process of reasoning which can admit of deliberation or doubt. They
force themselves upon our conviction by the most simple principles of
induction, when, from our own mental and moral endowments, we infer the
perfections of him who formed us.

From every conception we can form of such a being, we have an equally
insuperable conviction of his universal presence,--that he is the
witness not only of our conduct, but of the thoughts and imaginations
of the heart;--and that from these, as indicating our real condition,
and not from our conduct alone, our moral aspect is estimated by
him,--the pure and holy One who seeth in secret. Each moment, as it
passes rapidly over us, we know is bringing us nearer to that period,
when all our hopes and fears for this world shall lie with us in the
grave. But we feel also that this is the entrance to another state of
being,--a state of moral retribution, where the eternal One is to be
disclosed in all his attributes as a moral governor. These
considerations fix themselves upon the mind, with a feeling of yet new
and more tremendous interest, when we farther take into view that this
future existence stretches out before us into endless duration. This is
the truth so powerfully expressed by the sacred writer, in terms which
by their brevity convey, in the most adequate manner, their overwhelming
import,--"The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which
are not seen are eternal."

These truths are not the visions of enthusiasm; neither are they the
result of any process of reasoning, by which different men may arrive
at different conclusions. They force themselves upon our conviction with
a power which we cannot put away from us, when we turn our attention to
the solemn inquiry, what we are, and what is God. In the sacred writings
they are detailed and illustrated, in a connected and harmonious manner;
and are impressed upon us with the force of a revelation from the Deity
himself. But the principles there disclosed meet with an impression, in
our moral constitution, which pleads with authority for their truth. It
is the province of faith to keep these habitually before the mind, and
to cause them to influence the feelings and the conduct, as if they were
objects of sense,--as if the Deity, in all the purity of his character
were actually disclosed to our view,--or as if we were present at that
dread hour which shall witness his righteous retribution. The man who
thus feels