Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
Now there is one sect which has done great service in former days, which
is, I think, still doing something to enlighten and liberalize the land,
and, I trust, will yet do more, more even than it consciously intends.
The name of Unitarian is deservedly dear to many of us, who yet will not
be shackled by any denominational fetters. This sect has always been
remarkable for a certain gentlemanly reserve about all that pertained to
the inward part of religion; other faults it might have, but it did not
incur the reproach of excessive enthusiasm, or a spirituality too
sublimated and transcendental for daily use. This sect has long been a
speckled bird among the denominations, each of which has pecked at her,
or at least cawed with most unmelodious croak against this new-fledged
sect. It was said the Unitarians had "denied the Lord that bought them;"
that theirs was the church of unbelief--not the church of Christ, but of
No-Christ; that they had a Bible of their own, and a thin, poor Bible,
too; that their ways were ways of destruction; "Touch not, taste not,
handle not," was to be written on their doctrines; that they had not
even the grace of lukewarmness, but were moral and stone-cold; that
they looked fair on the side turned towards man, but on the Godward side
it was a blank wall with no gate, nor window, nor loop-hole, nor eyelet
for the Holy Ghost to come through; that their prayers were only a show
of devotion to cover up the hard rock of the flinty heart, or the frozen
ground of morality. Their faith, it was said, was only a conviction
after the case was proven by unimpeachable evidence, and good for
nothing; while belief without evidence, or against proof, seems to be
the right ecclesiastical talisman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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