Excerpt from The Collected Works of Theodore Parker, Vol. 9: Minister of the Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society at Boston, U. S., Containing His Theological, Polemical, and Critical Writings, Sermons, Speeches, and Addresses, and Literary Miscellanies; Critical Writings

This was a true man 5 such as had never been seen be fore. None such has risen since his time. He was so true, that he could tolerate nothing false 5 SO pure and holy, that he, and perhaps he alone Of all men, was justified in calling others by their proper name 5 even when that pro per name was Blind Guide, fool, Hypocrite, Child Of the Devil. He found men forgetful of God. They seemed to fancy He was dead. They lived as if there had once been a God, who had grown Old and deceased. They were mis taken also as to the nature Of Man. They saw he had a body 5 they forgot he is a Soul, and has a Soul's Rights, and a Soul's Duties. Accordingly they believed there had been Revelations, in the days of their fathers, when God was alive and active. They knew not there were Revela tions every day to faithful Souls 5 - Revelations just as real, just as direct, just as true, just as sublime, just as valuable, as those of Old tfle 5 for the Holy Spirit has not yet been exhausted, nor the River Of God's inspiration been drunk dry by a few Old Hebrews, great and divine souls though they were.

He found men clinging to tradition, as orphan girls cling to the robe Of their mother dead and buried, hoping to find life in what had once covered the living. Thus men stood with their faces nailed to the past 5 their eyes fastened to the ground. They dreamed not the sun rose each morn ing fresh and anew. SO their teachers looked only at the West, seeking the light amid dark and thundering clouds, and mocking at such as, turning their faces to the East, expounded the signs Of new morning, and wished for the day.

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