Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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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.

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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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ATHE QUEST OF THE PERFECT RELIGION. 21 As soon as my friend and I could get our bearings, we were pleased to find that only one of the questions had been discussed and acted upon by the Convention before our arrival. W'e were told that the assembly had been opened by the President desig- nated in the callg and that nothing on earth was ever more impressive than the three minutes of silent prayer which fol- lowed the uplifting of the Chairman's hand and eye. After this there had been a brief address of welcome from the Com- mittee of Arrangements, a few words of thanks from the Presi- dent in response 3 then a short opening address by the President, and the introduction of the distinguished Buddhist representa- tive from Ceylon, who was to discuss the question: Can there be more than one perfect religion? To a Buddhist, there could be, of course, but one answer to this question, and that a negative. But he argued it -- as our informants told us - with wonderful tact as well as power. I-le kept the qualifica- tion tt perfect so prominently before his hearers' minds that however accustomed any of them might be to think and say that there may be and are many good religions, none could fail to see that of perfect religions there could be but one. He also carefully abstained from identifying his own system with the perfect religion, and thus avoided the mistake of exciting the jealousy of rival religionists. So complete had been his success, that after a short discussion in which several very diverse speakers participated, a venerable Parsee had moved, and just before our arrival the Convention had unanimously adopted the following resolution: Resolved, that in the opinion of this World's Convention there can be but one perfect religion.'T While we were getting hold of these facts we lost the Presi- dent's introduction of the second pre-appointed speaker. We soon lerned, however, that he was the senior moulvie of the great Mohammedan University at Cairo, a school of Islam in which there are all the time about ten thousand students in preparation for the duties of public religious teachers and ehanters -of prayers. His piercing eye and snow-white beard and vigorous frame would have made him anywhere a man of mark. Seated after his manner of teaching in the mosque upon a low bamboo 'frame, clad in his ofilcial robe, he looked like a resurrected Old Testament prophet-an Isaiah in living form