."

Apply this test to infidelity. What are its fruits? Crime follows in
its track. Society becomes disorganized. Chastity, honesty and the
other virtues are undermined. The whole life is blighted.

The following brief extract from a letter written in an english
prison, is a tremendous arraignment of that system of belief which
does not acknowledge God:

"I am one of thirteen infidels. Where are my friends? Four have been
hanged. One became a Christian. Six have been sentenced to various
terms of imprisonment, and one is now confined in a cell just over
my head, sentenced to imprisonment for life."

With all reverence we may apply this text to our Lord Himself. We
have His own authority for it. On one occasion when the jews
cavilled at His actions, He said: "The works which the Father hath
given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me,
that the Father hath sent me." On another occasion they gathered
round Him and asked, "How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered: "I told you,
and ye believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they
bear witness of me. * * * If I do not the works of my Father,
believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the
works: that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I
in Him." Well might the ruler Nicodemus say, "Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him." And Peter: "Ye men of
Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God
among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in
the midst of you, as ye yourselves know."

What are the fruits of extravagance, of pride, of covetousness? And
on the other hand, of prayer, of fearing God and doing His
commandments? What are the fruits of heathenism? Look at Africa and
China and India and the islands of the seas with their gods of wood
and stone. What must be the intelligence and moral sense of people
who will worship such things?

Even the best of non-Christian religions must always prove a
failure. It cannot be denied that many of the highest virtues are
enjoined in the writings of heathen philosophers. How could it be
otherwise? Morality is universal as humanity, and it is only to be
expected that here and there some thinker should pierce beyond the
average and read deeper into the foundation-truths of ethics.