Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/237

190 breaks every yoke, seen or invisible; bids men worship in love. It does not ask man to call himself a Christian, or his Religion Christianity. It bids him be perfect; never says to Reason, Thus far and no further; forbids no freedom of inquiry, nor wide reach of thought; fears nothing from the Truth, or for it. It never encourages that cowardice of soul which dares not think, nor look facts in the face, but sneaks behind altars, texts, traditions, because they are of the fathers; that cowardice which counts a mistake of the apostles better than truth in you and me, and which reads both Piety and Common Sense out of its church because they will not bow the knee nor say the creed. Christianity asks no man to believe the Old Testament, or the New Testament, the divine infallibility of Moses or Jesus, but to prove all things; hold fast what is good; do the will of the Father; love Man and God.

The method of such Christianity is a very plain one. Obedience, not to that old teacher, or this new one; but to God, who filleth all in all, to His Law written on the tablets of the heart. It exhorts men to a divine life, not as something foreign but as something native and welcome to Man. It is the life of many Systems of Religion, Theology, and practical Morality, as the ocean has many waves and bubbles; but these are not Christianity more than a wreath of foam is the Atlantic.

3. It differs from others in its eminently practical character. It counts a manly life better than saying “Lord, Lord;” puts mercy before sacrifice, and pronounces a gift to man better than a gift to God. It dwells much on the brotherhood of men; annihilates national and family distinctions; all are sons of God, and brothers; Man is to love his brother as himself, and bless him, and thus serve God. It values Man above all things. Is he poor, weak, ignorant, sinful, it does not scorn him, but labours all the more to relieve the fallen. It sees the “archangel ruined” in the sickly servant of Sin. It looks on the immortal nature of Man, and all little distinctions vanish. It bids each man labour for his brother, and never give over till Ignorance, Want, and Sin are banished from the earth; to count a brother's sufferings, sorrows, wrongs, as our sufferings, sorrows, and wrongs, and redress them. It says, Carry the Truth to all. Before Jesus, the Greek,