Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Sermons Prayers volume 2.djvu/17

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I.

OF PIETY, AND THE RELATION THEREOF TO MANLY LIFE.

THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD WITH ALL THY HEART, AND WITH ALL THY SOUL, AND WITH ALL THY MIND.— Matt. xxii. 37.

There are two things requisite for complete and perfect religion,—the love of God and the love of man ; one I will call Piety, the other Goodness. In their natural development they are not so sharply separated as this language would seem to imply; for piety and goodness run into one another, so that you cannot tell where one begins and the other ends. But I will distinguish the two by their centre, where they are most unlike ; not by their circumference, where they meet and mingle.

The part of man which is not body I will call the Spirit; under that term including all the faculties not sensual. Let me, for convenience' sake, distribute these faculties of the human spirit into four classes: the intellectual,—including the aesthetic,—moral, affectional, and religious. Let Mind be the name of the intellectual faculty, — including the threefold mental powers, reason, imagination, and understanding; Conscience shall be the short name for the moral, Heart for the affectional, and Soul for the religious faculties.

I shall take it for granted that the great work of mankind on earth is to live a manly life, to use, discipline, develope, and enjoy every limb of the body, every faculty of the spirit, each in its just proportion, all in their proper place, duly coordinating what is merely personal, and for the

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