A GLANCE AT THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS.
By Editor
This is what an editorial writer of the World's Crisis, an eyewitness, has to say of the great religious exhibit at the World's Fair at Chicago. Some of the more striking expressions we have italicized:— Among the speakers are prominent men from the following denominations: Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Buddhists, Brahmins, Hindus, Universalists, Roman Catholics, Theosophists, Swedenborgians, Episcopalians, Advent Christians, Jews, Lutherans, Christians, Unitarians, Seventh-day Baptists, Friends, Christian Scientists, Reformed Episcopal Church, King's Daughters, Christian Endeavor, Evangelical Church, Evolution Congress, Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant, Welsh Church, New Jerusalem Church, Free Religious Association, The Ethical Congress, The Christian Association, The Young Men's Christian Association, The International Young Women's Christian Association, The Evangelical Alliance, United Norwegian Church, Jewish Women's Congress, Congress of the Disciples of Christ, The United Brethren Church Congress, Lutheran Women's Congress, African Methodist Episcopal Church Congress, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, World's Congress of Missions, and Congress of the International Board of Women's Christian Association. Each denomination chose their representative men to present their peculiar views in the best possible manner. It is a World's Fair exhibition of religions. One remarkable feature in the speeches made in the Congress was the kind spirit manifested toward each other's views. While they differed as widely as possible, there was almost an entire absence of any effort to throw reproach on the opposite opinion. This was particularly true of those who represented foreign religions. On the Protestant side there seemed to be a lack of the deepened spirituality needed to carry conviction to the hearts of those who had not accepted the Christian religion. I did not hear one advocate the importance of holiness, of heart purity, and the means by which it might be secured. The importance, the necessity, of having the Holy Spirit in order to lead a holy life was scarcely noticed. This was the great failure on the Protestant side. Theirs, like the opposite, was an argumentative, an intellectual exhibition, lacking in the spiritual realm. It was a grand opportunity to show the wide contrast between the unchristian religions and the pure Bible religion imbued with the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit of Christ all religions are powerless in their tendency to make men new creatures. The strength and reformatory power of the Christian religion is in proportion to the prevalence of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer. He who lacks the Spirit of Christ "is none of his," says the voice of inspiration. Rom. 8: 9. The Roman Catholic Congress began Monday, September 4, and continued through the week, in the Hall of Columbus, where the "World's Religious Congresses" were held. The hall will hold some three thousand. The Washington Hall, in the same building, will hold the same number. The American Pope Satolli, Cardinal Gibbons, of Baltimore, Archbishop Corrigan, of New York, Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul, and many other noted Papists, were present, who were able speakers in defense of their religion. But I did not hear a word of prayer or praise to God in any of their great meetings which crowded the hall. They also had a prominent part in the World's Religious Congresses, and, so far as I could judge, they exercised the leading influence, and occupied the most prominent positions. Cardinal Gibbons was called to lead the general prayer at the opening of the Congress, September 11. Said Mr. Seton, a Roman Catholic D.D.: "The Church [the Papal Church] also maintains that it belongs to her—and to her alone—to determine the true sense of the Scriptures, and that they cannot be rightly interpreted contrary to her decision, because she claims to be and is the living, unerring authority to whom . . . infallibility was promised and given." "According to our view, the Bible does not contain the whole of revealed truth, nor is it necessary for every Christian to read and understand it." [See report in Chicago Herald, September 17.]