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
They value the Greek and Hebrew mind for no more than it is worth. With
them a wrong is no more respected because well descended, and supported
by all the riches, all the votes; a right, not less a right because
unjustly kept out of its own. These men are American all through; so
intensely national, that they do not fear to tell the nation of the
wrong it does.
The form of this literature is American. It is indigenous to our soil,
and could come up in no other land. It is unlike the classic literature
of any other nation. It is American as the Bible is Hebrew, and the
Odyssey is Greek. It is wild and fantastic, like all fresh original
literature at first. You see in it the image of republican
institutions--the free school, free state, free church; it reflects the
countenance of free men. So the letters of old France, of modern
England, of Italy and Spain reflect the monarchic, oligarchic, and
ecclesiastic institutions of those lands. Here appears the civilization
of the nineteenth century, the treasures of human toil for many a
thousand years. More than that, you see the result of a fresh contact
with nature, and original intuitions of divine things. Acknowledging
inspiration of old, these writers of the newness believe in it now not
less, not miraculous, but normal. Here is humanity that overleaps the
bounds of class and of nation, and sees a brother in the beggar, pirate,
slave, one family of men variously dressed in cuticles of white or
yellow, black or red. Here, too, is a new loveliness, somewhat akin to
the savage beauty of our own wild woods, seen in their glorious splendor
an hour before autumnal suns go down and leave a trail of glory
lingering in the sky. Here, too, is a piety somewhat heedless of
scriptures, liturgies, and forms, and creeds; it finds its law written
in nature, its glorious everlasting Gospel in the soul of man; careless
of circumcision and baptismal rites, it finds the world a temple, and
rejoices everywhere to hold communion with the Infinite Father of us
all, and keep a sacrament in daily life, conscious of immortality, and
feeding continually on angel's bread.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account