Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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THE QUEST OF THE PERFECT RELIGION. 27 hand all things, even the worshipper, are in this Universal Spirit, it is more than possible -it is inevitable - that the divine should have participancy in the human and the human in the divine. Few ol' the great religions ot' the wo1'ld have failed to recognize in some way this basal truth. Even the Shamans of the barbarous tribes claim to exercise divine powers only when personally pos- sessed of divine spirits. In Thibet the faithful see in the distin- guished head olf their hierarchy, the Dalai Lama, - with whose presence we to-day are honored,-fa true divine incarnation. For ages here in Japan the sacred person ot' the Mikado has been recognized as a god in human form. The founders ot' nearly all great religions and states have been held to be descendants, or impersonations, of' the gods. In like manner the apotheosis of dying emperors, Roman and other, shows how natural is the faith that good and great men can take onthe nature and the life divine. Ask India's hundreds of millions. They all aflirm that every human being may aspire to ultimate and absolute identifi- cation with G-od. The even more numerous followers'of,the Buddha hold that, in his enlightenment, Sakya Muni was far superior to any god. Now if such are the conceptions of the actual religions, how certain is it that the ideal, the perfect reli- gion, must provide a recognition of them. I move you, Mr. President, that the propositions ot' our Brahmin orator from Benares be adopted as the voice of this Convention. ' No speaker appearing in the negative, the motion was put and carried without dissent. 4 Thus, with astonishing unanimity, the assembly had reached the final question upon the programme: H By what credentials shall a perfect religion be known? Intenser than ever grew the interest of the delegates. On the answer to this question hung all their hopes as to any prac- tically useful outcome from the holding of this great Ecumenical Convention. Doulily intense was the interest of the on-looking Japanese, for here, in the presence of the World's religions, the highest and most authoritative religious voice ot' their Empire was now to be heard. Breathless was the entire throng as the speaker began : , . X 4' Hail to the Supreme Spirit of Truth. Praise to the Kami of kami --the living essence of the everlasting, ever-living Light.

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5 26 BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. he is ready, and even desirous, to merge his very will and 1if'e and being in the will and life and being ot' the all-perfect object of his worship. Q23 That the gracious disposition ofthe object worshipped toward the worshippcr can never reach its supreme intensity until the worshipped being is ready, and desirous, to descend from the divine form and 'mode of being and, in ah avatar of compassionate love, take on the form and the limitations of his human worshipper. That in a perfect religion the human subject and the divine object must be set in such rela- tions that it shall be possible for God to become a partaker of hnman nature, and for man in some sense to become a partaker of 'the divine nature. , Profound was the silence which followed this wonderful dis- course. The first to break it was a Professor in the Imperial University of Tokio, a man who, though of European- birth, was incomplete sympathy with the purposes of the Convention. After highly complimenting the Brahmin speaker, he said that he himselt' had long been an admiring student of India's sacred books. lVith the permission ot' the Convention he would like to recite a few lines from one ot' them, the Isa Upanishad, which seemed to'him admirably to express the true relation subsisting between the worshipping soul and the Infinite. 1-Ie then gave the following : Whate'er exists within this universe Is all to be regarded as enveloped By the great Lord, as if wrapped in a vesture. There is one only being who exists Unmoved, yet moving swifter than the mind, Who far outstrips the senses, tho' as gods They strive to reach him, who himself at rest Transcends the fleetest flight of other beingsg Who like the air supports all vital action. He moves, yet moves not, he is far, yet. near, He is within this universe. Whoe'er beholds All living creatures as in him, and him- The universal Spirit-as in all, Henceforth regards no Cl'CRl.l1l'8 with contempt. if Now here --continued the Professor--'4 here' we have the true conception admirably expressed. Because the Universal Spirit is in all things, even in the worshipper, and on the other i

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28 BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. 'fWhy are we here, brothers from all climes, why are we here in serious search for the one true and perfect Way? It is because He, in whom are all things, and who is in all things - as sang that Hindu poet-is yearning with ineffable affection to be known of us, his earthly offspring, and to know us as his own. Only lately have I learned this secret. Only since my invitation to address this. World's Convention have my eyes been' opened to the blessed truth. Never before had I been led to meditate upon the necessary implications of a religion abso- lutely perfect. In preparation for my question I was compelled thus to meditate. Scarce had I addressed myself to my task before I began to see what you have seen, and to lay down the propositions which you to-day in due succession have been lay- ing down. I could not help discerning that there can be but one religion truly perfectg that a. religion can never be perfect unless it present a perfect God 5 that no religionlcan be perfect which does not deliver man from sin and death and dowcr him with pure and everlasting blessedness. I could not help per- ceiving that no religion could ever claim perfection in which any gulf is left unfilled between the wo1'shipper and the object of his worship. Oppressed and almost overwhelmed by these great thoughts, convinced that there was no such -perfect 1'eligion in existence, nor any credential by which it could be known, I was yesterday morning alone, in a favorite hermitage by the sound- ing sea, near Yokohama. The whole night I had passed in sleeplessness and fasting. No light had dawned upon my mind. To cool my fevered brain, I strolled upon the seashore up and down, and listened to the solemn beatings of the billows on the sand. . ' I-Iere, in one of my turns, I fell in with a stranger-a sailor fresh from his ship. In conversation I quickly learned that he had followed the sea from early life, that-he had been quite round thelworld, and had seen more wonders than any man it had ever been my fortune to meet. Long time we talked together of lands and peoples underneath the world and all around its great circumference. Repeatedly I was on the point of opening my heart to this plain man and of asking him whether in all his world-wide wanderings he had anywhere found a religion more perfect than that of our ancestors. Every