Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-07-10
Remarks of X ev. MIR. Conway, OF Cincin-.
natl, on Theodore Parker, at the West
ern Unitarian Conference nj Quincy, Ill.,

natl, on Theodore Parker, at the West-
ern Unitarian Conference MT Quincy, ILL.,.
Pardon me, Mr.. Chairman and friends, for
rising before you second time during this
evenings session. arose before at the call
of my brethren; / now arise to serve bur-
den resting on my own heart. My voice
warns me that can not say much; but 50
long as have any voice, trust that II will
not be found failing in homage to the gifted,
the true, the heroic.
Mr.. Chairman, ere this Conference ad-
journs, Iwould utter in II name. When,
| lust now, upon the question--What is needed
for the greater efficiency of our preaehing?-
| the able and eloquent pastor OF All Soulss
Church drew the graphic and true portrait of
| a true minister and prophet OF the soul, j
| thought one man at least | have known
worthy to be considered the living original
i Of that portrait. Sir, a remarkable spectacle
| has passed before the American Church,
| plain farmers son, " youth dividing his time
between his Horace and the bayfield,, earn
| ing by the sweat of his brow that scanty
purse whose contents were never lost, be-
cause, according to Franklins maxim, he
| emptied his purse into his head-this plain
boy grows up to be plain man. He has no
oratorical graces-is not flashy, nor suave,
nor Gibbs not handsome nor brilliant IN ap-
pearance or manner; but lo for fifteen years
he holds an average audience of four thou
sand persons spell-boun0-nay, his audience
is innumerable, his parish stretching from the |
ocean at his own door beyond the banks of |
your glorious river the father of waters. In |
each of our parishes he has been before us, |
and prepared channels for our truest testi- |
mony, our largest thought. Sir, how can we |
better consider the question of ministerial
efficiency than by piercing to the secret OF
such an influence, such power as this!
J | Mr. Chairman, do not remember Theodore
| Parker in this Conference for the purpose Of
justfying his theology. 1t is no time or place
for that; have my own pulpit in which to
I say what think about that. We all know
5 that his theology, however he may value it,
| was put forth truly from the vigorous life of
5 his own heart and brain. | recall an an
! ecdote of Burns, the poet, who one day walk
: ing the streets of Edinburg with fine
{ gentleman in broadcoth, turned from him
awhile to converse with countryman in
! smock frock, corduroy and hide boots.
/ When he returned to the fine gentleman, the
latter expressed surprise that he should stop
| in the street. to pay attention TO man IN
e | such a guise. why, you fantastic gomeril,
c cried Burns, "it was not to the smock frock
e and hide boots l was speaking, but to the
d man in them; and the man in them would
v outweigh you and and ten of us, any dayl"
2 So the theology of Theodore Parker, rough
d or smooth as it may be to you or me, was
J. nevertheless the honest garb of his great
N soul. am not speaking of that garb, but OF
e the man in it and | tell you it was right
e and true man there, such an one as we are
], rarely permitted in this world to honor.
N Sir, some of us have known that man and
lie they who found the way to his heart found
there an ineffable tenderness, found him at
once the manifest and womanliest of men.
A Many of us can appreciate that sacred last in
8 terview between him and that man whom
we all love to honorin this Conference-James
e. Freeman Clarke. AS they were parting,
IS Parker went up to him, placed his hands on
ID his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek,
Sc and said, "James, if you and | never meet
again in this world, We have the happiness
i'd Of knowing that there never has been between
us one word, or one feeling, or one action OF
of unkindness." In telling this, Mr.. Clarke
ID said, " In the Old World you will see men
a. who carry in their button-holes red ribbon,
&C the sign that they belong to the Legion Of
d. Honor. AS long as live, shall carry (not
u apparent to Others, but known to myself
nd the mark of that tender fraternal kiss on my
ed cheek. 1t is to me the sign of belonging to
ID the Legion of Honor" We need no sign that
a our friend belongs to the Legion of Honor
ed for he must ever belong TO the noble order
who can rise above the low prejudlres about
him, and with whatever differences, treat an
to honorable man honorably.
ill The first secret of Parkers power over tn,
Use people was his character. Sir, it is grea
ia. and significant thing when man lives fft,
es- years in one neighborhood during all tn
he latter part of that life hated by shrewd AM
ne, reckless politicians, hunted by keen-scente
nd orthodoxy in Church and State, howled at II
no. prayer-meetings, envied and prosecuted b.
es- his own fellow-C Christians who considers
ch themselves compromised in him, and yet +
in have encountered none so low that he coul
alta pick up from any soil stone to hurl at tn
ins rectitude of his character, the purity of hi
,ad life, the fidelity Of his heart.
on might name many other elements of hi
wonderful success: his strong genius, hi
magnificent toll, might all be heard as full {
CE. meaning for us who have closed in with tn
Ter, Western work. But only one thing NOR
hat can | mention. Theodore Parker entere
ifc into the heart of man, and the kingdom {
NY God, existing but unevoked therein, by tn
on good and safe old human door
Ger We are all ready to cast on the altar of Go
ide the fairest flowers which we can Guilt
lall preach our most imposing discourses to Civ
ter; our finest sentiments, our most attractiv
rk, rhetoric; but not always to give drop by dro
In our hearts blood to bring all the fruits
al comfort and repose to that altar, to be col
by sumed by fire from Heaven. remember Il
ng- legend of st, Arnulph. He had resolved
$50 withdraw himself from human society an
can rs cares, that he might devote himself
ith the service OF God, according to the monast
ideas of the age. But at night an angel stot
IN before him, bearing in his hands flowers. III
pre- flowers in the right hand were in appearan
'sed exactly like those in the left but from u
out latter exhaled fragrance as OF Paradlse, ,Whl
said those in the right hand were entirely seer
ives less. "What flowers are these, 0 spirit
item cried Arnulph, sand wherefore are these
is sweet, and those without fragrancep ~
ann spirit replied: "The flowers in my right hal
are the works of those who separate thel
selves from life for the service of God; t
kE- fragrant ones in my left are the works
unng those who having lived among men al
, IN helped them, Shall find that they also ha
NIT been surrendering themselves entirely
lays God"
hNr au Such flowers were those which Theodc
,ah, Parker offered up to God and their fragrar
ayss is on every wind that sweeps over the con
oi'' nent; and wherever from any life such incer
rises, that spot becomes the true the OF
,,ov true altar of the Most High.
ken But he has passed away. That great he
the is still; that voice, which was as the voice
lice Justice ITSELF is hushed; those lips, VIII
chm. were the portals of truth and loyalty,
All cold; and we who loved him, OIL with 81
coin | q love, must now turn toward the past O
ON receding into memory, choose her m
n its sacred chamber, there to build shrine, Q
set hero's form, where we may go in
NJ day when fidelity is hard, and self is stro
The 10 renew our vows, and regather the cour
suc- | which never falters ON the path of unsull