Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/144

Rh discipline, development, and delight! Part of it we look for in the next world, and for that rely upon the infinite perfection of God; part of it we toil for here, and shall achieve it here. To do a man's best, to try to do his best, that is to be " acceptable to God," to " make our peace with Him," who is of all preserver and defence. There is no " wrath of God " to be saved from ; no " vicarious atonement " to be saved by; no miracle is wrought by God; He asks only normal service of man, and as He is infinitely perfect, so must He have arranged all things, that all shall work for good at last, mankind be saved, and no son of perdition e'er be lost. Suffering there is—there will be. I, at least, cannot show why it was needful in the world's great plan, nor see the steps by which this suffering will end, nor always see the special purpose that it serves—but with the certainty of such a God, the ultimate salvation of all is itself made sure.

How different is all this from the theological idea of salvation—"hard to be won, and only by a few!"

How much we need a theology like this—a natural theology, scientifically derived from the world of matter and of man, the product of religious feeling and philosophic thought! Such ideas of God, of man, of the relation between the two; of inspiration, of salvation—it is what mankind longs for, as painters long for artistic loveliness, and scholars for scientific truth; yea, as hungry men long for their daily bread. The philosopher wants a theology as comprehensive as his science—a God with wisdom and with power immanent in all the universe, and yet transcending that. The philanthropist wants it not less, a God who loves all men. Yea, men and women all throughout the land desire a theology like this, which shall legitimate the instinctive emotions of reverence, and love, and trust in God, that to their spirits, careful and troubled about many things, shall give the comfort and the hope and peace for which they sigh ! How much doubt there is in all the churches which the minister cannot appease; how much hunger he can never still, because he offers only that old barbaric theology which suited the rudeness of a savage age, and is rejected by the enlightened consciousness of this! How much truth is there outside of all the