Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1852-1852, 1852-08-27
Importance of Religion TO Society.

Importance of Religion TO Society.
Few men suspect, perhaps no man compre-
hends, the extent of. the support given by re-
gion to the virtues ofan ordinary life. No man
perhaps is aware, now much our moral and So
cial sentiments are fed from this fountain how
! -powerless conscience would become without the
belief Of God; how palsied would be human
benevoence, were there no sense of higher bene-
violence to quicken and sustain it; howsuddcnly
the whole social fabric would quake, and with
what fearful crash it would sink into ruins,
were the ideas Of Supreme Being of accoun-
tabencss, and ola future life to be utterly erased
from every mind Once let men throughly be-
lieve that they are the work and sport OF chance;
that 10 superior intelligence concerns itself with
human affairs that all their improvements perish
for ever at death; that the weak have no guar
dian, and the injured no avonger; that there is
no recompense for sacrifices to uprightness and
the public good that an oath is unheard in
heaven; that secret crimes have no witness but
the perpetrator; that human existence has no
purpose, and human virtue no unfailing friend;
that this brief life is every to u.s. and death is to-
tai, everlasting extinction once let men thorough
ly abandon religion, and who can conceive or
describe the extent of the desolation which would
follow? We hope perhaps that human laws
and natural sympathy would hold society to-
gether. AS reasonably might we believe that
were the sun quenched in the heavens, our tor
ches could illuminate and our fires quicken and
fertize the earth? What is there in human ma
ture to awaken respect and tenderness ifman is
the unprotected insect of a day? And what is he
more, if atheism is true ? Erase all thought and
fear Of God from community, and selfshness
and sensuality would absorb the whole man.
Appetite, knowing no restraint, and poverty and
suffering, having no solace or hope, would tram
pie in scorn on the restraints of human laws
Virtue, duty, principle, would be mocked and
spurned as unmeaning sounds A sorld selfin-
terest would supplant every other feeling, and
man would become, in fact what the theory Of
atheism declares him to be, a companion for
brutes.
1t particularly deserves attention in this dis
cussion, that the christian religion is singularly
important to free communities. In truth we
may doubt whether civil freedom can subsist
without it. This at least we know, that equal
rights and an impartial administration justice,
have never been enjoyed where this religion has
not been understood. 1t favors free institutions,
st because its spirit is the very spirit of liberty:
that is, a'sprit Of respect for the interests and
TStil eG1aty of 1EsseegnizOs ths es
whole mi ght those aspiring and rapacious prin-
many to the few; and, by its refining influence,
as well as by direct precept, turns to God and
to Him only, that supreme homage which has
been so impiously lavished on crowned and IT,
tied fellow creatures Thus its whole tendency
is free. 1t laws deeply the only foundations OF
liberty, which are the principles of benevolence,
justice and respect for human nature. The spir-
it Of liberty is not merely, AS mutitudes imagine,
jealousy of our own particular rig hts, an un-
willingness to pe oppressed ourselves, but res
pcct for the right of Others, and an unwlllinGness
that any man, whether high or low, should be
wronged and trampled under foot. Now this
is the spirit of Christianity and liberty has no
security, any farther than this uprrghtncss and
benevolence of sentiment actuatc community.
In another method religion bctrends liberty.
1t diminishes the necessity Of public restraints,
and supcrscdes in Il great degree the use OF force
in administering the laws; ard this it does by ma
king men law to themselves, and by represen-
ting the disposition to disturband injure society.
Take away the purifying and restraining niu-
encc of religion, and seltshness, rapacty and in
Justice will break out in new eXcesses and amidst
the increasing perils ofsociety, government must
be strengthened to defend it, must accumulate
means of reprcssing disorder and crime; and this
strength and these means may be, and often have
been, turned against the freedom Of the State
which they were meant to secure. In this coun-
try, government needs not the array of power
which YOU meet in other nations-no guards
of soldiers, no hosts of spies, no veXatious regu-
lations of police; but accomplishes its benefcent
purposes by few unarmed judges and civil
officers, and operates so silently around us, and
comes so seldom in contract with us, that many
of us enjoy its blessing with hardly thought of
its existence. This is the perfection of freedom;
and to what do We owe this condition? 1answer,
to the power of those laws which Religion writes
Oh our hearts, which unite and concentrate pub
lie opinion against injustice and oppression which
spread spirit of equity and good will through
the community. Thus religion is the soul of
freedom, and no nation under heaven has such
an interest i'll it as ourselves.
Sally, YOU seem to be ignorant in geography; !;
| will examine you in grammar Take the sen
tcncc, 'marriagc is a civil contract" Parse mar
riagc Marriage is a noun because it Is a name.