Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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THE QUEST or THE PERFECT RELIGION? A FEW evenings since, as I was walking up one of the main streets of Tokio, I encountered an experience not soon to be forgotten. My companion, who was the American minister to the Mikado's court, was pointing out to me ata considerable distance a large hall, called the Meiji Kuaido, and explaining that though now belonging to the government, it was originally built in a spirit of opposition to Christian missions and was de- signed to be a kind of headquarters for all who wished to rehabilitate the old religions, or in any way to oppose the spread of tl1c Christian faith. While he was narrating some incidents connected with it we came nearer and nearer, but soon found our further progress blocked by an altogether unprecedented crowd of people, evidently made up of the most diverse nationali- ties. It filled not only the approaches to the building, but also the whole street for some distance in front and on either side. Upon inquiry we learned that a convention of quite unusual interest was in progress and that all these people which the building could not contain were waiting to learn what they could of the progress of the deliberations within. One man kindly showed us a copy of the call under which the assembly had been brought together. At its top I read these words: ff World's Convention for the Definition and Promulgation of a Perfect and Universal Religion. 'The provisions under which the Delegates were to be appointed, and the Convention organ- ized, were carefully drawn and admirably adapted to secure a most weighty and representative body. Nearly every religion 1 Baccalaureate Address by Rev. William F. Warren, S.T.D., .LL.D., President ot Boston University. Delivered before the graduating classes of the University, in Jacob Sleeper Hall, on Tuesday, June 1, 1886. lSoon after translated into Japanese, and published in Yokohamag also into Spanish, and. published in the city of Mexlco.j

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18 xBOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. JOHN M. TYLER, A.M., Amherst, College of Agriculture ...... Lmcrunmn ox Zoiinoay. BALFOUR. H. VAN VLECK. S.B., 97 Warren Avenue, College of Llberal Arts ...... Lmcruumn ON Bromov. CHARLES S. WALKER, PH.D., Amherst, ' College of Agriculture, MENTAI. Scusscz, POLITICAL Ecoxomv, PAs'ron. CLARENCE D. WARNER, S.B., Amherst, - College of Agriculture .... MA'r1rEMA'rrcs AND PHYSICS. WILLIAM F. WARREN, S.T.D., LL D., 329 Broadway, Cambridge, University ............... PnEs1DEN'r. WILLIAM MARSHALL WARREN, Cambridge, College of Liberal Arts ........ ' .... Pnocron. CHARLES -WELLINGTON, Pn.D., College of Agriculture . ASSISTANT PROFESSOR or Cxrmrxsrnv. ARTHUR H. WELLMAN, LL.B., Malden, School of Law ............. Iusrnucron. CONRAD WESSELHOEFT, M.D., 302 Columbus Avenue, School of Medicine .... PATHOLOGY AND T1mnAPEU'rIcs. WALTER WESSELHOEFT, M.D., 97 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, School of Medicine ............ OBSTETRICB. FRANCIS WHARTON, S.T.D., LL.D., Washington, D.C., School of Law ........... CONFLICT OF LAws. GEORGE E. WHITING, Franklin Square, College of Music ....... ORGAN AND COMPOSITION. SARAH E. WILDER, M.D., 505 Columbus Avenue, School of Medicine ............ LIBRARIAN. MAGGIE SIZPES WOLHAUPTER, Washington, D.C., College of Liberal Arts ........... Pnooron. DENTON G. WOODVINE, M.D., 739 Tremont Street, School oflllcdlcine . . . Lucrumm ox LARYNGOSCOPY, ETC. SAMUEL WORCESTER, M.D., Salem, School of Medicine ..... INsANrrY AND DmnMA'roLoGY. CARL ZERRAHN, 130 Chandler Street, College of Music . . OnA1'omo AND OBCHESTBAL CONDUCTOB. I

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20 g BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. and sect I had ever heard of -except the Christian--was named and provided for. Of course I was at once intensely in- terested to see so rare a body-the first of its kind in the history of the world. I But the crowd was so dense I was almost in despair. Fortunately in our extremity two stout policemen recognized my companion, and knowing his ainbassadorial char- acter undertook to make a way for us and to bring us into the hall. The struggle was long and severe, but at last our faithful guides succeeded in edging us into an overcrowded balcony to a standing-place from which nearly the whole body of the delegates could be seen. Never can I forget that many hued and strangely clad assembly. Nearly every delegation had some sacred banner, or other symbol, by which it might be dis- tinguished. In the centre of the hall was the yellow silken banner of the Chinese Dragon. On the left I saw the crescent of Islamg on the right the streamers of the Grand Lama of Thibet. 'Not far away was the seven-storied sacred umbrella of Burmah, and beyond it the gaudy feather-work of a dusky dele- gation from Ashantee. In one corner I even thought I recog- nized the totem of one of our Indian tribes of Alaska. On the programme there were five questions, each evidently framed with a view to make its discussion and' answer contrib- ute toward the common end, the definition of a perfect and uni- versal religion. The first read as follows: Can there be more than o11e perfect religion? The opening of the discus- sion of this had been assigned to a great Buddhist teacher from Ceylon. The second question, to be opened by a Mohamme- dan, was : H What kind of an object of worship must a perfect religion present? The third was assigned to a Taoist, and was thus formulated: 'f What must a perfect religion demand of, and promise to, the sincere worshipper? The fourth, assigned to a Hindu pundit, was the following: In what relation must the divine object and the human subject stand to each other in a perfect religion? The fifth and last question read: By what credentials shall a perfect religion, if ever found, be known? The honorx and responsibility of opening this last and highest of the' proposed dischssions was reserved to the official head of the Shinto priesthood of Japan, the highest representative of the ancestral faith of the Einpire.