preserved me all my
life, and I rejoice in the kindness on this account with which they
load me now in every land, as testimonies to that fact.

"But I want to make it clear to readers in lands far away from
Christendom why I was driven into the formation of an Organisation
entirely outside every Christian Church in order to accomplish my
object, and why my people everywhere, whilst having no more desire
than myself to come into dispute, or even discussion, with any
Church near them, must needs act as independently of them all as I
have done, no matter how friendly they may now be to us.

"Nothing could be more charming than the present attitude towards
us of every religious community in the United States, from the
Roman Catholics, whose Archbishop has publicly commended us, to the
Mormons, who are generally regarded as enemies of all Christianity,
and the Friends (commonly called Quakers) whose ideas of worship
seem to be at the uttermost extreme from ours. All are satisfied
that I and my people are not wishful to find fault with any
religious body whatever, but to spend all our time and energy in
combating the great evils of godlessness and selfishness which
threaten to sweep away all the people everywhere from any thought
above material things.

"Yet we have had to forbid our people to accept too often the
pressing invitations that pour upon them from all sides to hold
Meetings in Church buildings, lest they should lose touch with the
masses outside, and begin to be content with audiences of admirers.

"The thirty-six years of my life whilst I was groping about in vain
for a home and fellowship amongst Churches gave me to understand,
as only experience can, what are the thoughts and feelings of the
millions in Christian lands, who not only never enter a church, but
who feel it to be inconceivable that they ever should do so.

"If this experience has been invaluable to us in Christian lands,
how much more so is it in the far vaster countries of Asia and
Africa, where our work is only as yet in its beginnings. When I
went to Japan, the entire missionary community everywhere united to
uphold me as the exemplar of true Christlike action for the good of
all men. But the leaders of all the five sects of Buddhism were no
less unanimous in the