The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1860-07-20

lhe CHURCH oo"lhS 10 the people on DOth
sides of the aisle, as they all sat in silence
until the clergymen and their families had
gone out.
Theodore Parker...A Just Utterance.
The efforts of Wendell Phillips and some
others to make a god of Theodore Parker is
thus spiritedly and truthfully spoken of in
the Springfield Repulicm:
1t is not in good taste on the part of the
special friends of the late Theodore Parker
to undertake to write his name highest upon
the roll of saint, much less to endeavor to
apotheosze him-to make God and Savior
of him. Such course will only tend to
provoke those, who, with admiration for the
genius Of the dead, and general faith in his
good intentions, have, in hearty charity, been
generous to his memory. No man has fall
en- within the century whose memory has
been treated more respectfully and generous
ly by his lifelong enemies and opponents
than that Of Theodore Parker. We say that
his memory has been treated generously, for
his differences with his generation were radi-
cal, his antagonisms the most direct and his
conferences often acrimonious. He was d
man who, in a struggle, gave no quarter
The Christian world generally regarded him
as the most dangerous of errorists, and he
regarded the Christian world generally with
contempt which he took no pains to disguise:
yet this same world has been more than man
ly-it has been Christianly-in its treatment
of his name and labors since he went to
sleep. We have never read commentaries
on a freshly closed life which seemed more
candid, more studiously just where praise
was impossible, or more generous where
praise was allowable, than those that have
appeared in the religious papers opposed to
him.
Especially is it not in good taste for Mr..
Wendell Phillips to put himself forward as
chief mourner and principal eulogist on this
occasion. The Christian people of this coun-
try have many unpleasant memories of what
Mr.. Phillips has said about other great men
dead-quite as great as Theodore Parker
quite as learned and quite as good No,
sr,,h Tho oor1,- Ioe,o.o,,o, sc 81
graves of Webster and Choate, he loses no
occasion to pick their bones. When man
like Wendell Phillips, who has said more bit
ter things of men living and dead than any
cotemporary orator. and said them with q
keener enjoyment, rises to endorse the yir-
tues of Theodore Parker, and to pass him
over to posterity as a model Christian, i,
would not be wonderful if the Christian
world should turn up its nose impatiently
and exclaim something too much of this.
God help the man who exactly fills the idea
Of Wendell Phlllips God pity the memory
that finds in him unqualified and unlimited
approval The saddest commentary on the
departed reformer tina: We have seen is the
! fact that foul birds that feast themselves and
batten upon the names of the great, and
haunt with restless wings the graves which
the world honors,fold their pinions over him
and 20 to roost upon his tobmstone.
As we have said our say about Theodore
Parker,-as We have treated him generously
as everybody has treated him generously
and as Mr.. Wendell Phillips is inclined to
go beyond the rest of US, it may not be inap
propriate for US to criticize the man little
We will grant that the world is freer in it,
thought for his having lived. We will gran
that he did good in that direction. He was
too, an iconoclast-an agebreaker-ant
he did good in that direction. He puncturet
good many bubbles, knocked good man!
idols from their pedestals, and did much t.
destroy the popular reverence for forms tina
had lost their significance. But he did NOR,
than that. AS was happily stated by one Of
our city pastors, he was like a backwoods
man on forest-covered farm. He cut dowl
everything, right and left-so that the gener
alton Immediately following him will be o
bliged to set out trees. We have no accusa
ton to make in form, but we say this yer,
freely that in the degree by which Theo
dore Parker reduced the faith of the worl,
in the Bible, as direct and authoritative re
velaton of God, was he curse to the world
We say further that whatever Theodore Par
ker may have done to depress in the populs
estimate the character of Jesus Christ, or t
dscredit him as a teacher direct from Coo
has been detrimental to the cause of Christ
anity in the world. We leave every man t
make up his own mind as to the precise typ
of his Christianity, and to decide for himse