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 THE CLOSE OF THE PARLIAMENT. I 77 I had rather be a doorkeeper in the open house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of bigotry. I am sufficiently happy in the knowledge that I have been enabled to be to a certain extent the feet of this great . triumph. I bid to you the parting guests the godspeed that comes out of a soul that is glad to recognize its kinship with all lands and with all religions ; and when you go, you go not only leaving behind you in our hearts more hospitable thoughts for the faiths you represent, but also warm and loving ties that bind you into the union that will be our joy and our life forevermore. But I will not stand between you and your further pleasures except to venture in the presence of this vast and happy audience a motion which I propose to repeat in the next hall, and if both audiences approve who dares say that the motion may not be realized ? It has often been said, and I have been among those who have been saying it, that we have been witnessing here in these last seventeen days what will not be given men now living again to see, but as these meetings have grown in power and accumulative spirit I have felt my doubts give way, and I already see in vision the next Parliament of Religions more glorious and more hopeful than this. And I have sent my mind around the globe to find a fitting place for the next Parliament. When I look upon these gentle brethren from Japan I have imagined that away out there in the calms of the Pacific Ocean we may, in the City of Tokyo, meet again in some great Parliament; but I am not satisfied to stop in that half-way land, and so I have thought we must go farther and meet in that great English dominion of India itself. At first I thought that Bombay might be a good place, or Calcutta a better place, but I have concluded to move that the next Parliament of Religions be held on the banks of the Ganges in the ancient city of Benares, where we can visit these brethren at their noblest headquarters. And when we go there we will do as they have done, leav- ing our heavy baggage behind, going in light marching order, carrying only the working principles that are applicable in all lands. Now, when shall that great Parliament meet ? It used to take a long time to get around the world, but I believe that we are ready here to-night to move that we will usher in the twentieth century with a great Parlia- ment of Religions in Benares — and we shall make John Henry Barrows President of it, too. A brief address was then made by Pastor Fliedner, of Madrid, Spain. From Spain, which discovered America, I tender a farewell greeting to those who have made America what it is to-day — to the sons and daughters of the Pilgrim Fathers, who left their homes in England and Scotland, in Holland and Germany, and came to this country and here established liberty from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific shore — to them I 12