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The Jaina Philosophy
of you say you are our elder brother, and therefore, if I am your brother (and I am your brother) 1 ask you why do you persecute, condemn and devour one another in the sense in which one form of the Christianity antagonizes another, and one sect of Christians excommunicates another, and why, in some instances, in your conception of missionary duty, do you even excommunicate me? Only this I will say, because I am your brother, me you shall not excommunicate; my people you shall not relegate to the uncovenanted mercies of God! It is the spirit of your religion, as well as of my own, that the Supreme Being is the source and essence of goodness, and that all living beings are in a, sense, the children of that Supreme Being, therefore, all men are brothers, therefore, the tie that binds us in this brotherhood is not difference, nor hate, but love; and what is love, my brothers and sisters? Is it a sentiment merely? An expression merely? It is only a word that can be interpreted in ways or not interpreted at all? We say in our sacred hooks, "Love is only of one kind? Which binds together the entire universe and which destroys all differences; without creating any quarrelsome opinions and jealousies and other wrong states of mind."
I conclude, dear brothers arid sisters, by saying that standing on this foundation, looking into one another's faces in the spirit and realization of true religion, if the past is glorious, the future, both for you and for us, will be more glorious. We need but to become better acquainted with one another and with the holy truths of universal religion, to enter upon paths of progress and spirituality, which, leading us out of the material and transitory shall bring us into the perfect state where conflict and antagonisms and evil passions shall never enter. To aid in bringing about this needful condition, and to discover the true methods of its attainment, we may be missionaries to one another in a truer sense, in a better sense and even in a holier sense, than that word has ever been interpreted to mean. By recognizing the right
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