Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/281

Rh a matter of record that it was according to "the law of man." Suppose the Hebrew nurses had come to ask Judge Sprague for This advice. He must have said, "Obey both!" His rule is a universal one.

Another decree was once made, as it is said, in the Old Testament, that no man should ask any petition of any God for thirty days, save of the king, on penalty of being cast into the den of lions. Suppose Daniel—I mean the old Daniel, the prophet—should have asked him, "What is to be done?" Should he pray to Darius or pray to God? "Obey both!" would be the answer. But he cannot, for he is forbid to pray to God. We know what Daniel did do.

The elders and scribes of Jerusalem commanded the Christians not to speak or to teach at all in the name of Jesus; but Peter and John asked those functionaries, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye."

Our judge must have said, "There is no 'incompatibility;' obey both!" What "a comfortable Scripture" this would have been to poor John Bunyan! What a great ethical doctrine to St. Paul! He did not know such Christianity as that. Before this time a certain man had said "No man can serve two masters." But, there was one person who made the attempt, and he also is eminent in history. Here was "the will of God," to do to others as you would have others do to you: "Love thy neighbour as thyself." Here is the record of "the law of men:" "Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where He [Jesus] were, he should show it, that they might take Him." Judas, it seems, determined to "obey both,"—"the law of man" and the "will of God." So he sat with Jesus at the Last Supper, dipped his hand in the same dish, and took a morsel from the hand of Christ, given him in token of love. All this he did to obey "the will of God." Then he went and informed the commissioner or marshal where Jesus was. This he did to obey "the law of man." Then he came back, and found Christ,—the agony all over, the bloody sweat wiped off from His brow, presently to bleed again,—the Angel of Strength there with Him to comfort Him. He was arousing His sleeping disciples for the last