Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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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

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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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32 BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. assured me over and over that this divine Son was both able and willing to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through him. I could hardly believe such tidings. I said, You mean that all your countrymen who thus come to your patron God may find peace and divine favor. 4' No, he responded, H I mean all-mean you-mean everybody whom this greatvbeing has made to dwell on all the face of the earth, for as the I-Ioly Book says: there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name ofthe Lord shall be saved. ' But do you mean that 1 can call upon him and be deliv- ered from this load I have carried so many years? ' 4' 'Certainlyf 4 H 4 And be delivered now? ' ' ' Certainly. Now - says the sacred book - is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation! U ' It was enough. Down I fell upon my face. Aloud I cried unto the Great God. Through his Son I sought to come unto him. But, believe me, before I could well frame my words, --it was the day of salvation. My weary load was gone. My heart was full of peace and of strange new life. I knew that there exists a power which can deliver man and plant within him everlasting blessednessf W Gentlemen of tl1e World's Convention, one word and the story of that wanderer is complete. That truant sailor proved to be my own elder brother, proved to be the long lost son to fill whose vacant place my mourning parents had dedi ated me to this same holy calling. My heart was broken with a c ouble joy at this discovery. And before we left that wave-worn shore the day of salvation had also dawned on me. To-day I can .testify that a perfect religion is not a dream. To-day I possess and can give you its credentials. I -Just at this point in the speaker's remarks the long-con- tinued closeness of the atmosphere and the crushing pressure ot the crowd proved more than I could bear. A ,certain dizziness came over me and I had to be carried from the hall. IVhen I next came to consciousness, it took me a long, long time to dis- cover that I was safe at home in my study chair, and that I was waking from a weird and wonderful dream. I - X X