Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/283

Rh Even the martyred Jesuits say "No." Who is it that says "Yes?" Judas and the judge. Let them go—each "to his own place." Let me say no more of them.

This attempt to keep tho people down by false doctrine is no now thing. But to say that there is no law higher than what the State can make, is practical atheism. It is not a denial of God in His person ; that is only speculative atheism. It is a denial of tho functions and attributes of God; that is real atheism. If there is no God to make a law for me, then there is no God for me.

The law of the land is so sacred, it must override the law of God, must it? Let us see if all the laws of the United States are kept everywhere. Let a black man go to South Carolina in a ship, and we shall see. Let the British minister complain that South Carolina puts British subjects in gaol, for tho colour of their skin. Mr. Secretary Clayton tells him, "We cannot execute the laws of the United States in South Carolina." Why not? Because the people of South Carolina will not allow it!

Are the laws of Massachusetts kept in Boston, then? The usury law says, "Thou shalt not take more than six per cent, on thy money." Is that kept? There are thirty-four millions of banking capital in Massachusetts, and I think that every dollar of this capital has broken this law within the past twelve months; and yet no complaint has been made. There are three or four hundred brothels in this city of Boston, and ten or twelve hundred shops for the sale of rum. All of them are illegal; some are as well known to the police as is this house; indeed, a great deal more frequented, by some of them, than any house of God. Does anybody disturb them? No! I have A letter from an alderman who furnishes me with facts of this nature, who says, that "Some of the low places are prosecuted, some broken up." Last Saturday night, the very men who guarded Mr. Sims, I am told, waft playing, cards in his prison-house, contrary to the laws of Massachusetts. In Court Square, in front of the Court House, is a rum shop, one of the most frequented in the city, open at all hours of the. day, and, for aught I know, of the night too. I never passed when its "fire was quenched," and its "worm" dead. Is its owner prosecuted? How many laws of Massachusetts have been