Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 8.djvu/5



A DISCOURSE OF THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT IN CHRISTIANITY.—PREACHED AT THE ORDINATION OF MR. CHARLES C. SHACKFORD, IN THE HAWES PLACE CHURCH, IN BOSTON, MAY 19, 1841.

“Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.”— xii. 83.

this sentence we have a very clear indication that Jesus of Nazareth believed the religion he taught would be eternal, that the substance of it would last for ever. Yet there are some who are affrighted by the faintest rustle which a heretic makes among the dry leaves of theology; they tremble lest Christianity itself should perish without hope. Ever and anon the cry is raised, “The Philistines be upon us, and Christianity is in danger.” The least doubt respecting the popular theology, or the existing machinery of the church; the least sign of distrust in the religion of the pulpit, or the religion of the street, is by some good men supposed to be at enmity with faith in Christ, and capable of shaking Christianity itself. On the other hand, a few bad men, and a few pious men, it is said, on both sides of the water, tell us the day of Christianity is past. The latter—it is alleged—would persuade us that, hereafter, Piety must take a new form; the teachings of Jesus are to be passed by; that Religion is to wing her way sublime, above the flight of Christianity, far away, toward heaven, as the fledged eaglet leaves of ever the nest which sheltered his callow youth. Let us, therefore, devote a few moments to this subject, and consider what is transient in Christianity, and what is permanent therein. The topic