Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-07-07
SPEECH OF WENDELL PHILLIPS

memoration Of the death of Theodore Parker.
@sThelesson Of this desk is Truth That your
brave teacher dared to speak, and no more. 1t is
only two er three times ia our lives that we pause
IN telling the whole merit Of a friend, from fear Of
beiog thoeght caterers. What the world thinks
easily done, it believes; all beyond is put down to
Hctioe, Z end myself hesitating to speak just all
I ttiut Of THEODORE PARSER, lest those who did
not know him should suppose | hatter, and thus
I mar the massive simplicity of his fame.
Born on the 9th Of August, 1910, he died just
before finishing his 6ftieth year. lie said to me,
years ago, When | am fifty, l will leave the pull
pit, and finish the great works l have planned.
God ordered it sol lie has left the desk, and
gone there to finish the great works that he plan
nedl Some speak of his death as carly; but he
Died in good old age, if we Judge him by bis
work-full Of labors, il not Of years-a long life
crowded into few years; as Bacon says, old in
hours, for he lost no time Traly, he lost not
an hour, from the early years when, in his sweet,
plain phrase, be tells us his father let tho baby
pick up chips, drive the cows to pasture, and
carry nu6s of corn to the oxen'--far on to the clo-
sing moment when, faint and dying, he sent us
his blessing and brave counsel last NoVember, do.
ted RtlS frem ROME. God granted him life long
enough to see Of the labor Of his hands. lie plan
ted broadly and lived to gather a rich, ripe har-
vest. His life 800, was an harmonious whole
-"when brought
Among the tasks of real life, he wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought"
The very last page those busy fingers ever
wrtte tells the child's story, than which, he says,
no even. in my life has made so deep and last
ing an impression on me- "A little boy in petit
coats, in my fourth year, my father sent me from
the field home A spotted tortoise, in shallow
water, at the foot of a rhodora, caught his sight,
and he lifted his stick to strike it, when a voice
within said, 1T is wrong l stood with lifted
stick, in wonder at the new emotion, till rhodora
and tortoise vanished from my sight. 1 FASTENED
home, and asked my mother what it was that told
me it was wrong, Wiping a tear with her apron,
and taking me in her arms, she said, Some men
cell it conscience; but l prefer 80 call IL the voice
Of God in the soul Of man. If you listen to it and
obey it, then it will speak clearer and clearer, and
always guide you right. But if you turn q deaf
ear or disobey, then it will fade out little by little,
and leave you in the dark and without a guide
Out Of that fearful mothers inns grew your
pulpit. Here in words--every day in the streets,
BY deeds, during a hard life, he repeated and
obeyed her eounsekffa ~ -a5o tt
OF that pulpit, its the5iogy and its treatment by
Unitarian divines, manly and Christian lips spoke
to US two weeks ago. 1t is not for me,even if there
there were need TO touch on it. Born 10 that faith,
and nurtured in similar maxims Of the utmost
liberty and duty Of ndividua Investigation aud
thought used it to enter Other paths. Mine is the
old faith Of New England. On those points he and
rarely talked. What he thought hardly know.
For myself, standing beneath the Gospel rule Of
Studying meI by their fruits l should have felt
stronger in defending my own faith, could l have
pointed to any preacher II it who rs greatly iudg-
ed and as truly loved his fellow men. AS to DOC
trines, we both knew that tile whole Of truth can
never do harm to the whole of virtue that, Of
course, a mans conception of truth is only his
opinion, and not, necessarily, absolute truth. But
it is always safe and wise for honest and earnest
men to seek for truth everywhere at all hazards.
The results, il not wholly and only good, are yet
the best things within our reach.
The lesson of Theodore Parker's preaching was
love. Let me read for you a sonnet still among
his papers.
Oh Brother who for US didst meekly wear
The Crown Of Thorns about thy radiant brow;
What Gospel from the Father didst thou bear,
Our hearts to cheer, making us happy now
IT'S this alone, the immortal Savior cries,
10 Ill u nAAb wa RNAfN ~
Love for the wicked as in sin be lies,
Love for thy Brother here, thy God above;
Fear nothing liz, twill finish 10 its day,
Live for the Good. taking the i'll thou must;
Toll with thy might, with manly labor pray,
Living and loving learn thy God to trust,
And He will shed upon thy soul the blessings OIL
the just.
Standing in these old ways, ! cannot but sus.
w - n tba ITnifnvian pulnita of emma latnnt and nnu.
ardly distrusts Of their own creed, when l see that
if one comes from them to our Orthodox ranks,
and believes a great deal moro thar they do, he is
treated with reverend respect; but let him go out
on the other side, and believe a very little less,
and the whole startled body join in begging the
world not to think them naturally the parents Of
such horrible and dangerous heresyl
But there is one thing every man may say Of
this pulpit. 1t was a live reality and no sham
Whether tearing theological idols to pieces al
West Roxbury, or here, battling with the every
day evils of the streets, it was ever a live voice,
and no mechanical or parrot tune; ever fresh from
the heart of God, as these flowers, these lilies-the
last flower over which, when e~yesight failed him,
with his old gesture, he passed his loving hand
and said, How sweeti' Like that story he loved
30 much TO tell, Of Michael Angelo, when in the
Roman palace Raphael was drawing bis figures
TOO small, Angelo sketehed a colossal head of fiji
proportions, and taught Raphael his fault. So
Parker criticized these other pulpits, not so much
by oensure as by creation; by a pulpit proportions
ed TO the hour--broad as humanity, frank as truth,
stern as justice, and loving as Christ.
Here is the place to judge him. In St. PauPs
cathedral, the epitaph says, if you would know
the genius of Christopher Wren, look around.
Do you ask proof how full were tho hands how
la-ge the heart. how many-sided the brain, Of your
teaoher-listen and you will hear it in the glad,