Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/380

334 bellows till all rings again from Cape Sable to the Lake of the Woods, if a single “heretic” lifts up his voice, though never so weak, in the obscurest corner of the earth; but Giant Sin may go through the land with his hideous rout; may ride rough-shod over the poor, and burn the standing corn and poison the waters of the nation, and shake the very Church till the steeple rock—and there shall not a dog wag his tongue. When did the Christianity of the churches leave a heresy unscathed; when did it ever denounce a popular sin—the desolation of intemperance, our butchery of the Indians, the soul-destroying traffic in the flesh and blood of men “for whom Christ died?” These things need no comment. They tell their own tale. Where is the infidelity of this age? Read the sectarian newspapers. We have a theological Religion to defend with tracts, sermons, ministers, and scandal. It needs all that to defend it.

No wonder young men, and young women too, of the most spiritual stamp, lose their reverence for the Church, or come into it only for a slumber, irresistible, profound, and strangely similar to death. What concord hath freedom with slavery? Talent goes to the world, not the churches. No wonder Unbelief scoffs in the public print: “beside what that grim wolf, with privy paw, daily devours apace, and nothing said;” there is an unbelief, worse than the public scoffing, though more secret, which needs not be spoken of. No wonder the old cry is raised, “The Church in danger,” as its crazy timbers sway to and fro if a strong man treads its floors. But what then? What is true never fails. Religion is permanent in the race; Christianity everlasting as God. These can never perish, through the treachery of their defenders, or the violence of their foes. We look round us, and all seems to change; what was solid last night, is fluid and passed off to-day; the theology of our fathers is unreadable; the doctrine of the middle-age “divines” is deceased like them. Shall our mountain stand? “Everywhere is instability and insecurity.” It is only men's heads that swim; not the stars that run round. The Soul of man remains the same; Absolute Religion does not change; God still speaks in Mind and Conscience, Heart and Soul; is still