194 APPENDIX. 



Another trait of his preaching is, that it is as little sacerdotal as 

 l)ossible. He boldly claims the practice of the universal priest- 

 hood in the sanctuary of the family. He declares that the father 

 and the mother must exercise the domestic priesthood, and that 

 the great woe of the Church of our da}' is, that the people of God 

 have abdicated this august charge. 



We cite the following fragment from his last winter's confer- 

 ence against Pharisaism. 



"Pharisaism, then, in its deepest aspect, is religious blind- 

 ness: — the blindness of priests who are put in trust with the let- 

 ter, and who think that the less they explain it, the safer they 

 keep it; a blindness which relates to every point of the sacred de- 

 posit ; blindness in dogma— the predominance of formula over 

 truth; blindness in morals — the predominance of outward works 

 over inward righteousness; blindness in worsjiip — the predomi- 

 nance of outward rites over religious feeling. 



" Blindness in dogma. The Pharisees taught the truth. 'The 

 Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat,' said Christ; 'believe 

 what they say, but do not what they do.' There is no revealed 

 idea brought to light and quickening the world, but that there is 

 a word to hold it. Lucerna verbum tnnm. Domine. The Lord's 

 light is in a lamp. But if the word closes itself together, and 

 shuts up the idea as in a narrow and jealous prison, — if it darkens 

 it, stifles it, — that is Pharisaism. This is what the apostle Paul 

 called keeping the truth — but keeping it i^risoner in unrighteous- 

 ness. This is the thing Avhich extorted from the gentle lips of 

 the Saviour Jesus that terrible anathema, Yd' tohis ! ' Ye have 

 taken away the key of knowledge ; ye enter not in yourselves, 

 and them that are entering in, ye hinder. AVoe unto you !' 



" In morals, it is outward works — the multiplicity of human 

 practices, piled up, a miserable and tyrannical burden on the 

 conscience, making it forget, in unwholesome dreams, that it is an 

 honest man's, a Christian's conscience. Tlie Pharisees said to 

 Jesus Christ, ' Why do not thy disciples wash tlu'ir hands before 

 eating, according to the tradition of tiic Elders V And the Sa- 

 viour answered them, ' Why do ye trample under foot the com- 

 mandments of God, to keep the commandments of men?' 



" But tliere remains no more religious feeling, when the heart 

 is bendinLT under tlie weight of outward observances. ' Ah,' said 



