Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/313

266 the opposite. For a time the leaven of Christianity seemed lost in the lump of human sin; but it was doing its great work in ways not seen by mortal eyes. The most profound of all revolutions must require centuries for its work. The good never dies. The Persecutions directed by tyrannical emperors against the new faith, only helped the work. What is written in blood is widely read and not soon forgot. Could the “holy alliance” of Ease, Hypocrisy, and Sin put down Christianity, which proclaimed the One God, the equality and brotherhood of all men? Did Force ever prevail in the long run against Reason or Religion? The ashes of a Polycarp and a Justin sow the earth for a Cadmean harvest of heroes of the soul; a man leaving wife and babes and dying a martyr's death—this is an eloquence the dullest can understand. If a fire is to spread in the forest let all the winds blow upon it. Even a bad thing is not put down by abuse. However, to see the earnest of that vast result Christianity is destined to work out for the nations, we must not look at king's courts, in Byzantium or Paris; not in the chairs of bishops, noble or selfish; not at the martyr's firmness when his flesh is torn off, for the unflinching Tuscarora surpasses “the noble army of martyrs” in fortitude; but in the common walks of life, its every-day trials; in the sweet charities of the fireside and the street; in the self-denial that shares its loaf with the distressful; the honest heart which respects others as itself. Looking deeper than the straws of the surface we see a stream of new life is in the world, and, though choked with mud, not to be dammed up.

The history of Christianity reveals the majestic preëminence of its earthly founder. In him amid all his Messianic expectations, there shines a clear religious light—Love to God, Love to Man. Come to the later times of the Apostles, the sky is overcast with dogmatic clouds, and doubtful twilight begins. Take another step, and the darkness deepens. Come down to Justin Martyr, it is deeper still; to Irenæus, Tertullian, Cyprian; to the times of the Council of Nice; read the letters of Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, the Apologies of Christianity, the fierce bickerings of strong men about matters of no mo-