Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/15

xvi know,—as a builder up of faith—that faith which will remain unshaken upon the rock of human nature itself, when time shall have levelled every edifice built on the shifting sands of tradition; it is thus that Theodore Parker claims to be heard.

A few brief words concerning his doctrines and his life may, perhaps, be useful, by enabling the reader hitherto unacquainted with his writings to apprehend their bearing more perfectly. These writings, however, are so clear and honest, and that noble life was so simple in its absolute devotion to its holy purpose, that small space will suffice to speak for both.

There are four bases logically possible for a religion,—a living inspired Head, an infallible Church, an authoritative Book, an individual Consciousness. Of these four, Parker chose the last, leaving such creeds as Mormonism and Lamaism on the first, Romanism on the second, Calvinism on the third, and scores of intermediate churches shifting illogically between all four. The reasons for his rejection of the first three bases of religion are set forth at length in his writings, as also for his reliance on the veracity of Consciousness, corroborated for the individual by the consciousness of the wise and good of all ages.

Standing on this ground of Consciousness, he preached the great doctrine of Theism, the. Every man is conscious of revering and loving certain moral characteristics, and of hating and despising certain others. Here, then, we find the assurance that He who made us to feel such reverence on one side and such contempt on the other,