Produced by Julia Miller, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) SPEECHES, ADDRESSES, AND OCCASIONAL SERMONS, BY THEODORE PARKER, MINISTER OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN BOSTON. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. BOSTON: HORACE B. FULLER, (SUCCESSOR TO WALKER, FULLER, AND COMPANY,) 245, WASHINGTON STREET. 1867. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by THEODORE PARKER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. TO FRANCIS JACKSON, THE FOE 'GAINST EVERY FORM OF WRONG, THE FRIEND OF JUSTICE, WHOSE WIDE HUMANITY CONTENDS FOR WOMAN'S NATURAL AND UNALIENABLE RIGHT; AGAINST HIS NATION'S CRUELTY PROTECTS THE SLAVE; IN THE CRIMINAL BEHOLDS A BROTHER TO BE REFORMED; GOES TO MEN FALLEN AMONG THIEVES,-- WHOM PRIESTS AND LEVITES SACRAMENTALLY PASS BY,-- AND SEEKS TO SOOTHE AND HEAL AND BLESS THEM THAT ARE READY TO PERISH: WITH ADMIRATION FOR HIS UNSURPASSED INTEGRITY, HIS COURAGE WHICH NOTHING SCARES, AND HIS TRUE RELIGION THAT WOULD BRING PEACE ON EARTH AND GOOD-WILL TO MAN, THESE VOLUMES ARE THANKFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS MINISTER AND FRIEND, THEODORE PARKER. PREFACE. I have collected in these volumes several Speeches, Addresses and occasional Sermons, which I have delivered at various times during the last seven years. Most of them were prepared for some special emergency: only two papers, that on "The Relation of Jesus to his Age and the Ages," and that on "Immortal Life," were written without reference to some such emergency. All of them have been printed before, excepting the sermon "Of General Taylor," and the address on "The American Scholar;" some have been several times reprinted. I do not know that they are worthy of republication in this permanent form, but the leading ideas of these volumes are very dear to me, and are sure to live as long as the human race shall continue. So I have published a small edition, hoping that the truths which I know are contained in these pages will do a service long after the writer, and the occasion of their utterance, have passed off and been forgot. I offer them to whom they may concern. THEODORE PARKER. AUGUST 24, 1851. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. I. THE RELATION OF JESUS TO HIS AGE AND THE AGES.--A Sermon preached at the Thursday Lecture, in Boston, December 26, 1844 PAGE 1 II. THE TRUE IDEA OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH.--A Discourse at the Installation of Theodore Parker as Minister of the Twenty-Eighth Congregational Church in Boston, on Sunday, January 4, 1846 23 III. A SERMON OF WAR.--Preached at the Melodeon, on Sunday, June 7, 1846 63 IV.