Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/166

Rh lute love and trust in God; and a great will—the resolution to serve Him by the means which He has provided. These things are separated by reflection, and may be analytically examined; for purposes of philosophy and understanding, it is necessary to do this; but for purposes of pure piety and religion it is not necessary; but we conceive of this as one simple thing not decomposable. This composite consciousness we call piety, and define it commonly by its chief and largest element which enters thereinto, the love of God—for the feeling of God implies the idea of Him as lovely, and leads unavoidably to the resolution to serve Him by the means that He has provided.

Now, this piety is distinguished from three abnormal forms of action of the religious faculty.

It is distinguished, first, from superstition; that is, the action of man's religious faculty combined with the false idea of God, namely, that He is not lovely and beautiful, but fearful and ugly. Accordingly the superstitious man thinks that God must be feared first of all; and the internal worship of God is accordingly, with that man, fear, and nothing but fear. Then he thinks that outwardly God must be served by some mode of action that, is deformed and ugly, and violates the native instincts of man; that He must be served by mutilation, in old times of the body, and, in our times, of the spirit—now of the intellect, then of the conscience, then of the affections, on of the religious faculty itself. This is a very common idea of God and a very common idea of religion. God it thought to be ugly, and religion of course is ugly Superstition is fear before God, and when I speak of piety and its delights, I do not speak of superstition and any delight connected with that.

Then, next, piety is distinguished from fanaticism. That is the action of the religious faculty attended by the idea that God is not only fearful and ugly, but that he is malignant also, and hates certain men. Accordingly, the notion follows that God is to be served by cruelty to other men, by depriving them of rights which we value ourselves and do not wish to be deprived of. Fanaticism is hate before God, as superstition is fear before him. Fanaticism is a far greater evil than superstition, but in our