Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/290

Rh What a confession nave we here Is it true that Mr Parker's logic and eloquence are unanswerable? We do not think so, and laymen as we are we would sooner undertake to argue him down, than to pray him out of his stronghold with such petitions as those that were offered up on the occasion referred to, and a few of which we have quoted. One of the brethren exhorted his brethren to pray that "God would put a hook in Theodore Parker's jaws so that he may not be able to speak!" Is that a way of making him less revered and loved by the people?

We have no space or inclination here to discuss the peculiar views of Rev. Theodore Parker, nor is it pertinent to our purpose. We may remark, however, that we do not agree with him in his ideas of the Bible and of religion—in other words, we are not one of his disciples, and never heard him preach but once, though we have read with much interest many of his lectures and sermons. But we would remind these zealous brethren that if his [Parker's] work be of God, they cannot overthrow it, and if it is of Satan, we have no doubt that it will come to nought. At all events, the style of supplication and remarks indulged in at these meetings in relation to Mr Parker, is very far from being either wise, considerate, or calculated to do any good to him or anybody else ; it partakes not of the spirit of charity, "which endureth all things," which "vaunteth not itself," and "thinketh no evil."

The sooner all this unseemly demonstration ceases, whether it proceeds from ignorance, zeal without knowledge, Phariseeism, or bigotry, the better for the cause of religion, the progress of the revival, and the conversion and reformation of individual souls.