Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Sermons Prayers volume 2.djvu/211

Rh the friend of publicans and sinners ? Nay, is it the ambition of reverend and most Christian clergymen to be like him?—I mean, to think with the freedom he thought withal; to be just with such severe and beauteous right- eousness; to love with such affection,—so strong, yet so tender, so beautiful, so wide, so womanly and deep? Is it to have faith in God like his absolute trust; a faith in God's person and his function too; a faith in truth, in justice, in holiness, and love; a faith in God as Cause and Providence, in man as the effect and child of God? Is it the end of laymen and clergymen to produce such a religion,—to build up and multiply Christians of that manly sort?

Compliance with forms is made the test of piety, its indispensable condition. These forms are commonly two- fold: liturgical,—compliance with the ritual; dogmatical, —compliance with the creed. It is not shown that the rite has a universal, natural connection with piety ; only that it was once historically connected with a pious man. Nobody thinks that circumcision, baptism, or taking the Lord's supper, has a natural and indispensable connection with piety; only it is maintained that these things have been practised by pious men, and so are imposed on others by their authority. It is not shown that the creed has its foundation in the nature of man, still less in the nature of God; only that it rested once in the consciousness of some pious man, and has also been imposed on us by authority. So, it is not shown that these tests have any natural connection with religion; only that they once had an historical connection; and that, of course, was either temporary, naturally ending with the stage of civilization which it belonged to, or even personal, peculiar to the man it begun with.

Yet it is remarkable how much those temporary or mere personal expedients are set up as indispensable conditions and exclusive tests of piety. The Catholic Church, on the whole, is an excellent institution; Christendom could no more do without it, than Europe dispense with monarchies; but the steadfast Catholic must say, "Out of the Church there is no piety, no religion beyond the Church's ritual and creed." The Protestant churches are, on the whole,