Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/246

Rh dwelt in him, and he could say, The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshipper shall worship in spirit and in truth!

We do not conceive of that sickness of soul, which must have come at the coldness of the wise men, the heartlessness of the worldly, at the stupidity and selfishness of the disciples. We do not think how that heart, so sensitive, so great, so finely tuned, and delicately touched, must have been pained to feel there was no other heart to give an answering beat. We know not the long and bitter agony which went before the triumph-cry of faith, I am not alone, for the Father is with me; we do not heed that faintness of soul which comes of hope deferred, of aspirations all unshared by men, a bitter mockery the only human reply, the oft-repeated echo to his prayer of faith. We find it difficult to keep unstained our decent robe of goodness when we herd only with the good and shun the kennel where Sin and Misery, parent and child, are huddled with their rags; we do not appreciate that strong and healthy pureness of soul which dwelt daily with iniquity, sat at meat with publicans and sinners, and yet with such cleanness of life as made even Sin ashamed of its ugliness, but hopeful to amend. Rarely, almost never, do we see the vast divinity within that soul, which, new though it was in the flesh, at one step goes before the world whole thousands of years; judges the race; decides for us questions we dare not agitate as yet, and breathes the very breath of heavenly love. The Christian world, aghast at this venerable beauty in the flesh; transfixed with wonder as such a spirit rises in his heavenly flight, veils its face and says, It is a God; such thoughts are not for men; the life betrays the Deity. And is it not the Divine which the flesh enshrouds; to speak in figures, the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person; the clear resemblance of the All-beautiful; the likeness of God in which Man is made? But alas for us, we read our lesson backward; make a God of our brother, who should be our Servant and Helper. So the new-fledged eaglets may see the parent bird, slow rising at first with laborious efforts, then cleaving the air with sharp and steady wing, and soaring through the clouds, with eye undazzled, to meet the sun; they may say, We can only pray to the strong