cardinal Gibbons, the highest prelate of his Church in the United States, who, as was fitting in this Columbian year, was to open the meeting with prayer.
On either side of him were grouped the Oriental delegates, whose many- colored raiment vied with his own in brilliancy. Conspicuous among these followers of Brahma and Buddha and Mohammed was the eloquent monk Vivekananda of Bombay, clad in gorgeous red apparel, his bronzed face
surmounted with a huge turban of yellow. Beside him, attired in orange and white, sat B. B. Nagarkar of the Brahmo-Somaj, or association of Hindu Theists, and Dharmapala, the learned Buddhist scholar from Ceylon, who brought the greetings of four hundred and seventy-five millions of
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