Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/39

Rh "I dreamed That stone by stone I reared a sacred fane, A temple; neither Pagod, Mosque, nor Church, But loftier, simpler, always open-doored To every breath from Heaven; and Truth and Peace And Love and Justice came and dwelt therein." These lines from "Akbar's Dream," one of Tennyson's latest poems, indicate how the Laureate, who regarded the proposal of a Parliament of Religions at Chicago as a noble idea, brooded much, in his last days, over the oneness of human need and spiritual aspiration after God. "Akbar's Dream" is a beautiful contribution to our apprehension of what Mr. Higginson means by the "sympathy of religions."

Tennyson quotes an inscription on a temple in Kashmir: "O God, in every temple I see people that see thee, and in every language I hear spoken, people praise thee."

Such was the spirit and such the beginning of the movement which has led to one of the chief events of the century. More than three thousand copies of the Preliminary Address were sent to the religious leaders of mankind in many lands. The spirit of the Christian bodies in America was largely favorable to the Committee's plans.

It has been no uncommon thing in this century for Catholic and Protestant, Christian and Jew, orthodox and non-orthodox, to confer and even work together along lines of moral reform, and when it was proposed to assemble in an ecumenical conference the representatives of all the great historic faiths, the Christian mind of the modern world was largely prepared to receive and adopt the new idea.

Under date of August 8, 1891, Mr. Gladstone, the distinguished statesman of that Empire which embraces among its subjects representatives of all religions, wrote as on the next page.

The venerable poet Whittier, who has since passed away from earth, wrote more than once of his deep interest in the coming Parliament. He said:

I scarcely need to say that I am in full sympathy with the proposed World's Religious Convention. The idea seems to me an inspiration. I