have been welcomed here to-day. In responding to the addresses of welcome I will, in the first place, respond for the Africans in Africa, and accept your welcome on behalf of the African continent, with its millions of acres and millions of inhabitants, with its mighty forests, with its great beasts, with its great men, and its great possibilities. Though some think that Africa is in a bad way, I am one of those who have not lost faith in the possibilities of a redemption of Africa. I believe in Providence and in the prophesies of God that Ethiopia yet shall stretch forth her hands unto God, and, although to-day our land is in the possession of others, and every foot of land and every foot of water in Africa has been appropriated by the gov ernments of Europe, yet I remember, in the light of history, that those same nations parceled out the American continent in the past.

But America had her Jefferson. Africa in the future is to bring forth a Jefferson who will write a declaration of the independence of the Dark Continent.

And as you had your Washington, so God will give us a Washington to lead our hosts. Or, if it please God, he may raise up not a Washington, but another Toussaint L'Ouverture, who will become the pathfinder of his country, and, with his sword will, at the head of his people, lead them to freedom and equality. He will form a republican government whose corner-stone will be religion, morality, education and temperance, acknowledging the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man; while the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule shall be the rule of life and conduct in the great republic of redeemed Africa.

But, sir, I accept your welcome, also, on behalf of the negroes of the American continent. As early as 1502 or 1503, we are told, the negroes came to this country. And we have been here ever since, and we are going to stay here too-some of us are. Some of us will go to Africa, because we have got the spirit of Americanism, and wherever there is a possibility in sight some of us will go. We accept your welcome to this grand assembly, and we come to you this afternoon and thank God that we meet these representatives of the different religions of the world. We meet you on the height of this Parliament of Religions-the first gathering of the peoples since the time of Noah, when Shem, Ham and Japhet met together. I greet the children of Shem, I greet the children of Japhet, and I want you to understand that Ham is here.

I thank you that I have been chosen as the representative of the negro race in this great Parliament. I thank these representatives that have come so far to meet and to greet us of the colored race. A gentleman said to-day in this meeting that he had traveled fourteen thousand miles to get here. "Why," said I to myself, "that is a wonderful distance to come to meet me, I wonder if I would go that far to meet him." Yes, he says he came fourteen thousand miles to meet us here, and "us" in this case means me, too. Therefore I welcome these brethren to the shores of America on behalf of seventy-four hundred thousand negroes on this continent, who, by the provi

dence of God and the power of the religion of Jesus Christ, have been liberated from slavery. There is not a slave among us to-day, and we are glad you did not come while we were in chains, because, in that case, we could not have got here ourselves.

Mr. President, we thank you for this honor. God had you born just at the right time. We come last on the program, but I want everybody to know that although last we are not least in this grand assembly where the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man is the watchword of us all; and may the motto of the church which I represent be the motto of the coming civilization: "God our Father, Christ our Redeemer, and Mankind our Brother."

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHRONICLE OF THE PARLIAMENT FROM THE SECOND DAY TO THE SIXTEENTH-SOCIAL RECEPTIONS.

THE

HE record of the transactions of the Parliament is to be sought in Part Third, in which are reproduced, for study and preservation, the papers presented to that body. But there are scenes, incidents and details to be recounted, which are essential to the completeness of the history. Some things, indeed, may be said, once for all, as applying to the whole course of the meetings. They were attended by enormous throngs with every indication of deep and intent interest, even when the themes and the treatment of them were of an abstruse character that would have seemed remote from popular appreciation. Once the great Hall of Columbus" was so thronged that the neighbor "Hall of Washington was required to contain the overflow, when the two meetings went on side by side, listening alternately to the same addresses. When the scientific section was opened for the consideration of a certain class of subjects, the diversion gave no appreciable relief to the pressure of the eager crowds at the main session of the Parliament.

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Nor was the quality of the attendance less significant than its numbers. Out of the thousands of hearers, the ministers of the Gospel of various sects and orders, both Catholic and Protestant, might always be numbered by hundreds. And am the multitude of ministers were some, in large propo whose presence was specially significant,- missionaries cross, returned from labors in the ends of the earth, an ers in the theological seminaries, not of Chicago on the country at large. Nothing can give a better i intentness of the interest that prevailed than the splendors and wonders of the great Fair itself

e

ed

SHIVA'S BULL CARVED OUT OF SOLID STONE ON THE SIDE OF CHARMANDI HILL, MYSORE, INDIA.

powerless to divert it. There were men in unintermitted attendance on the Religious Parliament day after day, through all the seventeen days of its continuance, without once having looked on the prodigious array of the glories of the material world, within easy reach of them, so much worthier and nobler seemed to them the objects of intellectual and spiritual contemplation. And this in "a materialist country" and "a materialist age!"

The daily chronicle of the Parliament is a simple record of the names of successive participants and themes, except as, from time to time, some incident or episode requires mention and commemoration.

THE SECOND DAY.-Tuesday, SeptembER 12.

At 10 A.M. President Bonney invited the assembly, rising, to invoke, in silence, the blessing of God on the day's proceedings; then, while the assembly remained standing, Chairman BARROWS led in "the Universal Prayer," "Our Father which art in Heaven."

Dr. S. J. NICCOLLS, Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church. of St. Louis, being invited to the chair, made an introductory address.

Papers were presented as follows:

The Rational Demonstration of the Being of God; by the Very Rev. AUGUSTINE F. HEWITT, C.S.P., D.D., of New York, Superior of the Community of Paulists. Read by the Rev.

WALTER ELLIOTT of the same order.

The Philosophic and Moral Evidence for the Existence of God; by Rev. ALFRED W. MOMERIE, D.D., London.

The Harmonies and Distinctions in the Theistic Teaching of the Various Historic Faiths; by Prof. M. VALENTINE, Gettysburg, Pa.

The Theology of Judaism; by Dr. ISAAC M. WISE, Cincinnati.

The Ancient Religion of India and Primitive Revelation; by the Rev. MAURICE PHILLIPS, of Madras, India.