he direction in which the character
has begun to grow. So far then is man from being under the irresistible
control of motives from without, that these motives are in great part the
results and the tokens of his own voluntary agency.

Christianity justly claims preeminence, not only as a source of knowledge
as to the right, but equally as presenting the most influential and
persistent motives to right conduct. These motives we have in its
endearing and winning manifestation of the Divine fatherhood by Jesus
Christ; in his own sacrifice, death, and undying love for man; in the
assurance of forgiveness for past wrongs and omissions, without which
there could be little courage for future well-doing; in the promise of
Divine aid in every right purpose and worthy endeavor; in the certainty of
a righteous retribution in the life to come; and in institutions and
observances designed and adapted to perpetuate the memory of the salient
facts, and to *renew* at frequent intervals the recognition of the
essential truths, which give the religion its name and character. The
desires and affections, stimulated and directed by these motives, are
incapable of being perverted to evil, while desires with lower aims and
affections for inferior objects are always liable to be thus perverted.
These religious motives, too, resting on the Infinite and the Eternal, are
of inexhaustible power; if felt at all, they must of necessity be felt
more strongly than all other motives; and they cannot fail to be adequate
to any stress of need, temptation, or trial.

* * * * *

*Passion* implies a _passive_ state,--a condition in which the will yields
without resistance to some dominant appetite, desire, or affection, under
whose imperious reign reason is silenced, considerations of expediency and
of right suppressed, and exterior counteracting motives neutralized. It
resembles insanity in the degree in which the actions induced by it are
the results of unreasoning impulse, and in the unreal and distorted views
which it presents of persons, objects, and events. It differs from
insanity, mainly in its being a self-induced madness, for which, as for
drunkenness, the sufferer is morally accountable, and in yielding to
which, as in drunkenness, he, by suffering his will to pass beyond the
control of reason, makes himself responsible, both legally and morally,
for whatever crimes or wrongs he commits in this state of mental
al