and pointing to the ship's
pilot said:

"This man knows more about it than I do. He can explain it properly."

The pilot, who was an intelligent man, had listened in silence to the
talk till he was asked to speak. Now every one turned to him, and he
said:

"You are all misleading one another, and are yourselves deceived. The
sun does not go round the earth, but the earth goes round the sun,
revolving as it goes, and turning towards the sun in the course of each
twenty-four hours, not only Japan, and the Philippines, and Sumatra
where we now are, but Africa, and Europe, and America, and many lands
besides. The sun does not shine for some one mountain, or for some one
island, or for some one sea, nor even for one earth alone, but for other
planets as well as our earth. If you would only look up at the heavens,
instead of at the ground beneath your own feet, you might all understand
this, and would then no longer suppose that the sun shines for you, or
for your country alone."

Thus spoke the wise pilot, who had voyaged much about the world, and had
gazed much upon the heavens above.

"So on matters of faith," continued the Chinaman, the student of
Confucius, "it is pride that causes error and discord among men. As with
the sun, so it is with God. Each man wants to have a special God of his
own, or at least a special God for his native land. Each nation wishes
to confine in its own temples Him, whom the world cannot contain.

"Can any temple compare with that which God Himself has built to unite
all men in one faith and one religion?

"All human temples are built on the model of this temple, which is God's
own world. Every temple has its fonts, its vaulted roof, its lamps,
its pictures or sculptures, its inscriptions, its books of the law, its
offerings, its altars and its priests. But in what temple is there such
a font as the ocean; such a vault as that of the heavens; such lamps
as the sun, moon, and stars; or any figures to be compared with living,
loving, mutually-helpful men? Where are there any records of God's
goodness so easy to understand as the blessings which God has strewn
abroad for man's happiness? Where is there any book of the law so clear
to each man as that written in his heart? What sacrifices equal the
self-denials which loving men and women make for one another? And what
altar can be compared with the heart of a good man, on which God Himself
accepts the sacrifice?

"The higher a man's conce