Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/292

Rh prefaced with a Thus-saith-the-Lord; but then all superiority of the Bible over these books disappears for ever; the daylight gives place to the shadow; the Law of Sin and Death casts out the Law of the Spirit of Life. Let honest Reason and Religion pursue their own way.

indolent and the sensual love to have a visible master in spiritual things, who will spare them the agony of thought. Credulity, Ignorance, and Superstition conjure up phantoms to attend them. Some honest men find it difficult to live nobly and divine; to keep the well of life pure and undisturbed, the inward ear always open and quick to the voice of God in the soul. They see, too, how often the ignorant, the wicked, the superstitious, and the fanatical confound their own passions with the still small voice of God; they see what evil, deep and dreadful, comes of this confusion. Such is the force of prejudice, indolence, habit, they find it sometimes difficult to distinguish between right and wrong; they love to lean on the Most High, and the Bible is declared His word. They say, therefore, by their action, Let us have some outward rule and authority, which, being infallible, shall help the still smallness of God's voice in the heart; it will bless us when weak; we will make it our master and obey its voice. It shall be to us as a God, and we will fall down and worship it. But alas, it is not so. The word of God—no Scripture will hold that. It speaks in a language no honest mind can fail to read. Such seem the most prominent causes that have made the Bible an Idol of the Christians.

No doubt it will be said, “such views are dangerous, for