Lecture on the Religious Parliament.

Prince Serge Wolkonsky of Russia lectured last night to a large audience in Sever 11 on the "Parliament of Religions" held this autumn at Chicago. He said: One of the most notable things in this convention of men of all religions was the uniform tone of friendliness adopted by all speakers. Every one seemed to recognize the fact that they had come together to find their points of similarity and so to establish a feeling of brotherhood rather than to discuss their differences of opinion. How anyone could see there a Greek Archbishop, a Buddhist from China, and a Confucian from Japan sitting side by side with Episcopal and Roman Bishops, talking with them in a friendly and sympathetic way and even expressing the same sentiment-and then quarrel about trivial sectarian difference is hard to understand. Various minor congresses of different religions and sects were held in the first part of September. A man going to these meetings heard invariably the same words of love and the same call for charity and for universal or brotherhood. On September 11 they all met together. The origin of religion is not a point to be called into question. It makes no difference to us whether religion is an inspiration coming from heaven or whether it was evolved and developed by man. The fact remains that religion is the common bond of all men and is the one interest that could bring men together from all parts of the world. Some people have said that a new religion for all nations is necessary, that our old religions are all at fault in that they lay too much stress on individual salvation. But all that is needed is that men should shake off their old prejudices and recognize the truth that men of all religions are the same everywhere and that we have common interests with all of them. We sometimes think that we are the most highly cultured race of all peoples and we tend to divide and classify people from a very narrow point of view. If sometimes a man is advanced enough to throw off his old ideas and to see that all men are equal, he thinks that he has made a great step and that he is far ahead of other people. Really all he has done is to succeed in coming back to the natural state of things. He looks at the idea of universal brotherhood as the crown of his civilization but it is the base of all true civilization. Our ways of teaching are to blame for the wrong ideas that we have of the distinctions between men. The first thing we learn in geography is that we are civilized and that many of the other races are barbarians whom we are indeed to pity but not to regard as brothers. A good school in which to unlearn this idea is the Midway Plaisance at Chicago. There we see all sorts of men side by side and we see that really they are all the same. The Religious Congress was really an educational congress. If no one there learned anything new about God and if no one who did not believe in God was convinced that he was in the wrong, at least it can be said that no one left the Congress without feeling respect for his fellow man.

Prince Wolkonsky has consented to lecture again Monday evening on his impressions of America. The Prince is at present the guest of Professor Norton.