Urges Unity of Religions

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Founder of Bahá’í Movement, Speaks at Ford Hall.

Moses Zoroaster and Buddha taught the same principles as Christ and had the same purpose, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, founder of the new Bahá’í movement in religion, told the Free Religious Association at its conference in Ford Hall yesterday afternoon. He deplored the differences between followers of different cults and said there was no reason why all should not be at one.

“The essences of the teachings of these great and blessed souls are one and the same,” he said. “The reality of their law is one. Zoroaster was a prophet precisely as was the Messiah. There is no difference whatsoever between the teachings of Zoroaster and those of Christ. The teachings of Buddha were not at all opposed to the teachings of Christ and likewise all the prophets.

“But, alas, after their days certain dogmatic motives crept in and those motives caused division, for the motives which crept in were not reality, but were purely superstitious, and directly inimical to the law laid down by them. Instead of the spirit of co-operation and solidarity taking possession of them they all began to cause greater strife, and jealousy existed among them.”

He announced that the religion of God was the cause of united humanity, the cause of love.

Other speakers were Edwin D. Mead, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, the Rev. Nicholas Van der Pyl, Alfred W. Martin of New York, Prof. Daniel Evans of Andover Seminary and Prof. William S. Morgan and the Rev. Frederick L. Hosmer.

The annual meeting of the Unitarian Sunday School Association was held in King’s Chapel at 10 o’clock, and the old list of officers, with the Rev. William I. Lawrence of Boston as president, reelected.

Rustom Rustomjce, editor of the Oriental Review of Bombay, India, outlined the dejection of the priestly class in India. Prof. L.P. Sacks of Oxford spoke of Great Britain and the church there.