Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/253

206 looked down on the divinities of Greece and Egypt, of “Ormus and the Ind,” and gave them a shelter in her capacious robe: Rome, with her practised skill; Rome, with her eloquence; Rome, with her pride; Rome, with her arms, hot from her conquest of a thousand kings. On the same side were all the institutions of all the world; its fables, wealth, armies, pride, its folly, and its sin.

On the other hand, were a few Jewish fishermen, untaught, rude, and vulgar; not free from gross errors; despised at home, and not known abroad; collected together in the name of an enthusiastic young carpenter, who died on the gallows fancying himself the Messiah and that the world would perish soon—and whom they declared to be risen from the dead; men with no ritual, no learning, no books, no brass in their purse, no philosophy in their mind, no eloquence on their tongue. A Roman Sceptic might tell how soon these fanatics would fall out, and destroy themselves, after serving as a terror to the maids and a sport to the boys of a Jewish hamlet, and so that “detestable superstition” come to an end! A priest of Jerusalem, with his oracular gossip, could tell how long the Sanhedrim would suffer them to go at large, in the name of “that deceiver,” whose body “they stole away by night!” Alas for what man calls great; the pride of prejudice; the boast of power. The fishermen of Galilee have a truth the world has not, so they are stronger than the world. Ten weak men may chain down a giant; but no combination of errors can make a Truth or put it down; no army of the ignorant equals one man who has the Word of Life. Besides, all the old Truth in Judea, Greece, Rome, was an auxiliary to favour the new Truth.

The first preachers of Christianity had false notions on many points; they were full of Jewish fables and technicalities; thought the world would soon end, and Jesus come back “with power and great glory.” Peter would now and then lie to serve his turn; Paul was passionate, often one-sided, dogmatic, and mistaken; Barnabas and Mark could not agree. There was something of furious enthusiasm in all these come-outers. James thunders like a “Fanatic” or “Radical” at the rich man, not without cause; they soon had divisions and persecutions among themselves, foes in the new household of Christianity.