The great truth we are considering is the fundamental principle running
through all religions. We find it in every one. In regard to it all
agree. It is, moreover, a great truth in regard to which all people
can agree, whether they belong to the same or to different religions.
People always quarrel about the trifles, about their personal views of
minor insignificant points. They always come together in the presence
of great fundamental truths, the threads of which run through all. The
quarrels are in connection with the lower self, the agreements are in
connection with the higher self.
A place may have its factions that quarrel and fight among themselves,
but let a great calamity come upon the land, flood, famine, pestilence,
and these little personal differences are entirely forgotten and all
work shoulder to shoulder in the one great cause. The changing, the
evolving self gives rise to quarrels; the permanent, the soul self
unites all in the highest efforts of love and service.
Patriotism is a beautiful thing; it is well for me to love my country,
but why should I love my own country more than I love all others? If I
love my own and hate others, I then show my limitations, and my
patriotism will stand the test not even for my own. If I love my own
country and in the same way love all other countries, then I show the
largeness of my nature, and a patriotism of this kind is noble and
always to be relied upon.
The view of God in regard to which we are agreed, that He is the
Infinite Spirit of Life and Power that is back of all, that is working
in and through all, that is the life of all, is a matter in regard to
which all men, all religions can agree. With this view there can be no
infidels or atheists. There are atheists and infidels in connection
with many views that are held concerning God, and thank God there are.
Even devout and earnest people among us attribute things to God that no
respectable men or women would permit to be attributed to themselves.
This view is satisfying to those who cannot see how God can be angry
with his children, jealous, vindictive. A display of these qualities
always lessens our respect for men and women, and still we attribute
them to God.
The earnest, sincere heretic is one of the greatest friends true
religion can have. Heretics are among God's greatest servants. They
are among the true servants of mankind. Christ was one of the greatest
heretics the world has ever known. He allowed himself to be bound by
no established or orthodox teachings or beliefs. Christ is
preëminently a type of the universal. John the Baptist is a type of
the personal. John dressed in a particular way, ate a particular kind
of food, belonged to a particular order, lived and taught in a
particular locality, and he himself recognized the fact that he must
decrease while Christ must increase. Christ, on the other hand, gave
himself absolutely no limitations. He allowed himself to be bound by
nothing. He was absolutely universal and as a consequence taught not
for his own particular day, but for all time.
This mighty truth which we have agreed upon as the great central fact
of human life is the golden thread that runs through all religions.
When we make it the paramount fact in our lives we will find that minor
differences, narrow prejudices, and all these laughable absurdities
will so fall away by virtue of their very insignificance, that a Jew
can worship equally as well in a Catholic cathedral, a Catholic in a
Jewish synagogue, a Buddhist in a Christian church, a Christian in a
Buddhist temple. Or all can worship equally well about their own
hearth-stones, or out on the hillside, or while pursuing the avocations
of every-day life. For true worship, only God and the human soul are
necessary. It does not depend upon times, or seasons, or occasions.
Anywhere and at any time God and man in the bush may meet.
This is the great fundamental principle of the universal religion upon
which all can agree. This is the great fact that is permanent. There
are many things in regard to which all cannot agree. These are the
things that are personal, non-essential, and so as time passes they
gradually fall away. One who doesn't grasp this great truth, a
Christian, for example, asks "But was not Christ inspired?" Yes, but
he was not the only one inspired. Another who is a Buddhist asks, "Was
not Buddha inspired?" Yes, but he was not the only one inspired. A
Christian asks, "But is not our Christian Bible inspired?" Yes, but
there are other inspired scriptures. A Brahmin or a Buddhist asks,
"Are not the Vedas inspired?" Yes, but there are other inspired sacred
books. Your error is not in believing that your particular scriptures
are inspired, but your error is--and you show your absurdly laughable
limitations by it--your inability to see that other scriptures are also
inspired.
