of
moral instruction and of moral government. The question, then, is not
whether morality be entirely dependent on the authority of Scripture,
but whether it be so independent of Religion as to be equally
authoritative and binding with or without the recognition of God?

And if this be the real question at issue, few will be bold enough to
affirm either that the nature of moral duty is in no wise affected, or
that its foundation is in no degree weakened, by the non-recognition of
God and His supreme will. The will of God may not be the ultimate ground
of duty, but it is the expression of the essential holiness of His
nature, which is the unchangeable standard of rectitude. The supposition
of His non-existence, therefore, or even the skeptical Atheism which
doubts, without venturing to deny, the reality of His being, deprives
morality of its only absolute support, and leaves it to depend on the
fluctuating opinions or the capricious tastes of individual minds. It
affects both the _nature_ and the _extent_ of moral duty, by resolving
it into a mere regard to utility, and excluding a large class of duties
which Religion sanctions, while it deprives every other class of their
sacred character as acts of obedience to God. It shuts out some of the
most powerful and impressive motives to virtuous conduct, by relieving
men from a sense of responsibility to a higher Power, by excluding the
idea of a future retribution, and still more by keeping out of sight the
attributes, alike august and amiable, of a living personal God,
everywhere present, beholding the evil and the good, an omniscient
Witness and an impartial Judge. Christianity leaves all the _secular_
motives to morality intact and entire, and only superadds to these
certain _spiritual_ motives of far higher power. It neither supersedes
the lessons of experience nor abjures all regard to utility; but by
revealing our relation to God, it extends, and elevates, and purifies
our sense of duty. In vain does Mr. Holyoake pretend that by basing
morals on secular considerations, he attains a signal benefit, and that
he "holds the thinker by the thousand relations of Natural Affection,
Utility, and Intelligence, _which the Christian distrusts_;" for not one
of these "relations" is excluded by the scheme of Revealed Religion, not
one of them is _denied_ by the Christian; and if he may be said to
_distrust_ them, it is only because he holds them to be _insufficient_,
without a beli