Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/104

 76 HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT. We are not here to criticise one another, but each to speak out positively and frankly his own convictions regarding his own faith. The great world outside will review our work ; the next century will review it. It is our high and noble business to make that work the best possible. There will be social gatherings in the course of this Parliament in which we shall be able to get at each other more closely ; there will be review sections in the smaller halls where, in a friendly way, through ques- tion and answer and suggestion, the great themes to be treated in the Hall of Columbus will be considered and various lights thrown upon them; but in this central hall of the Parliament the general program will be carried out, and, I trust, always in the spirit which glows in your hearts at this hour. It is a great and wonderful program that is to be spread before you ; it is not all that I could wish or had planned for, but it is too large for any one mind to receive it in its fullness during the seventeen days of our ses- sions. Careful and scholarly essays have been prepared and sent in by great men of the old world and the new, which are worthy of the most seri- ous and grateful attention, and I am confident that each one of us may gain enough to make this Parliament an epoch of his life. You will be glad with me that, since this is a world of sin and sorrow, as well as specula- tion, our attention is for several days to be given to those greatest practical themes which press upon good men everywhere. How can we make this suffering and needy world less a home of grief and strife and far more a commonwealth of love, a kingdom of heaven ? How can we abridge the chasms of altercation which have kept good men from cooperating ? How can we bring into closer fellowship those who believe in Christ as the Saviour of the world ? And how can we brmg about a better understanding among the men of all faiths ? I believe that great light will be thrown upon these problems in the coming days. Outside of this central Parliament, and yet a part of it, are the congress- es of the various religious bodies in the Hall of Washington and else- where. And they will greatly help to complete the picture of the spiritual forces now at work among men and to bring to a gainsaying and gold-wor- shiping generation a sense of those diviner forces which are moving on humanity. I cannot tell you, with any completeness, how vast and various are my obligations to those who have helped us in this colossal undertaking. Let me, however, give my heartiest thanks to the devout women who, from the beginning, have championed the idea of this Parliament and worked for its realization ; to the President of the Columbian Exposition and his associ- ates ; to the President of the World's Congress Auxiliary, whose patient and Titanic labors will one day be appreciated at their full value ; to the Chris- tian and secular press of our country, which has been so friendly and helpful from the start; to the more than three thousand men and women upon our Advisory Council in many lands ; to the scores of missionaries who have