stianity, and next their belief in God, and have left the
University not believing in a Supreme Being.'"

Now what kind of a being is the infidel, or the man without religion? To
have no religion is a crime, and to boast of having none is the height
of folly. He that has no religion must necessarily lose the esteem and
confidence of his friends. What confidence, I ask, can be placed in a
man who has no religion, and, consequently, no knowledge of his duties?
What confidence can you place in a man who never feels himself bound by
any obligation of conscience, who has no higher motive to direct him
than his self-love, his own interests? The pagan Roman, though
enlightened only by reason, had yet virtue enough to say: "I live not
for _myself_, but for the Republic"; but the infidel's motto is: "I live
only for myself; I care for no one but myself." Oh, what a monster would
such a man be in society were he really to think as he speaks, and to
act as he thinks!

A man who has no religion, must first prove that he is honest before we
can believe him to be so. It is said of kings and rulers, they must
prove that they have a heart, and it may also be said of the man who has
no religion, that _he must prove_ that he has a _conscience._ And I fear
he would not find it so easy a task.

A man without religion is a man without reason, a man without principle,
a man sunk in the grossest ignorance of what religion is. He blasphemes
what he does not understand. He rails at the doctrines of Christianity,
without really knowing what these doctrines are. He sneers at the
doctrines and practices of religion, because he cannot refute them. He
speaks with the utmost gravity of the fine arts, the fashions, and even
matters the most trivial, and he turns into ridicule the most sacred
subjects. In the midst of his own circle of fops and silly women, he
utters his shallow conceits with all the pompous assurance of a pedant.

The man without religion is a dishonest plagiarist, who copies from
Christian writers all the objections made against the Church by the
infidels of former and modern times; but he takes good care to omit all
the excellent answers and complete refutations which are contained in
these very same writings. His object is not to seek the truth, but to
propagate falsehood.

The man without religion is a slave of the most degrading superstition.
Instead of worshipping the true, free, living God, who governs all
things by H