Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/55

42 In their intemperate laughter they hear the hoarse voice of monks in the street, coming romid the comer, chanting the Miserere as service for the dying, " Have mercy upon me, God, according to thy loving-kindness!" "What is that?" cries one. " Oh," answers another, "it is only some poor soul going to hell, and the priests are trying to cheat the devil of his due ! Push round the wine." Again comes the chant, "For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me!" "How near it is; under the windows," says a reveller, turning pale. "What if it should be meant for one of us; let me look." He opens the window, the torches flash in from the dark street, and the chant pours on them, " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow!" They all spring to their feet. "Whom is it for?" they cry out. "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness," is the answer. They throw open the door—the mother of Borgia rushes in: "You are all dead men," she cries; "I poisoned the wine myself. Confess, and make your peace with God; here are His ministers." The white-robed priests fill up the room, chanting, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, God, thou wilt not despise!" "But here is an antidote for my son," cries the mother of Borgia. "Take it!" He dashes the cup on the ground—and the gay company lies there, pale-blue, poisoned, and dead! Shall that be the fate of America? Yes; if she cast the cup of healing to the ground! Other admonitions must come, yet more terrible, before we learn for whom the Miserere is now wailing forth. If America were to keep this shameftd pest in the land, then ruin is sure to follow,—ruin of all the dear-bought institutions of our fathers. The slaves double in about twenty-five years; so in A.D. 1930, there would be 27,000,000 of slaves! What a thought ! The question is not merely, shall we have Slavery and Freedom, but Slavery or Freedom. The two cannot long continue side by side.

When this hinderance is taken away, there is a noble career open before this young giant. There is a new con-