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 ASSEMBLING AND WELCOME. 87 strange vicissitudes, we Indian theists, led by the light of ages, worship the same living Spirit, God, and none other. Perhaps in other ancient lands this law of continuity has not been so well kept. Egypt aspired to build up the vast eternal in her elaborate symbolism and mighty architecture. Where is Egypt to-day ? Passed away as a mystic dream in her pyramids, catacombs and sphynx of the desert. Greece tried to embody her genius of wisdom and beauty in her won- derful creations of marble, in her all-embracing philosophy ; but where is ancient Greece to-day ? She lies buried under her exquisite monuments, and sleeps the sleep from which there is no wakmg. The Roman cohorts under whose victorious tramp the earth shook to its center, the Roman theaters, laws and institutions — where are they ? Hidden behind the oblivious centuries or, if they flit across the mind, only point a moral or adorn a tale. The Hebrews, the chosen of Jehovah, with their long line of law and prophets, how are they ? Wanderers on the face of the globe, driven by king and kaiser, the objects of persecution to the cruel or objects of sympathy to the kind. Mount Moriah is in the hands of the Mussulman, Zion is silent, and over the ruins of Solomon's Temple a few men beat their breasts and wet their white beards with their tears. But India, the ancient among ancients, the elder of the elders, lives to-day with her old civilization, her old laws and her profound religion. The old mother of the nations and religions is still a power in the world. She has often risen from apparent death and in the future will surely arise again. When the Vedic faith declined in India, the esoteric religion of the Vedantas arose ; then the everlasting philosophy of the Darasanas. When these declined again, the Light of Asia arose and established a standard of moral perfection which will yet teach the world a long time. When Buddhism had its downfall, the Shaivalands Vaish Rava revived and continued in the land down to the invasion of the Mohammedans. The Greeks and Scythians, the Turks and Tartars, the Mongols and Moslem, rolled over her country like torrents of destruction. Our independence, our greatness, our prestige — all had gone; but nothing could take away our religious vitality. We are Hindus still and shall always be. Now sits Christianity on the throne of India, with the gospel of peace on one hand and the scepter of civilization on the other. Now it is not the time to despair and die. Behold the aspirations of modern India — intellectual, social, political — all awak- ened ; our religious instincts stirred to the roots. If that had not been the case, do you think Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and others would have traversed these 14,000 miles to pay the tribute of their sympathy before this august Parliament of Religions ? No individual, no denomination can more fully sympathize or more