ies of life. The first derivative cause which we found under this was
an accumulation of facts which overburden the mind and destroy its
power. Religion has little to do with outward facts, it taxes but little
the receptive power; it has to do rather with changing knowledge into
wisdom, applying the few vital facts to the life. This knowledge, we
have found, is objective, ignoring the [Greek: Gnothi seauton]; but
religious thought is intensely subjective; all other things it esteems
as of no avail, except those that relate to the outward condition and
tendency of the individual. Know thyself in relation to man and
God--this it continually demands. No man can be religious without
thought--continual, earnest thought, perceiving and defining duties;
therefore, wherever religion comes, even the mind that was sunken in
weakness is raised to renewed life. It is in this way that religion
counterbalances the influence of division of labor. While this takes
away the last incentive to thought on the part of the workman, degrading
him to a cunning but expensive machine, religion gives to him a new
spring of thought, vivifies his blunted mind by the power of transformed
affections, and makes him again a man.

The next derivative was lack of time, taking affection and volition from
life by dividing the duties of the individual among others. In immediate
antagonism to this, religion declares that the individual stands alone
in his duties and responsibilities before God. It recognizes no
institution of charity or social partition, but reiterates the command,
'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' which includes everything.

Religion is opposed to this tendency, not only in its causes, but in its
effects. It brings back to us the idea of a personal God. It makes no
mention of nature, but simply says: 'The heavens declare the glory of
God,' 'He sendeth his rain on the just and the unjust.' No laws of
nature are spoken of as conditioning the action of God, but He sees the
sparrow's fall and provides for it; He hears and answers the prayer of
His children. It declares man to be more than a slave driven by motives,
with every action necessitated; it declares him a creature of free
volition, whose action can neither be calculated nor controlled. It
declares him possessed of powers of love and hate, which defy
mathematics; a being above all price, to whom honesty may be more than
'the best policy,' even the loving obedience of a child to