Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/30

Rh of Parker's character; but as it is impossible for mankind wholly to refrain from forming an estimate of the root of a man's faith by the product of life which it may bear, it has seemed well thus to display, in some degree, how singularly complete and rounded was that nature which this teacher of Theism displayed. All religions, which have importantly influenced the world, have probably been qualified to produce some special virtue in eminent perfection. But the one which shall approve itself as truly divine, must nourish not only isolated merits, but all the possible virtues and faculties of human nature, such as it has been constituted by the Creator. The creeds stand self-condemned, which dwarf or kill any stem or branch, or flower or even leaflet of true humanity,—which make men emaciate and lacerate the bodies God has so wonderfully made;—or prefer hideous and monotonous churches and edifices of charity to the example of a world of endless beauty and variety;—or regard distrustfully every fresh discovery of science, instead of resting satisfied that all truth is God's truth, and to nothing but error can it be dangerous;—or check and crush their natural domestic affections, instead of regarding each one of them as a step, lent to help us up from earth to heaven;—all these creeds stand self-condemned. They may be the service of some unknown being, but they assuredly do not succeed in harmonizing the soul with the Creator of this world, the Divine Author of Human Nature. Nay more, the creed which should freeze all the joyous flow of wit and jest, and teach (without shadow of historical authority) that its Ideal Man “seldom smiled and never laughed”—that creed also is condemned. God who has made the playful lamb and singing lark, the whispering winds which rustle in the summer trees, and the ocean waves' “immeasurable laugh”—that same God gave, in His mercy, jest and glee and merriment to man; and here also, as in the joys of the senses and the intellect and the affections, “to enjoy is to obey.” Theodore Parker's faith, at least, bore this result,—it brought out in him one of the noblest and most complete developments of our nature which the world has seen; a splendid devotion, even to death, for the holiest cause, and none the less a most perfect fulfilment of the minor duties and obligations of humanity. Though the last man in the world to claim faultlessness for himself, he was yet to all mortal eyes absolutely faithful to the resolution of his boyhood to devote himself to God's immediate service. Living