Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/131

118 The teacher of religion is to deal with all these—to work in the plane of Feelings, the department of sentiment, where life is emotional ; in that of Ideas, the department of theology, where life is likewise speculative ; in that of Actions, the department of morality, where life is also practical. As he is to address the intellect, work with ideas, and by these to excite the feelings, and thereby stir men to action, let me begin with the department of theology and thence proceed.

I. Of the teacher of religion in relation to Ideas of theology. There is one great Bcheme of thought called "Christianity," or more properly, the " Christian theology." It is common to all sects in Christendom. Of this, the "liberal" have least, the illiberal most ; but they differ only quantitatively — in amount, not kind. This is the common soil of Cfa&tondom, whence grow such great trees as Catholicism and Protestantism, with the various offshoots from each. From this common inheritance the minister is to take what he thinks true and useful, to reject what he thinks useless, to remove out of his way what he finds baneful.

But he is not to draw merely from this well, he is to get all the theologic truth he can find in other schemes of theology, not disdaining to be taught by an enemy. For two thousand years France has cultivated the olive and the vine, but lately has translated to her soil Chinese treatises on this branch of husbandry, and found profit in the "Heathens' counsel." The early Christians held to the Scriptures of the hostile Jew before they thought of claiming "inspiration" for their own Gospels and Epistles. Nay, Paul of Tarsus did not disdain to quote heathen poets for authority that man is God's child—"for we also are his off-spring." The teacher of religion must not be limited to these ancient wells of knowledge, he must dig new springs filled from the Universal Source, the great Mountain of Truth. He is to take no church for master—Hebrew, Heathen, Mohammedan, or Christian, Protestant or Catholic; no man, no sect, no word; but all which can aid for helps. He is not to be content with the "Said so" of any man, however famous or great; only with the "It is so" of fact, or the "I find it so" of his own personal ex-