been assailed in Switzerland, as all the world knows; but all the world knows also that the wounds and defeats of religion are never incurable or irreparable, and that at bottom her business is to be wounded, persecuted, and oppressed. She suffers, but only for a time. She is soon healed and raised up-and out of these trials issues continually more radiant and stronger than ever. But do you know what it is which does not recover so easily, and which cannot with impunity be exposed to such attacks? It is order, peace, and, above all, freedom. This is the cause which I come to plead before you.

Let no one say, as certain generous but blind spirits have said, that radicalism is the exaggeration of liber alism; no, it is its antipodes, its extreme opposite. Radicalism is nothing more than an exaggeration of despotism; and never had despotism taken a more odious form. Liberty is reasonable and voluntary toleration; radicalism is the absolute intolerance, which is arrested only by the impossible. Liberty imposes unusual sacrifices on none; radi. calism cannot put up with a thought, a word, even a prayer, contrary to its will. Liberty consecrates the right of minorities; radicalism absorbs and annihilates them. To say

everything in one word, liberty is respect for mankind, while radicalism is scorn of mankind pushed to its highest degree. No; never Muscovite despot, never Eastern tyrant, has despised his fellows as they are despised by those radical clubbists, who gag their vanquished adver saries in the name of liberty and equality!

No man can have more right than I have to proclaim this distinction, for I defy any man to love liberty more than I have done. And here it must be said, I do not accept, either as a reproach or as praise, the opinion ex

pressed of me by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, that I was exclusively devoted to religious liberty. No, no, gentlemen; that to which I am devoted is liberty itself, the liberty of all and in everything. This I have always defended, always proclaimed; I who have written so much, spoken so much too much, I acknowledge-I defy any man to find a single word fallen from my pen or from my lips which has not been devoted to the cause of freedom. Freedom: ah! I can speak without seeking fine expressions. She has been the idol of my soul; if I have anything to reproach myself with, it is that I have loved her too much, that I have loved her as one loves when one is young, without measure, without limit. But I neither reproach myself for this, nor do I regret it; I will continue to serve Freedom, to love her always, to believe in her always; and I can never love her more nor serve her better than when I force myself to pluck off the mask worn by her enemies, who wear her colors and who seize her flag in order to soil and dishonor it!

I

"DEO ET CÆSARI FIDELIS"

FROM A SPEECH IN 1849 TO THE BRETON ELECTORS AT SAINT-BRIEUC

HAVE labored for nearly twenty years to make a rec

onciliation between religion and liberty, which had

been separated by a fatal misunderstanding. Now that this is happily and irrevocably consummated, I desire to dedicate myself to another reconciliation, to another union-to the union of men of honor and feeling (hommes de

cœur et d'honneur), of all opinions in that one great honest moderate party which is the strength and safety of France. In all the ancient parties there are men capable of understanding each other, of appreciating each other, and of fighting side by side against the common enemy. We must regulate and discipline this union, of which the recent election in the Côtes-du-Nord has been the expression, and the present government the result. The gov ernment, in harmony with the majority of the National Assembly, has constantly defended, and continues daily to defend, three great and holy things, viz., religion, property, and family rights. We are told that these are commonplaces. Do not believe it, gentlemen. They are only commonplaces when the foundations of social order cease to be threatened or undermined by minorities which are sometimes audacious and sometimes hypocritical.

The government which we have supported has rendered signal service to all three. To religion, by replacing the Sovereign Pontiff upon his throne, and by disengaging the French Republic from all connection with a republic of assassins. To property, by maintaining all acquired rights; by confirming the permanency of the magistracy, the guardian of laws and contracts; and by repealing all subversive innovations. And, finally, to the family, by that law on education which you will par don my reference to, because it is the object of my con stant solicitude, and because it is at present exposed to the injurious criticism of the discontented and exaggerated of all parties. I am neither its author nor its responsible promulgator, but I defend it because it offers the basis of an excellent compromise, of an honorable

peace for all. I have fought long, and more than any other, for this great cause; but I fought only with the hope of arriving at a worthy and fruitful peace, in which the right alone should have the victory, and in which no man should be humiliated.

PARKER

T

HEODORE PARKER, a noted American preacher, was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, August 24, 1810, and educated at Harvard University and the Cambridge Divinity School. He was ordained pastor of the Second Unitarian Church in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1837, but his extremely radical views excited great opposition in his own denomination, and, separating himself from the conservative element, he soon rose into prominence as a radical religious leader. In 1844 a controversy arose among the Unitarians because some of the pastors in Boston had exchanged pulpits with Parker; this finally resulted in his leaving West Roxbury and forming, in 1846, the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society, which held its services in Music Hall for many years. Parker was very outspoken in his opposition to the Mexican War, slavery, and intemperance, as well as a staunch champion of the rights of labor. He was indicted in the United States court in 1854 for resistance to the fugitive slave law, but was never brought to trial. On account of failing health he went to Europe in 1860. His death occurred at Florence, Italy, May 10, 1860. Parker was for years a prominent factor in American thought, in matters both social and religious. In theological questions he shocked many by his spoken disregard for things held by them in veneration, and he often aroused opposition by his manner of statement rather than by the thing stated. He was a very voluminous writer, but the ethical value of his work is superior to its literary worth. Among his works are included "Discourse on Matters Pertaining to Religion" (1842); Sermons for the Times (1842); "Critical and Miscellaneous Writings" (1843); "Theism, Atheism, and the Popular Theology " (1853); "Ten Sermons on Religion (1852); "Prayers," "Historic Americans,' "West Roxbury Sermons " (1892). His complete works in twelve volumes have been edited by F. P. Cobbe.

SERMON: THE STATE OF THE NATION

DELIVERED IN BOSTON, NOVEMBER 28, 1850

"Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."Prov. xiv, 34.

WR

E come together to-day by the governor's proclamation, to give thanks to God for our welfare, not merely for our happiness as individuals or as families, but for our welfare as a people. How can we better