pared specially for the intelligent English-educated young men of India. The first series of the Haskell-Barrows Lectures, we hope, will prove a true earnest and sample of those which are to follow, We desire no better, none more loyal to the truth as it is in Jesus, and none more faithful to the non-Christian faiths and their followers. Another good thing which Dr. Barrows has done by his lectures was to correct untruths, and to supplement half truths industriously circulated by Christians and non-Christians. This itself is no small gain. One word more, the Calcutta Missionary Conference which met after five out of the six lectures were delivered, were enthusiastic and unanimous in their appreciation of the lectures and in praise of the University of Chicago whose commissioner he is, and of Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell by whose Christian liberality the Lectureship has been founded."

The Hindu of Madras, one of the ablest of the nonChristian journals of India, said :—

"Dr. Barrows is certainly to be congratulated on the impression he has produced as a lecturer. There is an unanimous feeling that he possesses great powers of exposition, and a thorough knowledge of his subject. More than all, he has evidently a great love for the people of this country and some appreciation for their good qualities, and especially for their intellectual keenness and aptitude for metaphysical controversy."

But no reference to the lectures has been more honorable to India than the noble sentiment of the Indian Social Reformer, the courageous organ of the reformers in Madras. Differing from Dr. Barrows in standpoint and in belief, this paper spoke the following true words about the lecturer's utterances :

"It has, we see, been made a point against Dr. Barrows that he claims a position for Christianity superior to that of any other religion. We are, of course, not prepared to concede that claim. But we never expected that Dr. Barrows would condescend to waive that claim for his own faith, and if he had done so, we, for one, should not have very much cared to listen to what he has to say.

"And we regard as the outcome of sheer intellectual indolence and pusillanimity, the opinion which is fashionable now-a-days that one conviction, one faith, is as good as another. We regard this easy-going fashion of mind as fraught with the greatest danger to the future of this country. For it means isolation; it spells death. The vice, wherever and in whatever form it prevails, is the child of pure selfishness.

"The religion of the future will no doubt have affinities with each of the existing religions, just as the human race has affinities with the anthropoid apes. We, therefore, welcome Dr. Barrows's state

ment of the claims of his faith. If they are exaggerated or imaginary, they will go to the wall of their own accord. If they are real, on the other hand, it may so happen that some courageous souls that have been seeking the light and not found it, may be impressed with them and may be led to transform themselves into the receptacles of a greatness such as an exalted religious idea alone can bestow. We invite our friends to give their unbiassed hearing to Dr. Barrows. To be afraid of being converted to his views is cowardice. No man who is afraid of having to relinquish his prepossessions need call himself a religious man or a lover of truth. His proper place is in the vegetable kingdom, where to be uprooted is to perish. The human vegetable is the most despicable of human things."

The motto of the Parliament of Religions was:"Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us ?" It is true. There is but one God, and He is the Father of every one of us, and He will draw all His children more and more to Himself and more and more to one another. It is in love to Him and in love to India that these lectures were devised and were prepared and have been delivered and are now given to the Press. The present writer counts it an honor and a privilege to write these words of introduction. He believes that many in our beloved India will read the lectures with thoughtfulness and earnestness, and find them a help in becoming intimate with God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. "And this is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." And before reading, and while reading and after reading our brother's message, about our Father and His revelation of Himself let us humbly and sincerely pray the universal prayer which was daily prayed at the World's First Parliament of Religions;---"Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. AMEN.

AHMEDNAGAR: Feb. 18, 1897.

FIRST LECTURE.

THE WORLD-WIDE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY.

I deem it one of the chief privileges of my life that I am permitted to inaugurate this lectureship, which, I hope, may prove a bond of brotherhood between the East and the West. My interest in this land of India, which cradled the old religions and has been a theatre for the activity of the newer faiths, has continued through years. Before the Parliament of Religions was held, I entered into correspondence with many of those, who lead in the religious activities and developments of this people.

Some of them made the long journey to America and gave us their views of the problems of human life and destiny. Before returning, these speakers at that Congress expressed the hope that I might be able to visit India, a hope which I fully shared although at that time such a visit as this seemed scarcely a remote possibility. A year after the Parliament closed, however, a Christian lady, who had been deeply interested in that meeting, founded this lectureship entrusting its conduct to the University of Chicago. And she accompanied her gift with the request that I should be the first speaker on this foundation, and also with a statement of her thoughts and wishes. Her purpose was to establish courses of scholarly lectures in the collegiate centres of India, in which “in a friendly, temperate, conciliatory way, and in the fraternal spirit which pervaded the Parliament of Religions, the great questions of the truths of Christianity, its harmonies with the truths of other religions, its rightful claims and the best methods of setting them forth, should be presented to the thoughtful people of India."

Mrs. Haskell, both in her gift and in her letter, has shown how broad and charitable is her mind and how generous and loving is her heart. Possessed of an ample fortune, she has made large gifts to hospitals, institutions for the care of orphan children, and for aged people, churches of different denominations, and societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals. Tender-hearted towards all suffering, she has been broadminded and wise in promoting the higher education. She has

founded in the University of Chicago a lectureship, which bears her name, on the relations of Christianity and the other faiths, and by the gift of more than £20,000 has built the Haskell Oriental Museum, the first great building in America dedicated entirely to Oriental studies. Her mind has taken in the whole world and in founding this lectureship as a permanent institution she has manifested her love to a people and a country that she has never seen. She has desired to increase their opportunities of becoming acquainted with that Christian. faith whose compassionate spirit she nobly illustrates. Now in her seventy-sixth year, she sends her blessings, through the voice of another, to the people of India, and is calmly confident that good results will follow this effort to advance the kingdom of righteousness and love by casting seeds of celestial truth on the ancient streams of the mystic and memory-haunted Asiatic world. She believes that you will give a welcome and a sympathetic hearing to generous-minded scholars, who come in the spirit of love and whose purpose is not so much to pull down as to build up, and who, acknowledging that the spirit of God has been working everywhere, that rays of heavenly truth have been shining everywhere, that voices of prophetic tone have been sounding everywhere, are eager to communicate such messages of the Spirit, such gleams of heavenly light, such utterances of Divine consolation as have come to them, in connection with the ministration of Jesus Christ. No wise Christian believer, it seems to me, would uproot or destroy anything in Oriental lands, which he deems true and useful. I am sure that the scholarly Hindus who have accepted Christianity and are now rejoicing in what they find in Christ, still maintain their faith in all the ethical and spiritual verities of Hinduism, adding thereto a supreme and satisfying faith in the person and work of their Lord and Saviour. They are not less devoted to India's welfare than their non-Christian brethren and they are not less proud of all that is truly great in India's past history.

Under the commission, which I bear, it is my privilege and duty to give my message in a spirit of friendliness and conciliation, to set forth the rightful claims of Christianity, without forgetting its points of contact with other faiths. I have not come to India for controversy. What I seek, and what I believe you will freely grant, is a candid hearing to these lectures, in which I shall propose the inquiry-" Is Christianity fitted to become the world-religion?" This is a vital question, and I ask you to give it your careful consideration to the close of these six ad.