CALL FOR THE CONVENTION OF 1893. In conformity with the following call, issued August 1st, 1893, and signed by the President and Secretary, the Free Religious Association of America held its twenty-sixth Annual Meeting, in the Art Palace, Chicago, Ill., Wednesday, Sept. 20th, 1893. To the Members and Friends of the Free Religious Association of America : At a meeting of the Directors of the Association, held Jan. 10th, 1893, the President appointed the regular Convention and Festival Committees. After some discussion in regard to the feasibility of holding the Convention proper this Columbian year, in Chicago, as a part of the proceedings of the "World's Parliament of Religions," it was finally voted to leave the matter discretionary with said Committees. They have decided that inasmuch as the Free Religious Association of America, was really the first to inaugurate on its platform twenty-six years ago, the idea of a "World's Parliament of Religions," that it will be eminently proper, and in accordance with the fitness of things, for it to take part in this larger Parliament to be held in Chicago as a part of the World's Fair; recognizing as it does in its projected convening, "a consummation devoutly to be wished;" for it is one of the most significant events of the age. and it may be productive of vast results to the future development of religion. The full significance of that assembly of delegates from all the leading religions of the world will not be manifest, however, nor the logical results of the event be deduced in their completeness, without the meeting of our Association to point to what lies beyond a temporary Parliament of Religions. It is very much to have the religions of the world thus brought together on the same platform for a presentation of their beliefs and aims by their own representatives, without controversy or debate. But are the representatives of the religions, there amicably gathered, to separate for their respective countries-with the same controversial aggressiveness against each other which they have hitherto manifested, and with the same mutually antagonistic claims to exclusive supernatural inspiration and guidance? The Free Religious Association is the one general religious body in this land which, following the inevitable logical trend of the scientific study of the religions of mankind, has publicly proclaimed the possibility of a new and permanent religious fellowship and co-operation on the basis of the "scientific study of religion and ethics," free reason and of a common humanity,-in lieu of the old theological bases, which, however stringent or attenuated the Dogma, were laid in alleged revelations through miraculous books or persons. We urge, therefore, the members and friends of the Association to rally at this gathering in full numbers. And we cordially invite all who are in sympathy with the general aim and purpose of the Association, whether they have heretofore acted with us or not, to be present at the twentysixth Annual Convention of the Free Religious Association, which will be held in the ART PALACE, WORLD'S FAIR, CHICAGO, ILL., ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH, 1893. WM. J. POTTER Pres. OF The Free Religious Association of America's Columbian Convention, ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 20th, 1893. Soon after 10 o'clock, President Charles C. Bonney, of The World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Vice-President of the F. R. A., and presiding officer of this session, President William J. Potter, Dr. Francis E. Abbot, Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, Rev. E. L. Rexford, John C. Haynes, Protab Chunder Mozoomdar, Calcutta, Rev. Jenkins Lloyd Jones, B. B. Nagarkar, Bombay, H. Dharmapala, India, Mangarsar M. Mangasarian, Paul R. Frothingham, and Secretary Daniel G. Crandon, came upon the platform of the Hall of Washington, in the Art Palace on the Lake Front, in the City of Chicago, and the Columbian Convention of the Free Religious Association of America was, after an immense amount of work and detail, an accomplished fact. The morning session attracted a large audience, which constantly increased in number till the close of the meeting. PROCEEDINGS. The meeting was called to order by Judge C. C. Bonney, who said: We have assembled to open the Congress of the Free Religious Association of America, which is a World's Congress in the sense that all those who sympathize with it are invited to cooperate with it. Rev. Mr. Jones will invoke the divine blessing. MR. JONES: Infinite spirit of life and love, Thou who dost reveal thyself in the majesty of outward nature and the dignity and aspirations of the soul, we, thy children, are assembled for the purpose of deepening our sense of duty, enlarging our sympathies and ennobling our thoughts, that there may come into our lives that excellence that will again give joy and strength and peace to waiting souls. May that love that is from Thee shine in our hearts at this time and this place, that we may feel more consciously the blessed ties that bind the nations in one, that unite the centuries in the holy procession from weakness toward strength, from hate toward love, from selfishness toward that sympathy that is world-wide. Change all hearts so that the life which now is may be celestial, eternal. Amen. MR. BONNEY: Friends of Religious Liberty: As general president of the World's Congresses of 1893, I come to welcome you to your place in the great series of denominations which are presented here during the present month. We are perhaps in some danger of under-rating the importance of these great denominational congresses in the World's Parliament of Religions, which is being con ducted in the adjoining Hall of Columbus. These denominational congresses conserve the forces which made that parliament possible; these denominational congresses support and uphold it, and if they had not entered into the scheme of the present year, that parliament itself could not have attained anything like the success which now crowns its endeavors. The programme of a congress which bears upon its page the names of a Catholic priest, a Jewish Rabbi, a Unitarian minister, and other representatives of other forms of faith, as does yours, naturally attracts attention and commands respect. It is the glory of your movement that you were among the earliest to perceive the coming of the glorious day, in the midst of whose broad sunlight we now are. This association of yours represents, as I understand it, three things: Religious liberty,—the liberty of religion; not merely the liberty of man to pursue his religion, to entertain his own views unmolested, but the liberty of religion itself, that we may move and act freely and intelligently in the relation which religion stands for, between the creature and the Creator. And the second thing for which your Association stands, as I understand it, is religious toleration. This was a word for which the world waited many centuries, that one religion should tolerate another. Toleration-it is a great word, it is a wonderful thing, when it first comes to take the place of intolerance, persecution, and hostility and opposition. When we first come out on to the border of liberty, where toleration of the Catholic means toleration of the Baptist and toleration of the Quaker,—means that we should all tolerate one another, then toleration is a great word. But toleration is a poor foundation upon which to stand for future progress. We wantand that I take to be the supreme end and object of your organization-we want a substitute for toleration, namely-fraternity: (Applause) that the Swedenborgian and the Unitarian shall love the Catholic, and Presbyterian, and Baptist, because they represent the progress for, or search after, some divine thing. When we come to substitute love for tolerance, then we are making progress toward the divine law indeed. What are the obstacles in the way of the realization of these grand objects of liberty, tolerance and fraternity? They spring mainly from ignorance. We think that objects seen in the distance, dimly perceived, and of which we know nothing, are probably hideous mon |