Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/175

162 ness, completeness as a whole, perfection of parts, fitness of function, and adaptation to oar human nature. But this beauty of God is a source of delight to few men; it cannot be relished without a great development of the religious faculty, and also a profound culture of the intellectual and aesthetic faculties ; and besides, is somewhat too abstruse and transcendental in its nature for the busy world of men, who want something they can grasp with a thicker and hotter hand. I mention it, and dwell upon it, because it lies so much out of the way of common preaching, and because also it is real and lies within the reach of every man who can cultivate his understanding and his religious faculty. But I pass briefly over this, because to many men it seems as moonshine when compared with the clear daylight of other forms of religious joy.

Then there is this feeling of security and trust in God. I feel God not as a King, power alone, but as a Father yea, as a Mother; and I know that God loves me with tenderest affection, that He loves every human soul with all of His infinite power, wisdom, justice, love, and holiness. Now it is a delight to be beloved by any one; the affection which a cat, or dog, or horse, or ox feels for a man is a delight to that man; to know that some human being holds you in esteem, in affection, watches for you and watches over you, and takes delight in your well-being-why, what a joy that is! Everybody knows it. I speak not now of the active affection which loves back again, but of the passivity of spirit which only joys in being loved by other men. Yet in receiving such love from mortal man there is often this hindrance—the man often wishes it to be exclusive to him alone; for he thinks his friend has so little affection that he wants it all, and would break other men's pitchers which are let down to the finite, private well of his friend's affection; so there is a strife between the herdsmen of Abraham and of Lot, a quarrel which troubles the well, and breaks the pitchers, and muddies the water itself. But as the affection of the Infinite God is boundless, not to be exhausted, as from the very nature of God He must have infinite love, so no man need be jealous of Him and fearful we shall not get our share, because publicans and sinners enter into the joy of their