Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Sermons Prayers volume 2.djvu/95

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LOVE AND THE AFFECTIONS.
79

love shall take their place. Hitherto Jesus is an exceptional man, the man of love j Caesars and Alexanders are instantial men, men of force and fight. One day this will be inverted, these conquerors swept off and banished, the philanthropists become common, the kingdom of hate forgot in the commonwealth of love. Here is work for you and me to do; for our affectional piety, assuming its domestic, social, national, universal form, will bless us with its delight, and then go forth to bless mankind; and long after you and I shall have gone home to the God we trust, our affectional piety shall be a sentiment living in the hearts of men;—yes, a power in the world to bless mankind for ever and ever.

"Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
"When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.
And they a blissful course may hold
Even now, who, not unwisely bold,
Live in the spirit of this creed,
Yet find that other strength, according to their need,"



V.

OF CONSCIOUS RELIGION AND THE SOUL.

WORSHIP THE LORD IN THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. Ps. xxix. 2.

The mind converses with things indirectly, by means of the senses; with ideas directly, independent of the senses, by spiritual intuition, whereto the senses furnish only the occasion, not the power, of knowledge ; so the mind arrives at truth, in various forms or modes, rests contented therein, and has joy in the love thereof. Conscience is busied with rules of right, by direct intuition learns the moral law of the universe as it is writ in human nature,—outward experience furnishing only the occasion, not the power, of knowing right,—arrives at justice, rests contented therein, and has its joy in the love thereof. The affections deal