PART FIRST.
THE HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAN FOR A PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS.
DR. Horace Bushnell, that profound and original thinker of New England, has said, that "It is only Religion, the great bond of love and duty to God, that makes any existence valuable or even tolerable."
In the Columbian Exposition of 1893, for the first time on such an occasion, Religion has had due preeminence. Since faith in a Divine Power to whom men believe they owe service and worship has been like the sun, a life-giving and fructifying potency in man's intellectual and moral development; since Religion lies back of Hindu literature with its marvelous and mystic developments; of European Art, whether in the form of Grecian statues or Gothic cathedrals; and of American liberty and the recent uprisings of men in behalf of a juster social condition; and since it is as clear as the light that the Religion of Christ has led to many of the chief and noblest developments of our modern civilization, it did not appear that Religion any more than Education, Art or Electricity should be excluded from the Columbian Exposition.
But Religion, like the white light of Heaven, has been broken into many-colored fragments by the prisms of men. One of the objects of the Parliament of Religions has been to change this many-colored radiance back into the white light of heavenly truth.
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