A Lively Definition of the Terms.
RELIGION teaches our duty toward God, and our duty toward our neighbor. Our duty toward God is more especially religion. Our duty toward our neighbor comes more properly under the head of morality. Those who are very devout toward the Supreme Being are said to be pious, while those who are just and correct in their dealings with their fellows, are commonly spoken of as moral and good. Religion begins by making us acquainted with our Heavenly Father, as far as the human mind can grasp the subject, and by inspiring us with a desire to learn and do his will, and live continually in the pleasant sunshine of his approbation. This should be the first purpose of all religious instruction, to teach us to hold the approval of God as our greatest good; and his condemnation as the greatest calamity. There can be no higher motive to good conduct. There can be no stronger inducement to abandon the ways of vice and wrong. All our children should be taught that they live continually in the sight of God, and that he takes account of all their conduct; that when they do wrong, and men see it not and know it not, yet nothing escapes the All-seeing Eye; and when they do right, though men condemn, and scoff and rail, and even persecute and put to death, it is nothing; their reward is sure and a thousandfold. What can be more grand than the idea that we have a Heavenly Father who knows our hearts, and will reward us as we are, who will uphold us in the right, and abandon us in the wrong? All the great martyrs of the world have inculcated this idea, and gone willingly to the stake under its inspiration. And why not? The soldier dies for his country, under the eyes of his favorite officer, exulting in the thought that he died doing his duty, and sure of approval. And when we reflect that that great officer is our Maker, whose eye nothing escapes, how much more exultant must we become. Great acts must have great motives. You cannot hire a man to do a deed of blood for a sixpence. Neither can any earthly consideration induce a man to face death which takes the reward all away from him. All heroism which goes to the stake, to the fire, and the torture, must have a motive higher or greater than the loss to be sustained or the pain to be endured. To the man who knows no higher motive than the beggarly elements of this world, the largest prize in the balance must always draw the scale. His whole life is a comparison of earthly, finite motives. He cannot rise into the sublime, because the spring cannot bubble up higher than the fountain. Life, property, enjoyment, are his greatest good. There is nothing to buy him away from them, because there is no price equal to them. But to him who believes in God, that his approbation is the greatest good, and his reward the greatest blessing, all things are possible. He disdains pleasure, and despises property. He scorns life itself, when it must be purchased by offending his Maker and disobeying his laws. To such a being, God is the greatest good, the all in all, the beloved father, whose word is law, whose command is destiny, whose mere desire is unshunnable fate. He walks in the sunshine, when he walks in God's ways. He grovels in darkness and fear, and trembling, and death, when the divine approbation is withdrawn. To obey his Father is to live, and disobedience is death. And this zealous and devout servant of the Almighty should be sublimely good. And he is at times. In a thousand instances, like Christ, he has trodden the wine-press alone, he has worn the crown of thorns through life, and accepted the martyr's death with the smiles and alacrity of a bridegroom. This is when, like Christ, he regards his Father in Heaven as a good and just being, who approves only of the utmost charity and good-will among his children. Ah, then indeed, he says, Bless and curse not, do good to them that hate you, and even pray for those who revile you. And if any will not listen to you, nor follow your words nor your example, leave them alone; peradventure God may find a way to save them. If you cannot bless, do not curse. If they must be condemned, let God do it. Do not assume his prerogative, or seek to hasten or anticipate his judgment.—Sel.