Love of God and Love of Man constitute the essence of religion. It is time that men's attention should be drawn from the non-essentials or the husk of religion to its essentials which form its kernel. Nothing has done so much mischief to the world as religious big try and dogmatism on non-essential points of religion. Nothing has led so much to bloody wars and fiery persecutions as the same.
What constitutes the essence of religion becomes at once evident to us when we put the question to ourselves: If a man love God and man with all his heart, all his mind and all his strength, but cherish certain erroneous notions in point of doctrine, will he not be saved, i.e. obtain God? We at once get the answer from within ourselves that he will undoubtedly be saved. Even the firmest believers in any of the prevailing religions, such as the late Dr. Pusey was in Christianity, are constrained to admit this truth. The Persian poet Attar relates a beautiful story illustrating the same: “One night Gabriel, from his seat in Paradise, heard the voice of God sweetly responding to a human heart. The angel said: ‘Surely this must be an eminent servant of the Most High whose spirit is dead to lust and lives on high.’ The angel hastened over land and sea to find this man, but could not find him in the earth or heavens. At last he exclaimed: ‘O Lord,
