PART FIRST.

OUR RELATION TO GOD, AND THE MORAL DUTIESTHENCE ARISING.

CHAPTER I.

ELUCIDATION OF THIS HIGHEST OF OUR RELATIONS, AND OF THEMORAL INFLUENCE OF A BELIEF IN A SUPREME BEING.

That high and supreme relation, which connects man withhis Maker, cannot fail, if our minds have not been debased bysin, or perverted by sophistry, to be considered by us, as of all,the most sublime and interesting. Our Maker is not only thesupreme and ultimate cause of our existence, but our kind andunceasing Benefactor. As he has existed from everlasting, so hewill continue to exist to everlasting. The heavens which coverus, and the earth which lies beneath our feet, as well as our-selves, are the workmanship of his hands. His power is infi-nite, his wisdom is unerring, his benevolence is perfect. Be-sides conferring upon us an immortal ■ existence, all our hopesand prospects for time and eternity depend on our securing hisfavor and averting his displeasure.

Human excellence, even when most conspicuous, is blendedwith many imperfections, and seen amidst many defects. It isbeheld only in detached and separate fragments, nor ever ap-pears, in any one character, perfect and entire. So that when,in imitation of the Stoics, we wish to form out of these frag-ments the image of a perfectly wise and good man, we are sen-sible, that it is a mere fiction of the mind, without any realbeing in whom it is embodied and realized. In the belief of aDeity, however, these conceptions are reduced to reality ; thescattered rays of an ideal excellence are concentrated, and be-come the real attributes of that Being with whom we stand in9