Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/197

 THE CLOSE OF THE PARLIAMENT. 1 69 expectations. As a missionary I anticipate that it will make a new era of missionary enterprise and missionary hope. If it does not it will not be your fault, and let those take the blame who make it otherwise. Very sure I am that at least one missionary, who counts himself the humblest member of this noble assembly, will carry through every day of work, through every hour of effort, on till the sun of life sets on the completion of his task, the strengthening memory and uplifting inspiration of this Pentecost. By this Parliament the city of Chicago has placed herself far away above all the cities of the earth. In this school you have learned what no other^town or city in the world yet knows. The conventional idea of religion which obtains among Christians the world over is, that Christianity is true, all other religions false ; that Christianity is light, and other religions dark ; that Christianity is of God, while other religions are of the devil, or else with a little more moderation that Christianity is by revelation from heaven while other religions are manufactures of men. You know better, and with clear light and strong assurance you can testify that there may be friendship instead of antagonism between religion and religion ; that so surely as God is our common Father our hearts alike have yearned for him, and our souls in devoutest moods have caught whispers of grace dropped from his throne. This has been known to a few lonely thinkers, seers of the race, in different parts of the world, but not to the people of any town or city, as citizens, except Chicago. This is your " message of glad tidings " which you are destined to publish wide until every city in the Union knows it, and with trumpet tones you must tell it to all the world. Dr. Barrows, in introducing H. Dharmapala, of Ceylon, said his voice had often been heard with greatest pleasure in the Parliament. Mr. Dharmapala said : Peace, blessings and salutations — Brethren: This Congress of Relig- ions has achieved a stupendous work in bringing before you the representa- tives of the religions and philosophies of the East. The Committee on Religious Congresses has realized the Utopian idea of the poet and the visionary. By the wonderful genius of two men — Mr. Bonney and Dr. Barrows — a beacon of light has been erected on the platform of the Chicago Parliament of Religions to guide the yearning souls after truth. I, on behalf of the 475,000,000 of my co-religionists, followers of the gentle Lord, Buddha Gautama, tender my affectionate regards to you and to Dr. John Henry Barrows, a man of noble tolerance, of sweet disposition, whose equal I could hardly find. And you, my brothers and sisters, born in this land of freedom, you have learned from your brothers of the far East their presentation of the respective religious systems they follow. You have listened with commendable patience to the teachings of the all-merciful Buddha through his humble followers. During his earthly career of forty- five years he labored in emancipating the human mind from religious preju-