The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1837-11-10
IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION TO
SOCIETY.

SOCIETY.
Few men suspect, perhaps no man
compartments, the extent Of the support
given BY religion 70 the virtues Of ordi-
nary life. No man perhaps is aware
how much ovr moral and social senti-
ments are led from This fountain; how
poxerless consrienre would become
without the belief Of God; how palsied
void he human beneyolence, were there
not the sense OF q higher benevolence TO
au,cken and sustsin il; how suddenly the
whole sorial fabric would quake, and
with shal a fearful crash it would sink
into h., eless ruins. we're the ideas OF 4
Supreme Being, Of aecnunIableness, and
OF fulare life, 10 be utterly erased from
every mind. Once let men thoroughly
believe that they are the work and sport
of chence-that no superior intelligence
Concerns itself Nth human affars--that
all their improvements perish forerer al
death-that the weak have no guardian,
and the injursd M arenger--ihat there is
no reenmpensr for sacr ices to upright
ness aud the punltr e. od--t6aI an oath Is
snh sard in heaven--that secret crimes
have no wlinrss but the perpetcato' that
human existence has no parpose. and h"-
man virtue no unfailing ir'end--that This
brief life is every thing to US, and death
is total. everlasting extinction; once let
men thoroughly abandon religion, and
who can conceive or describe tile extent
Of the desolalion which would follow
We hope perhaps that human laws and
natural sym, aihy would hold society to-
pether. As reasonably might We believe
that were the sun qUenched in the hea-
yens, our torches could illuminate and our
fires feriilize the earth. What is there
in human nature to awaken respect, il
man is the unprotected insect ola day.
and " lat is he more II atheism be true!
Era ali thought AMI fear Of God from q
community, and selfishness and sensnali.
" Nould absorb the whole man. Apes
lite knowing no restraint, and poverty
an Suffering having no solace or hope.
wuuid trample in scorn on the restraint OF
human laws. Virtue, duty, principle,
would be Knocked and spurned as un.
meaning sounds. A soriid sell-interesI
would supplant every other feeling. and
man would become in fact, what the the
ory OF atheism declares him to be, COM
panion for brutes.
Il particularly deserves attention in this
discussion, til Il The christian religion is
sngull ~ imp ,r,an to free communities.
In truh We NAV dorbl whe,her civil
freedom eau suhsist without il. his nj
least we know, that equal rights and i'm.
partial administration oil justice, has ne
yer been enjoyed whera this religion has
not been UNDERSTOOD. 1t fators free IN
stitutions, first, because its spirit is the
very sririt Of truth and liberty; that is. a
spirit Of respect for the interests and
rights of others. Christianity recognises
the essential equality Of mankind; heats
down with its whole might those aspir-
ing AID raparious principles of Our nature,
which have subjected the many 10 the
few; and b. its refining ifluence as well
as by direct precept, turns 10 God, and to
Him only, that supreme homage which
has bee so impionsly lavished on crown
ed anil titled fellow creatures. Thus It's
who'll tendency is fee. 1t lays deeply
the only found tions of liberty, which arc
the principles oil henevolencr. justice,
ami rospect for human azure. The spi.
rit OF liberty is not merely, as mnltitudes
imagine, a je lousy Of our owu partieu
lar r'gh's, an uaw'ltingness to be Cypress.
ed Ourselves; bit a respect FIR the rights
of others, IN uaw illingness that my MN,
whether nigh or low, should he wroag.
ed, an trampl'd under foot. Now this
is the s, ri Of Christianity; and liberty
has no seturit' any farther than is up
righ'ness and benegolence Of sentiment
actuates a community. s&%~
In snothar method rligon befriends
liberty. Il diminishes the, ne essily oil
public restraints, mi uper,edes in a
great degree, TIE use Of force in adm mis-.
tering the laws; and this it does by max.
ing men law to themselves, and by re.
pressing the disposition to disturb and in.
jure society. Take away the purifying
and restraining influence of religion, and
sel6shness, rapacity and injustice will
break out in new excuses; and amidst the
increasing pcriIs Of society, government
must 5e strengthened to defend it, mus
accumulate means of REFRESHING disorder
and crime; and this strength and these