Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/361

314 established a new relation between Man and God;” it admits man can pray for himself, and God hear for himself, and yet prays “in the name of Christ,” and trusts an “intercessor.” It censures the traditionary sects, yet sits itself among the tombs, and mourns over things past and gone; believes the humanity of Jesus, that he was a model-man for us all, yet his miraculous birth likewise and miraculous powers, and makes him an anomalous and impossible being. It blinds men's eyes with the letter, yet bids them look for the spirit; stops their ears with texts of the Old Testament, and then asks them to listen to the voice of God in their heart; it reverences Jesus manfully, yet denounces all such as preach Absolute Religion and Morality, as he did, on its own authority, with nothing between them and God, neither tradition nor person. Well might a weeping Jeremiah say of it, “Alas for thee, now hast thou forsaken the promise of thy youth, the joy of thine espousals!” or with the son of Sirach, “How wise wast thou in thy youth, and as a flood filled with understanding. Thy soul covered the whole earth; thy name went far unto the islands, and for thy peace thou wast beloved; the countries marvelled at thee for thy songs and proverbs, and parables, and interpretations; but by thy body wast thou brought into subjection; thou didst stain thine honour, so that thou broughtest wrath upon thy children, and was grieved for thy folly!” It has not kept its faith. It clings to the skirts of tradition, which, as a scarecrow in a garden of cucumbers—keepeth nothing.” It would believe nothing not reasonable, and yet all things scriptural; so it will not look facts in the face, and say, This is in the Bible, yes, in the New Testament, but out of Reason none the less. So with perfect good faith, it “explains away” what is offensive: “This is not in the canon. That is a false interpretation.” To such a proficiency has this art of explaining away been carried that the Scripture is a piece of wax in the Unitarian hand, and takes any shape: the Devil is an oriental figure of speech; Paul believed in him no more than Peter Bayle; the miraculous birth of Jesus, the ascension in the body, the stories of Abraham, Jonah, Daniel, are “true as symbols not as facts;” Moses and Isaiah never speak of Jesus in the Law and the Prophets, yet Jesus is right