| We believe in a God, the Father of the universe, | | | | the Christians, knowing that all the religions, from |
| infinite and omnipotent. But if our soul at last | | | | the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, |
| becomes perfect, it also must become infinite. But | | | | mean so many attempts of the human soul to |
| there is no room for two infinite unconditional | | | | grasp and realize the infinite, each determined by |
| beings, and hence we believe in a Personal God, | | | | the conditions of its birth and association, and |
| and we ourselves are He. These are the three | | | | each of them marking a stage of progress. We |
| stages which every religion has taken. First we | | | | gather all these flowers and bind them with the |
| see God in the far beyond,then we come nearer | | | | twine of love, making a wonderful bouquet of |
| to Him and give Him omnipresence so that we | | | | worship. |
| live in Him; and at last we recognize that we are | | | | If I am God, then my soul is a temple of the |
| He. The idea of an objective God is not untrue -- | | | | Highest, and my every motion should be a |
| in fact,every idea of God,and hence every religion, | | | | worship -- love for love's sake, duty for duty's |
| is true, as each is but a different stage in the | | | | sake,without hope of reward or fear of |
| journey, the aim of which is the perfect | | | | punishment. Thus my religion means expansion, |
| conception of the Vedas. | | | | and expansion means realization and perception in |
| Hence, too, we not only tolerate, but we Hindus | | | | the highest sense -- no mumbling words or |
| accept every religion, praying in the mosque of | | | | genuflections. Man is to become divine, realizing |
| the Mohammedans, worshipping before the fire of | | | | the divine more and more from day to day in an |
| the Zoroastrians,and kneeling before the cross of | | | | endless progress. |