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!

"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 reconciliation 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 government, 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 constant 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

THE

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 arcse 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.

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66

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

improve this opportunity than by looking a little into the condition of the people? and accordingly I invite your attention to a sermon on the state of this nation. I shall try to speak of the condition of the nation itself, then of the causes of that condition, and in the third place of the dangers that threaten or are alleged to threaten the nation.

Here

First, of our condition. Look about you in Boston. are a hundred and forty thousand souls living in peace and in comparative prosperity. I think, without doing injustice to the other side of the water, there is no city in the Old World of this population with so much intelligence, activity, morality, order, comfort, and general welfare, and at the same time with so little of the opposite of all these. I know the faults of Boston and I think I would not disguise them; the poverty, unnatural poverty, which shivers in the cellar; the unnatural wealth which bloats in the parlor; the sin which is hid in the corners of the jail; and the more dangerous sin which sets up Christianity for a pretence; the sophistry which lightens in the newspapers and thunders in the pulpit:-I know all these things and do not pretend to disguise them; and still I think no city of the Old World of the same population has so much which good men prize and so little which good men deplore.

See the increase of material wealth, the buildings for trade and for homes, the shops and ships. This year Boston will add to her possessions some ten or twenty millions of dollars honestly and earnestly got. Observe the neatness of the streets, the industry of the inhabitants, their activity of mind, the orderliness of the people, the signs of comfort. Then consider the charities of Boston, those limited to our own border and those which extend farther, those beautiful charities which encompass the earth with their sweet influence.