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clearly, he pointed to the pilot, and said, ‘He’s a much
cleverer chap than I, and can explain the way of it more
clearly.’
“The pilot was an intelligent man, and had listened in silence
to the conversation till he was appealed to. But now, as they all
turned to him, he began to speak, and said: ‘You are all
mistaken, both you and the rest. The sun does not go round the
earth, but the earth round the sun; besides this, the earth
turns round its own axis, so that in the course of twenty-four
hours Japan, the Phillipine Islands, and Sumatra, where we now
are, also Africa, Europe, Asia, and many other countries beside,
turn towards the sun. The sun shines not only on the earth,
but on many other planets which are like the earth. Those of you
who are willing to be convinced of this have only to look up into
the sky and then on yourselves here; you will no longer believe
that the sun shines only for you or your own land.’ So
spoke the wise pilot, who had travelled widely round the world,
and gazed much into the heavens.
“Yes, the mistakes, divisions, and strife of men concerning
religious questions come from pride,” went on the Confucian.
“As it is with the sun, so also about God. Every man will have
his special god, or, at least, one for his native land. Every
nation desires to shut up in its own temple what the whole
world cannot contain. And can any temple compare with that
which God Himself has built to unite in it all people in one
religion and one faith? All human temples are built after
the pattern of that temple—God’s world. In all temples there
are founts, arched vaults, lamps, pictures, inscriptions,
lawbooks, offerings, altars, and priests. In what temple is there
such a baptistery as the ocean, such a vault as the sky, such
lamps or candles as the sun, moon, and stars, such pictures as
living men who love and help each other? What inscriptions
concerning God’s goodness are so easy to understand as the
blessings that God has everywhere lavished on us for our
happiness? What law-book is so plain and clear as that written
in man’s own heart? Where are offerings of such worth as
those offerings of self-sacrifice, that loving human beings make
for their neighbour’s sake? And where is the altar that can
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