wrapped in
graceful robes the once naked inhabitants of this great country: it
has built cities, cultivated forests, reared our temples, regulated
our institutions, and rendered the country both powerful and happy.
America has found in it her freedom and her peace. The wrongs of
Africa have been mitigated and removed by its justice and generosity.
Asia, and the isles of the sea, are waiting for its light and healing.
In every Pagan country where it has prevailed, it has abolished
idolatry, with its sanguinary and polluted rites; raised the standard
of morality, and thus improved the manners of the people; and diffused
far and wide the choicest blessings of heaven--freedom to the captive,
light to the blind, comfort to the distressed, hope to the despairing,
and life to the dying. Ask the people of New Zealand, of Taheita, of
Tonga, cannibals, infanticides, murderers of whole islands, what it
has done for the salvation of their souls. It is at once the desire of
all nations, and the glory of all lands.

_And it has produced the most happy effects on multitudes of men._ It
has enlightened the most ignorant; softened the most hardened;
reclaimed the most profligate; converted the most estranged; purified
the most polluted; exalted the most degraded; and plucked the most
endangered from hell to heaven. What was it that transformed the
persecuting and blaspheming Saul into a kind and devoted man? It was
religion. What was it which brought the woman who was a sinner to
bathe the feet of Jesus with her tears, and to wipe them with the
hairs of her head? It was religion. What was it which produced the
faith of Abraham, the meekness of Moses, the patience of Job, the
wisdom of Solomon, the placability of Joseph, the penitence and zeal
of David, the gentleness of Stephen, the boldness of the prophets, the
undaunted zeal of Paul, the heroism of Peter, and the sweet temper of
"the beloved disciple?" It was religion. What was it which produced
such purity of life, and gave such majesty in death, in the cases of
Grotius, Selden, Salmasius, Hale, Paschal, Boyle, Locke, Newton,
Boerhave, Addison, Maclaurin, Lyttleton, and a thousand others? It was
religion.

Even men who labored to erase out of the mind all respect for religion
have acknowledged the importance and expediency of it. Bayle admits
religion to be useful if men acted agreeably to its principles; and
Voltaire says, expressly, that religion is necessary in every fixed
comm