tune, is not a very lofty
being, yet he is higher, as a man, than he who is sunk in mere bodily
gratifications. You would not say that the intemperate man--who has
become temperate in order, merely to gain by that temperance honour
and happiness--is a great man, but you would say he was a higher and a
better man than he who is enslaved by his passions, or than the
gambler who improvidently stakes all upon a moment's throw. The
worldly mother who plans for the advancement of a family, and
sacrifices solid enjoyments for a splendid alliance, is only _worldly_
wise, yet in that manoeuvring and worldly prudence there is the
exercise of a self-control which raises her above the mere giddy
pleasure-hunter of the hour; for want of self-control is the weakness
of our nature--to restrain, to wait, to control present feeling with a
large foresight, is human strength.

Once more, instead of a faith like that of the child, which over-leaps
a few hours, or that of the worldly man, which over-passes years,
there may be a faith which transcends the whole span of life, and,
instead of looking for temporal enjoyments, looks for rewards in a
future beyond the grave, instead of a future limited to time.

This is again a step. The child has sacrificed a day; the man has
sacrificed a little more. Faith has now reached a stage which deserves
to be called religious; not that this however, is very grand; it does
but prefer a happiness hereafter to a happiness enjoyed here--an
eternal well-being instead of a temporal well-being; it is but
prudence on a grand scale--another form of selfishness--an
anticipation of infinite rewards instead of finite, and not the more
noble because of the infinitude of the gain: and yet this is what is
often taught as religion in books and sermons. We are told that sin is
wrong, because it will make us miserable hereafter. Guilt is
represented as the short-sightedness which barters for a home on
earth--a home in heaven.

In the text-book of ethics studied in one of our universities, virtue
is defined as that which is done at the command of God for the sake of
an eternal reward. So then, religion is nothing more than a
calculation of infinite and finite quantities; vice is nothing more
than a grand imprudence; and heaven is nothing more than selfishness
rewarded with eternal well-being!

Yet this you will observe, is a necessary step in the development of
faith. Faith is th