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