Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/65

THE WORLD'S RESPONSE. 37 Your Congress will, I feel sure, bring into a clear light the great fact that while theology divides, religion unites. That earnest Christian, Hon. Harnam Singh, uncle of His Royal Highness Jatjat Jit Singh, the Maharajah of Karputhala, who was one of the visitors at the Exposition, greatly regretted his inability to be present at the Parliament, whose principles he cordially approved. President A. M. Fairbairn, D.D., Mansfield College, Oxford, wrote : I think it a scheme of great promise and interest, especially if it be so conducted as to bring about a greater sympathy, more co-operation and mutual understanding on the part of the churches. Whatever aims at such ends meets with my most cordial approval. Cavaliere Matteo Prochet, D.D., of the Evangelical Wald- ensian Church, wrote from Rome. I think that the scheme is a good one, and quite w^orth the attention of every thoughtful mind. Truth can bear the broad daylight, and has noth- ing to fear from it. The call for the Parliament which assembled in Chicago was conceived in the spirit of the broadest fraternity and bore a Christian imprint. Rev. John Coleman Adams, D.D., wrote: It affords an expression of the soul of the church in modern days. The call for the first great gathering in the name of all religions goes forth to the world bearing the autograph of the followers of Jesus Christ. It is an expression of the hospitality of Nineteenth Century Christianity. Rev. Frank Woods Baker, of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Cincinnati, wrote: The Parliament may do much to establish a new and better, a sympa- thetic, basis for future missionary work. It will contribute immensely to that for which all true men are praying : that is, not only the unity of Christendom, but also the much larger union of all religions in building man up into the perfected image of God in which he was and is created. Comprehension and not exclusiveness is the key to the world's progress and enlightenment at the present time. Men are unwilling to know only half the truth. Not only are their thoughts widened with the process of the suns, but their hearts are growing larger. They are unwilling to exclude from their brotherly sympathies any who are groping, how- ever blindly, after God.