Book Title: Gandhi Before Gandhi
Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai
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GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
ADDRESS OF WELCOME. DR. J. H. BARROWS, CHAIRMAN OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE
The Art Institute Venue for the World's Parliament of Religions
OPENING ADDRESS. C. C. BONNEY
If my heart did not overflow with cordial welcome at this hour, which promises to be a great moment in history, it would be because I had lost the spirit of manhood and had been forsaken by the spirit of God. The whitest snow on the sacred mount of Japan, the clearest water springing from the sacred fountains of India, are not more pure and bright than the joy of my heart andof many hearts here that this day has dawned in the annals of time, and that, from the farthest isles of Asia; from India, mother of religions; from Europe, the great teacher of civilization; from the shores on which breaks the "long wash of Australasian seas;" that from neighboring lands, and from all parts of this republic which we love to contemplate as the land of earth's brightest future, you have come here at our invitation in the expectation that the world's first Parliament of Religions must prove an event of race, wide and perpetual significance.
This day the sun of a new era of religious peace and progress rises over the world, dispelling the dark clouds of sectarian strife. This day a now flower blooms in the gardens of religious thought, filling the air with its exquisite perfume. This day a now fraternity is born into the world of human
progress, to aid in the upbuilding of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men. Era and flower and fraternity bear one name. It is a name which will gladden the hearts of those who worship God and love man in every clime. Those who hear its music joyfully echo it back to sun and flower. It is the brotherhood of religions.
we shall hear of the faith of the Jains of India in the words of one who belonged to that community, which is far older than Christianity. Our minds and our hearts are to be widened as we take in more fully the various works of divine providence.
