Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/75

28 Man; of the relation between him and God; of the duties which grow out of that relation, may be taken as the exponent of all the man's thoughts, feelings, and life. They are therefore alike the measure and the result of the total development of a man, an age, or race. If these things are so, then the phenomena of Religion—like those of Science and Art—must vary from land to land, and age to age, with the varying civilization of mankind; must be one thing in New Zealand, and the first century, and something quite different in New England, and the fifty-ninth century. They must be one thing in the wise man, and another in the foolish man. They must vary also in the same individual, for a man’s wisdom, goodness, and general character, affect the phenomena of his Religion. The Religion of the boy and the man, of Saul the youth, and Paul the aged, how unlike they appear. The boy’s prayer will not fill the man's heart; nor can the stripling son of Zebedee comprehend that devotion and life which he shall enjoy when he becomes the Saint mature in years.

at the religious history of mankind, and especially at that portion of the human race which has risen highest in the scale of progress, we see that the various phenomena of Religion may, for the present purpose, be summed up in three distinct classes or types, corresponding to three distinct degrees of civilization, and almost inseparable from them. These are , , and. But this classification is imperfect, and wholly external, though of use for the present purpose. It must be borne in mind that we never find a nation in which either mode prevails alone. Nothing is truer than this, that minds of the same, spiritual growth