inently
devout men, there were others, men of impregnable virtue, whose theology
was too vague and meagre to furnish either ground or nourishment for
piety. While, therefore, in the mutual and reciprocal fitnesses that
pervade the universe we find demonstrative evidence of the being, unity,
and moral perfectness of the Creator, we are constrained to acknowledge
the possibility of these fitnesses being recognized in the conduct of life
by those who do not follow them out to the great truths of theology to
which they point and lead.

But, on the other hand, where there is a clear knowledge of, or an
undoubting belief in the being and providence of God, and especially for
persons who receive Christianity as a revelation of the truth, though, as
an affection, piety is independent of virtue, the duties of piety are an
essential part of virtue. If God is, we stand in definable relations to
Him, and those relations are made definite through Christianity. Those
relations have their fitnesses, and we see not how he can be a thoroughly
virtuous man, who, discerning these fitnesses with the understanding,
fails to recognize them in conduct. Conscience can take cognizance only of
the fitnesses which the individual man knows or believes; but it does take
cognizance of all the fitnesses which he knows or believes. Virtue may
coexist with a very low standard of emotional piety; but it cannot
coexist, in one who believes the truths of religion, with blasphemy,
irreverence, or the conscious violation or neglect of religious
obligations. He who is willingly false to his relations with the Supreme
Being, needs only adequate temptation to make him false to his human
relations, and to the fitnesses of his daily life. Moreover, while, as we
have said, virtue may exist where there is but little emotional piety,
virtue can hardly fail to cherish piety. Loyalty of conduct deepens
loyalty of spirit; obedience nourishes love; he who faithfully does the
will of God can hardly fail to become worshipful and devout; and while men
are more frequently led by emotional piety to virtue, there can be no
doubt that with many the process is reversed, and virtue leads to
emotional piety. Then again, we have seen that religion supplies the most
efficient of all motives to a virtuous life,--motives adequate to a stress
of temptation and trial which suffices to overpower and neutralize all
inferior motives.

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Virtue