Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/327

314 love. "One day shalt thou be with me in paradise," is what Jesus might say to each penitent thief:—ay! to the red-handed remorseful murderer gnawing his own heart; yes! to the New England kidnapper, not yet gnawing his own heart, still prowling about the courts, licking his jaws and hungering for other prey. The providence of God is infinite, and his love embraces the wickedest of men, not less than the best. In the world of matter and of man, He has provided an infinite means to rouse the self-restoring energy of the sin-sick soul—painful means no doubt they may be to us, but blessed in their motive, and oh ! how joyous in their end I I think there is not in the Old Testament, or the New, a single word which tells this blessed truth that penitence hereafter shall do any good, or that the agony which men shall suffer never so many years shall wipe out one single scar of wickedness. But the universe is the revelation of God, and it tells you a grander truth,—infinite power arid infinite love, time without bounds for the restoration of the "fallen and the recovery of the wicked. In all the family of God, there is never a son of perdition.

This true religion is to be preached also in jails, and the hands of the murderer will then be lifted up in penitence and aspiration when he finds that there is an Infinite Mother who looks even upon him, and through the blood on his soul beholds the heavenly child and loves him still.

There are also times of prosperity. The little olive-plants are green with prophecy. Not a pearl has fallen from our chain of affection twined by loving hands about the neck; our cup runneth over. Then the man of true religious ideas and emotions feels his brotherhood to all mankind. "Who am I," quoth he, "but one of God's children? Did He make me stronger than they? Then the powers that He has given, and the fruits of my gatherings thereby, are they only for myself? Are they not also for other men? Should not I help men more, as I am abler than they? Am I only a hand to gather for myself, and keep? only a mouth to consume in selfish greed? Am I not also much rather a hand to uphold the honest man who yet is weak and goes tottering; to distribute my power to those, who though earnest and honest, yet