Fifth Noble Lecture Last Night

Rev. C. C. Hall, D.D., h. '97, delivered the fifth William Belden Noble lecture on "Religions Insight and Experience Outside of Christianity," last evening in the Fogg Lecture Room.

Dr. Hall pointed out that his subject was one which would have caused laughter in a university audience only a few years ago, as until recently western peoples considered Christianity to be the only religion and that non-religion and irreligion alone stood opposed to it. Happily Christians now see that Asia, not Israel whence Christianity sprung, is the mother of religions and that there are other vital faiths besides their own. The East has clung to the pantheistic and polytheistic of these beliefs, but the West has developed monotheism of which Christianity is the highest form.

There are two sides to the polytheisms of the East, the pessimistic and the bright. The evils resulting from them are many, as the reasoned debauchcry of various rites and tenets shows; but still worse is the spiritual hopelessness which overshadows the followers of these religions. Their belief in a future life is gloomy. They consider the soul as without any communion with the beauty of nature. But there is a brighter side to these eastern cults. The long struggle for monotheism is still continuing. In some Hindu sects today one supreme, all-righteous god is conceived, and their rule of life is to be guided by righteousness, love, and justice. Throughout the Orient there is almost a yearning for Christianity, and its essence is being assimilated. To illustrate this Dr. Hall read several Mohammedan and Brahmanic prayers which are almost the same as some used in the Episcopal Church.

The last lecture of the series of which the general subject is "The Attitude of Christ toward foreign Races and Religions" will be given this evening at 8 o'clock in the Fogg Lecture Room. The special topic will be "Christian Missions and the Modern World."

The lecture will be open to the public.