" "Wonderful!" cries Montesquieu, "that
the Christian religion, which seems to have no other object than the
felicity of another life, should also constitute the happiness of this!"
SAYS GEORGE WASHINGTON:
"Religion is as necessary to reason as reason is to religion." "Religion
is a necessary, an indispensable element in any great human character,"
says Daniel Webster. "Nothing," says Gladstone, "can be hostile to
religion which is agreeable to justice." "It is the property of the
religious spirit," admits Emerson, "to be the most refining of all
influences. The writers against religion," says Edmund Burke, "whilst
they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of
their own." "I fear God," says Saadi, "and next to God, I chiefly fear
him who fears him not." "Space is the statue of God," cries Joubert.
"Truth is his body and light his shadow," says Plato.
There is almost a revelation of God in the cries upward to Him, of some
of his human souls. Says Wordsworth:
Thou who didst wrap the cloud
Of infancy around us, that Thyself,
Therein with our simplicity awhile
Mightst hold on earth communion undisturbed;
Who from the anarchy of dreaming sleep,
Or from its deathlike void, with punctual care,
And touch as gentle as the morning light,
Restor'st us daily--
Thou, Thou alone.
Pages:
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370