Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-06-30
FAREWELL WORDS OF THEODORE PAR
KER.

Now that the brave, manly, humane, upright
THEODORE PARKER has seen the last of earth and
assembled to a higher and a nobler sphere Of exis-
tence, the following concluding passages full OF
thrilling pathos and deep serenity from his Ex-
perience as a Minister contained in a Letter from
him to his Society, will DO read at this time with
special interest -
To compose sermons, and preach them 10 multi
tudes of men of one sort but many conditions,
thereto setting forth the great Truths Of Absolute
Religion, and applying them to the various events
Of this wondrous human life, trying to make the
Constitution of the Universe the common law of
men, illustrating my thought with all that | can
gather from the World of Matter, its use and
beauty both, and from the World of Man, from
human labOrs, SORROWS, joys and everlasting
hupes,-this has been my great delight. Your
pulpit has been my Joy and my throne. Though
Press and State, Market and Westinghouse, have
been hostile to US, YOU have yet given me the lar
gest Protestant audience in America, save that
which Orthodox Mr.. Beecher, who breaks with
no theological tradition of the New England
Church, inspires with his deep emotional nature,
so devout and So humane, and charms with his
poetic eloquence, that is akin ID both the sweet
briar and the rose, and all the Beauty which
springs up wild amid New England hills, and to
the loneliness of common life; | have given you
my sermons in return, at once my labor and de-
light. My Life is in them and all my character,
it's good and i'll thereby you know me better than
|; perhaps, myself--for a mans words and his face
Wien oxcited in sermon and in prayer tell all he
is, the reflection of what he has dono. Sermons
Dire never out of my mind; and when sickness
brings on me the consciousness that / have nought
to do, it5 Most painful part, still, by long habit all
things will take :his form, and the gorgeous vege-
tatiOn of the Tropics, their fiery skies SO brilliant
all the day, and star'lit too with such exceeding
beauty all the night; the g~littering fishes in the
market, as many colOred as q gardeners show,
these Josephs Of The sea; the silent pclicans, flying
forth at morning and back again at night; the
strange, fantastic trees, the dry pods rafting their
historical bones all day, while the new bloom
comes fragrant out beside, a noiseless prophecy;
the ducks rejoicing in the lOng-expected rain; a
negro on an ambling pad; the acknowledged, half
naked negro children in the street, playing their
languid games, or oftener screaming meath their
mothers blows, amid black swine. hens and I'M
counted dogs; the never-ceasing clack of women's
tongues, more shrewd than female in their shrill
violence; the unceasing, multifarious kindness of
our hostess; and, Overtowering all, the ~self-sufi
cient, West India Creole pride, alike contemptu-
Gus of toll, and ignorant and impotent of thought
all these common things turn into poetry as l
look on or am compelled to hear, and then trans
figure into sermons, which como also spontaneous
ly By night, and give themselves to me, and even
in my sleep say they are meant for you. Shall
they ever be more than the walking Of
"A sick man in his sleep,
Three PAGES, and then falteringr
The doctors cannot tell; l also know not, bot hope
and strive to live a little longer, that | may work
much more. Oh, that the truths of absolute rsli.
gion, which Human Nature demands, and offers,
too, from the Infinitely Perfect God who dwells
therein, while He transcends the Universe, Oh,
that these were an Idea enlightening all mons
minds, a Feeling in their hearts, and Action in
their outward lifel Or, that Americas two and
thirty thousand ministers, Hebrew, Christian,
Mormon, knew these truths, and to mankind
preached Piety and Morality, and that Theology
which is the Science OF God and his two-fold
Universe, and forgot their Hydrologic and mis-.
guiding dreams Then what a new world were
ours Sure I would gladly live to work for this.