Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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x ' I 30 BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR' BOOK. my companions, with my tasks, and with my prospects. But at length, as I grew more and more mature, and as my medita- tions turned oftener upon the mysteries of the world and of life, an inexpressible sadness gradually mastered me, I shrank from the calling to which I had been destined. I said to myself, How can I teach men tl1e way of the gods when I know it not myself? How long have I yearned to find the way of peace and the way of virtue! How long have I cried unto all the kami of heaven and all the kami of earth to teach it me! ,Yet even while I see the good I love that which is not good. I do myself the things which I condemn in others. I teach others to bc truthful, but before an hour has passed I have lied to myself, -have done or said what I had promised myself I would not. I love myself more than I love virtue, and then I hate myself because I love myself so well. I am at war within. O who shall deliver me, who can give me peace? i H ' As time passed' on I 'became more and more the prey of this consuming melancholy. The time was at hand when my period of pupilage was to end and I was to be given the dignity of full admission to the sacred priesthood. The night before the day appointed for the ceremony my agony was too great for human endurance. Under the friendly cover of the darkness I fled from the sacred precincts of the temple, fled from the lov- ing parents and friends who had come to witness my promo- tion. A wretched fugitive I arrived at this very port which now stretches itself out before our eyes.I I-Iere I shipped as a sailor and sought the uttermost parts of , the earth. H ' Years on years I kept to the high seas, always choosing the ships which would take me farthest from the scenes with which I had become familiar. Ail great ports I visited, many a language I learned. Steadily I prayed the gods some time to bring me to some haven where I might learn the secret of a. holy peace within. I H 'At last one day--I can never forget it-in a great city many thousand miles toward the sunrise, a city' which is the commercial metropolis of the greatest republic in the world, - I was pacing heavy-hearted up and down a massive pier at which lay vessels from many a nation. The wharves were per- fectly quietfor it was a holy day. ' I was sadder than usual for I l

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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

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I THE QUEST OF THE PERFECT RELIGION. '31 was thinking of my useless prayers. Ilwas saying to 'myselfz I am as blind as ever, as much at war within. So many, many years have I prayed and waited, and waited and prayed. The gods have neither brought me to the truth nor tl1e truth to me. In my bitterness I said, The gods themselves are false, men's faith inrtlhem is false. There a1'e no gods, there can be none. They would have some compassion, they would regard my cries. Bursting into tears, I sobbed out: I cannot live in such a world. I cannot live. Let me but sink in death's eter- nal night. And as I sobbed out the bitter cry the rippling water in the dock sparkled in my eyes and seemed to say, Come, come, one brave leap only and I will give thee peace! 'Just tl1en a handsome stranger, arrested perhaps by my strange behavior, stopped in passing and spoke to me. In words of tender sympathy he asked my trouble. Too weak to resist, I told him all. How beamed his face with gladness! f'Come with me, he said, 'fthis very day your year-long prayers are to be answered. I followed, and a few rods dis- tant he showed me what I had never seen before, a iioating temple which he had in charge. It was dedicated, I was told, to the great God. And when I asked which great god, the priest of the beaming countenance said: Ilave you never heard of the great lKing above all gods? Then he brought out a holy book and read to me these words: HO 'comeilet us sing unto the Lordg let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make ajoyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of tl1e earth, thekstrength of the hills is his also. The sea. is his and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. O come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel be- fore tl1e Lord our maker. He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hancl. ' U 'Then this strangely joyful man - Hcdstrom was his name --told me that this great God did truly care for every man who truly yearns for inward peace. He said he was a-rewarder of all who diligently seek him, that he so loved the world that 11e gave his only begotten Son forthe saving of all who want to be saved from sin, from self condemnation and despair. He X