God, the King and Father of all." "God being one," said
Aristotle, "only receives various names from the various
manifestations we perceive." "Sovereign God," said Cleanthes, in that
sublime prayer which Paul quoted, "whom men invoke under many names,
and who rulest alone, ... it is to thee that all nations should
address themselves, for we all are thy children." So Origen, the
Christian Father, frankly says that no man can be blamed for calling
God's name in Egyptian, nor in Scythian, nor in such other language as
he best knows.[A]

To say that different races worship different Gods, is like saying
that they are warmed by different suns. The names differ, but the sun
is the same, and so is God. As there is but one source of light and
warmth, so there is but one source of religion. To this all nations
testify alike. We have yet but a part of our Holy Bible. The time will
come when, as in the middle ages, all pious books will be called
sacred scriptures, _Scripturae Sacrae_. From the most remote portions of
the earth, from the Vedas and the Sagas, from Plato and Zoroaster,
Confucius and Mohammed, from the Emperor Marcus Antoninus and the
slave Epictetus, from the learned Alexandrians and the ignorant Galla
negroes, there will be gathered hymns and prayers and maxims in which
every religious soul may unite,--the magnificent liturgy of the human
race.

The greatest of modern scholars, Von Humboldt, asserted in middle life
and repeated the assertion in old age, that "all positive religions
contain three distinct parts. First, a code of morals, very fine, and
nearly the same in all. Second, a geological dream, and, third, a myth
or historical novelette, which last becomes the most important of
all." And though this observation may be somewhat roughly stated, its
essential truth is seen when we compare the different religions of the
world side by side. With such startling points of similarity, where is
the difference? The main difference lies here, that each fills some
blank space in its creed with the name of a different teacher. For
instance, the Oriental Parsee wears a fine white garment, bound around
him with a certain knot; and whenever this knot is undone, at morning
or night, he repeats the four main points of his creed, which are as
follows:--

"To believe in one God, and hope for mercy from him only."

"To believe in a future state of existence."

"To do as you would be done by."

Thus far the Parsee keeps o