Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
Another decree was once made as it is said, in the Old Testament, that
no man should ask any petition of any God for thirty days, save of the
king, on penalty of being cast into the den of lions. Suppose Daniel--I
mean the old Daniel, the prophet--should have asked him, What is to be
done? Should he pray to Darius or pray to God? "Obey both!" would be the
answer. But he cannot, for he is forbid to pray to God. We know what
Daniel did do.
The elders and scribes of Jerusalem commanded the Christians not to
speak or to teach at all in the name of Jesus; but Peter and John asked
those functionaries, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken
unto you more than unto God, judge ye." Our judge must have said, There
is no "incompatibility;" "obey both!" What "a comfortable Scripture"
this would have been to poor John Bunyan! What a great ethical doctrine
to St. Paul! He did not know such Christianity as that. Before this time
a certain man had said, "No man can serve two masters." But there was
one person who made the attempt, and he also is eminent in history. Here
was "the will of God," to do to others as you would have others do to
you: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Here is the record of "the law of
man:" "Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a
commandment, that, if any man knew where he [Jesus] were, he should show
it that they might take him." Judas, it seems, determined to "obey
both,"--"the law of man" and "the will of God."--So he sat with Jesus at
the Last Supper, dipped his hand in the same dish, and took a morsel
from the hand of Christ, given him in token of love. All this he did to
obey "the will of God." Then he went and informed the Commissioner or
Marshal where Jesus was. This he did to obey "the law of man." Then he
came back, and found Christ,--the agony all over, the bloody sweat wiped
off from his brow, presently to bleed again,--the Angel of Strength
there with him to comfort him. He was arousing his sleeping disciples
for the last time, and was telling them, "Pray, lest ye enter into
temptation."--Judas came and gave him a kiss. To the eleven it seemed
the friendly kiss, obeying "the will of God." To the Marshal it also
seemed a friendly kiss,--obeying "the law of man." So, in the same act,
he obeys "the law of God" and "the will of man," and there is no
"incompatibility!"
Of old it was said, "Thou canst not serve God and mammon." He that said
it, has been thought to know something of morals,--something of
religion.
Till the fugitive slave law was passed, we did not know what a great
saint Iscariot was. I think there ought to be a chapel for him, and a
day set apart in the calendar. Let him have his chapel in the navy-yard
at Washington. He has got a priest there already. And for a day in the
calendar--set apart for all time the seventh of March!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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