The sacred books, the inspired writings, all come from the same
source,--God, God speaking through the souls of those who open
themselves that He may thus speak. Some may be more inspired than
others. It depends entirely on the relative degree that this one or
that one opens himself to the Divine voice. Says one of the inspired
writers in the Hebrew scriptures, Wisdom is the breath of the power of
God, and _in all ages_ entering into holy souls she maketh them friends
of God and prophets.
Let us not be among the number so dwarfed, so limited, so bigoted as to
think that the Infinite God has revealed Himself to one little handful
of His children, in one little quarter of the globe, and at one
particular period of time. This isn't the pattern by which God works.
Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every
nation he that revereth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of
Him, says the Christian Bible.
When we fully realize this truth we will then see that it makes but
little difference what particular form of religion one holds to, but it
does make a tremendous difference how true he is to the _vital_
principles of this one. In the degree that we love self less and love
truth more, in that degree will we care less about converting people to
our particular way of thinking, but all the more will we care to aid
them in coming into the full realization of truth through the channels
best adapted to them. The doctrine of our master, says the Chinese,
consisted solely in integrity of heart. We will find as we search that
this is the doctrine of every one who is at all worthy the name of
master.
The great fundamental principles of all religions are the same. They
differ only in their minor details according to the various degrees of
unfoldment of different people. I am sometimes asked, "To what
religion do you belong?" What religion? Why, bless you, there is only
one religion,--the religion of the living God. There are, of course,
the various creeds of the same religion arising from the various
interpretations of different people, but they are all of minor
importance. The more unfolded the soul the less important do these
minor differences become. There are also, of course, the various
so-called religions. There is in reality, however, but one religion.
The moment we lose sight of this great fact we depart from the real,
vital spirit of true religion and allow ourselves to be limited and
bound by form. In the degree that we do this we build fences around
ourselves which keep others away from us, and which also prevent our
coming into the realization of universal truth; there is nothing worthy
the name of truth that is not universal.
There is only one religion. "Whatever road I take joins the highway
that leads to Thee," says the inspired writer in the Persian
scriptures. "Broad is the carpet God has spread, and beautiful the
colors he has given it." "The pure man respects every form of faith,"
says the Buddhist. "My doctrine makes no difference between high and
low, rich and poor; like the sky, it has room for all, and like the
water, it washes all alike." "The broad minded see the truth in
different religions; the narrow minded see only the differences," says
the Chinese. The Hindu has said, "The narrow minded ask, 'Is this man
a stranger, or is he of our tribe?' But to those in whom love dwells,
the whole world is but one family." "Altar flowers are of many
species, but all worship is one." "Heaven is a palace with many doors,
and each may enter in his own way." "Are we not all children of one
Father?" says the Christian. "God has made of one blood all nations,
to dwell on the face of the earth." It was a latter-day seer who said,
"That which was profitable to the soul of man the Father revealed to
the ancients; that which is profitable to the soul of man today
revealeth He this day."
It was Tennyson who said, "I dreamed that stone by stone I reared a
sacred fane, a temple, neither pagoda, mosque, nor church, but loftier,
simpler, always open-doored to every breath from heaven, and Truth and
Peace and Love and Justice came and dwelt therein."
Religion in its true sense is the most joyous thing the human soul can
know, and when the real religion is realized, we will find that it will
be an agent of peace, of joy, and of happiness, and never an agent of
gloomy, long-faced sadness. It will then be attractive to all and
repulsive to none. Let our churches grasp these great truths, let them
give their time and attention to bringing people into a knowledge of
their true selves, into a knowledge of their relations, of their
oneness, with the Infinite God, and such joy will be the result, and
such crowds will flock to them, that their very walls will seem almost
to burst, and such songs of joy will continually pour forth as will
make all people in love with the religion that makes for every-day
life, and hence the religion that is true and vital. Adequacy for
life, adequacy for everyday life here and now, must be the test of all
true religion. If it does not bear this test, then it simply is not
religion. We need an everyday, a this-world religion. All time spent
in connection with any other is worse than wasted. The eternal life
that we are now living will be well lived if we take good care of each
little period of time as it presents itself day after day. If we fail
in doing this, we fail in everything.