THE CLOSE OF THE PARLIAMENT. 1 85 heart for many years. I became acquainted with the great religious systems of the world in my youth, and have enjoyed an intimate association with leaders of many churches during my maturer years. I was thus led to believe that if the great religious faiths could be brought into relations of friendly intercourse, many points of sympathy and union would be found, and the coming unity of mankind in the love of God and the service of man be greatly facilitated and advanced. What many men deemed impossible God has finally wrought. The relig- ions of the world have actually met in a great and imposing assembly ; they have conferred together on the vital questions of life and immortality in a frank and friendly spirit, and now they part in peace with many warm expressions of mutual affection and respect. The laws of the Congress forbidding controversy or attack have, on the the whole, been wonderfully well observed. The exceptions are so few that they may well be expunged from the record and from the memory. They even served the useful purpose of timely warnings against the unhappy tendency to indulge in intellectual conflict. If an unkind hand threw a fire- brand into the assembly, let us be thankful that a kinder hand plunged it in the waters of forgiveness and quenched its flame. If some Western warrior, forgetting for the moment that this was a friendly conference, and not a battle field, uttered his war-cry, let us rejoice that our Oriental friends, with a kinder spirit, answered, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they say." No system of faith or worship has been compromised by this friendly conference ; no apostle of any religion has been placed in a false position by any act of this Congress. The knowledge here acquired will be carried by those who have gained it, as precious treasure to their respective countries, and will there, in free- dom and according to reason, be considered, judged and applied as they shall deem right. The influence which this Congress of the Religions of the World will exert on the peace and the prosperity of the world is beyond the power of human language to describe. For this influence, borne by those who have attended the sessions of the Parliament of Religions to all parts of the earth, will affect in some important degree all races of men, all forms of religion, and even all governments and social institutions. The results of this influence will not soon be apparent in external changes, but will manifest themselves in thought, feeling, expression and the deeds of charity. Creeds and institutions may long remain unchanged in form, but a new spirit of light and peace will pervade them ; for this Congress of the World's Religions is the most marvelous evidence yet given of the approaching fulfillment of the apocalyptic prophecy. " Behold ! I make all things new ! " But great as this World's Parliament of Religions is in itself, its impor-
