His fate was
pathetic. Full of faith and hope, but broken prematurely by his
labours, he retired to Italy, and died there at the darkest period
in the history of the United States--when slavery in the state and
the older orthodoxy in the Church seemed absolutely and forever
triumphant. The death of Moses within sight of the promised land
seems the only parallel to the death of Parker less than six months
before the publication of _Essays and Reviews_ and the election of
Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, of the United States.[[367]]
But here it must be noted that Parker's effort was powerfully
aided by the conscientious utterances of some of his foremost
opponents. Nothing during the American struggle against the slave
system did more to wean religious and God-fearing men and women
from the old interpretation of Scripture than the use of it to
justify slavery. Typical among examples of this use were the
arguments of Hopkins, Bishop of Vermont, a man whose noble
character and beautiful culture gave him very wide influence in all
branches of the American Protestant Church.
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