Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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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

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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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O ' THE QUESTOF THE PERFECT RELIGION. 29 time however I checked myself. I was confident that he would not 'long remain in ignorance of my character and office, and how could I, ehiefpriest of my nation, betray to him such doubt as this my question would imply. I was too proud to place my- self in such an attitude of personal inquiry. And yet perpet- ually this thought recurred: This man has seen cities and mountains and rivers and peoples wl1icl1 you have never seen, and you feel no humiliation in being a learner in these thingsg -why hesitate to ascertain if in religion he may not equally be able to give fresh light and information. At last I broke my proud reserve, and said: 'You must have seen something of the chief religions of the whole world as well. Now, which among them all, strikes you as the best? ' H ' I have seen but one,' was the laconic reply. t lVhat mean you?' I rejoined. 'You have told me of a score of peoples and lands and cities whose temples you must have seen, and whose rites you must have witnessed? 't 'There is but one rcligion,' he repeated. 4' 'Explain,' I demanded of him again. ' it 4 I-Iow many do you make? ' he said, evading my question. HI paused a moment. I was about to answer: tAt least a larger 'number than there are of different tribes and peoples,' -- but in my hesitation I was struck by the strange agreement be- tween his enigmatic utterance and my own previous conclusion that there could be but one perfect religion. Someway I yielded to the impulse to mention the coincidence. fDo you mean,' I added, 4 that there can be but one religion worthy of the name? ' 't My sacrifice of p1'ide'had its reward. It won an answering confidence, and unsealed the stranger's lips. if 4 I-Iave you time,' he said, 'to hear a sailor's story? More than sixty years ago I was born in a beautiful home hard by the base of our holy mountain, the Fusijama. This very evening I start to visit the scenes of my boyhood, after an absence of more than forty years. My father and mother were persons of deep piety, and from the first had dedicated me, as their first- born, to the service of the gods. At an early age I was placed in the care of a community of priests who kept one of the chief shrines of my native province. I-Iere I was to be trained up for the same holy priesthood. For some years I was delighted with