Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/248

Rh has mastered his noblest thought; comprehended his method, and fully applied it to life! Let the world answer in its cry of anguish. Men have parted his raiment among them; cast lots for his seamless coat; but that spirit which toiled so manfully in a world of sin and death; which did and suffered, and overcame the world,—is that found, possessed, understood? Nay, is it sought for and recommended by any of our churches?

But no excellence of aim, no sublimity of achievement, could screen him from distress and suffering. The fate of all Saviours was his—despised and rejected of men. His father's children “did not believe in him;” his townsmen “were offended at him,” and said, “Whence hath he this wisdom? Is not this the son of Joseph the carpenter?” Those learned scribes who came all the way from Jerusalem to entangle him in his talk, could see only this, “He hath Beelzebub.” “Art thou greater than our father Jacob?” a conservative might ask. Some said, “He is a good man.” “Ay,” said others, but “He speaketh against the temple.” The sharp-eyed Pharisees saw nothing marvellous in the case. Why not? They were looking for signs and wonders in the heavens; not Sermons on the Mount, and a “Woe-unto-you, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites;” they looked for the Son of David, a king, to rule over men's bodies, not the son of a peasant-girl, born in a stable, the companion of fishermen, the friend of publicans and sinners, who spoke to the outcast, brought in the lost sheep, and so ruled in the soul, his kingdom not of this world. They said, “He is a Galilean, and of course no prophet.” If he called men away from the senses to the soul, they said, “He is beside himself.” “Have any of the Rulers or the Pharisees believed on him?” asked some one who thought the answer would settle the matter. When he said, If a man live by God's law, “he shall never see death,” they exclaimed, those precious shepherds of the people, “Now we know thou hast a devil, and art mad. Abraham is dead, and the prophets! Art thou greater than our father ? Who are you, sir?” What a faithful report would Scribes and Pharisees and Doctors of the Law have made of the Sermon on the Mount; what omissions and redundances