of physical
nature.

Infidels claim that cultivated literature is incompatible with religion.
It has been said that a man of ardent piety can not produce a work that
will live in after ages. This is a libel upon the truth, and upon him
who said: "I am the truth."

Faith in God certainly places the maximum of greatness upon the human
mind. The man who believes in the existence of mind apart from matter,
and consequently looks upon death as a blessed state of rest to the good
man which lies between the two great activities of time and eternity,
and also believes in God and future rewards, has stronger motives to
sound moral rectitude than the man who denies and ridicules these great
truths. "The seat of law is the bosom of God, and her voice is the
harmony of the world." It is respect for law that brings
responsibilities home to the heart. Where there is no faith there is no
respect for law pertaining to future rewards; and where this is the case
there is no sense of moral obligations connecting man with the future
retribution. So there is nothing resting upon an unbeliever's heart that
will serve as a check upon his passions, and deter him from living with
reference to the gratification of a mere animal nature. Skepticism, by
shutting God out of the mind, destroys the very idea of law. Cicero's
description of law is in these noble words: There is one true and
original law conformable to reason and to nature, diffused over all,
invariable, eternal, which calls to the fulfillment of duty and to
abstinence from injustice, and which calls with that irresistible voice
which is felt in all its authority wherever it is heard. This law can
not be abolished or curtailed, nor affected in its sanctions by any law
of man. A whole senate, a whole people, can not dispense from its
paramount obligations. It requires no commentators to render it
intelligible; nor is it different at Rome, at Athens, from what it was
ages ago, nor is it different now from what it will be in ages to come.
In all nations and in every age it has been, is, and forever will be the
same--_one_, as God, its greatest author, _is one_. Man is man, _truly_,
as he yields himself to this divine influence. Faith in God implants
this law in the individual and national heart. Infidelity excludes its
authority and influence and leaves man to the mercy of his undisciplined
appetites. The fruits of infidelity have always been selfishness. The
Christian believer regards