| If there is one universal truth in all religions, I place | | | | depends the proof of his own. |
| it here -- in realizing God. Ideals and methods may | | | | Love and charity for the whole human race, that |
| differ, but that is the central point. There may be | | | | is the test of true religiousness. I do not mean |
| a thousand different radii, but they all converge to | | | | the sentimental statement that all men are |
| the one center, and that is the realization of God: | | | | brothers,but that one must feel the oneness of |
| something behind this world of sense, this world | | | | human life. So far as they are not exclusive, I see |
| of eternal eating and drinking and talking nonsense, | | | | that the sects and creeds are all mine; they are all |
| this world of false shadows and selfishness. There | | | | grand. They are all helping men towards the real |
| is that beyond all books, beyond all creeds, | | | | religion. I will add, it is good to be born in a church, |
| beyond the vanities of this world, and it is the | | | | but it is bad to die there. It is good to be born a |
| realization of God within yourself. | | | | child, but bad to remain a child. Churches, |
| A man may believe in all the churches in the | | | | ceremonies,and symbols are good for children,but |
| world,he may carry in his head all the sacred | | | | when the child is grown, he must burst the church |
| books ever written, he may baptize himself in all | | | | or himself. We must not remain children for ever. |
| the rivers of the earth, still, if he has no | | | | It is like trying to fit one coat to all sizes and |
| perception of God, I would class him with the | | | | growths. I do not deprecate the existence of |
| rankest atheist. And a man may have never | | | | sects in the world. Would to God there were |
| entered a church or a mosque, nor performed | | | | twenty millions more, for the more there are, |
| any ceremony, but if he feels God within himself | | | | there will be a greater field for selection. What I |
| and is thereby lifted above the vanities of the | | | | do object to is trying to fit one religion to every |
| world,that man is a holy man, a saint, call him | | | | case. Though all religions are essentially the same, |
| what you will. As soon as a man stands up and | | | | they must have the varieties of form produced |
| says he is right or his church is right, and all others | | | | by dissimilar circumstances among different |
| are wrong, he is himself all wrong. He does not | | | | nations. We must each have our own individual |
| know that upon the proof of all the others | | | | religion, individual so far as the externals of it go. |