over the least as well as the greatest of human actions
has He extended the law of duty. Duty! that word which expresses man's
glory and his peril. God save us from disregarding its import!

The necessary consequence of entertaining this sense of obligation
will be the preservation of one's integrity, which is the next point
that claims our notice in considering the influence of religion upon
politics. A man who acts religiously will act conscientiously, unless
he grossly mistake the meaning of the former word. He will endeavour
to maintain a clean heart and a clean tongue. Whatever would debase
his character he will avoid as he would shun a pestilence; he will
dread moral disease more than natural death. Let such a man enter on
the performance of any service which devolves on him through his
relation to the State, and he will proceed as to a work demanding high
and holy principle. He will esteem it treason to his country to let go
his own rectitude of soul. Temptation to sacrifice his uprightness to
interest will only make him more resolute. The persuasion of example
will be as vain as an open bribe. The question he will ask in each
case is,--not what will custom or public opinion allow, but--what
ought I to do. He will pursue this course of fidelity, alike to
himself and to the trusts which he is called to execute, because he
accounts the obligations of righteousness to be immutable. And here
his judgment is according to the truth. There is no sphere or scene of
life which gives a man the privilege of doing wrong; no land of
license, nor castle of power, where he is exempt from the authority of
religion. Neither the throne nor the senate-house, the secret conclave
nor the popular assembly, can shield one from the force of that
primary law of human action--thou shalt not sin against thine own
soul. Purity of purpose and sincerity of conduct must preserve the
citizen from the taint of evil, or he will become corrupt, and if he
do not disgust, will corrupt others.

I have intimated that justice should pervade both the sentiment and
the action of political life. I now add, that another element of the
Christian character, love, must be brought into exercise. Selfishness
must be banished from this ground, as from every other. Need that
commandment of our religion, to which the command, to love God, alone
has precedence, be observed only under certain relations; or was it
meant to bind the individual, and the world, in any