Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 25 text:

I THE QUEST OF THE PERFECT RELIGION. 23 Taoist teacher was politely introduced. As his noble form advanced quietly to the front of' the platform in the costume of a Chinese Mandarin of the highest rank, it was at once evident that the better side of Taoism was to be represented, - the ideas of the Tao-teh-king, and not the superstition and jugglery of modern popular Taoism. I-Ie began by saying that it seemed proper for him to start out from the point where the preceding discussion had stopped, tl1e Convention having already voted that there could be but one perfect religion, and that this religion in order to be perfect must present a perfect object of worship. . With both of these propositions he said he was in full accord, provided only that it be constantly borne in mind that the whole discussion related to a purely abstract or hypothetical question. V Now, said he,' ffif a man really had a perfect object of worship, it is plain that his duty toward it would be very differ- ent from that he owes to any of' 'those finite and limited and imperfect divinitics which we and our fathers have been accus- tomed to worship. Our duties to these, and their duties to us, are more analogous to our duty to observe courtesy toward our fellowmenand kindness toward those below us. The moment we picture to ourselves a perfect God, the maker, upholder and governor of all beings, lord even of the celestial and terrestrial spirits whom we are in the habitof' worshipping, that moment we see that the worship of sucl1 a being would of necessity be something very different. As giver of all our powers and possi- bilities, l1e could justly demand that we employ them all for the accomplishment of the purpose for which he gave them. Indeed were he a perfectly rational being it would seem impossible that he should require less. On the other hand such a being would of necessity posf sess both the power and the 'inclination to give to his sincere worshipper the perfect fruit of genuine piety. This can be nothing less than perfect virtue and even exquisite delight in virtue. In a perf'ect piety -all self'-conflict, all internal resistance to good, all self-will, must be absolutely and totally eliminated. All fear-even of that perfect Being-would have to be ab- sentg nay, it would have to be trausmuted into eager uninter- mittcnt love. On the other hand, how unutterably would a.

Page 24 text:

22 BOSTON UNIVERSITY rE.41e 30015. before ns. At first I wondered 'if he would be able to speak to so modern a question as the one assigned him : What kind of an object of worship must a perfect religion present? Time would fail me were I to attempt to report with any ful- ness his rhythmic speech. It was Oriental through and through -quaint, poetic, full of apothegms, proverbs, parables, - but it conclusively answered the question. He made even the feather-decked gri-gri worshippers of lVestern Africa see that a. god who knows much about his worshipper, and can do great things for him, is more perfect than a god who knows little and can do but little. Then arguing up and up, he made it plain to every intelligence that a perfect religion necessarily demands a god possessing all knowledge and all'power. It becomes a per- fect religion only by presenting to the worshipper, as the su- preme object of obedience,love and service, a perfect being. He showed also that'perfection in an object of worship required that it be a livingobject, that it have intelligence, rational feel? ings and purposes, in a word, that it possess real and complete personality. It must be possible to address him as a person- ality. i Ile needs to be in every place, to be before all things, in.all things, above all things. Limit him in any respect and the religion you present becomes less than perfect. This was the thought stripped of all its weird and Oriental adornments. But as he expanded and enforced it his eye kindled and his chant-like speech rose and fell, and rose and fell, until we hardly knew whether we were in the body or out ofthe body, so wondrous was the spell wherewith he had bound us., He was followed by an eloquent representative of the Brahmo Somaj, and he in turn by a Persian Babist, both of whom argued in the same line with such effect, that when a picturesquely turbaned representative of the religion of the Sikhs gained the floor and moved that it be the sense of the Convention that a perfect religion must present a perfect god, the whole vast assembly was found to be a unit in aflirming this grand declara- tion. ' Next, of course, came the third question: What must a perfect religion demand of the sincere worshipper, and what must it promise to him? To open its discussion theappointed . I i

Page 26 text:

l 24 BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. perfect object of worship love and bless a perfectly sincere worshipperl After many other touching words, particularly upon the woe- ful contrast between the ideal and the actual in 1ife,' and upon the arduousncss of the struggle for virtue under every religion, he closed by submitting the following proposition for the further eoirsideration of the Convention : H Resolved, that a perfect religion will have to demand of man a perfect surrender of will and life to a perfect object of worship, and will have to promise him a perfect freedom and satisfaction in the life of goodness. A Suli from Ispahan, a Theosophist from Bombay, and vari- ous other speakers followed, all very nearly agreeing with the first, but some of them preferring a different wording of the resolution. Various amendments were proposed and discussed, until at length the followingsubstitute was offered: H Resolved, that if a perfect religion were possible to imperfect men, it would require of the worshipper a perfect devotion to a perfect god, and would demand of the perfect god a perfect ultimate beatifi- cation of the worshipper. This was unanimously and even enthusiastically adopted. Question four was now in order. The President rose and said : The fourth question reads as follows: 'In what relation must the divine object and the human sulgject stand to each other in a perfect religion? ' The discussion of this question is to be opened by one who has himself ofttimes been the recipient of divine worship, and who represents an ancient and powerful priesthood believed by millions to be a real embodiment of the one divine and eternal Spirit. I have the honor to present to the Convention the venerated head of all the sacred houses of the Brahmins in the holy city of Benares. Calm as his own imposing religion, yet keener than any who had preceded him, the Hindu addressed himself to his allotted task. For twenty minutes he held every eye and commanded every mind. How shall I give you any conception of that cap- tivating discourse? The following is but the barest thread to intimate the great truths touched upon by his master hand. He began by saying that some personal relationship between the worshipper and the worshipped was necessarily involved in the very idea of worship. In this act the worshipper is think-