Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/236

Rh the eternal God, ever acting in Man; yet they are not the further from this Christianity, but all the nearer by the change. These things are left behind, as the traveller leaves the mire and stones of the road he travels, and shakes off the dust of his garments as he approaches some queenly city, throned amid the hills, and looks back with sorrow on the crooked way he has traversed, where others still drag their slow and lingering length along. Men must come to such Christianity when they come to real manly excellence. This proposes no partial end, but an absolute Object—the perfection of Man, or oneness with God. Therefore it leaves men perfect freedom; the liberty that comes of obedience to the Law of the Spirit of Life. Other forms of worship, ancient and modern, confine men in a dungeon; make them think the same thought, and speak the same word, and worship in the same way; Jesus would leave them the range of the world, scope and verge enough. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty; the liberty of perfect obedience; the largest liberty of the sons of God. Reason and Love are hostile to every limited form of religion, which says, Believe, Believe; they welcome that Religion of Jesus which says, Be perfect as God.

2. A second excellence is this : It is not a System of theological or moral Doctrines, but a Method of Religion and Life. It lays down no positive creed to be believed in; commands no ceremonial action to be done; it would make the man perfectly obedient to God, leaving his thoughts and actions for Reason and Conscience to govern. It widens the sphere of thought and life: it reaffirms some of the great religious truths implied in Man's nature; shows their practical application and its result. A religious system, with its forms, and its ritual, lops off the sacred peculiarities of Individual Character; chains Reason and fetters the Will; seeks to unite men in arbitrary creeds and forms—where the union can be but superficial and worthless—and it lays stress on externals. This Christianity insists on rightness before God; ties no man down to worship in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem; on the first day of the week, or the last day; in the church or the fields; socially or in private; with a creed, ritual, priest, symbol, spoken prayer, or without these. It